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• PC/Mac: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – November 25, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 7:00AM EST (12:00 UTC)
• Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – November 27, 6:00AM EST (11:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EST (14:00 UTC)
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Replacement for AH - Trade Skill Line
Audigy
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A lot of people want an AH or an easier trading solution at TESO. I have to say that I wouldn't like a plain and simple AH like at SWTOR or WOW where people dump all their goods at once and flip things around all the time, even for the smallest profit.
Its unrealistic that one single player can list 1000´s of iron bars or robes, needless to say that most power sellers are bots who try to gain gold by trading so that they can sell it later for real money.
Because of this I was thinking about a trading system that would give players the benefit of an AH, without the disadvantages that it would have for the economy and other players.
Trade post´s
Trade post´s are basically a shop that your faction could build in a town. To do so players in your faction would need to work together. It could be as simple as a quest that you can do once a day or week. That quest would require you to gather goods from all around of Tamriel, goods that are required to build the trading post.
These goods could come from dungeons, VR zones or the basic zones from 1-50 and of course crafting. This would ensure that everyone could join, no matter what level or gear he has.
Those trade post´s however, are not the same in every town. For instance a city close by to a harbor could be specialized in food and alchemy, while a city close by to mountains could be specialized to iron or leather.
My idea behind the specialization is, that TESO should not end up like wow where everyone sits at Stormwind if he wants to trade.
This leads to ghost towns and this is never good in an MMO.
Trader Skill Line
The trader skill line would be a world skill, as you probably found out by now
It is a skill that would be available for characters who have finished their first missions in the campaign, like the two islands at start. To unlock it you would get a quest to talk to one of the merchants and from there on you are free in what you want to do.
If you now want to level up your trade skill, then you have various options.
1. Quest´s
Doing quest´s like securing a shipment, finding lost treasure, helping a merchant out etc. Those quests would be totally random and could usually be picked up by speaking to the townsfolk. Someone could ask you to deliver his shipment of cat ear´s to another vendor at the opposite side of Tamriel, or you should just deliver some win to the local inn.
2. Exploring
While you explore the world you will come across lost good´s. They would work in the same way as lore books do. You can recover them and would gain their knowledge (XP), You will learn about secret trading technique´s or where you can find special goods. Some of these books might even grand you a skill point at for instance "negotiating with vendors"
These "lost shipments and logbooks" could be found everywhere in the world, in pvp zones, dungeons or the wilderness.
3. Working
First you can help building it, afterwards you can maintain it. A player could hand in specific trade goods like leather, iron, wood ... to keep the trading post in good shape. Because if your faction doesn't maintain their trading post, it will start to rot and slowly decay, so that the taxes for selling and buying will increase, as the additional gold would be required for maintenance.
4. Trading
Once you have unlocked the ability to trade (level 5), every trade that you make will grant you a tiny bit of XP. As you can only have a maximum of three slots, players wont be able to just spam post items but need to think twice if posting something actually makes sense. Keep in mind, every post cost´s you some money, while it will be less as higher your perk is leveled its still gold that you don't want to just throw away.
My idea behind all of this is quite simple. Players should not be forced to do the same thing all the time to become a good trader. Instead it should be a free choice how someone wants to level his skill line. If you are happy with just one trade slot, then you could work on other perks, if you don't intend on trading fish or food, then you could invest your skill points into a trading post for clothes and wool.
Another point is, that leveling up the skill line should at no point be as simple as it is at WOW where you do the same thing every day and then watch a tiny bar fill knowing that you must do the same quest 100 times more just because you want one thing, while the rest is useless to you.
Some of the perks I had in mind are
General perks
- Merchants discount
- Discount for Repairs
- Discount for Mounts
- Higher profit if you sell to an NPC
Trade post Perks
- Smaller fee if you buy iron & wool
- Less Taxes if you sell iron & wool
- Additional slots (up to three per town)
- Longer listing time (4 hours -> 8 hours up to 24 hours)
- Less Cooldown on reselling (7 days - 5 days - 3 days - 1 day)
How does trading work
Trading would work similar to an AH. You list one, two or three items (stacks count as one) and if someone finds your offer attractive then he can accept it and you automatically exchange money for goods. To pick up your money you have to interact with the trading post, no more waiting for an email like at wow - I find that boring, I mean how does a huge elephant mount fit into my mailbox?
There will be no bidding, so the items will be listed as what you want for them. Once an item was bought, it will become untradeable for a week. This is a protection from item flippers. However, you are able to lower that time by your skill perk up to a 24 hour cooldown.
Maybe something to consider for our Dev´s?
Its unrealistic that one single player can list 1000´s of iron bars or robes, needless to say that most power sellers are bots who try to gain gold by trading so that they can sell it later for real money.
Because of this I was thinking about a trading system that would give players the benefit of an AH, without the disadvantages that it would have for the economy and other players.
Trade post´s
Trade post´s are basically a shop that your faction could build in a town. To do so players in your faction would need to work together. It could be as simple as a quest that you can do once a day or week. That quest would require you to gather goods from all around of Tamriel, goods that are required to build the trading post.
These goods could come from dungeons, VR zones or the basic zones from 1-50 and of course crafting. This would ensure that everyone could join, no matter what level or gear he has.
Those trade post´s however, are not the same in every town. For instance a city close by to a harbor could be specialized in food and alchemy, while a city close by to mountains could be specialized to iron or leather.
My idea behind the specialization is, that TESO should not end up like wow where everyone sits at Stormwind if he wants to trade.
This leads to ghost towns and this is never good in an MMO.
Trader Skill Line
The trader skill line would be a world skill, as you probably found out by now
It is a skill that would be available for characters who have finished their first missions in the campaign, like the two islands at start. To unlock it you would get a quest to talk to one of the merchants and from there on you are free in what you want to do.
If you now want to level up your trade skill, then you have various options.
1. Quest´s
Doing quest´s like securing a shipment, finding lost treasure, helping a merchant out etc. Those quests would be totally random and could usually be picked up by speaking to the townsfolk. Someone could ask you to deliver his shipment of cat ear´s to another vendor at the opposite side of Tamriel, or you should just deliver some win to the local inn.
2. Exploring
While you explore the world you will come across lost good´s. They would work in the same way as lore books do. You can recover them and would gain their knowledge (XP), You will learn about secret trading technique´s or where you can find special goods. Some of these books might even grand you a skill point at for instance "negotiating with vendors"
These "lost shipments and logbooks" could be found everywhere in the world, in pvp zones, dungeons or the wilderness.
3. Working
First you can help building it, afterwards you can maintain it. A player could hand in specific trade goods like leather, iron, wood ... to keep the trading post in good shape. Because if your faction doesn't maintain their trading post, it will start to rot and slowly decay, so that the taxes for selling and buying will increase, as the additional gold would be required for maintenance.
4. Trading
Once you have unlocked the ability to trade (level 5), every trade that you make will grant you a tiny bit of XP. As you can only have a maximum of three slots, players wont be able to just spam post items but need to think twice if posting something actually makes sense. Keep in mind, every post cost´s you some money, while it will be less as higher your perk is leveled its still gold that you don't want to just throw away.
My idea behind all of this is quite simple. Players should not be forced to do the same thing all the time to become a good trader. Instead it should be a free choice how someone wants to level his skill line. If you are happy with just one trade slot, then you could work on other perks, if you don't intend on trading fish or food, then you could invest your skill points into a trading post for clothes and wool.
Another point is, that leveling up the skill line should at no point be as simple as it is at WOW where you do the same thing every day and then watch a tiny bar fill knowing that you must do the same quest 100 times more just because you want one thing, while the rest is useless to you.
Some of the perks I had in mind are
General perks
- Merchants discount
- Discount for Repairs
- Discount for Mounts
- Higher profit if you sell to an NPC
Trade post Perks
- Smaller fee if you buy iron & wool
- Less Taxes if you sell iron & wool
- Additional slots (up to three per town)
- Longer listing time (4 hours -> 8 hours up to 24 hours)
- Less Cooldown on reselling (7 days - 5 days - 3 days - 1 day)
How does trading work
Trading would work similar to an AH. You list one, two or three items (stacks count as one) and if someone finds your offer attractive then he can accept it and you automatically exchange money for goods. To pick up your money you have to interact with the trading post, no more waiting for an email like at wow - I find that boring, I mean how does a huge elephant mount fit into my mailbox?
There will be no bidding, so the items will be listed as what you want for them. Once an item was bought, it will become untradeable for a week. This is a protection from item flippers. However, you are able to lower that time by your skill perk up to a 24 hour cooldown.
Maybe something to consider for our Dev´s?
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