Town Stock Exchange facility

[Cogliostro]

This is a branch-off from Seko's thread where she suggested helpful ideas on assisting traders. What if towns could build a special, expensive building called "Town Stock Exchange", which differs from an ordinary building in that when a char drops something inside of it, be it resources or an item, the stock exchange remembers who dropped it.

When other people enter the Stock Exchange building, they can pick up only their own items, not other people's. Other people's items have an extra "BUY" button next to them. Then we could use Seko's suggestion about min/max buy and sell orders (selection screen activated by some machine inside the building), or even a simpler system of some kind to let people do trading via this stock exchange.

The advantage is that trading would naturally only occur when characters go inside and do it. We don't need to make up any stories about how is it that stuff from Seko's stockroom magically went into my character's inventory now that we traded.

If the stock exchange lock is opened or destroyed by crowbars, all Stock Exchange rules get turned off and you can loot it like an ordinary building.

[Cogliostro]

The Exchange would intentionally not be perfect.

Comes with the hilarious possibility of stock risk. You could lose your stock exchange goods, if there's political instability or the town leader has been assasinated and his stock key captured. Sleazy town leaders could grab some extra profit by stealing from the stock exchange now and then, in hopes no one will notice. Or, let's add a tiny bit of text next to the the lock of a Stock Exchange, stating the day that the lock was last opened. Traders would see this and trust exchanges where they go back "all the way to day 3590".

Most traders wouldn't put up their entire stocks of rare stuff in one exchange, instead electing to do a bit at a time and regularly come replenish those stocks. As a result, the stock exchanges would be mostly filled by things traders don't care too much about, abundant resources and overstock that they have, and the precious stuff would still mostly get traded in person. Just what we want for fun RP situations, helps to get rid of the drudgery of ordinary trades and free up time for more exotic deals and RP to go with it.

[Cogliostro]

SCENARIO:

Bobby is a trader travelling in his own sloop from town to town. A couple of towns on his usual route have built a Stock Exchange. They are Bonyville and Coalpile.

Bobby docks to Bonyville and trades the usual way with some of his friends there, then he visits the Stock Exchange. Inside, he checks what's on the floor. Some of the things he'd left here last time have been replaced by what other people traded him for them! He happily drags his newly gotten resources to his ship, and then brings in some other things to the Stock Exchange so those things can be sold later on.

Bobby checks the number next to the lock of the Stock Exchange. Good, no one has tampered with it for 123 days! (someone opening the lock of the Exchange would've meant that someone could've grabbed Bobby's goods, and everyone else's)

Bobby drags a big pile of coal he got from Coalpile into the Bonyville Exchange, because it sells really well here and is easy for Bobby to get. Other people going into the Exchange will see Bobby's goods and be able to swap them for their own that they put on the floor of the exchange too. The exchange just remembers who the owner is of what, and conducts the trade even in the absence of the original person, according to their settings...

Bobby's settings are that he sells 400g of his coal for 60g of Bonyville iron. Bobby is smart, because people want his coal here in Bonyville. Back in Coalpile he has lots of coal in their exchage at only 30g iron for the same amount, but nobody hardly ever buys it. Good luck in your trading, Bobby, and have fun with the stock exchange!

[Henkie]

This sounds quite nice now, nicely formulated.

But I still do not see the real need for it, other than to quicken a few small trades. Granted, that is a convenience, but I still think it's unnecessary and will make for less interaction due to the trades.

Also I can see, when implemented, a rising use of it because (I'll admit) it is an easy way of trading. But if more and more people use this, traders will grow more impatient and eventually people will be forced to use this new building in order to have any trades at all. This will not stimulate trade with smaller towns either.

This is also more of a Runescape idea, not really cantr-style in my opinion.

[Cogliostro]

The key thing to understand here, is not that it's simply easy or convenient, but that this facility lets traders do what previously was completely impossible for them to do - trading asynchronously. Cantr is an asynchronous game by design, so such a facility would help greatly to increase the volume of interactions (in this case transfers of wealth) between our characters.

In other words, it means that to trade with our hero Bobby, you Henkie would not need to be there at Bonyville at the exact same time as Bobby.

(This suggestion is the lean/mean/sexy evolution of the "Market Stall" viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17838 feature I came up with years ago, generating immense player interest and a lot of controversial discussion about whether it is in the spirit of Cantr. Eventually, we concluded that it was very much so, and the idea even secured Jos' support. It went in for GAB consideration and implementation, but at the time we did not have the programmers who would be able to tackle it, and it was forgotten.)

[Henkie]

This sounds quite nice now, nicely formulated.

But I still do not see the real need for it, other than to quicken a few small trades. Granted, that is a convenience, but I still think it's unnecessary and will make for less interaction due to the trades.

Also I can see, when implemented, a rising use of it because (I'll admit) it is an easy way of trading. But if more and more people use this, traders will grow more impatient and eventually people will be forced to use this new building in order to have any trades at all. This will not stimulate trade with smaller towns either.

This is also more of a Runescape idea, not really cantr-style in my opinion.

[Cogliostro]

I do not know anything about Runescape, Henkie. Maybe they have certain good ideas that Cantr could also benefit from?
And maybe you are the man to tell us about them.

[Henkie]

Google it, but that wasn't the point.. You didn't go into any of the things I said...
You just said what I had to understand, which I already did.

[Cogliostro]

I'm starting to tire of your insinuation that I don't pay any attention to you, Henkie! You are one of my favourite posters!

You wrote that there might be no real need, except to quicken trades. I respond, there is real need, because there needs to be asynchronous trading to increase the amount of economic transactions. Thereby you bolster the stagnant society in Cantr, suffering from the fact that people need to be online at the same time to do about anything (currently fighting, dragging, trading, even talking if it's not the trival kind of talking). That's difficult to avoid, you'll agree, but we try, and the suggestion is one way that we could try even better.

It will not make for less roleplaying interaction, but for more. I proved this thesis using case studies, in the massive thread I linked to you, to everyone's complete satisfaction.

Unlike politicians in the real world Cantr developers have no special mandate to stimulate trade in smaller towns, in my opinion. If a town can't afford the Stock Exchange yet, then they just can't afford it, maybe they should work harder! Was this what you meant too?

As for oldfashioned, person-to-person trading, it will never ever go away. I am not aiming to replace it, by any stretch. I already wrote about how it's a pretty risky proposition to leave your stuff and profits in the Stock Exchange for too long. This means that traders will naturally be strongly discouraged from just leaving their whole stock in those. You could lose everything overnight! So the real rarities and valuables would still be carried and ferried, and driven around, and of course traded the oldfashioned way.

[Henkie]

I'm sorry to hear you're getting tired, but if you respond to me, do actually respond to me, instead of thinking I didn't understand or something You just deflected my complaints like that.

I don't think there HAS to become more economic transaction, 9 out of 10 times are just capable of trading as long as you bring up the expected patience of 7 days or something, after all, it's slow-paced. Speed is special, not regular

I still have my doubts about the conversation, the only way to really prove that is to actually implement it, so I guess that will be my opinion versus yours.

You say you we have to boost the economic exchanges in cantr... And this will set small towns back. That was my point It's counterproductive as well.

[Cogliostro]

Think of the pure FUN that could be had with this by all!

Traders would be driven into developing profit-routes and travelling to make profits (and really making them, for once, instead of what's happening now when you need infinite patience to be a trader and make any kind of profit).

Robbers have another cherry then can pop in the towns they attack.

Newspawns and seminewspawns have a place they can get what they want for things they want to be making or doing, in exchange for some iron or another tradeable commodity they earn from their town leader. Merchants who work inside, like tailors or woodworkers, can sell their wares without stopping their work or leaving their cozy worshops. Imagine!

[Henkie]

I understand how some people can find this fun, I see it as a deterioration of our wonderful game.