Very simple and elegant Trade Improvement - expanding "Party Search"

I just posted this in another thread and since I spent a lot of time on it, and I think it's pretty good idea, I though it would deserve it's own thread.

Behold - the simple trade improvement solution (and it doesn't even involve an Auction House! *GASP*)


When advertising in the already existing party search window, nothing much changes here except the little button at the bottom that allows people to open up a separate window, the "player shop" or whatever else it can be called. There may be other things added, I added a little counter in the popup that says how many items are listed.


When they click the button, they are brought here, as a separate window. It simply lists what they player wants to list, and they can whisper the person directly from the list, or close the window - that's it. There could be more functionality added, such as "drag-and-drop" items into the list and have them be automatically added. If this is implemented, then simply scrolling over the item can give a popup similar to what would normally popup if scrolled over in the inventory.


Editing the items would be a snap, popping up a small window with editable text, like so. Of course this would only appear for the seller. If the "drag-and-drop" is implemented, this window would be even simpler - only "delete" and "close" buttons would be needed.

Simple. Elegant. Useful as hell. I would kiss the ground everyone at Anet walks on if they could just do something like this. What do you think?

Very usefull indeed. Given the Party Search Panel is already implemented, ANet need only to develop it a bit further along the lines you discribed arcanemacabre.

It might be better to have some bars or such seperate the different items in the shop. It's a bit cluttered now, with all those different kinds of items.



But allover, a very good suggestion to improve the Trade System, without needing to build a whole new trading system.

/wholeheartedly signed

This thread looks to be a duplicate of the idea shown in this thread: Xunlai Trade Center

Both involve AFK stalls, but instead of the other threads* about them, this one and the one given above both are using party search for the stalls location

*Other suggestion threads involving AFK stalls
Private Shops - in the index of ideas thread
Ability to setup a market stall for selling

Frankly, if this thread isn't locked I'll be arguing against it by using the same arguments I used in the other threads.

I'm offering ideas of how simple trade improvements can be slid right into the GUI and offered visual examples, and yet because it has similar concepts to other threads, my thread deserves to be locked? Did you actually read the first post, or did the words "Player Shop" just set off a lot of copycat red flags you jumped all over it?

Well hey, thanks for your input! You've offered a lot for us all to consider.

/signed

I love the pictures, they really help to visualize how it would work

/Signed. Playershops could be great. Maybe not in this exact shape, but I like the idea.

It should be easy to advertise your shop when you move to another city or zone tho, otherwise ppl will keep to warp to all cities/zones and use chat to WTB/WTS. So, once set up, it should only take one click or two to move your shop to the next town.

/signed
seems like a sweet idea
anything that helps prevent trade spam in local is good,

/signed !

It would bring poeople to finally use the Party Search function. This would be si nice

Quote:

Originally Posted by bilateralrope Frankly, if this thread isn't locked

Please leave those kinds of decisions up to the moderators.

I like this idea much better than shops or stalls, because shops and stalls involves physically searching for a shop in a town.

Have you ever set up shop, go AFK overnight, only to wake up and find 6-7 guys next to you, covering you up, taking all your customers?? WTF! This is my spot! >.< yoouze stolez mah customars!!

It also incorporates an already EXISTING function in the game, rather than creating a brand new system.

This is much more realistic and plausible.

Ive got ideas for more improvements to the idea, but i dont have any screenshots to manipulate here at work...

The solution is already suggested, and is to make AFK shops possible.

/signed

I don't really care how ANet does it, even if it is something like this. We just need something that enables us to sell things easily rather than merching.

/signed,

because this is the way to go.
But i think it needs some improvements.

In my thread (Xunlai Trade Center) I provided a detailed description of how such a system should work (unfortunately no screenshots).

Suggested improvements:

-automated trade, so you don't have to whisp to the seller if you don't want.

-no need to type down all those lines of text, and more importantly no need to have any server remember all those - the Party Search advertisment is a link to your items for sale with set prices. So buyers can SEE the items they can buy, and when you want to set up your shop again another day, just type your Party Search ad again, not all items.

/signed.

I need to sell stuff again. :/

I like the idea, but I don't think it will stop people spamming in All Chat. Sellers will still need to advertise their wares to get people to open the party window for trade.

You're idea would vastly improve the current (and sometimes awkward) trade system, but I'm not convinced it will stop the spamming.

Thanks for the support everyone! I'd like to add, the actual "player shop" window that pops up could work similar to the build templates - though it would only work for "hard coded" items like Green items, dyes, materials, minipets, tomes, stuff like that. For random items like golds, we would probably have to type those in, or maybe some kind of "drag-and-drop" function giving only what pops up when you scroll over and maybe a little icon (as if it's being shown in the trade or inventory window).

I agree, although I'm not really trying to "stop spam", since I don't really think that's possible anyway. This is simply offering up a more powerful trading tool, built into what we already have. This is made for the people who actually don't like to spam, and don't like to read the spam to get what they want. If enough traders use it, maybe eventually the spammers will realize they're not getting anywhere fast and it may slow it down. But that would be at best a side-effect.

Well, now that Anet has stated they will begin to temp ban spammers, how bout giving traders a better option? Eh?

Ok, I'll admit I didn't read over your OP too well. I see you still require input from the seller in order to make the trade, meaning that they are standing around waiting for a trade. Meaning they will probably be spamming as well. So really all your proposing is an expansion to the party search system.

I'll assume you also want the party search entry to remain when people switch districts and towns, otherwise it seems too much hassle to setup every time meaning that no-one will use it.

Also I suggest that the text generated for each item is generated by the game to avoid people with entries like "l33t godly axe" for something not even max damage.

As far as the text generated by the game goes, if it had a drag-and-drop function, and that hopefully isn't too had to implement, it could definitely work. Maybe a window similar to the trade window could be used for editing, where you drop you item in to offer up the text generation, and then place the amount you want it to go for by setting the platinum and gold amounts.

If something like that is implemented, actual trades, rather than sales, would not be possible. Meaning if you want to say trade Rubies for Sapphires, or sell your weapon for 100k +xx ecto, you would not be able to use this "player shop". Which is fine, because then people could actually use the "Trade Channel" for stuff like that, emphasizing what the channel is actually for. IT actually makes sense!

Also, if something like this is implemented, the "player shops" could be automated. People would only need to select the item, enter how many of that item they want (if you have more than one, like dyes or tomes), and like a merchant, the amount would be automatically taken from your inventory, if you have enough. For ease of use with the databases and to ensure not an enormous amount of players constantly selling, you would still need to be in town, but at least you can just afk that way.

I can work on some more visuals to give examples of the drag-and-drop afk version of this idea in a little while.