City Of Merchants Concept

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Kalifas
Kalifas
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The City Of Merchants
Some people have asked for a true auction house. Some people like things how they are. Some people have their own ideas of what they would like to see like Gidorick's Auction Horse Concept.
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/159594/eso-needs-an-auction-horse-expanded-concept

Now I place my own wish on the table. I would like to see a city constructed to house players wares. It differs from the standard auction house because everything is not purchasable at one counter. And it differs from the Auction Horse concept because you don't have to follow a horse.

This concept is based around the idea of having one huge merchant city where players can find all the other players goods or put their own up for sale. This idea is that there will be a city with a market square, buildings with stores as well scattered about the city. You have to physically walk up to a specific counter to purchase whatever it is you are seeking or walk up to a specific counter to sell the type of goods that store sells. There are stalls and stores interspersed throughout the city and outside the gates.

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For instance. Let's say you are seeking a type of cloth material for crafting Light Armor. You would have to walk down to the area where armors are located and find the Light Armor Stall called Stendarr's Fabrics. If you are seeking a potion then you need to find a potion stall called <insert here>. The stores and stalls are static in position and name. But the goods are categorically bound to whatever type of good they belong to. These goods are server wide player goods bound by type to each specific stall or store. An hefty extra tax is incurred by buyers or sellers in this area as this convenience could obliterate the standard guild stores which I propose existing along side my concept.

the_foreign_market_by_shutupandwhisper-d6v59li.jpg

The guild stores have a medium tax imposed to the buyers and sells quite cheaper than the City Of Merchants and these are still available throughout the world. I also propose making the Auction Horse concept come to fruition. The horse will cost the least tax wise because you have to track it's whereabouts and follow it around.

The difference:
  • Guild Stores aren't tied to the major commerce city are found all around Tamriel, and the tax is cheaper so there is circumstances where it might be more convenient.Tied to guilds
  • The Auction Horse isn't tied to a guild or the major commerce city and has a cheaper taxes than the other two so there is a circumstances where it might be more convenient.
  • The City Of Merchants is bound to one city and out of the way but the taxes are more expensive and you still have to walk to a specific counter so there is a trade of price versus convenience.

img_1568.jpg

The City Of Merchants is not tied to Guild Stores, it's functions like a normal auction house except you can't walk up to one counter and complete all transactions for different types.

I am not a game designer so I do not know how server load would be affected. It would be cool for this City Of Merchants to be open world. But I don't know if the servers could handle it if everyone started hanging out in one city. Maybe they could have a few different instances of the city and you get to select different channels or get moved to a different channel depending on server loads.

Note: I just realized the Auction Horse concept was tied to guild stores. For this idea to work, the horse would have to function like your normal Auction House(not tied to guild stores)otherwise the horse concept loses it's advantage over the other methods.

Process to access the City Of Merchants:
  • Unlock via quest at level 25
  • Gain Access to a wayshrine
  • Teleport to the city for free
  • Look for your goods
  • Buy or sell
  • Teleport out of the city to some other wayshrine


I look forward to your thoughts and please let me know how I can improve upon this idea if you like it. Also if you don't like it please tell me why and if there is something I could add to make it more feasible to you.
An Avid fan of Elder Scrolls Online. Check out my Concepts Repository!
  • imnotanother
    imnotanother
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    I like the idea to be honest but I feel like no matter what though, it would kill trading guilds and the kiosk.

    Make it a buyers only market.

    Or make it a PvP zone so you must buy at your own risk (slightly joking)
    PS4: NA - AD PSN: imnotanother (Artell Lyeselle)
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  • cyclonus11
    cyclonus11
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    Sort of like The Bazaar from EverQuest? A place where I would have to walk facing down to avoid the extreme choppiness and lag?
  • Nestor
    Nestor
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    This would not even have to be a specific city. A variation on your concept would be to use the existing NPC Merchants and sell through them the stuff they specialize in like we do with Trade Guilds now. So the woodworker would only list/sell Wood Weapons/Shields and those Mats. Chefs and Brewers would only list sell the applicable items or recipes.

    However, the difference would be in the major towns there would be a higher tax than in the smaller towns. Although, in the smaller towns having 10 or 20 trading stalls might be kind of weird. Perhaps those towns would only have General Purpose Merchants that anything could be sold or bought. In the hinterlands, even less tax. This would encourage people to list all over the map, keeping the flavor of the current system and encourage people to move around the map. The Kiosks in the hinterlands would encourage people to sell for less with lowered taxes, and people in the main towns would be encouraged to sell for more because of the higher tax.

    This way I could sell my stuff that is used for Zone 1 in Zone 1 etc. Although One Tamriel throws this aspect out the window.

    Then, shudder at the thought, we could get rid of Guild Kiosks.I can't imagine that it is all that much fun to run a large trading guild that chases Kiosks, but then again, maybe it is. I don't run one of those guilds, so I don't know.
    Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.

    PakKat "Everything was going well, until I died"
    Gary Gravestink "I am glad you died, I needed the help"

  • Kalifas
    Kalifas
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    cyclonus11 wrote: »
    Sort of like The Bazaar from EverQuest? A place where I would have to walk facing down to avoid the extreme choppiness and lag?

    I never played EQ, but I know how a traditional AH functions in the open world. Hundreds of people afk around the AH and cause lag. That is why I said I am no designer and don't know how to do it properly. I know that in Tera they have channels. When you select a different channel you go into another instance and lag virtually disappears in most cases.

    Maybe they could do that for the merchant city? Have like 5-10 channels.
    An Avid fan of Elder Scrolls Online. Check out my Concepts Repository!
  • Kalifas
    Kalifas
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    Nestor wrote: »
    This would not even have to be a specific city. A variation on your concept would be to use the existing NPC Merchants and sell through them the stuff they specialize in like we do with Trade Guilds now. So the woodworker would only list/sell Wood Weapons/Shields and those Mats. Chefs and Brewers would only list sell the applicable items or recipes.

    However, the difference would be in the major towns there would be a higher tax than in the smaller towns. Although, in the smaller towns having 10 or 20 trading stalls might be kind of weird. Perhaps those towns would only have General Purpose Merchants that anything could be sold or bought. In the hinterlands, even less tax. This would encourage people to list all over the map, keeping the flavor of the current system and encourage people to move around the map. The Kiosks in the hinterlands would encourage people to sell for less with lowered taxes, and people in the main towns would be encouraged to sell for more because of the higher tax.

    This way I could sell my stuff that is used for Zone 1 in Zone 1 etc. Although One Tamriel throws this aspect out the window.

    Then, shudder at the thought, we could get rid of Guild Kiosks.I can't imagine that it is all that much fun to run a large trading guild that chases Kiosks, but then again, maybe it is. I don't run one of those guilds, so I don't know.
    If ZoS wanted to do it all over Tamriel and not one major city, I would be fine with that I guess. I suggested a major city with different channels so players could have somewhere to socialize in a centralized area. I think while Tamriel is wonderful, with everything spread out, the odds/frequency of running into people outside their guild is a tad less prominent.
    Edited by Kalifas on June 22, 2016 9:34PM
    An Avid fan of Elder Scrolls Online. Check out my Concepts Repository!
  • Unsent.Soul
    Unsent.Soul
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    So basically an auction house town/city... seems cool but just look at wayrest, how many merchant stalls? How much stupid lag? Exactly. If your going to do an auction house, make it like diablo 3 when it released. You can search for anything and it's all at your fingertips. I doubt people would want to stutter through lag to go from shop to shop looking for items.
  • Kalifas
    Kalifas
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    So basically an auction house town/city... seems cool but just look at wayrest, how many merchant stalls? How much stupid lag? Exactly. If your going to do an auction house, make it like diablo 3 when it released. You can search for anything and it's all at your fingertips. I doubt people would want to stutter through lag to go from shop to shop looking for items.
    That is why I suggested channels. A traditional AH with search would be the least intensive on the servers. But once that happens guild stores are going bye bye for sure. Then the question comes. Do I want a more immersive mmorpg or something that only caters to fast and fluid foregoing immersion?

    A quote incase you don't like the clickies. It is another game that speaks about companies making game systems vending machines.
    Spoiler
    NPC CONVERSATION PATHS
    Quests that the Perception System initiates and advances will often send players in search of certain NPCs throughout the game world. Dialogue with these NPCs will be crucial towards either advancing or completing certain quests and storylines.
    Instead of typing in or clicking on keywords to advance the conversation, players will choose from a set of responses at certain points throughout the conversation to advance the dialogue. Thus, NPCs will have multiple Conversation Paths a player can choose to go down, each being mutually exclusive and having unique consequences or benefits. Perception messaging will often contain clues to what these different Conversation Paths can lead to.
    A key to this system is permanence. Each time a player response is chosen, it is permanent. You can quit the conversation with an NPC and come back at a later time to finish, but you will pick up the conversation at the same point you left off. Our goal in this is to increase the significance of NPC interaction while questing, requiring careful thought and planning -- we do not want “vending machine” NPCs in Pantheon.
    mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/1006/feature/10902/Pantheon-Rise-of-the-Fallen-Feature-Spotlight-Perception-System.html
    An Avid fan of Elder Scrolls Online. Check out my Concepts Repository!
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