Page 1 of 1

Items In Other Lands.

Posted: 09 Jul 2005, 13:20
by Medrock
I got a suggestion.
I dunno if it's already planned or if some already bet me to it so lock it if someone has.
In the other lands of the Mana World the items prices should vary depending on the place.
Example:
You have a desert item like a Scorpion Stinger and you go to the snow area and sell it for double to the price.

Something like that. What do you think?

Posted: 09 Jul 2005, 14:51
by ElvenProgrammer
Sincerely we were thinking about a dynamic economy system, in which prices can vary by zones and by time depending on taxes and whatever else, there should be a thread somewhere.

Posted: 09 Jul 2005, 19:18
by Medrock
Ah, I see.
My bad.

re

Posted: 09 Jul 2005, 21:24
by Bear
even if we have something like this, we need to worry about how abusive this might be, go half way around the world by warp or something then buy all you can for cheap, then sell it all for more when u warp back -_-

Posted: 10 Jul 2005, 06:28
by ElvenProgrammer
Well I guess the highest price you can sell will never be higher than the lowest price you can buy. This to avoid earning from buy/sell activities.
If you will increase merchant skill, you will probably be able earn something from it. You can buy with a 10% discount at the cheapest place and then sell it somewhere else with a 10% more on the price. Then you subtract flight costs and dang that's your gain.

Posted: 10 Jul 2005, 09:49
by nym
Well, imo, i dont think "warps" are good.. as people abuse them. And a dynamic economy would be great, it could be like a virtual stockmarket :)

Posted: 10 Jul 2005, 11:33
by Lurg
I agree with warps being not so good an option. Though I don't really like the idea of running through whole world to reach distand places either. ;) Ships, caravans and like could be fun. There could be some random encounter then (pirates attacking ship etc.)

And when talking about economy the idea of circulating currency is quite interesting. I mean that there is a constant quanity of money, so new money just don't "pop up". If you only sell stuff to certain shop keeper she/he won't soon have any money to buy anything from players. I don't know how hard this would be to create (I think quite hard, and the balacing that, whew) and would it really suit, but anyway it's quite a nice idea imho. :)

Posted: 10 Jul 2005, 12:37
by Modanung
One of the most irritating things of Morrowind was that shopkeepers could run out of money.
If you found a very expensive piece of armor you'd have to find a shopkeeper with enough money first, otherwise you couldn't sell it for the full price.

I think prices should be so that merchant-players are stimulated to sell to other players rather then shopkeeper-NPC's.

I think warps are ok, as long as they cost money. Or requires being a very high-level mage, at a point where the costs are irrelevant.

Posted: 10 Jul 2005, 14:11
by Lurg
Modanung wrote:One of the most irritating things of Morrowind was that shopkeepers could run out of money.
If you found a very expensive piece of armor you'd have to find a shopkeeper with enough money first, otherwise you couldn't sell it for the full price.
That is true, I also hated that. :)

Basic items like normal swords, food, potion and like shouldn't even cost much, but when we are talking about expensive and rare equipment why couldn't you trade it with someone who needs it? Or there could be some shops which are dedicated to expensive, magical etc. stuff. So they would have more money than normal shop keepers. And because they would be only places where to buy this 'special' equipment then players would also buy from them and they would also get money from that.

I think problem with Morrowind was that there were too many shopkeepers so that the economy weren't balanced enough. And when you were only player selling/buying.
Modanung wrote: I think prices should be so that merchant-players are stimulated to sell to other players rather then shopkeeper-NPC's.
True, and maybe there should be somekind of a "flea market" where you could put your stuff for sale for some price and come check back later if someone has acquired it? :)
Modanung wrote: I think warps are ok, as long as they cost money. Or requires being a very high-level mage, at a point where the costs are irrelevant.
And if warping costs would be something like base cost + weight, so it wouldn't be profitable to warp around world selling many tons of stuff?

Posted: 10 Jul 2005, 14:31
by Modanung
Lurg wrote:True, and maybe there should be somekind of a "flea market" where you could put your stuff for sale for some price and come check back later if someone has acquired it? :)
Yes, I was thinking about that. Maybe a place (market) where you can pay for a stand, maybe divided in departments (groceries, alchemy, armor, weapons, clothing, etc.) so you can specialise. Another way to sell stuff is to shout around and ask people to trade with you.
Maybe when renting a stand you could set your character in auto-sell mode, setting a price for every item and allowing players to buy them. Or you could pay some more to have a an NPC look over your stand, so you can gather more items or buy items somewhere else on the market.
Lurg wrote:And if warping costs would be something like base cost + weight, so it wouldn't be profitable to warp around world selling many tons of stuff?
Or pay seperate costs for your packherbagressor or blackpeter-'n-cart.

Posted: 11 Jul 2005, 19:07
by Rotonen
Having a few npc on the market selling the goods on behalf of the players would be nice.. This way there could be taxes and such other things that are to be taken into account later on. Auctioning is a profitable and efficient way to sell rare stuff too.

Posted: 13 Jul 2005, 16:09
by Pajarico
Elven Programmer wrote:Well I guess the highest price you can sell will never be higher than the lowest price you can buy. This to avoid earning from buy/sell activities.
If you will increase merchant skill, you will probably be able earn something from it. You can buy with a 10% discount at the cheapest place and then sell it somewhere else with a 10% more on the price. Then you subtract flight costs and dang that's your gain.
What about this:

-If you acquire some merchant skills, when you talk to merchants you get additional menus to talk to the buyer. Those menus would be for haggling. It should be some sort of dinamic conversation, like you suggest a first price and if its too low he will trade with you -and probably get advantage of it- but if you raise the price too much he won't trade with you.

Players without trading/selling skills will have a fixed price.

Think about it, sure it has its flaws but i haven't think very deeply on it at this point 8)

Posted: 13 Jul 2005, 19:32
by ElvenProgrammer
Yeah I like it, it could be nice. :!:

Posted: 13 Jul 2005, 19:36
by Rotonen
Haggling could be done in an elegant way. Remember the way auctions were done in MULE? ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.U.L.E.