Passed Foreign Price Reduction

How would you like to see this idea implemented?

  • With a 2x foreign price multiplier

    Votes: 39 32.0%
  • With a 1.5x foreign price multiplier

    Votes: 71 58.2%
  • Not at all (ie keep the 4x foreign price multiplier)

    Votes: 12 9.8%

  • Total voters
    122
  • Poll closed .
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DeletedUser

Back in January, Diggo11 posted a thread echoing a portion of my intent, but it contained some fundamental caveats I didn't necessarily agree with, so this is another similar, but much simpler proposal.

Problem:
As the game drags on, the following issues have become more than apparent:
1. Players with more experience are now facing 20-30-hour waiting period between towns.
2. A player must leave a town twice for each shopping trip, imposing two wait-time penalties in total.
3. New items are coming out, but are not being added to existing towns, forcing foreign shopping.
4. Foreign shopping is all but a necessity in The West, especially earlier in the game -- when fancy items change a player's game experience drastically.
5. Buying most items from foreign shops is too expensive. Literally nobody purchases items for $20,000.
6. As the player progresses in a maxed-out town, the bank's level 10 account of $12,000 prevents the player from saving. This forces the player to leave the town and shop. This does NOT justify charging 400%, however.

Conclusion:
The current foreign shopping dynamic is fundamentally broken. The process of joining other towns presents a grind to players, leading to boredom and frustration. Some towns are left with grays and rusty's, while others have a disproportionate quantity of fancies and sharps. The game revolves around labor points and duel skill points -- affected significantly by item bonuses.
In short, change is necessary immediately.

Solution:
Lower foreign shop prices to 2x.

That's it. No caveats, no "but's." No changes to anything else. This adjustment doesn't even require a full-blown build deployment.

As a possible rider to this solution, developers may consider increasing the percentage returned to the selling town's treasury. Currently, the amount of cash received is laughable, especially in smaller towns with fewer contributors. Increasing the income considerably will help small towns progress more quickly.

This solution does NOT obviate the need to be a member of a town. Some respondents are posting that this solution would create more "townless" players, who drift around without fear of being dueled. My rebuttal is that these players also have no access to: forts, dueling other players, town forums for advice and tip-sharing, camaraderie, free hotel stays, general town pride, and shops' top-tier items (like boots and shawls). If a player wants to drift around aimlessly for the sake of paying 100% more for items, then I say he/she is missing out on a LOT of the game's best elements.

Reasoning:
Nobody can assert -- with logic -- that 4x is a fair modifier. You may as well prevent foreign shopping altogether. The current system forces players to endure a ridiculous onslaught of bureaucracy and red tape whenever a new item is needed. Charging 100% more for an item (2x) is far more reasonable, and does not dissuade shopping alliances -- nor does it create rampant opportunities for enemies to rush your town for items to use against you. Be realistic, and realize that your enemies have other neighbors, too; and that their neighbors' shops also have items, and your neighbors have shops! There is no room for stubborn "but-they're-our-enemy!" principles at this point. Also, please remember that foreigners cannot access your shops' final 2 levels, anyhow! Allowing enemies to shop easier in your town is no more detrimental than allowing them to stay in your hotel after dueling your people.

This isn't Barbie's Day at the Mall or Ebay.com. If I would have known this game would turn into a shopping-simulator, I don't know that I would have jumped in so headlong.

The game appears to be one of dueling, networking, character-building and battle tactics (i.e. forts, etc.). If anyone can reasonably assert that "shopping" should be considered a central theme, as well, then please do so intelligently! I want to know what the community thinks, here.
 
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DeletedUser

Good one. 400% is ludicrous. I was more thinking of making outside shopping 150%. Say for example the Fancy Dress Coat costs $7200. For outsiders it would be $10800. A hefty price but way more plausible to cover.

Still even if it is 200% you have my vote.
 

DeletedUser

From the Roadmap:
Item trade
Players can trade items with each other. Each player can put offers and requests into the player profile. At first it won’t be possible to trade items for items, only sale for money will be possible. Each item will have a minimum and a maximum Price.
______________________________________________________________________
Seems to me that when this is implemented, the need for shopping will be lessened. And, by extension, the need to change the way that players shop.
 

DeletedUser

4. Foreign shopping is all but a necessity in The West, especially earlier in the game -- when fancy items change a player's game experience drastically.

$2080 ( 400% ) fancy cap is just like $1040 ( 200% ) fancy cap at early game ... i think it must be 150% or 175% to prevent abuse !!! ;)
 
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Diggo11

Well-Known Member
$2080 ( 400% ) fancy cap is just like $1040 ( 200% ) fancy cap at early game ... i think it must be 150% or 175% to prevent abuse !!! ;)
It isn't supposed to encourage foreign purchases, just make it physically possible!
 

DeletedUser

Conclusion:
The current foreign shopping dynamic is fundamentally broken. The process of joining other towns presents a grind to players, leading to boredom and frustration. Some towns are left with grays and rusty's, while others have a disproportionate quantity of fancies and sharps. The game revolves around labor points and duel skill points -- affected significantly by item bonuses.
In short, change is necessary immediately.

I agree totally - but a 100% levy on non-townmembers is still far too much. It will not stop characters townhopping to save cash - so wouldn't be much of an improvement on the current state of affairs.

To make any sense at all, the levy needs to be reduced to the point where it is just not worth the hassle to join a town merely to shop there. To achieve this it has to be considerably lower - no more than 20%, IMHO.
 

DeletedUser

I agree totally - but a 100% levy on non-townmembers is still far too much. It will not stop characters townhopping to save cash - so wouldn't be much of an improvement on the current state of affairs.

To make any sense at all, the levy needs to be reduced to the point where it is just not worth the hassle to join a town merely to shop there. To achieve this it has to be considerably lower - no more than 20%, IMHO.

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It isn't supposed to encourage foreign purchases, just make it physically possible!
 

DeletedUser

Hell, shipping and handling alone wouldn't make it add up to 400%. It's been a long time coming, and its time for the devolopers to change this looming price issue. We, the members of the west, are quite obviously sick of the foreign towns tariff. And with the new items not making it to pre-established towns, that really screws up the point of the original gameplay, doesn't it? It forces the oldeys to bend over and retire from a town that they have maintained for years, even after the old builders who made the town perfect have passed on! It's giving the new generation of players the benefit, and that is just too much for us in full-point towns.
 

Diggo11

Well-Known Member
Since the only real question here is "how much", I shall add a modified poll early.

If 2x gets a majority vote I shall pass it successful as 2x.
If 1.5x gets a majority vote I shall pass it successful as 1.5x.
If 2x and 1.5x tie I shall pass it successful as 1.75x.
If 4x gets a majority vote but is under 50% I shall pass it successful as 1.75x.
If 4x gets a majority vote and is over 50%, the idea is rejected.

Voting ends 18 March.
 
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DeletedUser

Originally Posted by Diggo11
It isn't supposed to encourage foreign purchases, just make it physically possible!

And your point is?

If people still town hop to make purchases, then they don't feel staying with their original town is 'physically possible' ('feasible' may have been a better way of putting it) do they?

And Diggo, how come every option except the course I suggested (1.2 x) is featured in the poll ?
 

Diggo11

Well-Known Member
And Diggo, how come every option except the course I suggested (1.2 x) is featured in the poll ?
Because the aim of the poll is not to offer seven different numbers, it is to differentiate between the two most popular numbers, 1.5x and 2x plus the current multiplier of 4x.
 

DeletedUser

Because the aim of the poll is not to offer seven different numbers, it is to differentiate between the two most popular numbers, 1.5x and 2x plus the current multiplier of 4x.

So those that think 1.5 is still too high don't get a say here...?
 

DeletedUser

The 1.5 multiplier is getting the edge of the battle. I doubt there will be many people wanting to keep it at 4.
 

DeletedUser

Pretty much. The idea is on the board, like every other idea in this forum, take it or leave it.

OK, I'll leave it.

I think 1.5x is still far too high and won't resolve the problem presented here, so I'll withold my vote.

How many others this may apply to, I guess we'll never know - unless we somehow manage to get voting proposals which are actually representative at some point.
 

DeletedUser16806

I know I'm in the vast minority, but I'm fine with the shopping prices as they currently are. There is supposed to be an advantage to staying in your own town and buying from your own stores. Yes, the top items in stores aren't feasibly purchased out of town, but a little simple planning can make the number of stops you make relatively small. Nobody's forcing you to go town to town and collect everything fancy and sharp/precise.
 

DeletedUser

Any of the above. I'll still town hop for large purchases. I suppose 1.5x will raise my minimum price I won't pay. I think the most I've paid out of town prices for is $5k+ for sombreros on two worlds for the ghost town quest (Beta, where I didn't know the reward, and w2, my quester, who doesn't really need money for anything).
 

DeletedUser

Don't like this, voted to keep it the same, why should everybody have easy access to everything, we'll all end up having all the same gear and all being clones of each other.
Degrades the game.
I just think people who are voting 1.5 want to be able to have all the gear with no effort, what's the point?
 
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