We have to keep in mind that 1:1 trading in game needs to be something positive for every side of this conflict, for us, IMC, Nexon. Except for bots and gold sellers.
How I see things now after somebody told me about “vending request” in your character window. Now im not sure how it exactly works because i havnt seen it on my own, but, as i understand this its basically something like C.O.D. in many games for example TESO.
You post your offer and if somebody wants the item, they buy it,( or the other way around where you are the one who buy). So trade goes thru 3rd-party, here, NPC of some kind or structure.
The original form will not fight bots tho…it would even make it easier since they could avoid tax on TP… so I’ve made some adjustments.
Lets call this idea The Vending Box.
Now how Vending Boxes would work :
To let friends trade items lets set “posting fee” which is certain ammount of silver ( lets say it calculated like this :
`itemLvl * 100 silver`
which means to give away 1st lvl item the person whos going to withdraw it need to pay 100silver, for 600lvl weapon - 60000 silver respectively)
Note that this is just example if its bad it can be lowered or raised, there might be even multiplier based on rarity.
Now the new thing is - the silver WILL NOT go to the other player. Its going to be sunken like tax on Trading Post. This is the main idea here!
This way it lets friends share items and prevent bots from income.
Let me be player A, and you are player B.
We are friends and I’ve dropped something that suits your needs, we want to trade, obviously. I post this (lets say) “staff lv. 15” on Vending Box so you can interact with it and see my “offer”. If you are interested you can withdraw it for a fee. The fee that you have to pay is itemLvl multiplied 100x, so in order to have this “staff lv.15” you need to pay 1500silver.
THIS SILVER DOES NOT LAND IN MY POCKET,
its like tax, it disapears, nobody gets it.
So me, player A, get nor lose anything from this trade, but you, player B, get what you want - the much needed staff.
This whole idea should serve as tool for friends to trade items disinterestedly so no bot or gold seller can abuse it.
The difference between Vending Boxes and TP is :
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Vending Boxes are located only in major settlements, rather few
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They only work locally! You cannot trade worldwide with this feature.
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Token owners can use this feature for less, up to no-cost.
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Trade is somehow limited ( only between friends/guildies/ based on account age/ item lvl cap which prevents new accounts from trading high-end gear… whatever Devs consider necessary)**
Vending boxes are physical thing stationed only in major cities and as i said work locally so they are less convenient to use than tp, so there still is need for tp.
Now lets talk about benefits.-------------------------------
On players side - we get cheaper, more personal trading, with in-game currency, not perfect but better than nothing/ this artificial token-wall .
IMC/Nexon or whatever - people stop complaining, there is still incentive to buy tokens, you get another gold sink in the game.
Bots and gold sellers ? I see no reason why this shouldnt work, if they want to sell something, they cant because trade goes in 1 direction - somebody gets the item but 2nd value - silver fee is taken by the game.
Maybe they wanted to give something of value instead of silver as a product, so other player can later sell it? Make items traded this way SOULBOUND or ACCOUNTBOUND.
Also, limiting the number of Vending Boxes creates little trade hubs around them which are easier to control and scan for potential bots/gold sellers.
Anyways, its my one and only idea that im going to introduce, i think its pretty solid. If you have found any issues let me know maybe its something that can be figured out.