What to do about Ghost Traders?

Kuramas9tails
Kuramas9tails
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Last night on PS4 NA, there was a Ghost Trader in Elden Root called "Get In My Van". Is there an appropriate way to deal with this? Seems really uncalled for.

Edit: For those who DON'T know what a Ghost Trader is: A Ghost Trader is a guild that bet and paid for a trader, usually in a capitol city, and will sell nothing in their store. The sole purpose of this is to win a spot and sell that spot to someone else to make a profit off of it. Anyone who offers a higher price than what they paid for, the Ghost Trader that owns it will relinquish the spot and let the one who paid them for the trade grab the trader right after.
Edited by Kuramas9tails on February 20, 2018 4:00PM
    Your friendly neighborhood crazy cat lady of ESO
    New PSN name: SundariTheLast. Proud seller in RedEye Empire, PURPLE GANG and Backalley Trading.
    AD High Elf Mageblade DPS (General)(Former Empress) -- Stormproof/VMOL, VHOF, VDSA completion
    AD Khajiit Mageblade DPS -- Flawless Conquerer
    FOR THE QUEEN!
    PS4/NA
    • generalmyrick
      generalmyrick
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      they don't care, i brought this up several weeks in a row with before and after shots of guilds with no items in the store yet nada.
      "The red pill and its opposite, the blue pill, are a popular cultural meme, a metaphor representing the choice between:

      Knowledge, freedom, uncertainty and the brutal truths of reality (red pill)
      Security, happiness, beauty, and the blissful ignorance of illusion (blue pill)"

      Insight to Agree to Awesome Ratio = 1:6.04:2.76 as of 1/25/2019

      Compared to people that I've ignored = I am 18% more insightful, 20% less agreeable, and 88% more awesome.
    • Jayman1000
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      Last night on PS4 NA, there was a Ghost Trader in Elden Root called "Get In My Van". Is there an appropriate way to deal with this? Seems really uncalled for.

      What is this? What is a "ghost trader" and why is it uncalled for? what is it? And how can you give a trader a name? Don't guild traders have fixed names?
      Edited by Jayman1000 on February 19, 2018 10:48PM
    • Kuramas9tails
      Kuramas9tails
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      Jayman1000 wrote: »
      Last night on PS4 NA, there was a Ghost Trader in Elden Root called "Get In My Van". Is there an appropriate way to deal with this? Seems really uncalled for.

      What is this? What is a "ghost trader" and why is it uncalled for? what is it? And how can you give a trader a name? Don't guild traders have fixed names?

      @Jayman1000, I edited my post just for you.
        Your friendly neighborhood crazy cat lady of ESO
        New PSN name: SundariTheLast. Proud seller in RedEye Empire, PURPLE GANG and Backalley Trading.
        AD High Elf Mageblade DPS (General)(Former Empress) -- Stormproof/VMOL, VHOF, VDSA completion
        AD Khajiit Mageblade DPS -- Flawless Conquerer
        FOR THE QUEEN!
        PS4/NA
      • Nestor
        Nestor
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        The sole purpose of this is to win a spot and sell that spot to someone else to make a profit off of it. Anyone who offers a higher price than what they paid for, the Ghost Trader that owns it will relinquish the spot and let the one who paid them for the trade grab the trader right after.

        That is not going to work. You can't relinquish your Kiosk, you rent it for the week. It then goes out for public bidding again. How are they going to stop anyone from Bidding on the Kiosk other than their "customer".

        So, anyone who pays for this spot is a fool, both the one thinking they are selling it, and the one who buys it, then can't use it this week, only to have to bid against everyone else for the kiosk next week.

        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"

      • Rex-Umbra
        Rex-Umbra
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        Should need guild store to bid 50members
        Xbox GT: Rex Umbrah
        GM of IMPERIUM since 2015.
      • reiverx
        reiverx
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        Ghost traders are there to prevent other guilds from having a prime spot.
      • starkerealm
        starkerealm
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        Nestor wrote: »
        The sole purpose of this is to win a spot and sell that spot to someone else to make a profit off of it. Anyone who offers a higher price than what they paid for, the Ghost Trader that owns it will relinquish the spot and let the one who paid them for the trade grab the trader right after.

        That is not going to work. You can't relinquish your Kiosk, you rent it for the week. It then goes out for public bidding again. How are they going to stop anyone from Bidding on the Kiosk other than their "customer".

        So, anyone who pays for this spot is a fool, both the one thinking they are selling it, and the one who buys it, then can't use it this week, only to have to bid against everyone else for the kiosk next week.

        They disband the ghost guild, which then immediately opens the trader up to anyone who wants to buy it. At that point, bidding 1g will instantly lock the trader in for your guild.
      • Nocturnal_Annoyance
        Nestor wrote: »
        The sole purpose of this is to win a spot and sell that spot to someone else to make a profit off of it. Anyone who offers a higher price than what they paid for, the Ghost Trader that owns it will relinquish the spot and let the one who paid them for the trade grab the trader right after.

        That is not going to work. You can't relinquish your Kiosk, you rent it for the week. It then goes out for public bidding again. How are they going to stop anyone from Bidding on the Kiosk other than their "customer".

        So, anyone who pays for this spot is a fool, both the one thinking they are selling it, and the one who buys it, then can't use it this week, only to have to bid against everyone else for the kiosk next week.

        The way it works is the ghost guild disbands, thus opening the trader for hire for 10k. The guild who needs it, snags it.
      • ceiron
        ceiron
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        Is common on ps4 EU too.
      • Nocturnal_Annoyance
        Everyone complains about these... but if you're in a major trading guild you would complain a lot more if your guild didn't have a trader for the week.
      • jssriot
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        It's an issue on the PC-NA too. Honestly I don't know what they should do about that wouldn't be disruptive to the present bidding system and tax guilds more for getting a spot. For now just find out the main guild that's running those dummy guilds and not buy anything from their real trader. If it's in a popular guild trader city it's most likely one of the other guilds there so it's not hard to find out--hell, ask in zone chat, "Who here is the sister guild of X guild." Someone usually knows and will tell or whisper it to you.
        PC-NA since 2015. Tired and unimpressed.
      • jssriot
        jssriot
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        Nestor wrote: »
        The sole purpose of this is to win a spot and sell that spot to someone else to make a profit off of it. Anyone who offers a higher price than what they paid for, the Ghost Trader that owns it will relinquish the spot and let the one who paid them for the trade grab the trader right after.

        That is not going to work. You can't relinquish your Kiosk, you rent it for the week. It then goes out for public bidding again. How are they going to stop anyone from Bidding on the Kiosk other than their "customer".

        So, anyone who pays for this spot is a fool, both the one thinking they are selling it, and the one who buys it, then can't use it this week, only to have to bid against everyone else for the kiosk next week.

        The way it works is the ghost guild disbands, thus opening the trader for hire for 10k. The guild who needs it, snags it.

        IIRC there's a window to hire traders too. I've see dummy guilds sit on a spot for a whole week. Their purpose to to hog one spot and force shoppers in that city to go the the main guild. For example in Rawl there's 5 spots in hte city itself, and if one spot in hogged by a dummy guild, like it was once in NA-PC last year by a guild alliance i shall not name bc ZOS gets cranky about that, you have only 4 now to shop from, one being the dummy guild's sister guild. That's usually the point--to artificially limit players' options in favor of their main guild.
        PC-NA since 2015. Tired and unimpressed.
      • Cryptical
        Cryptical
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        they don't care, i brought this up several weeks in a row with before and after shots of guilds with no items in the store yet nada.

        Code changes don’t happen overnight, or over a few weeks. It’s not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thing. It’s done more cautiously like modding a million dollar car while it’s cruising down the highway.

        First, a problem is brought up. A decision is made as to just how important is the problem, compared to all the other things clamoring for attention. Some investigation is done to determine the nature of the issue, in more exact terms than most on the forum seem capable. For example: I recently was trying to help them diagnose a bug where I am listing things on a guild that I don’t belong to, through their trader or rarely through a bank. It’s only happened to me a few times, it’s only happened to one other player when I mentioned it, and it’s clearly not breaking the game - so I’m not at all surprised that the email chain was going slowly. They have bigger issues, the 6th guild thing barely merits any attention at all.

        Second, people have a meeting to come up with ideas that address the exact issue with zero to minimal side effects. A list of the ideas of the brainstorming session is compiled.

        Third, someone or a small group goes through exploring all the ideas, rejecting any that seemed good but would actually have calamitous effects.

        Fourth, results of the exploration are returned to the whole group in the first meeting. Recommendations are made on which would be the most promising and which the most dangerous or complicated.

        Fifth, start coding rough drafts. When several improvement cycles have gone past several people’s eyes and generated something that should function, put it in an internal test server and try to break it. Lather, rinse, repeat until ready to put it on the public test server.

        Sixth, When enough items have made it through step 5, put the whole thing on an internal test server to check that the different patches at least coexist with each other. Work those bugs internally.

        Seventh, finally it’s time to push it to the public test server. Anything that made it this far is highly likely to be simple typo errors or some odd issue that only appeared because of the sheer number of people pushing all those keys, like the infinite monkeys on infinite computers would eventually result in one of them typing the complete works of Shakespeare.

        And then their real “fun” begins, as the pc public gets to the task of making the next list of things for step 1.

        Xbox NA
      • PlagueSD
        PlagueSD
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        Everyone complains about these... but if you're in a major trading guild you would complain a lot more if your guild didn't have a trader for the week.

        Not really...Happened to us a few times. We don't get our trader, nothing changes. We still post to our guild store, and make sales...to guildmates. Although, when we didn't have a trader, all sales were posted at a "discount" since only guild could buy. Once we got our trader back, all discounted sales that were left were pulled and posted back at market price.

        I think the easiest way to fix the ghost trader issue is to lock traders at time of "purchase" if the guild disbands before the week is up, the NPC should despawn until the next cycle.
      • MrsPink
        MrsPink
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        It's been an issue on PS4 EU for the longest time. Tickets have been sent, reports, ss, the works. There are multiple threads on the subject, a lot of good suggestions to what they can implement as changes to try and get rid of the problem. ZOS just dont care about it.
        GM of Dark Royalty
        PS4 EU
        Karma's just sharpening her nails and finishing her drink. She says she'll be with you shortly.
      • Nestor
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        PlagueSD wrote: »
        I think the easiest way to fix the ghost trader issue is to lock traders at time of "purchase" if the guild disbands before the week is up, the NPC should despawn until the next cycle.

        That is all they need to do if this is really a thing. I say that because I am in a small guild that sometimes gets prime real estate traders and we have little to nothing in the guild store to sell. One would think we are a ghost trader, when in reality we are one of the oldest guilds in the game, as we existed during beta and continued on live.

        Still, this whole Ghost Trader thing is not viable over the long run as the millions needed to make this work has to be made somewhere. It might go on for a week or two, but someone is going to run out of money to maintain this.


        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"

      • Nocturnal_Annoyance
        Ok... so they lock traders. Have you considered potential consequences for this?? If guilds lose their option of a Plan B... then they are going to bid even more since they can't afford to lose. On console where weekly fees are a thing... if bids go up then eventually dues will as well.

        Trust me when I say it is NEVER the plan to lose a bid and need a back up. It's a competitive market getting traders, even more so in the hot spots.
      • Nestor
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        They disband the ghost guild, which then immediately opens the trader up to anyone who wants to buy it. At that point, bidding 1g will instantly lock the trader in for your guild.

        The way it works is the ghost guild disbands, thus opening the trader for hire for 10k. The guild who needs it, snags it.




        Here is the other complication in your theory. It takes 50 Members to unlock a Guild Store. You can't get a Kiosk, from what I understand, unless you have a Guild Store.

        So, where are they getting these 50 members on an Adhoc Basis? Most people in the game, at least those in trading guilds, are full up on their guild rosters.



        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"

      • DieAlteHexe
        DieAlteHexe
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        Cryptical wrote: »
        they don't care, i brought this up several weeks in a row with before and after shots of guilds with no items in the store yet nada.

        Code changes don’t happen overnight, or over a few weeks. It’s not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants thing. It’s done more cautiously like modding a million dollar car while it’s cruising down the highway.

        First, a problem is brought up. A decision is made as to just how important is the problem, compared to all the other things clamoring for attention. Some investigation is done to determine the nature of the issue, in more exact terms than most on the forum seem capable. For example: I recently was trying to help them diagnose a bug where I am listing things on a guild that I don’t belong to, through their trader or rarely through a bank. It’s only happened to me a few times, it’s only happened to one other player when I mentioned it, and it’s clearly not breaking the game - so I’m not at all surprised that the email chain was going slowly. They have bigger issues, the 6th guild thing barely merits any attention at all.

        Second, people have a meeting to come up with ideas that address the exact issue with zero to minimal side effects. A list of the ideas of the brainstorming session is compiled.

        Third, someone or a small group goes through exploring all the ideas, rejecting any that seemed good but would actually have calamitous effects.

        Fourth, results of the exploration are returned to the whole group in the first meeting. Recommendations are made on which would be the most promising and which the most dangerous or complicated.

        Fifth, start coding rough drafts. When several improvement cycles have gone past several people’s eyes and generated something that should function, put it in an internal test server and try to break it. Lather, rinse, repeat until ready to put it on the public test server.

        Sixth, When enough items have made it through step 5, put the whole thing on an internal test server to check that the different patches at least coexist with each other. Work those bugs internally.

        Seventh, finally it’s time to push it to the public test server. Anything that made it this far is highly likely to be simple typo errors or some odd issue that only appeared because of the sheer number of people pushing all those keys, like the infinite monkeys on infinite computers would eventually result in one of them typing the complete works of Shakespeare.

        And then their real “fun” begins, as the pc public gets to the task of making the next list of things for step 1.

        Oh how I wish more people understood this process. There would be a lot less angst for everyone, including the devs.

        Dirty, filthy casual aka Nancy, the Wallet Warrior Carebear Potato Whale Snowflake
      • Vermintide
        Vermintide
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        Sounds like a pretty legit strategy to me. It's pretty common in real life for companies to buy up real estate they have no use for with the sole intent of selling it on.

        Not saying it's morally correct, but that's life kids.
      • Fleshreaper
        Fleshreaper
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        Nestor wrote: »
        The sole purpose of this is to win a spot and sell that spot to someone else to make a profit off of it. Anyone who offers a higher price than what they paid for, the Ghost Trader that owns it will relinquish the spot and let the one who paid them for the trade grab the trader right after.

        That is not going to work. You can't relinquish your Kiosk, you rent it for the week. It then goes out for public bidding again. How are they going to stop anyone from Bidding on the Kiosk other than their "customer".

        So, anyone who pays for this spot is a fool, both the one thinking they are selling it, and the one who buys it, then can't use it this week, only to have to bid against everyone else for the kiosk next week.

        They disband the ghost guild, which then immediately opens the trader up to anyone who wants to buy it. At that point, bidding 1g will instantly lock the trader in for your guild.

        I have never gone through the process, so I don't know how it works. But from what you are saying they, the Alt guild + Trading guild, actually paid more for the spot, even if it was one gold. I am not sure if you can bit on two locations or not. But this might be an attempt to make sure they get a spot. If they, trading guild, loses the bid on a prime spot, they still have a backup location.
      • Milvan
        Milvan
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        Last night on PS4 NA, there was a Ghost Trader in Elden Root called "Get In My Van". Is there an appropriate way to deal with this? Seems really uncalled for.

        Edit: For those who DON'T know what a Ghost Trader is: A Ghost Trader is a guild that bet and paid for a trader, usually in a capitol city, and will sell nothing in their store. The sole purpose of this is to win a spot and sell that spot to someone else to make a profit off of it. Anyone who offers a higher price than what they paid for, the Ghost Trader that owns it will relinquish the spot and let the one who paid them for the trade grab the trader right after.

        No offense, but this sounds kind silly. Are you sure this idea works? There is barely any margin gain for anyone.

        - The ghost guild will need to keep the bid until someone is actually willing to buy it, it means that every week they will have to spend more more gold and it eventually will be way too exansive for any potential buyers.

        - The other guild will need to pay for the "ghost guild' and they will also will need to win the bid from other guilds, when they could just apply all that money on the bid.

        Really, it sounds really stupid to that.
        “Kings of the land and the sky we are; proud gryphons.” Stalker stands, the epitome of pride. Naked and muscular, his wings widen and his feet dig in as if he alone holds down the earth and supports the heavens, keeping the two ever separate.”
        Gryphons guild - @Milvan,
      • volkeswagon
        volkeswagon
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        Ghost traders are becoming a big problem. this week there were 4 of them in Wayrest, 1 in in Rawl, 2 in clockwork. A few weeks ago there were 4 in Evermore. These people make fake guilds, bid on traders than sell to the highest bidder and once they get their money they disband the guild making the trader available to anyone for 10k. This just isn't right. It has jacked up the price of traders and makes it hard fir the smaller meduim guilds to get traders. There is an easy fix. If a guild disbands the trader should remain empty until the following week.
        Edited by volkeswagon on June 11, 2018 7:38AM
      • radiostar
        radiostar
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        If a winning guild disbands after acquiring a Trader, have the Trader operate as a local open AH where anyone can post or buy. Watch it stop on a dime, lol.
        "Billions upon Billions of Stars"
      • ResTandRespeC
        ResTandRespeC
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        reiverx wrote: »
        Ghost traders are there to prevent other guilds from having a prime spot.
        Nah they are usually used to help guilds that lose their trader bids. In most cases the "ghost" only gets the spot because no one else put a bid on the trader.
      • AgaTheGreat
        AgaTheGreat
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        This is totally unacceptable! My trading guild (Mighty Druids) on PS4 EU lost a trader bid to a ghost guild. Can ZOS please screen the logs and see which guilds benefit from doing that? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom
        PS4 EU Aga_The_Grey - retired | PC EU AgaTheGreat
      • volkeswagon
        volkeswagon
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        ghosts don't get traders because others don't bid on them. there is no way traders in capital cities aren't getting bids. if they want to help traders don't bid on them then the supposed empty traders would be available for real guilds to sell their real stuff and not profit from people losing bids that were caused by so many ghost guilds. when a third of all traders are being bought up by ghost guilds there's a problem. The trader system is definitely broke and people have been saying that for awhile. Zenimax should get off there butts and fix it.
      • DanteYoda
        DanteYoda
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        Nestor wrote: »

        They disband the ghost guild, which then immediately opens the trader up to anyone who wants to buy it. At that point, bidding 1g will instantly lock the trader in for your guild.

        The way it works is the ghost guild disbands, thus opening the trader for hire for 10k. The guild who needs it, snags it.




        Here is the other complication in your theory. It takes 50 Members to unlock a Guild Store. You can't get a Kiosk, from what I understand, unless you have a Guild Store.

        So, where are they getting these 50 members on an Adhoc Basis? Most people in the game, at least those in trading guilds, are full up on their guild rosters.



        Probably bots..
      • Androconium
        Androconium
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        So, where are they getting these 50 members on an Adhoc Basis? Most people in the game, at least those in trading guilds, are full up on their guild rosters.

        There is a cartel of guilds on the EU server that will have no difficulty creating a new 50-player guild from existing staffers.
        Their divine wisdom and inside trading skills leave them with complete control.of.the.net.



        Edited by Androconium on June 11, 2018 8:46AM
      • Kuramas9tails
        Kuramas9tails
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        Ghost traders are becoming a big problem. this week there were 4 of them in Wayrest, 1 in in Rawl, 2 in clockwork. A few weeks ago there were 4 in Evermore. These people make fake guilds, bid on traders than sell to the highest bidder and once they get their money they disband the guild making the trader available to anyone for 10k. This just isn't right. It has jacked up the price of traders and makes it hard fir the smaller meduim guilds to get traders. There is an easy fix. If a guild disbands the trader should remain empty until the following week.

        I totally agree on the last part. Make the trader unusable. Or give it to the second highest bider.
          Your friendly neighborhood crazy cat lady of ESO
          New PSN name: SundariTheLast. Proud seller in RedEye Empire, PURPLE GANG and Backalley Trading.
          AD High Elf Mageblade DPS (General)(Former Empress) -- Stormproof/VMOL, VHOF, VDSA completion
          AD Khajiit Mageblade DPS -- Flawless Conquerer
          FOR THE QUEEN!
          PS4/NA
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