Neowin.net - Counter-Strike Source switching to dynamic market system

Counter-Strike Source switching to dynamic market system

Posted by LOC on 23 September 2006 - 03:40 · 43 comments & 10379 views

Take notice folks, the doomsday approaches. Valve has announced the big changes in the economic system of Counter-Strike: Source. And it's a doozy of a change. On October 11th, the world will come to an end, and millions upon millions of cranky boozed up gamers will go insane and riot in the streets. OK, maybe not that bad, but I can see alot of "interesting" threads being posted on the Steam forums that's for sure. I won't bother explaining things, I'll just paste it in here for all of you to read. I will post some of it here to start, just go into the extended area for the rest, enjoy.

Most of the weapons and equipment in Counter-Strike have had the same prices since the day the game was first released. These prices greatly affect the overall balance of the game. We at Valve know we're not alone in thinking that some of the prices in the game have never been exactly what they should be. (Uh, night-vision?) But rather than tweaking the values ourselves, we thought we'd rather let you decide. Coming soon in Counter-Strike: Source is a new system that sets the prices of what you can buy based on, well, what people are buying.

Starting on October 11th, the prices of weapons and equipment in Counter-Strike: Source will be updated each week based on the global market demand for each item. As more people purchase a certain weapon, the price for that weapon will rise and other weapons will become less expensive.

Gather player purchase data. Each week, the total number of weapons purchased world-wide since the previous week's change is counted. The purchase data is gathered directly from game servers. Every 24 hours, game servers upload a file to Steam listing the quantities of all items purchased over the course of the previous day.

Slice up the Money Pie. The new price for each weapon is based on the total amount of money spent on that weapon. The percentage of money spent on each weapon during the week is used to determine the percentage by which its price moves the next week. So if 10% of all dollars world-wide are spent on the Maverick M4A1 Carbine, then its price will increase by 10%.

News source: Steam Counter Strike Weapons "Market"

Link: Steam Forums Thread

Hide additional information

About the Author
Full name: Unknown
Forum name: vet

LOC
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: Normal · Headline

Total votes: 0

Bookmark on del.icio.us

Advertisement

#1 Posted by stifler6478 on 23 Sep 2006 - 03:46: That actually sounds pretty cool and intuitive.

-Spenser

(1 reply) #2 Posted by AnError on 23 Sep 2006 - 03:52: Ok, No one buy an awp for the next few weeks!

#3 Posted by DomG on 23 Sep 2006 - 04:05: That is really cool, it'll add a new twist to how people play. Not that I ever play CS, it's just a great idea.

(1 reply) #4 Posted by Raa on 23 Sep 2006 - 04:47: I think that sux

D-Eagles being terribly expensive anyone?

No thanks!

We'll be running around in round-1 with knives :/

(1 reply) #5 Posted by Xenomorph on 23 Sep 2006 - 04:47: so, you're saying the same tens of thousands of people wont be all purchasing the same exact fricken weapons and items over and over and over?

(1 reply) #6 Posted by balupton on 23 Sep 2006 - 04:48: Eh, so how do prices go down? Or do prices just keep going up and up and up?

#7 Posted by Fonze on 23 Sep 2006 - 05:04: mass buying of the TMP FTW!

#8 Posted by mundox on 23 Sep 2006 - 05:05: Well this will force players to use the guns that noone ever does so the price of the "favs" go down.

From my point of view this seems like a great idea, making the game more interactive in a way , but it sure will bring a lot of whining from a lot of people that can't handle change.

#9 Posted by L3thal on 23 Sep 2006 - 05:08: I like that idea...sort of.

#10 Posted by AfroTrance on 23 Sep 2006 - 05:10: Couldn't those text files be spoofed or something quite easily?

(2 replies) #11 Posted by Smigit on 23 Sep 2006 - 06:23: I think its a pretty bad idea. Not every server is played the same, infact each game plays differently as does each map. Having everyone forced to use say a shotgun on a map like aztec because they cant afford rifles due to the economy is simply dumb. I'm all for tweaking but having it change on a regular basis like this seems like a bad idea. Many MMORPG's suffer from price flunctuations and over valuation of items too.

I'm sure it will just lead to the crap guns costing less and the good guns costing more. Yeah sure the incentive to be on the winning team would be greater but it will make buying worthwhile weapons harder, especially for a team already loosing. I always thought it was good that there were some pretty decent guns at the lower end of the price scale so while having money was an advantage it wasnt the be-end-all.

And yeah, say the AWP becomes some unafordable $8,000 gun, anyone on a winning team can still afford to stock up on them but a loosing team that could go pistol one round to get the gun or anything else desireable may have to go 2 or 3 rounds.

Ahh well. I'll wait to see how it's implemented but I'm pretty weary of it. But yeah, theres a good reason why some guns don't get used and its not just the money.

#12 Posted by dmaji1 on 23 Sep 2006 - 07:50: that is absolute crap. think this would see the downfall of CS.

for 1 this would affect War and Scrim scenario's where we have to base what we buy on what other noobs buy. which is f**king ridicilous.

#13 Posted by 12Iceman on 23 Sep 2006 - 07:51: Good news: It will drive up the price of the dreaded AWP.
Bad news: It will drive up the price of the beloved M4

#14 Posted by El-Diablo on 23 Sep 2006 - 07:57: that's soooo stupid.

#15 Posted by Mx² on 23 Sep 2006 - 09:10: Interesting, so say the least.

#16 Posted by Krysys on 23 Sep 2006 - 10:41: Sounds original!

#17 Posted by KzR on 23 Sep 2006 - 11:42: Gosh, I think the price of the assault suit (armour+helmet) will soar sky high as some people even have it in their buying script. =

#18 Posted by acies on 23 Sep 2006 - 14:09: I think this is a great idea it'll change the game completely and unless your some kind of counterstrike obsessive you'll know the game needs a change.

#19 Posted by Kev1n on 23 Sep 2006 - 15:20: I think that's a great idea, adds a dose of reality in games!

#20 Posted by crimsonhead on 23 Sep 2006 - 15:32: Supply and Demand should not be put into games

#21 Posted by Twisted Chaz on 23 Sep 2006 - 16:51: What about Clan Matches?

How the heck are they going to be affected. I mean it's pretty out of order if you can't do a certain strat cause the ak's and m4's now cost twice as much.

I hope you can atleast turn it off.

#22 Posted by RiVaLSSJ on 23 Sep 2006 - 16:57: Sounds pretty good - it's actually a neat idea. I'm sure it could get annoying at times though...
I wonder if this will affect the game that much.

#23 Posted by miniM3 on 23 Sep 2006 - 18:08: I always gonna buy m4 no matter what the price, even if I am T I will pick one up from a dead ct, this (to my mind at least) changes nothing.

(1 reply) #24 Posted by Mathachew on 23 Sep 2006 - 21:40: It's definitely a unique idea, but... think of all the people who instinctively press F1 to buy the M4/AK, ammo and armor... the M4 and AK may very well end up being the most expensive guns. oh teh n0es!!1 Not my M4!!!

I sure hope they have an option to disable this, as this could turn a lot of people away.

#25 Posted by Kushan on 24 Sep 2006 - 00:23: Can't wait for the M4 and AK to cost 16,000 each. There'll be hell to pay.

Why not just let server owners decide the damn prices?

#26 Posted by pixels on 24 Sep 2006 - 14:18: Mih. I only play the Gun Game mod, so I don't ever buy guns :p

#27 Posted by j0j081 on 24 Sep 2006 - 15:32: M4 should cost more seeing it's so easy to use.

#28 Posted by Khaz on 24 Sep 2006 - 16:31: "OMG MY CLANZ CAN't BUY m4 ANYMORES"

Well, evolve, nub clan player.

(2 replies) #29 Posted by AkFuttySeben on 24 Sep 2006 - 22:19: CS: S got boring so fast for me. AWP'rs + Whiny Kids is not a fun game. So its just STARSIEGE TRIBES for me Anyways this might get me back playing if I can run out and not get AWP'd straight away.

#30 Posted by Matrix XII on 25 Sep 2006 - 06:35: oooh boyyy, I do not like this idea one bit!

(1 reply) #31 Posted by Smeltn on 25 Sep 2006 - 13:46: if you are talking about realism and such.. Then shouldn't the CT's prices not really change? Considering its the Cops? They spend taxpayers money on the weapons?

Now the Terrorists I could understand? But the CT's?

(1 reply) #32 Posted by Viper217 on 25 Sep 2006 - 19:10: I think this is going to suck for tournament players. If prices change every single week then you cant even play long tourneys online over a month without people complaining that they would have won if say the M4 was $2k cheaper that match. I just don’t think this is a good idea in general.

[1]

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Scroll to the Top