Please make purchase orders more viable

Click the "Manage Orders" tab on the public vendor. You can choose something you would like to buy from another player. You deposit the money, and IF someone thinks to look in the Sell tab, they will see your order there. It's a big if because I think most of us forget to look after seeing hundreds with nothing on them.

 

It allows you to put up a request for an item at a price. It will take the money from you and you'll get the item when someone fulfills it. I'm not sure how it works with a public vendor, and I'm not sure I would recommend it with a public vendor, as it I don't think many people are hitting the "sell" tab (which is the reason for starting this thread!).

Maybe there needs to be some kind of effort made to make sure people understand this is a thing?

 

Including every other feature the game might have, totally!

 

That's a fair cop.

 

I'll bet dollars to donuts that it's in the player guide, which was in your inventory when you created your avatar.

 

You mean that inventory clutter that has no real purpose and noone ever reads?

Seriously, if people are asking about it then it's CLEAR the player guide isn't enough. Of course a basic understanding of human nature should have made that clear, too.

 

Does it also explain how it works? Even after learning that such a feature exists (it's not like the devs really talk about it either), I'm looking at the GUI and I don't know what the game expects me to do with it.

Am I supposed to drag an item I already own? I don't see a way me for to actually place an order.

Considering how the loading tips, the tutorial and the quests are written, I doubt the "player guide" will be of any help.

 

I wonder how hard it would be to develop the tech to report purchase orders on every vendor in the zone on a builtin board at the entrance. The devs could use the same tech they use for open lots. This would allow you to also get compass directions to the vendor who has the purchase order.

 

That might be a bit tricky, in that each vendor can have a long list of orders. Presumably both buy and sell orders. While it would make checking things easier (just ask the crier!) that could potentially be a pretty long list (particularly once we are past release!).

 

Did someone say bulletin boards lol. I have them always on my brain. . My thought on how difficult it would be is speculative at best. I can imagine public vendors being turned into a bulletin board icon and add features to it that support the game and connect our world. If you have items to list it could still be listed here if you have no vendor yourself. It could still function this way. It would not take away from personal vendors who have goods but it would take purchase orders off of personal vendors and provide a place to pick up tasks to do and place tasks you want done. It also could hold event notices, and wanted posters. Well as I've said again Miss Broken Record Majoria .

 

Its there but not enough.
Its also mentioned in a pop-up the first time you click on a Public Vendor, but that isn't enough either.

Here is the blurb
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z-svq1OvcZwViqGxFCKdjH3NCn2LTfLuGny5qaAqjTM/pub

However I think that having the Buy/Sell in different tabs, and to have the manual and pop-up talk about "orders" when the User Interface is talking about "buying" is a very strange/bad usability choice. I also think the implementation did not live up to the set goal.

There are a couple of inherent issues here:

• Worst is that the PO buy list is 'hidden' in a separate tab which most players never click and a big portion doesn't even know exists.
• You need to pay up front (of course to avoid exploits) but that means the money is tied without knowing if it will ever result in something. Which leads to people putting lots of really low POs since the big ones can't be fulfilled as easily.
• You can't partially satisfy a PO so even if you have a big chunk of X you need to go and return with more of it.
• The seller can't see the price per item, only the full order. So one needs to limit POs to easily divisible amounts which is a pain. An order of 7x will never fulfill instead you need to put one in for 10x so the seller gets the price point.

 

@Spoon So based on that, the feature is specifically designed to allow crafters to ask combatants to gather resources for them, but the feature doesn't allow the combatants to ask for equipement.

 

Kinda sorta.
For you to be able to list something in a Buy order it has to be in the selectable list. Most of the things in the selectable list will be base resources found in the 'wild'.

However, players have been bug reporting things that they want added to the list and such things have usually made the list within the next release. So if there is something specific you want to have as a buy order then bug report that as missing.

But, with the caveat that they have stated that crafted items will be too difficult to list, since each bonus or each material or each bonus would create a too large a list. So "plate armor" wouldn't really work.

 

Well it would need a more custom-made UI almost like some sort of equipment calculator where you specify type, material and bonus. In the sense that you "build it yourself" and place the order to actually receive a crafted version.

Building a list of items from a set of items that already exists (which should already be in a list somewhere) seems like a lot of work merely to bypass a design oversight... not to mention redundant... When they create an artifact... where does that data go if not in a list/array?

Maybe I'm not understanding the issue.

 

I had thought it impossible until you wrote this, then thought, "Ah, greater than or equal to +4 str, 15 damage resistance, etc."