Curse

Nexus Icon · May 10, 2007, 08:57 AM // 08:57

It's quite obvious that from the beginning, ANet didn't intend for any trades to be higher than 100,000g.
My guess is that they intended for this limit to cater to the idea that players wouldn't have to spend much time grinding.
The problem is, certain items then became valuable as trade commodities; ecto quickly arose as a way to inflate prices and therefore make more money from a trade.

This seems to me to go against the spirit of the game.

Therefore, I propose that ANet implements code to monitor the value of items in player-to-player trades, and cap the maximum value of any given trade to 100,000g.

The code should refer to current trader prices and then split the difference.
For example:
Let's say the trader is selling ecto for 8,000g and buying it for 6,000g.
The code should value ectos for the purpose of player trades at 7,000g.
In this particular trade, the maximum that could be traded would be 14 ectos and 2,000g.

The code should be "Live" too, referring to current trader prices on a trade-for-trade basis.
If a player offers materials as trade goods, when they hit the "Max" button, the code should refer to the trader prices and cap the maximum amount offerable.
For example, in the trade above, the player would offer 2,000g, then drag their stack of ectos to the trade window. Upon clicking either the up arrow to increase the quantity, or hitting the "Max" button, the code would run to the trader to check current pricing and limit the amount of ectos based on that pricing. So the player would reach a hard limit of 14 ectos for the above trade.

To ensure more stability of prices, I would also suggest that trader prices are not as Live as they currently are.
At the moment, world trade prices can change on a per-trade basis. We've all seen tanned hide prices change as we've sold or bought stock.
To that end, trader prices should update every 10 minutes instead of on such an immediate basis. I'm guessing there may be server storage and memory issues with this as the trader would need to store a record of every transaction made in the past 10 minutes; then again, I'm not sure how it would compare to the bandwidth and memory / storage requirements that the current live code takes up.

I realise that this may be difficult to implement, but it would bring the runaway economy back in line with it's original core philosophy.

Thoughts?

bilateralrope · May 10, 2007, 11:01 AM // 11:01

/notsigned. Do you really people complaining about being scammed when they try to evade this system with multiple trades ?

1 - A much simpler solution would be to adjust drop rates to bring prices below the 100k mark.

2 - Also because a good trading system would make more information about the market easily available, it would prevent people inflating prices because they are the only seller. Then these inflated values are used as the baseline for price checks, and then some players try to inflate the price further. So I'm pretty sure that if ANET ever introduces trade improvements, prices would drop because finding the cheapest seller becomes so much easier and inflating prices becomes difficult. But even if it doesn't, it will stabilize the prices across the game, making it much easier to see what drop rates need adjusting.

Nexus Icon · May 10, 2007, 11:36 AM // 11:36

As long as the trade window updates to reflect the value of the current trade, your first point is moot (the one regarding scams). Besides, who uses multiple trades anyway? Those who do should realise that they are leaving themselves open to scamming.
The only reason I can see people objecting is that over-inflated trading would no longer happen, and that all materials would gradually become cheaper. The rich would find that their money was no longer worth as much.
I'm just trying to find a way for ANet to enforce their original idea of 100,000g being the absolute upper limit for trading items.

Iem · May 10, 2007, 11:45 AM // 11:45

I know this may sound a little too radical, but for the casual gamer maybe we are thinking about an improved trading system in the wrong direction. Instead of an auction house or similar improvement why not just eliminate the ability to trade between players of different accounts?

If the only sales are to traders the market/prices could be kept a lot more stable. Of course you would need to add traders for inscriptions and allow the traders to actually sell the items that they bought. So you could go to a trader and buy a rare skin weapon, shield, offhand, etc.

This would go hand in hand with the reduction in gold drops, everything would cost less. It would also make the 100k inventory cap more appropriate, nothing should ever cost that much or at least ANET could readily cap all prices at 100k.

I don't know about the rest of you but I really don't like to spam WTS or see all of it in town. I think that most players probably just merchant most/if not all of their stuff anyway. I know there are players that seem to enjoy trading/selling but I suspect they are in the minority.

freekedoutfish · May 10, 2007, 12:04 PM // 12:04

/not signed

It could have very nasty side effects. It would mean the price of an item is automatically determined during trade, by the price at which other players are trading it.

Your then a slave to the market. What if you dont want to trade at market prices?

You might be in a good mood and willing to give a guildy 100k, plus 10 ectos + other countless rare and expensive items. But you want to give them free.

Because you system wont let them pass over the 100k + the ectos + the other rare materials, because their net value is over 100k, your stuffed.

Yes you could transfer them seperately, but thats alot of hassle if its alot of stuff.

It might even be the case, you dont realise how much ecto is worth on the market, and you offer someone 30k + 20 ectors for something you want badly.

It wont let you trade, because the net value is over 100k, and you dont understand why. You couldnt trade that way.

You would have to know the exact amount that a material or object is worth according to Anets system. At that exact moment in time, in real-time.
Otherwise you could spend all day adding and removing items until it lets you trade.

Like shooting a fish in a barrel, not knowing if you at the max trade level or just under it. You could be 10k over, or 20k over. You could be 1g over!

We would need a system that could display an item or materials value in real-time, as it fluctuates to be able to estimate and calculate whether you have reached the 100k limit to trade.

But we DONT want to give people that kind of information. It would make trading materials and items very hard....

.....Imagine you start trying to sell black dye for 9k because at the time you checked, it was 10k at the dye trader.

At the moment, it could change the minute you move away from the dye trader and drop to 8k, but you and everyone else wouldnt know unless they checked.

Its not scamming, its just how it is. But its alot easier to grasp.

Now imagine we had a real-time observation system to watch as black dye prices change every second. Imagine trying to keep your price constantly bellow a fluctuation, real-time price! You would know everyone else was watching to check your price was lower!

Its not realistic and its also alot of information to be transfering in real-time around the servers, throughout dozens of towns and outposts.

A much simpler solution is to just put set prices on materials and dyes. Or put a max limit on the price of materials and dyes. That way the rich cant push ecto prices up to rediculious levels.

Frazzy · May 10, 2007, 12:09 PM // 12:09

Maybe they should make the items worth over 100k rare enough to where bots cannot get them, then people won't get 50 of the item in a day.

MithranArkanere · May 10, 2007, 09:35 PM // 21:35

People bypassed the 100k limit by using materials.
If you remove that bypass, they could do various trades instead.

An people could be scammed that way...
The only way to prevent scamming would be by never paying more than 100k...

But then the whole bunch of market inflators will come here in procession to whine, and Anet would go back to the current system.