Future of Merchants & Marketplace HUB

[TemujinCalidius]

I’ve planned for further changes to the Merchant profession and the Marketplace Hubs.

The above is still relative, however, with some changes.

@TemujinCalidius

A new station called a ‘Merchant Stall’ will be created. A merchant member of a ‘colony’ will be able to sit on this stall, and every few minutes, at random, you will get a mini-game pop-up that checks you are not AFK. In addition, the merchant will earn ‘CXP’ every few minutes on this station. As the merchant gains CXP, the ‘colony’ they are a member of will also earn an item called ‘Crafting Supplies’ or something similar.

There will be no need for a new Merchant Stall; the existing Marketplace HUBS will be transformed.

@TemujinCalidius

A merchant of the same colony will be able to bring a barrel or large bag to the merchant stall to load up with ‘Supplies’ into this barrel or bag from the colony’s stockpile.

This will not be the case.

This is how it will work:

1. Marketplace HUBS will be repurposed. They will no longer work to place buy and sell orders. Instead, a marketplace hub will be linked to a specific colony and have one action, which is called ‘Barter’. This action will only be able to be performed by a Merchant.

2. A marketplace will have a new hover text displayed when recently clicked on. This display will show ‘Supplies’, followed by a number between 0 to 1,000. This will show you how many supplies are in a market’s stockpile.

   a. Markets will automatically regenerate its supplies over a 24-hour period, generating approximately 60 supplies per hour, up to its maximum of 1,000.

3. A merchant from the same colony can go to their own market and click on ‘Barter’, which will initiate a bartering animation where the merchant must remain within range. While in range, a Level 1 merchant will receive one supply from the marketplace per minute of bartering and earn some CXP.

   a. As a merchant levels up, they will receive more supplies per minute, e.g., a Level 2 merchant will receive two supplies per minute while a Level 3 will receive three.

   b. Once the supplies in a market are depleted, you cannot receive more; you will need to wait for it to regenerate over time.

4. A merchant from a different colony can visit other markets owned by other colonies. When such a merchant clicks on ‘Barter’ - they will again have to remain in range with the animation playing. Instead of receiving supplies, they will give supplies they have collected to that Market at one supply per minute for a Level 1 merchant and increase as they level up. In return for the supply, you will receive SLC Coin per supply at a value dependent on the demand of that market.

   a. A market of 1,000 supplies will only give a merchant 1 SLC Coin. An empty market in need of supplies will give more. It should look something like this:

Supplies	Coins per Supply
0-10%	10 SLC Coins
11-20%	9 SLC Coins
21-30%	8 SLC Coins
31-40%	7 SLC Coins
41-50%	6 SLC Coins
51-60%	5 SLC Coins
61-70%	4 SLC Coins
71-80%	3 SLC Coins
81-90%	2 SLC Coins
91-100%	1 SLC Coin

I hope this makes sense. The objective of being a Merchant, then, is to go around looking for Markets that are in most need of supplies to generate the most SLC coins for your use.

Other Important Changes

With this change, some other important things will occur.

1. The main marketplace in-store will be the only market hub that will somewhat function like the old ones, that is, where you can purchase items using your SLC Coin, though, it will function a lot differently.

   a. It will automatically seed itself with all items created by developers, that is, all tools, all animals, and all ingredients.

   b. Pricing will automatically fluctuate up and down based on supply & demand. The more people purchase a certain product; the higher its base price will go up. This may affect the end cost of other products that require that ingredient.

   c. You will still be able to sell items directly to the market, and again, the price you will get will fluctuate based on how often the market is purchasing that item from players. You will not be able to seed the market or place ‘sell’ orders as before unless, as below, in the next point.

   d. Players will only be able to ‘seed’ items into the market, i.e., place sales orders, for items they are the creator of. The market will not automatically seed items created by the community, and it will be up to the recipe’s creator to list their item and control its pricing. Other players will still be able to sell to that order if it exists.

   e. Players will still be able to place buy orders and requests for things they need, but only for player-created items. We will make it so that a creator of an item will receive occasional IMs in-game to remind them that someone is seeking to purchase their product.

2. The ATM in-store will be disabled completely. You will no longer be able to purchase and sell SLC coins using L$, and another system will be put in place using the Platinum Store and Platinum membership for those players that wish to have more SLC Coins. This will be discussed further in another post.