Shopping Passes

[DeletedUser]

the only problem i see is the one about the ticket price related to the cost of the item that you are buying. because how would the game know what item you were going to buy?

i think the only problem that will happen is that no one will actually buy anything directly from the stores if they are an outsider. They will all prefer to go for the shopping pass. so the 4th point that violette mentioned has to be implemented.

i'm not sure if this has already been mentioned but the shopper counts as 1 population of the city.

and all the money paid for buying the pass goes to the town treasury but none of the money paid for buying the item goes to the town treasury which has been mentioned. this makes it pretty much exactly like shopping in towns but more efficient.

 

[DeletedUser]

My only query is, doesn't this completely remove the fact that 'outsiders' have to pay higher rates and therefore people have to work a lot harder to earn money for tickets their own town don't sell? Maybe there should be a limit to the number of tickets any character can buy in a certain period of time (I know this makes it a little more complicated).

If I understand your question correctly... The town prices are already being used by outsiders through the invitation system, so it wouldn't really change anything.

Can you see the highest level items with a ticket?

I think we decided no. Access would be limited to what outsiders could see.

 

[DeletedUser]

the only problem i see is the one about the ticket price related to the cost of the item that you are buying. because how would the game know what item you were going to buy?

My thinking was that you select your spend limit at the time of purchase, and the price of the ticket increase accordingly. Then if you try to spend more, you'd get an error message.

i'm not sure if this has already been mentioned but the shopper counts as 1 population of the city.

If we go that way then it needs to be an invitation system, rather than a store-based system. It has been suggested elsewhere that with each residence upgrade you get one guest slot.

 

[DeletedUser]

i suppose you could have infinite amounts of shoppers

 

[DeletedUser]

i suppose you could have infinite amounts of shoppers

The fundamental premise of modern "economics". :dry:

 

[DeletedUser]

First, I'm happy with the current setup, where you have to join a town to buy cheaper. In one world I play lone adventurer without permanently joining a town, in another world I'm part of an alliance with free shopping between towns, in yet another world I'm part of a big town with 2 suburbs, so almost everything will be available 'in house'.

I'm not against shopping passes, and will use them where they give advantages over joining, and will join if this is more advantageous.
I'm neutral regarding bought passes/'invitation' passes.
I'm neutral regarding maximum time to shop.
I'm neutral regarding maximum level available from shops.

Regarding the slide about how much you want to spend, and adjusting the price of the pass accordingly, I have another proposition: set the price of the pass relative to the level of the shops in town (or the level of the shops you can buy from). My formula is:
pass price = $50 + (construction points of shops/10).
In a town with a single level 1 shop (100 points), the pass will be 50+100/10=60 dollars. In a town with 3 level 4 shops (each level 4 shop is 1000 construction points worth), the price of the pass is 50+3000/10=350 dollars. For a fully built town, it's $2350 (assuming you are allowed to buy from level 10 and 15 shops). So if you want only the donkey, look for a town with only a general store - no need to buy it from the biggest town.

However, a fully built town (or near completion) has no benefit from the income. When I want to buy from such a town, I join one of it's suburbs, donate the money we agreed upon, then join the city to buy whatever I wanted. It works for me, it works for the founders.

 

[DeletedUser]

its a great idea! h cns arn't really bad? does it matter hwo is? They cant disban the town or anything? only boost your towns economy!!!

 

[DeletedUser]

Yes please implement this quickly, this way I will never have to join a town and can still receive discounts. Nor would I ever have to worry about getting dueled or wasting my money to town treasury. If I did decide to join a town so I could duel, I could buy weapons and gear from my enemy and before my enemy because they put in all the time and money to build their town whilst I saved and did nothing. Great idea!

 

[DeletedUser]

The point of the ticket is that the town is guaranteed a donation from shoppers. I see so many towns that say "Shopping requires $100 donation". Well this way, if the ticket costs $100 and the money goes directly to the treasury (all of it) then you are guaranteed that donation. Plus outsiders can't read and copy and paste your forum (cuts down on moles) or come in and use your treasury to build (cuts down on saboteurs). You can't immediately kick out anyone that just joined your town. They have to voluntarily leave. This way they don't even have to join your town.

 

[DeletedUser]

I think the point behind the discount to town members was to encourage people to join towns and build them to have access to better gear at that discounted rate. The only other reason to join would be for the hotel benefit. Everyone would go adventurer, which is by my observations the most common class already, to get the hotel benefit. Once there are a few maxed out towns there wouldn't be reason for anyone to bother building new ones. If you start eliminating reasons to join a town there will be less targets for duelers who seem to have one of the hardest classes to level up right now anyway. Not only that but you would in effect be equipping their targets with better equipment thus making it more difficult. This whole idea seems like a way to null the update the devs made regarding joining towns to shop and then leave.

 

[DeletedUser]

Don't agree. If you are going to go that far to bypass the 4x higher out-of-towner price then you might as well just remove it all together - remember it is in the game for a reason.

 

[DeletedUser]

People already get around it by inviting players into their town to shop. It is no different. The only difference is that the shopping pass guarantees the town gets a donation from the shopper and that the shopper can't read your towns forum.

 

[DeletedUser]

People already get around it by inviting players into their town to shop. It is no different. The only difference is that the shopping pass guarantees the town gets a donation from the shopper and that the shopper can't read your towns forum.

It is different, because adding shopping passes would systematically bypass an aspect of the game, which begs the question 'Why have that feature in the first place?'

If you want to increase the profit that towns get from selling items, and decrease the amount people have to pay, then why not just change these things directly instead of using a work-around?

 

[DeletedUser]

People already work around it. This just makes it easier. Most people belong to a town and they go shopping in other places to buy what they need. Usually their town has a shopping agreement with another town. This in no way harms or changes the game. It just makes it easier for players to buy from other towns.

Also, the passes can be handed out by the Mayors/counselors of the town. That is an option that was listed. If that is implemented then not just anybody could buy the passes.

I'm saying the players in the game already get around paying 4x for an item. That is a failed concept other than it does make people join towns. No one pays 4x the price for an item. They get temporary invites into other towns. Shopping passes make this easier and make towns more secure.

 

[DeletedUser]

The whole point is to make it easier AND official instead of working around the rules like everyone does already. They might as well implement this in some form since we're going to do it the way we already are anyway.

 

[DeletedUser]

I agree with the idea... if you can see the highest level items, doesn't matter the price.

I only think it's not fair that we can't buy highest level items in foreign towns and loose good items because of bad luck (especially the weapons). This way, the need of "shop and go" joining and suburbs would be only about money, and maybe there could something else to reduce/prevent this.

 

[DeletedUser]

With the dissent, let's work on a system to have them issued/limited so passes aren't available to everyone all the time.

 

[DeletedUser]

Why not just lower the prices for everyone and increase the percentage that goes into town funds? That's pretty much what is being asked here anyway.

 

[DeletedUser]

lowering the prices will mean that people will not have to work for the actual item. increasing funds will mean that more people will choose not to donate to the town.

 

[DeletedUser]

lowering the prices will mean that people will not have to work for the actual item.

But that is what happens already. Nobody pays foreign prices. They simply join a town, shop, then leave.

increasing funds will mean that more people will choose not to donate to the town.

There wouldn't be an increase either. Visiting shoppers already donate to the Treasury between $60-$240 for their temporary invitations.