So, I just want to draw attention to the MS:Pebble ratio today. We saw a decrease on the FM after to June update earlier this month. It was about 10k-11kp:1MS for a bit, and I I’ve been watching it slowly increase. However, people kept saying it was 10kp:1MS for quite a while despite me not seeing anyone selling at this rate. Well, at the time of this, there isn’t a single listing under 15kp:1MS on the FM. I bought a set of 10 shards for 12.7kp, but that was the last and only one. (People seem to also think others are going to buy shards for more than MS go for, but that’s another laughing matter.)

My point being is that it did not take long for everyone to compensate for the new “Pebble Sinks” since the start of June. A couple of new familiars is only a one time purchase in the long run and not substantial as a long term solution.

Honestly I do agree, the market should go down. While I'm currently trying to find ways to make pebbles and don't mind being able to buy a lot of them for MS, being above a 1:15k ratio isn't great.

Also those were probably my shards. I don't wanna craft them, so I've been chucking them onto the market for whatever current fm value is (today they were 10 shards for 12.6kp at a glance). Sometimes I accidentally list 1 shard instead of 10, so I'll go check to see if I did that lol

Yeah I kinda expected this to happen, not sure honestly why it wasn't expected. I have since stopped playing for the most part until I see an improvement.

The devs mentioned tackling the economy issue in the last update; that being said, it takes time to establish a stable economy, there are many factors going into it, and I doubt they intended for the new companions to be the only "fix" ...the game is in an extremely young state, there is bound to be fluctuation

Hard setting the exchange rate can be problematic, but changing certain things to pebble costs (expansions) will help balance the use of pebbles vs ms as time goes on

@Cealygosa

I understand things are still developing, but in my experience, things only get worse. Not better. And I am losing hope that they are going to change expansions to treasure. Especially since they haven’t even expressly addressed it since launch.

What do you mean the 15mil pebble deity statues didn't work as an instant pebble sink? :P

But seriously, with all the feedback they ignored during development, being a new site isn't really an excuse for the intentional removal of the only "potentially evergreen" (as in they could have kept allowing further expansions down the line) pebble sink they had in profession expansion, when the thing to do would have been adding more. They seem to be in stomping their feet "This Is My Vision!" mode at this point with the dearth of communication or actionable changes (in the balancing of the whole site, which would also help the inflation thing, not just the pebble to moonstone economy).

The attempt at adding minor "sinks" to the professions... Just doesn't keep up with what can be done to generate them elsewhere, and that's partially because they all feel like a total waste of pebbles to even interact with, even when pebbles are hardly worth anything.

I know a lot of people have been saying to just wait and let things play out, that it'll stabilize in time. But, it really won't stabilize by itself. If it does stabilize in time, it'll be because actual mechanics were finally implemented to address the problem.

And Reave is right, this feedback has been present for a long time. This site is young, yes, but not as young as some people tend to portray it as. It had an early access phase and the main launch was actually delayed. A ton of the feedback being given now is identical to feedback that was already given a long time ago.

Anyways, I hope they do eventually introduce some sort of long term solution, because short term pebble sinks do very very little. I'm pretty sure the only peep they gave addressing the economy in the update was that the achievement system would introduce more moonstones to f2p players. But, that doesn't really address pebble problems in any way. Pebbles will still be worth very little.

If they keep on releasing new pebble items every month, I don't see an issue. You'll just get a situation where the pebble rates fluctuates.

To play devil's advocate, profession expansions are also “only a one time purchase”. Except unlike companions, where there is a potential desire (and ability) to purchase multiple (for synergy/levelling/aesthetics/etc) you really only can buy expansions once. The three expansions being pebbles would therefore be less impactful in the long run than releasing 3 companion or apparel pieces. I suppose it could impact things by lessening the demand for MS, but CA and breed/genes will always be primary the driving force behind MS demand; once people get those MS expansions done customization is really the only MS sink.

Sinks are best used for things that are continually purchased, and thus go well with consumables. When we get the next breed, I'm guessing it will be for pebbles. That will do so much more than making expansions pebbles imo.

I also do not do CA, so please correct me here, if I'm wrong, but the CA artist gets what you spend on the CA, be it pebbles or moonstones. This means the Moonstones don't leave the system until you buy something like besprinklers, and breed changes, etc. I'm guessing that's why they might not want to change expansions to being pebbles, since they do need a bit of a moonstone sink in that manner?
Just a couple of stray thoughts there.

Still not sure why they don't just reduce the amount of moonstones needed for everything instead of desperately trying to force pebble sinks onto us. I know they gotta make money, but surely this isn't the way to go.