Trading Items

Again, being the noob I am, I come here with an odd an unusual thought that I don’t know what forum to place in, but that I put into a forum anyways. I wonder…I know gifts can be given between people, especially from the gift opportunity cards, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to trade items. I can see why this would be implemented, but I wonder if anyone has ever wondered or wished for a trading capability in the game. With so many items of varying values, trading would, for me, anyways, enhance the game by a lot. Need some Romantic Notions, but don’t know where to get them? No worries, give up that Ostentatious Diamond and they’ll be sent right over.

It would probably be hard to implement, and could lead to a lot of scamming and issues with multiple accounts, but I think it would also make the game a lot more real and social. People trade things all the time; why do we have to go to Merrigan’s Exchange to get all the things we want in massive quantities?

Opinions?

I too, would love to be able to trade items. But one of the central mechanics of the game is grinding to get what you need, instead of just being given, say, an Overgoat. So I don’t think trading is likely to happen. Too, I have no idea how easy that sort of thing would be to code.

Well, grinding is fun and all, and honestly, I don’t think trading would take the grinding out of the game. After all SOMEONE still must grind to get the basic items to trade up for the better ones. And it’s not like getting good items makes your skills automatically a lot better, so items don’t take the fun out of the game.

Thanks for your opinion, though!

Hm, well a lot of the benefits of trading are already covered by the Tier 3 Side Conversions, in terms of exchanging gains in one type of resource for another. The lower-level stuff is what you grind for, and anything harder to come by generally has an in-lore reason (such as gems being contraband).

I dunno. If it were implemented I would definitely pass around Madison’s Ubergoat to whichever account needs it most, and I could funnel all my account’s resources together to purchase Hesperidean Cider. Then I’m left only working towards increasing my qualities, and while that can be a big goal in and of itself Hesperidean Cider is quite a lofty goal to to shoot for that wouldn’t feel as significant if you could work towards it on multiple accounts (without getting banned, anyway).

Well, that would have to be addressed. As cool as that sounds, Sara, a lot of games ban multiple accounts basically so that people cannot trade between them and take advantage of the game in that way, which would be the issue here. I can understand that making multiple accounts to explore the story can be part of the fun of the game, and so trading would have to be controlled so that multiple accounts could not be made to accumulate wealth merely by grinding the extra actions they provide.
In contrast to Tier 3 trades, another benefit of trading is the ability to use one step (I assume it would cost 1 action on both sides for a trade) to convert one item to a completely unrelated one without having to stutter through many different trades and make many different connections. Another example is the ability of trading to remove the inefficacy of some versions of grinding. Again, as fun as grinding is, wouldn’t it be great if grinding got a bit more efficient?

The main boon I think trading would be able to do is if, say, someone needs 40000 Drops of Prisoner’s Honey for the Suite at the Royal Beth available at Penstock’s. While one /could/ grind madly for Prisoner’s Honey or for higher level items that can be traded for Echoes or other items and THEN Prisoner’s Honey, it would be so much easier if trading was available. Let’s say a low level new character(s) just happen to have 500 or so Prisoner’s Honey at their disposal, because the actions their skills unlock have allowed them to accumulate it, but they don’t have any use for it. On the other hand, there’s a glove in the Bazaar that’s just beyond their reach, price-wise, even if they sell the honey. Here, the rich one could trade an extra pair of the gloves that they might have gotten with their high level opportunities for a nice quantity of Prisoner’s Honey, which would be great, beneficial, and could lead to a lot of fun exchanges and a cooler community.
edited by Marcus of the Mangrove College on 12/9/2014

If trading were implemented I’d want it to be completely anonymous and on its own tab. If it were a social action I could just picture somebody throwing some offers at me for whatever I have displayed on my mantelpiece at the time. I don’t want that. If it were on its own tab that every player in the game can see then it’d be really pretty much impossible to pass around your Ubergoat or funnel your resources into one central account because inevitably there would be players stalking the market to snipe such attempts.

Very good point. Possibly it could only be between Acquaintances, then, and…I’m not sure what you mean by “one tab”. I don’t have a good idea of it yet, but what I was thinking is that it would be done from Your Lodgings, and it would be a social action much like writing a letter.

I just now realize that it’d be really difficult to actually trade without know what one can offer and what one wants, so…hmm…I like the idea of perhaps having a “trading bank” of items, in game referred to as…I dunno, I’m sure there can be something thought up, but basically, anything that one would be willing to trade could be dragged to a different bank/tab that would display for acquaintances only on attempts to make a trade offer. Also, there would definitely have to be messages exchanged between parties to ensure that a trade would go through on both sides, and Accepting and Making a trade would require Actions, but declining one would not.

It’s real rough, but I like the idea.

There are competing interests, here: the potential for abuse / unseemly things, which would suggest that trades should be for even value; and the altruistic desire to share the experience of difficult-to-get things, which would be blocked by a requirement that trades be for even value.

What I’m REALLY hoping it help fosters in t
erms of community is for people to be able to grow closer through it. Echoes can be traded for/buy most anything, so they can be a very basis for the values assigned for training. That would help against unseemly things, in my opinion.

I really do like the idea of altruism and a general improvement in efficiency and community that can be brought about. Trading would bring a hopefully well-used interaction and also enable people to discuss more about items and work with the lore.

By one separate tab I mean that there would be a page where you can enter an offer to be displayed among all the other players in the game have requested. You could look for specific item offers, and if you have what they want you can accept it. Kinda like the GTS in Pokémon - no communication needed. You deliberately set out to go hunting for offers, and there’s no risk of random people bugging you for something. Though now that I think more on it it is still possible to abuse such a system - you could list the low value offer and request the high value item. It’d have to be equal value, or within a tight range.

So I guess what I would prefer if trading were implemented is pretty much the opposite of what you’re looking for. I don’t want to negotiate over deals. I don’t want specific people asking me for things. I would want it to be as impersonal as possible.

That’s a good idea, and it has worked pretty well for Pokemon, I will admit. Your gripe about getting spammed with offers is realistic too. I think if you could separate your inventory between items that people can offer on and ones that they can’t, it would work well…

If trading were limited between Acquaintances, one could filter out between people who one wants to allow into friendship and people who one would rather have somewhere else. It would made trading better for making social friends, and also alleviate the offer-spammers slightly by forcing them to attempt and be filtered through acquaintanceship first.

Somehow I doubt the Masters would approve …

The Masters would most definitely not approve, but I don’t think they’d notice a little friendly exchange going on, now would they? I’m sure it would be of little account to them.

Then again, perhaps one must avoid trading the more valuable things to avoid attracting their attention. Enough Honey to float a cruiser sure, but if a Primaeval Hint exchanges hands, perhaps they might notice then. It would have to be decided, what they would notice and what they would not, so the more mundane type in Fallen London could avoid having…issues with them. But perhaps, also, if one is in favor with the Bazaar Masters, one could, perhaps, engage in an exchange and ask the to selectively avoid noticing it. Perhaps.

I’ve wondered about this before. To be honest I don’t think it would add a huge amount to the game, especially when one considers the potential problems/opportunities for abuse that would come with its implementation.

And honestly, I’m not sure that it feels like it’s missing. Your irl friends may well have stuff you want, and you may have stuff they want, but you’re still both going to go to the shops and do your own shopping rather than getting together for a barter evening, aren’t you?

My personal feeling is that the grinds aren’t that onerous, and they can also serve the purpose of making you feel more invested in the game, as well as providing a sense of achievement when you FINALLY get that last item that you need. You mentioned one of the benefits of trading would be to make it easier to acquire items. Is that necessarily a good thing?