Re: "Black Friday Stampede" style trading system - COMPLETELY broken

If I understand the system right we are supposed to be able to buy from anyone who is selling stuff no matter where they are at in the world. AKA a global trading system. But no in an auction house style where people bid but simply we list the stuff at the price we want to sell the stuff at up to a defined cap. I like the idea of the cap in regards to the games design. It is kind of like having a system that could have been AI buying the stuff at a variable rate based on supply and demand but instead it is the players buying the stuff. However this is probably the worst implementation of a global trading system I have every seen. The best global trading system I have seen and would be willing to bet there is no better system in a game at this time, is in guild wars 2.

I have played guild wars 2 since it launched at the trading system has worked very well. It is completely searchable and filterable to find a specific item or type of item. In simcity here there probably aren't enough items to need a filter system for type of item lists. Searching for a specific item might be of use if there is enough items to not want to scroll through a list. However EA could take direction from guild wars 2 system in overhauling the system for this game. Everyone that is selling seeds for example would all show up in a seed entry in the system. So when one is shopping for seeds they are all seen there. This allows both buyers and sellers to get a value of the items being traded. And sellers are able to make judgement calls on how they price their items based on the current supply and demand. By being able to see the count of an item for sale at the time and the prices they are listed at, buyers and sellers can see the prices go up and down as supply and demand changes in a live state.

In addition to this there is also a offer to buy list that works just like the sell listings except the prices are what those making offers to buy are willing to pay. And sellers can decide if they would like to sell items to those or list them for sale. But this could be something concidered after overhauling the trade system to better server the both buyer and seller by getting rid of the flaws the current system has that aggravate both buyers and sellers. In it's current state buying stuff is a chore to say the least as has been pointed out in you have to visit the persons town before you can even make the purchase. Which results in coming up empty handed most of the time and a lot of time wasted to come up empty handed.

Selling isn't as bad but is problematic due to the poor design of the buying system. Sellers don't even really know if buyers are seeing their stuff and sellers have to do a lot of work to determine what to sell the stuff at if they are looking for fast income. The seller is unable to determine if a item is taking a long time to sell if it is due to people not seeing it or due to others constantly selling at a better price until your item happens to be an item the buyer sees with no others also with the item in the UI at the time. This is precisely why having a list of all of the specific item together is important. Instead of a random list of stuff that is for sale at the time.