Player Store Counters Purchasing Goods.

[Tolwrath]

So the player can create store counters, and they'll eventually be able to sell stuff to travelling NPCs. But stores, especially trade organizations, don't limit themselves to just selling. Player stores should also come with the ability to purchase goods from those travelling NPCs.

Unfortunately, I'm still not quite sure how such a thing would be handled in game. My best thought is that the counter or town would have a "purchase authority" button, which when clicked would bring up a list of item classes and trade goods with check boxes for toggling and input fields for price ranges. So you could have something like "enable purchasing sabres, but only for prices between 20kcats and 35kcats" or "buy steel bars if they are under 90% value (or between 80% and 90% since 80 is lowest)".

Hmm we might also need some sort of inventory/storage limit, so we don't waste money buying 5 new sabres when we only needed 2. Something like "number to buy" which would decrement itself after a purchase, or "buy until we have X number steel bars in storage" which would also account for steel bars produced or simply bought and deposited by the player squad.

Tell me what you guys (and gals) think. As I said above, I think the general idea of giving player stores the ability to buy from NPCs would be nice, but I'm not sure what the best way to implement that would be.

[Smiley]

Wouldnt it be easier sending ur own trade caravan out to buy stuff, and give them the order to buy a certain amount of goods and after doing so returning to your homebase.

Coz else u dont really need to have any trader whatso ever. Then u can just wait and sit in your own shop.

Or pherhaps just an overview off which city is selling what u selecting what u need and they either bring it or you send ur own traders to get the needed amount.

Offc then u need to have a squad assigned to trading. Bit like the npc's do it.

[Barteaux]

Agree with OP.

By having the option to authorize trade counter personel to both buy and sell one can really fulfill the dream of establishing a trade town. This won't necessarily mean that you get everything you want/need from traders passing by, so it won't alleviate the need for dispatching your own trade caravans.

[Clawdius Talonious]

This sort of feature would be more useful in a less static economy, especially if we gain the ability to set the prices for various trade goods. You could set things you need to move below 100% and things you need to purchase near or above 100%. The idea of being able to cherry pick the traders inventories for specific items seems a bit silly to me. I don't care if you're all dying of thirst, I'm not selling you barrels of water for less than I paid for them. But being able to play with your locations prices would logically affect the trade in specific items. Make plenty of building materials? Set the price to 80% and don't put any in a sales counter and you're not likely to have any traders sell any, that sort of thing. And if you want to purchase items for less than the 100%, your own trading caravans would still be an option, especially after we gain the ability to control multiple squads.

[Barteaux]

The idea of being able to cherry pick the traders inventories for specific items seems a bit silly to me...

We'll have to agree to disagree then. To me, being able to choose for yourself what you want to buy, seems not the least bit silly.

[Smiley]

Ithink he means that the only goods those traders would be carrying is the stuff u need and the quantity u need.
If this is the case i didnt mean it like that i just meant the traders that do have some stuuff u could use would be either delivered or u should go and get em. In which ur own traders getting the items would be more efficient yet time consuming while if traders that stop by ur own shop would be carrying less of the material u need. Hmm but then if i think further what if there sole phurphose of the journey to your outpost was selling stuff u need, and maybe buying some they need then the quantity would be more hmmmm.

Well the most efficient way of trading are the trades where u can both sell and buy at the same time... Considering the journey takes a while , but then if u just sell the cats earned goes straight into the money pool instead of beeing carried back to your outpost. so if u get robbed, goods can be stolen while ur money can not (hmm raising questions)

[Tolwrath]

Pretty sure physical money is planned in the future. So the argument that money is safer than trade goods may be invalid.

[Smiley]

I hope so

[CalPal]

Pretty sure physical money is planned in the future. So the argument that money is safer than trade goods may be invalid.

...

Yes.

Hell yes!

I can finally imagine a thieves guild, breaking into banks, stealing from stores and rich people, hiding in remote locations to live like kings... yes, YES!! I approve of this!

[Denninja]

Agreed, it wouldn't make any sense not to be able to,
I mean look at all the trading caravans out there.
Maybe those could be requested to visit the player towns and buy/sell from a list with amounts.
I'd also like to have whoever is operating the shops to carry items there to sell.

Pretty sure physical money is planned in the future. So the argument that money is safer than trade goods may be invalid.

Yeah, there's even these images sitting in \data\gui.

[Clawdius Talonious]

The idea of being able to cherry pick the traders inventories for specific items seems a bit silly to me...

We'll have to agree to disagree then. To me, being able to choose for yourself what you want to buy, seems not the least bit silly.

I was specifically talking about the "buy steel bars if they are under 90% value (or between 80% and 90% since 80 is lowest)" remark in the opening post. In point of fact I detailed a more reasonable method of setting items for purchase, and don't appreciate being taken out of context.

[pirdulitis]

I really think that a good thing would be that if a trader caravan arrives you get a little notification that asks you whether you want to start a trade (Accepting this can be set to automatically to pause the game). This could have a menu that tells you what they want and you also can choose what you want to buy from their menu.

This would allow you to pick items you want and also sell items that you believe that you get the best value from (Have traders set up prices they are willing to pay and you can haggle for better values as well).

[Tolwrath]

Not so sure about the popups. The idea is to have your faction handle the trader caravans for either simple trades, or for while you are away from your base. I suspect that caravans will arrive too often for it to be considered "convenient". Even less so when you have multiple bases/towns. But a popup could have its place, for example you might want to be notified when a caravan comes by with a non-trade good you had flagged as something you wanted. Like checking that a 30kcat sabre actually has the stats you wanted.