We all know how touchy people get with the idea of an auction house being implemented into Boundless.
Here’s my take on how it could work without effecting things too negatively and would still see us visiting many planets and settlements.
On the capital of each planet, the Viceroy can place a machine which is pertinent to only that planet. There will be a new icon visible on the HUD so people can spot this machine easily within the capital.
The machine can be searched for any item that is sellable on a shop stand (or request basket) for a small fee on successful searches (5c per search - 2.5 for Boundless tax and 2.5c to the viceroy, however, kind viceroys have the option to remove their cut or make it less than 5c per search).
Once a user searches the planet database and selects a product that they are keen to purchase, they have the option of a free token which can auto set a target with one click directing them to the shop stand / request basket, or they can spend 100c to warp to the location using the machine without having to go to Sanctum or carry around warp stones.
This way players can still visit the actual shops, visit multiple planets when searching out the best bargains and hopefully find much better deals.
Feel free to add extra mechanics to the idea, or rip it to shreds for whatever reason.
I think the general idea is interesting, but let me start with some critique on this point:
This part could be nice, if we could assume that people always do play nice with each other. In reality, I think this would end up being an incentive to do something ugly just to get the prestige to be the viceroy and have the right to choose where the machine goes. I understand this ought to be something that feels fun, but I’m just concerned it would feel stressful instead.
In addition, there would have to be a way to manage it if the viceroy changed – I’m not sure how that could work if the viceroy was changing often from say a prestige war or something; would probably need a cooldown before being moved/changed.
I’m afraid I don’t have a good alternative idea for this though, except that maybe it could be placed at random in a world by generation – then a city would be built around it or whatever – but that could mean it’s potentially placed at a horrid location, not to mention it wouldn’t work well with most existing planets already being somewhat densely plotted.
I think that’s a fair incentive to still try to find things on your own and whatnot, but unless a site like boundlesstrade ceased to exist, the third party option would likely remain the main go-to, I think?
The only thing I disagree with there is half of the fee going to the viceroy, even if it’s only a small symbolic value, because someone is sure to feel like it’s an unfair situation. In addition, it wouldn’t be consistent to how taxes currently work anyway, which all go into the void sink. I personally wouldn’t be bothered either way though.
Both of these are nice ideas; only thing would be that the machine might need a bit of size then, probably at least 5 or 6 blocks wide, as servicing only one player at a time with a warp would be weird if multiple people wanted to use the machine.
Alternatively warp conduits could be assigned to the machine to allow this. The assigned warp conduits wouldn’t be useable for normal warping and could reappear after they closed.
In summary, I like the idea, but the viceroy-related bits wouldn’t work well, in my opinion.
I’d much rather toss this suggestion for a change;
Don’t make the machine a capital-only machine. Make it require a certain size settlement to place, and it’d solve the problem of fighting for its placement.
Like, for example, the “(Great) City” rank. I’m unsure if there is a higher, as I can’t recall if “Metropolis” was one.
What if we could just purchase stuff that people mint? Have all chrysominters linked and provide cuts to the owners if someone purchased bulk minted goods from a mint in their beacon?
