Idea to reduce hassles related to tradeskills...

[Bolas]

Ngreth,

Here's an idea... have a button in the lower right of all merchant windows that filters out everything without a tradeskill tag.

That way, tradeskillers could filter out everything that's not for tradeskills when the shop at the merchants in PoK or in the bazaar or wherever without having to glance past dozens of items in the game that have no practical value -- the stuff that drops that is only useful to sell to vendors for plats, for example, on the pok vendors, or the misc lowbie armor that you don't care for in bazaar vendors.

This wouldn't unbalance anything -- doesn't affect gameplay, just reduces hassles with looking for good tradeskill items on merchants or bazaar mules.

Long term, it might even be possible to have flags for specific tradeskills on the items, so you can filter out all but fletching tradeskill items.. but I know that to some extent the game designers prefer that people discover what the items are used for themselves rather than have it listed "this is for fletching". Just an idea.

-Bolas

[KyrosKrane]

While it's not a bad idea, keep in mind that people vendor dive for more than just TS items. I find TS-made items on vendors sometimes, and quest items, and random other odds and ends that I buy and resell.

[Ngreth Thergn]

I can propose it,since you are sugesting an on/off button.

It will also depend on what we decide on other vendor changes (revolving inventory... only keeping items that are tradeskill/quest used...) We have settled on nothing and as far as I know not scheduled anything... so do not count on anything in particular.

[Lucian Celeste]

It will also depend on what we decide on other vendor changes (revolving inventory... only keeping items that are tradeskill/quest used...)

Wow It hadn't occured to me that you could limit them to only keep tradeskill tagged/ quest related items. Is it possible that both could be implimented together?

[Maevenniia]

I dunno...would kinda make vendor-diving too easy, IMO....part of the fun is finding a treasure amidst the junk.

Just changing merchants to destroy the oldest items instead of the newest items (when they are full and something is sold to them) would be a big improvement...

just my opinion, of course...

[Nolrog]

Just changing merchants to destroy the oldest items instead of the newest items (when they are full and something is sold to them) would be a big improvement...

That's what I'd much prefer to see myself. Is there a flag on items that says it's used in quests? Certainly not one that's visable. So how would the merchant know, without having to go back and flag countless thousands of items used in all the quests in the game.

[Ngreth Thergn]

That's what I'd much prefer to see myself. Is there a flag on items that says it's used in quests? Certainly not one that's visable. So how would the merchant know, without having to go back and flag countless thousands of items used in all the quests in the game.

Currently there is not such a flag.

If code support for such a flag is added, it would only take about a day, possibly less to flag everything appropriately. (I know two of the ways that we do quests we can pull and flag what is used in a quest in an hour or two... the third would be the time killer)

One issue with the FIFO vendor stack... (current is LIFO) if you are trying to buy the oldest thing... and someone sells something that would push it into the "delete" stack... the item would go poof. You keep your cash, but you get no item.

Is that behavior acceptable? It would not be more frustrating to actually SEE something you want and watch it go "poof" because it is a busy vendor?

[KyrosKrane]

That would be perfectly acceptable, Ngreth. It's not substantially different from seeing the item go poof now because another player bought it. In addition, it's pretty rare in my experience that two players are using a vendor at the same time. Besides, most vendor miners agree that in the long run, FIFO stock would mean far more TS items being saved than currently happens.

The only real concerns I'd have is the error-checking logic you mentioned and some sort of flag so that vendors who have a limited quantity of something by default (think HQ ore, for example, although there are plenty of other such items) don't destroy that default item when their inventory gets full.

[Bolas]

Yes just having the OPTION to see ONLY tradeskill items on vendors would reduce the eye strain from scrolling through tons of items on vendor after vendor.... as it is now, they all start to blur together... it'd be nicer to only see things that I might potentially want to buy, instead of having to try to mentally filter out things I'd never want to buy -- some of which have the same picture -- from the things I do want to buy.

If a vendor has 40 items, and only 16 of them are tradeskill related, then when I click this filter on, I only have to look through 16 items to see if there's something I want... and there's much less risk of me overlooking something I really want.

Thanks for proposing this, Ngreth!!

-Bolas

[Ngreth Thergn]

The only real concerns I'd have is the error-checking logic you mentioned and some sort of flag so that vendors who have a limited quantity of something by default (think HQ ore, for example, although there are plenty of other such items) don't destroy that default item when their inventory gets full.

The coders would handle that! I think already the stuff that design says is on the vendor already stays... but not sure, and though could be the reason that code looked at this once and said "OOO this is going to take longer than I thought" and shelved it. (this was a while ago, and we have re-requested the change)

[Ngreth Thergn]

Yes just having the OPTION to see ONLY tradeskill items on vendors would reduce the eye strain from scrolling through tons of items on vendor after vendor....

Actually the suggestion (not originally posed by me, just relaying it) was to have the vendor only "keep" tradeskill and quest marked items. any other items are automatically deleted when sold to an NPC. This would reduce that amount of stuff on vendors to only stuff people might want to buy.

[Raolinx]

One issue with the FIFO vendor stack... (current is LIFO) if you are trying to buy the oldest thing... and someone sells something that would push it into the "delete" stack... the item would go poof. You keep your cash, but you get no item.

Probally not easy to code but give a 3 item an invisable buffer. IE last 3 items in inventory just dont get listed. but if previously were clicked on could still be purchased.

just some code that states do not print lines 70 and 80 or some such.

Actually the suggestion (not originally posed by me, just relaying it) was to have the vendor only "keep" tradeskill and quest marked items. any other items are automatically deleted when sold to an NPC. This would reduce that amount of stuff on vendors to only stuff people might want to buy.

Argggg, How would I ever get that flayed barbarian mask someone accedently sold to a merchant after doing some mask combines. No sir, I dont like that idea, I dont like it at all.

Rao

[Tiroon]

Items going poof while I am looking at them wouldn't bother me one bit more than when someone buys something I was eyeing. I was too late *shrugs* *moves on*.

Only keeping items that are tradeskill tagged is an idea I don't particularly like. Too many useful items would disappear too. From cheap stat food for my newbie alts in AS to my alts' favorite "backpack" the Deluxe Sewing Kit.

Edit: Maevenniia summed it up nicely: "IMO....part of the fun is finding a treasure amidst the junk. "

[Bobaten]

I have accidently sold bagged gear to vendors a few times in the past, I would hate to lose the chance to buy my stuff back.