Topic

I'm filing an "Unfair Business Practices" suit with the Ur Trade Commission against street spirits

I have been thinking about this a lot since the close of the last test and since the changes to the auction system. I see a couple of issues holding back the player economy:

1. Too many street spirit vendors
2. Street spirit prices are too low
3. Players not only have to compete with the street spirit vendor's low prices, but also get dinged by the auction system's listing fee and commission.

I would love to make things in the game and sell them to others. The problem is, hardly anyone is buying things from other players because they can easily travel a couple of streets over and get the thing you need from a street spirit. And I don't just mean food items. How much cooler would it be if the answer to a new player asking "Where can I get a tinkertool?" was "Oh, delicious makes those! Buy one from her auction page! <link>".

So, I propose the following:

- Greatly scale back the number of street spirit vendors in the world. Maybe have one street per area that has a number of them selling different things, but make their inventory incomplete and constantly changing.

OR

- Greatly increase the cost of items at the street spirit vendors! We should have to pay a premium for the convenience of buying things from the NPC vendors.

OR

- Both of the above! (my preference)

Posted 18 months ago by Shwan Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I am curious if there are plans to have vendor prices fluctuate with demand. 
    Posted 18 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I could see street vendors having shifting supplies and limited quantities helping a lot with this problem.  You're definitely right, there's very little player market right now.

    I'm also not a huge fan of the fact that the auctions take a cut of sales...  That definitely hurts the market as well.
    Posted 18 months ago by Wessles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You better listen to Shawn. He has spreadsheets!
    ;-)
    Posted 18 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • oooh - I'm scared of the spreadsheets!!!! - lol
    (Actually I'm impressed byt he time and effort it must have taken, wyg Shawn)
    Posted 18 months ago by Twoodle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i think i heard somewhere in another post that there was already talk of removing some of the street vendors etc ... maybe even eventually getting rid of them entirely..or at least mostly.

    what i wouldn't be surprised to see happen eventually is see very very few of them outside of groddle...since when you are new that's where you start and need the most help. after that...auction it up!
    Posted 18 months ago by Mimi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i tried bringing up the idea that the new listing fees were shooting a nascent player economy in the foot, but he told us that more people were using auctions than ever, so tiny speck must have some data about auctions that we don't.

    what I do know is that after hearing that statement I put a ton of stuff up at auction for under vendor prices over the span of multiple days and almost everything ended up expiring, unlike previous tests.

    could be many causes for this, but that plus the listing fees and commissions meant little to no profit despite a good deal of effort.
    Posted 18 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It's extremely annoying to live in an area where there isn't a vendor of a particular type.  I know this because Groddle Heights doesn't have a grocery vendor.  One was finally nearby, on the first street in Alakol, but then it changed into some other sort of vendor.  Blech. 

    Anyway, the problem with this is that if you're the vendor, you'll have to fabricate things like parsnips, for which there are no seeds available, or you'll have to go to the produce vendor to buy some, just the way the rest of us do.  The NPC vendors can't be eliminated, since there's no other way to obtain many of the items they sell, so they will always be setting the prices.

    There may have been more auction action due to the number of single cherries sold in order to show everyone the spiffy new frog system.   
    Posted 18 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would hate to loose the street vendors,as I am not very keen on buying (frequently horrendously over priced) items at auction,plus some items can only be bought from a vendor,such as parsnips for example.
    I would like to see vendors organised better,at the moment it seems that the same types of vendors are all lumped together,when it would make a lot more sense to have for example a grocery vendor on one street and a produce vendor one street over,instead of having to travel back and forth several streets from one side of an area to the next ~same goes for shrines.
    Posted 18 months ago by ~Scilly~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah I don't know that player-only vendors are the way to go. I really prefer the vendors for the basic food stuffs, and the few unique vendors (like Helga) are usually so far away that their specialty items are rare to come by. Maybe the answer is to get rid of the specialty vendors and leave the basic ones alone (although I love Helga).

    I do use the auctions, when I need something like a ton of Dullite at a construction site. But for food, I'd rather learn the skills to make it myself, personally.
    Posted 18 months ago by Folderol Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd rather see the specialty vendors get a shifting stock or limited quantities over being removed, they add a lot of flavor.  I know when I found Helga it was like discovering something wonderful, I'd hate to take that away from future new players.  We could even have mini-projects to restock the special vendors.  Something like "Helga needs 500 oranges to restock orange juice!" or the like.  It must be hard getting ingredients when you're out in the middle of nowhere, after all.  She could always pay players the going vendor rate (or a bit less) for the items.
    Posted 18 months ago by Magic Monkey Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That is a completely awesome solution, Magic Monkey!
    Posted 18 months ago by Folderol Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I like the vendors just like they are!  I prefer to go out getting things from vendors rather than lazily sitting home ordering from the auctions, though I have used them some.  It gets me out more, petting pigs, watering trees, etc. on the way.  I do wish the vendors were more evenly spaced. As stated above, when I lived in Tallish Crest, had to leave the Heights to find produce.  Wish there was at least one of each vendor in all the areas...
    Posted 18 months ago by Cabinwood Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think a good compromise would be to consolidate street spirit vendors onto one street per area. This would:
    - Still give people who have no interest in dealing with other players a place to go to get everything they need.
    - Create a kind of marketplace in each area (maybe have them a street over from the community gardens, for example)
    - Act more like we are used to, having a "business district" in each neighborhood we all would go to get shop.

    However, it would also:
    - Make it less convenient to get stuff (have to travel farther, most likely)
    - Create streets with no traffic other than people passing through since there is no other reason to stop. (Though, this may be mitigated by the shrines. People would still visit a lot of streets to donate to specific shrines.)
    - Make the marketplace street WAY busier and potentially cause a lot more lag.

    I also love Magic Monkey's idea of having to help the food and drink vendors resupply.
    Posted 18 months ago by Shwan Subscriber! | Permalink