Idea: Custom Trader NPC/Agent

[Synthesis]

Trying to coordinate trades when you play weird hours, weird days, or have unpredictable absences sucks.

The idea: a Nenyuk or site-appropriate trader NPC that facilitates trades between players.

The way it would work:  you can offer a single item or a single container containing a single item type, at a certain price to the NPC.  The NPC gives you a ticket.  Players can then buy that container, with the items inside it, for the price you set.  When you return to the NPC and "offer ticket," if another player has bought your container of items, you get the money, minus say...a 10% transaction fee.

Sample interaction

> i
You are carrying:
a small bag

> key . small.bag
In a small bag:
  1.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  2.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  3.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  4.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  5.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  6.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  7.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  8.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
  9.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire
 10.sapphire - a bit of unworked blue sapphire

> offer small.bag 500
After making a few quick chalk marks on a wooden board, the corpulent, peg-legged woman hands you an etched stone token.

The corpulent, peg-legged woman says to you, in sirihish:
     "That'll be 50 obsidian coins for the trade.  Come back later for your 450 coins...if anyone takes your offer."

> list corpulent
the corpulent, peg-legged woman has the following goods to trade:
01) a small bag containing 10 bits of unworked blue sapphire for 500 coins

To prevent ridiculous offers from spamming up the agent, there would be a clearance mechanic built-in.  E.g. after a certain time period, the item would disappear from the agent's inventory, and when you return to offer the token, they give you the item or container back and charge you the trade fee.

Sample Interaction

> list corpulent
The corpulent, peg-legged woman has nothing to trade.

> offer etched.token corpulent
The corpulent, peg-legged woman says to you, in sirihish:
     "Nobody wanted your junk at that price. It'll be 50 coins if you want it back."

> get coins pack
You get a pile of allanaki coins from a bone-studded backpack.

> offer etched.token corpulent
The corpulent, peg-legged woman takes an etched stone token and hands you a small bag.

Alternatively, the NPC could simply charge you 10% up-front, and you could offer the token whenever you wanted to get the items back.

The code should do the ordinary checks for illegal items.  E.g. no bags full of jade-emblazoned shortswords or pinches of spice in Allanak.  No haggling mechanics involved.  Maybe the agent in Allanak would require you to be wearing a merchant's token to offer new goods. Probably should be some weight-limit involved to prevent half-giants from offering up trunks full of rocks.  Etc. etc.

Also, I mean...even though corpses are containers...and it would be an interesting way to confirm bounty pickups...probably shouldn't be able to offer corpses or a bag with a head in it.

[Heade]

I would have used this idea for a player-run business. It's a good idea.

[oggotale]

Brilliant

[kahuna]

I like it. Pawn shops would conceptually exist for obvious reasons. You have banking and monetary system.

As an aside I would also like to see something other than the current money we have in game. Multiple cultures/races makes me wonder why no other currencies ever arose other than obsidian pieces? And why obsidian? Why not have a currency based on rare stones like diamonds, sapphires, silver etc? I know metals are rare so why not use them as a currency.

[Brokkr]

Because people will inevitably want to make daggers out of their currency?

[kahuna]

Because people will inevitably want to make daggers out of their currency?

Fair enough. What about just different currencies in general to represent other cultures? It could add entirely new dynamic to the IC game world I think is missing. Naturally more than one currency would have been developed in the world? I could be wrong though, I am thinking in terms of ancient Mesopotamia/Babylonian/Egyptian types of prehistoric civilizations on earth.

[Hauwke]

Various currencies likely do exist, but in my mind because of the near absolute power Allanak has if it wants, then really only their currency is worth a damn.

[kahuna]

Various currencies likely do exist, but in my mind because of the near absolute power Allanak has if it wants, then really only their currency is worth a damn.

I would want clarification that we could roleplay virtual currencies? Or possibly update documentation. In my eyes allanaki currency has been the only IC currency conceived of for simplicity sake. Currencies/economies can get very tiresome to talk about and it's always easier to just file it under 'fantasy' rather than address the realistic implications of say.. having obsidian coins instead of something that is cheaper and easier to work with like clay? Obsidian is likely a commodity of Allanak why use it to create your currency?

[Brytta Léofa]

Guys, maybe the currency thing should be another thread?

The way it would work:  you can offer a single item or a single container containing a single item type, at a certain price to the NPC.  The NPC gives you a ticket.  Players can then buy that container, with the items inside it, for the price you set.  When you return to the NPC and "offer ticket," if another player has bought your container of items, you get the money, minus say...a 10% transaction fee.

This sounds really good. Facilitates player interaction that would otherwise wither when your play times don't consistently match up. (I've had specific instances where this would have helped...I could get to Luirs, buyer could get to Luirs, but getting there at the same time was 10x harder.)

I think you need to pay a fee up front. Otherwise you can throw out a huge asking price for a bag full of dubious crap, and just junk the token if nobody bites.

Maybe you pay the 10% fee up front and get half back (plus the goods) if it doesn't sell?

[Riev]

I'm down with the idea of paying upfront for the trader's time in holding onto your goods without selling them.
As a PC, if you gave me a bag of rubies and said "Sell these for 200 to whoever you can", it would take a decent fee for me to not just take them myself.

Basically what you're doing here is paying for a fence.

[LindseyBalboa]

I love this idea! However, my big issue with it: why couldn't you just RP with a PC to mediate or middle-man between you and a customer in another TZ, or pay a PC a percentage to hold onto your items and sell it? The NPC takes away all risk, and also RP opportunities.

[Lizzie]

I love this idea! However, my big issue with it: why couldn't you just RP with a PC to mediate or middle-man between you and a customer in another TZ, or pay a PC a percentage to hold onto your items and sell it? The NPC takes away all risk, and also RP opportunities.

When traders, buyers, sellers, middle-men errand boys are all logged in at the same time on a semi-regular basis, you can (and I'd argue, should) do exactly that. Use PCs who interact with each other to get stuff traded.

However there are people who simply don't have those opportunities. So this thread seems to be primarily for those who don't have those opportunities.

[Halcyon]

I love this idea.  I would suggest the fee be based both on the value and the weight of the item(s) to be sold.  This would prevent all but the wealthiest from using this service as extra storage.

I would also suggest that goods covered by the GMH groups not be allowed to be sold.

[Tekky]

To combat it being used for storage, just have the goods be gobbled up by the NPC after a set amount of time?

[Jihelu]

To combat it being used for storage, just have the goods be gobbled up by the NPC after a set amount of time?

Maybe after an extended time.
"Here's your Ticket, if your object isn't bought in three weeks it will be taken off display, if it isn't picked up in four we will sell it"

[Heade]

Who cares if people use it for storage? They run the risk of "losing" the item by someone purchasing it if they set the price reasonably, or they pay a higher fee if they set the price unreasonably. You can already pay nenyuk to safely store jewelry in a safety deposit box.

[LindseyBalboa]

You don't need everyone logged in at the same time, though. Sure, this would be convenient, but then you have some NPC that can't be robbed during the trade-off. Have a middleman hold onto it until the other person is logged in, and there's no need for an NPC to take away that RP/risk of being stolen from/opportunity to rip someone else off.

[Cabooze]

You don't need everyone logged in at the same time, though. Sure, this would be convenient, but then you have some NPC that can't be robbed during the trade-off. Have a middleman hold onto it until the other person is logged in, and there's no need for an NPC to take away that RP/risk of being stolen from/opportunity to rip someone else off.

Bolded the parts I'm responding to, mostly.

This can be changed entirely staff-side with how they load in the NPC. They can make it so objects that are light enough can be pick-pocketed. They can make it so the NPC in question can be killed and looted. Maybe have a small DB of Sdesc/Mdescs that can be loaded to replace the NPC (and possibly its guard if one is loaded in to be paired with it) when it gets killed, X amount of times before recycling. Having an NPC like this be murderable would also require that each killing of the NPC gets logged staff-side in the case of repeated player abuse of the system to get lots of 'free' loot.