The Trade system is strongly in need of improvement.
Even at the best of times the trade system is cumbersome to use with posted offers needing not only to be accepted by the customer but also to be acknowledged by the seller before the trade is done.
Users who go offline at unpredictable intervals (for god only knows how long) makes it even worse.
Eg:
1) User A want to sell 400 longbows for 50 gold coins. He puts up an offer on the market, then goes to bed for the night.
2) Users B, C, D, ... ,Y and Z respond to the offer (that is very cheap for longbows), they want to buy.
3) If user A was still online he could instantly accept one offer and reject the rest. B would be happy and C through Z would feel rejected and wonder why.
But in this case user A has gone offline, the trade hang, waiting for him with 50 gold coins from each of B through Z hanging with it. They just have to wait. Even if a better offer should appear they cannot change their mind and take it because their coins are reserved to A's offer until A responds, or else the trade is autocancelled after 8 hours of inactivity.
4) 20 minutes later users AA, AB, AC, ..., AZ also respond to the offer, it is still there on the list and will stay there until either 8 hours have passed, or until A deletes it by making another offer. another 26 * 50 coins gets tied up in an inescapeable wait. And then the next group, and the next, ...
Apparently the paradigm used is that of a factory outlet. With infinite quantities to sell.
Here in Settlers that is highly inappropriate, most people placing offers on the market only have those '400 bows' and would be incapable of accepting a second trade even if they wanted to.
Another thing wrong with it is that the initiator (User A) retain full control of the goods he put up for sale, He could train longbowmen if he gets the notion rendering himself incapable of accepting even a single response. The responders on the other hand take all the risk unable to know if the 50 gold they put up will be lost to them for the next 8 hours. That is not something that makes trading a pleasant experience.
We need a different paradigm, and I would suggest 'the shelf in the grocery store'.
Customers arrive, look at the shelf, point and say "I want one og those". the goods is right there on the shelf and the transaction can be instantly concluded, even by an automated clerk like the Settler server.
There will be edge situations like when 2 customers point simultaneously at the same can but those are fairly easily (and quickly) resolved by the clerk deciding 'who came first'. "Sorry sir, that can was sold an instant ago." and the can disappear from his view, and from the the view of everyone else who update the market list.
Here it is the seller (who dont want the goods) who gets his goods 'tied up' the customers never have to put up their payment unless the goods are really available.
Now I sell a lot, I LIKE it that 50 people can respond to each offer I make, and never put up an offer unless I can accept at least 10 responses and usually a lot more. So I want to be able to put several identical cans on that shelf in one go, It is an addition to current abilities but easily handle-able in the 'the shelf in the grocery store' format.
I also want to be able to keep an eye on my offers on the shelf. Please make my own offers visible to me just like any other offer. I cannot imagine a single reason that should not be the case even with the current system. It took me quite a while (and several dissatisfied customers) to figure out that offers stayed on the list for up to 8 hours unless replaced by a different offer.
best regards
~ Angua Whisper
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Originally Posted by Marjon
