Coin-op vending was unfortunately rejected, because it was thought to add an element of at least implied automation. Also, these would clutter the object lists everywhere. I agree, that kind of machine would be nice, it would be nice even if we already had market stalls in the game. The vending machine depends on coins, but on the other hand it doesn't need any shopkeeper to sit inside of it all day. It's an interesting tradeoff/advantage for each of them.
I'm interested in very seriously focusing on the market stalls, for now. To their credit, they don't add even a hint of implied automation into the game, and provide such an important facility for players that two weeks after implementation we're going to wonder how we ever played the game without these.
In this post I am going to focus on the aesthetic options of the implementation only, and ask for your feedback. As I see it, there are *two main ways* that the market stalls could be presented.
A) As their own category, below "Vehicles" but above "Buildings", in the Buildings & Vehicles screen:
((( Vehicles )))
Blacknightrider of Blackness (a brand new bike cart)
Bumboat (a brand new Dinghy)
etc. etc.
((( Market Stalls )))
John Doe's Lil Shoppe (a brand new primitive market stall)
((( Lakeside West - [grassland]: BUILDINGS)))
Town leader house (a brand new stone building)
Prison (a brand new stone building)
etc. etc.
We would then use a simple little trick: when a market stall is unmanned, it appears under "Vehicles", like a normal vehicle would, it has an "enter" button to it, etc. But when someone is already inside, the same market stall now appears under "Market Stalls", together with its convenient "Deals" button, and is now not available in the vehicle list to be entered. The market stalls should allow only one shopkeeper to enter, otherwise think about it, who do the goods go to when trades complete? That'd be awkward in too many ways to mention, so in my opinion it's the best idea to restrict them to 1 person in this way.
B) The second way is sneaky. In the "People" screen. Reason with me for a moment, which screen is the least cluttered one? The People screen, undeniably. And, when you trade, do you trade with a market stall? Or with a person? So why would you click a button on the market stall and not on the person? Though at first less intuitive, such an implementation makes perfect sense: then no special market stall category is needed, and any person who is inside their own market stall gets an extra "Deals" button next to their name in the actual people screen. Exit the stall and the button doesn't show or work any more. The problems with this second way to present it is that it's likely to be a lot harder to implement code-wise, may even be impossible under the current system.
Remember, a large town may "generate" dozens of market stalls, so it's worth brainstorming very seriously how they should be presented in the best way possible.
A separate item to discuss is the presentation for the new screen you see when you click "Deals". From other online games we know very well that people are quickly going to want to sell *groups* of items ("Full set of 100g of every herb!" and so on). To do this, they will look for cheap containers they can use to store the objects, and then they will put that container on the ground of the market stall. No problem, you will be able to price them and sell it just fine. BUT: punters buying the container have no idea if they are being tricked and sold an empty box, or random junk. This ruins the fine possibility of such selling, since people would be too wary to buy anything like that. So when somebody lists a container for sale, we may want to include a way for people to hover with the mouse over it and see the contents, or get this info some other convenient way.