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The Grand Bazaar (Universal Vendor Search)

Discussion in 'Wishlist Requests' started by Kabalyero Kidd, Feb 22, 2020.

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  1. CICI

    CICI Avatar

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    Last edited: Feb 27, 2020
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  2. Vladamir Begemot

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    It literally will make your wrist break if you are a merchant. It is horribly, terribly painful. And so freaking boring.

    The game loses merchants at a regular rate when people figure out how crappy it is. And those of us who stuck with it forever are tiring and frustrated and fed up. Very successful ones tell me how burnt out they are.

    Merchanting was my game here, but it's been 4 years with no real change or upgrade to the experience. Imagine how you would have felt if combat had no change for 4 years.

    Making a UI to search that horrible UI is a bandage on a gaping chest wound. It's like a spare tire you keep driving on, instead of getting it switched out and fixing the problem. Full market towns can happen, but you have to not have such a terrible UI. And once you have a great UI, a search is great as well.

    But that's not happening, so now you get to witness what IS happening, but in real time for once. You get to see what's causing the dead vendors.

    As of this moment S Mart Factorium is now closed. We're done with our stores until (if) the UI gets a major overhaul. Or just make an auction house and be done with player merchants for good, I don't care.

    I'm done. Saturday guild hunts and that's it.

    --

    The Swap Meet will still happen this weekend because I already committed, but after that it's up to others. I taught enough people how to do it, continue it if you like, have one whenever, wherever.

    --

    (For those who want to be a merchant, I still recommend it for the first year or two. Quit or scale back when your body protests, or you dread your full mailbox.)
     
  3. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    @Vladamir Begemot I do not disagree with your desire for a better vendor UI, but please start your own wishlist thread for that and not derail this one.
     
  4. StarLife

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    Exactly this.
     
  5. Numa

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    Just a little dose of reality to manage expectations if @Kabalyero Kidd 's Grand Bazaar (GB) ever sees the light.

    Middlemen will buyout the cheapest of goods then resell them at higher prices. That bargain 60k artifact will disappear from the GB permanently as the smarter middlemen regularly contract the players supplying "cheap" artifacts for a substantial bonus - and still resell the product for a good profit.

    In effect, the smaller vendor players will morph into harvesters & gatherers for the bigger outfits. We'll see a narrower band of price ranges as the very expensive sellers and the smallest ones are weeded out.
     
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  6. CICI

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    Always will be someone flipping/reselling!
     
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  7. kaeshiva

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    This tends to happen in a lot of big markets, and, its not really a bad thing. The 'traders' scouring the market for good deals to buy and flip is a necessary market force. The little guy - I'll use myself in this example, sells stuff at a low cost and it gets scooped up. Awesome! I got my money, and can go about the business of getting more stuff. I'd rather not bother trying to build up a market network, update vendor listings in a dozen town, keep track of market trends, bargain-hunt, etc - its not for me. I just want to offload the stuff and go back to what I do.

    If I'm not in a hurry for money or just am not bothered to do any research, lets say I list my item a little higher. If its cheap enough to show up on 'trader radar' then they come scoop it up. If not, it sits a while. If I get tired of it sitting,I can make it cheaper.

    It actually takes quite a lot of work to be a reseller, and its a playstyle that many enjoy. They also undertake considerable risk spending capital buying stuff that may or may not hold its demand. To ensure profitability, its a constant balancing game, I paid this, I need to sell for this, - too expensive risks it not selling, too cheap may not justify the time spent doing the hunt-shop-relist routine. Global search will of course reveal cheap things more quickly and the resellers can descend upon us, but for everyone that isn't a reseller, as long as you aren't pricing things stupidly high, that means your stuff is going to sell faster. Not to mention that the global market serves as an up-to-date in-game price guide.

    Resellers will have to be more vigilant, yes, and I absolutely acknolwedge that this sort of listing will have a high impact on the reseller game. But I have to think that resellers are the minority, and a feature that gives such significant benefits to everyone else should not be stifled to serve the profitability of a handful of folks - folks who clearly love doing the market thing and I'm absolutely confident will still find a way to make their money.
     
  8. Numa

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    You made several good points there and I agree that having the UB is saner and much better than the fragmented and chaotic setup we have now. Just hope that people won't have unrealistic expectations once it does come to pass.
     
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  9. Elrond

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    Only if

    - The vendor UI is fixed ( i dont want to list 100 stacks of something ..we should be able to put a stack up and people buy the amount they need from that.
    - The price/item listed has at least a 24h delay before it shows up on global/town listings ....
    - A solution/viable system is found to absorb the gazillion crafted gear currently in the game

    Add a universal search before 2 and 3 and we will notice a rapid crash in price for most goods.... once things you make/gather/loot become worthless players will no longer spend their time playing..just to get something worthless.

    This feature will cost us many players if poorly implemented .
     
  10. Vladamir Begemot

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    You literally JUST asked.
     
  11. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Um, why the 24hr delay ?

    That is exactly what vendor search would finally accomplish. A way to sell all that stuff.
     
  12. StarLife

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    Well this is all pretty good, so far. Four pages, including comments from some of the biggest traders in game and I don't see see a single person saying 'No' to a search function.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2020
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  13. Vladamir Begemot

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    Well I just shut down a whole town and am moving on to other lands, but that seems like it doesn't matter so much anymore. The war on trade is complete.
     
  14. Roxefeller

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    I'm not sure why the very basic idea of flipping wares ever came into question. Unless perhaps Vladamir misinterpreted my statements earlier in this thread being about "price fixing???" God, who cares about price fixing? The market will bear what it will bear, a globally acceptable price will be reached on goods no matter what. This is all basic economy. I brought up the predators targeting newer players in and around starting towns regarding COTO's, valuable crafting resources such as Beetle Carapaces etc. Deliberately trying to rip people off. Not only that ... but trying to peddle terrible, poorly crafted gear. The Grand Bazaar would expose all of it and help give newer players a proper basis for the value of items.
    Elrond brought up the point of being able to get rid of/absorb the "gazillions" of crafted gear already in the game. I can assure you that most of this gear belongs to that terrible, poorly crafted category. That NO ONE wants to use. That's why it sits there.
    Ask yourself, would you use it? If the answer is no. Scrap it. Plain and simple. You lose out on some mats because you weren't able to craft a desirable item. Accept it and move on. Stop self-inflicting the pain you're complaining about by cluttering your vendor with useless wares.
    If the answer is yes, there's a place for this item. Then the Grand Bazaar would only help you find a buyer! ENOUGH SAID!
     
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  15. Vladamir Begemot

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    I don't care at all about flipped items.

    I just closed ten stores and am pretty much done because of fatigue from problem #1on Elrond's list.

    Finding buyers isn't the problem, finding the motivation to deal with lots of sales is.

    A universal search isn't going to bring vendors back or keep them if it still sucks to list.

    Therefore buyers will keep having less and less options anyway.

    I've got no objection to the search but it is vitally important that the UI gets fixed first, or you are actually making the problem worse. Please try to understand that from a merchants perspective.

    Try to understand, friends. Major pain for vendors = less vendors, no matter what the listing UI is. Less vendors = less stuff for you, no mantter what the listing UI looks like.

    Fix the root problem, and you never know, maybe the gold old days of every vendor being stocked will return on its own. Those were fun shopping days, back at persistence.
     
  16. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Let me get this straight..... You shut down your POT because of a thread calling for the ability to search vendors wares... and this thread is somehow related to a war on trade that is now complete ?

    Fatigue, from #1 on Elrond's list ? Ok, let's go back to Elrond's #1 problem...

    Not wanting to " list 100 stacks of something " has absolutely NOTHING to do with having a Universal Vendor Search... Period.

    Universal Vendor Search would only SHOW EVERYONE WHAT YOU CURRENTLY HAVE FOR SALE. Nothing more, nothing less - with the current UI being a completely different issue !

    If you @Vladamir Begemot and @Elrond seek changes to the vendor UI, then I'd appreciate it greatly if you 2 would start your own thread for that purpose and discontinue derailing this one.
     
  17. Vladamir Begemot

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    It's heavily interrelated. You chime in on combat stuff all the time, let merchants talk about merchant stuff.

    And no, I didn't shut it down specifically because of this thread, but it contributed a final, several year long descent as I waited for ANYTHING to be done for my play style. Listening to you sling shade all over merchants helped on the final straw bit.

    They heard your request. Again and again, this isn't even a new post. And when it pops up every time I will say FIX THE MAIN PROBLEM FIRST!

    Just like you would (and do) if I started a combat thread and started proposing things that will make things worse if they don't first get to the root of the problem.
     
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  18. Vladamir Begemot

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    And the reality is you guys moved this from a wishlist to a discussion pages ago, we're now on page four. It's been a discussion for a while.
     
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  19. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    So.... just so we're clear - @Vladamir Begemot you have a legitimate gripe about the UI - no argument there.
    It's only been a discussion insomuch as you and Elrond have a legitimate complaint - but one that has NO BEARING and NO RELEVANCE to a Universal Vendor Search.

    And yet you keep trying to argue against vendor search based on unrelated and irrelevant desires.

    I'm beginning to think that you just don't like the idea of everyone in game being able to see exactly what is for sale and where - without wasting countless hours running from town to town hoping.... because that really suks, and frankly... most folks have obviously agreed via their tracks outta SotA.

    But, once again.... please take your TOTALLY UNRELATED UI discussion to your own thread dedicated to it.
    This one isn't..........
     
  20. Vladamir Begemot

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    Here we go.

    Do what you want man, it's your game.
     
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