Recognized Personal Trading + Shop Modifications = More Player Interaction

[Benevolent27]

To me, trading is a big part of what allows players to interact with each other, and right now StarMade needs a way players can trade, besides placing a storage block down with a permission block next to it. The basic concept of what I am suggesting is to add personal trade screens and to simplify the shop module, making it more like a storage.

Initiating a trade:
1. Basic Trading - You press R on another player or shop. Players you are trading are given a pop-up window asking if they want to trade. Players can set their trade preferences to ignore these requests or to only trade with allies/faction members.
2. Remote Trading - Players can buy or make a "Wireless Personal Trading Computer" that allows them to wirelessly trade with shops or other players. Activating the item opens a selection screen showing nearby options for trade, including other players who have a WPTC equipped and are available to trade.

What would the trade window look like?

PERSONAL TRADE:

This is what I came up with. I forgot to add a spot showing credits being traded, but you get the idea. When both players click "Ready," the "Finalize Trade" button becomes clickable. The trade is now locked. Players can still cancel, but it would be impossible to remove an item at the last second. If both players are readied up and they click "Finalize Trade," the trade goes through.

Blueprints and other meta items can be right clicked and previewed , including Blueprints and StarCharts (another idea of mine here).


SHOP/SHOP MODULE TRADE SCREEN:
The existing trade window is a bit complicated. Just make it open the player's inventory and an inventory to the shop, appearing like a storage does. If a player wants to buy a certain number of items, they can right click on the items in the store to select how much they want to buy. To sell items, the player just drags items into the store storage. It will ask them "Are you sure you wish to sell [Insert Number and Type of Item Here]?" with yes/no options. Simple, easy. If they want to search for an item, they can search. Also, make it so their search is remembered from store to store, so they can roam to different shops easily buying the same item if they wish.


SHOP MODULE SETUP:
Right now shop modules are dangerous to use and difficult to configure. If you accidentally remove one, all your items are lost - they do NOT drop into space. Plus, they don't require storage modules to hold items, so they might have a LOT of items in there. There is also a bug where the shop module will keep defaulting to selling to everybody, even if you set it not to. This is problematic since setting buy/sell values is cumbersome and other players might decide to sell you all their garbage items. Many people, myself included, do not use the shop module for trading purposes because of these issues. I recommend the following changes to how a player sets up a shop module.

1. Require cargo space to be attached to set it's inventory limit.

2. Have the shop module drop the items and credits it contains if destroyed/removed.

3. Allow shop modules to pull from other storages.

4. By default, have shops sell no items. Make players set a value for an item before it becomes sellable. There could be a button to "Set Buy/Sell Values to Default Rates" for players who would like to toggle it on or off.

5. Have the shop show up like a storage for owner configuration. There would be viewing options, "Show Currently Stored Items" and "Show All Items," which would toggle between a regular storage view and a creative view.

6. Owners can right click on items, revealing options:
"Set Buy Value" - This sets what the shop will pay when buying that item from other players.
"Clear Buy Value" - This clears the buy value.
"Set Sell Value" - This sets what the shop will sell an item for. It also enables that item to be sold.
"Clear Sell Value" - This clears the sell value of an item and will no longer sell it, even when stocked.
"Set Buying Cap" - This sets a limit to how much of an item the shop will buy. If the shop inventory for an item is equal to or more than this cap, it will no longer buy that item from players.
"Set Selling Cap" - This sets how much of an item the shop will sell. For example, if the shop has 1,000 shields stored, but the owner only wants to sell 200, then the shop will only sell that much. Players trading with the shop will only see the amount available (200, not 1,000).

7. When owners are viewing the inventory of their shop module, they can turn item grouping on or off. Players can apply settings (such as buy/sell values) for a whole item group when it's on or individual items when off. The settings are set to each individual item in a group, not the group as a whole. So if the "Selling Cap" for a group of "Gray advanced armor" is set to 50k, it will not limit sales to 25k wedges and 25k blocks, but rather 50k wedges and 50k blocks.

8. I suggest adding an additional feature to allow selecting more than 1 item at a time when configuring the shop. This would be done by holding CTRL down while clicking items. If you let go of CTRL and click something else, all the previously selected items become deselected. This would be useful to apply settings to many items at once.

9. Please fix the bug where shops forget their permissions. Please, please, please! :D I really don't want my shop to buy/sell to general public. No really.

10. Allow players to bank credits in the shop module. These credits would not be used at all by the shop to buy or sell items. There would be two values for the shop, "Available Credits," and "Banked Credits." The player could transfer between the two, back and forth. This way a player could limit the liability of the shop.

11. Allow players to sell meta items. It is likely meta items will be added by future updates and mods. If items like "StarCharts" are implemented, they would become an important part of the economy.

Well, I think that's about as complete as I want to be right now. Thoughts and suggestions are welcome, as always.

 

[Benevolent27]

Updated with an image of what personal trade might look like. Though I did forget to add a spot to show the credits a person is trading. Oh well, but you get the idea!

 

[Valck]

That's a lot of suggestions that are only marginally related. I won't go into the shop/market side as I think there are several other threads covering most if not all of that already.

that player will then get a pop-up window

I don't like things popping in my face out of the blue like guild invites or trade windows.

Let me propose a different approach. If you want to trade with another player directly (as opposed to sell/buy orders in a market interface), tell them so in chat or via any other viable means. If you initiate a trade, a window opens on your side only and enters a waiting state until the other player joins, or you close it. Only when the other player wants to join the trade, they can open a trade window on their side that then establishes a link with your side.

 

[Benevolent27]

That's a lot of suggestions that are only marginally related. I won't go into the shop/market side as I think there are several other threads covering most if not all of that already.


I don't like things popping in my face out of the blue like guild invites or trade windows.

Let me propose a different approach. If you want to trade with another player directly (as opposed to sell/buy orders in a market interface), tell them so in chat or via any other viable means. If you initiate a trade, a window opens on your side only and enters a waiting state until the other player joins, or you close it. Only when the other player wants to join the trade, they can open a trade window on their side that then establishes a link with your side.

I'm not sure what you mean by my suggestions being only marginally related. They are just trade windows for players, simplified trade windows for shops, and making trade modules act more like a storage in how they store blocks. How are these not related?

I like your idea though. I can see players potentially being confused by it though. Also the reason I like a pop-up window is because it feels more interactive. I've played games that utilized a system sort of like what you suggest, and it felt disconnected and sometimes confusing because I wouldn't see the trade request as the text scrolled by somewhere. A pop-up window is hard to miss, but I do understand it's exploitable if everyone is forced to have them pop up, hence why I suggest a person be able to turn on "ignore trade requests." But perhaps there could be a hybrid system that utilizes both of our suggestions. A person could set their trade readiness to "Standby." This would allow them to see the trade request in chat, giving them up to 10 seconds to open their trade screen and connect to the other player. What do you think?

 

[Valck]

I'm not sure what you mean by my suggestions being only marginally related. They are just trade windows for players, simplified trade windows for shops, and making trade modules act more like a storage in how they store blocks. How are these not related?

You're proposing changes to the shop module, suggesting new meta items to allow access to shops and other players, requesting bug fixes... all in one go ;)
While I agree with much of what you say, most of that has already been discussed, and in detail, elsewhere.

A person could set their trade readiness to "Standby." This would allow them to see the trade request in chat, giving them up to 10 seconds to open their trade screen and connect to the other player. What do you think?

I'd be fine if initiating a trade also automatically sends out a (single) chat message, as long as it is rate limited so you can't flood anybody's chat with trade requests. That message could even be made clickable to open the trade window. If there were a setting somewhere that allows to filter out trade request messages (or any other individual message types), so much the better.
I don't know whether a time limit is actually needed; just the fact that you have your trade window open and waiting should be enough. Of course that wouldn't prevent someone from repeatedly initiating and cancelling a trade, but the other party wouldn't have to act, and could always ignore it.

All I care for is I don't want something violently disrupt what I'm doing, and requiring me to act to get rid of it.

 

[Benevolent27]

You're proposing changes to the shop module, suggesting new meta items to allow access to shops and other players, requesting bug fixes... all in one go ;)
While I agree with much of what you say, most of that has already been discussed, and in detail, elsewhere.

I did searches and had trouble finding anything. I searched for "trade" and "trading," looking though all of the results and did not find a post like this, hence why I posted this. Can you point me to a thread? Also, my suggestions are all relevant to trading items/credits. I don't see how they are not connected. Are you suggesting I should have made separate threads for each idea? I'll agree to disagree with you here on that if so.

I'd be fine if initiating a trade also automatically sends out a (single) chat message, as long as it is rate limited so you can't flood anybody's chat with trade requests. That message could even be made clickable to open the trade window. If there were a setting somewhere that allows to filter out trade request messages (or any other individual message types), so much the better.
I don't know whether a time limit is actually needed; just the fact that you have your trade window open and waiting should be enough. Of course that wouldn't prevent someone from repeatedly initiating and cancelling a trade, but the other party wouldn't have to act, and could always ignore it.

All I care for is I don't want something violently disrupt what I'm doing, and requiring me to act to get rid of it.

I understand. I've played games where a trade window was forced upon me, and it was quite annoying. I fully agree a setting should allow trade requests to be ignored. I prefer pop-ups, but I don't think our ideas are mutually exclusive. Both ideas could be implemented. I suggest a time-limit on the trade request so that the trade request can be sent again if it was not noticed. I agree with limiting how often a player can send a request to every 10 seconds or so, as well, to prevent flooding.

I would just really like to see trading become more viable in the game, because it would increase player interaction. Trading via dropping items into space or placing down a storage/cargo/permission module is not good enough in my opinion.

 

[Valck]

I did searches and had trouble finding anything. I searched for "trade" and "trading," looking though all of the results and did not find a post like this, hence why I posted this. Can you point me to a thread? Also, my suggestions are all relevant to trading items/credits. I don't see how they are not connected. Are you suggesting I should have made separate threads for each idea? I'll agree to disagree with you here on that if so.

'Shop', 'market', or 'economy' might be relevant keywords too. I agree the discussion is spread out over time and (many) place(s), I don't think there is a single thread that covers it all, but a lot of improvements and solutions have been proposed, and I'm pretty certain that by now Schine are aware of most of the issues. That is not to mean your input is not appreciated ;)

I understand. I've played games where a trade window was forced upon me, and it was quite annoying. I fully agree a setting should allow trade requests to be ignored. I prefer pop-ups, but I don't think our ideas are mutually exclusive. Both ideas could be implemented. I suggest a time-limit on the trade request so that the trade request can be sent again if it was not noticed. I agree with limiting how often a player can send a request to every 10 seconds or so, as well, to prevent flooding.

I don't care much about the exact implementation details and numbers, I just have the concerns I mentioned.

I would just really like to see trading become more viable in the game, because it would increase player interaction. Trading via dropping items into space or placing down a storage/cargo/permission module is not good enough in my opinion.

Absolutely, and I think (I hope?) that's the general consensus as well.

 

[Benevolent27]

'Shop', 'market', or 'economy' might be relevant keywords too. I agree the discussion is spread out over time and (many) place(s), I don't think there is a single thread that covers it all, but a lot of improvements and solutions have been proposed, and I'm pretty certain that by now Schine are aware of most of the issues. That is not to mean your input is not appreciated ;)


I don't care much about the exact implementation details and numbers, I just have the concerns I mentioned.


Absolutely, and I think (I hope?) that's the general consensus as well.

I went ahead and updated the relevant keywords for this post based on your reply here. Thanks.

I know that it is obvious that trading needs to be implemented (you and I know it, and Shine probably does too). I did this suggestion to help support another idea though, "StarCharts," which was recognized by Shine. When I think of an idea, I try to see the big picture. And when I looked at the big picture, I saw my idea working a lot better with trade screens. I looked to see if a personal trade system was planned, it wasn't. I searched for other posts, and I found nothing specific. I see basic trade as an essential component for a lot of ideas (besides my own) that would increase player interaction, and that is something important to focus on at this point of game development. So, I posted this. I hope other people post their ideas about trade too, so it becomes a higher priority.