Huh, okay. Thanks for explaining. :)

I guess I don't (and probably will never, haha) understand why we need to slowly ease our way back into a fixed restocking state rather than just putting the settings back they way they were and letting the pool re-calibrate itself from that point onward.

In any event, I do look forward to the time when we're "back" and things are back to the way they were before the glitch.

But... how has it made an overall positive change?

Right now, I'm seeing decreased profits to restockers who are frustrated and discouraged, who are losing interest in the site, spending money on the site for Gold Accounts, and buying items with sP. Since I've been losing profit, I no longer see a need to spend money for a GA. I'm seeing this affect questing in a negative manner. I don't see vending being addressed at all when that is one of the main problems with the economy. Why hasn't that been addressed?

Hopefully it will be better in a few more days once the junk has been removed from the pool again.

Out of curiosity, how has this new system (when it's working properly) been a positive change for the site? I can only see things from a player perspective and restocking, for me, is no longer fun.

The thing is that we aren't seeing these changes. It's hard for a regular user (like myself) to understand and see these different trends. We're just seeing negativity.

And yes - I agree that this is a balancing act. I'm ready to see how vending is going to be approached because I feel that is a major part of our site economy woes that hasn't been addressed yet.

I appreciate all the hard work you and the staff are doing on the site, but from our end, it's hard to understand why things haven't been fixed, changed, or implemented.

I like making small changes more than making big changes as well.

I'm really in awe of how the new restock system was put together - that seems so complicated - now I understand why the wait for us restockers seemed so long. I suppose it was frustrating when no one was responding to our complaints and frustrations. I think that only made the situation worse for a lot of people.

Frustrated is totally what I feel. My sP income between restocking and questing has dropped more than 50% of what it was. And the prices of what I save for have not dropped accordingly. So now it will take me that much longer to get what I work for which already can take a long time. Once again I'm going to have to give up something I was working on to sell off items and more narrowly focus on what I do on subeta - having long ago given up collecting stickers, plushies, beanbags and battling.

Over the past little bit, the restocks have gradually been getting better. Yay! :)

I don't mind this new system so much, just as long as it stabilises and reaches a nice balance. I can appreciate that it's worth finishing what's been started here, rather than moving onto another economy-affecting feature while restocking is still yo-yoing in output.

However, what bothers me the most is not the lack of rares restocking, it's that many of the rares that do turn up aren't really worth it. So much stuff selling on for under 10K. That's in addition to a lot of mid-rarity stuff being in a similar state. I don't know how much of a priority that sort of thing is to the site as a whole (greater availability of less common items possibly encourages more questing...?). In short, I just want to see more stuff be worth restocking, like it was about two years ago.

Very glad to hear that vending reform hasn't been forgotten about.

I don't understand all the technical issues to push a fix but do appreciate that staff have taken a smaller is better approach. I really think once stocking has evened back out again that things will be okay. Then staff will be able to address other economic issues.

Of course we still get frustrated but what's new lol. Keith, I do think taking the time to post when we are complaining does help keep our nerves in check. Even if it's after a day of problems and just to say "yes, I know there is a issue" we really do appreciate it. :)

Over the past few hours, restocking has greatly improved. Not sure what happened, but it is much better now! It's been doing great for me.

Thanks !

These are the effects of 'better' restocking and fewer quests, I'd say. More rares and super rares coming into the economy - that's what people want to be restocking - with fewer 'junk' items filtered out through the quest system means a downward pressure on prices.

I wonder if Keith could tell us what percentage of shop purchases fuel quests directly? I'd say a large proportion of items are bought for this purpose.

Couple of ideas to push the prices up: all quests demand two items minimum (think Library - increase his pool to include Get Mugged etc as recently suggested, increase in demand pushed up prices) and Wizard token rewards reduced to 15 pointers (trickle down effect on vending - prices of tokens rise, vending becomes less desirable, prices push up as a result of decreased supply).

Above all though, I think the feedback here indicates people want to restock more even if the items are worth less. And that's okay! One way isn't necessarily better than the other. I just think we have to be aware of the effect it is going to have on prices. You can't be restocking great items constantly and expect their prices to hold.

Pretty much agree with Thomas's suggestions. Restocking reform can only get us so far (but other changes all in good time, of course).

Another change which might be of some help is a good solid wave of retirements. I can't remember the last time any of the shops properly retired a chunk of older stock (not counting the survival flowers from Seedlings). The pool of restockable items has only grown recently, and therefore general demand for items (largely driven by questing) is spread increasingly thinly.

I think the shops needs retirement of old items but also re-organization. Many items from the clothes, plushies, beanbags could go to different shops. For example, flowers plushies and beanbags can be moved to Seedlings. Some weapons can go to the Sable Smithy. And so on.. I think this could make a good change to restocking.