Server wide NPC auction house

[ceriux]

So i was thinking ... dont merchants have their own inventory? would it be possible to update the npc with items given to an npc? and if so why not have his inventory saved on FN? returning players could always come back to check if their item had sold. maybe have it work the same way as galat? you talk to him he asks you if you need help with anything, choose buy/sell. i think it would be pretty cool.

 

[TheOysterHippopotami]

If something like this were ever implemented there would absolutely have to be a minimum price for every item. I do like the idea, though, and I really like the idea of more FN wide game mechanics.

 

[ceriux]

i really think FN help add quite a few features =)

 

[Srgnt Rehab]

I actually like this idea, for most lowbies it'd make money have a greater importance, but for the people with everything already... Gold would be a vanity number.

 

[ceriux]

well if there were an auction house, the community would sort of make its own economy from my experience with games with auction houses. i still say msc should go the route of diablo and set a carry limit for gold...

 

[zeus9860]

How about... a website with the single purpose on updating players stores. So it ends up like a system where a player would update his shop into this website perhaps by connecting via steam login, everything would get uploaded there, other people could check items for sale.

This would require a non exploity gold/item trading system, along with a system that allows players to build up their own shops and upload it online. Something similiar to the galat bank would work i think... Just needs to be visible to everybody.

I don't have the knowledge how-to do this but i think it's possible to achieve. If anyone here plays Dungeon Defenders, it's basically an identical system to what they use.

Player creates afk shop -> upload to dungeon defenders store website -> people check players shops -> people add the shop keeper on steam to negotiate a trade -> voilá.

 

[ceriux]

that would be neat, be able to sell stuff on your phone when you're not even home lol. but idk if we'd be able to do it.

 

[Thothie]

So i was thinking ... dont merchants have their own inventory? would it be possible to update the npc with items given to an npc? and if so why not have his inventory saved on FN? returning players could always come back to check if their item had sold. maybe have it work the same way as galat? you talk to him he asks you if you need help with anything, choose buy/sell. i think it would be pretty cool.

>So i was thinking ...
>dont merchants have their own inventory?
Yes.

>would it be possible to update the npc with items given to an npc?
Yes...

>and if so why not have his inventory saved on FN?
No. :\ Sadly, we've not had any luck making reliable FN read/writes outside of characters.

An automated trade system would be nice, but I canna think of a reliable way to set it up FN wide.

 

[ceriux]

aw that sucks =/ it would be really neat though!

 

[Charles445]

Yeah that one pelt buyer (avoiding spoiling location for newbies) would have 5 gajillion pelts.

But in all seriousness, I think it'd be better to avoid an auction house for the sole reason that it makes trading easy. Sounds kinda backwards at first, wouldn't easier trade be good?

Here's the problem.

This game has lots of active pros, much more than active beginners. The pros have run maps many times to train themselves, and in the process have accumulated many medium tier items. The pros use high tier items, so they don't want the medium tier stuff. What do they do with that medium crap? They throw it at some newbie. This defeats any purpose the newbie has to go explore and find their own gear. If we had an auction house we'd probably see someone trading a Raven Mace for a Rat Pelt.

If I sound like I'm full of crap, I'm not, this actually almost killed the game for me when I first started four years ago. I came back this year to play from scratch with no outside help and I'm having a blast. It'd be cool to keep it exciting for the newbies as well.

 

[Thothie]

Well, yes, it is old news that various research efforts into that issue did indeed reveal that a lot of folks, like you, quit the game after receiving nearly every available item well before they were leveled high enough to gather them on their own or with like-level teammates, and further, that a lot of high level characters had dedicated their MSC time to gathering high end items to hand down to other low level players, usually as incentive to join their guilds. (Some high level players turning the hand me down process into a full time job, passing off dozens of duplicate items every day.)

Twinking got to be so rampant that we kinda threw up our hands, after level requirements didn't put much of a dent in it, and started adding a lot of unique mid-level items to high end maps, with the specific intention that they would be handed down, in a sort of, "if you can't beat em, join em", mentality.

Moot point, as we can't really setup an automated trade system anyways, but yes, it would have the potential to exasperate that problem, even though the smaller gamer populous has, sadly, already mitigated it by itself.

 

[zeus9860]

The chests are the biggest twinkers as of late from what i see. Most of the new maps give the map's unique rewards to lower level players. Just like the xp rewarding system from npcs, it seems to be pretty bugged to me all the time (still no fix released, i know), though the chest rewards has been happening for quite a while now. Plus there's too many spares spawning on chests randomly on each map a group of players does, that also sort of ruins the game. Look at Phlames for example, if it weren't for the redicolous hp requirements, the amount of drops there would be rather catastrofic since there's like 300 different drops in that single map per run (which beats the purpose of farming other maps if people stock up there).

There are a few suspects that i heard of that have been handing out free items, but people should be able to presume that will break their game experience to some extent if they get everything thrown at their faces without even trying earning things.
I myself for an example, i lend out items to newbies to help them grind up faster, i already lent 3 items away to one new player i managed to bring from a lan server (along with his buddy who seems to afk alot), the thing i told him was: "Whenever you get a duplicate of each item, remember to return me one of the items because those are lent, not given."

Though there is one problem, high level players stock up on goodies rather fast, with no reliable way to do trades between players other than asking for consumables (potions), i guess the game is pretty much screwed up when people reach that point... High level players will trade away spares for potions, like me and dozens of other players. It works, people who get those items usually quit a few weeks/months later, some keep on struggling to catch up with the rest of the community with many difficulties on the way...

 

[Charles445]

oh man thothie that picture made me laugh so hard

people should be able to presume that will break their game experience to some extent if they get everything thrown at their faces without even trying earning things.

I think this is the most important part to focus on. Right now there's little to no suggestion that accepting items from high levels will ruin the game. It doesn't seem bad at first, it just feels like accepting a gift.
Only one player at the time told me the game was much better without the gifts. This person was very helpful and allowed me to enjoy the game again.

Unfortunately, there aren't many people to instruct beginners as it's variable who players run into first. That's why it'd be a good idea to outright tell players that they'll have a better experience if they get everything themselves. Let them know that they CAN accept things from people, but it WILL hurt their MSC gaming experience.