In this part of NPC Pricing series, I'll
list some variables not based on player behavior and write a few examples of
their application and their respective Advantages and Disadvantages:
If you haven't read the previous articles in NPC Pricing series, give them a try:
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Static Prices:
- Definition: Prices don’t variate – common in most RPGs
- Example 1: About any regular NPC shop
- How it's interpreted:
- Player's Perspective:
- "I need X gold to buy Y. Let me think where i can get Y Gold"
- Game Designer's Perspective:
- "I set price Y because that’s what a players get by doing kiling Z monster and that should take W minutes"
- Advantages:
- No need for an algorithm
- Flaws:
- Any new areas with higher gold earning rates might make static prices too low (outdated)
Price as a function of Time:
- Definition: Price variate (usually decrease) after some time period
- Example 1: Price of Good X drops 1% per day
- Algorithm Price = (price) *(factor)^(number of day passed)
- Factor = a number close to 1 (0,99 in the example)
- Number of day passed = a number, fractions also work
- How it's interpreted:
- Player perspective:
- "Older goods are cheaper"
- "Maybe I’ll wait some time before buying X"
- Game Designer's Perspective:
- "Since prices will decrease over time, I have a justification to set very high initial prices"
- “Maybe I can combine this function as a price decrease factor with another function for price increase”
- Advantages:
- This function is great to release new good with very expensive prices
- Flaws:
- This kind of function is usually only suitable for price decrease
- Player with different playing habits will experience the price ina very different way
Random Price fluctuation:
- Definition: Price variate randomly (either up or down) after an event
- Example 1: After each week (event) prices may go up 5% or down 4,77%
- Algorithm Price = (Previous value) *(Factor)^(Flag)
- Factor in this case should a number close to 1 (1,05)
- Flag is a variable that is either 1 (price increase) or -1 (price decrease
- Example 2: Like above but with different chance for price going up or down (let’s say 66% chance of going up and 33% for going down)
- How it's interpreted:
- Player perspective:
- "Prices are changing, there might be a pattern”
- "I should spend my Gold right away so i won’t have to pay higher prices tomorrow”
- Game Designer's Perspective:
- "With what seems to be a random fluctuation I can hide a slightly increase of price over time"
- Advantages:
- This function can hide a price increase tendency
- Since the price fluctuates, some players might spend their gold to avoid having to pay higher gold amounts in the future (effectively gold sinking)
- Flaws:
- A random variation might end up with decreased prices
- It might be pointless to have no tendency in the random fluctuation
Arbitrary Price change:
- Definition: Prices are changed by the game designers
- Example 1: Designers release an expansion and increase all prices on consumables because new areas have higher gold rewarding rates
- Example 2: In order to burn gold, designers increase all prices because players seem not reggard gold as a valid reward
- Example 3: since good X isn’t sold very much, designers decide to decrease it’s price
- How it's interpreted:
- Player perspective:
- "Prices have been changed, I wonder if the reason is fair”
- “This increase in prices is unfair! I don’t farm as much as these other players”
- “This decrease in prices is unfair, I just spent a lot of gold in the shop with older prices”
- Game Designer's Perspective:
- "I have a good reason to change prices"
- Advantages:
- Work for any reason
- Flaws:
- Player might not like any arbitrary price change in either direction
Character Skill function:
- Definition: Prices are decreased with higher “Barter” skill
- Example 1: A character with maximum “Barter Skill” pays 33% less for each bought good and sell them for 25% more gold
- How it's interpreted:
- Player perspective:
- "I should create a character with barter skill to get more gold”
- “It’s so silly to have to level up the Barter skill”
- “I love my character with barter skill”
- Game Designer's Perspective:
- "If players don’t make a character with barter skill they will have less gold"
- “Overall players will earn less gold because not all of them have barter skill”
- Advantages:
- Can justify lower gold earning rates for players without barter skill
- Flaws:
- Make selling and buying a chore (log in the character with barter)
- Players have to waste playing time or potential character power to increase Barter skill
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