Don't make the market like eve so we risk the 0.01 isk trade wars. It is better people choose themselves somehow from who they want to buy.
I disagree. Real traders didn't bother with the 0.01 isk trade wars anyway. That was for chumps.
Lengthy elaboration for anyone in the mood to read and also chadz.
Here is a screenshot of EVE's market:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Eve_Market.pngIn the screenshot, note the 2nd and 3rd entries in the "SELLERS" list:
One price of 105,950,000.00
One price of 105,940,000.00
It's two people selling the same thing in the same station and one has undercut the other by a relatively small margin. The "0.01 isk" game would be to mark your price down by 0.01 isk lower than the current lowest price, which gets you put on top of the charts when people sort by price.
Pirates of the Burning Sea sought to resolve this problem by creating a "blind auction". In POTBS, you would only see ONE listing for the item, regardless of how many sellers there were, and rather than get shown the current price, you would only see the "last price sold". So if the last price was 100, I could say "ah ha!" and put my stuff up for 99, smug in the thought that I have undercut the competition. But since the system is blind, I don't really know what the lowest price is -- the last sale price was 100 but it doesn't tell me if someone else has started listing for 98. By putting my stuff up for 99, I can't be sure that I am undercutting the competition.
As a buyer, I might go to the market and see the last price was 100, but I would optimistically type in "90" for the price. If any were available for 90 (or less) then I would pay 90 and get my product. If not, I would try again with a higher price, trying to flesh out where the real price was.
So POTBS solved the "0.01 isk game" but created something of a hassle for buyers, who may feel inclined to spend a lot of time typing in prices in slowly increasing increments trying to get the best deal possible, since the real price is not listed.
Personally, I say use the EVE system:
List all sellers
Sort by price
Yes, it lets people play the "0.01 gold game" but it's not a problem, and I will tell you why:
Cutthroat Business 101If someone undercuts you, then you, as a seller, have many solid options:
a) Undercut them by a wider margin, hoping to drive them out of your market by lowering profitability. If they undercut you again, consider leaving it be -- the low profits may make them decide to stop production soon and do something else instead.
b) Buy all of their stuff and re-sell it at your higher price
c) Look at how many of the item they are selling. If they aren't selling many, then ignore them -- they will run out of stock and then people will pay your higher price
d) Decide that there's too much competition in this market and start producing something else
We are basically describing a system of economic warfare, facilitated by a market. In fact, let's not forget option E.
e) Realize that the seller is bringing his goods to the market, and you can stop him by attacking his caravans and following him around the map and beating him up until he relents.
You can damn near get
an entire economic wargame JUST from having a fairly simple market setup in a PvP setting.
Frankly, I think this is responsible for at least half of EVE's success. Pirates vs Traders, Traders vs Traders, Pirates vs Pirates and Clans versus each other and all of the above and a fair amount of it is driven by the market.
And a plainly visible market is all I think you really need.
(The ability to see market prices at other cities without having to travel there can help foster competition between cities. Both EVE and POTBS have checkboxes so the buyer can specify if he wants to see all prices everywhere or just the local ones.)
