Ideas to improve shops

[True Juan]

HI guys,

Since I started my venture with shops, I see there are a lot of limits and things that could get improved so making another useless thread with ideas on how shops could get improved.

Show item sold
At this moment we get a message what was sold, but once you click OK, it is not in the list in PED flow center.
I think it should look like this:

Pricing system
In order to set price for one item, it requires too many click. Especially if you have many items and the price of that item changes weekly (sometimes daily). It would be great to at least be able to input the numbers instead of clicking arrows all the time. This way we could copy/paste.

Shop catalogue
Clicking on a shop terminal you would be able to click on a list where it would show the items and prices of these items. You would still have to go inside to buy.
In this list, the SHOP OWNER could edit the prices by keyboard input (Instead of clicking arrows a million times).

Mannequin
Anything put on a mannequin should be possible to sell. I fail to understand why thats not the case.

Shopkeeper sign
It would be interesting if there was a SIGN that the shopkeeper could hold (Easier to determine what hes selling)

More Furniture
More interesting furniture that is SHOP-related would be great. There are so many possibilities, but the options in-game are still pretty limited. It is better than 10 years ago, but still not good enough to create nice looking shops.

Item Points of items
Signs, Sceens, Displays are now 1 5 15 item points which i think they should more like 1 3 5. Also Mannequin pad takes 6 item points and is basically useless. I would say it should take max 3 and still have use.

I think this is a good start. If someone else has more ideas. Post them below.

Regards,
True :Bandit:

PS:
If you want to see one of my other useless ideas thread that has been on this forum for over 10 years, you can check it out here:

Ideas to improve society terminal (Part 2)

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[Katie Chalmers]

I got out of shops for some of the gripes mentioned. The current UI is not suited at all for high volume/low value items, like armatrix, pills or enhancers, it’s just too click intensive, for me anyway.

What I would like to see is 2 things.
1. Price presets. Have a big interface where you can set up all your prices of a specified item and stack size. So when anything gets placed in that shop that meets both of those conditions, the price is set automatically.
2. Automatic shelf restocking. Maybe this one is too OP, but having the ability to “imprint” the item to certain areas of your shelf, and then have a shop storage terminal where you deposit all your stock. When a purchase happens, the game will try and find the correct replacement item from the storage and replenish it for you, as per the same rules set up in idea #1.
This one is a bit too OP I think but could be balanced with a decay mechanic implemented into the terminal/shelf, or some other fee introduced.

 

[mastermesh]

Shopkeeper sign
It would be interesting if there was a SIGN that the shopkeeper could hold (Easier to determine what hes selling)

St. Patrick Day flag tells us it's possible... Maybe Mindark could create a set of signs that you can equip or have shopkeeper equip.. says stuff like armor, plates, furniture, etc.

 

[kingofaces]

My suggestion would be simple. Let us use all of our shelf space instead of not letting customers reach the top two.

 

[Granny Rowan]

Make sure all table tops and medical screens are truly solid, so items cannot sink into them and be stuck there forever (yup forever, I know people that have been asking support to retrieve the items for years), while item is stuck, the screen or table is also unable to be re-located as has item on it. So you cant even replace that table with one that has a proper surface.
Once upon a time in EU we had 'next target' which we could cycle to eventually click on item and retrieve it, MA seemingly removed it to prevent certain behaviours by hunters. Why not just make it 'next item' and not apply at all to mobs. Then shop owners could retrieve stuck items, auto click to next item for pricing etc.
Think how many support cases you could close, and how many less you will get in the future, if you let us retrieve things for ourselves.

 

[True Juan]

Make sure all table tops and medical screens are truly solid, so items cannot sink into them and be stuck there forever (yup forever, I know people that have been asking support to retrieve the items for years), while item is stuck, the screen or table is also unable to be re-located as has item on it. So you cant even replace that table with one that has a proper surface.
Once upon a time in EU we had 'next target' which we could cycle to eventually click on item and retrieve it, MA seemingly removed it to prevent certain behaviours by hunters. Why not just make it 'next item' and not apply at all to mobs. Then shop owners could retrieve stuck items, auto click to next item for pricing etc.
Think how many support cases you could close, and how many less you will get in the future, if you let us retrieve things for ourselves.

Yes, I hear you What if that list im mentioning that could be in the shop terminal, also had the ability to remove items in shop

 

[Granny Rowan]

Problem with removing items vis a list, is how would it know which of 6 identical items I needed moved. Knowing MA we would either get to remove one item at a time after6 selections and sub selections, or it would be remove all....shudder

 

[True Juan]

Problem with removing items vis a list, is how would it know which of 6 identical items I needed moved. Knowing MA we would either get to remove one item at a time after6 selections and sub selections, or it would be remove all....shudder

Hadnt thought of that Well we have to figure it out...

 

[Deemer]

About 20 years ago I played on Ultima Online. From this game I got excited about МMO sandboxing.
In it I could build a house up to 3 floors, and each element have a price... accept it wall, brick, marble tile, roof, the main structure of each building, not the interior.

Players could build their house even without that money, because it was a preliminary model before the "building". When you have money for something, you just apply it from the preliminary layout of the house.

In a case like this when there were not enough places or you just change something in your interior, but there is a problem like this with another object... then these objects went to the warehouse, which was the basis of the house. This warehouse could not be accessed other than by picking up such items.

I deliberately give the example because you can even think about pre-building an interior for an apartment / shop with all the available items from the game... as you like... and then look for the item you need from the market or be you did it.

 

[bigdaddy trim]

Suggestion: - Material Crafting

Does material crafting (textures of all variants) have any meaning in this game anymore? Look at the useless BPs those drops that can't be crafted or simply useless. Tell me, who would use 333x RUGA texture on his coat on 1 field for the sake of look? Instead you could add a mission to that...

www.planetcalypsoforum.com

Wallpaper bps that use textures . Lets give shops a bizazz ,

 

[Legends]

--Shops:
1. Change default 'Pick up' on click (which makes mouse navigation impossible by owners)
I used to navigate around my shops with one hand by holding down both mouse buttons. When the new camera system came out I soon discovered that doing this caused my avatar to pick-up items in my shops at random, items I had meticulously set prices for already. This was very frustrating and ultimately I had to stop this habit and use both hands again when walking around in my shops. I wish MindArk would change this, I'm not the only shop owner that has complained about it, I know of at least 2 others that hate this new feature.

2. Being able to sell a Shopkeeper or Mannequin in a shop (for example inside another shopkeeper)
Currently there is no way to put a Shopkeeper for sale in a shop, it's just not possible. The only way to sell a Shopkeeper is on auction or in private trade. In addition to this, when selling a Shopkeeper in private trade, there is a bug that gives you an error message when trying to place a Shopkeeper in a trade window the first time which says that the 'container isn't empty' even when in fact it is empty. A relog is necessary in order to make the error message go away.

3. Pet level visible in tooltip
The tooltip shows the price for a pet but doesn't show it's level. Seeing 2 identical pets side-by-side with different prices can be confusing since there doesn't appear to be any difference and yet one of them is much more expensive. Adding the Pet's level in the tooltip just above it's price would really be helpful.

4. Show remaining tt in tooltip on limited items for sale in shops
For (L)imited items, the remaining tt should be shown. For UL items, the tier level should be shown. This information is quite relevant when looking at the price of an item (e.g. a higher tier item is worth much more than a lower tier one).

5. Fix issues with light sources often not loading in the Malls on Calypso
Whenever coming out of a shop or the room with the terminals back into the main space of the mall, several light sources fail to load. This causes certain Shopkeepers and display counters to be very dark in appearance. I believe the reason this happens is because there are actually more light sources than the game engine currently allows (11?). Please fix this for the benefit of all shoppers and shop owners.

6. Allow to set a price as %mu as opposed to exact PED.PEC format
The current price setting UI requires an amount in PEDs and PECs be entered while the model for the market of limited items is based on a markup expressed as % of the tt value. The UI for setting the retail price of a limited item in a shop should follow that same model. As it is I have to 'guess' the amount of PEDs and PECs in order to reach the desired %mu price of the item I'm putting up for sale. If it wasn't for the tax, I could use a calculator, but since there is a tax to take into account as well, the math gets too involved and generally speaking it is just easier to 'guess' and then make small adjustments from there which makes setting the price for an item several operations instead of just 1. I find this process quite tedious and I think it would be much easier if I could just enter the %mu desired instead.

7. All armor parts default to upside down when being placed on a vertical display
It doesn't really make sense why an armor part should default to upside down when placing it on a vertical display but it currently does. For the last 4 years or so I have had to rotate all armor parts 180 degrees to display them upright in my shops. There is no 'snap' built-in to the rotate function so all has to be done by eye. It hurts my OCD because I want everything to be perfect in my shops and I have dropped and picked-up armor parts several times before to try and get them perfectly straight, which is really not that easy to do sometimes (I don't really bother with this today as much as I used to in the past, but still I wish for quality of life improvements from MindArk in this area of the game).

8. 'Buy' Shopkeepers
A Shop Keeper which a Shop owner can use to set Buy Orders for things. A Shop owner could set prices for up to 20 distinct items, and a buy price for each. Shoppers could sell their items to this Shop Keeper anytime when the owner is not online. This is different then Banks (pawn shops) where you are putting up collateral for a loan.

9. Dispensing Shopkeepers for stackables
A Shop Keeper that has a UI where a shopper can set and buy the exact number of a stackable item which he needs, e.g. if a shopper only requires 12 Blausariam Ingots to tier upgrade a piece of armor, or say 5 defense enhancers, he would be able to buy exactly that amount by setting the quantity desired in the Shop Keeper's UI and buy them at the price set by the Shop owner. A Dispensing type Shop Keeper could hold say up to 12 different item stacks at any given time, and require 25 item points when placed in a Shop.

10. Shop Directory (or External API containing the data so players can make their own)
Though there are some really great shops in EU, the game lacks shop discovery features and what that has resulted in is most players just using the auction for everything.

In recent times (the last 2-3 years), I know of at least 2 players that have even attempted to resolve this lacking feature by creating websites of their own where shop owners could add their inventories and players could go to search for specific items. None of these attempts have succeeded (the closest one to succeed was morey's but ultimately was abandoned), and I suspect mainly because it is just too laborious and requires the participation of all shop owners, which is practically impossible (due to language barriers, time or just interest). The only actual shop directory in existence today is the one DME created for Monria shop owners which I suspect is only being used by the Monria community.

But I feel like this is something that could be solved very easily if MindArk just created a link on their website where savvy internet programmers could acquire up-to-date data on the contents of all shops in EU in a common database format. If this was available, no shop owners would actually have to go to the site to update it, this would all happen automatically in the background. And if an external API for shop content data was created, I guarantee you that it would be used. Someone would create a website that Entropians could use to browse and search for specific things they are looking for.

A few more things from my own wishlist.

Yes it's true that the medical partition is very problematic, I've had to file support case a few times to get MA to remove a display panel that I just couldn't select and remove for some reason. And yes MA should introduce more furniture for shops, I agree.

The biggest problem of all though, is that all shop owners are being made to compete with MA's "shop", the auction, and that's backwards. An auction is a place where you put things for sale that you need to get rid of, not the place where all crafters list everything they craft for sale. When this happens, it becomes the default "shopping" place for everyone, and then the real shops have to offer items cheaper if they want to attract anyone. In my view:

A Shop should be: A convenient place where you can be sure to find what you are looking for at a reasonable price
An auction: where you go to look for good deals at below market value, but the selection may be somewhat limited.

Instead what you are getting in Entropia:

The auction: where you can find anything the widest selection of items, most convenient and usually at fair prices
Shops: Item points allowing, these typically try to have a constant supply of a particular type of item, at below auction prices. But due to severe limitations on item points, shop owners typically can only stock one or 2 of each and so you run the risk of wasting your time as the item you are looking for might be sold out.

So the picture in Entropia, in my opinion, is backwards to what it should really be. And I think a lot of people have recognized this issue for a long time and that's why they have been clamoring for a "Shop Directory" for over 10 years now. I think most people looking at this situation instantly feel that the issue is a lack of shop discovery functions in the game. But I don't think that's really the problem, I think it's too much restrictions on item points. In an attempt to assure continued revenue, MA designed the malls and shops in Entropia with limited item points so people would have to upgrade and buy more. Howeber I have reached my limit now and I still don't have enough item points to cover all the armor options that are popular and that people use in the game, I'd probably need an entire floor of shops to do it properly.

 

[mastermesh]

For God's sake in My Items list on website inventory seperate each estate's listing out so that all estates are not bundled together. Every estate in game holds x amount of items. How difficult would it be for the website inventory to just list the name of the estate on the deed and indicate which estate deed the items in each estate are listed under? The game already puts all items in the correct place. The website lists which items are in 'estate' but not which estate. Annoying as hell if you own more than one esate.... Also online game system lets you markup and keeps track of markup. How hard would it to for shops in game to list the tt value AND MARKUP in the my items section on the website. Just program it already.

Along with this Ludvig voice you opinion already to upper management and get your shop directory in game already. As we enter a new gaming engine and all programming has to be done from the bottom up it makes sense to DO IT NOW...

Shop directory

So, I would def. use shops more if it was easier to use, and I guess you would too? Please vote in the poll, and check the picture with my suggestion how a shop directory would look/work: EDIT: If no, please feel free to specify why not :)

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[mastermesh]

Make floors level. Door stops or whatever you call them are all over Foma shops and the hallway floor is not the same level as the interior of the shops so say if you want to put a carpet at the front door to extend it out to the hallway it has to be a big idem like the stone paths or something since the difference in height between the two areas makes regular carpets and rugs and things just simply show up inside of the shop and go under the floor in the hallway. Lots of other estates in game have similar type of issue.

Similarly making the ground and floor of estates more compatable in the next game engine is a good idea... There's still tons of weeds and other useless ground textures and things in the basement of places like Omegaton since the devs never took the time to think through what they were doing when vu 10 and that game engine implementation mess showed up. They did over time change a few things like the sand pit that used to block half of a few hallways... I think the upside down booth hanging from the ceiling there may still be there today?

 

[halftoasted]

While I do like most of the ideas aside the mannequin being obvious reason you cant sell on it.(It's not a cheat to shopkeeper)
I think the main problem with shops is the owners of shop/mall.
(Oh Noes.. Im gonna get roasted!)
Dont get me wrong, many of those idea would ease the process greatly and some are much needed even for house deco but bring nothing as far as player activity in them. I know.. I mostly shop on caly when bored.

Seriously... When I need something on Toulan or Monria I dont have an issue.
Why exactly is that ??
Right... The website with shop location and content.

Why dont caly players do something like that ? Each Mall owner is guilty of eating too much popcorn and doing nothing to promote their mall on a prime planet of trades and big events.

Sure, Shop Owners have a job to do in getting their brand known... Something I feel isnt done nearly enough aside for a few players who do very well at branding. Still, it's the mall job to get customers in by providing tools to ease the process so that they can collect more taxes.
This alone would make me consider more the caly shops.

 

[mastermesh]

similar to the floor suggestion, create more overhangs or 90 degree angles in walls of foma shops. Hanging the new carpets on the walls ia a bit icky if you put it on the shelves since the angles are night right angles so it sucks in to walls and has other shelves sticking out, etc.