Automated Trade System

[Brickbreaker]

From what I know trade works like this.
Player A and B drop their products on the ground or in a chest, then they switch positions and carry them away.
To me it seems that you have to completely trust your customer that they wont cheat you or anything and seems very unreliable.
Maybe a system where you can see what they have to offer in a window and press trade?
Like runescape without the limit factor.

[Jackard]

somehow this sounds familiar

[loftar]

Well, the boring part with such a system, however, is that it leaves no room at all for deception. :)

[Brickbreaker]

If that's way you like things then FINE!
But I don't like your taste.

[loftar]

Well, I can see why people would like a trading system; I was actually planning to make one once upon a time. But then when I actually traded with people through a basket, I noted how exciting it was that the other part actually had the option of betraying me if he wanted to; and I him, for that matter. It makes actual trust matter. I've also noted that it means that the reputation that people can build for being honest merchants seems to matter, and that's a property I like. Jorb made the same discovery even before I did. :)

[Peter]

Yeah, and it also has the advantage of making your game seem to be missing a basic and fundamental part of the interface. Oh wait, that isn't an advantage! Silly me!

[loftar]

Well, you are perhaps right in that it wouldn't be particularly bad if two players, meeting, could bring up a "common inventory" through which they can swap things. What I mind is the mutual "both click here to agree"-button.

[kralmir]

Yeah, and it also has the advantage of making your game seem to be missing a basic and fundamental part of the interface. Oh wait, that isn't an advantage! Silly me!

peter shut up, either quit or dont be a smartass about the flaws of a game in OPEN ALPHA, oh thats right your a addict so you CANT quit

your prob thinking of 5 different ways of hanging yourself cause the server is down atm... no wait, that part is me ":D (thats called a joke)

[ImpalerWrG]

I think the mutual inventory things sounds good, it provides no real security it just eliminates the need to carry around containers or drop things on the ground which seems very sloppy and even carries a tiny risk of decay.

On the other hand you have some actual skills required for trespassing and theft of items which are completely unguarded as well as a scent system to at least allow for the potential for retribution so it seems a bit odd that a face-2-face trade should be in many ways easier to steal from than taking an unguarded item? Perhaps as system ware a person with theft would be able to just click and steal items from the mutual inventory screen and leave theft scent as a result (which they can't then pick up to cover their tracks), the players have 'agreement' buttons but the only thing these buttons do is to act as signals between players and prevent the generation of the theft scent, they do not actually enforce anything.

[ThirdEmperor]

I'm not sure what that guy just said but here's my two cents, there should be a skill called "dishonesty", if you have dishonesty
you can make it look like your trading someone an item, it even appears in the trade screen but when the trade is completed whoever your trading with doesn't actually get the item, instead he gets a "Dishonesty Scent" which disappears after 10 seconds.