GoblinCookie, I don't have the motivation to both explain and justify economics in general via forum post, so I will just ignore your posts for now.
I reached this conclusion last month and have avoided this discussion as a result. This thread has gotten cluttered as well as unpleasant. I motion the discussion of developing a new, dynamic system of item value be opened in a clean, new thread. Should anyone wish to second this motion, please have the honor of opening said thread. If this motion is opposed, say so and we shall continue here.
Item value is what we already have...? That's not really a suggestion. Depending on what you mean by "dynamic." Using actual economic principles to drive the dynamics is exactly what I'm working on. Nearly everything being discussed is about proper dynamics of trade values... Using something cheaper and dirtier won't work - you'll just get a shitty runescape "economy" that is totally unsatisfying.
I intend to start a new thread, but not right now in the middle of things. This is slowly revealing various kinks in an economic system and reminding me of what sorts of problems need answers. A lot of things I hadn't considered thoroughly one way or the other, even in the last page or two. I'm also currently programming some test code to try and find unexpected obstacles in implementation.
Will start a new thread when the entire algorithm is semi-tested and streamlined and complete. Otherwise it will just be this same thing continuing under a different name, which won't help anything. Might as well keep in in one thread and not clutter up people's new replies pages with MULTIPLE annoying threads.