cRPG

cRPG => Suggestions Corner => Game Balance Discussion => Topic started by: BaldRider on May 23, 2011, 03:58:25 pm

Title: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: BaldRider on May 23, 2011, 03:58:25 pm
The value of gold
Before the marketplace gold had a very low value, since it’s only real use was to allow you to play with heavier equipment.
However, with the implementation of a free market, you have put a value to gold by allowing heirlooms to be traded. The supply of heirlooms will determine the value of gold.
Supply and demand.

This means that now that the gold income is actually worth something on a public market, the old gold system which gives out an equal amount of gold between all players in the team is no longer acceptable. If it were a true form of giving out the same amounts of gold, it would be, but as soon as you take reparations into consideration, you are actively rewarding players for wearing less armor.

Wearing less armor means you will be of less benefit to your team.
Wearing less armor rewards you with more gold, and in the long run, more heirlooms.
Where is the sense in being rewarded for being a disadvantage to your team?


Some math:
(click to show/hide)

Instead of this, I suggest a system much alike the one we currently have, however with an added variable in the calculation. This system is for gold only, experience should stay the way it is.

Create a basic overtime goldtick (like we currently have) however make it able to sustain only 30k worth of equipment, instead of the current 45k+ equipment.
This for the sake of new players and an overall income, to not have players ruin their economy because they are not making enough gold.

These last 15k worth of equipment should be earned by doing damage. Doing 50 hp worth of damage (the average health of a player) should equal gaining gold enough to supply the last 15k of equipment.
If you kill more, you will score more gold, and if you kill less, you will only make the 30k worth of equipment from the overall tick.

Let us leave this abusable socialistic system where the people who work hard are rewarded less than the ones who abuse the system to earn easy gold.
This redrag communistic madness must end!


Summarized
30k overall gold tick, do damage for the last 15k worth of equipment repairs.


PROS and CONS
Pros    
Leeching (Rushing in and dying) would be less beneficial.
People would no longer gain an over time advantage by carrying less armor, or playing specs that require less gear upkeep.

Cons
New players might have troubles making money and sustaining good gear.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: nuffen on May 23, 2011, 04:00:23 pm
So basicly the market makes the system communistic? Free market = communism?
Cool bro, take a pill :D
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: 22nd_Hawk_Cmdr_Harlequin on May 23, 2011, 04:00:50 pm
Although it is nice, comunism can't be beat, Stalin is waiting for ye ass!  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: BaldRider on May 23, 2011, 04:09:18 pm
Quote from: nuffen on May 23, 2011, 04:00:23 pm
So basicly the market makes the system communistic? Free market = communism?
Cool bro, take a pill :D

The market is a great step to a more fun economy. However as long as the income is evenly divided between players it is not fair. Especially when these players have different repair costs.

You replied within less than 2 minutes of me posting the thread.
I heavily doubt you even read the thread before posting your own mildly retarded conclusion. Go troll elsewhere.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Lezard on May 23, 2011, 04:33:38 pm
Wtf, think you've started to take cRPG too seriously Baldie.

/troll
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Tzar on May 23, 2011, 04:34:55 pm
NO.

/End Thread
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: chadz on May 23, 2011, 04:43:05 pm
very good points
(i probably disagree about the solution, but i agree about the problem)
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Cheap_Shot on May 23, 2011, 04:43:39 pm
This would quickly turn into a "rich get richer" situation. New players would never make money. Bow users and throwers who don't wear as much armor and die quickly would never make money. Support classes who do less damage then roided out two handers would never make money. The only people who would make money would be the heavily armored and experienced tanks with all their gear tripple heirloomed, who already have all the money and heirlooms they need. Thread is funny and all, but was this a serious idea?
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Astinus on May 23, 2011, 04:44:19 pm
You are assuming that gold has a value, while I think that apart the first week of market madness when people were selling mw gears for low amounts of gold we won't see many cases of looms payed with gold currency simply because the offer is too low to risk your time consuming masterwork weapon even for shitloads of gold.

crpg is condamned to a trade economy imo, at least until we'll see what changes strategus will bring
Quote from: Lezard on May 23, 2011, 04:33:38 pm
Wtf, think you've started to take cRPG too seriously Baldie.

/troll
also this  :P
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: chadz on May 23, 2011, 04:46:23 pm
i totally agree that the marketplace has the potential to change how the game is played.
the point is that before it didn't matter if you had 300k or 600k gold.
now it does.

needless to say, we need a different solution than the proposed one, it would just cause less teamplay.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Spawny on May 23, 2011, 04:59:31 pm
Easy fix would be a "trade only" on heirloomed weapons/armours.

You can only trade your heirlooms for an equal amount of modifiers.

IE: +3 for a +3 or for a +2 and a +1

You can only pay gold for normal items, so you might get a discount on that horsie you want.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: El_Infante on May 23, 2011, 05:07:46 pm
Of course, market need changes.

Quote from: Spawny on May 23, 2011, 04:59:31 pm
Easy fix would be a "trade only" on heirloomed weapons/armours.

You can only trade your heirlooms for an equal amount of modifiers.

IE: +3 for a +3 or for a +2 and a +1

You can only pay gold for normal items, so you might get a discount on that horsie you want.

That was a good idea. The fun of the market should be changing your heirlooms with other players to be able to play different improved classes after retiring.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: RiPLeY_II on May 23, 2011, 05:28:05 pm
Quote from: El_Infante on May 23, 2011, 05:07:46 pm
Of course, market need changes.

That was a good idea. The fun of the market should be changing your heirlooms with other players to be able to play different improved classes after retiring.

No way. If you do that, then we would go back to where we were, in a world where money had no value other than wearing better equipment.

A possible solution to this problem, WITHOUT wrecking gameplay would be to reward more money to  the winning teams at the end of a round (instead of rewarding indivirual players as BaldRider suggested). Something like maintaining the normal gold ticks as we have now, and giving a SUSTANTIAL gold gaining for winning rounds (and increasing this bonus more if rounds are won in a row).

You know, this is just an idea. It needs some tweaking and testing, but i think that if we follow this line, we'll get what we want (reward gameplay, encourage players to wear medium/heavy armor to win rounds in order to win money).

In addition to that , if we want to reward single characters that outstand in a team, we could reward some  players for "specific achievements" at the end of a round (p.e. reward the players capturing the flag on siege), but that bonuses should be slightly less than the team bonus, and just optional.

Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Tears of Destiny on May 23, 2011, 05:38:41 pm
This is captalism, not communism, that people are complaining about.

-1 for not understanding what communism is, nor what a free market is.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Banok on May 23, 2011, 05:56:49 pm
I dont think it really changes anything.

only reason anyone would sell hierlooms for gold only is if they REALLY wanted to use a plated charger every round and played so much that retiring wasn't difficult. never really had a problem with upkeep even in 40k gear.

just cause you can trade doesn't mean this game has anything even close to a simulating a economy, sorry to burst your bubble.

maybe there will be an ecconomy in strat...
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Cheap_Shot on May 23, 2011, 06:26:11 pm
Quote from: RiPLeY_II on May 23, 2011, 05:28:05 pm
A possible solution to this problem, WITHOUT wrecking gameplay would be to reward more money to  the winning teams at the end of a round (instead of rewarding indivirual players as BaldRider suggested). Something like maintaining the normal gold ticks as we have now, and giving a SUSTANTIAL gold gaining for winning rounds (and increasing this bonus more if rounds are won in a row).

You know, this is just an idea. It needs some tweaking and testing, but i think that if we follow this line, we'll get what we want (reward gameplay, encourage players to wear medium/heavy armor to win rounds in order to win money).

In addition to that , if we want to reward single characters that outstand in a team, we could reward some  players for "specific achievements" at the end of a round (p.e. reward the players capturing the flag on siege), but that bonuses should be slightly less than the team bonus, and just optional.

I actually like these ideas. I can't see how a bonus to the winning team would be a bad idea, since it would motivate people to work together and win instead of leeching, wearing poor gear to make money, etc.

Mini bonus's to players that preform well would be kinda cool too. Nothing like (x number of kills get you more money) or (top of the scoreboard) because that would just end up being the vet players getting richer in their amazing gear. A lot of builds are support classes which are needed, and rewarding for most kills would just make those support styles rarer. More like mini achivements, like "opened the gate for your team" which can only be earned by one person in a round on the attacker side for seige. Maybe "first to the flag" or "first kill" or other things that would get people moving.

 I like the idea of a bonus for killing someone who does heavy damage to a teammate before they are killed for a teamwork bonus. A huge problem I see while playing is players leaving their teammates to die instead of helping them or working together to take the attackers down. Ways to reward teamwork are very needed in cRPG. Currently no one is motivated by anything other then "get the most kills and stroke that e-peen" which limits the gameplay possible with this mod.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: 22nd_King_Plazek on May 23, 2011, 06:32:06 pm
I approve taking the C out of Communism-RPG!


edit:
And Tears of Destiny you are wrong.
The way gold is handed out is communism, I have been semi joking/complaining about it for months. This is meant to be a Character RPG. Who you are is meant to matter, there should be some individual achievement instead of this "everybody gets the same" nonsense.

Of course some people fear this will cause a lack of teamwork. But only amongst idiots. If the team does well the individual player will also be doing well. However there can also be both team and individual rewards. For example using the current system we have now but introducing a modifier that rewards individual abilities on top of it.


Team Modifier:

x5

Player Modifier:

x(5+(X)

Where X = If K > D then  +Q
                  If DAM > Y then +W
                   If SUS DAM < U then +E

K-kills
D-deaths
DAM- damage dealt
SUS DAM- damage sustained
QWEUX - simple variables

Or something along these lines.

---

Of course as is the chadzian way you could keep whatever modifiers secret so people do not know for sure which they are then maybe it will affect people gameplay style less and teamwork will continue unabated by individual rewards. Though really I think trying to force teamwork instead of allowing individual rewards was wrong from the outset, what with it being an RPG and all :P

Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: rustyspoon on May 23, 2011, 06:41:55 pm
Quote from: 22nd_King_Plazek on May 23, 2011, 06:32:06 pm
I approve taking the C out of Communism-RPG!

Ommunism-RPG?
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Lichen on May 23, 2011, 06:55:13 pm
Quote from: RiPLeY_II on May 23, 2011, 05:28:05 pm
A possible solution to this problem, WITHOUT wrecking gameplay would be to reward more money to  the winning teams at the end of a round (instead of rewarding indivirual players as BaldRider suggested). Something like maintaining the normal gold ticks as we have now, and giving a SUSTANTIAL gold gaining for winning rounds (and increasing this bonus more if rounds are won in a row).

You know, this is just an idea. It needs some tweaking and testing, but i think that if we follow this line, we'll get what we want (reward gameplay, encourage players to wear medium/heavy armor to win rounds in order to win money).

In addition to that , if we want to reward single characters that outstand in a team, we could reward some  players for "specific achievements" at the end of a round (p.e. reward the players capturing the flag on siege), but that bonuses should be slightly less than the team bonus, and just optional.
+1 I completely agree with the winning team getting a gold bonus at the end of the round. And if possible to reward individual players for capture assist or similar TEAM effort then definitely.

Also I think there should be a TK gold penalty to punish those consistent idiots who don't care about anything but their kills. Also (crazy idea) maybe introduce betting so you can bet on yourself (or team) to win the round and you can enter how much you want to bet (similar to how the tournaments worked in single player).
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: zagibu on May 23, 2011, 07:49:26 pm
Additional to the base income, it should be possible to gain extra money by performing well as an individual. We all know that humans are very egocentric and can't really be motivated by a multiplier that is dependent on team performance. We need personal incentives.

One possibility would be rewarding damage done in relation to the player's level. I don't know how feasible it is, but if the damage can be recorded, it should be possible to calculate averages for each level, and if players surpass that, they should be able to earn additional gold (say in linear scale to the amount it surpasses the damage average, up to a certain limit).

It is possible that this would increase the number of tks, though. We don't know for sure until we try it.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Sultan Eren on May 23, 2011, 10:15:57 pm
You tottally misunderstood communism.

You call this communism because everyone earns gold equally. But if it's gonna be communism then everyone's items should be the same. Then you can call it communism and that is the "injustice" that you whining about. If there's injustice then it's not communism i am sure.

You obivously don't know a shit about "value thory". You a ignorrant I'm sorry. Keep blaming communism until they suck all your blood.  :mad:
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Digglez on May 23, 2011, 10:49:19 pm
OP entire premise and though process is wrong.  He who has the most cav/tanks on his team is likely going to win.  There is a very big incentive to wear heavy armor, YOU SURVIVE long enough to help your team win.  I would wager a very large chunk of my money that if you broke down 100 matches, the side with the most heavy armor wins 75%+ of the time.

Perhaps the multi needs to be exponential or something better like

1x
2x
5x
15x
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: EponiCo on May 24, 2011, 12:32:34 am
Plazek, you have a point that the individual players will do better in the winning team or working together, where you are wrong is that the skill or worth of a player is measured in kills or damage done.
The system doesn't force teamplay on anyone (teamplayer gets the same as lone wolf), the thing is your suggestion would be unfair between "killer" gamestyle and "supportive" gamestyle. In this game you can benefit the team as much by averting damage, creating distractions, etc.
F.e. if I have 8 roofcamping archers shooting at my shield (and throw stuff at them when they get bored) while a crossbowman picks them off one by one, I have significant responsibility for his success, and also for the success of teammates who could have been shot while fighting. But I do no damage (well, except for the 2 throwing axes I hit), let alone kills when I die to the arrow in the side. I'm not claiming this takes skill (RMB ftw), but it's tactics, and those can be employed for the team (take as much responsibility as you can handle, f.e. with a shield you can take a lot of ranged fire), or against it to boost your k:d (run or hide from every fight where you don't have easy win odds and let your teammates die outnumbered). Ofc it's all situational, cav f.e. can benefit the team a lot with this tactic, and in the end there is no formula if you want to have it fair (*).
So, the thing is, regardless how you code it, you'd have a "flawed" formula, which can be exploited all the same. Leechers gonna leech, simple as that.


(*) And it's exactly like that in real life. Noone is really paid by how much his profession provides or how skillfull he is, but by supply-demand and how powerful he is (skill and usefullness figure in, but just count all the useless broken shit that people are making money with). If we had capitalist RPG, shielders would go on "strike" and only shoot crossbows until 2h sign a payraise for them. If we had such a formula though, communism would work perfectly.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Blondin on May 24, 2011, 12:45:24 am
+1 EponiCo

Possible Xp/Gold formulas are only able to calculate and measure epeen, not the utility that you can have on a battlefield.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: 22nd_King_Plazek on May 24, 2011, 01:32:52 am
Of course, there is no doubt in that Eponi. But IMO rather a poor approximation than no individual accomplishment at all. It is not like the current system rewards distraction or  other support methods any further than the team bonus.

Oh and anyone who thinks the OP or anyone really writing in this thread is making serious claims about communism as a political or economic theory is a fool.  :rolleyes:
The similarities are obviously just a side issue to the real problems and a bit of light hearted commenting.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Casimir on May 24, 2011, 01:40:20 am
RThe player who plays well and is the more helpful to his team will surely find himself on a higher multiplier more often than the leecher in a shirt?

Hmmmm.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Tristan on May 24, 2011, 01:53:38 am
If the game was able to count assists then we could be talking.

A long time ago I suggested a renown system, where instead of kills, you counted renown.

Each time you hit a foe, you gained renown equal to a percentage of his renown value. This value would be calculated on a basis of his lvl, generation, k/d and value of equipment worn.

A player who hit a target for 20% life would then achieve 20% of his enemies renown points.

Upon dying yourself you lose renown points equal to your own renown value.

Combining this with the "communistic" payout would give a pretty solid picture of effectiveness on your team.

Programming it however.....

An important side note:

I know from experience in team battles, that when I play shielder support character, my value is not killing people. It is kiting enough enemies to split them up so the rest of my team can kill them. How would you reward this? I make no assists, no kills, yet has a huge effect on who is going to win!
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Elmetiacos on May 24, 2011, 02:35:36 am
"Let us leave this abusable socialistic system where the people who work hard go around in gothic plate slashing people in the back with flamberges are rewarded less than the ones who abuse the system to earn easy gold."
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Diavolo on May 24, 2011, 09:31:11 am
I like the idea of a bonus for killing dangerous opponents. Perhaps give a 100gold bonus for killing characters over level 25. Low level characters would get less hunted down, they would not earn much less than the high level guys and people would go for the big bad guys first. I think it would be both fun and give people a reason to put on expensive gear (to be able to kill the baddies).
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Thomek on May 24, 2011, 10:36:00 am
The only fair measurements of a players team (and hence only) value can be seen only with time, and his personal statistics of Team wins&losses.

This information could be interpreted and give him a multiplicator to his gold gain.

Let`s say a player start with a 1.00x multiplicator when he creates a new character.

After 100 rounds his stats looks like this:  40 team losses - 60 team wins.

His multiplicator would then be positive, let`s say 1.5 (The exact factor must be decided by the trolling devs.. Perhaps it should be rather high, or even progressive. 40-60 would mean you push the stats quite a lot and are extremely important for your teams. This could be a 2x reward if you ask me. Some players could be come superheroes, always in heavy armor and expensive equipment. The whole team would benefit from building their tactic around them. Of course the other team could also have them on their side.  )

The multiplicator could of course always be negative, which means your team mostly looses, and you cannot afford as much gear.
It should be reset when you choose to retire, or at special intervals, to get a fresh start and a new goal. (If it was never reset, the curve would flatten and players would loose incentive to change it.

Investing playstyle and money in Team wins would make economical sense. If you choose to do it by using your skills to play Conan, to be a clever archer, to play hoplite with your friends, or trying to command your team, that`s up to you.

If you don`t really care, you can also play as you want, but then you should not expect to make as much money as the team players.

Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: bredeus on May 24, 2011, 11:59:14 am
Maybe not even the extra multiplier for teamplayers  but something like if you are actually playing for a team you will pay less for repairing stuff? 
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Elmetiacos on May 24, 2011, 01:20:58 pm
The original proposal would just see an increase in the number of lolhammers, flamberges and greatswords wielded by people with 24 or 27 str, as everyone strives to do as much damage as possible. Killing dangerous players? How does that necessarily mean you've contributed more - if I overhead e.g. Leed or Cooties from behind while they're already fighting two other people, have I really contributed more?
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: ArchonAlarion on May 24, 2011, 10:08:27 pm
Nice post Baldi, I was waiting for someone to bring this up (too lazy to fight off the commie trolls myself  :wink:).

Perhaps one day, items will be solely created in strategus and sold to players by players. Then some interesting things will happen to the mod.

*edit: I like the losing team gets reduced gain idea, and the renown idea. Maybe gold gain should be winning team based and XP based on the old proximity system. I haven't thought about this in great detail, though.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Seprest on May 27, 2011, 12:16:26 pm
Gold doesn't have that much value >.>  It's really just trading heirlooms, some are just worth more to others.  We all get the same gold and we all get to pick our playstyle, and hopefully help the team win.  Gearing up with my heavy armor and medium tier horse with my nice spear and pwnsome 2h is worth it if I can get that multiplier up, even if I won't use the gear the entire time.


Also, NEVER do exp/gold for kills, proximity, ranking on charts, ect.  Always keep it win-lose based with a stacking multiplier :)
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Loki on May 29, 2011, 09:10:28 am
Quote from: BaldRider on May 23, 2011, 03:58:25 pm

Wearing less armor means you will be of less benefit to your team.
Wearing less armor rewards you with more gold, and in the long run, more heirlooms.
Where is the sense in being rewarded for being a disadvantage to your team?

You're making some pretty big assumptions here.
1. Wearing less armor doesn't mean you will be less of a benefit to your team. (I use 14k of equipment yet I'm ranked in the top 50)
2. Less armor does mean more gold, but it does not mean more heirlooms.  First, because people have to be willing to sell them to you.  Secondly, after you buy them you can't wear them because you're the guy who "wears less armor".
3. No one is being rewarded for being a disadvantage to their team because of team balance for one.  Secondly you're probably gonna have a 1x.

Also, it's been this way for several months yet nobody is purposefully running around naked to make gold.  So your doomsday scenario hasn't come true.

I would love to see full loot available, where I can loot armor and money off of people's corpses.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Lech on May 30, 2011, 12:42:55 am
I use Heraldic Mail with Tabard, Mail Mittens and Great Helmet with hat and low end mail boots. I don't think i'm not helping my team win with my score most often in top 3 or top 1. I feel i would be just as beneficial to my team wearing my mail coif and not using my red tassel spear keeping my total gear around 30k.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: Jambi on July 30, 2012, 08:53:08 pm
(click to show/hide)

120+ days later

cRPG and economy

While many learned professors have abandoned hope of ever discovering the truth behind cRPG and economy, I for one feel that it is still a worthy cause for examination. At first glance cRPG and economy may seem unenchanting, however its study is a necessity for any one wishing to intellectually advance beyond their childhood. Though cRPG and economy is a favourite topic of discussion amongst monarchs, presidents and dictators, it is impossible to overestimate its impact on modern thought. It still has the power to shock so called 'babies', trapped by their infamous history. Hold onto your hats as we begin a journey into cRPG and economy.

Economic Factors

Economics has been defined as 'I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine.' To my learned ear that sounds like two people with itchy backs. Of course, cRPG and economy fits perfectly into the Greek-Roman model. For those of you unfamiliar with this model it is derived from the Three-Amigos model but with greater emphasis on the outlying gross national product.
Inflation    

      cRPG and economy

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It is apparent from the graph that the influence of cRPG and economy is strong. What is the secret to its strength? Even a child could work out that inflation, ultimately decided by politicians, will always be heavily influenced by cRPG and economy due to its consistently high profile in the portfolio of investors. A sharp down turn in middle class investment may lead to changes in the crpg market.

Conclusion

Bald is a visionair, a clear view into the future.

To conclude, cRPG and economy is both a need and a want. It replenishes the self, invades where necessary and most importantly it perseveres.
Title: Re: cRPG and economy, a petition to end the communistic injustice
Post by: seddrik on July 31, 2012, 08:49:13 pm
Income is not unbalanced, unless you only consider some of the facts.  If you consider everything, there are balances to the current system.

If you wear more gear it costs more to maintain, BUT guys who wear more gear know they must win more to sustain their gear.  SO they either win (thus getting a higher multi & income) OR play the market to compensate, which allows anyone the opportunity to buy from / sell to these people.

If you wear less gear, you have fewer repairs but often die faster.  Thus you have a multi less often.

It all balances out.

The only thing I don't like is percentage cut on the market sales.  It totally has killed my interest in playing the market.  AND penalizes those who succeed at the game and ESPECIALLY penalizes those just starting out, who don't have that large bankroll with which to play the market.  But, thats just one more thing thats now less fun in crpg...