Alright... No.
Doubloons are a Scarce Resource., as there is a limitation to how many you can acquire in total.
This has become a little ridiculous, as it used to be that by doing the Commendations Associated with that Expansion Update would net you only slightly more Doubloons than the Associated (Limited Time) Cosmetics on offer required.
Now as there were Spare you could have., they then added the ability to Purchase Ranks and / or Bulk Gold. Just so you had something to spend said Doubloons on.
Of course now there is a ridiculous amount of Commendations., and so those "New" to the Game can earn insane amounts; which not only allows you to rapidly Rank Up to Pirate Legends (something I must admit, I'm a but more than a little Salty about) but it also means you can quite easily stockpile Gold.
And the thing is., there are no "Rare Drop" Items.
Everything available in the Game is a Cosmetic that is unlocked via Reputation Level and Purchasable with Gold.
Bar the Time Limited Cosmetics available via Duke' Bilge Rat Store.
I guess in a way we could call these 'Rare' Drops., but at the same time... who the heck would Sell said Cosmetics?
Sure, their Doubloon Value in said case would greatly rise because they're no longer available., but then it would simply keep rising because fewer and fewer people would part with them; and as noted... there is a limitation to the Doubloons you can earn in Total.
This means that each time new Doubloon Challenges are added their Value is Diluted.
At the same time because Fewer and Fewer would Sell such "Limited" Cosmetics., well their Value would get nothing but Stronger.
Eventually you get to a point where one is simply unobtainable due to how expensive it's become.
See an Economy works via basic Faucet and Sink Systems.
Sea of Thieves doesn't have such a System... it's not that it couldn't, and sure there have been some of us asking for such since Beta but as it Stands., the game is primarily Faucets with no real Sinks.
Sure, we can say "Well the Cosmetics are the Sinks" except they're one time purchases.
Eventually you will own all of the Purchasable Cosmetics and still just be earning ever increasing hordes of Gold.
What I mean by Sinks, are in terms of Perishable Goods.
So instead of, Cannonballs, Cursed Balls, Planks and Bananas being Randomly Spawning Items... if they instead were purchasable from the Merchants in Outpost for Gold; well then you have yourself a true sense of a Sink.
You need Gold to Purchase said Perishable Goods
Perishable Goods are required to do Voyages
Voyages earn you Gold
As such, we have a Basic Economic Cycle.
With the idea being that the Players themselves are engaging in tasks to ideally end up with a Surplus of Gold for Cosmetics.
Now we can make this an Adaptive Economic Cycle, where-in the Outpost Merchants are Supplied by Players (i.e. from Flotsam, Shipwrecks, Forts and Fleets; and to a lesser extend Rarer / Lower Island Spawns; but nothing on the Outposts themselves) … in this regard the Players Selling such to Merchants increase their Stocks; but we also balance this against them being "Restocked" every say 20min (an In-Game Day)
We can then limit Purchase Orders to the Carry Stacks., where-in based upon the amount of Stock a Merchant has left the Price either Increases or Decreases.
Let's say for example a Merchant has 250 Cannonballs,. well they might be say 3g each (30g Per Stack)… but each Stack (10) this decreases by, the price rises by +1g.
So, if we were to purchase 50 Cannon Balls; then it would cost us 250g, with said Balls having risen to 8g Each.
Yet the next 50 Cannonballs would cost us a further 750g, with the price rising to 12g Each.
The same should be true for selling., but we're keeping Ratio.
So let's say in this example 3g Buy / 1g Sell... this means we want the system to be ±1g Value every 3 Stacks as opposed to every Stack.
As such at said Stock of 150 Cannon Balls., it would be 12g Buy / 4g Sell.
This is a basic approach, but it helps keep a Healthy Economy... even more so if there is a Limit to which the Trader will Purchase said Goods.
So in this case we say that 250 Cannon Balls is the limitation of the Stock.
We can further add to the "Health" of the Economy, by denoting that Replenished Stock stems from Merchant Voyages (i.e. Players Selling Crates of Cannonballs, Bananas and Planks to the Trade Merchant).
This could Replenish the Local Trader by 50% (i.e. 25) while the other Trade Outposts each Receive a share of the remaining 50% (i.e. 5/5/5/5/5)… there are 6 Trade Outposts after all.
Now aside from creating a more Active and Adaptive Economy with real Gold Sinks., the other aspect is that Players themselves will have a habit of looking for the "Best Value"... that is to say, they will look for the places they can purchase Perishables for the Lowest Price; while also seeking where they can sell for the Highest Price.
This on it's own will tend to mean that the "Flow" of Goods will remain quite Healthy as well... not to mention again the Trade Voyages being more commonly engaged in, which will help this.
As Perishables are used on Usage, it also means we don't have Static Economic Goods.
Said overall Value isn't simply being produced out of Thin Air., instead the Server itself would increase or decrease Spawn Rates based upon overall Input / Output Value... thus remaining quite self-regulating.
This prevents Runaway Inflation (a key issue in World of Warcraft)., or Hyper-Scarcity (a key issue Eve Online; when Alliances Horde Resources and their Generation Points).
I mean that's somewhat the beauty in the Shipwreck / Flotsam Generation., these can be adaptive Spawn Rates. With the onus on the Players if they want to retain said Perishables for Usage or Sell Up; and it's likely with such a system, whenever a Crew is "Done" for the Day, they'll Sell Up what they have accrued to recoup losses.
Still the same is true in regards to Sinking Ships... should such go down with A LOT of Resources; well then that's a substantial investment gone and a lot of Value taken out of the Economy as a whole. One that the Server can then chose to respawn, but dilute as Flotsam across the Map.
An Auction House,. as noted isn't useful for such baseline economy; although it could be potentially useful for Trading Loot; it has some inherent issues, because the Economics can't be Per Server but instead Global., this would become quite problematic to keep balanced without the entire game being a Single Game World; or rather behaving as such at the very least.
Plus we don't have any Rare Commodities., again not unless we're including Loot.
