Gold is Unnecessary

[Evir 38]

Gold is the most valuable resource in the game right now, it is how you defend your ships and bases, via paying for NPCs, you are speaking from ignorance.
Think of it as Gasoline for generators in ark.

You also use it to trade for different resources at NPC ships to build higher quality blueprints.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Evir

[IsilithTehroth 23]

Just someone complaining in a mmorpg that they have to farm. Crew/resources are a great gold sink that is needed in a game like this. Too many people complain about mechanics/features in this game without thinking it through.

[UDO 361]

On 1/15/2019 at 7:22 AM, darcek said:

Not sure where you got those numbers.

For me without the lowering cost of Captain,I pay like 5 gold to purchase an NPC at the Free Ports,then they cost me around 24 gold per day each.

I haven't gone into Ship combat yet as I heard loot isnt worth it.I did hear that manning an NPC on Cannon makes him cost more.not sure bout that one.

But for my brig,I pay for 4 crew man,1 to repair ship 3 others man the sails.total cost is 96g per day.I get that usually only from collecting tax alone.

u are not paying 96 gold per day for 4 crew , that cost is for when out at sea only 

 

when at base u pay 1 gold per 1.7 hours  so max u will pay per crew member is 14-15 gold per day each , unless u are traveling all day every day then u will pay 30 gold per day ,per crew member at 1 gold per 0.8 hrs 

[Notorious 67]

I needed gold to upgrade my Bow....plus crew and cosmetics....lots of use for it.

[Case of the Scurvy 72]

Its not really needed **Now** but who knows what they will add later eh

[Notorious 67]

8 minutes ago, Case of the Scurvy said:

Its not really needed **Now** but who knows what they will add later eh

It is though. Solo I could not get my treasure cause I can't do enough DPS to the warrior. After I upgrade my Bow many lvls I can now solo most of my treasure maps just need to upgrade my gear. All this does take gold.

Plus I've traded gold for better treasure maps from locals.

[Case of the Scurvy 72]

9 minutes ago, Notorious said:

It is though. Solo I could not get my treasure cause I can't do enough DPS to the warrior. After I upgrade my Bow many lvls I can now solo most of my treasure maps just need to upgrade my gear. All this does take gold.

Plus I've traded gold for better treasure maps from locals.

Could just use a BP could you not? Plus you are using gold to get more gold. Just saying there isnt much now. Once they get freeports rolling and merchants with all sorts of fun stuff to buy forgetaboutit. 

 

Horde that gold now while its cheap 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Case of the Scurvy

[Notorious 67]

1 minute ago, Case of the Scurvy said:

Could just use a BP could you not?

I used the BP to craft the Bow yes but I can upgrade the Bow 16 times and each time takes mtls and gold, now I can shoot over 100 arrows instead of 60 that the common bow does and do way more DPS.. it's a great system and has forced me to farm for gold.

[Nari 197]

6 hours ago, Hodo said:

How big is one of those coins to be 1.1lbs?  I have held a gold coin, it isnt 1 pound.  Maybe 200-250g.   

0.4 lbs or 0.18 kg and stacks to 100. A single real-world troy once is 12.4 kg. The difference actually isnt far off. In game 100 coins would be 16kg.

Gold is Heavy

[Hambo 34]

4 minutes ago, Nari said:

0.4 lbs or 0.18 kg and stacks to 100. A single real-world troy once is 12.4 kg. The difference actually isnt far off. In game 100 coins would be 16kg.

Gold is Heavy

Are you sure you're using the correct weight measure?  Last time I checked a kg (kilogram) == 2.2 Imperial pounds.  Maybe you're thinking grams (1 gram == about the weight of a paperclip) or milligrams? (mg, 1/1000 gram)

[Nari 197]

13 minutes ago, Hambo said:

Are you sure you're using the correct weight measure?  Last time I checked a kg (kilogram) == 2.2 Imperial pounds.  Maybe you're thinking grams (1 gram == about the weight of a paperclip) or milligrams? (mg, 1/1000 gram)

Ummm, pretty sure the math is right. 1 Pound should be roughly equal to 0.45 Kilograms.

Edit: i did mess up on stack size tho. 1000 not 100. So it's sorta off unless we continue to assume that 1 troy ounce is equal to 100 coins. Weight wise it's close so a stack is simply 10 troy ounces.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Nari

[Hodo 147]

1 hour ago, Nari said:

0.4 lbs or 0.18 kg and stacks to 100. A single real-world troy once is 12.4 kg. The difference actually isnt far off. In game 100 coins would be 16kg.

Gold is Heavy

1 troy ounce is 31.1g....

1 real life gold coin is 1 troy ounce.

If I remember my metric system right.  There is 1000 grams.

1000/31.1=32.15

So you could carry 32 coins for 1 kg...  

So 100 coins would barely be 3kg.  

 

 

[Hambo 34]

1 hour ago, Hodo said:

1 troy ounce is 31.1g....

1 real life gold coin is 1 troy ounce.

If I remember my metric system right.  There is 1000 grams.

1000/31.1=32.15

So you could carry 32 coins for 1 kg...  

So 100 coins would barely be 3kg.  

 

 

Gold coins are not all 1 troy oz...  Otherwise, a US $20 gold piece (about the size of a US dime) would be more valuable than a US $50.  When these were in circulation the US regulated the value of gold by weight at $35/oz. Coins were valued and minted based on their weight.  Granted, most of the new coins like Krugerrands weigh 1 troy oz.  Also, older US coins like those mentioned above are worth Hundreds of dollars to collectors.

[Hodo 147]

8 minutes ago, Hambo said:

Gold coins are not all 1 troy oz...  Otherwise, a US $20 gold piece (about the size of a US dime) would be more valuable than a US $50.  When these were in circulation the US regulated the value of gold by weight at $35/oz. Coins were valued and minted based on their weight.  Granted, most of the new coins like Krugerrands weigh 1 troy oz.  Also, older US coins like those mentioned above are worth Hundreds of dollars to collectors.

I am using the 1 troy ounce coin as an example.  There are several coins out there.  Even the old Spanish Doubloon which even then still wasnt .5kg per coin.

[Sulfurblade 194]

On 1/14/2019 at 2:14 PM, Ringo O'Rourke said:

The more I think about it, the more I don't understand why gold is in the game, at least to pay for NPC crews. (I can sort of see it as premium currency for cosmetics). Literally the only thing it does that directly impacts game play is pay crew salaries. So the question is why are ship crews gated behind a special currency?

I know there's the elite argument. Getting a crew should be hard! But surely the devs don't think this way any more. They lowered ship prices, and added starting ships, to, in their words "get people sailing faster". Why are crew members still gated in the same way then?

Gold currency would be feasible if there were more ways to get it. As it stands now there are only two: 1) tedious methods, or 2) combat.  The tedious methods are digging in the ground, or hunting flotsam. Both mind-numbingly boring. And as for combat, I know you can just burn down the Army of the Damned, with fire arrows, or mount cannons on the your schooner+ to fight Ships of the Damned. But surely the purely trading ship should be able to pay for its crew without fighting, or without tedious methods. (I realize farming land-based mats can be tedious, but its got nothing on hunting flotsam in an empty ocean). 

If ATLAS had robust trading features, like player vendors, or an auction house, then gold would work. Players who like the tedious flotsam farming, or fighting AoTD or SoTD could farm gold and put it up for others to buy. However, it doesn't, and for all we know never will. In the absence of robust trade features then, NPC crews should be available for barter, just like the rest of the ATLAS economy works (this is how players trade now, and how you pay for noob ships in Freeports).

The first NPC crew could cost a set amount of regular and possibly rare mats. And each crew member hired after that could cost more, making vast crews only doable for big companies. But it would still allow small companies to hire their 2 or 3 crew members with commensurate effort. If you got wiped out, you can spend your chunk of time farming mats for replacement crews, just like you do for ships, and get back to sailing.

Thoughts?
 

 

My thoughts are that Atlas needs (Your Words) "robust trading features, like player vendors, or an auction house"

And I strongly disagree that atlas should do away with Gold!!!  No they need to get about the horribly needed process of adding content that MATTERS into the game!!!  Like Trading, Vendors, ETC....

And Just FYI Player Vendors is FAR MORE desirable then LAZY Auction Houses that promote mindless Economy's!!!

 

Edited January 17, 2019 by Sulfurblade

[Anev 11]

On 1/14/2019 at 2:25 PM, MagicPuncher said:

That's borderline unsistainable for a small (1-3) player group.

Sad but true.  Just yesterday two of us finally gave in and took our bit of gold and purchased three crewmen.  Got them on our little Schooner (two others had real life stuff).  And we set sail! 

O...M...G...  Having a crew was a blast!  We've been having fun before but now ... just the two of us ... we could actually spend more time looking around then racing to change a sail, get back to look for SotD...  Trying to plan when one of us could step away for real food or bathroom breaks.  It was like a breath of fresh air in the game.

Two days later, one person has been on vacation, another sick with the cold, yet another off dealing with life and we are about to lose our three crew members who've been sitting in the house ... on land ... and we are almost out of gold.  Tonight I was going to try and sail around to get some flotsam but I'm dreading it as it's overly stressful for a game that is supposed to be fun.

I don't mind the idea of paying the crew, they are also getting food on top of that....  But if I take them off the ship, put them in a house, then why am I still paying?  Maybe they shouldn't be able to gain any XP on land and you still need to feed them but to make it fun, stop making them eat up gold for doing nothing.  They got room and board!  When we put them back on the ship, then we pay...

It's just not fun as it is for small groups and I can't tell you how much fun it was to sail with a crew after playing this game since launch and losing three boats already ... the crew made it even more fun ... until you have to be offline and deal with life ... then the stress of someone making gold to keep our crew ... dinner with family and friends or gold farming in Atlas....