Market and Trading Changes

[greg0418]

If you know me at all (probably from IRC or as a "client") you know I'm a scammer. Its what I do, its how a make a living in the game, it supplies me with everything I need.

I enjoy it quite a bit. But the other night I was giving it some thought. Would I be inclined to rob everyone for everything they're worth if there was a better option? Probably not. I could still see myself scamming for fun, or for something I didn't think was worth paying for,but if there was a decent market system, it would make my "profession" alot less useful to me.

So what am I proposing? To start with, an actual MARKET. In my opinion, this should be a top priority for the devs. Reading the recent dev interview in the Courant, I can't see anything that they mentioned that would bring a more positive affect to the game than an actual market.

Player stalls are the alternative? Please. I've played alot of mmo's and I can honestly say I've never seen a more flawed system. Not only does the current system give a huge benefit to a small group of players, at the same time it adversely affects others. Who wants to sit in boston and advertise their goods for an hour when you know someone will eventually want to buy them? Right now you just have to hope that someone who wants to buy your items happens to be in boston at the same time. The same goes for someone looking to buy items.

Let's think about the implementation. You already have the infrastructure for an NPC trading system. It wouldn't be that hard at all to migrate that into a player market. Just make a general category for each item. When you search for a certain item, it shows you what people are willing to sell the item for. Basically a larger, centralized form of the current player stalls.

And as for the "trading" system. Really? I mean yea, its worked out pretty well for me, I take advantage of it everyday. But how hard is it to change things to make it actually work? You can still use the barrels in boston. Just add 2 "sides" to the barrel. For example, player 1 puts his items in the blue side, player 2 puts his items in the red side. Player 1 can't take the items from the red side until player 2 accepts the trade, and vice versa. No items can be taken unless both parties "accept" the trade, and once it is accepted by both players, nothing can be changed or moved. Then player 1's "takeable" side switches to red and player 2's side switches to blue, they both take the items and process complete.

Neither of these changes should be difficult to implement at all. And in all honestly, not implementing them would be a horrible mistake. I can't think of any more necessary and desirable changes than these.

I'm sure this has been brought up in the past, but this is my opinion on the matter. And as someone well-versed in the art of taking advantage of the current system, I really hope you (the devs) decide to implement these changes as soon as possible.

To the players: I strongly suggest you post your support for this below. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want these changes, hopefully if we show the devs how important they are, they will implement them sooner rather than later.

[Bait]

tldr


No, really. Most of this has likely been thought over, just not yet implemented.

[greg0418]

tldr


No, really. Most of this has likely been thought over, just not yet implemented.

I can't think of a single reason to not implement it ASAP

[Bait]

tldr


No, really. Most of this has likely been thought over, just not yet implemented.

I can't think of a single reason to not implement it ASAP

I likely couldn't either... Very well thought out, and good ideas.

But, tldr.

[Superiodity]

The short version is:
Implement barrels with 2 sides that switch when both players accept to allow easy/fair trading.
(He also says he's scammed many people because of the current system)

It's not a bad idea and done the same way in many games but It should probably be low/medium on the priority list.

[greg0418]

The short version is:
Implement barrels with 2 sides that switch when both players accept to allow easy/fair trading.
(He also says he's scammed many people because of the current system)

It's not a bad idea and done the same way in many games but It should probably be low/medium on the priority list.

yes, the trading system was one of the things i proposed to change, and yea, if the market idea is implemented first, the trading system could move down the priority list, The main thing I would like to see is an actual market. It would make trading MUCH easier for both the buyer and seller. The buyer gets what he wants when he wants it, and the seller gets to sell their **** without spending hours in boston advertising.

[milonti]

A market isn't necessarily easy to implement, it depends on the way the data is stored. Theres quite a few ways that can go wrong. I prefer the stall system we have now honestly, just wish there were more limits to it and more stalls available. Shouldn't be something people can use for safe storage.

As for your ability to scam people, that means they aren't doing their homework. People should use the available resources to make trades. Check the forum, verify identity by forum pm, etc. While its easy to scam, its also easy to avoid it.

Maybe there should be a few more trading mechanics, but I dont think they should be a priority atm. We need new content and the multi-server support.

[Slayblaze]

I'd like to see this get a higher priority also. It gives very good "bang for the buck" regarding player retention. The current trade and market system doesn't really meet even a bare minimum requirement and is a major turnoff to new players imo.

The two-sided barrel idea would be an excellent stop-gap measure until an actual market system could be devised.

[tafkas]

Here's a simple way to solve the issue:

Add an item to NPC Boston stand called "Portable Street Merchant Stand".
Make it cheap, but not very cheap. Lets say 500s (10% of the market stand).
Make it small inventory (way smaller than market stand). Room to place like lets say 10-20 nails. No idea how large is a market stand (?).
Make so you can hold it in inventory or if you wanna be strict, make it so it fits in backpack slot only.
Allow trader to place them in Boston and set a price.

PRO:
a) won't be a serious competition for big stand since it would have a much smaller inventory
b) again, no competition for big stand since it would require a player to be physically logged in (yea, i know, we'll all use alts, so what?)
c) will prevent any scamming/stealing
d) will give the "small trader" a way to start-up since 5000s for large stand isn't something you can get in a few days of work.

CONS:
a) yes, everyone and their mother will have a small shop, crowding Boston with alts.
b) see a)... think lag

Then Boston is big and nobody said this "Street Market" should be in the same zone as teleport. You could restrict it to port zone or somewhere else to reduce zone-in lag.

[MagicManICT]

I believe we already have gotten dev comments on the "secure trading" idea.... I'm not going to repeat them, though, as I can't recall specific words, plus I think they'll have more weight if someone bothers to look them up. (Try Paradox Plaza... know a comment from jorb is around somewhere. I'll post the link if I can find it. Make sure you get jorb's PP nick, though: Brother Bean.)