Topic
Storage Display Box: Limits
Ever since Storage Display Boxen were changed so that the items in them could be sold to the loyal customer, I've had a short-lived, unspoken idea: limits. And no, not the limit of x in respect to y (all you Calculus buffs); however, I was thinking of setting a daily limit on the number of items in a given Storage Display Boxen to be sold.
In case my wording set you off, here's an example:
"Daring Daryll wants to promote his tower by selling an item (in an SDB) for 1c each. However, he wants more than one person to enjoy this 'giveaway'. So, instead of Greedy Gregory buying all of the items for 1c each, Daring Daryll could set a limit to the number of items so that Greedy Gregory only gets one."
A neat idea that has room for improvement. Please +1 this, and maybe we can pressure the devs into making this idea... a *reality* (NOT like reality TV).
Also, I will try my best to read each comment and respond accordingly (either up here, or as a reply with the amazing "@" addressing the Glitchen. Thank you.
For clarification: The intention for this idea is *not* to drive prices down, but rather to promote tower navigation. What I mean by this is that you should still buy from the person without limits if you are wanting to buy in bulk! I hope this bold and italics helps! In addition, it would allow for games (i.e. writing notes, putting, say, 10 notes in the SDB, and letting your friends try to pick the ONE with the "secret word" on it). It would be whatever you make of it. Also, I apologize if I offend anyone by the use of my alternating adjectives.
Boredom and a love for statistics:
+1'd by seven Gracious Glitchen.
Five Glitchen implied that +1 in her or his reply.
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Now, what I had in mind was a field that allowed you to put anywhere from 0 (unlimited) to 1 less than the maximum capacity according to the "998 stacks possible in an SDB" rule. Feel free to critique this thought! Again, I thank you for your time and replies!
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Just read that this has been requested before; thank you for this information. If you come across any others, please leave a link to it in a reply, and I'll add the link in place of these two lines of text. Thank you.
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By the way, I'd like to take a moment to +1 Sturminator 5's idea about also selling to the SDB.
Replies
- Not bad, not bad at all.
- if this is implementable i'd like to see it! i am guilty of being a greedy gregory in the past :P
- +1 good idea!
- 1+ good idea :)
- -1
- This a great idea. It might upset players like Greedy Gregory but it would be more beneficial to everyone!
- I like it!
- +1! Great idea!
- +1; well thought out.
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+1
This had been repeatedly requested, even before the SDB selling function was released.
Its somewhat had to do technically though, so don't hold your breath. Perhaps a bit o the butler code can come visit the SDBs :)
I still want an SDB to be able to buy, not just sell!!
Edited to add: it has been a long while since the topic was opened, so not a bad thing to let the new players chime in - +1 yes please
- Yes, like! +1 from me.
- An oft-requested suggestion.
- I like the idea so I could fill up my boxes with all my inventory...but for now, I only put a certain number in my SDBs and try to keep some in reserve. The bad part is that if I don't get in game some days, and I'm sold out...the box stays empty. However, it keeps the greedy gus's from getting everything at once.
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No. The reason I shop from the towers is so that I can choose to buy all in one go. If I wanted to shop buying tiny pieces of what I want from a hundred different glitches with a ton of wait time and clicking, I would buy from the auctions.
There is a trade off. Auctions have a fee, but you can adjust the quantity you want to sell. SDB's have no fee, but you lose a little control. I see no reason why sellers should be able to have it both ways. - To settle the confusion: These items that are discounted are for the FUN of the game! If you'd rather, you can still go to the next person to avoid the lag. (The "next" person as in the one with the "normal" prices).
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I wasn't confused. You cannot make this happen for some SDB's (discounted for "FUN") and not for others (discounted to drive traffic, or just to undercut others to gain more profit). The code just can't tell your intentions when you place a price on an item.
I'd be highly perturbed if I saw multiple listings at the same price for an item and the one I chose to visit first only let me take one stack of the 20 stacks I want.
It is a waste of time (not laggy) and an inconvenience to the buyers. The only way in which this could work is if the information on selling limits was added to the API so that buyers could readily identify the sellers who have placed limits and avoid them if they choose. -
I am with Belle Z. Bub on this one..the discounted items would create even more undercutting..and we all know there is already plenty of that going on.
@ usterka : you wrote: For clarification: The intention for this idea is *not* to drive prices down, but rather to promote tower navigation.
A lot of people get so much lag when changing locations. I know I do, so I don't want to go at 10 different towers to get the goods I need. - This: "The only way in which this could work is if the information on selling limits was added to the API so that buyers could readily identify the sellers who have placed limits and avoid them if they choose."
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I think there need to be more mechanism for player-created games, but I also agree with Belle that mixing sales and games is apt to be problematic.
I'm not too convinced by the "convenience" arguments, since buying from towers is a pretty inconvenient method to use (compared to the AH), but I just think that mixing selling and games is going to cause problems.
TS seems to like to create different things for different behaviors, rather than having a few core items with configuration and permission settings, so how about instead you ask for a "dispenser", which costs nothing to take an item from, but limits it to one per person per game day? (Sort of like a butler actually, but properly implemented.) - Adding a dispenser option that makes the price say Free, is not a bad idea. I do know from having a tower that your tower gets passed up even if you have the cheapest price listed, but not much # wise with the item, and then ppl that have slightly higer prices but larger quantities are the ones that get business first. Combining games with sales, i agree and say it would casue confusion and in some cases annoy buyers. As for selling in batches, pre determined amounts, on the surface it sounds good to the seller, but for the buyer this is a major inconvienience. As it is ppl avoid having to go to a lot of different towers to get what they need, if you make it so they must because limits are in place, tower sales will drastically plumment. Instead have SDb's in your house for your highest selling items, and move stacks when you get close to running out in the tower if you don't want to put large stacks in the tower's SDb's at once.
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+1 For this or for some other mechanism that gives sellers a way to have "loss leaders" in their tower stores. For me, this not about making "games" or giving away one-off freebies, but rather about making the Glitch economy more like a true free market, and hence more interesting.
I do understand that some players are heavily invested in a playing strategy that involves being able to buy items in large quantities. However, it seems to me that this playing strategy requires the use of API-enabled apps. So if the API were to provide information about batch limits as well as price and quantity, players who want to buy in large quantities would still be able to limit their visits to towers selling in large quantities.
Another approach would be to allow players to have an automated selling method that is not connected to the API -- perhaps a Home Street Spirit or a vendybot that could not only sell multiple items in specified batch quantities, but also could bundle and buy.
Yet another option would be to allow players to exclude individual SDBs from the API. I don't see that other players have a "right" to discover via the API every item I'm selling in my tower any more than they have a "right" to know every item I've dropped on my street. - You can opt out of the various 3rd party sites, there are ways to do that. That being said, I don't think there is any way to opt out of the API, and i don't think its even possible, as essentially the API is the game itself. And i can't see it happening....allow this, but don't allow that, but maybe this, but only in this circumstance, if for no other reason that its very complicated, and it would be hard to get ppl to agree on any of it. If we ever get the crafting bots, I'm ok with that, but auto buying within the game itself, i am against.
- Also there is a device in game to give items out once per game day, to a Glitch, and it won't give more than one to the same Glitch for that game day, your butler does already do this.
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The problem with this is that, no matter how it was intended to be used, people will use it in the way that suits them best. So yes, it might be a bit frustrating when people buy an item in bulk that you made available for cheap so people can just take as much as they really need - I had one person buy over 50 Random Kindnesses that I was selling for 1 currant, in order to give people who needed one the option of just taking one while browsing my tower. The person who bought them could never use those in any reasonable amount of time, and for one person to buy them was not what I'd intended. So, for things like this, it would be nice to be able to sell just one item per person.
But as soon as that option exists, you will get people who offer, say, an SDB with thousands of bubbles at 1 currant per piece, and someone who wants to use a huge amount of them for crafting will go there, only to find that they can just buy one piece, but did you see that conveniently placed piece of credit furniture placed next to it, or the second SDB with bubble going at the usual market price?
The fact that the people who agree with the suggestion insist on it being for "fun" does not force people to use it that way (or make arguments based on what people might do with it automatically invalid and irrelevant), just like me listing RK's for one currant as a public service does not make people buy them one at a time as needed. I believe with new features, one doesn't only need to look at what the people suggesting them would like to use them for, but also at what, considering human nature/economics/the inventiveness of the player base, the population at large is going to do with them.
I absolutely agree that if something like this was implemented, it would need to be indicated in the API. "Just moving along to the next tower" can get rather frustrating, if someone wants to buy a large amount of items. Even now, the fact that the API isn't always showing up to date information (or the sites relying on it aren't) can be a bit annoying when one just wants to quickly grab a few sprigs of herb for potionmaking or whatnot. -
Just to be clear: My suggestion was *not* to have players opt out of the API.
I am a big fan of the API. I've been working on a website related to the game, so I know how useful it is to be able to get information via the API. However, there is a lot of information that is available in the game that is *not* available via the API. The API is not the same as the game itself.
The API cannot be used, for example, to discover whether there are machines such as woodworkers on a home street or in a tower. It cannot be used to discover whether there are icons on a home street or in a tower. It cannot be used to find out what items are being given out by a butler or whether a butler is "out of stock." It cannot be used to find out what furniture items a player has for sale in a tower.
Information about what's in a tower or on a home street is not automatically included in the API. The TS developers decide what information to include or not to include in the API as well as what options to give players based on what they think is best for the game.
I am fairly certain that if a new feature were added to allow players to set limits on how many items could be purchased from an SDB that information would be included in the API along with the price and quantity information that is included now. In fact, the need to do this probably explains why stoot has described this as a feature he'd like us to have, but that we shouldn't expect to see soon. -
A more complex mechanism than simple SDBs might be needed. Like, for example, a Home Street Spirit that could both buy and sell items in various batch quantities at various prices, or even "bundles" of disparate items (like garden restoration kits, for example).
Home Street Spirits FTW! - I'm always like this when I'm selling items that are high in demand like Yellow crumb at one point. This is a really great idea, I love it
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+1
and this
"The only way in which this could work is if the information on selling limits was added to the API so that buyers could readily identify the sellers who have placed limits and avoid them if they choose. " -- Belle Z. Bub -
I know this is an old thread, but I searched before making my own. It makes a lot of the same points I wanted to address.
My tower sells food, and pretty much nothing but. Increasingly, every single time I sign on, I find that my tower has been completely bought out -- usually by the same culprits. (Although, once I was in the world, and I got five different messages from by butler. The guy kept buying all he could grab, dropping it off somewhere, and coming back for more.) I put a note in my tower asking not to do this; it soon became "Keep it up and you'll be blocked from my street." Since the note, the problem has actually gotten worse. I've been blocking people left and right. But now I'm thinking that they're making alts because a suspicious amount of low-level players have been buying me out over the past two days.
Yes, I make money from my tower, but not a ton. I just like making food and selling it at low prices to other people who can actually use it. The tower is for everybody, and it's making me beyond frustrated that only a few people get to enjoy it -- especially since I've received quite a few messages from newer users who don't have all the cooking skills yet thanking me for my tower. I make food in batches of 1,000 at a time. Do you have any idea how long that takes? And, come on. If you're buying 1,000 items at a time every single day, there's no way that you're personally using all of that. You're reselling it, which is kind of a jerk thing to do. I probably wouldn't mind otherwise, but you're cleaning me out every single day and making alts to do it, despite the fact that I have repeatedly asked you to stop and have gone as far as to block you.
It's really making me want to tear down my tower, and I've been enjoying Glitch a lot less because of this. - +1
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I would to have a limit on the SDB: on how much is for sale.
If I for instance want to sell cubimals, but not the last one in the box the limit should be one. Or if I want to sell jellysacks, but want to keep some in reserve the limit could be 50. -
i don't have time to read all the comments right now so i apologize if i'm off point and/or this has already been mentioned, but i think i would like this...
ex: i was thinking last night, when i finally build my tower, i would like to have a machine room and keep a box of fuel cells for them, and "sell" them at a really cheap price to be used for those machines. i know i can't stop someone from just keeping it for their own use, but i find most people in this game really do go by the honor system and that's pretty damn cool. but i wouldn't want to risk someone 'buying' the whole lot for themselves and then i'd have to spend forever re-gathering resources to re-make them, etc. if i could limit that box so that each player can only buy [x], that would be neat. -
I'd like to see a mechanism to sell (or give away) small batches of items that is not on the API at all, sort of a sophisticated butler system. Pascale's street spirit is a very appealing idea.
Anything on the API will be introduced into a very competitive economy. If girlthulhu is seeing alts buying out her tower, you can assume that people will roll alts to get multiple daily cheap batches of whatever you sell. Off the API, there would be better opportunities to surprise and delight other players. Bargains would spread by word of mouth and wouldn't be available to scripts/bots that players use to flip low-priced goods in the auction and SDB systems. -
it has been just posted an other interesting idea about SDB limits which sort of completes the one in here
http://www.glitch.com/forum/ideas/28831/
the one here allows to make limited low cost offers
the other suggested seems to allow an SDB to be a secure storage and a selling point at the same time (pratically allowing to not waste 2 SDBs for the same kind of item, only because in different conditions: sell/no-sell) - +1. i love it o: