Solution for Guild Trader/Auction House

Chronigan

I have been thinking about the pro's and con's of the current guild trader system and also the pro's and con's of an auction house and I think I may have come up with a bit of a compromise that will improve the game.

• Instead of Guilds bidding for a trader, every trader will have a price based on the previous weeks total sells. The more money a trader makes the more expensive it is to hire them.
• As many guilds as can afford the trader can purchase that traders service's for the next week. A really popular trader may have the wares of 10 or 15 guilds, this solves the need of going to multiple traders to search multiple guilds.
• Guilds may purchase the services of as many traders as they can afford. Once again this solves the need of going to multiple traders to search multiple guilds.
• Finally guilds receive a discount on the next week's fee to hire a particular trader based on their percentage of that traders volume. For example, a Trader was hired by 10 guilds. The top 5 guilds that had the most sells for that trader will receive a percentage off when buying that traders services for the next week based on their percentage of the total sells. This will act as a sort of price control and market competition, to prevent any 1 guild from monopolizing a trader. If their prices are too high they have to pay more to use the trader.

So what do you think? Anything you'd like to add or subtract?

Narelesh

This actually sounds pretty solid so far!

Tandor

At first glance it seems to offer an improvement in the kiosk mechanics, although on more reflection it magnifies the problem of having to trawl through umpteen pages of wares - particularly without a really major overhaul of the search function that would need to apply across the kiosk and not be separately run per guild.

My main concern is that it doesn't address the real issues that critics of the existing system raise. It still requires players to belong to at least one guild, and preferably multiple guilds, in order to sell, and it still means buyers only get a very limited access to the kiosks because most of them will be out of their reach especially at lower level.

Chronigan

Tandor wrote: »

At first glance it seems to offer an improvement in the kiosk mechanics, although on more reflection it magnifies the problem of having to trawl through umpteen pages of wares - particularly without a really major overhaul of the search function that would need to apply across the kiosk and not be separately run per guild.

My main concern is that it doesn't address the real issues that critics of the existing system raise. It still requires players to belong to at least one guild, and preferably multiple guilds, in order to sell, and it still means buyers only get a very limited access to the kiosks because most of them will be out of their reach especially at lower level.

I'll agree that a better search mechanic would be nice, but with every guild being able to have multiple traders and every trader being able to have multiple guilds, I believe it does solve, or at least provides a decent compromise between having a full auction house and not being able to find what you are looking for. Especially since the under served traders will be cheaper to purchase.

Unfortunately belonging to a guild underpins the current system. Maybe you as an individual could list your ware with a trader but that trader would take a cut of 30 - 40 percent. It would allow the individual to sell while maintaining the desirability to belong to a guild to get a wider distribution and have less of a cut taken.

I don't think we will be able to get away from having to be in a guild, I believe that was a design choice to "encourage" a close community.

MrSuplex

Or just have an auction house and do away with this asinine system all together? The system sucks for buyers and sellers.

Ace_of_Destiny

Chronigan wrote: »

I have been thinking about the pro's and con's of the current guild trader system and also the pro's and con's of an auction house and I think I may have come up with a bit of a compromise that will improve the game.

• Instead of Guilds bidding for a trader, every trader will have a price based on the previous weeks total sells. The more money a trader makes the more expensive it is to hire them.
• As many guilds as can afford the trader can purchase that traders service's for the next week. A really popular trader may have the wares of 10 or 15 guilds, this solves the need of going to multiple traders to search multiple guilds.
• Guilds may purchase the services of as many traders as they can afford. Once again this solves the need of going to multiple traders to search multiple guilds.
• Finally guilds receive a discount on the next week's fee to hire a particular trader based on their percentage of that traders volume. For example, a Trader was hired by 10 guilds. The top 5 guilds that had the most sells for that trader will receive a percentage off when buying that traders services for the next week based on their percentage of the total sells. This will act as a sort of price control and market competition, to prevent any 1 guild from monopolizing a trader. If their prices are too high they have to pay more to use the trader.

So what do you think? Anything you'd like to add or subtract?

So...if 50 guilds hire a certain trader, and his total sales for week "1" is 1,000,000 gold, then it will cost each guild the folowing week 1,000,000 gold to hire him?
With "the best" guilds getting a discount?
Seems like it would still favor the "mega-guilds"....since not only do they get a discount, but "newer" guilds won't have the money up front to hire a trader without getting some form of discount.
Maybe a discount for guilds that DIDN't use the trader the previous week instead?
It would give "new blood" a little incentive.

Chronigan

I'm not sure it would be a 1 for 1 ratio and the formula could be tweaked. The discount is based on the volume of items sold, not the amount of money that comes through. This is to protect the consumer from one mega guild coming in and controlling the market.

Stalwart385

Still don't see an issue with the current system, minus a text search in the interface for console users.