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
"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."
"...and almost no one would find the type of items that they need." No, that's the problem we have now. I have been looking for a single gear for the past several days (so I can expand my buildable area)... maybe even weeks, I've lost track. I stopped playing a while back, because I never could find what I needed when I needed it... and I'm almost at that point again. Heck, I may have been looking for that gear back then too... which would mean I've been looking for it for years, but in actual game play time, a week seems more reasonable.
All the items that come up are things I don't need. It's all a game of random chance. I'm ok with a fixed range of prices, even though I always sell at the max price, but I like the option of being able to undercut the other people to be able to get rid of my surplus. I'm ok with the fixed refresh rate of 30 seconds, to cut down on the search queries. I'm ok with the randomness of the bubbles, I get it that special items (storage items, mountain, beach, & land stuff) being more rare, I get that... but what I have a problem with is no means of sorting through the Trade Depot.
Example... If I could search for items... and see there are no items of a certain type... I'm going to make them, and sell them. Supply and Demand means I look for a demand, and supply a product. And if there's a ton of supply... and I have more... I'm going to undercut the competition. You (EA) don't control the market... we the players control the market. Get out of our way, and let us find what we need. If there is a surplus of items, their prices will be low, and I'd buy them instead of making them. If there is a deficit of items... I'll make them, and turn a profit. But we have to be able to find them in order to know this. I want to do the market research...
Please, please allow us to search for items. I'd be okay with searching for categories and not specific items, I really would be okay with that. Just something to sort through all the randomness.
I want to enjoy this game, I love SimCity, I have played it ever since the Classic version on DOS (a true gem, I still play it sometimes to this day). But every time I return to this version... I am reminded why I stop playing (it's the Trade Depot every time). I don't want to turn to the competition... I want the real SimCity. Please listen to us.
- I think everyone should approach the GTHQ as a bonus rather than a staple of the game. Everything you need to upgrade can be made yourself. Most other games don't have this trading function, so it's really a big bonus for being able to find items faster. Granted, without the GTHQ the simoleon prices for roads and utilities/buildings would be smaller, but think of it more as a way to help you get items you normally would have to wait for.
Personally I like the ability to visit other cities and see what they've come up with; I've found a lot of design ideas this way.
From the developer viewpoint, EA wants you to be able to see what buildings others have built and say 'I NEED THAT' with the hopes you'll spend real money.
Someone said that the GLTB is socialist... That's pretty dumb. It's quite capitalist. Both from an individual point of view, and from EA's view given the 'keeping up with the Joneses' psychological effect that people have. I'm guilty of it too; I saw all the epic buildings or buildings you need platinum keys for, and spent real cash to help move farther in the COM.
Now I do think that sometimes EA 'games' the stuff that appears in your GTHQ; most often on the rare occasions I do see a unique piece advertised, I'll see one or two others as well that I won't have time to get usually.
But for the most part, you have to keep in mind that there are tens of thousands of people playing the game all the time, and those special items don't get put up for sale very often. As a result you need to surf the GTHQ for an hour before finding (m)any expansion pieces. Especially now with mayors clubs, I usually save my pieces for my club. I also buy most expansion pieces when I see them as I'm sure most people do. This adds to the drought of expansion pieces in the GTHQ.
It took me probably ten months of playing too much to open all of the land on the map. So i'd advise patience to those who are complaining about no good items in the GTHQ. It's not a game meant to be completed in a couple of days.
