So i recently started to play a game called “Eco”. Its an eco system simulation multiplayer sandbox experience. The game has an interesting similarity with Boundless in the point that it offers the option of a player run economy with shops and currency.
BUT it does it better than boundless (imho) in just one point: it has an economy screen that shows all offered and wanted items and at which place to find the shop that sells/buys them.
here a picture:
NOW my suggestion would be to have, similar to the resources and percentages of them per world that already exist, a list of all shopstands and requestbaskets per world, what they buy at what prices and where they are located.
Argumentation: this is not the criticised auctionhouse as it only shows the trades of the world/server you are on, you still have to compare trades, also you cant remote buy still, you have to go to the beacon that has the plinth. All it does is making the economy more convenient and easier to understand.
Looks very useful. I still think something like this helps the economy more than it hurts. If something like this could put a strain on servers i’d say maybe limit the number of different items you can put on it per character/account
i have no further insight in the workings of the game, but i know the devs are already reading out a lot of the games data. i cant imagine it to be too big of a task to make it so the economy data already collected gets compiled into a list that players can access i dont see how this would cause too much strain on the server, but iam no expert.
From the experience in Eco it is very clear that it does not cause damage to the economy but makes it more accessable and stable.
This is a great idea, but I think that in Boundless this is unrealizable or you would need such strong and big servers that it will be priceless for the devs.
I tried to come up with something along these lines that worked in-game instead of needing a UI. It’s less powerful overall but shouldn’t require many server resources either
On one hand I can see the benefit of being able to easily browse to see who is selling what and for how much, both as a buyer and a seller.
But, it also takes away that happy little feeling I get when I stumble across a shop selling something I want/sell at a super cheap price, because that will no longer happen, it’ll only ever be 1c cheaper than the cheapest on the list.
And if I have found a store that always sells cheap sweet beans, if this was in existence then I would miss out because it’s so easy for everyone to see.
I no longer get any reward for taking the time nd effort to go look round everyone’s shops.
And if you think footfall is a concern now, taking away another reason for people to travel round the Boundless universe will just reduce that even more.
So like I said, I’m not sure what side I would fall down on, as it is a useful tool, but could well hurt in other areas.
I assume the game you are talking about does not have a footfall type system as a main source of income?
no, Eco does not have footfall, but to be perfectly honest, footfalls intention, from my understanding, is to reward players for providing a good service or building a useful environment that many people use, and not to reward people that trick others into walking into their shop because the customer thinks it might have just what they need. This would not reduce footfall but give it to people with the best prices in their shops,that are also very well stocked (you would see how many items are available) i think that this would be more fair. Also to be able to freely compare a planets pices does not make it impossible to catch a bargain of a much lower price for that item, just look on another world and you might find it.
overall i think it will more stabilize prices to a level where people feel like producing/collecting the goods they sell is feeling rewarding because of the price they get, because why would you sell stuff that just frutrates you to get and you are not even getting a good price in exchange. some people will still underprice but they will not keep up for long. Some people will still overprice but it will hurt em as their shops get less popular and populated.
of course an auction house would be bad, i hope i could explain clearly enough that i imagine it to be a very limited but helpful tool for shopowners (getting clear about going prices) and customers (finding a good offer for the price and amount one needs) likewise.
When I had talked to @james during a call, a while ago, I mentioned us needing something like this to help people find “active” shops. It was some sort of yellow pages. Basically a book that helps me know location and details on the shop, etc. I also mentioned it in a post I did a bit ago… I was most focused on “location” so people would be still exploring.
I agree that it might possibly be a good idea to not have prices listed (even though that would be a useful info it might lead to pricedumping, which would be bad).
An economy listing would be very useful already if it would show for shopstands what item, where it is located and how much stock there is, and for baskets how much funds they have for what item and their location.
Yeah personally I lean towards a much more simple solution at first due to the coding requirements of a larger design.
For me it was a simple book like the guild control that you could place in your shop and register it. It would register location and if you were buying and/or selling. Then something would be needed to ensure it stayed “active” so that listings didn’t get stale. This at least would help us find places that were regularly active.
In future updates it could maybe start taking on more features, etc. Initially we just need help in separating active from non-active people and those that don’t know where all the shops are.
Showing the variation of prices on a world or across the entire universe?
Showing the locations of items?
Listing all items with all details that are available to buy and sell across a world?
Is all information (price, item, quantity, location) that only solution here? Or is there a subset of information (price distribution, location) that satisfies the need?
When it comes to location do we want “45N 32E” or “James’ Mega Store in London”?
This isnt something this game needs. There isnt that many items in game. More lag from a server collecting even more stats. And cut shopping down to a few exchanges.
Everyone will be beating ea other prices by 1c til everything is pretty much 1c. Would kill a free market.
The lazy me would want universe prices in one place. But I think maybe world prices would be enough. At least make us travel between worlds to check all prices there
Location would be key. Losing one hour to travel between empty shops is no fun.
Lets keep it simple. Item name, quantity, price, location. That’s it.
I would prefer beacon name and settlement name (including larger settlement). To make players look around a bit and not just follow coordinates.
How about putting a shop stand or request basket in to an atlas to show where shops are active. Maybe they only light up if refilled in the last week or so.
Well, there really is no price difference from planet to planet necessarily, since portal hubs are so well established and efficient. It’s not like sweet beans sell for 30c on Lamblis but 200c on Besevrona, for instance.
i dont see how this would cause too much strain on the server, but iam no expert.