Is NCSoft secretly enforcing low currency exchange rates?

[CoffeeDemon]

Idk. I just checked the currency exchange yesterday and there were almost no listings (like 1 or 2) and the rates were 1:5 min and 1:8 max. I think it used to be a lot higher and you could get a lot more hongmoon coins for your gold. So most players will probably not bother because it's not worth.

I believe one reason for this is that NcSoft is selling items that have a market value so they dictate the maximum gold to hongmoon coin ratio. It automatically adjusts to a level at which you can't just abuse it to sell gold to buy items and sell these items for more gold.

Why would i want to buy something like soulstones from the hongmoon store anyway, when I can just use my gold to buy it on the normal market? There is no proper reason to put these items in there other then manipulating the exchange rates.

I can only guess if they are doing this on purpose so more players invest real money to get cosmetics or training expansion or if they just failed to consider all the consequences.
I think it has become a lot harder to aquire certain hongmoon store exclusive items/servies by trading gold and if this is not intentional, NcSoft should take measures to counteract this trend.

A trend that btw also increases the "pay 2 win" character of the game (low exchange rates = cheap gold).

[DrowningEarth]

Well, it's not that simple.

 

1. Gold farmers can undercut the currency exchange rate easily, furthermore gold sellers don't charge "tax" on ingame currency purchases.

2. People probably aren't buying as many NCoins these days. Plenty of people have gotten pissed or quit BNS. Lower supply of NCoins makes them more expensive to buy with gold.

3. Inflation. They keep increasing the amount of gold awarded via daily quests, instead of making dailies actually award more items.

[CoffeeDemon]

1 hour ago, DrowningEarth said:

Well, it's not that simple.

 

1. Gold farmers can undercut the currency exchange rate easily, furthermore gold sellers don't charge "tax" on ingame currency purchases.

2. People probably aren't buying as many NCoins these days. Plenty of people have gotten pissed or quit BNS. Lower supply of NCoins makes them more expensive to buy with gold.

3. Inflation. They keep increasing the amount of gold awarded via daily quests, instead of making dailies actually award more items.

1. Only applies if a significant amount of player buy from 3rd parties. I never cared about buying gold from gold sellers or selling gold myself for real money.

2. Players asked in chat for people to list gold...so no!
3. Ofc inflation due to the new content is a thing but it doesn't really matter since its easier to get gold as well and it shouldn't have a significant influence on how hard it is to get enough hongmoon coin. I also don't see a real inflation. Crafting, transmuting, selling, evolving and so on swallows an increasing amount of money the more you progress. We even see items becoming cheaper than ever. Gold is also generated mostly by quests that are limited.

[InstantDeath]

It's getting harder to make money. Stingers worth nothing, moonstones are hard to farm, soulstones are in cash shop etc. I, personally, don't buy hongmoon coin because of that.

[CoffeeDemon]

14 hours ago, InstantDeath said:

It's getting harder to make money. Stingers worth nothing, moonstones are hard to farm, soulstones are in cash shop etc. I, personally, don't buy hongmoon coin because of that.

Doesn't matter how hard it is to make money as long as buying hongmoon coins doesnt feel like throwing your gold out of the window. With a higher exchange rate you would probably reconsider selling gold.

[FakeName]

No, NCSoft isn't.  Player supply and demand controls the currency exchange rates.  If you think the players looking to sell their NCoin for gold aren't going to go for the lowest possible exchange rate then you are crazy.  If the exchange rate gets too high, people won't sell ncoin because they aren't getting their money's worth.

 

On the flip side, lots of people want to buy HMcoin, so they offer more gold per to entice sellers.  

 

If I was going to sell, I wouldn't even want to sell at 1:8.  I would wait around for an event and sell it when it drops to 1:5 or 1:4 like it does during events like trove.  

[TwoPunchMan092]

18 hours ago, CoffeeDemon said:

A trend that btw also increases the "pay 2 win" character of the game (low exchange rates = cheap gold).

Tell me what you want but BnS is still far from being a p2w game.

At the moment, most of the content requires you to spent time on the game rather than spending real money. Take Moonstone farming for example, or getting all HM skills. While i do agree that the low exchange rates make it easier for cashers to gain gold and therefore giving them a reasonable amount of advantage over f2p users i think that there are more than enough ways in this game to catch up with them via spending more hours per day with farming or by just having pure luck with rng (35 AP Gem for example). Of course, a f2p user wont be able to aquire Heptagonal gems via transmuting so fast but those gems are not crucial to make it through the endgame content.

[CoffeeDemon]

13 minutes ago, FakeName said:

No, NCSoft isn't.  Player supply and demand controls the currency exchange rates.  If you think the players looking to sell their NCoin for gold aren't going to go for the lowest possible exchange rate then you are crazy.  If the exchange rate gets too high, people won't sell ncoin because they aren't getting their money's worth.

 

On the flip side, lots of people want to buy HMcoin, so they offer more gold per to entice sellers.  

 

If I was going to sell, I wouldn't even want to sell at 1:8.  I would wait around for an event and sell it when it drops to 1:5 or 1:4 like it does during events like trove.  

Then how do you explain that players ask in faction chat that somebody may pls list gold and meanwhile the currency exchange is empty. It doesn't make sense since this would mean a lot of demand and low supply and exchange rates should go up, which they can't do for the reasons I mentioned.
There is no free market.

I am not even sure where the upper limit for gold sales comes from, i am just assuming that it is some kind of automated system based on past transactions but it could also be ncsoft just dictating it directly...who knows.

[Shuchin]

Currently the rates in EU are actually going up, with most sales happening at the upper limit (9 HM coin per 1 gold), which is why I started selling gold again.

 

Of course NCSoft has an indirect influence on the exchange rates, but that is impossible to avoid:

Any item put up in Hongmoon and NCoin store will have a value to people, and this will compare to how valuable gold seems to those people, and rates will adjust accordingly.

 

How desireable things for sale in the stores are or will be is hard to estimate, so NCSoft might have some unpredictable effects there, especially during events. However, in the long term it has seemed so far as if the rule of a general inflation due to easier obtainable gold was true.

 

Now, the opposite seems to be happening, and I am fairly sure that is because... *drumroll* ... the Tidal Treasures Event is a strong gold sink. Each Oceanic weapon is designed to swallow 38 silver on average (30 + 8 during evolution), and every player will probably buy quite a lot of them per day. If everyone was going for a gem from fragments, that alone would mean 190 gold gone from the system per gem.

 

Pretty neat, and finally better rates for Currency Exchange. ^_^
 

[CoffeeDemon]

9 minutes ago, TwoPunchMan092 said:

Tell me what you want but BnS is still far from being a p2w game.

At the moment, most of the content requires you to spent time on the game rather than spending real money. Take Moonstone farming for example, or getting all HM skills. While i do agree that the low exchange rates make it easier for cashers to gain gold and therefore giving them a reasonable amount of advantage over f2p users i think that there are more than enough ways in this game to catch up with them via spending more hours per day with farming or by just having pure luck with rng (35 AP Gem for example). Of course, a f2p user wont be able to aquire Heptagonal gems via transmuting so fast but those gems are not crucial to make it through the endgame content.

There is no way that you can catch up by just grinding. Maybe if you are a very successful market warrior with enough starting capital and you make use of the big prices on the market to make a big profit, but then again this could be done 4 times more efficient by a premium member that can sell more often than 10 time per day.

But this was just on a sidenote, i don't care about the p2w discussion, since it doesn't have to be discussed. The advantages you get by spending money are enormous, extensive and there are very few things that can't be bought. (moonstones? just buy gold and save 2 weeks of farming^^). Trying to play this down is just a waste of time.

[FakeName]

12 minutes ago, CoffeeDemon said:

 

Just because someone is asking for someone to post a listing doiThen how do you explain that players ask in faction chat that somebody may pls list gold and meanwhile the currency exchange is empty. It doesn't make sense since this would mean a lot of demand and low supply and exchange rates should go up, which they can't do for the reasons I mentioned.
There is no free market.

I am not even sure where the upper limit for gold sales comes from, i am just assuming that it is some kind of automated system based on past transactions but it could also be ncsoft just dictating it directly...who knows.

Just because someone is asking for someone to list doesn;t mean anyone has to.  If no one wants to list their ncoin for gold, then there will be none to buy.  It is also real time with thousands of players able to access the listings when they are made, so it could get bought up as fast as it is listed.  The only real modifier NC has is what they put in the shop at that moment.  If what is in the shop holds more value then the gold they stand to make from selling, then people will not list their ncoin for gold.  

 

You should seriously take off your tinfoil hat.

[CoffeeDemon]

7 minutes ago, FakeName said:

so it could get bought up as fast as it is listed

Same thing. It would also mean high demand and low supply and the prices should go up.

Btw please read my original post again, i don't think you understand.

 

Quote

The only real modifier NC has is what they put in the shop at that moment.

This....