Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pack?

[Metalstorm]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I'm on the fence with this one.

On one side I like the idea because it would help the shoppes that are not located in Luna.
There are a lot of good vendors that see no trade because they are far off the main track.

On the other side, I too would be worried like Wenchkin that the resellers with all the gold would buy out all the deals before us paupers could get there and the prices would be jacked up even more in the exclusive Luna club.

 

[shulginist]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

On the other side, I too would be worried like Wenchkin that the resellers with all the gold would buy out all the deals before us

Resellers already do this and I would say resellers have more runes to off the beaten path vendors then anyone else so that would just even things out.

 

[Dermott of LS]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

...

The whole "buyout" scenario can and will happen in a centralized system... take the Auction House(s) that other games use, I personally in a game with an AH do this for a while, I'll pick a resource, decide on my price point and "play the floor" which is a sub-game in and of itself.

However such a system is ALWAYS fluid and someone who goes too high will be under bid by someone inching the amounts lower.

Just as it take patience to find the "right deal" in the vendor system, the same holds true in a centralized system, just in a different way.

And if you think about it, you have the same thing happening already, except instead of having the entire game available to reset the prices, the items are found and purchased in the same way by the Luna vendors and resold there (with the added benefit of the external search sites). All an internal search system does is widen the playing field, thus more legitimate competition.

 

[Millie]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

No....!!!!

 

[shulginist]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

No....!!!!

Reasoning?

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

NO. The corrupters of UO Economy would use it to their advantage.

Corruption has a strangle hold on UO's economy. Too many are in cahoots with the illegal websites in return for discounts for registered members. It has already damaged the game beyond repair. EA should sell UO GOLD and in-Game Items for real US$$$ if just to be able to keep the game running and staff paid.

Meanwhile the honest player needs to have a good workable ADVERTISING METHOD without making it easy for Luna's fixed-pricing Vendors to buy-out Vendors with lower priced items to resell at higher prices in Luna or anywhere else for that matter. Which is what happens anyhow amongst the regular players who aren't affiliated with the illegal marketeering.

Having a search engine of any sort giving the locations of other shops scattered around the shards, outside of Luna would open the doors to more houses being built outside of Luna City and run by illegal marketers. Right now they have it all under their control in the City and like it that way.

The best solution I can come up with, is for players to take the bull by the horn and supply fully charged Rune books loaded with runes to shops they have found that are good, and lock them down on their doorsteps. If everyone had a mail box, then players trying to advertise their shops could go to other vendor shops outside of Luna City and pass their runes on to the other vendors to advertise their shops too.
Of course that means everyone co-operating with each other. *oh yeh!*

UO could open a building in HAVEN, a type of universal Vendor Shop Location Library...where all players with vendors can drop runes off - to be put into rune books accessible to everyone. If not in rune books, runes to shops advertising wares, stacked, so each rune can be seen and recalled from with scrolls bought from an NPC mage.

Something like that.

But an official UO Vendor Search that makes it easier for illegal websites to use to track down lower prices? Not sure that's a good idea. And as I said above, it would lead to numerous new vendor houses outside of town, run by -- guess who.

Perhaps it is better to make those guys work at checking out the status of numerous runes in books scattered amongst vendor shops than to hand them the information on a golden plater called "UO VENDOR SEARCH".

It seems impossible to control but let's hope something comes up that works FOR improving UO.

 

[Smoot]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Just explore the world and mark runes when needed.

Make me. I don't care if you want to be some kind of masochist who spends hours and hours running around looking at vendors, but you need to realize you're not normal.

"No I'm not Skrag, lots of people love doing this!"

Yeah, that's why search sites exist in the first place and Luna vendors can get away with charging double, right? Because everyone is just like you and hates convenience?

Ill say it again this is just a bad idea for UO for so many reasons. i could mention how it would harm the economy, harm the "community" aspect that is supposed to be the heart of the game, harm new players by making prices even out to all be around what luna charges right now.

Luna prices are high because people will pay a premium specifically to AVOID having to run all over the world marking runes. Ditch the running around and prices will fall, because now those Luna vendors can't charge for convenience.

I get your point, but i think everyone here is looking at this option in an overly simplified way. Anyone whos ever even taken just economics 101 knows that this system would bring up a multitude of factors, some competing against each other.

Yes it would be more convenient for all. But luna and the "easy access" locations would still have highest prices unless an actual gate / rune system were set up. As others have said buyouts could and would happen more than they do now. The "average joe" might make a bit more gold from vendors, thus allowing him to purchase other goods for more gold, thus inflating the market even more. Result -prices just rise higher. This is only one of many factors that this system would bring about.

Luna prices Wont decrease. Non luna prices will only be able to increase. If you like this or not is a matter of opinion.

Theres so many ways to work a system when its all right there in front of you. For example, say i wanted to raise the price on something. List something on a few vendors for 10 times what its worth. People wouldnt buy this stuff, but it would raise the overall price by maybe 20-30 percent. Then i could list the rest of what i wanted to sell for a little less than that.

The online "real money" sites that sell gold and items sell items for many times what theyre worth in game. This also drives up prices, but the difference is that they will continue to operate even if prices rise overall. Say there are 5 slithers for sale. RLM site buys them all so that they have a better chance of selling them online, while also keeping the ingame price up.
Ive noticed that every once in a while lots and lots of items from luna disappear, crap the online sites sell easily, not rares and stuff. Thats why you can list something for triple what its worth and have it eventually sell. As we all know many newer players buy gold, and items. The sites have such a large profit margin that they will continue to pay large amounts of gold for an item. The difference is that now the online sites will have a larger pool to buy from. And this system would never eliminate those sites. Players without gold will always buy gold, and items. The rlm sites wont just go away, theyll adapt like any other business.

In the end prices Will go up.

In a massive economy this wouldnt be the case, yes prices would go down. But in the relatively small economy of an online game, Greatly affected now by rlm sites, prices would only go up.

Now i really dont care one way or the other, i dont buy much, i dont sell much, but if players think that its as simple as being able to type in something they need or want, then go buy it, well, its just not. Really, people have written entire books on this kind of thing.

 

[Skrag]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

The "average joe" might make a bit more gold from vendors, thus allowing him to purchase other goods for more gold, thus inflating the market even more. Result -prices just rise higher. This is only one of many factors that this system would bring about.

I quit reading right here. I'm not having a seventeen-paragraph economics debate with someone who fails on such a basic level.

If your average John Q. Banksitter sells a vendor item and becomes 1 million gold richer, that means some OTHER banksitter is now 1 million gold poorer. The total amount of gold in circulation hasn't changed and inflation isn't affected in any important way. What causes inflation are things that DO increase the amount of gold in circulation, namely thirteen years of monster farming plus whatever duping has been done over the years.

That's the problem with this board. Everyone has an opinion, but no one knows what they're talking about. In one of the High Seas threads I had to correct someone who thought expensive player-to-player transactions caused deflation by serving as a gold sink. Now in this thread someone thinks they cause inflation by acting as a gold faucet.

Protip: They don't do either of those things.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Right on the mark, Smoot! People become economists and make it a life time study. So...

For what it's worth, on Sonoma, I have once again started supplying RECOMMENDED SHOP Rune Books locked down on the steps of The TOWER located OUTSIDE Luna's North Exit on Sonoma. Arctic Gardens will also have those. And I shall run about the shard marking good player vendors if I can find any. But anyone starting up a vendor house might find this useful.
Players can drop runes to their vendor locations in the MAIL BOX *to be put in the books by the House Owner* The Rune books are accessible to anyone. All dropped off runes will be checked to be sure they are authentic locations and safe. Thanks.

Skrag -no one is perfect. You should read the whole message and all the others and not try be so superior. There is no answer to the problem. Or do you have one?

 

[DENNAR]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I've voted for yes, It should be provided through a publish. However a gate to the vendor is too easy, A simple map or coordinates would do.

Exactly my point. Allow me to quote myself

At the town hall meeting it has been said (by Derek I think) that a global vendor search, like some websites are offering for the luna region, is interesting but need some careful consideration as not to lessen the worth of certain real estate.

So I have been thinking: how about some central search point ingame, that allows you to search globally for an item. The results are then listed by vendor name and price. You pick one and a map is dropped into your backpack that shows the area of the vendor and a pin, where the vendor is located.

You would still have to find the region and think about how to get there, so vendor houses in town or near towns or moongates would still have a higher value than a house far off in the woods. But the ones in the woods would still have the possibility to lure customers to their shop by discounts.

With the addition of the new randomized treasure map system, there's obviously some code that allows to generate a partial map of any area of the overall map. All you (read: the devs) have to do, is to feed that routine with the vendor coordinates instead of randomly generated t-map coordinates.

Apart from that, the devs "only" need to implement the search, which would only be a database query in a perfect world and some parsing algorythm in a less perfect world. If an "on-the-fly" approach is to slow, the items could be index during maintance. This would mean the search results could be as old as 23 hours, but I think we could live with that. The search could be accessed by a bulletin board or a map at a certain point ingame or at the banks. Even cooler imho, would be some NPC at the merchants guild like 'Ted the Archivar' who lets you browse his documents and maps for a small fee (50gp?) and the hands you the appropriate vendor map. But that's details...

To summarize: I think that using t-map like vendor maps as a result of a global search should address all major concerns about a global search while posing a manageable amount of coding for the devs.

Someone should have asked Derek what the heck does he think happened to all other property in UO when Luna was made? Every shop outside of Luna was drastically effected. The search engine would help make them all equal again.

Did the guy ever see UO before Luna?

 

[UOKaiser]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Sure why not. It make it easier for us resellers to find and buy out all the venders that sell too cheap in the shard and resell at a better rate. We do this now but it takes a while to search the outside lands. I don't mind it I find it fun finding a out of way place that sell wanted items way below market value. But this way it should only take a me a few minutes to find them and get to them. I've being handling the competition just fine from the other resellers. Just wont have my nice shops I like to get things from anymore without competiting with other resellers but I still have my player to player buys and help out the others in clearing out the undercutting shops.

Its all good especialy knowing I will be able to charge more between cost and sale and spend less time with such a system in place.

 

[WarderDragon]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Years ago I would have said no. But now its implementation seems ... common sense.

As for emulators? These people have borrowed code that doesn't belong to them and in doing so have created some unique worlds based on Ultima. It is long past time the developers visited some of these shards and stole these ideas for the the Production Shards.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

NO. The corrupters of UO Economy would use it to their advantage.

Corruption has a strangle hold on UO's economy. Too many are in cahoots with the illegal websites in return for discounts for registered members.

*Mind-numbing paranoia snipped for sanity’s sake*

Wow. You think everyone in Luna is in cahoots with the search sites? Really? This will be news to several people I know with vendors there…

Seriously, that’s just stupid. There is corruption in UO, that’s a given. However, there is no Machiavellian scheme to corner the market in UO widgets. People use the search sites for one reason: CONVENIENCE.

Say I want to find the best price on Imbuing SoTs… Would I realistically want to spend several hours of my play time searching each individual vendor in Luna/Zento/Yew Gate area, let alone wandering the wilderness hoping to stumble on a vendor carrying them? Simple answer: NO. Would I want to hop from “recommended” shop to “recommended” shop in the hopes that they have one at a decent price? Simple answer: NO.

Dear god, what if I wanted items in bulk? Sorry, like many people I don’t want to spend hours shopping in UO. It’s not real life.

The paranoid fantasy that the search sites would put vendor houses EVERYWHERE just to control the prices of items is…well…laughable. Could they do such a thing? It’s possible, but then anyone could do the same thing.

As for in-game vendor “advertising”… HELL. NO. “Thank you for using the Moonglow Moongate, brought to you today by Acme’s House of Gadgets just west of the Zoo!” The book/rune litter is bad enough, thanks.

Yes it would be more convenient for all. But luna and the "easy access" locations would still have highest prices unless an actual gate / rune system were set up. As others have said buyouts could and would happen more than they do now. The "average joe" might make a bit more gold from vendors, thus allowing him to purchase other goods for more gold, thus inflating the market even more. Result -prices just rise higher. This is only one of many factors that this system would bring about.

Or this could have the exact opposite effect and stabilize the economy… Yes, I agree that someone could snap up some resource on the cheap and resell it for more, but after all, that is economics. Assuming that this is going to immediately inflate the prices on other items is less realistic.

Right now, the Luna and Zento vendors can set whatever prices on things they want because they have two key factors in a stranglehold.

1) Location density(Convenience)
2) Only “advertising” (search sites)

Even if the illegal search sites are killed, Luna/Zento vendors still have the location density going for them. Luna is a mall, not a city. Why continue to encourage this?

With an in-game vendor search system it helps level the playing field for all players. The Luna/Zento vendors would still have the convenience edge (as would any moongate assessable shop), but they would no longer have the monopoly on advertising. Now, a tiny shop on the outskirts of Minoc might be able to attract some customers because they are selling some random item at a bargain basement price.

Say you were looking for the Imbuing SoT I mentioned earlier. The in-game vendor search says there is a .7 in Luna for 500K, and a .7 at that shop outside Minoc for 250K. Hmm. Luna has the convenience factor – you know where it is, easy to find. However, the Minoc shop has the lower price, but is slightly “harder” to get to. What is your time worth to you? What is your gold worth to you?

Luna prices Wont decrease. Non luna prices will only be able to increase. If you like this or not is a matter of opinion.

Theres so many ways to work a system when its all right there in front of you. For example, say i wanted to raise the price on something. List something on a few vendors for 10 times what its worth. People wouldnt buy this stuff, but it would raise the overall price by maybe 20-30 percent. Then i could list the rest of what i wanted to sell for a little less than that.

Possible. Again, that’s called economics. Luna prices might stay the same, that’s the convenience factor. Yet now, we’d know about all the other shops on the shard and Luna may find they get less business. What happens when shops find that their stock doesn’t sell well? They lower the price.

At least in theory.

Prices could skyrocket into the stratosphere…or not. We simply don’t know. But keeping the status quo only helps those in Luna to get richer while everyone outside it ‘scrapes by.’

The online "real money" sites that sell gold and items sell items for many times what theyre worth in game. This also drives up prices, but the difference is that they will continue to operate even if prices rise overall. Say there are 5 slithers for sale. RLM site buys them all so that they have a better chance of selling them online, while also keeping the ingame price up.

Ive noticed that every once in a while lots and lots of items from luna disappear, crap the online sites sell easily, not rares and stuff. Thats why you can list something for triple what its worth and have it eventually sell. As we all know many newer players buy gold, and items. The sites have such a large profit margin that they will continue to pay large amounts of gold for an item. The difference is that now the online sites will have a larger pool to buy from. And this system would never eliminate those sites. Players without gold will always buy gold, and items. The rlm sites wont just go away, theyll adapt like any other business.

Oy with a side of vey.

You do realize that an in-game search would render most of the search sites (of which there are what, two?) rather redundant? Why go there to search for things when you can do it in real time in game? I wouldn’t bother with a clunky website that could be incorrect, down, or otherwise FUBARed.

Yes, those websites could still sell gold and items…and they probably will. So what? Some people prefer to get things this way, regardless of what others may think of it. Ultimately these sites are for Mythic to tackle with things like cease and desist orders.

In the end prices Will go up.

In a massive economy this wouldnt be the case, yes prices would go down. But in the relatively small economy of an online game, Greatly affected now by rlm sites, prices would only go up.

Now i really dont care one way or the other, i dont buy much, i dont sell much, but if players think that its as simple as being able to type in something they need or want, then go buy it, well, its just not. Really, people have written entire books on this kind of thing.

Prices might go up…then again, they might not. Neither of us has a crystal ball, but we do have UO history. We know Luna decimated vendor sales elsewhere when it was introduced. We have watched prices steadily increase as people try to pack in more vendors and homeowners jack up the rentals. Sometimes a deal can be found there, usually not.

When the Dev Team has to stop to consider “devaluing” virtual real estate because of vendors, we know we have a problem. They shouldn’t be looking to protect a virtual business elite’s stranglehold on what little economy UO has to its name. Every player’s vendor is equally important, regardless of location. It’s time to end the aristocratic nonsense about owning a home there.

 

[Lord Urza]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

NO!

I think this would be an aweful thing to do, It is bad enough that vending has been pushed into the confines of luna, if you dont own a luna vendor you might as well not even bother Atm.

I miss the days when there were "gate shops" and shops threwout the land.
The search sites are bad enough I would like to see them unable to display items in luna ( not because i want to jack my prices up and get rich, I allready am...in game), but because i would like to see UO get back to being more realistic and that has been going down hill since the brit invasion that pushed everyone into "box town" aka luna.

I would love to see all of the shops in luna, and the stable closed down, so that people would have a reason to go to the other towns in sosaria again.

UO needs to start being UO again.

 

[Lord Urza]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

When the Dev Team has to stop to consider “devaluing” virtual real estate because of vendors, we know we have a problem. They shouldn’t be looking to protect a virtual business elite’s stranglehold on what little economy UO has to its name. Every player’s vendor is equally important, regardless of location. It’s time to end the aristocratic nonsense about owning a home there.

I own a Luna gate house, and I agree 100%
I dont care if my luna house becomes worth nothing, I would rather see the above issue addressed!

 

[Babble]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Years ago I would have said no. But now its implementation seems ... common sense.

As for emulators? These people have borrowed code that doesn't belong to them and in doing so have created some unique worlds based on Ultima. It is long past time the developers visited some of these shards and stole these ideas for the the Production Shards.

They have been doing so for quite some time

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

For what it's worth, on Sonoma, I have once again started supplying RECOMMENDED SHOP Rune Books locked down on the steps of The TOWER located OUTSIDE Luna's North Exit on Sonoma. Arctic Gardens will also have those. And I shall run about the shard marking good player vendors if I can find any. But anyone starting up a vendor house might find this useful.

A worthless gesture that simply holds UO down in an archaic system that needs to change.

There is no answer to the problem. Or do you have one?

There's an easy solution to the problem, a vendor search system with recall/sj to.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

NO!

I think this would be an aweful thing to do, It is bad enough that vending has been pushed into the confines of luna, if you dont own a luna vendor you might as well not even bother Atm.

Its BECAUSE of people like you saying no that has caused the luna vendors to become so massively popular.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Sure why not. It make it easier for us resellers to find and buy out all the venders that sell too cheap in the shard and resell at a better rate.

Which is a good thing for everyone.

People get their stuff sold and people will be able to buy things cheaper as the sellers will compete with a larger amount of items.

Its all good especialy knowing I will be able to charge more between cost and sale and spend less time with such a system in place.

Which is again a good thing for everyone.

 

[Elric_Soban]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I've been waiting years for this one. The only ones opposed to this are the luna vendors. Sorry you overpriced peices of ****, as soon as UO joins the rest of the MMO world with this change, your stupidity is over.

Sure why not. It make it easier for us resellers to find and buy out all the venders that sell too cheap in the shard and resell at a better rate.

Good luck with that. When people start seeing things priced lower, they will probably refuse to pay your inflated prices. That, and there is **SOO** much stuff on the shard that people would sell but they cant right now.. that would suddenly pop up for sale. I don't think even all the rich resellers on the shard combined could afford to pay for all the reasonably priced stuff that will start appearing. Youl be overwhelmed, and people will still easily be able to buy things at proper prices.. leaving you behind in the dust.

Come to think of it, wouldn't it be great if you could choose to put a "Not for resale" property on an item when it goes up on the market, preventing it from ever again being placed on a vendor/market?

 

[Elric_Soban]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

There's an easy solution to the problem, a vendor search system with recall/sj to.

Oh it's much simpler than that. Buy from right inside the search list. Item appears in your pack/bank. No need to even own a house. Right click on item to sell, get the context menu.. "Sell on open market".. gump appears, you input price.. item vanishes. Appears in searchable database. Or maybe it stays in your pack, hued and unusable to prevent storage exploiting. Who knows. But you get the idea.

 

[Metalstorm]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I've been swayed over to wanting a search engine.
After thinking it over I've concluded that the good outweighs the bad.

I think though that it would be best to only get the price, the name of the shop and the coordinates. No gates magically appearing.

One should have to physically travel there. Once there you could mark a rune for future visits.

Maybe one day rune libraries will open a "vendor" section

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Oh it's much simpler than that. Buy from right inside the search list. Item appears in your pack/bank. No need to even own a house. Right click on item to sell, get the context menu.. "Sell on open market".. gump appears, you input price.. item vanishes. Appears in searchable database. Or maybe it stays in your pack, hued and unusable to prevent storage exploiting. Who knows. But you get the idea.

Well, that would remove the whole vendor system entirely, which I am not a fan of. There should still be a reason to go visit vendor houses and interact with vendors.

But the essence of the idea is right enough.

 

[canary]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

No one will pay 14.99 for something you can find for free currently. Okay, maybe three or four people will, but that's it.

TBH I firmly believe we right now have more capable/ competent people outside of UO doing things than inside the dev team. That's pretty telling.

My opinion it should be officially put in game as a publish, not a booster.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

No one will pay 14.99 for something you can find for free currently. Okay, maybe three or four people will, but that's it.

TBH I firmly believe we right now have more capable/ competent people outside of UO doing things than inside the dev team. That's pretty telling.

My opinion it should be officially put in game as a publish, not a booster.

You can only search Luna right now, this would allow you to search all over the world.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

A worthless gesture that simply holds UO down in an archaic system that needs to change.
There's an easy solution to the problem, a vendor search system with recall/sj to.

Wow. You think everyone in Luna is in cahoots with the search sites? Really? This will be news to several people I know with vendors there…[/unquote]

It's easy to criticize.
"an Archaic System that needs to change" Seriously. What game are you playing?

There are far easier solutions: Here's one of them:

Set seige to LUNA CITY and burn it up - somewhat the same as what happened to Magincia.
(Developers get such creative ideas!)

Then perhaps set up something central where Players can advertise their shops, be it rune books on vendor shop steps advertising other shops and/or a Central Library for such, - in a place like HAVEN.

ps: I own a large Luna Shop
.. and I love playing this game even when that means spending time out- - from harvesting uber in-game items .. to run around the country looking for better priced vendors which at present, are NOT to be found easily.

 

[Tjalle]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Come to think of it, wouldn't it be great if you could choose to put a "Not for resale" property on an item when it goes up on the market, preventing it from ever again being placed on a vendor/market?

I like this idea.

 

[Old Man of UO]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

NO!

I think this would be an aweful thing to do, It is bad enough that vending has been pushed into the confines of luna, if you dont own a luna vendor you might as well not even bother Atm.
...
I would love to see all of the shops in luna, and the stable closed down, so that people would have a reason to go to the other towns in sosaria again.
....

I think it's a great idea, and would do what you are asking for. A global search engine would reduce the need to have a vendor in Luna, and make remote vendors viable again. Now, unless you know exactly where a vendor is or find a rune dropped at a gate (which is a real pain in the butt to keep up with), you will never find a vendor in remote areas. If we could see what was on a non-Luna vendor and where that vendor was located it would improve buyer traffic for us poor country folk.

 

[Jade of Sonoma]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I agree with both Old Man of UO and Lord Urza.
Get to the root of the problem:

Shut down Luna City and it's central NPC shops/bank/moongate/stables

I vote: Burn Luna City Down!
But do it before installing a global search Engine (not a given choice to vote for in this thread)

 

[Smoot]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

No one will pay 14.99 for something you can find for free currently. Okay, maybe three or four people will, but that's it.

TBH I firmly believe we right now have more capable/ competent people outside of UO doing things than inside the dev team. That's pretty telling.

My opinion it should be officially put in game as a publish, not a booster.

Lots of people buy items, yes for much more rlm than the gold would be worth.
There were 3 or 4 people just in one guild i was in a few years back that regularly bought stuff. I mean, a pack of cigs is like 7 bucks, they rather spend that 7 bucks on pixels.

 

[UOKaiser]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I've been waiting years for this one. The only ones opposed to this are the luna vendors. Sorry you overpriced peices of ****, as soon as UO joins the rest of the MMO world with this change, your stupidity is over.



Good luck with that. When people start seeing things priced lower, they will probably refuse to pay your inflated prices. That, and there is **SOO** much stuff on the shard that people would sell but they cant right now.. that would suddenly pop up for sale. I don't think even all the rich resellers on the shard combined could afford to pay for all the reasonably priced stuff that will start appearing. Youl be overwhelmed, and people will still easily be able to buy things at proper prices.. leaving you behind in the dust.

Come to think of it, wouldn't it be great if you could choose to put a "Not for resale" property on an item when it goes up on the market, preventing it from ever again being placed on a vendor/market?

Doubtful I do this in luna already and it has a search engine. And no resell sign nothing will ever be sold as the people who usually buy are resellers there is not enough players in the lands to buy for themselves everyday from merchants. My main gold income is to sell to resellers. Individual buyers but 1 or 2 tings from me here and there but other resellers will buy all of it of my hands in moments.

Yea we can afford to buy all items we buy from all the shards. have you seen the low prices of these items even in luna? I can buy all of luna items everyday for a week by myself. With my guild which all got gold even the newbies that we've teached how to make gold we can do it year round and indefinetely if we continue selling what we buy. Which even if I go broke 1 day as long as I sell it next day I'll have more than i start with Now include every reseller in the shard and cross-shard trading resellers I don't think low prices will ever be a problem again.

 

[Llewen]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

It would need however a different collection method to what the illegal websites use so that it updates in real time.

It would be pretty simple, just have all items on vendors stored in a separate database or database table. That would make it dead easy for them to code search functions. Forget updating once every few hours, updating would be instantaneous and they could make the search functions as powerful and detailed as they like.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I agree with both Old Man of UO and Lord Urza.
Get to the root of the problem:

Shut down Luna City and it's central NPC shops/bank/moongate/stables

I vote: Burn Luna City Down!
But do it before installing a global search Engine (not a given choice to vote for in this thread)

Yeah, lets ruin the game more for the majority to satisfy a tiny minority.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

You are all forgetting

Just because it would be part of a booster, doesn't mean it would be the ONLY part of the booster. So they could easily release many other things as part of the booster.

 

[Nails]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

the current ones are great... having it in the hands of players/ sites that compete to make better sites/ search engines will always outdo what EA will come up with. Please don't waste your time on this devs if you read this. Fix bugs and provide more in game activities.

 

[Lord Chaos]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

the current ones are great... having it in the hands of players/ sites that compete to make better sites/ search engines will always outdo what EA will come up with. Please don't waste your time on this devs if you read this. Fix bugs and provide more in game activities.

The current sites are dismal and only generally covers Luna, which is bad for UO.

 

[Skrag]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Yea we can afford to buy all items we buy from all the shards. have you seen the low prices of these items even in luna? I can buy all of luna items everyday for a week by myself. With my guild which all got gold even the newbies that we've teached how to make gold we can do it year round and indefinetely if we continue selling what we buy. Which even if I go broke 1 day as long as I sell it next day I'll have more than i start with Now include every reseller in the shard and cross-shard trading resellers I don't think low prices will ever be a problem again.

Obvious Luna vendor trolling to try and protect his little monopoly. Let me break it down very simply. There is supply, and there is demand.

Adding a vendor search feature WILL increase the supply which is available to the average player, because now they can see the contents of hundreds of additional vendors without spending days roaming the forest.

Adding a vendor search feature WON'T create any additional demand. If you don't want to buy an Orny for 18 mil right now, a vendor search certainly isn't going to make you want to buy one from Kaiser for a higher price.

Even the level of economic understanding on display in this thread should be enough to tell me what happens when available supply increases but demand does not.

Hey Kaiser, since you're so rich why don't you buy out every item in Luna RIGHT NOW and put them all on your own vendor for a markup? After all, if everything sells you'll never run out of money!

Except everything won't sell, will it? Because if there were that much demand, every vendor in Luna would be perpetually sold out anyway. Prices are determined by how much people are willing to pay, and a vendor search feature won't magically make them willing to pay more. All it will do is give you more competition.

 

[Skrag]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

NO!

I think this would be an aweful thing to do, It is bad enough that vending has been pushed into the confines of luna, if you dont own a luna vendor you might as well not even bother Atm.

Everything is pushed into Luna because it's a convenient place to look at a lot of vendors at once. If you could look at even more vendors without going to Luna, say with some sort of vendor search feature, then Luna would no longer be special in any way.

Let me repeat myself.

Everything is pushed into Luna because it's a convenient place to look at a lot of vendors at once. If you could look at even more vendors without going to Luna, say with some sort of vendor search feature, then Luna would no longer be special in any way.

 

[unified]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Here's a thought...

I really am more concerned about finding something than I am about the prices. The middle ground might be to list vendors and items without listing the prices. I simply don't want to spend hours on foot endlessly searching, then giving up because I don't think the items I am looking for exists. I feel the very existense of vendor shops has been a super convenience for me. Prices, in my opinion, will never be adjusted to everyone's idea of fair. Besides, I don't know what the individual vendor went through to get some of the items in the first place.

Price is not a real matter to me when I am looking for quantity. If a Luna vendor has 10 of something that I want, I'd get it from them rather than go to a vendor who only has 5. Even if the smaller vendor is cheaper, I will not be able to get all that I need from them.

 

[UOKaiser]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Obvious Luna vendor trolling to try and protect his little monopoly. Let me break it down very simply. There is supply, and there is demand.

Adding a vendor search feature WILL increase the supply which is available to the average player, because now they can see the contents of hundreds of additional vendors without spending days roaming the forest.

Adding a vendor search feature WON'T create any additional demand. If you don't want to buy an Orny for 18 mil right now, a vendor search certainly isn't going to make you want to buy one from Kaiser for a higher price.

Even the level of economic understanding on display in this thread should be enough to tell me what happens when available supply increases but demand does not.

Hey Kaiser, since you're so rich why don't you buy out every item in Luna RIGHT NOW and put them all on your own vendor for a markup? After all, if everything sells you'll never run out of money!

Except everything won't sell, will it? Because if there were that much demand, every vendor in Luna would be perpetually sold out anyway. Prices are determined by how much people are willing to pay, and a vendor search feature won't magically make them willing to pay more. All it will do is give you more competition.

I do roam the lands and buy things that are cheap that I know i can resell. I Am for the vender feature so we both are in agreement. Should be agreeing with me. Just because you think the price is going to get cheaper will not make it so. As i know I will be able to buy out my competition quickly It sure will help me out. The real supplies in the outside lands have being moved to luna. Any merchant that consider themselves a merchant has rented a vender in luna. The rest of the things that don't sell well are kept in there merchant homes.

Most of my game is deal in reselling and crafting in UO so I should know the benefits and who has monopoly on what and how they accomplish it. No point in buying all of luna won't make gold on things that are higher than going prices or useless so I won't. There are things that sell and things that don't. Set prices for each one that changes because of market.

You not going to find 100 ornys to lower the prices. Right now there is 2 orny in luna at 18mil in luna. If you want a orny you need to buy it at that price or search. Someone comes along and sell it at 10mil using the vender search option buy out at 10 mil replace it at 17mil. He going to run out of ornys to sell at that price so people will be stuck buying at the reseller price or higher. At that price if I needed one I would have to buy it. But as a reseller It's not worth to buy at retail rate and will wait till I see something low enough like 9mil. Which was the going price of them some time ago. Then i'll resell it at 15mil or so. But it's way risky I would prefer to buy it at 5mil and sell at 9-10mil that would be a better guarantee.

Luna rental is about 20k-50k a week. Thats lets see 10-25 trogs a week? Could kill them in my sleep. If someone hasnt rented a spot yet in luna then thats there loss. Then putting a vender in there house at the outskirts of minoc is not going to change the fact that with a vender search option I'll be able to jump to them in moments buy them out and replace it at my house elsewhere. Unless they have unlimited item or duping to continue to push out the same product over and over then theres profit to be made from buying them out. If they are duping then that product will essentualy be a non buyable item for resellers untill the programming error is closed.

I am not the only one, Im in competition with resellers everyday. So buy outs will be done all the time. Look at my house away from sight I sell pof there for 90k-100k which I make myself and other things at lower than market value. I keep it stock and I sell these for resellers because they will always buy out my excess but I never advertise it. I sell my main stock for market price in Luna. Though with a search option my 90-100k pof will be bought up as soon as I place it so I know I will need to raise the price to market value. So will everyone else. Bad thing for the buyer but good thing for me and shop owners as we no longer need to lower prices on items because it be a while collecting vender fees before someone pops up. We can now raise prices to market level. "Market level=the price that people are willing to buy and afford." Which market level for POF is 150k-200k at the moment. Resellers and merchants have to be able to gauge the market at a moments notice to not lose gold.

Resellers don't concern with things that can't sell,are abundant, or has no use. So those things wont change in price. But the things that do work like powder,imbuing ingrediants,rares,new arties,event items,resources,etc.. depending on that particular resellers specialty will always be bought out if to cheap to resell.

Which once again my richness compare to others that associate with or compete with is nothing. With prices of a agapite hammer going to 750k from a seller that was advertising in chat these people can buy out the whole supply of agapite hammers in every single shard there is. Don't thing siege is safe either. My competition and allys have a strong hold there as well.

 

[Smoot]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Obvious Luna vendor trolling to try and protect his little monopoly. Let me break it down very simply. There is supply, and there is demand.

Adding a vendor search feature WILL increase the supply which is available to the average player, because now they can see the contents of hundreds of additional vendors without spending days roaming the forest.

Adding a vendor search feature WON'T create any additional demand. If you don't want to buy an Orny for 18 mil right now, a vendor search certainly isn't going to make you want to buy one from Kaiser for a higher price.

Even the level of economic understanding on display in this thread should be enough to tell me what happens when available supply increases but demand does not.

Hey Kaiser, since you're so rich why don't you buy out every item in Luna RIGHT NOW and put them all on your own vendor for a markup? After all, if everything sells you'll never run out of money!

Except everything won't sell, will it? Because if there were that much demand, every vendor in Luna would be perpetually sold out anyway. Prices are determined by how much people are willing to pay, and a vendor search feature won't magically make them willing to pay more. All it will do is give you more competition.

I do roam the lands and buy things that are cheap that I know i can resell. I Am for the vender feature so we both are in agreement. Should be agreeing with me. Just because you think the price is going to get cheaper will not make it so. As i know I will be able to buy out my competition quickly It sure will help me out. The real supplies in the outside lands have being moved to luna. Any merchant that consider themselves a merchant has rented a vender in luna. The rest of the things that don't sell well are kept in there merchant homes.

Most of my game is deal in reselling and crafting in UO so I should know the benefits and who has monopoly on what and how they accomplish it. No point in buying all of luna won't make gold on things that are higher than going prices or useless so I won't. There are things that sell and things that don't. Set prices for each one that changes because of market.

You not going to find 100 ornys to lower the prices. Right now there is 2 orny in luna at 18mil in luna. If you want a orny you need to buy it at that price or search. Someone comes along and sell it at 10mil using the vender search option buy out at 10 mil replace it at 17mil. He going to run out of ornys to sell at that price so people will be stuck buying at the reseller price or higher.

Luna rental is about 20k-50k a week. Thats lets see 10-25 trogs a week? Could kill them in my sleep. If someone hasnt rented a spot yet in luna then thats there loss. Then putting a vender in there house at the outskirts of minoc is not going to change the fact that with a vender search option I'll be able to jump to them in moments buy them out and replace it at my house elsewhere. Unless they have unlimited orny or duping to continue to push out the same prodoct over and over then theres profit to be made from buying them out. If they are duping then that product will essentualy be a non buyable item for resellers untill the programming error is closed.

I am not the only one, Im in competition with resellers everyday. So buy outs will be done all the time. Look at my house away from sight I sell pof there for 90k-100k which I make myself and other things at lower than market value. I keep it stock and I sell these for resellers because they will always buy out my excess but I never advertise it. I sell my main stock for market price in Luna. Though with a search option my 90-100k pof will be bought up as soon as I place it so I know I will need to raise the price to market value. So will everyone else. Bad thing for the buyer but good thing for me and shop owners as we no longer need to lower prices on items because it be a while collecting vender fees before someone pops up. We can now raise prices to market level. "Market level=the price that people are willing to buy and afford." Which market level for POF is 150k-200k at the moment. Resellers and merchants have to be able to gauge the market at a moments notice to not lose gold.

Resellers don't concern with things that can't sell,are abundant, or has no use. So those things wont change in price. But the things that do work like powder,imbuing ingrediants,rares,new arties,event items,resources,etc.. depending on that particular resellers specialty will always be bought out if to cheap to resell.

Which once again my richness compare to others that associate with or compete with is nothing. With prices of a agapite hammer going to 750k from a seller that was advertising in chat these people can buy out the whole supply of agapite hammers in every single shard there is. Don't thing siege is safe either. My competition and allys have a strong hold there as well.

This is why i said the proposed system would be bad for the game. Not that i would personally oppose it, it would just make things more expensive for everyone in the long run.

And seriously, this thread is fun but its really not ever gonna happen. Devs cant get a dye tub to work right, imagine a whole new system. Devs Please just work on fixing whats already in the game!

 

[UOKaiser]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

This is why i said the proposed system would be bad for the game. Not that i would personally oppose it, it would just make things more expensive for in the long run.

And seriously, this thread is fun but its really not ever gonna happen. Devs cant get a dye tub to work right, imagine a whole new system. Devs Please just work on fixing whats already in the game!

It's a weird thing in my position. i am for the system cause finaly prices will be brought up to good levels. But I think of UO in the whole and it probably will be detrimental with players that haven't learned how to make gold in the game. And we all know UO needs the players. But I won't complain either way. Do or don't I can adjust as long as we still have players.
But for all thats holy no more booster packs for common functions!!!

 

[Skrag]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

This is why i said the proposed system would be bad for the game. Not that i would personally oppose it, it would just make things more expensive for in the long run.

Hey chuckles, do you still think players are going to make money from their vendors and cause inflation, or did you read my post?

Luna prices are already as high as anyone thinks they can get away with charging. Nobody cares what Kaiser buys out because nobody is roaming the woods searching for that crap ANYWAY. Nobody except for a couple of crazy people in this thread who don't realize they're the only ones, and that this is why search sites exist in the first place.

If you decide you need a 120 magery, you're not going to roam the forest for the next two years hoping to find a cheap one on some forgotten vendor somewhere. You're going to go to Luna and pay market price. That isn't going to change.

Except with a vendor search feature I'll actually be able to find all the OTHER stuff I want, even if it's not in Luna.

 

[unified]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

I do roam the lands and buy things that are cheap that I know i can resell. I Am for the vender feature so we both are in agreement. Should be agreeing with me. Just because you think the price is going to get cheaper will not make it so. As i know I will be able to buy out my competition quickly It sure will help me out. The real supplies in the outside lands have being moved to luna. Any merchant that consider themselves a merchant has rented a vender in luna. The rest of the things that don't sell well are kept in there merchant homes.

Thanks, UOKaiser. Your explanation proves a valid point. While others may not agree with your methods, it is an actual matter of fact of capitalism that exists in reality.

In contrast, I could care less where or how a vendor got his/her items, although I will certainly frown on something that is marked up 10x what it is probably worth. I just want to find the items. I don't want to walk the whole of Sosaria looking in vain, listening to grandfather clocks, cats screeching, and dogs barking to add to my frustration. I don't do a lot of price comparisons. Even with the search site I use, I will generally go to the first shop that has the item I am looking for. I will not spend a great deal of time looking at the search results and, unless there is a HUGE price difference that catches my eye on the same page, I will not waste time pinching pennies.

I do mark runes for vendors I find while hunting overland. Even so, I spend a good deal of time recalling around searching each of them for things. This does get tiresome.

 

[Smoot]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Current situation: A non high profile vendor lists 10 seeds of renewel for 800k.
Reseller buys and sells for 1.2 mil, or a player who will actual use them buys them for the 800k.

Global search system: A non high profile lists 10 seeds of renewel for 1.1 mil, seeing that luna price is 1.2mil.
Reseller buys at 1.1 mil, and resells all at 1.5 mil. Or a player who will use them pays 1.1 mil.

There would be competition among resellers, but not much, its to sellers advantage to not bring prices down too much. I personally know people who have many vendors, and put a few items listed for very very high prices, so that their lower priced vendor (already high end price) will look like its cheap.


Like i said before, and Kaiser has said most people who already have plenty of gold dont really care if this system ever happens or not. Its the newer less established players that it would affect.


That being said, theres the almighty UO bugs. What would be really funny is if this system caused so many bugs with vendors that people couldn't even use them

 

[Smoot]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

And Skrag, before i didnt care about gold, yes, i did "roam the lands." I knew i wanted to get say a 120 swords, and would just keep an eye out for a cheap price. After maybe a few weeks id find one. I didnt spend hours running from vendor to vendor checking them all ocd style, just checking as i did other things that happened to take me past vendors.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

A worthless gesture that simply holds UO down in an archaic system that needs to change.

There's an easy solution to the problem, a vendor search system with recall/sj to.

You are all forgetting

Just because it would be part of a booster, doesn't mean it would be the ONLY part of the booster. So they could easily release many other things as part of the booster.

Honestly, no to the notion of this as a booster. High Seas has been a critical failure. Nearly everything said at the Town Hall was a poorly calculated lie. Not only did the booster completely stop all other progress from the Devs during its creation, it has taken up nearly all their time since to fix the horribly broken features.

Until the Dev Team is large enough to actually manage parallel development: Boosters = BAD IDEA

I do roam the lands and buy things that are cheap that I know i can resell. I Am for the vender feature so we both are in agreement. Should be agreeing with me. Just because you think the price is going to get cheaper will not make it so. As i know I will be able to buy out my competition quickly It sure will help me out. The real supplies in the outside lands have being moved to luna. Any merchant that consider themselves a merchant has rented a vender in luna. The rest of the things that don't sell well are kept in there merchant homes.

Then you can see this as an addition to the merchant mini-game. Some people may play the buy low, sell high game for a while- but unless they are on 24/7 they can never have the market completely cornered.

Luna rental is about 20k-50k a week. Thats lets see 10-25 trogs a week? Could kill them in my sleep. If someone hasnt rented a spot yet in luna then thats there loss.

20-50K for a vendor rental in Luna? Damn, that’s CHEAP! Many shards have rentals of 200-500K a week…or more.

Then putting a vender in there house at the outskirts of minoc is not going to change the fact that with a vender search option I'll be able to jump to them in moments buy them out and replace it at my house elsewhere. Unless they have unlimited item or duping to continue to push out the same product over and over then theres profit to be made from buying them out. If they are duping then that product will essentualy be a non buyable item for resellers untill the programming error is closed.

Again, this is the merchant mini-game. That Minoc vendor WILL be making money from the speculative purchasers. Hell, higher prices on some items such as resources might even mean more people dust off their gatherers and mine or chop more. Built in price equalizer, eventually supply will meet demand and overall cost to the buyer will drop.

You’re right that high demand things like PoF may jump to Lunaish prices. People can still undercut those prices in global chat, or continue to sell them for sale prices on their out-of-the-way vendor. *shrugs* Not everyone is in it for the greed.

 

[Tjalle]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

*something about not wanting the people that actually needs the product to get it at a good price*

Don't thing siege is safe either. My competition and allys have a strong hold there as well.

Well, that´s news to Siege or am I missing something?

Care to elaborate?

 

[RD Gumbie]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

My vote would be Yes for a lookup and a small map If they get rid of the 3rd party program ones (Funny how they were supposedly gathering info and gunna take care of 3rd party stuff but can't get rid of a macro running on every shard around luna taking data), Untill then dont waste the time, UO's version prolly wouldnt be as good lol

 

[Skrag]

Re: Would you like to see an Official UO Vendor Search System as part of a Booster Pa

Current situation: A non high profile vendor lists 10 seeds of renewel for 800k.
Reseller buys and sells for 1.2 mil, or a player who will actual use them buys them for the 800k.

Global search system: A non high profile lists 10 seeds of renewel for 1.1 mil, seeing that luna price is 1.2mil.
Reseller buys at 1.1 mil, and resells all at 1.5 mil. Or a player who will use them pays 1.1 mil.

What are you even talking about? Under a global search system terms like "high profile seller" and "luna price" don't exist. There's just the going price. The location and profile of the seller don't matter. Have you ever played a game with a searchable economy? (In the form of an auction house normally.) Usually you don't even bother to read the name of the person you're buying from because you don't give a crap.

There's the going price, and that price is determined by how much the market is willing to pay. Right now Luna prices are vastly higher because Luna is more convenient, and the market is willing to pay extra for convenience. That's what Luna does, it sells convenience. Make that convenience irrelevant with a search system and the price people are willing to pay won't just magically go up for no reason.

If the "luna price" for ten seeds is 1.2m in your scenario, and someone buys some cheap seeds and lists them for 1.5m? Guess what, nobody is going to buy them for 1.5 when they can just use the search feature to easily buy the ones that cost 1.2 instead.

And if they ALL go up to 1.5 then that's because the market will bear that price, not because one guy out in the middle of the woods sold for 1.1 instead of 800k. If the price goes up too high people will start undercutting it for faster sales.

And Skrag, before i didnt care about gold, yes, i did "roam the lands." I knew i wanted to get say a 120 swords, and would just keep an eye out for a cheap price. After maybe a few weeks id find one. I didnt spend hours running from vendor to vendor checking them all ocd style, just checking as i did other things that happened to take me past vendors.

This is where you need to realize that you are not normal, nobody else wants to do this, and that's exactly why Luna can get away with charging higher prices.