Playing as a trader/crafter in ESO unfortunately doesn't seem viable from what I know so far, I'm making the following assumptions:

- Any player can master all of the trade skills

- Trading is only face-to-face or in a Guild-wide stores

- Players can roll alts on the same account, in the same alliance

The reason I don't see it as viable is that with every player able to make the same items at the same quality there is little reason to trade with other players. I understand their reasoning for allowing mastery of all trade lines - that players would otherwise just train the other crafting skills on their alts, but I think there needs to be other restrictions in place or the world with have no economy.

How could this be fixed?

I don't agree with a global 'auction house' system for a game. That generally leads to the best items being available at very, very cheap prices. You cannot have a healthy economy when there are no restrictions on getting the best stuff.

What I'd like to see it something like Trader Skill lines which used the same skill points as other skills and for example might lift a limit on the number of items you can have listed for sale, allow setup of an NPC trader, allow trading in enemy territory, distance trading, trade taxes which can be lowered by the skill line etc. and/or tiered requirements (make higher level 'craftables' require other crafted components from other skill lines (E.g. potions require some glassware))

I'll finish by saying my opinion is based on my experience playing EVE (VERY strong economy) and by the original Star Wars Galaxies' take on trading (before WoW was released and they stupidified everything), trading and player housing was better in SWG than in any MMO that has come since and I'd like to see similar in ESO.

I'm sure some of you will say either (I) "It will make it too difficult" or (II) "I like being self sufficient" and I'd like to give my opinion on both these points -

(I) Personally I think getting back to difficult but more rewarding mechanics like old MMO's had is a good thing, it keeps out all the WoW kids that are the reason the current generation of MMO's are all simplified to the point of being clones of eachother and it's certainly done EVE no harm.

(II) Being self sufficient is fun for a while, but it limits interaction, stunts the economy and eventually makes the experience dull - I remember having queues of people waiting for buffs in SWG and the community spirit amongst everyone was what made the game so much fun, everyone talked and emoted at eachother, dancers (class) danced and everyone talked for a bit. and you could 'hear' eachother because the dedicated crafters had shops so people could find what they needed without millions of WTB spam messages.

What are your opinions on the subject?

I also don't like the idea that crafting doesn't seem to require learning and practicing before you can make almost everything.
Although they mentioned you can discover recipes and such. So maybe although everyone will be able to make a "Steel Sword", only certain people will be able to make a "Super Steel Sword". Might make uncommon and rare player crafted weapons much more expensive and coveted.

There is no public information on the current crafting system. Only beta testers know and they can't say It was recently completely overhauled. Can't answer your poll or address the original post because it incorporates presuppositions which may or may not be accurate. Just... don't assume that anything you think you know is correct.

As for trading, you can trade within your guild but you can also trade with the wider world through guild stores which your guild can set up in keeps, outposts and resource points in Cyrodiil. So there is general trading, but access depends on your guild's success at PvP... which was an interesting move

I think they've done a decent job with crafting at the moment (I have some concerns but can't state them here, I used the feedback form for that).

I don't think there will ever be a trader or crafter class, but crafting will play an important role.

Since the way things are now with crafting, it's going to have people thinking carefully whether they want to focus on crafting or combat, so I think this will reduce the amount of 'master crafters' out there, which in turn will increase demand for crafters.

I did not know about the stores-in-keeps, although I think the problems I see won't be addressed by that and still means you need to be part of a huge guild to be a successful pure-trader. The assumptions I've made are mostly based on official information they have released (especially the progression update they released) and I'm only calling them assumptions in case they change anything before release

You know,I actually have a guild offer for any ps4 traders.Doesn't matter which faction you're from.You can join our guild to get a head start as one of the world's leading trade and services guilds.

I hope trade between different faction guilds will at least work.

Guilds are cross faction anyway.

Would you mind linking the information you're talking about? Maybe I'm wrong and there IS info out there about the CURRENT crafting system, in which case we can talk about it freely.

Our ps4 guild plans to have a trade alliance.While we'll be CF of course,it'd be better since we can't always trust other faction members.They might not want to give their goods.

The information I'm referring to is here (I cant post links): elderscrollsonline [dot] [com] /en-uk/news/post/2013/12/09/ask-us-anything-progression

I've noticed a couple of people are selecting the 'Something the OP has forgotten' options, can anyone give me some idea what I've missed out?

I think a lot of people will be playing both PvP and PvE, not focusing on mostly one, it would of been better if you had put a mixture of both as an option.

I started them all 'mostly' to try and avoid that, but seeing as people are still picking the 'something else' option I've added some mixes, thanks

I could be very nitpicky here, and say there should be an option for a mixture of PvE, PvP and crafting, since that's what I plan to do anyway.