finally, a new trade system! looking forward to that =)
finally, a new trade system! looking forward to that =)
the greatest delusion of all is thinking that there is only one reality where in fact there are multiple realities based on our own perceptions...
Definitely looking forward to the changes and new content. Except possibly in regard to the moving of buildings. Hopefully it costs a decent amount.
I'm concerned about the trade system adjustment. Overproduction is already a huge issue in the game with prices being way below proportion compared to how fast you can make coins. This severely hurts intermediate players who have bought cheap commodities in the beginning, but are afterwards struggling to upgrade.
You guys should implement a merchant hero or branch office upgrade system where people can only place as many offers as they have merchants or upgrades. The 10 minute clock works well in making sure people actually have to refresh their offers over and over similarly to replacing mines, farms, wells, and deposits.
Trading buff items doesn't really work either. Part of the value comes from the time bonus of having friendly placement.
Besides, if you liquidate this (even by adding time value after a sale), it ruins the social aspect of the game.
Last edited by Vorchev; 04-25-12 at 07:54 am.
I checked out the soccor event on the test server, awesome. I bought a flag flower bed. Those things are huge. Could you shrink them down to watermill size, otherwise I'll have no room for one and that would be a bummer.
I like the idea of tying the number of simultaneous trades you can offer to the level of your branch office, or some other leveling structure. Also think you should be able to buy temporary/permanent slots with gems, (especially if those can then be traded for on the market so the non-gem-buying players can buy with coins).You guys should implement a merchant hero or branch office upgrade system where people can only place as many offers as they have merchants or upgrades. The 10 minute clock works well in making sure people actually have to refresh their offers over and over similarly to replacing mines, farms, wells, and deposits.
But I disagree with the 10 minute clock's value at anything other than slowing me down as the seller. The basic problem is that the Refresh button doesn't work as you'd expect. It appears to simply list every trade offer submitted since the last time you clicked the Refresh button. That's vastly different from listing all currently-active trades. Wait 8 hours & click refresh & see how many trades appear. The majority expired hours ago. Clicking Refresh again pares the list down, but if you compare available trades with a friend, you'll see differences in what's "actively" being traded. That's not how it should work.
I don't think you understand.
The 10 minute clock prevents massive quantities of commodities from existing on the market at the same time.
If the clock goes away, prices will drop even further because there will be so many more listings.
Not really sure what you're saying about the refresh button. That affects buying, not selling.
In any case, the game needs to make coins more precious so prices go up. As it stands, beginners have access to cheap goods in the beginning, but then they struggle midway out of the gate.
In short, the game's middle class is taking a pounding.
Last edited by Vorchev; 04-25-12 at 08:58 am.
You need to define "existing on the market at the same time." If I log in and click the Update button, I'll see X number of trades. If I wait 4 ~ 8 hours & click Update again, I am presented with hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of trades. To me, they look like they exist on the market at the same time. I can't tell which of those are within their 10 minute window vs. which expired hours ago. So the Update button just presented me with "massive quantities of commodities."
If I click Update once more, the majority of those trades will disappear and I'll see some smaller listing of trades. That 3rd listing is probably comprised of the union of what's been offered since my last refresh and the truly "active" trades (in the sense that they're within their 10 minute listing window).
At best, the clock prevents me from simultaneously posting multiple trades - so it affects sellers, not buyers. Nothing prevents people from clicking on trades that have outlived their 10 minute window. If you trade enough, you'll have to have seen trade offers coming in from non-friends from trades that expired.
I've not ever sorted the list to look for multiple trades from one person, but I'll happily give that a shot today. Theoretically, that shouldn't be possible, but given how the Update button currently works, I suspect it's quite possible.
Last edited by Hobknocker; 04-25-12 at 09:07 am. Reason: "Refresh" button is actually "Update"
The first pic is the "baseline." I had a friend post a trade and I captured the trade & size of the scroll bar - I kept my trade window size consistent across the 3 pics.
The second pic shows the results of clicking Update after waiting about an hour from the first trade's post. Note the size of the scroll bar. My friend had posted 2 trades since the first one, but only one showed up available to me.
The third pic is after clicking Update again almost immediately. I only took long enough to grab the 2nd screen shot before clicking Update again. Notice how much bigger the scroll bar is now. Clearly a lot of trades disappeared in the 10 seconds between Updates. So the 10 minute timer doesn't affect the buyer, it just means as a seller you're limited to 144 trades per day, (6 trades/hr * 24 hrs -- ignoring the time it takes to construct a trade). But as the buyer, the timer doesn't affect me, unless I click Update enough to LET it.
Love the news. Please think through the trading. Multi- trades would be nice however i would keep the amounts at a limit like 400. perhaps a little higher would be ok but not to high. The game play is pretty good where it is as far as timing etc setting the amounts to high would most likely confuse the average player into not trading as much. Just my opinion, i'm a long time empire building player and have seen a lot of trading systems go to crazy.
Anyway great game and i see it getting better. Ubisoft rocks. Been playing PC based games by Ubisoft for years now and some PS3 stuff as well.