» Mon Jun 22, 2009 2:36 am Trading and Bartering
Trading and Bartering have very few 'well made' games based around them. The few that do are economic games which, by their own complexity, turn off the casual gamer. Instead of going into the tons of markets and trade systems setup on various different MMO's. I'll try to go into a few that might work for Fallout without making the game require a ton of spreadsheets to run.... though we all know there will be players that break out the ol spreadsheets to watch our profits
Anyway, after reading almost every thread in this forum I see many people want to include auction houses, trade systems, barter, markets and the like. However one thing will always, ALWAYS happen so we might as well assume it'll happen here.
What is that one thing?
Players are lazy, they don't want to have to check 14 different markets if they can help it for items And don't take that as me saying I'm better then others or something along those lines, I'm not, I, just like anyone else, enjoy going to ONE spot to buy my items. That isn't to say I go to one spot to sell them however.
Time vrs Ease
Players like to be able to go up to one building/location/spot and if the prices are pretty much in line with each other, outfit themselves in a few minutes with access to everything.
WooooW has it in it's Auction houses
EVE.n has it in Jita
I didn't really focus on other MMO's but I heard from the players I've 'interviewed' (talking to hundreds of others in the games I play) that most MMO's break down like this as well. After all, many, MANY gamers are able to get in about 20 to 30 hours per week if their REALLY lucky. Most however get in 15 or less, so for the vast majority, they'd rather go to a spot, buy all their gear in 15 minutes and be on their way. The crew of 30+ might want to spend a few hours getting all their gear from 4 different spots to save some money, but even they want to get back into the fight as soon as possible usually.
So there are a few possible ways to make the system NOT crash down upon itself and always fall to the easiest model
The components you have are:
1. Auction house(s)
2. NPC vendors
3. NPC faction vendors
4. Site market (for particular territory)
5. Faction Market
6. Neutral Market
7. Global Market
8. Traveling Merchants
9. Special event merchants (think traveling circus, demo sales from weapon manufactures, etc etc)
10. Player run merchants
These are the tools to make the Fallout economy come to life, rather then fall into the same exact model almost every single other economy has become in every other game.
1. Auction houses - Pretty self explanatory, these should be global with anyone able to bid on the items on them from anywhere. Where they are delivered to however would be based upon where the auction was started, with a fee being paid to the system (taking money OUT of the economy is a good thing) to move it somewhere else. The faster the move, the more money is charged.
2. NPC vendors - These guys should be in every single location controlled by an NPC faction. With more brought in as territory is upgraded, every camp site, village, military base, town and city should have tons of these guys making their way buying certain items, and selling a few items. If they are killed by other faction players, a replacement comes within a short time frame. Though raids to kill vendors shouldn't be encouraged by anyone other then bandit factions as a way to destabilize other sites for easier raids. (Kill the merchants that provide the ammo enough and you can launch a pretty devastating attack for example)
3. NPC faction vendors - These are the vendors that will sell items that are unique to their faction only, they will also only interact with players that are friendly with their faction (think of a king allowing his merc units access to his supply lines for good service) the higher the standings with the faction, the better items they can buy from them. Every item you buy however lowers your standings a bit, so no having one player get highest standings and starts selling B.o.S. power armor at 10+ suits per day to make a few million quickly.
4. Site Market (for Territory) - This would be an open market, unlike an auction house the items are simply put up for sale at a certain price. If players want to undercut each other then fine, but players should be buying items at a good enough rate that no one price can last for more then a few days without cheapness attracting players to buy the items out and ship them elsewhere. There should also be a time frame of anywhere from a few days to a few months to list items on a market to allow long term 'stocking' of various towns, cities, campsites and bases. The territory or zone covered would be a pretty decently sized area, but each site would need it's own supplies giving players a reason to travel all over stocking items, gathering materials to make more and have a vibrant economy. So if there is 1 city, 3 towns, 5 campsites and maybe say 2 specality sites in a zone, each would have a 'market' or two within it. Each for players to stock, in the city there could be 4 main entrances for example so 4 markets would fit depending upon the size of that city. However a player within that territory could 'see' all those markets by opening his computer, pip boy or whatever to be able to see the best deals or where a critical lack of supplies are waiting for him to stock himself.
5. Faction Market - This would be a market for the faction a player or player nation is 'sponsored by', the main capital of the faction. This would be a market where extremely large amounts of items are bought or sold and are heavily guarded by the faction and players as a whole. Where the other markets allow players to buy almost any item. The faction market would allow the faction as a whole to offer specialty items that would filter down. Or large amounts of items that a player nation might want to buy for a group special. For example, the G.E.C.K. kits to settle zones would be available on the faction market. Or plans to be able to build faction specific items that are INCREDIBILITY expensive and only allow the controlling player to make so many per week to keep the flow of items down.
6. Neutral Market - There should be at least a few neutral markets that are between certain factions that allow both sides to trade with each other, even within a state of war. This allows players to 'supply both sides' and act in a profiteering fashion. These sites might also have wars between faction players outside their walls quite often as each side seeks to deny the other the supplies contained within.
7. Global Market - This one is semi annoying to put in place, since most players will scream to just make the entire market 'global' and ignore zones, sites, and factions. The Global market would be run by a truly neutral faction or factions that are beholden only to the theory that trade by itself is what will heal the world. As such they trade with anyone and anything. As long as it is approved by the neutral faction as a whole. Since every faction has some sort of reason to want conflict to cease no complex items make it onto that list. As such the Global market only allows resources to be bartered to traded on it. Any player can buy resources from it, which have to be transported to a pickup location WHICH TAKE MONEY OUT OF THE ECONOMY so resources close by are obviously more sought out. This can destroy an economy if there isn't a good way to prevent players from flooding the market and destroying the prices of goods. So it has to be carefully setup to make it work the best. A great way to combat it, is to include resources in everything, from ammo, to repairs, to items. There should be a great demand for anything that can be gathered by players as a whole.
8. Traveling Merchants - Snake oil salesmen, wagon trains of merchants that arrive to remote locations, merc units that bring supplies in to make a fast buck all fall into 'traveling merchants'. These should bring in a tiny, tiny sprinkling of another factions gear to the opposite faction or any faction they visit. This whets the appetite of players for other faction gear and trading can commence, or players trying to get specialty items that they want to create their 'perfect set' of items to go into combat with. Traveling merchants should also provide another way for a local economy to get a boost as the local merchants lower their prices a small percent so they don't lose all their sales to the traveling merchants.
9. Special event merchants (think traveling circus, demo sales from weapon manufactures, etc etc) - This is a good way to make a area go crazy for a few days, give some players some fun, and have a mobile faction for extremely rare items that players might want. All the main factions might focus on war exclusively but the mobile faction might focus on items that are more day-to-day that can make a players life easier. Maybe items to make mining or plant gathering easier, or tools that perform at a better level, or methods that when combined with faction plans to make items save a little bit of resources. All can be ways to get players more involved, and give many reasons to check out far flung areas that they might never have touched until then.
10. Player run merchants - I strongly believe that players should be able to control merchants in the game, however it wouldn't be more then half a dozen at a time and it would be extremely expensive. Think of having your own Mr. Handy, he sits in a small shop that you rent from a faction (takes money out of the economy, another good thing) and you give him items to sell if someone approaches him and decides they want something. If its within their city there is a good chance he won't be attacked by other players. But there is a critical need for items in the smaller sites around the wastes, with more risk comes more reward after all! So there would be a reason to put a bot out in the more desolate areas, and the best part of the Player run merchants, the normal 'listing fees' per item are replaced by just a per day rent with the faction. Normally a few percent to the faction per item can become a static figure. However the bot has to be repaired if attacked enough times, or you can hire the faction to do it if your going to be away from game for days, but that might destroy your profits..... choices choices.....
In conclusion * - sorry about the length, but I want a good economy!
There are many ways for the devs to prevent only one single site to be used by everyone and the in game economy from becoming only high end items and everything up to that being literally worthless. I know it was long, and I can go on a bit but this is a problem with every economy in any game, players just want to be quick and have fun. But that can be balanced with the economy being more then just a place to get a few items and forget the rest.
Thanks for reading and in my next installment we'll look at all things items! normal items, durability, faction items, specialty items and modification items. Along with other things, stay tuned!
-Banlish
