Bazaar

[Joe M.]

Comments, Complaints, and Suggestions:
* Can't list an item at a price of 0 gold.
* The "cash out" system isn't intuitively obvious: at first I thought I hadn't gotten paid!
* The green (for your items) is a little too close to the white (for the items of others).

Post what you've got.

[Karl G.]

Alphas--Please post your thoughts I'm listening. This first interface is a "rough draft" so to speak. If you want to whip up some ideas for me in Paint, please feel free!

The basic features I wanted to make sure were available were:
- be able to view stats of any item you have your mouse over
- scroll through pages of items that are for sale, and clearly mark items that you own (that way you can see that they are actually there!)
- view items that you have for sale and be able to withdraw them
- view items that you sold, including sale price
- withdraw gold after having sold an item
- list a new items for sale by selecting them from your inventory and assigning a price

[Joe M.]

A couple strange things about this picture:
* The "leave bazaar" button in the bottom right corner, as a result of the higher resolution. Could that be placed closer to the window itself?
* One must scroll down to see all of a "page" in the bazaar listing, and then flip pages to see more stuff. It would be better to either have one long listing (no pages), or keep few enough items per page that one doesn't have to scroll. Enabling the scroll wheel has already been mentioned.

[Joe M.]

IMPORTANT:
The Bazaar ate my money!

.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\stateworldmain.cpp(1153): [INFO] NETMSG_TELLYOURMONEY: you have 273 gold
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\stateworldmain.cpp(1153): [INFO] NETMSG_TELLYOURMONEY: you have 211 gold
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\stateworldmain.cpp(1153): [INFO] NETMSG_TELLYOURMONEY: you have 118 gold
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\bazaardisplay.cpp(78): [ERROR] CONFIRM( owner_->display_mode_ == BAZAAR_MODE_LISTFORSALE )
.\stateworldmain.cpp(1153): [INFO] NETMSG_TELLYOURMONEY: you have 9 gold

I was testing the price limit (3500, btw), and after I'd finished taking down all my items and then putting up and taking down items for a while (no, not buying or selling anything, just listing and un-listing my own items for sale), I noticed that I'd lost a lot of gold. Those [ERROR] messages show up in only one of my other debug logs, but that time I didn't lose money.

Back to testing.

[Joe M.]

Hmm...
Never mind on what I said about the price limit. Now I'm getting some very strange behavior from the Bazaar: It will fail to list items above a certain price, though minutes before I was able to do so: for instance, I was unable to list a necklace for a price above 1002 gp, and then a few minutes later I was able to list one for 1020 gp, and now I can get one up to 1032 (but not 1033); before I managed to get a certain item (I forget what) to list for 3500 gp, now I can't get anything above 1032.

Karl: are you trying to limit list price somehow? If so, it seems to be erratic and not working.

[Joe M.]

So I can't test more right now.

But:
It's very inconvenient to have to start the game, do a certain series of actions, close the game, and check the debug log to see what conditions trigger which errors. Would it be possible, Karl, for you to have those error messages (or at least an "ERROR (#)!" message) flash in-game whenever they get triggered? Maybe show over your character's head, or in the chat box or some such ...

That would be very helpful.

[Joe M.]

And, while I'm spamming here (where's everybody else? Why aren't y'all trying to break this thing with me?):

There is currently no way for gold/goods to exit the economy other than by dropping (on death or otherwise) goods. This will only lead to inflation as we try to test things. Perhaps a weekly/daily "tax," in which gold is deducted from each character (flat fee, or perhaps a percentage, maybe to a minimum amount), or gold is reset altogether? Maybe implement a disposable and have the server sell it via the bazaar?

I know this isn't the *primary* concern, but it might help testing if we didn't let things get too out of control.

[Karl G.]

Wow, that was a lot of posts! Ok, here goes:

The reason you can't list items is likely because you don't have enough gold. Listing an item in the bazaar costs money. I can disable this if it ends up being a pain, but there should be no limit to the price you can set (as long as you can pay the fee, which is approximately 1/16th of the price for all items over 1000 gold) This could definitely be more explicit.

I'll move the exit button.

One big list would be impractical for several reasons, so I'll see what I can do about having them all show up on the same page. I definitely agree that scrolling is annoying.

The bazaardisplay.cpp error has nothing to do with money, I'm sorry to say. It's good for me to know that it's happening, though (I thought I fixed that...). If the bazaar starts doing weird stuff, just log off and log back in to reset it.

I agree with you about the debug log thing. I'd like to introduce a debug "hook" that can (optionally) print those message to the chat log.

[Joe M.]

Great. That helps. So did my gold disappear because the Bazaar didn't refund my money when I took each item down?

In any case I think there are problems with listing items. I'll test it some more (after I make some $$) and let you know.

[Joe M.]

Ok. I'm not getting $$ refunded when I un-list an item. I'm sure that's intended, but in that case could you disable the listing fee? Makes it easier to test ...

[Joe M.]

And one more thing before I call it a night:
When you select an item to list, you have to click in the text field to enter a price, and then click a button to list it. Two mouse clicks. It would be much easier if the cursor was already ready to type and you were able to use the enter key to list. Right now it kills the Bazaar and brings up the chat bar.

[Karl G.]

Ok. I'm not getting $$ refunded when I un-list an item. I'm sure that's intended, but in that case could you disable the listing fee? Makes it easier to test ...

It doesn't refund your listing fee when you un-list something. The fee is necessary to (eventually) keep people from listing ridiculous amounts/prices for items.

I'll disable it for now.

[Sankt Pauli]

Actually i haven't posted in here because i didn't experience any problems and i'm liking the bazaar, just as it is. :p
I was a bit confused at the first time opening the bazaar but that was the case in all the games when i first entered the "bazaar" equivalent. It's easy to handle imo, the color of your own items is absolutely ok with me...and for double-checking you also have the "personal" page.

I guess problems may occur later when i use that thing more regulary, same goes for improvement-ideas.
Oh, and why would you want to list an item for 0 gold joe?

[Joe M.]

Just trying to figure out what all I could and couldn't do with the thing. And what can I say? I like to spread the wealth around.

[Karl G.]

Just trying to figure out what all I could and couldn't do with the thing. And what can I say? I like to spread the wealth around.

Which is exactly what needs to happen

Thanks to your testing, I've found that the way I'm currently handling the bazaar and other interfaces is definitely sub-optimal. I have some time tonight so I'm writing a nice little component that should let me create and edit menus much more quickly and intuitively in order to respond to problems like you are having.

[Joe M.]

* Upon logging in and checking my Bazaar listings, it showed that I had sold an item that I had listed for 1000 gp. When I clicked the "sold" item, it disappeared but I didn't receive any gold. Anybody else having problems receiving cash payments?

* I'm still having trouble listing items after the first few. This may be a per-session thing, but I'm not sure. It may have something to do with listing a 2nd item of the same type as one you've already got listed (every time I recall having this problem it was trying to list a 2nd Russet Rapier or Aurelian Cloak). And it for sure isn't a price thing--I tried listing them at 1gp and it still wouldn't take. Anybody else having trouble listing items for sale?

[Karl G.]

Urgh. It sounds like the bazaar is having more problems than I thought. I'm going to review the code for it for the next update when I add the geosids.

[Sankt Pauli]

That's really weird, i still haven't experienced any of the problems you mentioned joe. If this would be for playing, i would say you have some darn bad luck there, but since it is for testing it's actually good that you manage to bug the bazaar. :p
Oh, and i think i bought your 1000 gold item (i think a bone mail?), my cash got properly reduced so the bazaar must've eaten your profit.

[Joe M.]

It was Aurelian. I think an Aurelian Breastplate.

[Sankt Pauli]

Aye that it was. I only remembered it was a breast-armor and it gave me +mp hehe.