TL;DR: Deflate the in game currency by creating money sinks and deploy innovative price stability strategies.
Firstly, congratulations David.
If you truly want to control inflation, I have some ideas that will take a multi-pronged approach. Right now, most posts are correct in that the one time cash injection is inflating prices, but prices would be even higher if PvP were more hot on Golden Globe. More demand from top factions would cause prices to rise drastically. Prices are likely to stay high into next season as well, if left unchecked.
The way to deal with the problem is to take the cash swimming around from the carbon blocks out of the market completely and then provide price stability mechanisms. The ideas that I am about to suggest obviously cannot be implemented easily. I am fully aware of this, but still believe it is the best approach. Also, if anything I am suggesting here hurts your business or whatever hustle you have going on, sorry not sorry. Rex is asking for suggestions and I intend to give him the best advice possible, which usually means pissing someone off.
-Create a daily event like Eton where it rewards no cash, but rather large amounts of RP, probably 150 RP per player who is victorious and a small amount for other participants, say 15RP. This creates a drain of materials, subsequently then cash, from the server as players vie for the RP. By rewarding RP it enables the players to purchase NPC Trader Packages and AM/EB/OCD upgrades. The end result is less cash in the market. Perhaps do a super Saturday event where the reward is much greater or a free for all style.
-Push garage ships out faster from the contest (especially miners) and expand the offerings past 20 so that there are more appealing choices for all tastes. This will be a cash sink and also boost supply of materials ending in lower prices.
-Create in-game credit only accessible instance portals to planets that are timed mining missions for certain materials, like promethium and pentaxid. The more rare and longer it is the higher the entry fee. Since it is instance based, the customer is assured the materials they are looking to get. This creates a price ceiling and stability. Why pay the market makers super high prices when you can get a bigger bang for the buck in the instance? This also will help reduce excess cash from the blocks because players are simultaneously creating more supply and reducing demand.
-Add super-traders to ECC where they sell and buy nothing but huge quantities of raw materials, like several million ore a day. Much like the instances it helps create a price ceiling, floor and stability. If PvP action is hot, the traders will sell out and regular market economics will come back into play. If PvP is cold, players might find that the trader is worth more than the market (think real long term). This drains the excess cash out of the economy from the blocks and gives supply to the market ending in lower and more stable prices. Also do this for diamonds, that would be one of the quickest ways to deflate the in game currency. Factions vying for supremacy will spend gobs of cash-ola that doesn’t go to another player, but rather evaporates from the market entirely. This dramatically drives down pricing.
-Fix Golden Globe Factory Gold and/or improve other playfields so that there is more incentive to PvP. No faction wants to spend huge amounts of resources to hold a position that is a net-loss. It has to be profitable for the winner to remain there or there is no point in fighting other than to settle scores, or for the sheer splosions. For almost all, Golden Globe is the only playfield that is worth fighting for. Homeworld could be worth something with some tweaking. In the special 5 layer crust, ditch the iron, sathium and zascosium. A player can find those almost anywhere. Instead, make it promethium, magnesium, and quadruple pentaxid (or single count of gold). That would be worth fighting over. While classic PvP drives demand up, it also makes cash exit the market, especially if combined with my other suggestions.
-Make a season long server PvP event that is faction based, perhaps the faction that holds an event the most days all season gets something of both tangible and intangible value. Maybe like a victory purse of goodies as well as their name up in the (newly made) ECC trophy room/hall of fame.
-Limit alternate accounts to one. Enforce it. Players that use multiple alt accounts to play off of interest only (rather than acquiring resources themselves) increase demand and therefore prices/inflation.
While I know there are many ways to skin a cat and we can argue on the tactics of what I purpose, the basic economics of it all is simple. For inflation to be reversed, the in-game currency has to be deflated and that only happens when it exits the server entirely, not revolve around the marketplace hitting multiple player’s wallets. To keep inflation in check, there has to be price ceiling, floor and stability mechanisms added into the server. What I suggest seems to be nuanced enough to keep prices in a good range, with deviations depending on demand still. Think of it as bumper bowling, easy-peasy, self-correcting and stable. That also allows pricing of new/existing features to be relevant long term, resulting in less work re-tweaking each season.
As always, thanks for your consideration.
P.S. Can we get some sharks with friggin laser beams attached to their heads?
Sounds like a short-term, temporary solution that moves spending the credits from season end to slightly earlier part of the season. Sure, it’s a benefit in itself already by limiting the available funds throughout season, instead of just cutting out the “easy interests” at the end.
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Jascha help pls)
