Market Pricing......
When you send your merchant ships out to buy products on the open market, you should be able to set a maximum price that the ship will PAY for an item on another person's market. Some players may still try to bait you with a low price and then raise the price over night but at least you can stop the losses.
It doesn't appear to be a big software change but right now someone without ethics can charge $100k for a module after putting it on the market for $40 and there isn't much you can do about it. In real life, I don't think there are many merchants that would make a purchase after finding out the price had changed significantly over night.
This has always bothered me but I haven't been burned by it in a while....until yesterday...
Goth
not that i trade, but it would seem logical
| QUOTE |
| It would be a nice addition to the "Buy" and "Sell" orders for ships to stop this sort of thing happening; "Buy" x of item y from starbase z [optional field: ONLY IF the price is less than or equal to $abc] "Sell" x of item y to starbase z [optional field: ONLY IF the price is greater than or equal to $abc] If you take this to RL then even if a store advertises something in a magazine for £50, if I then visit the store and find that the price of the item is now £150 I can choose not to buy it, but in Phoenix this option isn't there and you are then relying on the goodwill of the 'store owner' to refund you the difference between the old cost and the new. |
Equally this applies if you are selling items from your ship. You might decide to sell somewhere based on the "Buy price" they are offering, only to find that they drastically drop it the next day...
Personally I would prefer the limits to be able to be set on the "Buy" and "Sell" orders rather than, (or as well as), the fact that prices can only be changed at the END of the day.
The reason I would prefer this is because I will often queue a few days turns using the 'wait for tus' order to try and save myself some RL time. This means someone could legitimately give 2 days notice of a price increase at the market, but my queued orders would still run and then purchase the items at a higher cost than I expected even though no-one had done anthing "wrong".
I would much prefer it if when my queued turns ran my turn report then came back with something like:
| CODE |
| >TU 242: Wait for Tus {240} {Exact - No} >TU 242: Buy <item> from <starbase> (Max price: <max price>) ERROR - Starbase is selling <item> for $<price> Turn Stopped etc. |
The "max price" field, (or min price if selling), should be an optional field in the order editor, that if not specifed will have no effect, i.e. will operate as it does currently.
I think this is something that woudl greatly improve the trade side of the game, adding realism, and avoiding uneccasary mistakes.
Phil
(IC: Sees with Knowledge - MOH)
Maybe the IGN could broadcast a trade bulletin as part of the SSS? This week's best deals etc.
If someone was doing it a lot I imagine most people would happy to agree to a trade embargo on that position, or even that affiliation, which should make it pretty much suicide to do.