After having spent many hours trying to develop good trade routes, I thought that a good addition to the PDA/Station Interface would be a Trading Board.

Here is the concept:

1. You have a load of widgets, whether they be standard cargo, non-standard cargo (i.e. equip scavanged from bots or station guards), or ore you mined.

2. At the Station Interface/PDA, you open the Trading Board, select the cargo you want to trade, and click "Trade"

3. A set number of stations (the scope of which is set based on nationality, type of cargo, etc.) then reply to you with an offer.

4. You then decide which station offer you accept, acknowledge their offer, and head off to drop the load. Your decision may be based on price offered, distance required to travel, nationality, etc.

I realize that if this was wide open for all traders and all types of cargo, it may make trading a bit too easy, so the scope of who could use the system, and what it could be used for could be determined by our magnanimous devs.

I think it would really enhance the experience, though. And really, if you think about it, with the technology apparent in VO, this type of system would/should certainly be available.

All comments would be appreciated.

-- Gesard Thawn

Outstanding. All we'd need then would be a stock market. Invest in LeberMac Insurance Appropriations Racket! LIAR™ + 5/8 !! Wh000!

Seconded!
Tie it into faction standings, trade experience and the new economy. (No point in getting offers from places you're KOS, and your XP should more or less dictate your reliability... a professional should get paid accordingly!)

- T.K.Jode

Here's another idea: tie this into the procurement missions. Have this trading board show you if any stations within a certain area are offering procurement missions for the materials you have selected. If you accept that mission it not only gives you money and experience, but also faction, just as the current procurement missions are the fastest ways to pick up faction points.

Could be another way to raise your standing with the corporations if you drop it to hated. Right now the only way is to escort a convoy into their space.

~D.
"Nigel"

I think we'd better had some kind of trade board for players in the same station (so you don't need to leave station to transfer your cargo to other player)

it may make trading a bit too easy
Yes, it WILL make trading too easy. If you don't like trading, find more creative ways to earn money. You rarely actually need a lot of credits.

See My Idea: I see the station buy/sell system as becoming more like the NYSE, especially in player-owned/operated stations; people post buy/sell tickets at the station they want the items at/taken from along with a number and unit price (e.g. in Divinia M-14 I post [400 Purified Water at -10] credits, meaning that I am selling 400 CU of Purified Water for 10 credits each).

From Here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/11406
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/11406?page=7#140907

Yeah, there should be an interface for DIRECT trading between players when both are in-station, like Aleksey said.

For example, player A meets player B in Corvus Hold and Player A agrees to trade 20 cu of heliocene to player B in exchange for 3 chaos swarms.

Kind of like the /duel command, the trade is offered by one player, the other accepts, and then the goods change hands within the station. Except this should be graphical. Player A and Player B are both on the "trade" screen and they can add or subtract any goods they have in the station from their offer, or add money. PLayer A's trade list is on one side and Player B's trade list is on the other side. With assumed values calculated out. When both parties agree by pressing the "Accept" button, the trade goes through.

This would eliminate the IDIOCY of both players loading behemoths, exiting the station, jettisoning cargo, and picking up the other's stuff, then docking again.

No. I LIKE the idea that you have to put SOME effort into trade. The traders and trade guilds that organize things and constantly monitor prices should have an advantage over those who can't be bothered.

Porkness, this would not take away that advantage. This would enable players to make trades and essentially make trade-guild-like missions. My and Leber's ideas are for player-contracts only, for the most part. Also, this would only cover contracts, like trade-guild stuff, which is NOT where traders make their money (at least not any that are good).

Porkness, I think you misunderstood.

I was thinking that my little suggestion would only work if both players are in the same station, and that station contains all of the goods involved in the sale.

A player "A" in Metana would not be able to trade his ion cores in Divinia to another player "B" in Geira for that player's Ns's in Sedina. All of the players and goods would HAVE to be in the same station.

Essentially my suggestion implies that there's a "Cargo Bay" in the station, and the dockworkers just move goods from Player "A"'s cargo area to Player "B"'s cargo area and vice-versa. It just eliminates the idiotic loading of ships and making the transfer outside the station, then docking again.

Of course, I suppose you COULD still do that if you wanted to avoid something like a station tax or a station record log of the transaction. I dunno.

*Bump*

Props for my NYSE-style tickets and LeberMac's direct trading screen.

Well direct trading shoulod not even be up to discussion. It is NECESSARY. Right now the only reason why everyone is not getting scammed when buying stuff is because the player base is so small.

An MMORPG without trade is like a wedding night without the bride...