Dungeons and Dragons online has possibly the most confusing currency system of any game I have yet played.
In the first instance there are too many types of coins: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Copper. Copper is useless. Even at level 1 everything costs silver or gold and by level 3 I routinely buy things that cost 100's or 1000's of gold.
The next problem is that the multiplier between tiers of coin is only 10 as opposed to the more usual 100. I am sure I will eventually get used to this but even after two weeks playing I still need to remind myself that 50 silver is equal in value to 5 gold.
The NPCs vendors don't help the situation by routinely ignoring platinum when quoting prices. The ingredients to inscribe a level 2 spell for example are quoted at 420 gold instead of 42 platinum.
Finally and perhaps the most confusing thing of all is that your purse does not automatically convert coins to the largest denomination. For example my purse might contain: 21 Platinum, 194 Gold, 211 Silver and 384 Copper. Can I afford to buy level 2 inscription materials which are quoted at 420 gold?
Is this some kind of slavish adherence to the AD&D ruleset? I don't know but how hard can it be to implement a simple algorithm to add up the coins in your purse?
By the way the answer is yes. I can afford the inscription materials and I will have 0 platinum, 8 gold, 9 silver and 4 copper left over.
In the first instance there are too many types of coins: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Copper. Copper is useless. Even at level 1 everything costs silver or gold and by level 3 I routinely buy things that cost 100's or 1000's of gold.
The next problem is that the multiplier between tiers of coin is only 10 as opposed to the more usual 100. I am sure I will eventually get used to this but even after two weeks playing I still need to remind myself that 50 silver is equal in value to 5 gold.
The NPCs vendors don't help the situation by routinely ignoring platinum when quoting prices. The ingredients to inscribe a level 2 spell for example are quoted at 420 gold instead of 42 platinum.
Finally and perhaps the most confusing thing of all is that your purse does not automatically convert coins to the largest denomination. For example my purse might contain: 21 Platinum, 194 Gold, 211 Silver and 384 Copper. Can I afford to buy level 2 inscription materials which are quoted at 420 gold?
Is this some kind of slavish adherence to the AD&D ruleset? I don't know but how hard can it be to implement a simple algorithm to add up the coins in your purse?
By the way the answer is yes. I can afford the inscription materials and I will have 0 platinum, 8 gold, 9 silver and 4 copper left over.
Comments
I agree on the confusing hodge podge of currency in your bag, too; I find that extremely annoying. Sure, it's very real worldish. Just because I have 4 quarters doesn't mean they'll magically transform into a dollar bill, but DDO is a fantasy world, not the real world.
Actually, that reminds me. I finally made it to Stormreach and posted an Auction on the weekend but haven't logged in since. I better log in tonight and see if I made a few thousand platinum.
Don't get me started on the auction house: Why is there no search facility? Why can you only sort th3 current page not the whole list? Why does the default price for bids and posts go to something ridiculous (100's of platinum in my case)?
Anyway despite all of that I have managed to sell a few things. I even bought some Turbine cash to become a "premium player" and have access to more auction house slots. My rule of thumb is that +1 weapons and armour can usually be sold for a little bit more than half the base price.
But I'll agree with you on price quoting, it's like saying, that you need 420 quarters, and you have to add up your money and do some mental math to figure out if you can or not.
No, but if someone asks me how much money I have on me, I say "$1.73" not "5 quarters, a couple of dimes, four nickels, and 8 pennies".
Maybe I was obtuse about it when I was six, but who wants to play an MMO designed by a six year-old?
platinum = 5 gold
gold = 2 electrum or 10 silver
electrum = 5 silver
silver = 10 copper
copper
So basically we had 5 currencies of which 2 were actually on a 5:1 ratio instead of the 10:1 ratio on the other currencies' relations. Wouldn't it have been awesome if DDO designers would have implemented this system? :D