Global auction/market search discussion

That's why I said you don't BUY globally. You can only browse. You can get a general idea of where an item for sale is, but you would only have a vague idea if its price is in a range acceptable to you. Then you'd still have to travel there to buy it - which exposes you to that shop and the rest of their wares. This also causes you to calculate in the cost/benefit of traveling to that location versus buying locally.

That depends on what you consider the goal of a global marketplace. Reading through this thread, I came to the conclusion that the primary concern here was making it easier to find out where they should go to buy a specific item instead of having to hit every single vendor in the game to find out where to buy it. Instead of a global marketplace, call it a global vendor listing and inventory search.

My suggestions are targeted at preventing people from just sitting at some vendor and buying "low" then relisting high instantly, since they'd still have to travel to said vendor to get the items, then back to their own vendor to list it. Furthermore, they wouldn't know the exact price of the item until they purchased it, which prevents constant price undercutting - operating on the premise that as long as you are in the ballpark people will likely buy your goods. You wouldn't be able to see the exact price until you visit the actual vendor selling the item. Optionally, I suggested trying a system where you could pay a fee to the seller to see the price without traveling to the vendor.

I guess I'm a little confused about your criticism because I'm not sure how it negates anything I've said. In fact, it sounds like we both have the same goals in mind.

 

Browse All
Buy Global = Listed Price +50% Tax Merchant Fee
Buy Local = Listed Price
This what DAoC had

 

The Dev's setting a standard price is BAD for a free market. The market MUST sort itself out, otherwise we become an artificial economy. "An economy is like a moths wings, once touched by human hands, they never fly again. "

 

In addition, if the dev's take into account trending information, they can somewhat negate people trying to artificially influence the market in the short term.

Adding a transaction fee that is swallowed by the marketplace helps to offset people trying to game the system - don't we have that now?

 

I am not criticizing your thoughts at all, I am just giving my opinions as to the viability of your vision. I think that what you are saying would be a fine idea, it just is a 1/2 measure. Players that buy low and sell high are as important to an economy as honeybees are to the environment. The point I made in my previous statement was that if someone is able to successfully conduct arbitrage, (Buying low/selling high goods already listed for sale by another retailer) then the market is flawed and those retailers are listing their product at too low of a price. They are likely doing this to compensate for a disadvantage of a poor or out of the way point of sale (IE, their vendor is in a remote section of the world, in a back lot , etc. ) If all goods were available to BUY from an easily accessible even playing ground, then the prices would achieve their own natural equilibrium and attempts to manipulate the market out side of these bounds would become extremely difficult and perilous financially. In the case of super rare drops (Not commodity items), the price should reflect the demand and be very expensive. For example, you cannot buy a Fabergé egg at Costco, they are finite and rare and worth millions. The market will reflect this. An economy given the freedom to grow organically is an amazing thing . That is why I argue in favor of a global marketplace.

 

I could get behind that. Transportation costs are always factored into the market. I don't know if 50% is the right number, but I would say 15-30% would be reasonable.

 

OOh, possibly tariffs based on how many control points you would have to pass through, or reduced fees while the players hold the control points. Just a thought.

 

The amount of Fee (Gold Sink - Mass Global Buy Killer) can be adjusted as economy desire

 

Both ways have pros and cons and can be subjective to play style as well. For my play style pros for global market is the time I save searching for a good priced item and the con is others could get there first very easy too and buy the low price stuff first pushing the price up for mine. For my play style the pros of not having a global market is if I can get good active lots to sell at, I can move my stuff faster and if I know the good places and vendors to go, I can just hit them up once or twice a week or even know when they restock and nail them right away and relist stuff in a more convenient place for more. The con is it can take a REALLY long time to search for some stuff. Going town to town, vendor to vendor trying to go to each town with over 10 vendors.

I will observe, learn and adapt to either way I think.

 

There are a lot of cool ideas that could come up as to player driven events that give a temporary buff/debuff to the economy, IE the % of fees charged for global market access, however this would require the game to really expand its player base. This is a really good thread, no matter what side of the argument people are on!

 

One other pro for global market exposure is that it gives new players something to work towards right off the bat. They can get a feel for how much money they can make, and what types of items they should be working towards. It's kind of a mystery when you start out why you should even be making money beyond trying to decorate a house - and most of that can just be bought off the store...

Even now, I struggle to know what is best gear in slot because I don't even really know what all is available.

It also gives new players an idea of how much the stuff they are looting is worth - and if doing something like lumberjacking/mining, etc is worth the time

 

Exactly, That's what people do, the only constant in life, is change. we adapt, or we die.

 

Likewise, without change or adversity, we stagnate and die.

 

It's Game Changing Time...

Weights and Measures...

I don't see any game in any of this economic crap, so let's see if we can make one other's could enjoy

All I think should be globally traded are commodities and simi-possessed materials (aka) a commodities stock exchange, but the weights of materials must change for any meaningful caravan/wagon/donkey/pack-horsed style transport game.

Currently it takes about the same amount of time to respawn a hunting ground as it does to run the full length of our map in any direction, from any location. Our global Banking System, along with our current weights and measurements system gets in the way of having any truly meaningful transport costs for harvested raw materials and simi-prepossessed commodities. Also currently the gatherer class of trade skills has had a free run at scraping each area clean of their gathered commodities, which have become stockpiled in banks and boxes without restriction.

"We do have horses on the way"
Finished products should not be offered globally.
Gathered and simi-processed goods should be traded globally.
Things should weigh more. Everything needs to weigh much more (including finished goods).
Bank accounts should no longer be able to hold any gathered or simi-processed goods.
All roads lead to Brittany and that's where all globally traded goods should be needing to be shipped to and retrieved from.
Commodities and simi-processed goods should have weight added for their values to become more financially appreciated when presented on the global market.

Players would still need to establish relationships with those who can refine such gathered commodities and simi-processed goods, which includes trade towns who can refine such goods into wares.

Our crafting game needs to "become a game and not just in a game".
Otherwise, our current crafting and trade game seems pretty f'ing boring ...

Any other ideas out there?
~Time Lord~

 

So I've been thinking about this from my angle as I really don't have much interest running a vendor. Do I have one, yes, but it is really just to try to sell off some of the junk I normally would hoard and I don't depend on it at all. This is from the perspective of a player like me that would rather be out adventuring and does not want to have to think about the economy as a whole or managing a vendor while still not getting ripped off too badly. I would rather obtain an item for myself through PVE than buy it if it takes too much game time to find or if it "feels" too expensive.

What I want:

1. Global Purchase Orders that can be partially filled. ( Meaning if the order is for 10 chickens and I have 1 chicken, I can sell my 1 chicken and there will be 9 left available for other players )
2. Global Search for Items available to buy ( Search only, you have to go visit the vendor in person )
3. Possibly a (paid) directory for custom wares. ( A crafter wants to advertise custom servicees for a monthly fee )

Global Purchase Orders - I put the global purchase orders first because at the end of the day, would rather ditch my vendor and just go sell the junk I find at the market and be done. To me, this is almost like a repeatable quest. It allows me to gain the little extra gold I want, get stuff out of my inventory/chests, and lets me get rid of the burden of trying to maintain a vendor.

Global Search - I am in favor of a global search because I want to be able to find the odd item I want without going all over and trying to figure out if some generically named vendor might have what I want while I blindly run as fast as I can through market towns. Perhaps add tiered daily purchase limit for accounts: under 10 items or item stacks - no fee, 11 - 100 items/item stacks, + 10% fee and so on.
Could I ask in the trade channel? yeah but, that doesn't give the same coverage it just tells me what whoever is on/paying attention at the time might or might not have. The forums? I've been there a few times but when I go it is hard to find what I am looking for that is recent and not a RTM. Discord? Outside web site? In my opinion SOTA players shouldn't have to go outside SOTA for this. Besides, no offense, but outside sites could easily "tweak" thinks to their advantage. For the new and average player, things should be easy to find in game, again my opinion. Could someone buy all the things and relist them easier than they can now? Sure, but then I won't pay for it like I won't pay now. I'll just wait and keep checking for a deal or go obtain it myself.

Directory for Custom Wares - This is where the top end crafters can pay to advertise what types of items they can make. This may have to be limited to generic descriptions like "wands, cloth armor" since specifics would be to wordy. The directory would have contact information so the buyer could inquire further. The Ye Ole Yellow Pages.

 

Psst.
*in a hushed voice*
A
That example was because this topic originated from an OP about specifically that. Hence that is what is the basis for this discussion.
B
Did you miss that that post specifically mentioned the rare dungeon drops? Which can be ‘got by grind’.
C
The post specifically pointed out that it doesn’t work on any generic commodity and gave an example of such a failed attempt.
D
Just because you don’t like an example doesn’t make it ‘bad’ when it is fetched from reality.
Instead it is better if you want a specific type of example to ask for that. Try this for instance:
Spoon, that doesn’t make sense to me, could you please give an example of X with Y leading to Z.
I think you will find that approach more productive, at least vis-à-vis me. Can’t say for the rest of the topic.

 

So there are a bunch of us that are merchants, that's what brought us here and it's what we do. We like the excitement of finding a good location, figuring out what to sell in that spot, and trying to bring customers in.

There are single player games like this as well, but MP puts them all to shame, the constantly changing economy, new competitors, changing landscape of popular locations.

Just be aware that if you want to totally get rid of that so adventurers won't have to bother merchanting, rather than working with an existing merchant, well...

I mean I could also ask that stuff for me to sell just magically appears in my bank so I don't have to go get it from adventurers. Or that I get all the PvP emotes without having to go fight in the Trials.

But whatever, kill the merchants if you like, there are lots of other things for me to do in life than play Shroud.

 

Agreed!

 

Is this Shroud of the actual outside of game profit margin, or is it a game?


How large of a fiddle do I need to cry for this river of tears for you?
The money changers want a cash cow and the game wants to be a game?
The Vampires need to get another blood bag to suck on because they seem to want to hold our game back?
Either Shroud increases it's player base by all the means it has "as a game", or it's merchant game remains an income supplement for someone's actual day job?


Questions abound in such a discussion...
Fun for all or fun for some?
~Time Lord~

 

There's a person in this conversation that got SO MAD when they discovered someone buying their food and re-selling it to make more money that they HID THEIR VENDOR in a locked house with only certain people having access to it.

This same person is now clicking "like" on every pro-global auction house post. I find that hilarious.