Curious question about photon drops

[Ifrit]

ive been wondering how many actual photon drops exist on the server, and how many of the same are just traded around between players and hoarded.

I also wonder what would happen if every photon drop around was sphered, how long would it take to rebuild the economy as no one would have a chunk of them to buy or sell anything.

 

[falkenjeff]

ive been wondering how many actual photon drops exist on the server, and how many of the same are just traded around between players and hoarded.

Keep in mind that hoards get nuked in a single instant when you sphere something. (When I got my flowens sword, that was an instant 680 PDs deleted from the server).

how long would it take to rebuild the economy as no one would have a chunk of them to buy or sell anything.

PDs drop frequently enough that small items would remain the same (anything that costs less than 99). Big items would just no longer be able to be auctioned.

At least that's what I think.

 

[Ade]

This game benefits from PD sinks, which keeps the economy well-oiled and from becoming too stagnant. The recent price drop in commodities like HP mats and PCs isn't due to PD inflation, but because more players are getting established and geared up. This is a good thing because it means a newer player can catch up faster. Rarer things still retain value.

I think the economy would benefit from even more PD sinks.; ie. a shop where you can rename an S-rank for a few PDs, etc.

I also think we need a shop where a player can "break" a Photon Sphere back into 99 PDs so that liquidity is increased and so that players don't need so many PD mules. Even adding a 50k Meseta cost for the service would be fine.

I would like to know how much currency (PDs, PCs, and PSes) is in circulation, as well.

If we knew the amount added to circulation versus the amount destroyed every year, we could calculate our server's GDP. Or GSP (Gross Server Product) xD

 

[falkenjeff]

The recent price drop in commodities like HP mats and PCs isn't due to PD inflation, but because more players are getting established and geared up.

I think this is wrong.

HP Mats: for the longest time, people didn't actually know the droprates of the various materials. Now information is more solid and findable, so people know mind mats drop from a common enemy and can be farmed (making them go from 5:1 to 12:1), and people know that HP mats aren't actually more rare than power mats, so now the prices match up (5:1).

PCs: We just recently had an event that gave out PCs for failed egg attempts. This flooded the economy and dropped their value.

 

[Ade]

I disagree with you on HP Mats and still think my explanation is better: The rate never mattered. Every character regardless of build required 125 HP Mats, hence the higher demand and higher price. They've dropped in price because many players are maxed now. Not because their drop rate was discovered. An item's value is a combination of its rarity plus value. If say, 2.5x HP Mats are needed over Pow Mats, which is a pretty reasonable guess, then the previous 2:1 vs. 5:1 made sense.

What further supports this is that HP mats (and TP Mats) are the only mat types that aren't destroyed when a material reset is performed. Thousands of the other mat types have been destroyed. So, the demand for those stat materials would have been at least somewhat affected by mat resets, whereas the value of HP Mats would not have been.

Regarding your remarks on PCs: I asserted that the drop in PC value was not due to PD inflation. What you said agrees with this. So, yeah...

Edit: I find economic analysis, even in a fictitious setting, to be interesting. So sorry to anyone who thinks this is dumb .-.