I think what you are pointing at as well is that the game isn’t designed to handle a large amount of players running end-game content, ( or a few running a LOT of content ). I know you didn’t mean this next, and you weren’t suggesting this - Does this then mean that the game would be improved if players who want to run a LOT of content left the game ? FC seems to have a lot of imagination, can they not come up with an answer ?
It appears your key point is that, now the game is almost a year old, people are unwilling to pay decent AH prices for all the stuff they paid for when the game was ‘new’ and people needed items for the first time, when there was not as yet an adequate supply.
Apparently ‘the economy has been allowed to tank’ means ‘quite a few players have hit end-game grinds and are dumping more items on the AH at cheaper prices’. As the game is still quite new, previously you didn’t see this, however it seems the standard for games that have hit end-grinds.
In other games, common stuff gets vendored because virtually nobody buys it. ‘Vendor trash’ is a thing. The things that do still work on the AH after that point are crafting materials (not an issue in SWL), other rare consumables, and very rare or hard-to-get drops. The upgrade system in SWL is the reason some items still sell, and is a good system for maintaining some value to common drops.
That’s not an issue of ‘SWL isn’t designed for it’, that’s an issue of ‘high end grinders can dump more drops on AH than the player base consumes’. (Which is the case in every other AH-using MMO I play as well)
You can’t make money selling items on AH that you used to, that’s pretty natural for a game that has moved from ‘new’ to ‘steady grind’ and likely has fewer new players coming in (proportionately) than it did 6 months ago. You might as well lobby for FunCom to advertise more for new players and run new player recruiting events vs. an increase in the supply of MoF… it would be better for the game than debasing one of the currencies.
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This is absolutely false. You can’t self sustain dungeon runs indefinitely just by selling the items from the chests but you can absolutely make money from it. I burned all my MoF reserves the week after agents launched and I’m back up to 615k (without selling any aurum). By some rough calculation that’s an average of 8k a day from auctions and that’s without selling any truly big ticket items like agents or purple cache weapons because my luck sucks. 
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I might be unclear.
There seems to be a focus on the “getting rich” part.
I honestly could care less about having a stack of MoF.
I can’t play the game in teams, in dungeons, lairs, etc. I can’t progress my character. ( I am working on Lore and Achievements ). I cant improve my skills on the teamed content because the keys are unaffordable. The content is locked behind a paywall.
My estimated expense for keys in Aug / Sept would be approx 100k MoF per day, and that is now gone. Make the keys free, with usable loot, and that returns the game back to where it was. SWL is the only game out of 4 in my inventory that stops progression in this way. 1 game does not have an AH or tradable loot, but by design offers multiple options for gearing.
I think that the major reason why low-end items are dirt cheap is that the population is aging and there isn’t enough of fresh blood to create a decent demand for such items.
But there is still a lot of money to make with high-end items. A lot of players still have characters filled with dirty money from the release AH exploit.
Good point.
Never used the exploit myself, wasn’t that a bannable offense ?
High end items are in the teamed content, or under RNG.
100k MoF per day on keys? I wouldn’t be able to run that amount of content. May I ask a honest question: How? How can one play that amount of content to spend 100k on keys per day?
Lair chains ( all in sequence ) , multiple dungeons ( served as training for mechanics ) Regionals … Takes maybe 4-6 hours, depending on groups and scheduling
The teaming was important, now gone. Players have left as well…
Yeah , good point… History repeating itself, possibly…
True. While I don’t really agree with ‘there’s not enough MoF’, and I’m not really sure that spending 100k MoF per day on keys to achieve one’s goals is anything the game should be adjusted for, I do sadly have to agree that FunCom has great imagination, creates good games, comes up with truly original ‘outside-the-box’ concepts… but apparently has no one with decent business sense on board. (This from someone who has been pointing out monetization issues since Anarchy Online was in active development)
Oh well, can’t have everything I guess!
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The 100 k number is real, but its only there because of the price set by FC. If they dropped the key cost to zero, then the number would drop to nothing with likely no change to AH. ( gear would likely be sharded more. ) FC would see an impact in their Aurum and Distill sales though.
Just found this thread, would’ve posted there, but I searched topics for any mention of keys.
ok, this is something I hadn’t read before… provides some clarity as to what is planned…
Haha, I really don’t think it’s on Funcom to mess up the economy so that you can run 33 dungeons a day without spending any money.
Whatever works for them. Every other game I have can do it, so that IS on FC, in my opinion.
1 game I have will require me to run 1 K of a certain short teamed event, with only 30 minutes cd between runs, which I can sidestep with alts. ( need the currency earned as part of input for guild housing).
It took that game a while to get to that point, but I doubt they are at any risk of shutting down.
Ok, again, I thank everyone for their comments both here, and in the thread linked above.
The conversation has been educational. 
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I think “develop” or “evolve” might be more useful than “mess” 
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Playing the game without spending money? Are you mad? What a foreign Idea.
yeah, not saying exactly that, lol.
I virtually never get the chance to use my key allotment most days, so I can’t relate to needing lots of MoF for keys. I just don’t have that kind of time. I’m E8/9 depending on role, though, and have each set in full 3 pip extraordinary gear, and a stupid number of intricate fierce glyphs, because I put them in weapons (don’t do that kids.) The only stuff I’ve had to buy, though, are either bought cheap, or things I can’t get myself (mark of starspawn.)
I don’t play the market, but I can’t agree less with the idea you can’t make MoFs from it. I only get my MoFs from selling stuff at the lowest price when I list and dailies. So I convert it to aurum slowly to upgrade a few 1/2 pip pieces, eventually (Silly people selling 3 pips more expensive than it is to convert those mofs to aurum to upgrade 1/2 pips make that an easy choice for the super rare stuff.)
I’m sure if I played so much that I constantly used all my keys and then some, I might have a different perspective, but given that I don’t, I play the long game. Nothing needs to be acquired right now, so I earn MoF slowly but surely. My only advice is therefore stop spending your MoF and actually budget it or start buying Aurum.
But, at least right now, agents are well priced for the non-Solomon island ones, and I’ve seen plenty drop doing missions for dailies (I have 13 total now and sell the dupes.)
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