Thoughts on adding global LFG/Trade chat and making guild traders into a world wide auction house...

imaslowlearner · February 12

Thoughts on adding global LFG/Trade chat and making guild traders into a world wide auction house when cross play comes to ESO?

Also what do you guys think would happen to the economy if cross play actually happens?

I get the whole immersion thing of guild traders, but it's so inconvenient compared to being able to search all stores at once.
also I liked that one guys idea of traders being able to sell 1 qty when stacks of items are listed
and upping stack limits

also please consider making a companion that has a passive of being an additional 50 item spaces for your inventory
or a gear bag I can deposit my gear into so it doesn't take up space

That being said, I know not a lot of people are fans of LFG channels and the group finder sorta fills that need, but you often still see "need 2 tanks 5 dds for vSE" in zone chat but it can just be a chat setting that can be toggled off so it would actually clean up zone chat's for people that don't want to see the spam.

tsaescishoeshiner · February 12

A global trade channel would be way too busy, but local instance–based ones would be too slow, so it would take some design work. I do think that may make trading a bit more personal, but it's also very spammy.

What I would wish for is better basegame sales data. The addons we have for it are great, and more in-depth than any base feature would go, but the playerbase would benefit from even minimal sales data and a built-in search without having to use an external website or addon.

Soarora · February 13

Oh man, I didn’t even think about how crossplay would affect trade guilds. I think a global auction house would be good, I have liked it in GW2 and Lost Ark. That said, I don’t know how trade guilds would feel about that and it’d be a loss of a massive gold sink.

imaslowlearner · February 13

Soarora wrote: »

Oh man, I didn’t even think about how crossplay would affect trade guilds. I think a global auction house would be good, I have liked it in GW2 and Lost Ark. That said, I don’t know how trade guilds would feel about that and it’d be a loss of a massive gold sink.

trading locations would basically all be worth the same amount so the cheaper ones would increase in value probably, but also with cross play I'd imagine twice as many trading guilds competing for limited number of spots.

Another issue that might happen is that people on PC have a ton more gold than people on console so those broke console peasants will probably be unable to get any guild traders and then a ton of them will leave their console guilds to join PC guilds with traders making the spots more competitive with higher requirements to join? maybe up guild member count while you're at it.

not sure how cross play works with people with the same @names and guild names?
would it be like @imaslowlearner pc @imaslowlearner xbox

idk, cross play is for dying games with dwindling populations but idk how it will be implemented and what it actually entails so just speculating here

heimdall14_9 · February 13

imo an trade chat would be an war zone!!!! but i do agree that IF and WHEN crossplay is put into the game we should move from guild traders to an global auction house ( use major city trade areas as market place and break up different item types ( armory, crafting, foods/drinks, ect ect ) so that finding items are faster) and it gives them that likes looking at the salesmarket stalls one by one something they enjoy doing , using major city's trade areas would give 3 places to go, all giving the same info, not just 1 or some UI dropdown listing where buying something feels detached from the whole experience of going to buy something from an shop/trader

imaslowlearner · February 13

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

A global trade channel would be way too busy, but local instance–based ones would be too slow, so it would take some design work. I do think that may make trading a bit more personal, but it's also very spammy.

What about separating the zones to being all of ep, all of ad, and all of dc so they are semi global chats.

heimdall14_9 · February 13

imaslowlearner wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

A global trade channel would be way too busy, but local instance–based ones would be too slow, so it would take some design work. I do think that may make trading a bit more personal, but it's also very spammy.

What about separating the zones to being all of ep, all of ad, and all of dc so they are semi global chats.

that worked out great for eso once keeping alliances locked was so looked down on zos will never do it that way again

kargen27 · February 13

imaslowlearner wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

A global trade channel would be way too busy, but local instance–based ones would be too slow, so it would take some design work. I do think that may make trading a bit more personal, but it's also very spammy.

What about separating the zones to being all of ep, all of ad, and all of dc so they are semi global chats.

They would still end up with tons of guild recruitment spams and the trolling would be almost non stop. Only way to prevent that is make listings a template. You open a dialog box chose buy or sell, put in the item name, number looking to buy/sell and price. Any takers would then respond in private. Also would need to be a way to opt out of seeing the market postings.

Getting away from the trader system would be a really bad idea. I would rather see a central board in each zone that has all the items listed for traders only in that zone. It would tell you what trader had the item you are looking for but not the price. You would need to go to that trader to purchase. That way people wanting something not caring about price can go to most convenient location. Players wanting a bargain will still have to go to each trader.

Zodiarkslayer · February 13

Whatever ZOS will do, a crossplay implementation will have to be very very well designed.

We discussed this in another thread a couple of days ago. My and many other player's opinion is that things are really difficult.
On one hand you have to guarantee that noone is left behind or suffers systemical disadvantages. For example, what do you do with all the console trading guilds that do not have enough gold to bid for trader spots after the merge of the servers? Someone suggested to let the market do its magic and leave it at that. But this magic will effectively prevent the majority of console players from selling their valuable things. That would be unacceptable.

On the other hand you cannot just make a Global Auction House and delete trading guilds. That would have many downsides for everyone, because the economy, as it is, is dependent on their existence. We are not just talking about the loss of the largest and most important gold sink. We are facing repercussions for prices and availability of goods and services.
Yes, services, too. Just imagine if someone wants a piece of gear crafted and the only guy in the zone chat offering to help is @Iamgonnascamyou! 😅
Jokes aside, trading guilds have a social function, that establishes trust between parties. That cannot be understated.

MincMincMinc · February 13

An auction house would be far better for the game. Its crazy that they have let 3rd party websites cater to scalpers and Chinese gold sellers.

The problem is they would be getting rid of the trade guild concept entirely. Which would cut out huge communities. However I think you could still bake in the guild trader system for perks like if your guild has a rawlkha trader it gets an extra 10% profit. You could even determine trade bonuses based on player heatmap of how many players teleport to a given zone a week. Or how many sales go through a trader npc connecting to the auction house.

Think of the QoL of having a trader in your house near the crafting stations. How much less times are people going to be stuck logging in and out or teleporting 5 times and back just to get a simple crafting mat. I can only imagine the amount of people teleporting needlessly affects the server performance too.

imaslowlearner · February 13

I think the way it should be done is

global auction house for convenience
remove purchasing guild traders, and replace it with a guild upgrading system
- 50 players unlocks permanent listing to guild traders 5m purchase
- 100 players in the guild unlocks more listing slots for a one time purchase of 50 million gold
- 500 players in the guild unlocks an additional 500 player slots for a 1 time purchase of 500 million gold
- and more to come

of course guilds can't afford these upgrades themselves, but that's where the multi level marketing comes into play

having a bigger guild means better upgrades, better upgrades = better quality of life

So guilds should focus heavily on recruiting members to help pay for these upgrades, the way it will work is you recruit a member to the guild and you are entitled to a % of all their future sales, not only that but anyone that person recruits future sales.

It's a tiered system so the people who help promote the growth at the top will be the highest earners, but it also allows people below them to earn as well while rewarding aggressive recruiters.

here is a diagram to help illustrate the point

LalMirchi · February 13

No, thanks.

wolfie1.0. · February 13

imaslowlearner wrote: »

I think the way it should be done is
global auction house for convenience

remove purchasing guild traders, and replace it with a guild upgrading system

50 players unlocks permanent listing to guild traders 5m purchase

100 players in the guild unlocks more listing slots for a one time purchase of 50 million gold

500 players in the guild unlocks an additional 500 player slots for a 1 time purchase of 500 million gold

and more to come

of course guilds can't afford these upgrades themselves, but that's where the multi level marketing comes into play

having a bigger guild means better upgrades, better upgrades = better quality of life

So guilds should focus heavily on recruiting members to help pay for these upgrades, the way it will work is you recruit a member to the guild and you are entitled to a % of all their future sales, not only that but anyone that person recruits future sales.

It's a tiered system so the people who help promote the growth at the top will be the highest earners, but it also allows people below them to earn as well while rewarding aggressive recruiters.

here is a diagram to help illustrate the point

Your upgrade system makes no sense. And half of the rewards dont either. With a global auction house why would guild traders matter? Why would anyone use it when the place to list will be on the global auction house?

All of your upgrades are not real upgrades. They are traps.

If we are doing an upgrade system to compensate for the loss of guild traders then as a GM of a trade guild I actually want benefits that are better for non trade guild functions. Give me a dedicated guild house.

Heck if I am going to lose guild bidding then how about letting me the GM buy buffs for my guild. Let me buy a 10% bonuses to guild members experience, gold generation, Ap, tel var, or resource gathering. Now Those are things I would invest gold into that I could recruit members for to make up for the loss of trading.

wolfie1.0. · February 13

imaslowlearner wrote: »

Thoughts on adding global LFG/Trade chat and making guild traders into a world wide auction house when cross play comes to ESO?

Also what do you guys think would happen to the economy if cross play actually happens?

I get the whole immersion thing of guild traders, but it's so inconvenient compared to being able to search all stores at once.
also I liked that one guys idea of traders being able to sell 1 qty when stacks of items are listed
and upping stack limits

also please consider making a companion that has a passive of being an additional 50 item spaces for your inventory
or a gear bag I can deposit my gear into so it doesn't take up space

That being said, I know not a lot of people are fans of LFG channels and the group finder sorta fills that need, but you often still see "need 2 tanks 5 dds for vSE" in zone chat but it can just be a chat setting that can be toggled off so it would actually clean up zone chat's for people that don't want to see the spam.

No matter what channels you create, players will use the one that most players see to place their messages.

Example: here on the forums we have tons of subjects and categories for topics. But most people just post and read the general section.

AzuraFan · February 13

I'd love an auction house. I participated a ton in the economy in Lord of the Rings Online, which had an auction house. It was so easy to just put something up for sale without the hassle of having to belong to a guild to trade (I belonged to a great guild for adventuring together). I occasionally buy an item in ESO, but without TTC, it would be a nightmare when I want something specific. They should have done away with guild traders long ago.

Paramedicus · February 13

The current system is an important part of the game. They'd have to introduce something equally engaging for players. Just like they can't just remove arenas or trials, because reasons.

Then again, once the game is dead enough, they could probably do it.

imaslowlearner · February 13

The current system is an important part of the game. They'd have to introduce something equally engaging for players. Just like they can't just remove arenas or trials, because reasons.

not asking them to remove trading, just replace with something easily accessible to cut down on time jumping from zone to zone and trader to trader looking for items

Your upgrade system makes no sense. And half of the rewards dont either. With a global auction house why would guild traders matter? Why would anyone use it when the place to list will be on the global auction house?

You're right, accidentally said guild traders after saying get rid of guild traders, meant giving access to the guild to list on the auction house as that would still be tied to being in a guild

Heck if I am going to lose guild bidding then how about letting me the GM buy buffs for my guild. Let me buy a 10% bonuses to guild members experience, gold generation, Ap, tel var, or resource gathering. Now Those are things I would invest gold into that I could recruit members for to make up for the loss of trading.

those are good upgrades, I just spitballed some quick ones and left room for more options.

Paramedicus · February 13

imaslowlearner wrote: »

The current system is an important part of the game. They'd have to introduce something equally engaging for players. Just like they can't just remove arenas or trials, because reasons.

not asking them to remove trading, just replace with something easily accessible to cut down on time jumping from zone to zone and trader to trader looking for items

Yeah I get that, but they would have to give something to people playing the economy game.

+ let's not forget that trading guilds are a good reason for people to group up

Maitsukas · February 13

wolfie1.0. wrote: »

imaslowlearner wrote: »

Thoughts on adding global LFG/Trade chat and making guild traders into a world wide auction house when cross play comes to ESO?

Also what do you guys think would happen to the economy if cross play actually happens?

I get the whole immersion thing of guild traders, but it's so inconvenient compared to being able to search all stores at once.
also I liked that one guys idea of traders being able to sell 1 qty when stacks of items are listed
and upping stack limits

also please consider making a companion that has a passive of being an additional 50 item spaces for your inventory
or a gear bag I can deposit my gear into so it doesn't take up space

That being said, I know not a lot of people are fans of LFG channels and the group finder sorta fills that need, but you often still see "need 2 tanks 5 dds for vSE" in zone chat but it can just be a chat setting that can be toggled off so it would actually clean up zone chat's for people that don't want to see the spam.

No matter what channels you create, players will use the one that most players see to place their messages.

Example: here on the forums we have tons of subjects and categories for topics. But most people just post and read the general section.

It's just like there's a zone chat for all supported languages (English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Simplified Chinese) but everyone sticks to the regular /zone chat.

Lekjih · February 14

I'd be ok with leaving guild traders as is for the gold sink, then having an npc you "hire" (for free) who acts as an auction house within their faction, so players can either roleplay zone to zone or just head to Elden Root and see the content of all the traders in AD. Or put them somewhere like Blackwood or West Weald and be a worldwide Finder of Goods.

Frayton · February 14

Yeah, a global marketplace should happen with crossplay bc there's no way the other servers can compete with the top PCNA trading guilds. Heck, not even other PCNA guilds can compete with them.

Dimorphos · February 14

Never-ever would I wish to see this kind of change in ESO.

Zodiarkslayer · February 14

Crossplay shouldn't happen, as long as there is no good answer to the economy question. The downsides are too many. A global auction house will simply delete trading guilds.

And let's be honest here: Trading is the last reason for players to form guilds in this game. It is the last bit of social glue that this game has. Almost everything else in this game is possible to achieve SOLO, with group finder or Zone chat.

All the guys that have advocated for a GAH in the past years have only their own selfish interests in mind. They want to delete one of the last working social structures in ESO for their own convenience, taking away the fun of so many players that enjoy this aspect of the game and effectively driving them out.

My fear is that this will be the last nail in the coffin.

dcrush · February 14

Can this discussion get a sticky thread instead of a new one every week?

katanagirl1 · February 15

Just remember that us console players don’t have tabs for text chat and cannot turn off any of them. A trading zone chat would be like zone chat except 1000000 times more spammy.

Yudo · February 15

Global AH would be convenient but I don't mind if it stays as is.

LFG system would be a great addition because right now you can only form and lead the groups. A LFG system would allow:

Forming a group to lead
List interest so others can invite you.
Merge groups

But these need to be systems not just chat channels.

The current Group Finder is a great because we had nothing before, but it is not very intuitive.
Changing tabs, changing role, refreshing, delisting to see others, no visibility beyond waiting and and hoping someone will join, etc.