Curse

Prowlinger · May 04, 2007, 07:48 PM // 19:48

Everyone wants an online Guildwars auction house, but this
late into the games' history, it would not be feasible to add
in such a demanding addition.

There is an alternative solution that could be done though.

Vendor Carts!

Self empower the true vendors of Guild Wars and give them
the ability to house their own ‘mini pseudo actions’ using the
same engine functionality of the current code capabilities.

Would this addition require a major engine break to add into
the game or game play? No sir.

This addition could help players buy and sell on a higher level
while keeping players in the world and not having to undertake
a complete engine wedge to implement a true auction house.

Players would setup their ‘Vendor Cart’, configure it and
open shop in any town or city. Of course there are some
stipulations to this as the seller cannot move, zone, or enter
missions while in ‘Vendor Cart Active’ mode. This would
prevent many issues and problems from arising.

Prospective buyers could easily see vendor carts setup in
towns with simple icons over the players heads or a detailed
mesh (if that was deemed reasonable). Players can walk up
to an active cart and view their cart… see all their items for
sale and prices asked for. They can submit bids or buy items
outright this way.

Prospective vendors can promote their cart in the ‘P’ Player
channel window and setup frequent vendor trade locations
so that they can become a well named vendor of the land.
Transactions can build reputation for the seller and possibly
add to ‘Trade Day’ festivals or even Trader titles.

Here are detailed direct links to deep functionality and design -

http://home.comcast.net/~prowlinger/...ion-Seller.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~prowlinger/...lity-Buyer.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~prowlinger/...ity-Seller.jpg

Alot of time was spent into the design and functionality of the current engine and how to implement a pseudo auction house environment without requiring the whole ANet team having to come crashing down to do it.

Please feel free to constructive comment.

~Prowlinger

TiNkLeR · May 04, 2007, 07:51 PM // 19:51

Oh yeah!

123456789

Lauryn · May 04, 2007, 07:58 PM // 19:58

You mean similar to the small player 'shops' that you see in other MMO's (lineage II springs to mind), if so then yes I'm all for this - you can see what people are selling without all the spam

*Although of course I wouldn't like the $ sign above everyone's head, not everyone is American you know

Still I'm all for something like this

TedTheDead · May 04, 2007, 08:01 PM // 20:01

I like it. Its pretty close to an idea I was thinking myself, except I was not even going to bother proposing a bid system.

I was just thinking just the ability to organize a list of "This is what I have, this is what I want for it (gold), buy it if you want or dont". I think the bidding system (while better than my simple idea) may just complicate it enough Anet would not want to do it. But just a list of things people want to sell at a fixed price would be fantasic.

I would love an auction house but anything like this suggestion would greatly help and probably allow me to tolerate going into any major city again.

lyra_song · May 04, 2007, 08:04 PM // 20:04

This has been suggested a zillion times in sardelac. .-.

XvArchonvX · May 04, 2007, 08:04 PM // 20:04

Wow, you put a lot of work into this idea. From what I see, I think this would be a great improvement to the trade system. Here's hoping A-net sees this. I'd like to hear what they think. *winks at Gaile Gray*.

Zinger314 · May 04, 2007, 08:05 PM // 20:05

Your suggestion essentially eliminates the middle man in trading (i.e. Guru). It only helps lazy people.

An auction house would be a million times more effective than this. And since ArenaNet said they weren't adding an AH...there's no hope.

But I'll give you some props on the Photoshop job.

assassin_of_ni · May 04, 2007, 08:05 PM // 20:05

thats actually really cool ide love to see that implemented in-game. there would be the problem of, if someone has to click on you or something to see your cart, overcrowding could become an issue. having to click one name over a few dozen gets kind of annoying...almost like trying to click on gaile whenever she decides to pop in. but a solution (whether its easy or not i have no idea) is when someone is in this vendor cart mode they have one of those bubble thingies surrounding them to prevent over crowding. but all in all i like that a whole lot better than an auction house. also i would like to see a merchant town thats common to all campaigns kind of like the battle isles. so people stop trade spamming channels in places like LA and Kamadan....give everyone somewhere to go instead of just flooding one town and spamming out the first 2 districts, would also be a prime area for these vendor carts as well. also as a last lil side note add in the option to buy multiple of an item if available and add a quantity counter next to it.

aaje vhanli · May 04, 2007, 08:06 PM // 20:06

Great work, Prowlinger! Your effort really shows in this simple, yet intuitive design. This item may have been suggested in Sardelac, but not in such great detail (from anything I've noticed). It might need to be moved to Sardelac, however.

° I also agree that perhaps a new icon could be created for the vendor instead of the $ sign, but the $ sign works fine as an example. A new icon would be better, however, so as to universally include those who use £, €, ¥, ₩, R, ₪, ƒ, 元, 圓, etc... (though Lauryn should notice that US isn't the only country to use the $ symbol).^^

° Perhaps instead of having a second icon over the Vendor's head with the <ctrl> command, <ctrl> could change the icon from $ to the Vendor type (dye, for example).

° Also, there should probably be an "ectos" section for payment considering that they have widely become a form of currency. Unless, of course, aNet wanted to oppose the use of ectos as currency; which case, I imagine, people would continue spamming in order to try to sell items for prices much greater than 100p.

Again, great work!
/SIGNED

I think aNet could utilize this and, if not use your precise system, expand on it and make it really work. It would probably need a good month of public in-game testing, however, to find out any changes that may need to be made in order to fully implement its potential so that players can finally stop spamming and utilize this function.

On the other hand, unless aNet also creates further restrictions to WTB/WTS spamming in Local, people will continue to spam in order to promote their Vendor. -_-;;

Pakana · May 04, 2007, 08:15 PM // 20:15

There are these player established vendor carts or what you want to call them, in Hero on-line game, too. The down side is really that while you have your items for sale, you cannot play. Your character just stands in a place and waits someone to come and buy the stuff.

If you could just leave your items for sale, into some bazaar shop or something, that would be nice. But then again, how does that differ from an auction house?

One positive point (from seller's point of view) is that if you can establish your vendor carts anywhere, you don't need to compete with price, always. There is a chance someone grows tired circling all the shops, and just decides to buy your item. So it won't drive all the prices next to zero, if you actually want to sell something.

Still, my age old question: what is there to buy in GW? You get all the max (player sellable) items almost for free from your starting city. Or maybe I've played too long, but to me there is nothing to see, nothing to buy.

Nekretaal · May 04, 2007, 08:42 PM // 20:42

I dont think this solves the spam problem, but it does allow sellers to sell unique items that cant be described in the chat box a lot better. It would be a massive improvemnt, but more needs to be done.

savage vapor 33 · May 04, 2007, 09:00 PM // 21:00

Great job on photoshop, but i agree with zinger. Anet said nope. But once again, the photoshopping looks very nice.

Chestnut · May 04, 2007, 09:20 PM // 21:20

Very awesome! Would love to see that... HOWEVER,

The truth.

If its helpful, or cool.. or neat or NEEDED.. then a.net simply WILL NOT put in the game.. never happen. you will never see an Auction house, OR your vend carts in the game.. ever.. simply because its an needed item and its very cool and everyone LIKES IT... a.net wants to drive us away from GW not make it more enjoyible for us.

But, if you made a NERF, or something that people hate, or dont need or something like that, It will be put in the game at once! so if you want to get attention from a.net.. make some sorta nerf and you'll get it in the game. Your time is far better spent doing something to damage the game then to help it! ..

Great photoshop.

J3mo · May 04, 2007, 09:45 PM // 21:45

'nuff said

Artkin · May 04, 2007, 09:57 PM // 21:57

Signed....nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I MP I · May 04, 2007, 10:22 PM // 22:22

Very nice work with the photoshop. Reminds me of this thread from ages ago http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ti on%20house
Great idea but sadly, it will never become a reality. :\

Lydz · May 04, 2007, 10:29 PM // 22:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zinger314

Your suggestion essentially eliminates the middle man in trading (i.e. Guru). It only helps lazy people.

An auction house would be a million times more effective than this. And since ArenaNet said they weren't adding an AH...there's no hope.

But I'll give you some props on the Photoshop job.

Personally I think that anything would help at the moment. Whether it's laziness or not, it'll still do something

LifeInfusion · May 04, 2007, 10:32 PM // 22:32

All I have to say, it is a lot easier to photoshop a screen than to program such an interface.

Diablo™ · May 04, 2007, 11:06 PM // 23:06

You're selling the pumpkin hat? SCAM!!!

lol jk

JumpingBean · May 04, 2007, 11:19 PM // 23:19

I'm not completely up to speed on the ANet vs Blizzard debate on auction houses, stupid ingame patents, and whatnot. But I think most all of us can agree that all the spamming "buy my sh*t" messages that overrun all the major city chat windows in Trade and All channels alike is tiresome and shows the need for a better system for people who are interested in buying and selling items to do so in another area and bring some more interesting conversations to the forefront.

A cart idea seems to solve this in many ways by providing a mechanism for those who have more than one item to sell to allow multiple others to browse and buy at a fixed price w/o a bunch of "wru?" and finding each other in cities. I like the idea of forcing the user to be in the cart and not out adventuring and such b/c as a buyer I'd become frustrated with trying to negotiate a trade and the seller is too busy doing other things to pay attention.

Seems that implementing such a cart idea would not be that difficult since it could build on the already existing merchant window, and more complex trade negotiations could be done manually as they are now. And having carts and easier ways for people to buy and sell items would create a more realistic economy in the game, adding to the depth and realism of the online world.