Does the Buyer Window allow you to request items which haven't been made yet?

[Neebat]

First, this is NOT a question about the /barter window! I'm aware that the search there is limited by what's available, just like the /bazaar window. I'm asking about the window you use to BUY stuff using barter functionality, which wouldn't be much use if you could only make offers for things that were already listed in /barter or /bazaar.

I'd like to find someone to make the halfling cultural armors. It's very possible no one has made these yet, and I wouldn't mind paying someone to make the first set. I expected to be able to post this request in the buyer window, to encourage someone to go ahead and make some. Just search by name, pick the item and post a price, right? I tried to search for the items, but the weren't there! I tried several different searches like "journeyman" and "master". I never got a message like "too many results".

Now I see that the armor I want is named "Lightring", so I'll search again, but shouldn't a search for "journeyman" bring up a lot of results?

I wanted to post this, because it looks like the /buyer window may have a filter on it. Is it possible this is limited to items that have been made or dropped on your server?

[Sylphan]

This appears to be true. I checked buyer for 'moonglade' and lots of things came up but not much journeyman's moonglade. Then I switched to my other character and made five journeyman's moonglade items. I switched back to my trader about one minute later and now all five items have magically appeared in the buy item list.

This was on Cazic-Thule. You might check on your server to see if all of the journeyman's moonglade is in the buyable items list.

[Kcalehc]

Yup, it won't show anything that's not on your server. Kinda makes sense because you can't buy them if there isn't any yet.

though it is handy from the point of view that you can see the relative progress of new tradeskill items on the server. You can tell roughly how many races are working on their cultural stuff (e.g. on TP theres only halfling GM stuff so far, a couple races Masters and a handfull of each of experts and journeymans). Also if you haven't made any of your cultures stuff you can find out if anyone else has and therefore if theres a possibilty of competition.
I'm sure theres other ways this information could be of use.

[Dyllwin]

Neebat let me know if you're on Cazic, I'll be happy to work with you on a set.

[Bobaten]

Also note that it appears to be tied to the creation of the item, and not the current existance. Before I made an interplanar brain blaster not only did it not appear on /buyer, buy neither did the subcombine of camphor. Afterwards (when the camphor had been combined) both were on the buyer search.

[Neebat]

It sounds like we've got confirmation that the buyer item list IS filtered. Honestly, I'm not surprised. I think Sony would see this as something people could "exploit". After all, it's pretty far out of the character of the game to see the stats of something that doesn't exist yet.

A working, unfiltered search might also highlight content which is unfinished at release. What if we could see items in search the moment the expansion came out? This would make it easy to confirm the assertion of uber-guilds that Sony is finishing content long after they sell it. If items suddenly appeared in the list weeks or months after the expansion went live, it would be a good indication they hadn't populated all the drop lists before selling the zones.

Yup, it won't show anything that's not on your server. Kinda makes sense because you can't buy them if there isn't any yet.

Obviously you can't buy something that doesn't exist yet, (unless Sony is selling), but logically, you could put up OFFERS for unique items distinctive to your character. For instance, I have one of the odd erudite clerics of Quellious. There's a set of the old cultural armor that fits my cleric and maybe 10 others on the server. If no one has made that armor, there's no way those 10 can post thier interest. The only way I can sell it is to make the first set and hope.

The proliferation of diversity in cultural armors makes this more of a disadvantage to the tradeskillers. We cannot take offers for custom, new armors using the barter system. If it's not something we're likely to be able to sell, making it is strictly for bragging rights, so some of the types may never be made. It's a catch-22. We can't see the market till someone asks and they can't ask using barter.

[Kellan]

Obviously you can't buy something that doesn't exist yet, (unless Sony is selling), but logically, you could put up OFFERS for unique items distinctive to your character.

Logicially, your character cannot put up an offer to buy something that DOES NOT EXIST and has never existed in your character's own world.

Your character would have no way of knowing the item's name in order to put up the offer to have it made. You would, logically, need to talk in person with a smith of your race directly about the first set of the armor to ever be produced prior to knowing what it is and asking to buy it. Once you have seen one of the armors, or heard a bard's song in a tavern with the name, etc... then you could put out an offer to buy some.

[Neebat]

Logic?

Ok, assume for a second that you're a halfing adventurer in chain. In your adventures, you hear about the following items, or find them for sale at the local market:
Journeyman's Brambleborn Greaves & Grandmaster's Brambleborn Greaves
Journeyman's Driftwalker Greaves & Grandmaster's Driftwalker Greaves
Journeyman's Bloodpact Greaves & Grandmaster's Bloodpact Greaves
Journeyman's Lightring Greaves

Any halfling who could eat a pie would put that together. Someone, someday, is going to catch up with the other races and make "Grandmaster's Lightring Greaves". Since the other Grandmasters are making greaves of high quality, your racial pride is piqued. It's only natural for you to post a note at the local trading post that you want to be the very first hobbit around in this spiffy new gear.

There's a logical, in-character explanation of how a character becomes aware of something that doesn't exist yet. It's a wide world and a traveler puts things together. In fact, that's almost exactly how I became aware of these grandmaster armors, not from a web site, but from my character's experience in Norrath.

Out of character, I'd say it is reasonable to list the rewards of tradeskill combines in the Buyer window, without stats, until someone manages to make them. Buyer beware.

WTB A solution to world hunger and peace for all peoples! (Oops. Can't. Doesn't exist yet.)

[Aryse Andenter]

Does anyone know the criteria for an item 'existing' on a server to be able to search it? I can't get 'Air-infused spring water' to come up and I've searched it every which way. I know this item is supposed to be uncommon, but is it really so rare that nobody on my server has ever found one yet?

[Sanadila]

Well, I searched "spring" and got it. However, I can't imagine no-one on a live server has foraged that yet. My motto is, when in doubt, /bug it. If you think it should be there, and it isn't submit a bug report just in case. For the most part, the devs would rather have you submit too many bug reports than possibly not bug something that actually is a problem.

On a side note, Kirin Horn still doesn't appear in the buy tables, so I'm assuming it still hasn't dropped on Test *sighs*. And I so want a FD potion.

[Aryse Andenter]

Hrm, well I've bugged it, and got my bf to bug it, since it is definately not coming up on my server when searching in buy... and I now have one in my possesion that a guildie gave me. I can even add it as compensation for another item no problem, just can't find it to create a buy line for it.

[Grolyn]

It's my understanding most items that aren't discovered or created yet on any specific server will not have the said item in buy window. Kirin Horn do exists, one popped on Vazaelle a while ago and vanished promptly:


Kirin Horn never came up in the buy line until about the time one became available in bazaar (not sure of exact time they were discovered as I didn't recheck buy window every minute )

Then again it is possible item(s) will show up in buy window when it shouldn't. SoE has a habit of causing bugs (what else is news?) and in tradeskill UI there's many recipes that can't be done due to broken or missing ingreidents.

[Kaliaila]

Also note that it appears to be tied to the creation of the item, and not the current existance. Before I made an interplanar brain blaster not only did it not appear on /buyer, buy neither did the subcombine of camphor. Afterwards (when the camphor had been combined) both were on the buyer search.

Going from this, I would assert that the Dropped items from mobs would not appear on any of the lists until they had actually been dropped by a mob. Which would counter the argument that the /buyer list would be able to be used to prove one way or another as to whether or not SOE is finishing encounters and filling in loot tables for mobs after an expansion is released.

[Erikanudan]

As far as I've seen, if the item hasn't dropped from a mob on that server, or been player made on that server, it will not show up in /buyer search.

There are some exceptions though, apparently OoW augments, and some other items ....

I could be wrong, but currently, according to /buyer linkbot, I've made the only GM armor on server so far ... a cpl of GM waters have appeared in list, and I didn't make them, so seems to be a server based database.