Inflation of Codestones

[AJ11]

I spent about 2-3 million NP just to get my pet to level 250+ What else are you gonna spend it on? :D

It's really the time it takes, not the money, that annoys me. 24 hours per stat? Man :S

I agree the time between training gets so annoying, I have a faerie quest cookie as well because that should help keep costs down with the cost of buying so many codestones at once now

 

I am even getting up at night to get the training done ... sigh I really am a bit addicted

 

suppose its fair point what else am I gonna spend it on .. that made me laugh

[Lamppost]

Yes, 24 hours is super annoying! I only have a few days left, but I am very excited for it to be over!

[Neomancer]

Yeah the quest cookies are great. I might buy a couple more. They are so broken :P You basically pay like one dollar for 14+ worth of stat points. Which is easily worth it.

It is tricky though. I do not want to increase in level or hitpoints anymore because I need to raise all the other stats first, which will take me about half a year lol unless I stay up at night :P. So I prefer not to get Dark Faerie or Faerie Queen quests too much...

[AJ11]

Yes, 24 hours is super annoying! I only have a few days left, but I am very excited for it to be over!

wow you must be willing the time down to start with those red codestones ! and then super fast training ... sigh ... seems to be a long way off for me

 

codestones are still inflating too, and Im worried that Im making it worse because I am stockpiling

[Clumsy rockyroad1]

Price Check:

Vo: 12.2k (-0.9k)

Eo: 12k (unchanged)
Lu: 11.15k (-1.05k)
Zei: 7.4k (-0.4k)

Tai-Kai: 4.8k (-0.2k)

Har: 4.9k (+0.7k)

Orn: 3.6k (-0.7k)

Main: 3.35k (-0.35k)

Bri: 4.25k (+0.05k)

Mau: 4.15k (unchanged)

Total: 67.2k (DOWN 2.95k in 16 DAYS!!!)

I need to stop procrastinating.

[iunicornbarf]

I have like one codestone, when I was inexpirienced, I traded two codestones (idk how i got them) for the forgotten shore map. teehee. What's the plot?

[siniri]

Red codestones have gotten so crazy lately, I've decided to only train once I get the ones that have been asked for (and maybe cancel a training if I have some of all the others but not the ones asked for, especially if they're zeds. I might try to buy the odd one occasionally, but I'm already at the 700 boosts -- it's not like I'm in some great rush to train.

 

That being said, I just won 3 reds and only 2 regulars battling today. I hope this is a sign that TNT has shifted the balance of the drops vs. me just being unusually lucky today.

[Rebecca~]

Red codestones have gotten so crazy lately, I've decided to only train once I get the ones that have been asked for (and maybe cancel a training if I have some of all the others but not the ones asked for, especially if they're zeds. I might try to buy the odd one occasionally, but I'm already at the 700 boosts -- it's not like I'm in some great rush to train.

 

That being said, I just won 3 reds and only 2 regulars battling today. I hope this is a sign that TNT has shifted the balance of the drops vs. me just being unusually lucky today.

Unfortunately, I think you're just lucky. I won 3 regular, and no reds today. :( I'm winning Nerkmids more frequently than red codestones!

[wakka9ca]

I'm getting regularly red codestones I don't think it's that rare. It's rarer than regulars but not by a large factor. Then again, I find the Maraqua dome drops more codestones, especially the Mutant Walein.

[Neomancer]

Even tho Red Codestone got a bit more expensive. It's still a lot better to pay one Red one for training than 8 regular ones. which are even more expensive sometimes.

[Aquamentis12]

i knew this inflation was gonna get worse if enough people try to jump to Red training.-_- It's frustrating. What can I say? I'm "thrifty". lol I've gone down to training once a day... night, actually. I'm at the 2-red levels now, and getting asked for 2 Zeds is OVER 40k right now. but I've also noticed the other Reds jumping in price too.

 

I HAVE been getting more regular codestones from the BD lately, if I'm lucky I'll see one or two Reds, but usually it's regular stones or bottled faeries

 

You can see a similar pattern with any scratchcards that offer levels. Terror Trove and Faeries Fortune for example are 2k and higher. At the worst, the max price I'd seen on terror troves was 1200np, before the Obelisk war and new faerie abilities came out that is.

 

There is an order to things for a reason. You can't just start at the top of the "ladder" after all, We're supposed to WORK at getting up the ladder, not taking an elevator or helicopter to bypass the natural order.

 

Oh well, people will do what they will do, regardless of the wider consequences that impact a lot of others.

[Neomancer]

Isn't it still hard work to get a high level pet?

[Aquamentis12]

I believe that it's because of the new level-tiered faerie abilities, and the price of multiple regular codestones that have prices running up like crazy on some Scratchcards and all of the red stones.

 

Levels, people need to level to use the faerie abilities, and to help get to the red stone range, correct? So because supply is limited to one card every 6 hours, if you stick with the Terror Mountain kiosk, and you can only scratch 5 cards a day, prices will soar like they have.

 

Sure, it's hard to level train if you're going from a low level to 250, depending on your level if you start running and gunning for level 250, it's going to cost you a lot and a lot of time. But what happens when the supply of red stones is the same and suddenly there are a LOT of users who no longer can use regular stones to get their stats up, but need to rely on red stones to do it? Even if it's only the 1 red stone training tier. It's going to cause a major increase of DEMAND for any and all Red Stones, but without more suply coming in to level things, the prices will oly continue to rise.

 

Some people will be hoarding them, and those who do not use them, will simply sell at a profit which they may sock away, or buy up more red stones to inflate the prices further. I guess I'm saying that Greed is annoying for the consumer. ;)

 

Here's how I see it with training. If you take your time, while training, you work at the games, battles, whatever you do to make NP. And you simply take things at a moderate pace. You won't be spending a zillion np on levels and when war comes again, I think you can be ready and do well.

The Obelisk War, was the first war I was really able to do a worthwhile job. But I had to sacrifice a LOT of time and NP training for it. Whereas if the war hadn't happened, I'd have kept training while pocketing a small profit of NP from games while my pet was training. Either way I would've gotten stronger, however, if you go a bit slower, you can also be saving up NP for items or weapon upgrades while you train.

 

Because it was costing me so much NP to train, I slowed down to 1 session a day. I put my pet into training Before I go to bed. It takes 6 hours at the 2 red stone range. It can cost anywhere from 14k-40k or higher, depending on the price of Zeds. If it's 2 Zeds, I cancel the session. On principle. 2 stone shoudn't cost that much imho.; ) besides, at 40k that's most of what I can make in one day from games. And playing the same games over and over is REALLY tedious after awhile. Trust me. ;)

 

Besides, there are other options open for training. Kitchen Quests can award 1 stat point randomly, including level. And Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies from the NC Mall are an amazing resource for training. I use those as well. There are also stat raising items that our Battlepedia lists.

http://battlepedia.thedailyneopets.com/index.php/weapons/statincreasers/

[Neomancer]

Yes I am aware of all stat increasing possibilities. However, the Kitchen Quest has never, EVER given me any increases. It usually makes me waste my money on expensive food and meager rewards.

 

Count your blessings for being in the two Red Codestone area. I had to pay 8 regular codestones a day to get my pet up to level 250. Imagine hitting the 3-5 Lu or Eo jackpot a couple of times in a row. This cost me millions.

The fact that Red Codestone prices fell like crazy is great, and I doubt they will inflate anytime soon. Most users simply are not dedicated enough to spend so much money to get into the Red Codestone range.

 

Unfortunately, I decided to train my pet like crazy not long before the war broke out, so that was unfortunate :D But still, a couple of million NP is worth it in the long run.

[Akusu]

Vo: 9.8k (-2.4k)

Eo: 11.25k (-.75k)
Lu: 10k (-1.15k)
Zei: 6.8k (-0.6k)

Tai-Kai: 4.6k (-0.2k)

Har: 4.5k (-0.4k)

Orn: 3.6k (unchanged)

Main: 3.2k (-0.15k)

Bri: 3.9k (-0.35k)

Mau: 3.9k (-.25k)

Total: 61,550np (DOWN 5650 in 16 DAYS!!!)

Average cost per codestone: 6176np (down 700np) (Calculated using number of codestones of each type I've used on my pet).

Decided to update this since it's been a while and there has been some pretty dramatic across-the-board cuts in prices. Main codestones are the ones I've had to buy the most of so even that small decrease adds up pretty good. We're also left with only one codestone that costs more than 10k which is good.

[Clumsy rockyroad1]

 

Vo: 9.8k (-2.4k)

Eo: 11.25k (-.75k)

Lu: 10k (-1.15k)

Zei: 6.8k (-0.6k)

Tai-Kai: 4.6k (-0.2k)

Har: 4.5k (-0.4k)

Orn: 3.6k (unchanged)

Main: 3.2k (-0.15k)

Bri: 3.9k (-0.35k)

Mau: 3.9k (-.25k)

Total: 61,550np (DOWN 5650 in 16 DAYS!!!)

Average cost per codestone: 6176np (down 700np) (Calculated using number of codestones of each type I've used on my pet).

Decided to update this since it's been a while and there has been some pretty dramatic across-the-board cuts in prices. Main codestones are the ones I've had to buy the most of so even that small decrease adds up pretty good. We're also left with only one codestone that costs more than 10k which is good.

 

 

Thanks. I made it a point to update, but I was too lazy.

[Aquamentis12]

Regular codestones ARE definitely going down, and most of the RED stones are skyrocketing recently in the same timeframe.

 

Here are the lowest prices I see on the Wiz right now. (I don't have any prior prices of the stones, I just know they're going up)

 

Zed Codestone = 27,899 NP

Sho Codestone = 6,800 NP

Mag Codestone= 7,300 NP

Cui Codestone = 16,975 NP

Vux Codestone = 12,800 NP

Kew Codestone = 11,000 NP

 

Is TNT scaling back the amount of Red Stones in the market? Or is demand getting higher because of people force-leveling their pets to the 250 level mark? :skull: Anyone know?

[Neomancer]

It makes more sense to have the normal codestones deflate, but I doubt that many people force-level their pet, and that would have a huge effect on regular codestones prices. I haven't gotten as many red codestones from the Battledome lately, it could be scaling down.

[siniri]

I'm still getting about 1-2 reds per day from the 'Dome. I'm fairly certain it's due to the force-levelers. Most force-levelers are probably still in the regulars, but it took me years and years to get to the reds (with a balanced pet, supplementing regular training with zapping). There are much fewer reds around, and a lot fewer people training with them. It's really not too much time to reach the top boosts once you get to reds (assuming you got there with a balanced pet), and up until the new battledome opened (and red prices deflated), there were cheaper ways to train. When you're only training HP and level, there are still other training methods available*, and many people slow down their training (it doesn't take long to only be able to train twice per day max).

 

Since not very many people are training in reds to begin with, even a slight increase in demand can actually be a large percentage increase. After all, it becomes a bottleneck since it's the top training tier, until training using other methods becomes cheaper again (or as cheap, since the other methods will surely inflate as more people turn to them). Meanwhile, sure, there are people leaving regular codestones, but there are also people constantly moving into them, as those who could train with dubloons outgrow the Academy, those who are trying to force-level from 50 are consuming more codestones per training, and new people join (or people train secondary battle pets).

 

There will always be more demand for regulars than reds. As force-levelers continue to drive up reds, it won't have too much of an impact on regular codestone prices since the vast majority of people training will still be in regulars (and the incentive to force-level will go down, especially for those far away from reds -- after all, once reds average 8x what regulars do again, there will be little incentive, except for the time savings, though at that level of training, time isn't a huge issue).

 

*Negg-training HP costs less than 114k per stat right now; once reds average 19k plus, it'll be cheaper to train with neggs than reds for those in the 6-red training range (until neggs inflate, of course). And of course people can train by Food Club, faerie quests, scratchcards, etc., though those become less appealing once you've reached the max boosts on strength and defense.

[Finn the Human]

I'm still getting about 1-2 reds per day from the 'Dome. I'm fairly certain it's due to the force-levelers. Most force-levelers are probably still in the regulars, but it took me years and years to get to the reds (with a balanced pet, supplementing regular training with zapping). There are much fewer reds around, and a lot fewer people training with them. It's really not too much time to reach the top boosts once you get to reds (assuming you got there with a balanced pet), and up until the new battledome opened (and red prices deflated), there were cheaper ways to train. When you're only training HP and level, there are still other training methods available*, and many people slow down their training (it doesn't take long to only be able to train twice per day max).

 

Since not very many people are training in reds to begin with, even a slight increase in demand can actually be a large percentage increase. After all, it becomes a bottleneck since it's the top training tier, until training using other methods becomes cheaper again (or as cheap, since the other methods will surely inflate as more people turn to them). Meanwhile, sure, there are people leaving regular codestones, but there are also people constantly moving into them, as those who could train with dubloons outgrow the Academy, those who are trying to force-level from 50 are consuming more codestones per training, and new people join (or people train secondary battle pets).

 

There will always be more demand for regulars than reds. As force-levelers continue to drive up reds, it won't have too much of an impact on regular codestone prices since the vast majority of people training will still be in regulars (and the incentive to force-level will go down, especially for those far away from reds -- after all, once reds average 8x what regulars do again, there will be little incentive, except for the time savings, though at that level of training, time isn't a huge issue).

 

*Negg-training HP costs less than 114k per stat right now; once reds average 19k plus, it'll be cheaper to train with neggs than reds for those in the 6-red training range (until neggs inflate, of course). And of course people can train by Food Club, faerie quests, scratchcards, etc., though those become less appealing once you've reached the max boosts on strength and defense.

A-Neggs are at about 40-42k per each one right now. So I'm training levels with my codestones to make it reach the HP while zapping my pet. I'm rolling count von Roo's dice and its actually helping. :) Once I get to the red codestones, I'll just be glad, I get to sell the ones from the battledome. :woot:

[Aquamentis12]

Yeah, ideas like that run like wildfire. What some people think that only a FEW people are doing, it usually turnes out that MANY people instead are following the same course. This is exactly what some of us here have been saying. That this exact thing would happen. Regular codestones will sink in price as fewer people use/need them. As they are doing now! Gotta see the big picture and how it impacts everyone. Doing what's best for everyone is often the less desirable path. But it is the right one. At this rate, the price of SOME of the Red stones may eventually become Unbuyable again. :skull:

 

Frankly, if that happens, I hope TNT will come up with a method to correct this deviation from the normal way of things. You learn more by taking the normal path, not by trying to get ahead by taking cheap shortcuts. :skull:

[Neomancer]

Well I am guilty of power leveling to 250 as well. But trust me, having to buy 6,7,8 regular codestones in a row for months on end costs a ton of money when you start from a low level.

Once you have unbalanced your pet through the lab-ray (which I did) it's a waste of money to equal out your stats using 7 or 8 regular codestones. Better to just invest those in leveling your pet and rebalance her with Reds. Which I did. Trained up my pet's defense from 77 to 400+ in less than two months and for a fraction of the cost. It's a shame they are inflating now though. Zed is going up to 45,000-50,000 NP again.

[Aquamentis12]

Yes, I just got done looking at the prices of the Reds. With the exceptions of the Sho and the Mag Codestones, the others have all almost doubled in the price since I posted the prices the other day.

 

See, with more people in the red stone range. The regular codestones lose value, so you don't get as much NP if you sell them. I believe that this is a direct relation to regulars not being needed as much. Which lessens the amount of NP that those who would sell off the regular stones will pull in. Making it harder and MUCH more expensive, and require much more effort to gain the NP to train. I pulled away from massive training, to only ONE red course a night. Now I am thinking about simply stopping the training with the Secret Ninja School until I can earn some more red stones from battles. And primarily rely on the now CHEAPER solutions such as Kitchen Quests and Faerie Quests.

 

The more people who need the Red Stones, the more the demand increases, which almost ALWAYS makes prices skyrocket. As of right now, I'd have to play neo for ONE day to afford 1 Zed Codestone, and if I were lucky with the wheels that I do spin, I MIGHT have a couple NP left "profit" at the end of the day. Not everyone can R/S, due in major part to those bloody bots and junk. Or those R/Sers who are just blasted lucky. ;)

 

This is what many of us making the argument for patience with training have been saying all along. The power-levelers who wanted to get to the (at one time) "cheap" red stone range, now will have to also compete and pay insanely high prices as reward for their short-cutting.

 

Frankly, I am pretty ticked off about this whole bullplop of a situation. To impact the red stone market as much as it has, MANY users are also leveling to get to the red stone range. And I bet it will continue until once again it will be CHEAPER to train with the regular codestones. Leaving those of us in the red stone range, stuck with nearly Unbuyable Red stone prices once again.

 

I'm not knocking the desire to improve the battle-pets and save NP, but because of the actions of the impatient, ALL of us must now pay the price. And what an expensive price this situation is exacting.

 

A person must crawl before they can walk, walk before they can run, and so on. That is why there are structured orders of things. Even in something that's supposed to be a fun game.

 

This game just got a bit less fun, at least for me.

*Shrug* While I'm sure many wouldn't care, as I am only and simply a player.. I'm also sure that I am not the only one upset by what has happened here. As I know everyone who was and is now in the Red Stone range is going to feel the pinch from these higher prices.

 

This is quite simply, madness. Predictable as heck, madness.

 

To be honest, I wasn't going to check in here tonight, but after seeing the prices of 4 out of the 6 red stones tonight, it really got my blood boiling.

While some only focus on themselves and wouldn't care about the concerns or troubles of "just another player", nor in many cases, the BIGGER picture. This game has gotten way too greed-infested imho. Not just the codestones, that's only one of the IMO pricing insanities I've seen since I came off of my most recent hiatus last year.

 

The ONLY people who really win though, at least from this codestone debacle, is that the regular stones are going back to levels of a year ago or cheaper.VERY good for those who still use the regular stones.

[siniri]

Aquamentis, I've long since given up buying reds (except Shos and Mags). I was going to buy a Vux yesterday, but I balked when I saw that they had inflated 8% in less than 12 hours. If I had time, I would also play KQ (for a chance for reds), but I don't have much time for Neopets these days, and I don't want to sink all my NP into training, especially now that my pet is strong "enough" (I'm a strictly 1P BDer, and I can 1-hit the Obelisk bosses now, and the Koi Warrior, which makes all the battling I currently do just about as fast as it can be). So... I pay when I can. I cancel any training that asks for a zed. And I wait. I do supplement with zapping still, but my progress has slowed way down. And it's getting harder to keep things balanced; eventually I'll have to stop zapping, too, waiting for my training to even things out.

 

I honestly don't blame those in the 200-250 range for leveling up to reds. When I moved up to 1 red, it was sometimes cheaper than 8 regulars, but most of the time more expensive. The rapid deflation was nice while it lasted, but of course it'd be tempting for those training with 8 codestones (and only once a day) to pay a fraction of the cost while getting to train up to 12 times a day. The balance was always going to shift back to 1 red being about the cost of 8 regulars (and never more than 10 regulars, since then you could just make them). And of course the shift was going to be fairly quick, as people took advantage of the cheaper red prices. And those who took the risk of overleveling would of course be motivated to balance things as quickly as possible, training as often as they could -- consuming even more reds. I always viewed the shift as a temporary, nice surprise to be able to train so cheaply at such a high level, knowing prices would go back up. The good news is with so many more of both types on the market, prices will likely not reach their previous levels for a long time.

 

Some of the price difference might be due to hoarding. Instead of rapidly leveling, that's probably what I would have done (and actually what I did do, keeping all reds once I knew I'd be training with them soon -- though of course they were much harder to come by then), because it'd have been safer. Those who overleveled are "stuck" (unless they want to toss away some of those trainings with Von Roo), and those who were level 50 training with 3 regular might get stuck having to "catch up" with 6 or 7 regulars because by the time they reach reds, they won't be seeing any savings at all. Whereas if they'd been patient and held onto their reds, they could be selling them now that they've inflated (helping to combat inflation), and buying their regulars now that prices are back to normal. Instead, they sold their reds low, bought regulars high, and started consuming more of the regulars, keeping their prices elevated longer, and locking themselves into paying more per training. All to take advantage of the "low" red prices that will be totally gone by the time they get to reds. These people punished themselves far more than they did you or me.

 

At least TNT is still providing more reds, even if more people are using them. I wonder whether they'll be increasing the top boost more regularly under the new BD; it seems like a lot of people could reach it fairly quickly between the cookies and so many people training with reds (I'm only 102 trainings away from it, myself, total, for both str and def).

[Clumsy rockyroad1]

Zed Codestone = 41,000 NP (+13100)

Sho Codestone = 7,000 NP (+200)

Mag Codestone= 7,800 NP (+500)

Cui Codestone = 22,800 NP (+5800)

Vux Codestone = 20,000 NP (+7200)

Kew Codestone = 19,550 NP (+8550)

Change from 32 hours ago

Quick market roundup before I go to sleep