General Idea:
Commerce in the game is based on supply and demand on single items in categories based on the rank you are in with said trade station, I propose two ideas that may solve the issue with commerce, and bring diversity into the trade system while keeping balance and bring people back into doing commerce.
Details on Idea's
First idea - Introduce more items into commerce based on rank.
Every trade item in commerce is introduced at every second level gained with that trade station, the trade station ranks that introduce new items at 0 (entry), 2, 4, 6, and 8. What I propose is to have more items introduced per rank beyond 2.
For example: At rank 4 in Tara you get a rocking chair, but with the proposed idea you have more of a choice with more items, instead of a rocking chair, you can also trade a school chair (item placeholder). Furthermore at rank 6 you get 1 more item to trade, so you'll have 3 items for that tier, and finally at Rank 8 you'll have 4 items in total at that tier.
This will provide more means to of opportunity when trading, and allow items that are being trade too much to only affect that one item, as others are put into a higher demand.
Second idea - To introduce items for every odd number.
Similar to the 1st idea, but without the extras for the ranks. This will provide more incentive to rank up further, and also perform the above mention action when regarding demand.
Conclusion
Reasoning to these suggestions it is to make commerce more intuitive, for both casual and new player friendly, and while providing a incentive to actually trade again. As the system currently stands you are stuck with one or two options per rank to maximize your income with the commerce skill, the higher the value of the item, the bigger the return, although with higher risk. Why not add to that, and make it more diverse with more items? This allows people to take advantage of the Commerce skill, as they have a choice in each rank tier, instead of dealing with lower tier items, they can chose the next best thing and still make a decent profit.
So please feel free to comment, post suggestions, and poke at the Poll!
Regards,
Auramoon of Nao Server
Comments
I'd be up for this all the way, especially if Belvast/Erinn to Iria gets a huge boost in income, and vice-versa. But something tells me the only reason why they haven't expanded into iria, is because the Imp that travels with you, hates it, for that he says "its too hot".
if it was me, id say let him suffer. Wants to travel around the world, ok then, get to meet the elves!
How about once commerce mastery and all merchant ratings for all posts reach X rank and level, we can add an extra cart/wagon/elephant and carry more goods (of course at more burden). But that's why there was the other thread with a caravan suggestion.
I think that if we can carry more, commerce would be more fun and more engaging.
Two, add a credit system to commerce where a player can pre purchase loads to transport with credit and they must complete the trade in order to redeem the credit and earn the ducats.