Job Profession: Trader

Mico

Most MMO's stick to the tried-and-true professions such as woodworking, leather, cloth...etc. etc. as a way to make money.

Given the Node system that will be implemented, it would be really interesting to me if they added a job profession such as a Trader. This profession would be centered around purchasing and selling items between different nodes and could even be designed to become a "walking auction house". Where the more you level up your trading skill, the more items you are able to sell in your personal "Bazaar/AH " or even making it so that the more you level your trading, the more categories such as weapons, crafting supplies & armor, you are able to sell in your personal Bazaar/AH.

It's almost like making, playing the AH into a profession. Something I feel will really keep the econ of the game flowing. You could be in a party with someone who specializes as a trader and sell them your items that they will then list in their AH right there on the spot if it's something they are interested in.

I feel the job profession could open up a lot of different possibilities for players.

Id love to hear everyone's thought on something like this?

Mico

A way to make this profession extremely viable, would be to make everyone "Register" with their node/ city in order to list things within that cities AH. Thus making it so people can only list items in one city at a time.

Where as those who specialize as a trader, as they level within that skill, will be able to register at multiple different nodes. The higher your trading skill, the more nodes you can register with.

The developers have already stated that each node will have different topography, supplying different types of item natural to that area.

So traders could really benefit from the above because this would allow them to become masters of supply chains given their skill levels.

With traders moving resources this way, it would really help insure that even lower level items keep their values as traders will continue to purchase so they can move the products to other cities where those items aren't naturally found.

Dygz

The dev version of that is:
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Player_stalls

neuroguy

I don't think it's a practical idea. How would someone level up in this profession? What would distinguish them from other players? Auction houses are meant to be mostly local. How would you combat exploit of just 'carrying' items in the personal auction-house from node to node circumventing the whole caravan system? As Dygz mentioned there are personal stalls and you don't need a profession/formal in-game support for buying low and selling high, you can just do it.

Voxtrium

Make it a mobile caravan, not one that expires but one that can be purchased/built and upgradable, allow players to purchase or build a permanent caravan, allow for upgrades such as guards and extra storage. Players level up their trade skill through dollars earned through sale generated directly by the mobile caravan.

Eventually you could see large moving market places that provide a target for bandit style players and also allow goods to be more accessible. You wouldn't want this system to override the caravan system so you would have to register in each node, at first only receiving a like 3 nodes available for trade and closer to max level maybe 50 nodes. Too many traders and the profession isn't profitable enough and no matter what each trader will be a walking target for players. Idk this might work, could be cool, i am unsure how much the caravan system would suffer as a result though.

SongRune

I'm not a fan of "adding special restrictions to trading, so that players can level up the ability to not be restricted". There will already be players that specialize in trade, that learn the supply chains for their area, that focus on moving goods to where they're needed and extracting a profit from the process. All of these things are achievable without a mechanical profession, and the personal skill, market knowledge, and time and resource investment from the player will determine strongly how much they can gain from their efforts.

All of these skills and developed edges already exist without a "coded in" profession, and the people who build up these personal skills will have far more market power than those who don't. They'll know where to get this particular resource (and the good ones will know where to get it when it's out of stock in the usual place). They'll know what players are up to as a whole, and what nodes are likely to need what resources soon. They'll know the best routes for moving their products with the least amount of risk, and they'll know how seasonal or node based player behavior affects their various options and opportunities.

These are things that a "you can't have a better stall until you grind X trades" can't emulate. Such a system only makes it harder for these types of players to get started and limits their options further on. The economic powerhouse type of player wants other players to have proper stalls and sell things. Each stall is another opportunity to make a profit off of someone with different specialties, or to leverage their specific market knowledge to get a better deal that the player they're buying from didn't know about.

If you want to reward these players for their power, use gold. The resource that they will have more of than anyone else, that represents the fruits of their personal economic mastery. They will be able to invest in opening more stalls, on the basis of their own personal economic power, the fruits of their labors, rather than a "you have completed X trades, or dispatched Y caravans" type of stat. But honestly? Even this isn't really worth it. Even if you gave everyone a top tier stall (but do see the wiki for what Ashes offers), the players who've built up their market knowledge and their personal economic skills will just make money faster from all the ones who didn't build enough.

In the end, by locking the economic potential behind an artificial class, you limit the economic mastermind's power. These players find crazy and interesting ways to make money. They want "a pile of treasure the size of a house", not Trading level 'Professional 3'. No system can be perfect, but one that limits other players only gives them less to exploit.

Voidwalkers

Traders don't need a coded profession, they just need spreadsheets & info/knowledge. You can have max level in-game profession skills and still lose money if you don't know when & where to buy & sell what.
And when you do have the knowledge & know-how about trading, I think in-game skills become limitations instead of buffs/enablers (i.e. you don't take these skills becoz you *want* to, but becoz the game *forces* you to), and that's bad.

And trading should be something that all players can take on freely, without having to "register" and spec-ing in a profession. I don't see how restricting the number of traders can benefit the game's economy.

Also I don't think "mobile, anywhere, unrestricted" player stall (vs the existing in-node player stalls that are rentable) is a good idea -- back in Ragnarok Online, while a Prontera FULL of mobile stalls certainly give a feeling of "a prospering city", the screen clutter's terrible ... Now imagine that in a 3D game backed by UE5.