[2023] Player Driven Economy

Something else to keep in mind....

The game isn't designed for 30-50 player servers. It isn't supported at all.
The game is designed for a max of 8 players playing co-op.

So when you think of ideas like this, think of how it would affect only a small group of friends playing together.

There are vending machines where players can put items they have up for sale. I’m heavy into single player but as I recall, the player can set their own selling price. Other than removing the trader’s regular stock too, doesn’t this already provide what you’re asking for?

Originally posted by ShadedMJ:

Originally posted by Krynnost: ... but it would be items gathered/produced by other players.
I think it would be great for servers. What say you?

It would only benefit the first players to join the server. Those first players would purchase all the water filters and everything useful from the trader, and sell all their garbage to the trader. After a short time, a new player joins the server and the trader is useless to them.

I disagree with that, because nearly everything in the game is useful for something, for someone, at some point. I’ll sell stacks of raw ingredients, like feathers, raw meat, or wood, simply because with my playstyle I accumulate an excess of certain things. But they’re still useful. I’ll also sell items that are lower quality or lower tier, as I advance and find better items to replace them. But a new player would be grateful to have them. Lastly, there are items like clothing/armor. I can only wear one set of goggles, so someone else can buy any duplicates I acquire.

I’m sure some items would be in higher demand than others (which might suggest an underlying imbalance/underutilization to address). And some servers might have players that cluster around certain builds or levels of progression (amplified by the supported 8 player sample size, as SylenThunder mentions). But in the aggregate it should work out. The only always-useless things I can think of are silver and gold nuggets. If there’s e.g. a weapon that nobody ever uses, it could sit around unsold… but the solution there should be to fix the weapon so it’s good enough for some people to use sometimes.