Trader Class Specialty (Potential Bug)

Blazinbones · 07-01-2010, 01:42 PM

One of the Traders class specialties is a 25-75% reduction of the Goblin Tax. The Goblin Tax starts at 3.75% for a trader with-out any skills involved. If the trader obtains lvl 1 bartering, even though the GT is supposed to be decreased by .04%, suggesting the new GT should be 3.71%, the GT actually becomes 3.76%.

It doesn't take much to figure out that bartering reductions are accounted for before the traders class ability.

This potentially decreases the effectiveness of the traders ability, however minor the penalty for progress is.

This is a bug, because no other skill decreases a players abilities, even if it means that a lvl 1 player would have to trade 10,000G to notice a difference.

I also believe this is an exploit in favor of the game. This is because instead of stacking like most skills will, bartering is figured first and then the class special is figured. Let's take the math to a different level.

If a trader has lvl 10 class enhancement, their GT will be 3.687[5-((.25x1.05)x5)] This is the GT they will have until they begin lvling bartering. At bartering lvl 1 the GT should decrease by .04 as described by the skill, making the GT 3.647. However, since bartering is figured first, if bartering were lvled to lv 1, this player's GT would only decrease to 3,658.

This means for a trader who starts with lvl 10 class enhancement, and then lvls bartering to lvl 1, the increase in skill is only worth .029 decrease in their GT instead of the described 0.04.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it does infact penalize a trader to a degree for lvling both skills.

RogueTigeR · 07-01-2010, 01:45 PM

good find if this is indeed true

Blazinbones · 07-01-2010, 01:46 PM

I understand that the most obvious reason for this is probably due to an attempt to prevent the Trader's GT from reaching 0. However, If the game is formulated in a way that will penalize a specific class, that to me is a bug.

Blazinbones · 07-01-2010, 02:16 PM

I know how the math works because I have a lvl 10 trader alt.

He has lvl 14 CE and lvl 24 Bartering.

With the class enchancement skill at 14 the inate 25% bonus should be multiplied by 1.07 which makes my class bonus .2675%. Multiply that by 5 and you get 1.338. So without bartering my GT would be 3,662.

Bartering is much easier math. 24x.04 = .96. So my GT with CE of 3.662-.96=2.702. 2.702 should be my GT if both are accounted for on the original 5% GT. However, my alts GT rate is 2.959%

So let's start with the original GT of 5 and subtract my bartering bonus of .96 first this time. That equals 4.04. Then I would want to multiply the 4.04 by my Class bonus of .2675%. 4.04x.2675=1.087. So we take the 4.04 and subtract the additonal decrese created by my class bonus. 4.04-1.087=2.953. That's a lot closer to my alts GT.

So the end verdict is this. Both abilities are described as working off the Goblin Tax, not a skill altered GT. The Goblin tax without abilities is 5%. So with both abilities being increased, either the class a trader does not get .04 per lvl in bartering or they do not get a full 75% off the GT when bartering is maxed.

The GT with just class enchancement skills maxed would be 1.25%, a 3.75% deduction from the original 5%.

The GT with just bartering maxed would be 1%, a 4.00% deduction from the original 5%.

4.00% plus 3.75%, max deductions from both skills, would mean that a trader could have a GT of 7.75% to start with, and would still have a 0GT with all their skills maxed. With a GT at 5%, Goblins should actually paying them 2.75% when a trader uses them to trade.

Glitchless · 07-01-2010, 02:19 PM

The trader class tax reduction is applied after the bartering skill. This is not a bug. Bartering can get you down to 1.0% tax and being a trader can get that down to 0.25%. If the trader class could reach 0% tax then people would make 2 traders, reach that point, spam trades for their social skills with no cost until they were all maxed and then reroll.

Blazinbones · 07-01-2010, 02:44 PM

That is a ton of work just to work the system, and it in turn penalizes the trader class. They are the only class that cannot make full use of both the bartering skill and their class bonus as they are described, which to me would be a bug. At the very least the description of the class skill needs to be amended, but it is still a penalty for choosing a trader.

Also as illustrared in my first post, for a trader, lvling bartering can increase the GT instead of decrease it.

Lurkee · 07-01-2010, 03:26 PM

maybe try doing a little less blazin and it'll make sense, you made an assumption about the order they were applied and you were wrong. they both work as described. neither bonus ever increases the tax.

Glitchless · 07-01-2010, 03:29 PM

There is not a case where leveling either bartering or your class enhancing skills as a trader will increase the % of goblin tax.

Blazinbones · 07-01-2010, 04:03 PM

Firstly, I do not want a TC for pointing this out. I'd much rather have my math check out, and help glitchless out then make a profit on such a detail.

I did test this with a dummy trader, and glitchless is correct. The GT did not go up. However. when I increased the trader's skill to bartering lvl 1 the gt did not go down either, as described by the bartering skill.

Here is how I tested this:

I traded 150 G to a lvl 1 trader alt. This increased the traders bartering to lvl 1 which should have decreased the GT by .04. making the GT 3.71%. After the intial trade to lvl bartering to lvl 1, I traded 1 gold to this same trader to note the GT on that 1 gold. As anyone can notice, the GT in this case has not decreased, as perscribed by the bartering skill.

Edited to add

I created a second, non-trader toon and repeated the same test and the GT went from 5.000 to 4.960.

This indicates that for a trader, there is no benefit for lvling bartering to lvl 1...except to be able to lvl it to lvl 2

Lurkee · 07-01-2010, 04:30 PM

..........jesus christ you're still refusing to compute bartering prior to the trader bonus after glitchless explained to you that was the case. protip: try that.

Blazinbones · 07-01-2010, 04:39 PM

Lurk, I understand that. All I am saying is that a trader can lvl bartering to lvl 1 and not see any benefit because of how it works in conjuction with its class ability.

Again. I do not want any TC's so can you calm down please?

Lurkee · 07-01-2010, 06:12 PM

well thats great that you dont want tc's because i dont think they are often rewarded for merely being wrong

if a trader with no other skills gets bartering from 0 to 1 then their tax goes from 3.75% to 3.72%
(5.0 * (1-.25)) = 3.75
((5.0-0.04) * (1-.25)) = 3.72

Blazinbones · 07-01-2010, 09:36 PM

I tested it earlier with a trader alt and it did not move...now it does...

I apologize for the wasted thread... I guess my eyes were playing tricks on me...When I did an In game test this afternoon with a trader, and lvl bartering...it didn't move...I guess my eyes inverted the two.

Tonight the trader moved...

So I guess I was incorrect.