Tree of Savior Forum

Feature Suggestion: Trading / Commerce / Merchanting

Gameplay Feedback Features
#1

Hi,

I was thinking of ways to increase usage of the overall world of the game and I was thinking about timesink ways to make money that isn’t just grinding, but can incorporate grinding (if it simply meant killing mobs) and things like that.

I’ve only played a single game (personally) that I utilized this system in, and that’s Mabinogi so I’ll be using it as an example. (I did play Archeage but I never used the trading system, didn’t stick around long enough sadly.) That game has a few towns on the main continent that all carry different trade goods. You basically run from one area with it’s goods to another for profits based on a number of factors. Distance, people who are also selling the same good…things like that… (one town is on an island, so you can take a boat to and from it, which is pretty cool…very few mmo’s utilize this kind of travel system nowadays and it’s a great way to meet/talk to people and has a good immersion aspect IMO).

There is also an area that has strong mobs that you can can farm for specific rare goods for trading. You can defeat a certain mob and use a lifeskill to try and obtain materials that you can use for trading, and you can also just defeat a bunch of other enemies and try and obtain these rare materials this way as well. This type of thing could essentially net you the highest gains but would involve a lot of time invested into actually obtaining the tradegoods so you really had to be strong to accomplish anything worthwhile for the time possibly spent. These rare goods were only able to be traded out of the island port I mentioned earlier, so it required teleporting or taking a boat to there, then gathering the goods and taking them on the boat to the main continent and then a town of your choice. Creating a large distance would get you lots of spoils!

There were also a Bandit system for that involved a random ambushes (but gave field warnings, so they could be avoided most times) , Wanted bulletin board, Bandit Hideout’s that you could infiltrate, and if you farmed these bandits they’d drop turn-ins you could trade for money.

I think it would be cool if this kind of system was implemented because it’ll add a range of things to do and more reason to do things we would normally do anyway…

1)Visiting old towns/parts of the world map
2)Farming mobs, you could find rare drops (just like any other rare drops) and stack them up for trading at some point.
3)Timesink that is rewarding.
4)Player interaction (protecting each-other on trades from bandits, caravans etc)
5)Sort of a sandbox-y thing, free-roaming and deciding how you want to proceed

I’m sure there are many more things that are positive about bringing a system like this into the game that might become more obvious to IMC if they consider it. Many ways it can be expanded indefinitely as well…I recall that the developers do want to focus a bit on PvP and even player ambushes (such as what Archeage has, with tweaks I’m sure) would be an interesting aspect. These are just things that I think that would benefit this game as I know it.

What do you all think? Sorry if my writing isn’t super coherent, but I hope I got my point across.

If you would like to read about the Commerce system within Mabinogi you can find it here : http://wiki.mabinogiworld.com/view/Commerce

2 Likes
#2

I think I would rather just farm mobs for items or buy them from a vendor in town.

#3

sorry to say but i dont think that is the type of MMO ToS is trying to be

#4

I loved that feature in Mabinogi.
The amount of experience and wealth gained from these trades was immensely exaggerated and the in-game economy wasn’t affected by it in the least (cause the in-game economy was already ruined through the cash shop doing it’s best to support gold sellers long before that).

In the unlikely scenario that ToS messes up it’s entire in-game economy, I’m sure we can get back to this idea and start to consider it a possibility.

#5

I wanted to suggest commerce too. I think it could totally fit in this game.

@CryTek What kind of MMO ToS is trying to be? This game needs a lot more fun features otherwise it will die. I saw a lot of games that only had hack’n’slash grinding and slowly died.

@GamingWithGB It definitely shouldn’t be a must-do thing ( and it’s not in Mabinogi for example ) if that’s what you are afraid of but extra features that let you have fun and do other things than grinding should be a must have in any game.

@kill5link I don’t think it could be only implemented in a messed up game… :smiley: It’s not even a hard to balance thing like classes… Don’t think of Mabinogi in this case. It wouldn’t hurt the economy in any way if you should invest the same energy in it as you would in grinding. It would be just an extra feature. When you are totally bored of grinding you could do something else.

#6

I agree that this could be really cool.

However I don’t think it will happen to such an extent as you are describing. As cool as I think it would be, I don’t really see how it would work in ToS. However the bandit system kind of makes me think of guild dungeons in RO ( I know you were thinking of NPC bandits ). Maybe there could be specific world PK maps with mobs that had rare drops, that would achieve this kind of functionality?

I believe what will happen is that the classes ( like the alchemist ) that are specifically designed around this sort of thing will be fleshed out and represent a market type class. I know this isn’t what you’re describing, but it’s the closest thing to a trading oriented gameplay that fits within ToS’ current design.

I think a system like you are describing takes a lot of effort to do well, and could be it’s own game. It also could be very unrewarding / tedious if it isn’t pulled off right.

#7

Sorry I should’ve specified, this system doesn’t necessarily give items. Though in Mabinogi it does give a separate currency in the form of Ducats that you can buy things that are otherwise unavailable so I can see what you mean. It works from items that are only available to be traded through commerce. You can never physically possess the items given by towns, only the rare items that are dropped my strong mobs. And they serve no other purpose but to be traded.

Honestly, I think there could be more than one way to gain any given items (minus rare boss gear drops I guess) and something like this would be optional, like I said. The same way you could just buy the items from other players who did take use of the system. Plus this system can also reward exp at set values based on your profits made from the deliveries.

@CryTek Just trying to find ways to spend time in the game that isn’t just grinding. As of now the game has very few features that doesn’t just involve killing a mob.

@zhouyu47 Yeah, I’m not sure in what capacity we’d receive a system like this at all. I do know the later classes offer something like this (creating items/selling spells/selling repairs on the field, etc…) but it also means you have to grind a character up to that rank (6 minimum if IIRC?) and it also means you have to make that character. A system like this could involve any player and give any of them a chance to partake somehow.

And yeah, a system like this could very well become tedious and unrewarding. Mabinogi did pull it off very well minus the rampant hacking that can go on along with it.

Glad to see discussion about it and that other people were interested in a system like this! Really looking for ways to spend time in the game, to further my character that isn’t just a mindless grind. (not that I don’t enjoy the grind, just like to have options)