Impossible to make enough gold to upgrade anything.

[Sargent Q]

No it does not. The mod has been doing its best to make sure that Donators do not get a real advantage over other players. That would be one. The only things that Donating does for you beyond helping keep the servers up is.
A monthly free respec,
10 free Character hides,
and occasional access to donator events which are done on old maps.

My advice would be to just play. I'm one of those players with a 100 mil load out and i got it through about 5 people working and playing together to get it.

I personally have over 2500 hours in this mod, Far more than i have in any other game in my steam library.

[Bobo]

Nah, it gives no advantage. The loot is totally random. Some names come out more often between those who loot legendaries because these ppl simply play a lot, especially in events.

[[WCS] Warborn]

yeah its just hard to play a lot, not many games going anymore, and a few times a day there will be a good run, but people leave once the round is over.

[Nka19]

Yah I know what you mean, mats on AH are double cheaper than in old days and yet rarely anyone buying anything it seems.

Anyways, what people told you is mostly correct, you get richer by playing and playing and playing. Doing trades when you don't have much higher in value is gonna be slow for you to make larger profits, so for that a nice loot usually helps people. However I wanted to point out something people forgot to mention. The Assist XP. That also gives some nice amount of gold if you turn your assist XP in when your characters are maxed out. And that is nice when you play alot, so lets say you play a lot of rag runs for a week. You'll get a bout 5mill XP which will get you 1mill (but you'll really need to play a lot).

[ON_Glenn]

I want to throw out a suggestion. The devs have already added this for some mats.The marketplace sell. I got a few mats like waters lumps etc and i had it on for 1-2k under the lowest one on the ah. It simply didn't get bought. Maybe it is a idea to have a minimum for the quicksell of waters/lumps like Water 40k lumps 50k. It would help alot I think. (Those price ranges are just a example).

Not only waters/lumps but more mats.

[DR.]

I want to throw out a suggestion. The devs have already added this for some mats.The marketplace sell. I got a few mats like waters lumps etc and i had it on for 1-2k under the lowest one on the ah. It simply didn't get bought. Maybe it is a idea to have a minimum for the quicksell of waters/lumps like Water 40k lumps 50k. It would help alot I think. (Those price ranges are just a example).

Not only waters/lumps but more mats.

like the idea it will put more of a fix price to things so people can agree on prices.

[Bobo]

It's been already made with few mats that no more have some 4g ridiculous price for marketplace sell. Bear Furs and Ravens go for 7k (I can remember Bear Furs to sell on AH under 10k, current lowest is insane and Ravens to sell as low as 6k, current lowest 8250) and HM goes for 1750, Spraklies go for 434g. The idea is good. Especially to help new players there could be some (at least) reasonable price for the very basic mats like sticks, old boots, bent swords, 100g seems to have some sense.

[ON_Glenn]

Exactly! I think the economy will get better in time.

[Logan]

Easiest way to get 100m loadouts is to trade, not actually play the game.

Can confirm. Went from 30m to 100m+ (ish) in about 4 months of trading

[Xen]

Easiest way to get 100m loadouts is to trade, not actually play the game.

Can confirm.  Went from 30m to 100m+ (ish) in about 4 months of trading

You still have to play the game to get anything to trade.