suggestion for new shop systems

[swordsman]

I have two concepts for NPC shops that I'd like to suggest.  I think both of these are probably far-future if at all, but might be simpler to build than general real-estate ownership.  I'm thinking of this as a starting point of course, it has some rough edges.

Idea #1:  A consignment shop - Instead of (or maybe in addition to) selling a fixed list of items, the proprietor would sell items sold to them by players.  For instance, you could sell tefusang hides to the proprietor, and he would charge other players for the same item.  You would pay 1 % of your asking price up front, and you would get paid 90 % of the selling price, but not till the item is resold.  (The one percent is to keep people from selling a mushroom for 1 million trias just to clog the list.)

I'm thinking it would be a sort of anti-auction, i.e. you specify a price for the item, and the price goes down 5 or 10 % a day until the item is sold - if not sold in one week, you could pick it up yourself - if not sold in two weeks, it gets thrown on a pile behind the store.

Idea #2: Player-rented NPC shops.  Players could rent a shop booth from the guy in Hyldaa who collects taxes from people (I don't know his name but he already exists as an NPC - he doesn't collect money yet or anything.)  The booth would be manned by a randomly rolled NPC - a salesperson - who would operate the shop on behalf of the player.  All money would go to the player with no deduction, since they already prepaid the NPC his hire.  If the player does not keep the rent paid ahead of time, the shop is abandoned and the goods are simply dumped on the floor.  You could pay any amount of rent ahead of time.  The price of renting a shop would be determined by supply and demand - if there is a maximum of 20 such shops, the rent for one day would go up by 1% whenever all 20 were rented, and down by 1% whenever less than 10 were in use.  (Or some similar system.)  A starting point for rent might be 200 trias per day.  I'm thinking the shop would be open during a fixed interval each (in-game) day.

These shops would need to either be in an as-yet-uncreated bazaar area, or spread over the map (a few here and there in various existing areas), but I suspect a section of Oja is the most natural choice if they were concentrated.

Sw.

[Suno_Regin]

An original idea, I kinda like it. But I suppose it's been suggested before (I never use search, so I don't know).

[kevman]

if the devs dont like the idea of you getting money from idea 1, then maybe just make it so items sold to npc's by players can be bought by other players instead of them disappearing

[Zarj Prax]

swordsman,

I LIKE IT, i really like that idea(well both of um)

Thanks for contibing your two cents...

[swordsman]

Thanks for your response.  I think NPC's who resell items is a good idea, actually that is mostly what the pawn (er. consignment shop) was meant to do;  the other details are only there cause I'm somewhat leery of the possibility of abuse.  I.e. having shops that only sell worthless items just to fill the marketplace, etc.  I recognize that this is like real estate in that it is far off if ever.

My ultimate goal is not so much the commerce, but it seems like you can't really RP the auction channel.  Sometimes I feel like we are in a midaeval world, but also have modern military encrypted radios, because there are so many ways to talk to someone who is (e.g.) in the death realm if they are in your group, guild, or just /tell.

My ideal answer to everything is "what would it be like in real life" and then simulation of that is like the ideal.  Still, I realize there are limits to such goals, and being able to find other of your guild members from time to time is kind of necessary.

I think that NPC reselling is a good (probably simple) first step, except that presumably the NPC would keep some items, raise prices for resale, and not keep items forever.  I don't want to see a list of 10000 tefusang claws, piles of dust for sale in every store.

Maybe the NPC can become 'allergic' to certain items... he would not buy more than N of each item, and if you sold him 10 piles of dust and noone bought one for a week, he would not buy piles of dust in the future (unless someone asked for one?).  Presumably he would only stock a few of each item until he knew if it sold.... sorry - I tend to add too many polygons to things.

Sw.

[Josellis]

I just saw that post now, after I posted mine on the market, so just to tell you, I didn't steal your idea #1 ...

For the idea #2, I "quite" like it. It would be good to have shops, but it would definitively need to be managed by several people. Like a group but for the shop. but then, another problems gets there, who wins the money? and who pays?. and that I don't know how to answer ...

[swordsman]

I was thinking that each shop would be owned by an individual, (like Arireare Boromir, who is always swords and glyphs from the barrel in Hydlaa).  Instead, he could have a "retail" shop where he sets his desired price for each item and gives the item to his NPC employee.  The NPC sells them at the specified price to whomever stops in.

When he returns, he can collect the money (only he and the NPC can access it).  He could also set prices for things the shop would buy - i.e. buying 10 iron ores for 100 trias each.

If there were multiple markets, this would allow other players to make their living by buying and selling goods from town to town.  Some players might want to collect items, and might open a 'shop' that only buys things.  Other people might have places like hardware stores (buy and sell metal stock and other ingredients, etc).

I'm thinking that eventually, a guild could run a shop, in which case, each player would be able to collect cash for the items they added, or maybe one person has to be in charge.  Someone has to pay to rent the booth (and hire the NPC salesperson).  If there was a lot of demand, the cost of running a shop might mean that only a guild could afford it.  Actually, you could let people rent a booth but not hire an NPC - this would be like renting a storage shed for your stuff.  Something I often wish I could do now...

The shop concept gives you two things - its a way to hire an NPC to sell things without you standing around, and it allows you to sell more items than you currently have inventory slots for.  If you just want to sell things in person, you can stand anywhere and do that.

Sw.

[hook]

Opening a shop and hiring NPC personnel is something that's supposed to get in anyway. I'm 100% sure I read that idea (like your #2) already either on the "settings" page or on the forums as a promise from the devs.

I think that your idea #1 is good ...and I think it might be a good extension to the NPC merchants. But I don't think it would fit well if there was just a certain NPC with that "skill" - I think it would be a lot nicer imlementation if all NPC's were able to do it, but they would a) have to be willing to do so and b) you would have to strike a deal with them. So instead of just clicking through you would have to talk him into the deal and set the prize. ...that's just my 0.2 tria.


p.s. and I'm rather sceptical in nature - so I'm not often 100% sure!!!

[getstoopid]

I think that NPC reselling is a good (probably simple) first step, except that presumably the NPC would keep some items, raise prices for resale, and not keep items forever.  I don't want to see a list of 10000 tefusang claws, piles of dust for sale in every store.

Maybe the NPC can become 'allergic' to certain items... he would not buy more than N of each item, and if you sold him 10 piles of dust and noone bought one for a week, he would not buy piles of dust in the future (unless someone asked for one?). 

sounds very good to me  but an npc should never stop buying things (even if it's not realistic to buy some trash in huge amounts that noone ever would ask for *g*)... especially newbie-items, because they are (mostly) necessary to collect the small amount of money needed for basic-weapons/amor. maybe the npc could just re-sell items not classified as "newbie-sellers"