The Market..

W

WatchMaker

Cadet
Wouldn't it be cool to see a really diverse market in Hero's Journey? What I mean is, having something abit more realistic than flat market prices everywhere youg go. In Fable, it was possible to make money just trading bewteen taverns because of price difference. In Runescape, the general store's stock purely rely's on what players sell to it. These ideas and more are great ways to get out of that nasty flat rate, static deal we see in almost every other mmorpg.

Here's a small example of what I mean.

Town A: Located near the sea. Large supply of turtle meat.
Town B: Located in the desert. No supply of turtle meat.

So lets say you are in Town A, and you kill a few turtles, and build up a hefty stock of turtle meat. Here are your options to sell it off.

Town A's General Store offers you 20 silver pieces each, until eventually he has a large supply, and no longer is interested.
Town A's Butcher Store offers you 30 silver pieces each, until eventually he has a large supply, and no longer is interested.

Town B's General Store offers you 25 silver pieces each, until eventually he has a large supply, and no longer is interested.
Town B's Butcher Store offers you 40 silver pieces each, until eventually he has a large supply, and no longer is interested.

The point I am trying to make is, it would be cool to see prices, trade, stockings, and all other aspects of the online market to be affected by location etc. Anyway, I think you get the idea. I would type more, but I'm off for a camping trip!
 
I think one of the reasons why you don't see this more often is because it's more complex to implement in a game that could be heavy in gear. Far from impossible, though, considering that games have done it already to an extent.

I think that another reason is that some gamers don't like the degree of frustration and unpredictability of a dynamic market - they want to dump off their "vendor junk" and be off with it. If there was a way to work it so that 'useless but sellable' items weren't nearly so abundant, then I wouldn't see it as a problem, and would be all for this kind of system.
 
Intereasting never thought of that but a brilliant idea for sure. Isn't eve online and PBS economy only different in different faction terriotories instead of same allied competition?
 
I really like this idea too, would be nice to know there would be items I need
in different towns.
I think this would also keep the price down to a fair price for items, not like some game that charge an arm and leg for some things just because they are in demand.
 
If the market was like this, you could bet on it that I'd be some sort of trader from town to town and see if I could "hire" one of my friends or two to escort me and my goods from place to place.
 
Ya, but I do believe that although this could be a nice feature. It shouldnt be a main concern, but rather an extra addition after the realease. Programming things such as these would not be hard, I recon.
 
It would be nice if there were a merchant type class that a group would want with them through dungeons..Maybe because they increase treasure and money gains..
 
Well, I was talking of a class that would be just plainly a merchant. And the dungeon thing would be so there's a reason to take them along in a dungeon group too although they might not do much damage or healing.
 
Nothing wrong with pure non-combat classes either :smiley: I'd have a blast playing a mostly/totally non-combat merchant with a system like that.
 
Furtivus said:
Ya, but I do believe that although this could be a nice feature. It shouldnt be a main concern, but rather an extra addition after the realease. Programming things such as these would not be hard, I recon.
Click to expand...

I think overall the more life you give a game the better but I did want to say this is something that would have to be planned and implemented day one and not at a later time.

I don't know exactly how to explain why I don't think it would work later but basically because of the economy. ex. Everyone makes thier money selling turtle meat at 10s anywhere all the time and builds up wealth. Then they implement a market change and some people have earned their wealth and now others have to work around a changing economy compared to those that started with a static economy.
 
Doesn't Guild Wars have something like this? I seem to remember selling items to NPC's at various locations/towns etc and in doing so those items became available for others to purchase.
 
FFXI's guild (crafting) shops work like that. Limited amounts of items per game day at different locations, resale of crafted items that others sold etc.

There's also a territory system where the produce of areas are only available in the capital city that owns the territory. It's very fun, makes gathering materials for crafting a talent in knowing where different items come from (Pineapples? Well you can sit here and wait for the guild shop in Windurst to open, but they're expensive and there's only a few dozen so you better be quick. If you make the trip to Khazam though it's a naturally growing fruit in those jungles and there's a limitless cheap supply sold on the airship docks. An example), who owns what territory, which guild shops have what, even when the shops open and the days that they're closed for holiday :smiley: If the beastmen own an area then for a few game time months the produce of that area can't be bought at all leading to items being rare, or other being more common depending on who remembered to get their signet before heading out to hunt, haha.
 
Yes it's a great idea, but might take a bit to implement.

Honestly though... I hate vendor trash. It's never made sense to me. Why would you find ANYTHING on a wolf? Except a pelt to skin? Vendor trash, trash items you find off monsters that you don't NEED but can just sell to any vendor for money... they have always been pointless and annoying to me. You want to give me money game? Fine, just put the copper in the animals stomach or something... the trash I could do without.
 
I agree with you Vahsyl. I don't like the thought of random junk popping out of entirely inappropriate animals' bodies.
With games that just give money per kill I can come up with a rational reason for- it's like direct cash. There is something on whatever I killed worth X amount of gold that I got for it. But instead of treking over to the vendor to sell, it's just automatically paid out.
However, the best solution would of course be to just have appropriate items dropped or none at all.
 
Gate said:
I agree with you Vahsyl. I don't like the thought of random junk popping out of entirely inappropriate animals' bodies.
With games that just give money per kill I can come up with a rational reason for- it's like direct cash. There is something on whatever I killed worth X amount of gold that I got for it. But instead of treking over to the vendor to sell, it's just automatically paid out.
However, the best solution would of course be to just have appropriate items dropped or none at all.
Click to expand...

Right, I'd rather that, frankly.

And one day, I hope NPCs will accept the barter system... "Here, I'll give you my old sword for that new one... if you give me a discount?"
 

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