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Universal Vendor Search without prices

Discussion in 'Wishlist Requests' started by Echondas, Oct 2, 2020.

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  1. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    The title of this thread is "Universal Vendor Search without prices".
     
  2. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    No having global search will open it up for all player vendors in the game to be included since it would be an item search. Those who prefer to go shopping to see the full vendor inventory can still do that by going to the vendors to view their inventories. We do need to include everyone as much globally as we can. It is the fairest thing to do in our divided world. No player exclusion because they dont live in a market town.
     
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  3. Wilfred

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    Yes, but I have been arguing in favor of a search with prices.

    A Global Vendor Search without prices would promote a much more scattered vendor market.
    But it would be more annoying than a Town Based or Regional Search with prices.
    Instead of having to compare prices in every town or region, players would have to go to every vendor selling the item to compare prices.

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    Also, listings without prices would allow a lot of shady seller tactics.

    When the Painting of Catherine Rose was added to the game, I first noticed it on a few vendors who were selling it for around 2,000 to 4,000 gold each. So I bought a few. Then I noticed a lot more vendors selling the painting in that price range. Then I figured out that the painting was actually for sale on the deco vendor above the banks for a much lower price. (200 gold if I remember correctly.) I was really ticked off that so many sellers were price gouging, and that I had fallen for the scam.

    So I don't trust the sellers in this game.
    A vendor search with prices would keep sellers honest.

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  4. Wilfred

    Wilfred Avatar

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    Another benefit of including prices in vendor search:

    Listing prices in vendor search would allow buyers and sellers to easily determine the fair market price for an item.
    So if demand for an item goes up or down, the market price of the item can change quickly.

    With accurate and responsive prices, players would easily be able to direct their efforts to the most profitable activities.

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  5. Echondas

    Echondas Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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    My plan was omitting prices would satisfy both sides.. those against a search because they are concerned with it affecting 'market towns', and those for the search due to convenience/time management.. prices could be added later potentially.. or not.. but I figured it was a good place to start which would be 'reasonable' for all sides.
     
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  6. Wilfred

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    So after thinking about it a bit more, my first choice would still be a Regional Vendor Search with prices,
    But, I would be OK with a Vendor Search that does not include prices, as long as:

    - The Vendor Search without prices is Global / Universal.
    - The developers promise publicly on the Forums and in the Avatar's Update to NEVER add prices to the Global Search.

    However, if the developers don't want to make the Vendor Search global, or can't promise to NEVER add prices to the search, then a Town Based and/or Regional Vendor Search with prices would be much preferred.

    If a Global Vendor Search was added without prices, and then prices were added to the search later, it would be much worse than if the search had never been global in the first place.

    A Global Vendor Search without prices does have a few benefits:

    - It would allow more accurate medieval economic rollplay.
    Shady merchants have always been around, and price tags are a relatively recent invention:
    "The Price Tag Hasn't Always Existed, It Had To Be Invented"
    https://www.npr.org/sections/money/...t-money-shorts-the-invention-of-the-price-tag

    - Caveat emptor "Let the buyer beware" could be considered a benefit from a medieval roleplaying perspective.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor

    - It would promote a more diverse scattered vendor market.

    - It would make @majoria70 happy. :)

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  7. Wilfred

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    Whatever option the developers choose, I want them to avoid turning Vendor Search into just an interface that players click on.
    I want a system that promotes gameplay, where players can benefit from running around comparing prices.

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  8. majoria70

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    One thing to note in this divided world we play in is that not everyone who has a vendor is all involved with marketing and prices. We may just try to be fair to cover expenses to craft items for our vendors without tracking pricing.

    Tracking pricing may not be our interest and that does not make us a crook of someone trying to take advantage. Still as mentioned and for those who did play Ultima Online we had the freedom to find vendors we liked from our searches.

    No prices were mentioned in using Ultima Online vendors but we did explore to find our favored, trusted vendors. I'm not saying I'm all correct in my thoughts on everything. I think that can be ironed out with use. Not having a global search to reach all vendors would be a dis-service to this game.

    Adding Prices would only limit it's potential for exploration. When I want an item I will go get it but if someone is out to get you then how do we know. That is always a risk in most games. So we work it out here in our discussions. Do we micromanage or not?
     
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  9. CICI

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  10. oplek

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    Sounds eerily similar to my position on eliminating teleports.
     
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  11. Time Lord

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    Maybe I could send one of those worthless servants of mine to search for the items at the prices I need?
    Or o_O...
    How about a universal price search without listing where the item is?

    Or o_O...
    Maybe a
    universal price search without what the item is?
    and both of these ideas have more chances of happening than any other ideas we've thus far spoken of :confused:'



    Makes too much sense for a game with such a small map o_O...
    [​IMG]
    I can count the number of times I've used teleport on one hand,
    then they took away my coconuts, stating "they're just broken".

    I know the SOTA Deep State is coming for me :cool: I just know it!
     
  12. oplek

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    How suspicious ... or apparently as the humans now say, that's sus. If it wasn't for the fact that mounts are "craftable" now...

    But back on topic, I wouldn't want the vendor search to allow purchasing and delivery. But I am pro information. Not allowing the vendor search, to me, is like disallowing maps. My having a map doesn't mean I can click on it and suddenly appear where I clicked.
     
  13. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    The Suspects o_O...
    • Mounts sold in our COTO Store.
    • (Reward Item) Coconut travel in competition with those mounts.
    • A wished for Universal Vendor Search in competition, in cutting down currently necessary travel for vendor shopping.
    • If a Universal Vendor Search were implemented, it could reveal the greater needs within our economic imbalances, compounding further need of developer attention to our economy.
    Anything in competition with mounts could be an unappealing venture, including our current topic.

    The sale of a Universal Vendor Finder in our COTO shop could be the right answer, but not before mount sales in the coto shop start to fall off after reaching their saturation point.
    Reaching such a saturation point may even suddenly see Coconuts being miraculously repaired o_O... After seeing what @Vladamir Begemot had to say, "it all" would fit into such a suspicion.
    Just rounding up all the usual suspects of why we don't already have something like an easier way of shopping :D~TL~
     
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  14. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Wanna just keep a half-dozen towns as gettin' all the traffic - or open it up to the other 250 towns ?
    The only way that's gonna happen, is with "some form" of Universal Vendor Search.
    Otherwise, we can leave things as they are and have been - and watch our population continue on it's rapid downward spiral because of the inability for all of us to "participate" in our "economy".
    Hnmmm...........
     
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  15. Superbitsandbob

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    Item search without prices just seems pointless. You get a list of vendors selling the item you want, spend god knows how long running around to check them, then find out you need to go back to the very first one for the best price. Where's the fun in that.
     
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  16. AzazelReborn

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    I totally agree, a search without prices is no different to what we have right now. You need prices for an open and fair market.

    I do not understand why people do not want to see prices, what do you have to hide?
     
  17. Mugly Wumple

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    There is more than one reason for a global search, but this thread seems to concentrate on one - arbitrage. How many people really play this way? There will always be price variation, often in the same town. This tells me that for commodity pricing, most players will choose convenience over price. I don't know for sure and I doubt those offering there own conjectures do either.

    I'm not an active vendor but I do go searching for certain items like recipes or a rare ingredient. It is much more important to me to FIND it than it is to save a bit of gold. A global search without pricing would be just fine with me.
     
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  18. zaweraks

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    If the developers of the game will at least view the viewing of trade offers in this city, this will already be progress.
    After that, it will already be possible to look at a more global search. (Even if the owners of the city have to put a separate NPC for this.)
    I think many will look at this positively.
     
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  19. Angelique DeVailly

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    My thoughts on a global search is fine, but with prices, i'm thinking of buying up stocks of items like all beetle carapaces, wood, silver and gold ingots once i have them all sell at a profit thus raising prices all over..
    Just a thought... and there are some players that could control all the markets if they have enough gold
    Or am I wrong?
     
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  20. Arkah EMPstrike

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    I’d be fine with a town search, or even if there’s no prices. I just wanna buy what im lookin for ya know.

    As far as reselling and stuff goes, if you’re trying to draw folks to your town with popular selling items and it’s being baught up and resold in another town for higher prices, you could price match them toget them to stop (or make even more money off them). Thats already going on quite a bit on things like wood, ore, regs, and cotos. Buy orders on vendors mitigates that. But theres currently no way to know who all has buy orders up without spending hours searching.

    So a vendor search would make re-selling easier, butalso making buying resources easier.

    Another thing that would specifically help filling out buy orders but not really help re-sellers who buy directly from other vendors is being able to partially fill orders. Currently if your vendor is buying 100 beetles, a single person has to spend days gathering 100 beetles to fill it, rather than having 20 people with 5 beetles sell it to you within a couple of hours.
     
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