Player Traders - Online Hideout Trade Rack/NPC/Vending Machine

Original "Offline Trading" post here: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1928050/page/1#p15236492

A friend of mine was just complaining how annoying it is to trade alcs as he was constantly being interrupted while trying to run maps. He initially mentioned a vending machine to place in a hideout to which we agreed it would be more fitting to have a 'Trade Rack' or 'Trade NPC' where players can view and purchase ITEM listings via visiting the Seller's Hideout where the Trader is located instead of a Whisper to a player for a trade request.

After reading some feedback from the original post at the top, it would seem an Online Player Trading System is essential for GGG's game and marketing design. We know how developers love to recycle content so let's evaluate some current in-game mechanics that could potentially be utilized.

1. Guild Stash/Tab - Allows Friends/Guild-mates to place and retrieve items at will.

2. Public Stash Tabs - Toggle Public/Private - Allows players to view other players Items/Listings.

3. Crafting Benches - Allows Players to augment/exchange gear using currency from their stash.

4. NPC's already have the ability to sell Players items and currency.

(Revision) 5. Incursion just announced - new NPC's possible. (and now Delve + Niko)


Additional Details:

- Trade Rack/Trade Bench also refers to an NPC's inventory, the concept is the same.

- Similar to the Public Stash Tab, each player's 'Trade Rack' would only be listed when that player is ONLINE.

- Buyers on say, poe.trade would see the traditional "Whisper this player" in addition to an option to "Visit Hideout" if the seller has 'Public Hideout' selected in the 'Edit Hideout Tab'.

- Only ITEMS can be placed in the 'Trade Rack' via Seller to prevent Auto Currency Flipping.

- How the Trade Rack interface looks and settles trades is still up in the air but in it's most rudimentary, I envision something like Rust Vending Machines or 7 Days To Die Traders where you see the item in the Rack with the price beside it. Either the Trade Rack automatically takes the asking currency from the buyers inventory upon buyer's purchase or the buyer places the currency into the Trade Rack to 'Unlock' the item for retrieval - or some other fancy way.

- (Revision) Trade Benches could be especially useful for map trades which consistently sell for an average currency. It could be interesting to have a Trade Bench for Maps, Trade Bench for Beasts, Trade Bench for Skill Gems, ect.


- (Revision) Cadiro as a Hideout NPC (Like Navali) could offer each NPC's currency specialty so buyer's can easily exchange currency from dynamic data on that league, similar to poe.ninja.. Cadiro's Bench could be a golden wall/rack which dynamically displays the larger items (weapons/armor, maybe jewels/jewelry spewed about the racks tabletop. Cadiro would have to be added as a core game mechanic, though. Which I wish was a core mechanic already especially as it would go well with Strongbox's - we love our lootSPLOSIONS!

- (Revision) The Trade Rack could also permit sales across leagues. So sell that Legacy item in your Trade Rack in Standard while you level up in [Insert Temporary League Here].

GGG could utilize 'Trade Benches' for various MTX's/Themes - just please make the initial release available to everyone!

Likely more revisions to come.

Here are some related forum threads for the naysayers and Trade Manifesto Quoters:

1. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2144425

2. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2145981

3. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2108481

4. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2150428

5. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2197883

6. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2200749

7. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2217628

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Well, Incursion just announced - so they aren't against adding new NPC's CONFIRMED (not that I thought GGG were against it anyway). If only instead of going to the past Alvy sold our maps for us..

ggg have said this time and time again
chris values "player interaction" too much to add anything like this in
i dont know what he means by player interaction though because gor all that involves is copy-pasting stuff from 3rd party sites, some people even use macros so they dont even have to copy paste stuff

"

ClassicAngus wrote:

ggg have said this time and time again
chris values "player interaction" too much to add anything like this in
i dont know what he means by player interaction though because gor all that involves is copy-pasting stuff from 3rd party sites, some people even use macros so they dont even have to copy paste stuff

You've completely misunderstood why player interaction is needed. Please read the GGG trade manifesto:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2025870

"

icesavage1481 wrote:

with Bestiary ending and the new league TBA next week, i'll bump this in hopes of something.

Given that this goes directly against GGGs trade manifesto, I wouldn't get my hopes up... What you suggest would be a bad idea (just like the other 8734874 posts saying it)!
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2025870

"

Cyzax wrote:

"

ClassicAngus wrote:

ggg have said this time and time again
chris values "player interaction" too much to add anything like this in
i dont know what he means by player interaction though because gor all that involves is copy-pasting stuff from 3rd party sites, some people even use macros so they dont even have to copy paste stuff

You've completely misunderstood why player interaction is needed. Please read the GGG trade manifesto:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2025870

Just because something is 'envisioned' does NOT mean that is the reality. There wouldn't be '8734874' posts about this AND Lab if they couldn't be improved upon. The REALITY is:

"

ClassicAngus wrote:

ggg have said this time and time again
chris values "player interaction" too much to add anything like this in
i dont know what he means by player interaction though because gor all that involves is copy-pasting stuff from 3rd party sites, some people even use macros so they dont even have to copy paste stuff

Chris can still have friends/people visit his hideout and awe at his decorations while he runs a map undisturbed and they withdraw one of his maps from his Trade Rack. Or people visit his trade racks as he is actively currency flipping and seeing all the people visit his shop as he shows off all his MTX's.

Bottom line: there's a win+win to be had here, AGAIN not everything can be used with a trade rack as stated above to address these issues and concerns people have about losing 'player interaction' - which, if we are being honest isn't all that great the MAJORITY of the time. The big interaction is seeing the PLAYER and PLAYER HIDEOUTS to advertise MTX's. The Trade Bench fits within that 'player interaction'. Let's not be delusional here, GGG is a company and needs to make it's money with a Free To Play model, all we players are walking advertisements (which is fine, just be reasonable).

"

Cyzax wrote:

"

icesavage1481 wrote:

with Bestiary ending and the new league TBA next week, i'll bump this in hopes of something.

Given that this goes directly against GGGs trade manifesto, I wouldn't get my hopes up... What you suggest would be a bad idea (just like the other 8734874 posts saying it)!
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2025870

Given GGG threw Bestiary at the player's clear speed meta, i'd say ANYTHING is possible.

Bump

"

Cyzax wrote:

What you suggest would be a bad idea (just like the other 8734874 posts saying it)!

Actually, their idea is not so close to the "Auction house" as it is to what I've been proposing to GGG for some 3+ years.

My level of success was semi limited:

• I (and some others) convinced Chris et. al. to actually go look at how trading works in Ultima Online; they actually admitted they really liked it, and could not find anything wrong with it.
  
  
• Then they stopped talking about trading altogether for almost a year, including ignoring every single mention of it.
  
  
• Then Chris dropped the "player interaction" excuse entirely. (but we can still hold that flimsy excuse over his head forever)
  
  

Simply put, the "reasons" GGG gives are just flimsy excuses. The people at GGG don't actually play the game; they run brief pre-scripted tests. Hence, their understanding of how the game's working is limited to what narratives they can build off of the telemetry they pull from their servers, which is pretty solid at answering the "what," but never explains the "why."

Simply put, PoE's trading system right now is absolutely terrible and painful, and this will be echoed by anyone who actually tries to complete challenge leagues and/or doesn't have a huge sunk cost causing conflicts of interest.

GGG can say whatever they want in their manifestos, but this also doesn't stop them from changing their mind. Surely you remember when they claimed that fixing desync couldn't happen? Then we got 2.0 and Lockstep; turns out that going back on their word made for one of the best improvements the game has ever seen.

And similarly, anyone who's not been so entangled with PoE exclusively can tell you that countless other games do trading far, far better, and they distinctly DON'T have all the supposed downsides that are claimed would accompany them that those trying to white-knight the status quo are claiming.

Again, Ultima Online's had the same trading system for now over 20 years; it was introduced back in December 16, 1997. And curiously, they've never once had to go "wait, this made the game worse."