Apple
Provider
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2007
- Posts
- 103
- Society
- Children of Silver
- Avatar Name
- Fiona Apple Fleming
The trading system could use some work.
Right now, the way it works is we dump our items in piles into the trade window, and the other party sees our items in a list along with their TT values. They then place items or PED/PEC into the window to make their offer. (anyone else notice that this is one of the only times we ever need to extract money from our PED card?)
What if for each item we offered, the other party was presented with dropdown boxes in the item list. Using these, they could select whether to offer a flat rate or a percentage rate for the item. They could then choose what amount (or % amount) to offer for each item within the trade window. The client could then total the amounts and display that as the total offer. That offer could then automatically be deducted from the buyer's PED balance.
This presents a few advantages:
1. Transparency: Sellers would be able to clearly see the amount or % amount that the buyer is offering for each item.
2. Safety: All calculations would be done by the client. No more having to work out the percentages yourself (as a seller) to ensure that your buyer's offer corresponds with his or her stated rates.
3. Simplicity: No more fiddling with extracting coins from your PED card.
And, perhaps the biggest advantage: the client could measure trade transactions by item in order to collect more accurate market value data. As I understand it, the "Market Value" query for items in EU currently uses data only from auction sales, since it is not possible to track player-to-player trades with the current trading system. This would help ensure that Market Value ingame could be seen as trustworthy and current.
Of course, I haven't thought of everything. There would have to be a good way to perform a trade that involves both money (PED/PEC) and items from one or both parties. But I'm sure that could be worked into the above system in an effective way.
Right now, the way it works is we dump our items in piles into the trade window, and the other party sees our items in a list along with their TT values. They then place items or PED/PEC into the window to make their offer. (anyone else notice that this is one of the only times we ever need to extract money from our PED card?)
What if for each item we offered, the other party was presented with dropdown boxes in the item list. Using these, they could select whether to offer a flat rate or a percentage rate for the item. They could then choose what amount (or % amount) to offer for each item within the trade window. The client could then total the amounts and display that as the total offer. That offer could then automatically be deducted from the buyer's PED balance.
This presents a few advantages:
1. Transparency: Sellers would be able to clearly see the amount or % amount that the buyer is offering for each item.
2. Safety: All calculations would be done by the client. No more having to work out the percentages yourself (as a seller) to ensure that your buyer's offer corresponds with his or her stated rates.
3. Simplicity: No more fiddling with extracting coins from your PED card.
And, perhaps the biggest advantage: the client could measure trade transactions by item in order to collect more accurate market value data. As I understand it, the "Market Value" query for items in EU currently uses data only from auction sales, since it is not possible to track player-to-player trades with the current trading system. This would help ensure that Market Value ingame could be seen as trustworthy and current.
Of course, I haven't thought of everything. There would have to be a good way to perform a trade that involves both money (PED/PEC) and items from one or both parties. But I'm sure that could be worked into the above system in an effective way.
