Currency - give it a meaning

[Sile]

I think a different idea could be using allocated points earned my levelling up, finishing quests, finding a secret area or killing a boss etc.. special advancements.

Like stat points when you level up and spend on attributes, these points could be spent at a vendor on items such as potions, item enhancements, maybe armour/weapons.
This could add some strategic play as to how many pots you buy with your limited point allocation. Maybe you don't blow all your points on pots, but buy some attack scrolls or some protection buffs. Of course, you could always buy pots for normal currency, but at a higher cost. Generally, when you run out of allocated points, you spend your normal currecy on pots etc.

Just to add, this could work if mobs didn't drop any currency, or, very little. Perhaps salt could be harvested/gathered too, if salt is going to be a currency.

Just an idea outside of the 'dropped currency' box.

[3B0L4]

I'm not liking the idea of paying in-game currency for stuff, but it might be believable if:

- Players need to pay for the boat trip to the next act. Would also a good fail-safe for people that don't grind at all and go to act 2 with a too low level.
- With every level up you get 3 skill points, but to use them, you need to pay a hefty amount to the mystic, or something like that. This price increases with your player level.

What my recollection of TQ is, is that you don't have too much money early in the game, but around the end of egypt, you begin to wonder why you need so much gold, and you actually begin to wonder where you need to spend it on.
With the two moneysinks explained above, you could easily build in a system where the moneysink increase almost directly to the player level.

With the first sink (the paying for boat-trips) it is even a good way to make players grind on higher difficulty settings, to get the money for the boat trip. The amount that needs to be payed can even be calculated with the player level in mind, so if you grind a lot, you get a reward, because you'll get to keep a lot of money, instead of paying it all on the trip.

In all honesty, i do not think these are awesome ideas. I DO, however, think that there should be a more realistic moneysink, and the money earned minus the money-sinks be a clear reward to the player.

[Sandirk]

In DeathSpank when you didnt want an item you put it in a magic grinder and it turned it into money.. vendors where for purchasing only.

in Metro 2033 ammo was the currency so you could shoot with it or spend it on other stuff.

A combo of the 2 systems sounds like a good idea to me , as i believe that you can break down items into resources currently iron/salt etc you could then use said Iron/salt to upgrade or create items or to buy supplies so the level of resources could never really stockpile to the point it becomes pointless as higher and higher levels of upgrades/Items would use more resources.

[yerkyerk]

One other idea for a moneysink;
An infinite arena. You have to pay to enter, the higher rounds cost more currency (this would be explained because the hunters have to hunt down and capture more and bigger monsters for you to fight). The big reward for this would not be the xp or loot, but rather the # of round you got to, for bragging rights.
I believe this arena could be part of the hero's fortress, in the form of a dungeon or something.

[3B0L4]

Cool idea, yerkyerk! A Hall of Fame, in-game. Imagine doing that with a hard-core character! but i doubt Average Joe would do this...

How much i like this idea, I think the game should have a system that can go deep, but starts as shallow as possible, so all players get sucked in.

[yerkyerk]

Well, the arena (the idea was proposed before tbh) would be an end-game activity, something this genre generally lacks. Since it's ever-increasing in difficulty it would actually justify that players were looking to optimize their characters with the best loot available; because they'll need it in the arena.

I hope it'll be part of some DLC.

[3B0L4]

end-game activity... Right. Though I like the idea, honestly, but I think there should be more IN the game, and not beyond the game. A money-sink after the quests is good, but people need a money-sink during the game.

[heron]

We don't have an ecomony on a single player game or lan game .. sigh
It's an online mmo thing where an X player would sell his stupid sword for x amount of gold to the highest bidder for instance.

[yerkyerk]

Originally Posted by heron

We don't have an ecomony on a single player game or lan game .. sigh
It's an online mmo thing where an X player would sell his stupid sword for x amount of gold to the highest bidder for instance.

Torchlight most definetely had an economy. Diablo and Titan Quest, not so much. An economy in single player games is very common, but somehow, loot em ups usually screw up here. Probably has much to do with the availability of huge amounts of vendor trash...
All you need is a (few) good moneysink(s) and make the currency less readily available (would work by either disallowing the player to sell vendor trash or give really low prices for it).

To come back on the arena idea; you can give bonuses for completing certain arena rounds.
The player could get 2 attribute point for completing the following rounds;
1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256-512-etc...
Than the player can actually gain something forever without unbalancing the game - and the player can participate in a few arena challenges before he finished the game to get a useful stat bonus.

[Mind Dragon]

Perhaps, money and vendors is a way of compensating for the randomness in the drops -- as far as balancing goes. So the fact that a lot of money doesnt unbalance the game is "as planned", otherwise it would have to be carefully metered out.

Some more interesting things to do with it could add to the game.

In oblivion, buying (better) alchemy equipment, buy/sell ingredients, buy/sell various potions.

I dont like trainers too much. Repair (hammers) can be ok but easily breaking armor in battle isnt fun and neither is going back to the store for hammers. Having armor that isnt at the highest level you can wear shouldnt cause you to face constant broken armor conditions.