In-cave marketplace (for teleport)

[Fengari]

With the teleport function added (which is set up very nicely I would like to add) I find myself wanting to trade more, but I'm feeling the need for a centralised spot to find what's on offer. The seperate trading board is nice, but it's kinda hard to browse through it and to know which offers are still good and which are outdated.

 

Also, it would be nice to have an in-cave system so people aren't forced to use the forum if they don't want to. Some players don't like forums, and some (children) are not allowed on one (by parents or age restriction).

 

So this is my suggestion:

 

When starting a two-way trade, you would be able to check a box saying 'list on marketplace'.

If you do, your offer gets listed, if not, it won't (in case this is an already arranged trade and you don't want any random offers).

 

The marketplace would list lists all available offers, so you can go there to find them all and know for certain they're still valid.

 

It would be great to be able filter or sort those by breed, time left, or generation (CB or not would be easiest, I don't know how we could get all the possible specifics in it otherwise). Offers could link to the lineage page so you can go see the specifics.

 

It would be nice to be able to list what you want for it, but again, I don't see how it can be done without it being too complicated or running into the trouble of free text boxes and what rubbish people might put into those. Suggestions are welcome though.

 

Still, even without sorting/filtering and listing 'wants' I thin this would be a very useful addition to the cave, integrating trading even more.

 

What do you think?

 

EDIT to add this would work best with a notifications system and the possibility to decline specific offers, already suggested in other threads.

 

I have created an account on the forum many monthes after that my gaming account was created in site. Originally I didn't think it was so usefull (and I've missed some relases, too, because I didn't know that I should had check the forum).

I think that users who don't have a Forum account could be disadvantaged in trades and news, because they have to search and change page. It's almost like "exit" from the game to search into another site. This is accentuated by the registration required on this forum which is different by the game registration (that are both useful and necessary anyway).

It's also quite strange a BSA like the teleport that could be used only with other users but without a section in game that allows it.

 

What do you think about this? I would like to see a little section among Cave Account Dragons Helps Forum Shop Logout usefull for trade.

 

Cave Account Dragons Trades Helps Forum Shop Logout

 

There could be only 3-4 types of selection ( to not make too much confusion).

CB Dragon offered only

Rare Dragons offered only (so the users could see which dragons are rare and treat them accordingly)

General Dragon Trading

Hatchies Gendered wrong

 

I'd love an in game trade market. I think one like EATW's would be best.

 

Some other ideas...

- Have a search feature (ex: gen 1, any gen, breed, ancestral names, hatchling, even, etc)

- Allow people to post messages with their trades (offensive ones can be reported)

- People can choose whether they want their trades to be listed or private

 

EDIT to add one more quote:

 

Getting to the Marketplace

This could be a link at the top of the scroll similar to the 'Cave', 'Account', 'Scroll' ones, but the line's already pretty big compared to the width of the scroll. I think it would be better as a link on the front page, similar to the AP link. A short line of text, with a link.

 

Something like this, perhaps, under the AP link:

 

A little further along the road you see a bustling Marketplace.

 

Short but simple

 

Navigating the Marketplace

Clicking on the Marketplace link takes you to the page for the Marketplace, of course. At first, this could perhaps show 20 random trades, with pagination to see more random trades (or even just a refresh button to see others). If people really want, perhaps there could be an account setting to decide whether you want to see 20 random ones, the newest 20, or the oldest 20 trades by default.

 

Naturally, on the page itself you could also choose to sort trades by oldest, newest or random.

 

However, it needs a good search function. For this to work well, you'd need to be able to give specific details when setting up the trade - more on that later.

 

I imagine the search function as having two parts: a Basic search, and an Advanced search.

 

The Basic search would show only the most basic options: a drop-down list with breeds (would not contain holiday dragons outside their season), radio buttons for 'egg', 'hatchling' and 'either', and perhaps another set of radio buttons for 'cb', 'lineaged' and 'either'. Those could also work as drop-down boxes, of course. Not sure if this should also include male/female for hatchlings, or if that should be in Advanced.

 

The Advanced search isn't usually visible, but opens when you click a link for it. That way you reduce clutter for simple trading.

It would include the CB/Lineaged choices if not included in Basic, and if 'hatchling' was selected it would include the male/female option.

If Lineaged is chosen, another set of options becomes available. A drop-down box with 'Generation', giving the option of any number between 1 and 12, and >12 (12 because that corresponds with the lineage view). Another drop-down box with the lineage type: Even, Stair, Spiral, Arrow, Reverse Arrow, and Other. Those are the most common types, I think.

 

This section could also include some options to search by what the trade creator wants in return: offers, specifics, bloodswap are just a few ideas.

 

There could be more options, but this is all I can think of for now.

 

In any case, after filling in as much as you like, you click 'search' and get to see your results.

 

The list of trades

As mentione above, the list would have 20 results, with pagination to see more. This would hopefully reduce lag to a minimum while still showing a decent amount of options.

 

The list would look like a table, with the following columns:

 

Offering - Requesting - Time listed - Trade link

 

Offering shows what the person wants to trade away. Similar to EATW, these would be images. Clicking any of them opens their lineage (preferably in a new tab). Small additions to these could detail whether something's CB, Lineaged, Male or Female.

 

Requesting shows that the person wants in return. The easiest way for allowing all the options would just be a small line of text, but perhaps it could be a combo of images and text so it's quick and easy to see what they want. This text would (mostly) be predetermined from options given while setting up the trade (again, more on this later).

 

Time listed shows how old the trade is.

 

Trade link is obviously the link to the trade, where you can offer your stuff. Preferably opens in a new tab. Could be worded as just a short, simple 'Offer!'

 

Putting stuff on the Marketplace

To get your trade on the marketplace, you'd act like setting up any normal trade. The Teleport page would get a third option: "Trade (Marketplace): Create a trade that is listed on the Marketplace".

 

Selecting that option and clicking Teleport takes you to a new page, where you can list details of what you want (and, if the system doesn't pick up on them automatically, with what you're offering). This corresponds to everything you can search by, and includes the ability to request multiple things, of course. This is where you choose things like 'Lineaged', 'CB', etc.

To be completely inclusive, this should also have an 'Other' option with a small text field, to allow for details such as 'pink x gold checker'. Definitely not too long, to minimize the risk of abuse.

 

Then a simple 'Submit' and voilà, the trade appears on the Marketplace.

 

To remove the trade, simply cancel the trade like normally. Or let it expire.

Edited June 14, 2014 by SockPuppet Strangler

[WonderBubbles]

There's already that sort of thing here, but I dunno how widely used it is. Maybe it'll help you?

[Shinobimasterz]

It would be good to have something like that

It will be hard to script it however, but it can be done

 

and add one thing to your suggestion, that is the option to choose what you want for that dragon egg/hatchling, or else people will spam your RARE dragon WITH COMMON OFFERS

 

The trade proposer can choose

I wish for:

a) common

uncommon

c) rare

d) doesn't matter

 

And

a) egg

hatchling

c) doesn't matter

 

Or create 4 market districts

Rare district

Uncommon district

Common district

Universal district

[calankh]

I think this is an excellent idea. You could avoid the open textbox issues if you just had a list of all possible offers, and you could check off what you are looking for (there's only what 60-80 breeds total?). If you are trading something high value (like say a tinsel) and only want other tinsels in return, you check only the boxes next to the tinsel eggs.

 

This could work several ways, that could restrict the offers you could receive though the marketplace to only those breeds, or it could just show what you are requesting, but still allow people to offer anything. I prefer the second option, seems easier to code and well, if you're trading you can expect random offers . Sometimes that's good.

[Nectaris]

I think this kind of thing would be dependent upon a decline feature being added, as well as a withdraw feature, in case you change your mind, or it looks like they might not be on for a good while, and you need to trade them NOW.

 

I would prefer a textbox than a list of all options. Why? Because such a list won't distinguish between generations, inbred, or caveborn. Say you want a CB silver for your tinsel, and so you check the silver box. Well, that wouldn't let the person offering know you want a CB instead of a messy, inbred silver. I think just a report option would curb those who would post bad information.

Edited June 18, 2011 by Nectaris

[Darth Krande]

I totally agree. I might not use the option too often, but it still would be nice.

May I add code trading (for funny codes)? Rare, uncommon, common, strange-code?

[NivaTheDragonQueen]

I was thinking we needed something like this! Because on sites like WonderBubbles listed, you don't know if they already have an offer that they took, or what. I like the in-cave idea, because i really suck at checking pm's on here the idea of having offers on DC would be awesome, because many people don't have forum accounts, or some don't check their accounts. Many people on Eggs Around the World put an email, so this would help. Categories would be nice, seeing as it would be easier to find an egg you can offer for by categories.

[KageSora]

Maybe you could have a checkbox method for "Rare, Uncommon, Common" and an option for "Other" that would allow you to fill in what you want in a textbox?

 

That would be great, if you were looking for something really specific, like a 6th even-gen PB Mint or something like that, or it would allow you to specify that while you want a common dragon like the Black, you only want a CB or something of it and will not accept offers for the 9001ht gen inbred onesomebody has. It doesn't need to be a lot of space, just enough to put in a short idea of what you're looking for.

 

 

And maybe there could be another text-based area on-site for people to set up trades. I mean, sometimes we offer multiple dragons for multiple specific things, but are willing to trade more than one item in the offer for something really good.

 

I mean, for that you could just provide a link to the forums, but as people have said there are reasons people may not use the forums but might use a text-based on-site system. Just something simple, small text box for you to enter what you have, and another for what you want.

 

Or maybe a checkbox system--you can show off everything you have to offer, select everything you are willing to accept in return with small text space to note if you'll trade 2:1 or something like that.

[Fengari]

There's already that sort of thing here, but I dunno how widely used it is. Maybe it'll help you?

Yes, I'm familiar with that, but the problem stays the same: it's far from all the offers that are available, and you're never sure it's still viable.

 

There's already a few useful suggestions on the 'WANT' part.

I would really like to stay away from text boxes because, although I agree it would definitely be the most useful, it would also be the most abusable. I have yet to see the first internet game that isn't pestered by immature and rude people. Even with a report button there'll undoubtedly be things there that shouldn't be there, and reports also need to be modded and I don't want to add to the workload of the mods.

 

But a list of standard messages that you can check might work. A few suggestions compiled from the previous posts (I think it is impossible without a text box to accomodate every possible specific need, and I don't think it should, this is more about offering your egg/hatchling and seeing what people want to give for it than about looking for a specific egg):

- only rares

- only rares and uncommons

- all rarities

- only eggs

- only hatchlings

- only caveborn

- only purebred

- lineage matters

- code matters

 

Listing all breeds, I think, would also be problematic, especially for the room that's needed to display that if you would consider 35 breeds... Plus, although there may be only about 80 breeds now, at the rate new breeds are being released this would soon become a very looong list.

[Nectaris]

Yes, I'm familiar with that, but the problem stays the same: it's far from all the offers that are available, and you're never sure it's still viable.

 

There's already a few useful suggestions on the 'WANT' part.

I would really like to stay away from text boxes because, although I agree it would definitely be the most useful, it would also be the most abusable. I have yet to see the first internet game that isn't pestered by immature and rude people. Even with a report button there'll undoubtedly be things there that shouldn't be there, and reports also need to be modded and I don't want to add to the workload of the mods.

 

But a list of standard messages that you can check might work. A few suggestions compiled from the previous posts (I think it is impossible without a text box to accomodate every possible specific need, and I don't think it should, this is more about offering your egg/hatchling and seeing what people want to give for it than about looking for a specific egg):

- only rares

- only rares and uncommons

- all rarities

- only eggs

- only hatchlings

- only caveborn

- only purebred

- lineage matters

- code matters

 

Listing all breeds, I think, would also be problematic, especially for the room that's needed to display that if you would consider 35 breeds... Plus, although there may  be only about 80 breeds now, at the rate new breeds are being released this would soon become a very looong list.

While I agree on the fact that there are always immature people, I admit, I have never seen a site so afraid to let people write. Yeah, the standard messages are nice, but they don't cover everything, and they never will be. How will someone be able to ask for a white with white X snow angel parents of they can't write what they actually want? Saying "lineage matters" only causes confusion. How does it matter? Do you want 2nd gen, or 4th gen? To me, if you are stuck with only standardized messages, you would have to have an in game messaging system to go along with it.

Edited June 18, 2011 by Nectaris

[KageSora]

While I agree on the fact that there are always immature people, I admit, I have never seen a site so afraid to let people write. Yeah, the standard messages are nice, but they don't cover everything, and they never will be. How will someone be able to ask for a white with white X snow angel parents of they can't write what they actually want? Saying "lineage matters" only causes confusion. How does it matter? Do you want 2nd gen, or 4th gen? To me, if you are stuck with only standardized messages, you would have to have an in game messaging system to go along with it.

This. And, then if we have an in-game messaging system that's got the potential for abuse, too. Everything has the possibility for abuse, really.

 

And why should this not be a way to get a specific egg? I think it's a bit silly to say "Hey, if you want to set up trades, you can do it here! But only for somewhat broad categories--if you want something specific, you'll have to join the forums and check out the trading section in the hopes somebody will take the offer there!" That completely defeats the purpose of having something like this so people don't have to use the forums.

[Obscure_Trash]

One issue I see with this is just how many users and therefore trades we'll have. The trade page may get huge, even with the option to use it or not. Too huge and it will be more of a burden than anything, especially if offers are getting updated (re: accepted or canceled) before you can get to them through all the offers you see.

 

The other issue I see with this is how many offers you could get. While I know more options are better, if you're getting fifty offers of a pebble on your gold egg, you're probably not going to be very happy... x3

I guess maybe some sort of system where you can check eggs you're looking for and only accept those offers - but then there wouldn't be flexibility if someone offered a different egg you may like and they were blocked from offering it because it wasn't on your original list.

 

I think it's a pretty good idea to start with, but needs to be worked out a bit before it's really workable.

[Darth Krande]

((One more thing to the rareness: the option of "newest release". It would be changing from one release to the other and it could include, like, fresh holiday eggs. There are many people willing to trade a rare for a fresh release common egg.))

Edited June 18, 2011 by Darth Krande

[~!~]

I think there should be a public venue for Teleport trading. When you ask your Magi to Teleport eggs/hatchlings, you can choose to have it broadcast a message to other Magi dragons, alerting them to the fact that the trade offer exists.

 

Another user could then ask his Magi dragon to give him a list of all the trade offers out there. This, of course, would be a huge ton of stuff, so you'd have to specify some condition. Breed, time until death, lineage length, if the lineage contains dragons with this word in their name, if the lineage contains a specific dragon, etc. Then, you can sift through a list of trades and make offers on them without ever contacting the owners outside of the site.

 

It would also be really useful if when using Teleport, you could specify what you want in return, namely with the conditions I mentioned above. Then other people could ask their Magis to filter the offers on what the trader wants. So if you've got a specific egg and don't want it, but you know other people probably do, you can find out what people are offering in exchange for it.

 

And let me remind you that sending your trade to the listing would be 100% optional.

 

Thoughts?

[ghb523]

I am almost all for this, but at the same time, it might also cause of lag on the server. But, this would be awesome when looking for an ER male black hatchling on the offers. If this is implemented though, messages should be addable for use (for example: looking for a cb stripe) This might take a lot of coding and cause a bit of lag though, so i am 90% for it.

[Obscure_Trash]

~Merged threads~

[Banuk]

I've been wanting to suggest something like this for ages. I think it's a very good idea to have some sort of trading center for those without connections.

[~!~]

Whoa, Sock, you scared me there. I went to post this post and then it was like "thread no longer exists" and I freaked out a bit.

 

Sorry, I didn't bother searching because I figured I'd remember if something this useful had been suggested in the past ^^'

 

Anyway, here's the actual post:

 

I'm thinking when you ask your Magi to query the database (or whatever more magical term you want to use for it) you would be given options. Breed: Pick one, or "I don't care." Lineage length: Enter a number, or leave blank for "I don't care." Lineage contains dragons whose names contain: Enter text. Lineage contains dragon: Enter dragon's name.

 

Perhaps even "Lineage contains these dragons (show/hide list):" whereupon it would give you a giant checklist of all the dragon breeds. That might be a bit complicated, though.

 

EDIT:

Another general utility feature could be that if you set up your trade so that you want a specific kind of egg (or perhaps anything but a specific kind of egg), it would be impossible to make an offer that did not meet the criteria you set. That way, you can avoid getting common offers for rare eggs and the like.

Edited September 5, 2011 by ~!~

[Stealthypugs]

I don't think that a text box to input the 'wants' is such a bad idea. It seems like it would be possible to weed out most of the immature/abusive things entered in the same way which dragon names work: if the system detects a bad word, the trade isn't initiated (and/or something bad happens to the magi/trade offer).

[~!~]

I thought that only came about by people reporting the dragon's name...

 

Also, there's plenty of ways to be abusive with text. I won't make an example (I was going to but then thought better of it ), but you could definitely put something sexually explicit in such a field without actually using any explicit language.

 

I text field would make it harder for the system to prevent inappropriate offers, though. Like, say you want a CB Stripe, but you typo "stripe." Then, because the cave doesn't read the name of any breed, you get spammed with Spitfires.

[Ketsala]

I love this idea, although it might get a little huge. Personally, I think it would work well if you had a way to decline offers; a textbox to write specifically what you want; an option to use checkboxes to accept only certain species (if I want offers, I won't use the checkboxes; if I don't, I will); and optional checkboxes to check the species you don't want. For example:

 

I have X egg; I'd really like Y egg, with such-and-such lineage. I'm also open to offers, but if I get a single unbreedable offer I think I may go insane!!! Luckily I can ban people from offering them. Yay!

 

That way the site doesn't have to learn what counts as 'uncommon', 'rare', and 'common'- you can just check all the commons as Do Not Want for your gold. You could prevent a lot of spam that way, I think.

Edited September 28, 2011 by Ketsala

[Tiki G]

Why have I never seen this before?

 

I love this idea. I'm not too keen on using the Trading threads for trade, thus I don't trade too often. But this would be great.

 

Sure, the lists would get big, but there could be an option to sort trades by breeds and whatnot. Say you are looking for a CB Magma, you could click, sort by breed and there could be a list of all the breeds you could click/check off to see what kind of Magmas are being offered.

 

There is tons of other stuff I could like to add but I must get ready for work.

 

Overall, I love this idea.

[RheaZen]

Sounds like a plan. I mean, the in-cave trade system is kinda useless without out-of-cave communication...

 

Don't have anything to add about the hows though.

[tjekan]

+1

 

I'd like to see it combined with a Decline option. I think it would be cumbersome and unrealistic to expect the system to block people from offering trades you find uninteresting. A better choice would just be to allow us to immediately decline worthless offers.

 

But even without Decline, I wouldn't mind scrolling through 50 pebble offers if it meant finding a wider audience for trades. :-)

[~!~]

Ooh ooh ooh

I just thought, if there is a decline option, the declined offers should be visible to everybody, so people can tell beforehand if you're not looking for something.