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Trader Trader revamp: Add partial trades and unit price

DeletedUser5093

Guest
I'd like to propose a revamp to the trader that changes the way trades are posted and accepted, and allows for partial trades, such that you can choose to buy only some of the goods listed in a single trade rather than all of them. It also conveniently lists the unit price of goods so you can readily compare the value of trades without doing a bunch of maths.

As an example, say someone wanted to trade 50,000 crystal for silk. Under the current system they'd probably post 10 trades of 5,000 crystal, since posting 50,000 crystal in a single trade would be too expensive for most people and would therefore take forever to be accepted, if at all. 5,000 is still too large for very small cities, so they would be unfairly restricted, and for very large cities who might want much more than this it would be fiddly and annoying to go through and accept lots of smaller trades in order to get the total quantity they need.

Under the system I'm proposing someone wanting to trade 50,000 crystal would instead just post it all in a single trade, then people wanting to buy crystal would just specify how much crystal they wish to purchase, and only buy that much with a single click of a button. The trade would be steadily chipped away by various buyers, until all the goods were sold. This system would mean smaller trades would be easier to come by for those that need them, and those wanting large quantities of goods could get it in much fewer clicks. It also wouldn't clog up the trader with tons of identical trades. This would benefit both small and large cities, and everything in between.

The trades posted in the trader could end up looking a bit like the below image. The different columns are:
Offer: Since the total size of the trade is largely irrelevant, this just shows which good is being offered.
[Demand]: This column has been removed as this information is effectively displayed elsewhere.
Unit price: This new column shows how much you pay for a single unit of the offered good, and makes it easier to compare the value of different trades. A bit more finesse than the current Rating system. It can also be used in the sort algorithm so that cheapest goods are shown first.
Rating: Same as the current system. Lists the star rating of the trade. (The merits of the current rating system and its application to cross-tier trades is a separate discussion/suggestion.)
Trader: Same as the current system. Shows who is selling the goods.
Purchase: Instead of a simple tick button like the current system, this explicitly states how many goods you're purchasing and what you're paying for them. This is instead of the Offer and Demand columns under the current system. The size of the trade is specified by you in the new 'Trade Size' box up the top of the trader. The trader then automatically calculates all trades (the buttons in the Purchase column) based on the specified Trade Size and the trade's Unit Price. If the trade doesn't have enough goods to meet the specified trade size it instead offers all remaining goods (e.g. Doc's first trade below).
In the below example I've shown the 'Trade Size' box as a simple drop down menu. It could equally be a +/- box like you have when placing an offer. Either system would work fine.

index.php


Posting a trade would be very similar to the existing system: you would specify the offered good and its quantity (same as the current system), then specify the demanded good and either the unit price or the total quantity demanded. The trader would then calculate whichever one of the latter you didn't specify so you know what to expect.

This system would also improve sorting of trades if it incorporates 'Unit Price' into the algorithm, and make it easier to identify genuine bargains. Under the current system someone offering 10100 crystal for 10000 silk would have this listed as a 3 star trade, which makes it sound amazing. If you could see the unit price explicitly listed as 0.99 you'd easily see that it's nothing special, even if it still gets a 3 star rating. Likewise, it can be difficult to readily compare differently sized trades, as it takes a bit of maths to work out which is better value. By explicitly stating the unit price, and sorting by this, this can all be seen at a glance.

As part of this system the way you get trade notifications should probably be changed as well, otherwise you could potentially end up getting tons more notifications than under the current system.

For simplicity I have not factored in cross-tier trades into any of the above examples. I'm not sure how to handle these just yet.

Thanks to @SoggyShorts for helpful discussions that helped build this idea.
 

RainbowElvira

Sorcerer
I absolutely love this idea! It would bring a supply and demand element to the trader. Although there are more pressing (IMHO) features - like cross tier filters and FS filter for the app - I'd very much like to have something like this implemented in the not too distant future. Thumbs up!
 
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