Prices dropping...fast

[Icemage]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

I don't think there's much doubt that there will be at least "some" inflation during the Christmas season rush. Given the results from last year, there are a lot of people buying gil as gifts, which takes money out of the hands of gilsellers (who generally don't spend gil) and into the hands of players (who do spend gil), which increases the effective money supply and pushes prices up.

Whether that effect will be somewhat offset by the fact that many players are counting on this and hoarding items to "cash in" is an open question, however. It may be that some items resist the inflationary effect in the short term due to increased temporary supply, perhaps even long enough to weather the temporary inflation.

But overall? I don't think there's any doubt that we'll see some across-the-board inflation after December.


Icemage

[Mhurron]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

I don't think there's any doubt that we'll see some across-the-board inflation after December.
Icemage

Damn well better. I'm wondering how I'm going to make gil leveling crafts on mules and buying some gear when I get back.

[kiffkin]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

I wouldn't mind so much if the deflation was consistant. Speaking as a high level cook, it's fantastic that crystals are so cheap and many ingredients (e.g. fish, meat) are becoming more easily available. I don't mind selling food for less and still being able to keep a decent profit margin, since cooking is how I make most of my gil. Although, when prices are steadily dropping, it has been difficult to find the correct price so that items will sell without drastically undercutting.

On the other hand, I could really do with a couple of Allure Rings - the price has been a steady 700k each on my server for a while. Also, the change in tree cutting harvest rates has had an affect on the price of elemental staves. Apollo's was down to 1.6 million a few weeks ago and was up to 2.3 million the other day; Light/Dark were down around 40k and are up to 200k now.

[framerate]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

Vermillion Cloak 6 months ago: 11million
When I bought it: 7.2million (lowest I had ever seen)
Currently: 4.2million.

I'm SMN70 and WHM61. Won't need it much longer and I owe my first 2.8 of that 7.2 million... so if the prices continue to drop I'll be able to sell it and break even with what I owe instead of having a nice tidy profit to buy endgame gear like I had planned ; ;

[Aeolus]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

Just keep it till christmas when the rich kids get their presents. Youll get 11mil for it again.

[Queen Uma]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

I don't think this year's Christmas inflation is going to be as bad as previous ones.

[Feenicks]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

I bought Raise III for 1.5 million. Don't you even begin to tell me about deflating prices.

[little ninja]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

Honestly i think there wont be much of an inflation this yr. More an more players are leaving, An alot of players pretty much have all the gear they need for most there jobs. as for my server i think its pretty muc hit its low, an will just stay where it is with prices. 21mil for a S.H, 1.95mil now, lol

[Vyuru]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

I'm all for deflation, I can make 100k+ in an hour or two by doing repeatable quests, sure there's alot of travel time, but I don't have to compete with people undercutting everything on the AH.

Here's to hoping that Woodsman rings have dropped to 320k! I think I currently have 640k.

Dangit, no I don't, I bought all that bard gear ; ;

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

I think this is just a culmulative effect that comes from the ToA expansion.

First off, let's just get this out of the way - The EXP bonus from Sanction not only made VT chaining more viable to players (sad it actually took and EXP bonus, pre-ToA burn PTs were chaining VT long, long ago.) Since we had more to kill than mobs that just dropped earth and water crystals, that brought down the value of other crystals.

Spider webs were rare as far as drops go in ZM zones, but more common in ToA. Crawlers were stingy about dropping silk in CN, but it drops more often from Defoliators, not to mention cocoons. Tigers became more common of an EXP target, so their drops went down as well.

So we have prices down on crystals and all that stuff, and let's not forget all the EXP camps near staging points as well.

Then there's Imperial standing, but not only that, beastmen and kindred seals also drop in ToA zones. You can use your standing for Imperial currency (which can be sold) or use it for Merc Rank gear or even ISNM fights. The frequency of seal drops seems more common, too, and lots of players will farm them and crystals by soloing just outside of Al'Zahbi.

Then there's the ToA and Assault gear. While perhaps not "as good as" abjuration gear or scorpion harnesses, they present very viable alternatives. Cursed pieces are down in value because there are alternatives to them now and they're free with a bit of effort. You don't have to blow millions and came the 21-24 windows anymore if you don't want to. Even some of the more lucrative CoP JSE is starting to come down with this gear out there.

Value of the Scorpion Harness is way down due to Jaridah set too and melees have good reason to choose jaridah over it - not all of them need the evasion, the set offers comprable accuracy and - the real bonus - attack stats.

Now factor in Sanction effects. Food lasts twice as long now. That's big savings for melees, and perma refresh also reduces the need for things like a Vermy Cloak or juice.

Finally, this new wave of RMT, they've felt the impacts prior to many of their accounts being deleted. ToA has devalued their other avenues for cash - they're going right for sky and kings now (not that they hadn't in the past, they're just being more obvious about it). Why? Abjurations. Funny SE has mentioned that they're changing things regarding those as well, this could either be SE's coup de grace for SE or their biggest screw-up. I'm hoping these new endgame alliance zones are where they drop.

[jwalton]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

If you want the real reason prices have been dropping, it's due to Sega's release of Phantasy Star Universe. It's the first real competition Final Fantasy XI has ever had in Japan due to it being a PC and PS2 release, and it has managed to steal the attention of a fair number of players. It went through a rough start, much like Final Fantasy XI did with some initial server issues, but they've been resolved and the official service is restarting tonight. The US release is due in on October 24th, and you can expect yet more players to jump ship then.

There's good reason why Square Enix said Aht Urhgan was going to probably be their last expansion... competition was on its way, and FFXI's engine really limits what they can do (see: besieged), so they're looking to the future with that next-gen MMO they're working on.

[Jei]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

phantasy star is doing good? How is the game's feed back so far? When is it coming to US?

[jwalton]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

It's running stable now, and the first update kicks in on October 5th with some unlocked content. They seem to be following Final Fantasy XI's model, releasing small bits at a time. The initial network problems during the early September launch resulted in Sega postponing official service to October 1st and extending the free trial month all the way to October 31st to compensate players while they worked on fixing all the network stability issues. With this in mind, no one really knows how often they intend to update and unlock content, though they stated in early interviews that it'd be on a fairly consistent basis. Sega also stated that online mode is supposed to continue the storyline that takes place in offline mode (the offline mode is very JRPG with its presentation with lots of cutscenes and voice acting), but that has yet to be seen. Perhaps the October 5th update will clarify things.

Aside from network stability issues at first, the game as a whole is very solid, though it is a very different game than Final Fantasy XI. Those who want a simpler, quicker paced game where you romp through instanced zones with friends and kill monsters en-masse without worrying about player level seperation will really enjoy the game. It is by no means a MMORPG, but is an online RPG in its simplest form, with excellent gameplay. There's been nothing but positive press in regards to its gameplay... Famitsu gave it a 35/40, which is a very good score.

US release is October 24th.

This is a good video to watch if you want to see various parts of the game.

[DakAttack]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

People will play PSU, but they'll always come back to FFXI.

[little ninja]

Re: Prices dropping...fast

People will play PSU, but they'll always come back to FFXI.

Im starting to believe that this isnt the case anymore.