Trade options, search for sellers or buyers only or both

[TheVictorious]

I just was think if there is a check-boxes under search box in TO window that make me search for who only sell item or who only buy item or both, so I can find my item that I want to buy or sell easy.

What you think?

[Dorotheus]

would simplify things

[Ynita]

click on the Offer or Cost at the top of the columns to sort

by seller



or buyer

[helsinki]

Try to find somebody who is buying an adventure using only your system. Or during next event with eggs.

[Ynita]

hmm... i'm not sure why it should be different for adventures (or eggs for that matter)? use the filters / search option to narrow down to what you are wanting, and then sort by buyer / seller

[Bluesavanah]

bit confused about this one, generally except events most things a covered by less than 1 page if you type in the right search criteria, this can further refined by using the check boxes.

There are 1 or 2 enigma's that I can think of such as iron, when you want to look for iron bars brings up everything but generally I think it's fit for purpose.

[helsinki]

hmm... i'm not sure why it should be different for adventures (or eggs for that matter)? use the filters / search option to narrow down to what you are wanting, and then sort by buyer / seller

Well yes it works for everything if you first use the search function to select a very rare item such as mahogany and then you can flip those couple of rows back and forth. Or if you first select what you want to buy and use filters to find out the range of items you are searching.

But you cannot use sort to look for what people want to buy. TO shows only maximum of 22 pages and so you can see only those first and last in the row if you browse through all the 22 pages. The filter does not affect any other column than "Offer" and with the adventures you would have to type each one separately to find out if anybody is looking for those not so wanted adventures this time.

With eggs it is about same as to use sorting of "user" column to find out the correct seller. Lots of pages and the one you want to keep updating is somewhere in the middle because you cannot filter by the "cost".

[TheVictorious]

Well yes it works for everything if you first use the search function to select a very rare item such as mahogany and then you can flip those couple of rows back and forth. Or if you first select what you want to buy and use filters to find out the range of items you are searching.

But you cannot use sort to look for what people want to buy. TO shows only maximum of 22 pages and so you can see only those first and last in the row if you browse through all the 22 pages. The filter does not affect any other column than "Offer" and with the adventures you would have to type each one separately to find out if anybody is looking for those not so wanted adventures this time.

With eggs it is about same as to use sorting of "user" column to find out the correct seller. Lots of pages and the one you want to keep updating is somewhere in the middle because you cannot filter by the "cost".

+1

[Ynita]

well, yes... it's clunky, awkward and takes more clicks than it need do. but that's the TSO we know and love

[Iolanthe]

well, yes... it's clunky, awkward and takes more clicks than it need do. but that's the TSO we know and love

True! But if we go just with that might as well close "Suggestions" entirely.


Personally I quite like the top-bar buttons but rarely use the tickboxes, because keeping even "Deals I Can't Afford" ticked/checked at least allows price comparisons* and unticking things is just not as helpful as it looks like it should be:

The filter does not affect any other column than "Offer" and with the adventures you would have to type each one separately to find out if anybody is looking for those not so wanted adventures this time.

For example, if you filter out "Advanced" items you'll still get lots of offers costing Coins.

This: http://siedler-vision.de/2013/02/spotlight-so-macht-handeln-wieder-spas/ from a German fansite has by far the most helpful advanced Trade Office search tips I've ever come across, aside from the more basic tricks like typing owe in the search box if you happen to be interested in both "flower" and "Witch Tower", using the special characters can make a huge difference.

Examples:

$ iron$ will find anything with only Iron (bars) and exclude Iron Ore, Iron Deposits, Arctic Iron Mines and Iron Swords.
. iron. will exclude Iron (bars) specifically.
| iron|marble will find postings with "iron" or "marble" in their names. (The | is the "vertical bar" or "pipe" symbol.)

You can also play around with different combinations of the characters, for example: iron$|bronze.

It's not a perfect solution (sometimes it seems to have a mind of its own) and the Office really could benefit from some tweaks but until BB get around to that the extra characters, combined with the top buttons (mine usually lives on "Ends" to show the most recent posts) and careful keywording, really can narrow many things down.

That said, with the current set-up all bets are indeed off during events when the TO is flooded with many extra pages, mostly involving [event resource] and setting the top to Ends while clicking the green-arrow refresh button frequently to keep the freshest offers at the top is a standard bargain hunter's approach.


*Full disclosure, I've been playing ages and can afford most things so keeping Deals I Can't Afford always ticked to "show" doesn't bury me in endless pages of red-shaded goods.