Hey guys, I think what we really need is a vendor search command. I've seen it on another server (I won't post the name obviously), but essentially you would type [search gargoyle to find any vendors that have a something with gargoyle in the name, it would tell you the map and location/vendor name and price.

I realize this is quite the programming task, so if you do decide to implement this I have some suggestions for the developer side of it:
- Run an archiver every few hours or maybe even just once daily to save all items from the vendors for quick searching (probably want to do this in a separate thread because of the large amount of vendors on this server)
- Possibly use an sql server to save this data, then you could even implement a search from the website and in game
- Possibly and teleport button to teleport directly to the vendor (a great way to promote player economy)

Another pro about this would be hopefully less trade chat spam, as players could search directly instead of reading the automated "my vendors are better then the other 1,000 vendors" messages all the time

The shopping and "digging" is part of the process of making a good economy.  You have to interact with other players and put time and effort in to get the best objects.  The list/market search has never worked on any shard.  You just click a menu and get what you want, not very fun...and the economy collapses.  We do it this way on purpose:)

Players love to shop, so we have gates to vendor malls, player malls, museums, shops, vendor stones etc to make the exploration part of the fun!

Here is a direct quote from a player:
"I've never seen a shard...even production shards with so many active, successful player run malls"

I realize your mind is set on this, but I would just like to point out I doubt I will ever open a shop, I can't get anything to sell in chat or discord, how am I supposed to bring players to my shop out of the other 500? I see people with (probably macros) repeating the same messages in trade chat for days trying to sell items =/

you must recruit 5 players to create a vendor mall and get your mall listed on the public gates.  You would get a lot of traffic from this.  it's best to form a guild or join an established guild with a mall to get started.  You also need to sell the desirable items


http://uoevolution.com/wiki/index.php/Vendors

Talk to a few of the players that run the vendor malls.  Sometimes they have openings for vendors there, also talk to them and see if anyone is buying resources (hint crafters and BOD Runners) they use a ton of them.


Resources usually sell well if you need cash, spend 2-3 days a week for a month gathering resources. It is not glamorous, but some of the resources are worth a ton when sold to the correct buyers.


These ideas are to go along with his suggestions to you.


And back on the main subject of the thread.  I can see the desire for a vendor search option, however I always enjoyed digging through all their vendors at each mall and finding things dirt cheap before bed time.  Made me sleep better, also a lot less risk of dieting when I was half asleep.


For the players that are selling things for days on end via chat, they are usually selling something that is high end and a small market for those items or they are trying to sell something no one wants to buy.

Well thanks for the input guys!

If you use EasyUO there is a vendor search Script that works well




Bill The Cat

This proposed trade system really does work:

Having a system like this allows all vendors on all facets, (even that guy who has only one vendor at his house), to pop up when a particular item is searched.  It encourages lots more people to put up vendors at their houses & creates price wars which benefits the buyer.  It automatically ignores empty vendors preventing the "digging" into every pack which is extremely irritating for us buyers.  It also benefits staff who no longer have to police vendors looking for and eliminating empty vendors.  It has the option for a buyer to port to the actual vendor who has the item the buyer wants. (There is a small fee when using this option).

Lots of pluses but only one negative that I can see and it's a big one: the long hours, and more long hours of coding & testing Kane would be busy with. He's already got so much on his plate I wouldn't wish this radical change in our current system on him. 

Lets do this instead:  Make sure our vendors are regularly checked and kept filled, all those crates, boxes and packs on our vendors are properly labeled and when empty for more than a week be kind and get rid of the vendor.  If we do these simple things our customers will appreciate it and staff will have more time to do the fun things with us. 

I know I'm fairly new here, but I do not find the shopping part as much fun as others might. It's the first and maybe only thing I'd change if it were up to me because it's way more frustrating than fun.

The Bronze vendors are usually empty so I stopped visiting them. And many sellers mislabel their vendors' pouches, or don't label them at all, so you end up opening up every box and pouch anyway. At least I've learned to hover over them to make sure they're aren't empty. And many vendors have useless or no names so that doesn't help.

And sure, the staff can monitor vendors but that has to be a pain. They don't seem to do it that often. So maybe things are better for a couple of days, but it doesn't take long for things to start to get annoying again for shoppers.

One complaint I've seen is sellers who "scam" buyers with over-priced goods. The best antidote to that is information. Posting price guides is too much work to update, and who wants to take the time? I'm guessing no one, because I've heard people suggest them but no one has made one. A vendor search would fix that.

Even if the search only worked within a certain radius it would help. It would be awesome if you could just ask the "mall manager" whether certain items were in stock nearby or not.

Sounds like the decision is made and set in stone, so I don't expect thnigs to change. It would be nice, though.