Problem: While expanded manufacturing and player created/controlled economy is a goal of the game, the tools presented to the users are sub-par and detract many users from partaking. In order to sell things, you must first make the product known to the interested public. Without a place to have persistent ads for services and goods, players are forced to spam 100 to make any sales. This is (obviously) inadequate and means most people refrain from partaking in the joy that is the player controlled economy.

The added problem is that no one has yet to suggest a marketplace tthat is completely bare-bones, but fully functioning. We don't need a marketplace akin to WoW, it just needs to meet these three points:

- Be auto-matically accessible to everyone in the game, at any time
- Allow for user submitted content
- Provide a place for ads placed to remain persistent so only one post need be submitted (think craigslist)

Solution: A user generated "Post-It Board" where a user can submit a text based ad to initiate a sale.

Details: We need to stop "shooting for the moon" with our suggestions and start looking at what we can have the Dev team work on in as short a time as possible to satisfy the need. We don't need a graphically intense auction house. We don't need the marketplace to store items or transfer the items from the seller to the buyer. We just need ads! More importantly, we need an APPROPRIATE place for ads.

1. Add a new sheet to the PDA that will serve as the Marketplace Portal.
2. Allow a user to submit a text-based advertisement that will market their product or service to an interested buyer (Craigslist for VO).
3. Profit.

In all seriousness, I have yet to see a proposal that is so bare-bones but still functional. All the groundwork is already there. We already have a PDA that every player MUST learn to use if they're going to play the game and you already have other mechanics in place that allow users to update content viewable to other players (e.g. Guild MOTD, bank log/deposit, etc). This proposal is not only realistic, but it can be implemented in a very short time-frame, thus making it very unlikely for it be bumped off the priority list.

Additionally, this suggestion does not impact gameplay at all! The mechanics are already there! People already spam 100 to make sales. There's no other way to inform the masses that you have goods for sale. My suggestion simply offers a more appropriate venue for these ads to be placed.

Also, this suggestion IMPROVES and DRIVES normal gameplay. This is a new portal for players to interact with each other, to create and establish relationships, break or destroy said relationships, and to increase the amount of travel through space. What's more, this will finally allow for more, less material, markets to open up. There is no publicly accessible "escort" market. There is no publicly accessible "hauling/transportation" market. These are all things that people could now identify themselves as and serves to enrich the atmosphere of VO as the wonderfully diverse and open game that it is.

Complications: Every proposal has draw-backs. I've been offering Craigslist as a comparable service to my suggestion, which has issues with spam, scams, and inappropriate content. Here are my suggestions:

1. Spam - Implement an "advertisement fee" that will dissuade a user from inappropriately spamming the board with useless content. Or, restrict a user to 1-3 listings per day.
2. Scams - Space is a dangerous place, kid...
3. Inappropriate Content - All ads should pass the profanity filter.

I'm not a hacker. I have no concept nor grasp as to how hard this suggestion is to implement. All I know is that people have been hammering for a marketplace for years now and the answer of "soon" almost always is attached to it. People want something polished from the get-go. They always do! But if they are presented with the choice of nothing and something, they will always compromise for "something" even if it is not polished or pleasing to the eye.

Let's get this implemented. Let's get this implemented before "soon". Let's get this implemented before July!

-- Aldoss, Trident Arms Syndicate

EDITS - changed "hud" to "pda"

+1 This could be added to the News section as a separate and completely player generated information section for trade purpose, but also general announcements or declarations to anyone willing to pay.

I do not however, share the same sense of urgency for this as the OP.

If you put ads on my HUD, i will find you and explode you repeatedly.

Did you try posting in the station news thread?

Good call ARF. I meant PDA. The OP has been edited.

In that case, there's already the station news feed, which you can post ads to in this thread.

@ARF...from the suggested thread

A few examples of items that won't be posted:
-Personal ads.

And besides no one looks at that. There should be something else for personal sales ads that is easy to get to, but not in the way. In the PDA somewhere would be perfect.

ARF, I completely disagree with the notion of using the news feed as a marketplace. That's not what it's there for. If the devs want to show that manufacturing, p2p trading, and open economy are important aspects of Vendetta Online, then they need to provide users distinctly appropriate tools that build the game economy. As I said, 100 is an inappropriate outlet for marketing goods (but I do it because what other option do I have?) as is the news feed.

A user populated marketplace needs to be included into the PDA because that's where every other important task relevant to playing VO is located. A marketplace separate from the PDA goes to show that p2p commerce is not relevant to VO's gameplay and thus, unimportant. I don't believe this is the case.

+1

We need this ingame.

It's important that people posting ads have the ability to do so from inside the game, and to do so relatively immediately (rather than waiting on a mod to get around to making the posting), and to be able to edit or remove the ad themselves once it has been fulfilled.

Those are the reasons why the news system as it currently exists is not at all sufficient.

I would add limits to how many posts a player account can have active at any given time to avoid clutter and spam. People should be able to express what they have to offer or desire in 5 messages or less.

Also account activity (I'm sure there is a way to tell if someone is doing more than just being logged in) could play a role in where the message(s) sit in the hierarchy. If an account with an add has been inactive for say a week, those messages should scroll down to the bottom. After a month of inactivity, they should be either deleted or archived.

Further, cost should be involved. For players wanting their adverts to be near the top of the list, they should pay for it in an blind auction format for a set period of time. If the advert has been demoted due to player inactivity, then renewed activity should either 1) restore the ads status or prompt an inquiry to the player asking if they want to renew their position with a new bid.

I already replied to this, but apparently the forum ate it, so let's try again...

Instead of a fixed number of ads, the number should scale up with your trade license, starting at 1 ad at level 3 and eventually maxing out at 5 or so at level 10.

The price should also increase based on how many ads you currently have already posted. (E.g., running two concurrent ads would be more expensive than running the two ads sequentially.)

I'm not sure I like the idea of being able to bid for priority, but I can see how it might be useful for sorting out the good ads from the crappy little newb-ads that would vastly outnumber them. This could also be done by factoring in the trade level though.

Hello! Although I already told you what I thought of your suggestion in-game, you said that "the more replies we get the more chance we have of seeing a real change," so I though I would post as well.

I have two things:
1: Although you asked for replies, you should probably know that the devs don't just count the replies to a thread when deciding what suggestion to tackle next. They actually add up all of the "+1"s and "-1"s, so you should really focus on getting people to post you some "+1"s. Or even "+2"s. Hell, why not full-hog and guarantee your idea's success by just posting a "+100000000000000" yourself?

2: I'm not a hacker. I have no concept nor grasp as to how hard this suggestion is to implement.
As it turns out, I am a hacker! I though I would take a moment from lag-hacking to help you out with your idea. It's just a few easy steps:
STEP 1: open a chat prompt
STEP 2: Type in "/join 5"
STEP 3: Type in something along the lines of "Looking to buy some synth. silksteel! Will pay 12c/cu or best offer! message me location/delivery details if you're selling!"

And that's it! If anyone else is interested in being part of your magical marketplace, they too can follow steps one through two! Some of them might even be willing to sell you synthetic silksteel for twelve credits a pop! Best part is, the rest of us can just not join channel 5 and go on our merry way, without having another PDA screen shoved down our throats.

+100

genka wins thread

+1 many ideas

Genka, thanks for taking the time to add your thoughts to this thread.

I believe you're projecting ignorance and stupidity into my post when I assure you, there is none. I understand fully that the devs do not "count and tally the +1's" of a thread. I said what I said in game because I believe that this is an issue relevant to many users that might not utilize the forum that much. I believe that the more attention (good and bad) that a thread gets,the more likely it is that the devs will look into the issue further. I'm not looking for +1's. I'm looking for people to add meaningful thoughts to this topic so that we can help formulate a solution that best addresses everyone.

Your number 2 post leads me to think that maybe you did not read my OP. Chat channels are an inappropriate outlet for this kind of mechanic because it requires users to continually spam the channel with ads in hopes of catching the attention of an interested buyer. Why should there be no venue for a buyer to look up a seller? We need a place for persistent ads to be listed for the convenience of buyers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

Hope that helps.

+1 to Pizzasgood's take on the station news.

There does need to be a good way to post News/Advertisements in-game rather than through the forum, a guide, and probably a few days wait.

Also +1 to Genka's take on this. There's a lot of channels, one could be dedicated to FS/WTB. (Other games do this)

We currently have a marketplace that is completely bare-bones. You're free to hawk whatever it is you're selling wherever you want, whenever you want. The game's not going to automate any of it for you, nor is it going to stand in your way.

I think the only exception to that is that you can't drop ships (or engines) as cargo.

Me walking through a public place yelling "WTB Underwear!" doesn't suddenly turn it into a marketplace. Yes we currently have the ability to communicate to each other and that communication could lead to a sale being made. I'm arguing that this suggestion creates an appropriate outlet for this. Many newbies don't know how to purchase things from other players and many are nervous about posting in 100 about it.

Id be fine with a chat channel dedicated to commerce only if it was a default channel that people were placed in upon starting the game and there to be appropriate information regarding its existence. I still don't see how that won't just be turned into a spam fest, accomplishing nothing of real value.

"Me walking through a public place yelling "WTB Underwear!" doesn't suddenly turn it into a marketplace."

Actually, historically speaking that is exactly how market places work.

Doesn't mean it isn't a shitty way to do things, though.