Marketplace - buying and selling items

ArchivedUser

The marketplace is the lifeblood of any mmorpg's economy. Many of the games I've tried have a very basic bidding system and seem to forget that some people actually want to trade as a play style. Not everyone wants to go fight the big bosses.

Hopefully as AoC is being developed, we can have a discussion about how trade will work. I would really love to see an open system similar to RuneScape's original Grand Exchange. You could offer to buy or sell items at any price and as soon as any two offers matched, the transaction was completed. I hate auction/bidding systems. If you want an item quickly and are willing to pay well over market value for it, you should be free to do so. And if someone wants to quickly sell off items at below market value, they should be free to do that as well. If players are patient and clever enough to take advantage of those situations, great, that is what some people enjoy doing more than anything else.

The main concern behind allowing this kind of free trade is usually that there will be price manipulation. Large groups of players will artificially inflate the price of an item and then whoever sells off their items first makes a huge profit while everyone else is stuck with items they can't sell and looses most of their investment. First of all, people need to learn from their mistakes. The same goes for using incorrect tactics against a boss. If you're failing, learn from it to get better. Secondly, as we learn more about how trading goods between nodes works, we may find that manipulating the economy can be useful for many players, not just the ones on the inside of a guild.

With all that said, what are your thoughts? I'm interested to see how many people agree and if there are any other ideas about systems that have worked well in the past.

ArchivedUser

Known information might be a good place for a discussion to start...

General economy

• There will be no central auction house or warehouse. The Ashes economy will be regional.
• There will be item decay and other ways to combat inflation.
• There will be systems in place to combat botting, gold selling and other things that affect the economy.

Marketplaces and player stalls (video link)

1. There will be a marketplace UI like a town center billboard that lists the current items available for sale in the node (and potentially in other nodes if they are in the same economic region of a metropolis)
2. You can't purchase directly from the marketplace UI. Instead it gives you the location of stalls where you may purchase the items
3. Stalls are within a marketplace setting within a node
4. The number of stalls scales with the node size
   
5. Economic nodes will have more versatility in stall options
6. Stalls sell items as well as provide repair and enchanting services
7. Renting a player stall allows you to sell your items even when not online
8. Stalls will have a visually representative aesthetic that indicates what items are being sold at that stall

Caravans (video link)

Caravans facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit. Initiating a caravan from one city to another will create an objective that players will need to defend while it moves along its chosen route to the selected destination.

• Caravans are initiated by players with a diverse choice of routes and launch windows, making them difficult to "zerg".
• Caravans will have carrying capacity limits and customisable stats, such as defensive points, speed and number of hired NPC guards. 
• Caravans create a static PvP zone around them, allowing players to engage in PvP in attempt to defend or destroy the caravans. Players will be able to state their intentions to attack or defend via a user interface.
• A group will be required to successfully attack a caravan.
• If a caravan is destroyed, it will drop a portion of the goods it is transporting.

ArchivedUser

Thanks for the detailed response. Do you know if you will be able to sell items to individuals without a stall? And can you set any price you want at the stall, not just within 5% of the current market value for example?

ArchivedUser

prizmpromise said:

Thanks for the detailed response. Do you know if you will be able to sell items to individuals without a stall? And can you set any price you want at the stall, not just within 5% of the current market value for example?

Yes, you will be able to trade directly with other players:


Regarding setting the prices at your stalls, no official confirmation has been released yet, but based on the way marketplaces are defined, my assumption is that you should be able set your pricing to compete with other players.

ArchivedUser

Awesome, that sounds great! Looking forward to playing.