FAQ about the Global Trade HQ
Greetings Mayors,
Global Trade HQ has been a very popular feature in SimCity BuildIt. Every day over 8 million transactions take place, meaning that it is busier than the New York Stock Ex...
Forum Discussion
From a Functional point of view, I am fine with this. Unfortunately, the technical implementation has been a disaster on the enjoyability of the game. The contention of trying to purchase items is way beyond the absurd level.
I have 2 ideas for consideration:
Idea 1:
I believe you should look at how many instances a certain item that is for sale is displayed. It seems that if Item X is for sale, the entire community that is accessing the global market has the ability to purchase Item X. I suggest that each item be limited to the number of mayors the ability to see an item for purchase for a brief period of time. So, Item X is put on the market. After it has been displayed to Y number of mayors, do not display to other mayors until Z period of time has passed. By limiting the contention, mayors will have a higher success rate of purchase. And you can still keep your algorithms on what to display.
Idea 2:
You know what materials, we mayors, need when searching (I am not including dozers or storage items here). If I am working on a cargo ship, a Vu challenge, or a building upgrade, I suggest you tweak your selling algorithms to weight items that I need higher than others. It doesn't even have to be for entire panel - just a few.
If you combine these two ideas, I think you will achieve a better marketplace experience while still abiding by your fundamental marketplace tenants.
@AmelieEA wrote:
Why is there no search filter in the Global Trade HQ?
Global Trade HQ works in a way that every item sold is created by another player. Certain items have a higher demand than others, and generally the high demand items will sell a lot quicker than the low demand ones.
If we added a feature that would enable players to search for a specific item type, it would make the high demand items sell incredibly fast. This would then result in the high demanding items completely disappearing from the market, and almost no one would find the type of items that they need.
We strive to make the Global Trade HQ a balanced and fair place, regardless of your connection, device, or location. Adding a search of filter functionality would make it highly unfair for those who are not able to quickly grab each new item that is put up for sale.
Any kind of feature that favors the few at the expense of the majority will lead to an unequal experience, considering that over 8 million transactions are made on the Global Trade HQ every day!
Amelia, they already disappear really fast, so that's a strawman argument. The issue isn't with how fast they disappear, it's how much time is wasted chasing down items that are already sold.
It's understood that EA wants to make money off in-game purchases, but you've created an economic infrastructure that is exasperating, and I haven't even opened up "Tokyo Town" yet.
If you don't want to put a filter on what we are searching for, perhaps you can instead put a filter on what we don't want to see? I love the game but searching for a specific item can become very monotonous to the point I am starting to lose interest in the game. I think something needs to be done to fix this. Another thought is increasing the list of items to choose from but I imagine this comes with a price as well. Thanks for the consideration.
The new features that have been added are excellent. I love the variety and the challenges that are offered. However, EA has still ignored (or hasn't figured out to improve) the global trading HQ. I have harped on this in the past, but the new feature, epic projects, only exacerbate the horrific global trading system. I have a storage capacity of 250. When I started my epic project, I had enough items to quickly go through around 30 requests before I had to start making items or try to purchase them. In the 24 hours, I managed to get through 80 items, but did not even attempt to make it to 160. The reason: the global trading system. I am still amazed that your algorithms think I need so many TVs. Every refresh, I was offered mostly TVs. I didn't need any TVs. I need items that were hardly ever displayed. And if they were displayed.... well, you have seen my rants on this previously.... they were already sold!
I have played SimCity Build It pretty much every day almost from the very beginning. Since the epic project, my playing time has significantly reduced. I have gone 2 days without even logging in to the game. My frustration with the trading system is so high, that I don't want to be bothered any more. It is a shame, because I enjoyed the new functionality that has been added. I can only hope that EA will eventually update the trading system. I haven't given up on the game completely, but I am getting very close.
same frustration for me... they should have put some filtering to get what specific items we want to build the spic building... Im so frustrated as well, I cant even get to silver to farm the 80 items even I bought it all in global HQ... sooooo frustrating
