Albion Online (the new MMORPG we’ve been hitting you up for this past month) is innovating their unique, player-driven economy by answering an important question: How do you have equipment drops in a game where all items are player-crafted? Those clever developers put their heads together and came up with a perfect solution. Have the players craft the drops!
The Black Market is incoming with the last major update to Albion before launch mid-July. This shady vendor NPC has found ways to move traded items back into the hands of all residents of Albion.
The Black Market will be available in the Hector update, set to release on June 7, 2017.
The Black Market Features:
- Located in Caerleon, the central city of the Royal Continent, The Black Market Vendor will purchase items from players and redistribute them to the various mobs, factions, and chests of Albion. They, in return, drop them to players in the open world.
- When a mob is killed, a chance ‘buy order’ may be generated for the Black Market. Once a certain number of orders for that item are active, the Black Market will start increasing the price of the item. In keeping with Albion’s player influenced world, everything on the Black Market is directly linked to players’ actions!
- Crafters have the option to sell directly to the Black Market or set up their own sell orders. The Black Market will automatically purchase your item once the asking price has been reached.
- The Black Market trader has somewhat scrupulous values. Being a shady individual to begin with, he tends to lose some items after purchasing and his slippery fingers will even pocket a certain amount of lower tiered items for himself, thus removing them from the game! This ensures a constant demand for lower tier items, preventing them from becoming worthless in the long run.
- The number of item drops has been increased! Previously, drops have been very rare to avoid interfering with the player-driven economy. With the Black Market, the game can have increased PvE drops, while not undermining the role of crafters.
- Essences, originally introduced to connect PvE activities to crafting, are being phased out of this aspect of gameplay with the introduction of The Black Market. Note: Essences will not be removed from the game, as they can still be used to craft Runes, but will be repurposed going forward.
Albion Online Features:
- Player-driven economy, everything is crafted and sold by players, giving everyone a chance to affect the market.
- Game-changing ‘classless system’ that does away with traditional roles. Instead, you are what you wear! Customize your gear to create your role, and quickly swap to other gear sets.
- Join a Guild to improve your chances of survival! Fight rivaling Guilds for land over an ever-shifting territory map to ensure your team retains the upper hand.
- Over 200,000 founder accounts while in beta
