Reverse Auctions

[Thomas Jordan]

I support this idea as well.

I can think of two programming challenges. Both seem fairly simple, but one of them would be a lot of work.

The easier problem first:

A prospective buyer goes into the "reverse auction house" (which would be structured like the current auction house) and enters a description of the desired item (this is the second problem, and is more complicated). The buyer also enters desired quantity, and total purchase price. The purchase price is immediately subtracted from the buyer's gold and is placed in escrow to prevent someone from offering to buy an item for which they do not have the gold. If the prospective buyer cancels the offer to buy, the gold is returned to the buyer. A seller enters the reverse auction house, sees the item, quantity, and price and decides to make the sell. The seller takes the item in hand, and "drops" in a "purchase/sell" box next to the purchaser's offer to buy. This assures the seller's item exactly matches the buyer's description and quantity. The seller than receives the gold from the escrow account, minus appropriate goblin taxes. The item is placed in the purchaser's storage.

I can think of one problem with this. A seller could sell an item from Andol, which not many players can reach yet. Guess the purchaser would also have to list the required purchase location, such as Stonhad, or perhaps the reverse auction house could be limited to Stronhad.

The reverse auction house would also have to check to make sure the item being sold was not soul bound, and if an epic item, that the seller has the necessary virtues. Oh, and of course, that the purchaser and seller have a paid account.

Now for the more complicated portion, to wit, item description. There are thousands of items in this game, if you count all of the various tiers of resources, potions, gems, runes and items of equipment. The purchaser's item description would have to exactly match an item description, or the system will not work. The easiest solution would be for the game to provide a picture database in the reverse auction house (sorted as per the existing auction house) to allow the purchaser to choose the exact item by right clicking its picture. This probably is not difficult programming, but could easily be time consuming to program properly. The other solution would be to provide a search feature that could parse the purchaser's description to find the exact item, or perhaps a list of similar items, allowing the purchaser to then choose the appropriate item. This would seem to be more trouble to program.

I'd love to see this added, but because of the additional programming required, I don't expect to see it any time soon.

TJ

[Darkdingus]

The list of items is already present in the game. Adding an extra interface that adds all those items wouldn't be that complicated to program.
The "Reverse Auction House" would simply be divided into two categories: Buyers, and Sellers.

The "Buyers" part would only contain all the offers by different players.
The "Sellers" part would contain a list of all available items (could be limited to rares/epics and resources though, to limit size). Right-Clicking on an item would prompt the menu "Place into auction".

Totally agree about the "Buyers would lose the gold until they come back to auction to claim it back"

The more serious problem would be adding a location requirement. THIS would be hardcore coding.

To circumvent this problem, an inelegant-yet-easy-to-code alternative: When someone wants to sell an item, it prompts a trade window with the gold already set, and item choosable by the othar party. (this last part would eliminate the need to choose "which" item that corresponds to the demand in his list to sell: he'd just pick one)

This would mean that AFK players couldn't use the reverse auction.
It wouldn't pull anyone out of combat, it would just wait for the person to go ooc.

The other "easy" alternative to choosing the item would be for it to only affect items already in auction (adding the option to auction for "0" to only put up for reverse auction)

If the person receiving the item doesn't like the item's location, he'd simply refuse the trade.

[Jadakris]

I support this idea, aswell as the idea that's been floating around for years about being able to buy a select number of resources out of someones stacks..

[Huggles]

Thank you everyone for your support!

I hope that Glitchless has seen this idea, and if he doesn't want to make it either because he dislikes it or thinks it will be too much work it would be nice if he could tell us.

[Nurvus]

Maybe you could have these steps...

Offer Tab:
- List of items (same as AH but no repetitions)
- List of towns you're willing to pick the item up from. EDIT:
Idea #1: Select a town like "Stronhad (T2)", or "Any"
Idea #2: Checkboxes for multiple choices... unlikely xD
Idea #3: Two options: "This Town" or "Any Town".
- Insert Amount
- Insert Gold
- EDIT: (Huggles Idea): Insert Items from your Inventory as part of your offer. (Example: TC's)
- It tells you how much Gold you're offering per item and asks you to confirm.
- Removes that Gold from your possession until you Cancel or succeed in your purchase

Sell Tab:
- Browses items (same as AH)
- Checks what offers are being made for that item
- Optional Extra: View all offers for Non-Soulbound items you have in your storage that you can sell (and have virtues for)
- Pick 1 Offer
- Confirm/Accept
- Item removed from your inventory and you receive the gold

Deals Tab:
- Lists of offers made by you
- "Successful" offers display a clickable "Claim", wich opens a loot window.
- EDIT: "Ongoing" offers display a clickable "Cancel", wich cancels the offer and claims the Gold back.
...

This means 3 tabs to work this... we could call it Marketplace.

[Darkdingus]

Adding the "choose town" part is what that would add much more coding the game doesn't already have a workaround for. Best option would be making the offer for the town you're in only. (or your current gate town if we want to make this option useable outside of town)

I just found a flaw in this system. Not much, but it would make a player able to own over 25M gold. Have to think about that.

Other than that, I agree with your offer tab.

Nothing to say about your sell tab. You pretty much summed it up

About the deals tab: Adding it as a loot table. Brilliant! However, I'd simply add this: Make the "claim" part of a menu (a la AH), and make it so claiming an offer that hasn't been completed simply claims your gold back.

[Nurvus]

The Deals tab would either display Claim or Cancel.
Cancel would... cancel it and get the Gold back.
Claim would mean the gold is gone, and someone sold u the item, meaning you click to open loot window and grab the item.

I don't get the flaw you're talking about.
You offer a certain amount of gold.
Someone checks your offer, if they like your offer, they sell the item.
The goblin tax would apply.
You'd need a paid account like with normal AH in order to use this.

Sure I agree that it could limit you to the town you're in, or have two options: "This Town" or "Any Town".

Edited/Added to my previous post to reflect what you said.

[Darkdingus]

The "Flaw" I was talking about was for someone making an offer no one would accept a few times, thus losing gold. This would let the person accumulate more gold than the current cap, essentially "storing" the gold inside the marketplace.

As a side note, I'd add the goblin tax to even the cancelled auctions (the gobs charge for taking care of your money for so long without getting their grubby little paws on it)

[Jadakris]

I would still rather see it so you can buy resources in single numbers out of stacks or in selected numbers! No offense, simply don't feel like reading suggestions that have probably already been there.. Cause if Glitch likes the idea hes going to implament it the way he wants anyhow.. which is probably the best anyhow!

FILTERDODGE ****ERS!

[Brother]

If there's any change or only one change that comes to the AH from this thread, I'd like to see the option to buy smaller numbers out of larger stacks of resources.

[Jadakris]

<happy dance>

I haz good ideas!

[Nurvus]

Originally Posted by Darkdingus

The "Flaw" I was talking about was for someone making an offer no one would accept a few times, thus losing gold. This would let the person accumulate more gold than the current cap, essentially "storing" the gold inside the marketplace.

As a side note, I'd add the goblin tax to even the cancelled auctions (the gobs charge for taking care of your money for so long without getting their grubby little paws on it)

Or maybe the gold offered in the Marketplace would count towards the Gold Cap, and you would see something like:

950.000 Gold

When you hover the mouse you'd see:
(Total 50.000 Gold Offered in the Marketplace)

Meaning your total gold is 1.000.000 (regarding the cap)

[Huggles]

Originally Posted by Nurvus

Or maybe the gold offered in the Marketplace would count towards the Gold Cap, and you would see something like:

950.000 Gold

When you hover the mouse you'd see:
(Total 50.000 Gold Offered in the Marketplace)

Meaning your total gold is 1.000.000 (regarding the cap)

^ good idea

[Darkdingus]

I wasn't saying it was an over-the-top limit, just not to forget about this possible bug before it happens.

Still, I fully support both ideas of this thread
- Reverse auction
- Buying part of an auction instead of the full stack.

[Huggles]

Originally Posted by Darkdingus

I wasn't saying it was an over-the-top limit, just not to forget about this possible bug before it happens.

Still, I fully support both ideas of this thread
- Reverse auction
- Buying part of an auction instead of the full stack.

you forgot the part about free cookies

[Huggles]

[Zur]

I only read the first four (im on my phone) but I like it. \o/

[Zur]

And huggles, quit stealing my gimmick

[Huggles]

Originally Posted by zur

and huggles, quit stealing my gimmick

y u no share gimmick?

[Huggles]

bump