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Universal Vendor Search without prices

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

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  1. Time Lord

    Time Lord Avatar

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    There's also PvP Opportunities for Combat Shopping!

    :eek: Defend your store front for customers :confused:!'
    Attack the competition! :D Fight your way to savings!
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2020
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  2. Wilfred

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    Keeping sellers honest is one very important benefit of prices.
     
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  3. Barugon

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    Like I said before, I don't really care if a search includes the prices or not but if it's not global then it's a fail.
     
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  4. Wilfred

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    There are two types of players to consider here:

    - Players who just want to buy and sell stuff as quickly and efficiently as possible.
    - Players for whom buying, selling, and trading are some of the most fun things to do in the game.

    The vendor search system should be designed with a balance between ease of use for players who value economic efficiency, and fun for players who value economic gameplay.

    The main problem with a universal vendor search, is it takes all the gameplay out of the in game economy. It optimizes all the fun right out of the system. For some players (myself included), playing with arbitrage (buying, selling, and trading) is one of the most fun parts of the game. There are many such players (always on the lookout for good deals to buy and sell) who will buy up underpriced items in one town and resell them in another town. So with a town based and/or regional search, prices will still tend to be fairly even between towns, and the system will provide countless hours of fun for the players who are keeping the economy humming smoothly.

    So I think a town based and/or regional search would provide the best balance between ease of use for players who just want to buy and sell stuff as quickly and efficiently as possible, and fun gameplay for players who want to spend their play time buying, selling, and trading.

    ----------
     
  5. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    You make some really good points, @Wilfred .... even tho I would prefer universal vendor search (with prices).
     
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  6. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Surely, @Wilfred you're not suggesting that what we currently have is "an economy humming smoothly" ?

    That, kind sir, is laughable to say the least.
     
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  7. Wilfred

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    To clarify, by "players who are keeping the economy humming smoothly",
    I mean player activity in a future version of SotA that has a town based and/or regional search with prices.
     
  8. Barugon

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    If your idea of fun gameplay is for people to have to search from town to town in order to find what they're looking for, wasting their precious gaming time, then it's a fail.

    [edit] Just to be clear. A global search function would allow players in towns that are off the main path (or even not on the world map) to participate also.
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2020
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  9. Wilfred

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    The point is that only the players who like searching from town to town will have to do so.
    The players who have fun buying and selling between towns will keep the prices fairly even across all the towns.

    So all the players who just want to buy and sell stuff quickly and efficiently can just go to the nearest town and be confident that they are getting a good price.
     
  10. Barugon

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    Have you seen how many towns there are? Or are you just expecting that only a select few should be allowed to participate in the economy?
     
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  11. Wilfred

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    Which is why I would like the vendor search to be regional as well.

    Novia regions
    https://sotawiki.net/sota/Novia_regions
     
  12. Barugon

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    What is the advantage of that over a global search?
     
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  13. Wilfred

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    It provides fun gameplay for players who want to spend their play time buying, selling, and trading between towns.
    They can run around between the regions looking for towns with good deals to buy and resell.
     
  14. Vladamir Begemot

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    It's true, that is actually a big draw for some player types. Unfortunately that will be gone once a vendor search is implemented. Closer and closer to generic.

    Hmm... I wonder why they don't just fix the root of the problem instead? Fix the base UI so those of us that got tired a UI so bad it requires a dozen clicks to relist one thing, would come back? Or people setting up shop for the first time would stay?

    Perhaps I find it comical watching people request this when literally the only half decent UI in the game is the cash shop? And Chris has said traders are his direct competition? And they spent 8 months making the experience worse?

    Do you actually think he's going to make a GOOD world vendor search? When you are his competition? If they won't fix the base of the vendor experience, you can bet your last COTO they won't make a universal search good enough to compete with the cash shop either.
     
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  15. Wilfred

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    -
    So this is how I would like the vendor search system to work:

    - The Town Crier in each town lists all items for sale in the town (including prices), and all purchase orders in the town (also including prices).
    - Items can be filtered by category, and sorted by name, price, etc.
    - Select an item to set a Compass Destination marker to the vendor.
    - Follow the Compass Destination marker to the vendor where the item can be purchased or the purchase order fulfilled.

    - The Regional Crier is located in the region's main city.
    - The Regional Crier has a list of all the towns in the region.
    - Select any town from the list to access the Town Crier for that town, with all the same functionality that the Town Criers have.
    - So every town in the region can be checked from the Regional Crier, without having to go to each town.
     
  16. Wilfred

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    Vendor Search is not competition for the Crown Shop.
    A good vendor search system will result in increased economic activity (buying and selling) between players in the game.
    Increased economic activity between players will drive increased economic activity (Crown and deco purchases) in the Crown Shop.
     
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  17. Time Lord

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    There are no "Pay to Win" items in the COTO Shop, yet COTO can be used in game to buy gold, and then "Pay to Win" through purchasing player crafted items :)

    This is what real life in the west was like before free trade :(
    [​IMG]

    o_O "Free Trade" is the basis for all thriving economies, "real or unreal".
    Yet competition through world comparative pricing is essential ;)~TL~
     
  18. majoria70

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    Only global search will work for such a divided game. It's fine to add info on town crier but that as the only search venue limits us to one town selling and buying and leaves out all others. We need to know who all is selling an item and where they are. Let's not divide this game any more than it already is and include all pots and towns in the search.
     
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  19. Barugon

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    A global search wouldn't hinder any of that.
     
  20. Oakenhammer

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    I think we can all agree that the current vendor system is cumbersome and ineffective to deliver the type of experience that players are looking for these days. In the best interest of the game, I think we need a global vendor search with the prices, town the vendor is in, and the ability to purchase directly from the interface. To give it a SotA twist, the player would need to visit the town crier in that town to pickup their purchase (and hopefully also browse around) or they can pay an additional fee to have their purchases mailed to them (as an economy sink).
     
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