Actually the occasion for us to make this change was simply that there was a significant imbalance between item types - e.g. a wand, book, potion and scroll that was able to cast the exact same spell and with matching limitations would vary greatly in price depending on the item type. So we made them meet at a middle ground.
Was the scroll price then right and most other things too expensive? It's hard to say and it really comes down to how we weigh the consequences up against each other.
First of all it'll definitely make it harder to be purely self-reliant, but we don't generally consider that a bad thing. While we don't shun soloers, we will always focus on encouraging the party experience and balance the challenges toward that. After all we are a roleplay server and roleplay works best when you are not on your own - the shared narrative and experience is what distinguishes it and what we made this place to foster and hone. No discredit to the lone adventurer or writing your stories on your own but it's just not what we aim for.
But of course scrolls are not just useful for soloing. They can equally be a great help when there's no spellcaster available or when teaming up with the available spellcasters doesn't become your character very well. This is where it gets more complicated though: On the one hand, we realise that there are periods where the player count is simply so low that there's just no spellcasters online, and in that event it will limit what you can do. But on the other hand we want people to be co-dependent - not just with those they are alike and can identify with, but even more so with those that they differ from. Why? Because we also believe that the meeting of differences, along with all the difficulties it entail, is a core drive for developing and furthering any narrative, and even - if we allow ourselves to be a bit philosophical - where roleplay can transcend just being your own creative outlet but also a unique way to explore something very fundamentally human. Over-ambitious you might say and perhaps so, but it's no coincidence that roleplay is professionally used to improve social understanding etc.
So in other words, while we don't want to outright prevent people from doing what they enjoy, we want to have a high degree of co-dependency across classes, races and backgrounds. And this admittedly takes higher priority than making things convenient, even if we always regret whatever frustration it may cause. We don't just do these changes carelessly.
Some might then say that other classes already have a much higher degree of self-reliancy, but while this is likely the case, two wrongs never made a right. The same can be said of the notion that other classes are able to fulfill the role of the rogue. We have not given up working on alleviating the balance issues revolving those classes either.
All in all this is really the context we need to discuss these issues within. I think the most productive way of proceeding from here is then to consider how to make the rogues able to better serve their role in this light - not how to make them self-reliant but how to make others more reliant on them. I've already seen some great suggestions that go in that direction and I really encourage you to try to think up more. Not all will be practically possible, feasible or balanced, and we still work on this in our free time so that will factor in too - but we'll definitely be considering whatever you come up with and appreciate all the help you can give in shaping out things that makes us better able to provide what we set out to do.
