Now, not sure if this will be controversial with those that buy credits. I know I have spent plenty in the past on credits... decent chance I am the reason why there is a limit on how many credits you can buy in a month from some indiscriminate spending back in 2006. So how much are credits really worth? You can buy 5k credits, which with the current things on the market will get you 5M T. This is all I am figuring, since really, T is the currency of SL.

Now is 5M T worth $40? With plain 20x planets- that is 3.5 days of troops.... 50k points (if figure basic point value). So let's say a 10% bonus, though this is assuming you are buying troops and not having to spend the money on a planet upgrade. Which, if we look at, 5k credits would get you through 4 months, so spending $10/month to double your production... might be worth it, except I can sell less than a days worth of troops and upgrade without spending money.

To my mind- for the other game I play, I pay $4.99 monthly for the special monthly deal, which is a pretty good deal for all you get on it. In a normal month you could gather 30M on the game, with the pass, I get another 40M more, plus things cost less and build faster along with some other instant finish perks and speed boost things. Now, we are talking about different types/styles of games, but are credits really worth it?

So in my mind, spending money on credits is not worth it. That is not good business sense though, there ought to be a reason to spend money on the game. So for me, what would make more sense, what would make me want to spend money on the game, or to be more free with my use of credits?

Solutions- these are once again some random thoughts that may work in combination with each other or might be variable changes that shift others-
1- $5=5000 credits - I'm more willing to drop a lunch combo ($5) rather than a tank of gas in my car ($40).

2- Return computer limited market prices- there is no real supply/demand currently on the market- set some reasonable auto sale/buy prices on the market, all based on a T price- I was originally thinking 150, but maybe 120, or even 100. Computer will sale at that rate, players can post below if they want to sell. I was thinking an autobuy price also, but I think can scrap that, if there is really no one interested in buying something then it can sink. Based on the set T price, have some reasonable ratios for the other resources.

3- Different currency- Diamonds vs Credits. Credits are strictly market based. Diamonds are purchased or rewarded (round wins or advertisement watching/clicking) and used for planet upgrades, could also be used to convert some to a certain number of credits. This creates more value in the round win or purchases, probably an adjustment of quantities and values, etc. In the event of this, might have to implement an autobuy in market at certain prices to sustain market with credits possibly being sunk in autosell.

Just a few thoughts- see if anything else floats through my mind.

This is something I have thought about a lot. If $5 was 5k credits I would buy it every month. This would come down to what Iiri needs to run it but he would get money from me fairly regularly. However you must account for the hard credit limit per account (Iiri is there a coding reason for this or just something that ended up happening? This will also instantly raise credit inflation temporarily. For this to work we would need a market supplied resource which Iiri is against. However if we look at it like this:
There are 2 items that could both fairly be used as base prices for credits. Planet Limit and Troops. Of course planet limit is limited per account which means it is always most efficient leaving troops only viable if you maxed planet limit and know you can reasonable do it for months going forward which, at $5 per 5k credits you know you could. We know what a planet limit point is worth and it means troops over 100 per 100k is never going to be viable over more than a market spike.
In summary

1- I agree 100%. Would be curious about average income per month but almost guarantee it would be higher this way which gives Iiri more play with.

2- For point 1 to work we would need NPC sell orders for troops at 100 per batch.

3- I think this is a feature that would be reasonable to explore with a few hundred active players.

Notes:
I love SL but am pretty hesitant to drop $55 CAD on a few days production.

I think a change here could be a huge benefit to activity, market viability and overall interaction.

A bottom limit of NPC buy orders would be nice to see. Something like a minimum 5 credits per 100k of any particular resource.

The NPC orders would not be required with a higher player base. Should SL ever start to grow again they could be adjusted in different ways but as of right now there are not enough active players to support it.

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there was a game i played befor and beginning of here where you had the player market but then for game system so you could spend money for good tho with how that game work was you needed untrained unite to train in troops defsive and offensive and then it was 1 doller pre bill money something like that could be done here tho at diff price

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100% agree and would like to see auto buys and sells as well.

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A few points. First - I agree credits are not worth spending money on at present, and I have tried to disable the ability to do so until I have time to rework the whole system.

Second, SkyLords does not want to be a "pay to win" system. Spending any amount of money should never give you a substantial advantage over other players. We added voting for credits as one approach to allow non-paying players to play with the same options as players who pay - while this devalues paying, it only does inasmuch as paying gives a reduced competitive advantage.

Third, credit prices per resource are currently set by the community. If you feel prices are too high, you may list resources at a lower price, and reap the sweet sales. If you feel they are too low, you may buy them up, depending on how many credits are available to you. Market prices currently reflect the actual value of resource vs credits as judged by the community. This enables a "market" playstyle, of holding resources to buffer market swings. If you feel players are selling resources for more than you'd like to spend, then the market is likely doing exactly what it needs to.

As an aside, yes, the credit maximum is an unintended side effect of how the database was structured. I don't think Zygi, myself, or Professor ever expected anybody to hit the credit maximum. The market has made this far easier than before, but also raises concerns that players who have many credits would rather hold those than resources. I think implementing a cap is therefore not a bad idea - but it should be more deliberate.

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