I will agree that every settlement does not focus on shops, but the only way to find out is to visit them. So I still think you do take some time. Do you have to visit more than once? No, but with new players coming in, old players leaving, and settlements changing as the game changes, I am not sure that you do not have to continue to explore to see what has changed. Even if last month there were no shops in settlement A, it does not mean there are not any this month.
If the point to the economy and shops is to push the mall concept then I think this does fit that model. If you only have to go to 5 places because that is where the shops are then yeah this works well. I think it does put the new shop owner who cannot join a mall or prefers to go solo at a disadvantage. That is why something that looks at all shops (Maybe you have to say your beacon is a shop for the stands to be included) even if it is just by planet seems to put all shop owners on an equal footing. A player might still choose to go to a mall if they are looking for multiple things as they are more likely among more stores to find everything, but it gives all players in game the same chance.
I guess one reason I keep pushing on this is, I keep reading where certain players are “disappointed” that everyone can do everything and they believe that hurts the players that want to run a store. Does this impact people buying stuff? Probably some, but if players had better information on what was for sale at what price and where, would they maybe feel that they could save time by actually going to a store to buy versus gathering or crafting? Maybe because I know it would affect how I play, I think it would for others. Right now I do not use stores at all. I hand trade, work with my guild, or barter goods for goods. At least in these instances, I get what I want, I do not waste time, and I develop relationships with other players.
This is a great point which I hadn’t even thought of. I have some stands that are used for a variety of things. So we would have to be able to block stands from reporting the price… another reason to just not allow the the price listing feature right now.
I always do everything myself. But I would use the market if it were convenient. The way it is now, it is a massive inconvenience, and much more worth the time to just do it myself.
Yes, locations. I don’t like the idea of prices being exposed. It’s practical but joyless.
I’d prefer coordinates as I won’t know where to go not being good with names/places like that. But I wouldn’t mind if it was obscured, or if I could craft a location token from their written shop name.
This is simply not true. Why do you go to one shop or another IRL? Is it always because of price because I assure you that’s not how things typically work. In Boundless, there can be multiple other key differentiators for a shop such as how much stock of each item, ease to get to, ease of shop navigation itself, reputation of the shop owner, etc. Right now, finding things to purchase in-game is a bit of a pain. Each day I log on I spend quite a bit of time just running through portals endlessly until I find what I’m looking for and, inevitably end up getting gouged. I bought a 3x3 AoE hammer the other day for 9000. Saw the same hammer (same rank) for 7000 a couple days later at another shop.
I, for one, welcome databases such as what Simoyd and Fuzzy are working on with Boundlesstrade.net and would love an in-game screen like this as well. The “running around to find things” part of online games isn’t fun for me.
As do I. As the game scales in size with worlds and players and items, these sorts of things will become more and more desired. Prices always stabilize to an equilibrium point in an economy with a diverse selection of goods and services. So the more items that are in Boundless, the more stable the prices are going to be. Competition also helps drive that.
Whether that ruins the game for you or not is pretty irrelevant. That game is going to evolve to incorporate things that make it more appealing to larger number of players and help retain them. You’re either going to continue playing after certain features are added and adapt or stop playing.
I seriously doubt the majority of people that play games with economies like Boundless want to run around for hours trying to find a good price on something or find a place to sell their 10 smart stacks of coal or iron or silver or gold or titanium or whatever it happens to be. The less time it takes for a player to get what they want and get back to that fun activity they want to do the better.
So yes Dhusk, it would be beautiful. That I can agree on.
I hate running around wasting hours trying to find a place that sells something for a good price an in game feature to show current shop prices and stock plus location would be great
You have a reason to visit multiple shops. not all shops carry everything, and the ones who have a large variety are not as likely to have the best prices on every single item with or without that system. you go and realize if you spend 50c more on all your other shopping list items but saves you 20min of travel and you can just go home you have a choice in convenience. This system would just allow you the ability to make such judgements faster and get you back to whatever you were going out to buy items for in the first place (arguably getting you back to the game-play you are progressing through and or enjoying).
The whole point is to get you to run through as many beacons as possible and visit beacons you would never usually go to in your search to find what you want.
And you just want a shortcut.
I’m beyond tired of arguing about this. There is a set of you guys that want to rob this game of everything that makes it unique for your own personal convenience or to fit your personal desires.
So whatever, put a game breaking database in so you don’t have to search, get rid of footfall, add PvP, make private servers with restricted access. Do whatever you want.
You guys scream the loudest so you’re likely to get want you want in the end and bury the game in the process.
You know, there may be some merit to this statement… but we have this problematic intersection of a unique aspect of the game detracting from the majority of the players’ experience with the game as a whole (and probably mostly because the aspect is driven by player creation). The poll here from earlier actually reflects a fair amount of voters wanting at least some of the data available to them. We would need a bigger sample size to be conclusive, but I believe even among players who didn’t vote that most would consider this feature a benefit. I don’t think there’s a reason to fear the game being ruined by something like this.
I still say the one and only way to do this and not “ruin” things is a “shop stand atlas”.
The blank atlas shows where all the shop stands are, like it would resources in a normal one. Add an item to the atlas, and it shows shop stands selling that item. No databases, no prices.
It sounds nice, but how many players are using shop stands for storage? You might be shocked at some of the prices in my workshop if the atlas guided you there.
I usually have about 2.5 hours a evening to play the game and believe me running around looking for something ruins the night. Usually just say not going to waste my time doing that and I’ll just work on doing it myself.
I guess some folks have hours to run around but I have a feeling that isn’t the majority of players.
Reminds me of Wurm, which is another game that I enjoyed some but their in game economy functioned very similar. Forum posts and in game chat or endless running around looking for something. Never went back after my three months were up as it seemed useless really crafting anything.
I don’t buy much from shops (coils from time to time mostly). I honestly have very little to gain from a system unless my store happened to have lower prices on something in demand (but I wouldn’t be racing to bottom on everything, maybe 1 or 2 items not everything though). I don’t want or need a short cut, but i see it as a weakness in the current system.
I mean a bridge is unique and interesting if half the struts are rusted through, but that doesn’t mean its better for it.