Prices

[Egavactip]

So I bought some boots of speed +9 just now for around 33,000 or so. yesterday a defender was well over 100,000. Surely this is crazy?

[Estie]

You assume that vendor prices are proportional to usefulnes, I take it. While recently the prices have been modified to reflect that, there are various problems with that concept.

Defenders are very much overpriced, in the sense that I am never tempted to buy one. About the only one using it would be a mage for whom damage doesnt matter, and then the current system adjusts weapon price according to base damage. It is very unlikely that I dont find a defender or better before having 100k+ to spend.

Speed used to be very pricey a long time ago. Similar to defenders, I never bought anything speed simply because I would have enough of it before I could afford it. Currently I occasionally buy speed boots from the armorer, basically whenever he stocks any before I have them and if I can afford them, which is not unlikely at ~30k.

[Egavactip]

I am not *assuming* anything. I am an experienced player. But it is reasonable to expect that prices be in accord with value. And a defender is only useful in an early game situation, because its damage is so low. As soon as resistances are gained elsewhere, if not even sooner, it would be abandoned.

Really, a defender should be somewhere around 10k and boots of speed +9 should be up somewhere around 90k.

[Derakon]

Prices should scale with the utility of the item and the value of the slot it occupies. I thought that item price was based off of the item's power level; if that is in fact the case, then cheap boots of speed suggests that randarts with speed boosts are undervalued.

[Pete Mack]

Item price scales linearly with power. Unfortunately, power is measured poorly for a few cases:
1. Weapons with useful side effects but low damage output are not discounted.
2. Speed and arguably ESP not valued highly enough.
Edit:
That said, defender (+4) is a great swap for a priest prior to finding Godly Insights. You really don't want that drolem to wake up as you pass nearby.

[Estie]

Iirc randart boot generation was changed to have a high probability of having speed, simply because boots are one of the 2 prime speed slots (from available egos) and randart boots without speed are almost worthless.

As for pricing, what happens here is one of the many problems I mentioned above: randart evaluation is done for an endgame situation, while you buy speedboots from shop in the early game. Now the first speed boost is invaluable, but going from +20 -> +30 speed is of small value.

Given that my randart characters use ego speed boots more often than randarts (with properties other than speed), I dont think valueing speed higher would be a good idea.

[Egavactip]

In my own experience, I have never once been able to buy boots of speed from the shop in the early game.

But that is beside the point. Boots of speed should be really expensive to buy because they are prime gear.

[Pete Mack]

It also matters a lot which shop they turn up in. The Black Market is 3x more expensive than the armorer or weaponsmith.

[PowerWyrm]

So I bought some boots of speed +9 just now for around 33,000 or so. yesterday a defender was well over 100,000. Surely this is crazy?

Speed IMO is underpriced. The Defender has a high value because it has full base, FA, SI, regen, stealth, extra hit/dam/ac. A lot of properties will inflate the object power.

[Timo Pietilä]

Speed IMO is underpriced.

I concur that statement. I have also seen BoS in shops with very low prices (IMO) compared to other things. You could easily double the prices and they would still be worth buying.

[Derakon]

In my own experience, I have never once been able to buy boots of speed from the shop in the early game.

Have you seen boots of speed in the armor shop? They're very rare there, but they do sometimes spawn.

Boots of speed in the black market are more common, but of course also a lot more expensive. I don't have a problem with the price of black market speed boots.

[Werbaer]

Speed used to be very pricey a long time ago.

A note from one of my 3.0.5 winners:
"2650', clev 37 - Boots of Speed (+8) in the Black Market for 1,050,000 Au. Twice as much as i have."

Boots of Speed were alos much rarer in old days. That character used Boots of Stability until 4850', when he replaced them with Dal-i-thalion "for a few more SP (less weight)".

[Timo Pietilä]

Have you seen boots of speed in the armor shop? They're very rare there, but they do sometimes spawn.

Surprisingly often, it used to be more rare, or at least I think they used to be more rare.

Of course that could be change in my playing style too. I now recall quite often, sometimes for no reason other than to replenish something trivial (like arrows in quiver).

[Pete Mack]

They show up from time to time. I had one game where two +6 pairs showed up. I am pretty sure they are more valuable than (say) a potion of augmentation.

[Werbaer]

Surprisingly often, it used to be more rare, or at least I think they used to be more rare.

Much more rare.

In 3.0.5, items in normal shops were treated as if found at 250'. So you mainly got plain objects, sometimes magic ones, very rarely ego items, very very rarely powerfull ego items like Boots of Speed.

Black Market used to pick a level between 1250' and 2500' for object ganeration. Great items could show up (especially since plain ones get discarded), but they were still very rare.

Nowadays, stores create objects based on a much higher creation level. And it looks like odds for powerfull ego items to be found in the dungeon have increased a lot, so the show up much more often in the shops.

I had several winners back then when i wrote in my notes "no Boots of speed found at all", while today it isn't that rare to find several on one dungeon level.