Suggestion: Solution for external Shop Directory (external API)

[Legends]

A Shop Directory is something that has been requested since time immemorial (as far back as we can all remember). To prove this, here is a short list of some of the threads that were created over time requesting one:

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?286403-Shops-malls-inventory-search-list
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...make-malls-and-players-shops-worthwhile-again
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?183282-Shop-directory
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?281035-New-retail-item-finder!
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?302956-Give-auction-house-some-love

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).

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.

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 want.

Because it's external, it would not pose a hacking risk to the actual game servers.

If you are concerned about the resources to make the database, you could limit the updates to once a month for now. I should think that if a scheduled maintenance goes long only once a month in order to create the database, it shouldn't have too much of an impact on the community and your revenues, and it would be a huge time-saver for the community at large. If you did it once a month, you should tell the community when you are updating it so that shop owners know when to re-stock their shops for maximum exposure in the external Shop Directory.

How complicated could this really be? Please MA?

Cheers,
Legends

 

[Bones]

Monria uses this one , which i find I am not sure if its realtime or just something that is updated manually.

Monria Shop Tool

 

[Deemer]

There is a log file that feeds a lot of external redundant things because they are too lazy to do something internal ..

A game in which millions are spinning has the most shitty trading environment.

Full stores because no one knows where they are and uses the auction who eat more than 50% of our profit..

Horse and hens are exchanged by hand in a crappy spam chat ..

While you pay for shit you will get shit.

I don't want anything outside, I play inside.

 

[Legends]

Monria uses this one , which i find I am not sure if its realtime or just something that is updated manually.

Monria Shop Tool

If I recall, the Monria Shop tool was initially populated by DME and then required shop owners to keep it up to date.

My solution is for MA to spit out a database which eliminates the need for individual shop owners to spend their own time to provide the info.

 

[raulpon]

We don't even get loot in chat logs

Two most of the important features, APIs and informational game logs, are missing. This game is still so 2002..

 

[Deemer]

No, no one needs an API. Except for the inactive crafters and chicken traders, who are currently suffocating the economy takes data from external sources. This proposal will make your game easier and suffocate the economy more.

Sites such as EL are not part of the game and should be stopped, and any information used for external purposes should be penalized. In this way, groups of rural traders who do not differentiate between marketing and shopping from a nearby fertilizer store will have much less influence on the economy. Even through Discord conversations, they will have a hard time manipulating the market ... and most importantly, they will evaporate like a fart in the wind.

The economy can only be increased through internal intervention.

 

[Legends]

I don't want anything outside, I play inside.

Yes in an ideal world, I would much rather have everything inside the game so that I don't need to navigate outside the game for information/help. But the reality is that the community has been asking for a Shop Directory for over a decade and it still hasn't happened yet and I think we need to be realistic about MindArk's capabilities and priorities, i.e. it seems that this, though they probably would like to do it, is most likely not far up their priority list.

So the easiest and simplest solution for now, as far as I know, would be to just create a scheduled data dump so it can be created outside the game, that way, the players get their Shop Directory, and MA has to do very little to make it possible.

Legends

 

[Deemer]

Yes in an ideal world, I would much rather have everything inside the game so that I don't need to navigate outside the game for information/help. But the reality is that the community has been asking for a Shop Directory for over a decade and it still hasn't happened yet and I think we need to be realistic about MindArk's capabilities and priorities, i.e. it seems that this, though they probably would like to do it, is most likely not far up their priority list.

So the easiest and simplest solution for now, as far as I know, would be to just create a scheduled data dump so it can be created outside the game, that way, the players get their Shop Directory, and MA has to do very little to make it possible.

Legends

Anyone with a basic knowledge any programing language... would take advantage of this API for a personal database with which to monitor trends in the game. Which would give him an advantage over everyone else.

Currently, the time interval of EL does not correspond to the game. But if it were 1: 1, this information would be used much "more fully" than anyone with a little intelligence.

I want to play the game and not follow data, so I'm against additionally tools. Rather, a renovation in AH that would include all stores, without giving them a big advantage, would be achievable.

I have a dream to open a "Rubio shop", but in this state I can't prosper... right?

Just my point of view.. accept it or not.