After my post "who made the shop plugins?" some of the replies said let players sell stuff at station which make sense. What if we could leave say 100 synthetic silksteel at a station and load it to a shop of sorts with a price, station maybe keeps 10% if its sells? Just an idea this would be great for items that are worth nothing to stations.

+1

No reason a station should keep any of the profit.

I guess the station making a profit would make sense at conq stations.

The station taking a commission or selling at a higher price than it bought the items (depending on how something like this would be implemented) would add to the illusion of a real economy and thereby the immersion.

Also make it more dynamic and a little more complex to create.

I say give us something simple, that is easy and straight-forward to implement.

But, yes, give us something!

This may be a good fit for Corvus Hold in Odia M-14. A mission tree including some local faction standing and or Trade Badge minimums along with having the players deliver a manufactured Docking Bay Hangar Assembly to the station. After witch the player would be aloud to sell up to 200 cu. of a single type of item at a time for a player specified price per cu. Items could be made available to buy by other players threw existing Buy Commodities subsection of the Commerce section of the Station Interface. To place an Item for sale to players a Retail tab could be made available next to Buy, Sell, once a player completes the mission tree. Pay players after first dock with Corvus Hold once an item of theirs has beed bough.

No missions trees. No faction standing requirements. No hoops. This should be an unfettered feature.

At it's simplest, as has been suggested, a player should be able to give an item of varied quantity to the station for sale to other players at a set price. There should probably be a station tax on the sale if it goes through, and this could be based on a number of factors to possibly include standing. The player should also be able to cancel the posting and get their items back.

The long time argument against such a feature is that it removes the risk of person to person trading that we have now. But that's all moot if the person who has the item can never meet up with the person that wants it because of timezone or schedule conflicts.

Instead what we have now is the growth of shop bots that create almost exactly this feature, though still with some inherent risk to the buyer, but with the negative impact of spam on chat channels.

While I would like to see this being available at all stations, making it initially available at Odia M-14 would probably be the best move. Also, if it becomes available at all stations, the items should only be available at the station the posting was created. There shouldn't be any magical transfers of items. Though that leads into another suggestion from the past where you could hire NPC convoys to move items between stations. But that's for a different thread.

I will state once again for the record that I consider the 'risk' argument to be complete and utter bs. There is no good reason imo to attach risk to every single aspect of the game. Risk is already incurred by the player moving the goods either to or from the station. The current arrangement makes VO tedious and NOT FUN.

More to the point, the chances of these transactions being put in jeopardy is negligible unless the players are just careless or ignorant. This does nothing but add a pointless time sink that could be better invested elsewhere in the game by the player.

I will state once again for the record that I consider the 'risk' argument to be complete and utter bs.

It isn't. Least ways, not for me.

Conducting transactions outside the station creates all sorts of interesting variables which can sometimes lead to situations similar to a Mexican standoff. It may sound like bs, but it actually holds about the same "fun" value as staring down an opponent in b8 for me.

Some factors to consider when trading outside a station that wouldn't be a part of in-station trading:

-What ship has your buyer brought to the place of transaction? Is it capable of mounting weapons?

-Are there any onlookers observing the transaction?

-Will your buyer pay you before or after you jettison the cargo, or 50/50?

-What is your faction standing at the place of transaction? What is the buyer's?

All of these variables amount to something exciting, which may be lost with in-station trading. There is a 'buzz' in facing a new buyer for the first time on a larger transaction; are they going to screw you over, or are you bidding on repeat business? There are literally hundreds of subtle things that go on during a face to face transaction outside a station, down to such details as small twitches in your buyer's heading (nose direction).

Player-to-player trade outside the station is one of VO's more interesting draws for me currently. It just goes to show that different people play VO differently, and may have wildly different experiences.

Now, this isn't a good argument for not having an in-station trade system, and I realize that "shop bots" were the catalyst for this discussion, but it is something to consider when designing an in-station trade system. I just wanted to affirm from my perspective that it isn't utter bs to say there is some fun to be had in trading outside a station.

Fair enough. I can certainly respect your perspective. And certainly for small transactions that only require a handful of drop and collect trips, the current system is sufficient enough to not require dev attention in the near term. When one is doing large volume transactions however, the current system is wholly inadequate imo.

Perhaps such a system could be designed to only accommodate bulk transactions only. After all, why would a station interest itself in intervening in a handful of crates.

why would a station interest itself in intervening in a handful of crates.

Because almost everyone from the newest newb to the oldest vet wants to feel like they're apart of the game. If a newb happened across a few crates of Synthetic Silk Steel (which they heard is used for building) and they want to try and make some money off of it while benefiting a player, why are they less deserving than the vet who is trying to sell thousands of crates?

While I think it would be nice for all stations to be able to support this feature, there are certain logistical concerns from a station's perspective that could be considered and used to limit the stations types that can support this. Perhaps only Capitol stations would have the necessary space and inherent services to support such trading.

In addition to everything else, I think it's also important that of the information displayed, the seller should not be shown.

That was only meant as a possible rational for the limit. Setting this up at capital stations, would be a good start and expand from there if there is demonstrable need. My primary concern is getting the frame work in place from which we can then gradually improve.

I think commercial stations would be a better target, but apart from that...

-1

You know my reasons.

I am a pirate, and I don't agree that dropping cargo in space has any meaningful benefit to the game. Arguing that it does just makes excuses for a poor trade mechanic.

You should be able to place an item in escrow at a station with a recipient and amount identified. The recipient can then buy the item, and the seller receives the credits. The risk is in shipping an item to a station, but once there, you should be able to conduct a trade through the station.

True Savet, but that is not my reasoning. My reasoning is kind of like what Phaser said above. What if I want to arrange to buy from you, say 12 Lawneuts, but I have no intention of paying for them? You come along in your little cargo ship, and instead of transferring credits, I instead decide that you are a dick and I am taking them anyway?

It's not something I have done regular mind, but I have in the past. It takes an aspect of the game away. Sure, if you find shop bots a problem, there is an easy and simple fix - take RequestLaunch() away from us.

Yoda, nothing stops you from continuing that practice outside the station mechanic.

Though, to be fair, a lot of other mmos would consider it an abuse to make an agreement to sell/buy something then tricking the player out of the agreed upon reward.

Technically, such behavior is considered abuse in VO as well (ROC 1.1.4), but that's off-topic.

Odia M-14 only to start, then maybe one in each nation eventually.

While we are dreaming, I'd also like to suggest a way for a player to add a mission at a station like: bring me 100 of 'x' and I'll pay you 'y'. This can be located independently, would probably make more sense in areas where noobs are grinding up.

Technically, you cannot use the "target" key to target another player. (ROC 1.1.2) but I do not think it is meant to be so literal.

I agree with draugath regarding the argument against p2p trade threw station interface on account of removing risk being moot. Currently the risk of a trade going bad is not statistically distinguishable from zero.

I do however like having to put some effort into gaining new and beneficial content such as this. More Player need do X to gain Y rather than just Dev implemented for across the board.

Currently p2p trade is just so cumbersome I can't imagine keeping track of details such as small twitches in a buyer/seller's heading. That does read a bit far fetched to me at least.

I do think that the situations created by more players delivering high value cargo to Odia M-14 and consequently having to haul it out will be much more interesting then those I have read listed that current outside station drop trade create.

As such allowing for a limited volume of storage designated for p2p trade at Odia M-14 will not eliminate outside station drop trade elsewhere in the game universe. It would only add new possibilities and more game content to explore.

Currently the risk of a trade going bad is not statistically distinguishable from zero.

Tell that to the newb who stole 2 IHDPCs from me in Dau L-10 during a transaction a few weeks ago. I guess I should stock up on lottery tickets, then?