So we were doing our usual discussion thing over on the IRC chat (http://cityoftitans.com/forum/city-titans-chat), and we came up with something we all liked quite a bit.
The idea of local markets is simple enough. Store located in certain places carry a different selection. It makes sense and gives the world a very gritty realism, but if everyone has to run everywhere all the time, that's no fun.
But - the world has changed since CoH came out. Online shopping is standard. But of course, then you pay a shipping fee. So our suggestion is this: the above local markets system is applied. But those are the 'brick and mortal' versions. You can access online versions of all the NPC shops from your base. Designing these 'web sites' could be quite a bit of fun, certainly a unique addition to the game. The catch? The shipping fee of course - you can pay extra to order from your base and have it delivered in under five minutes, or you can save money by going there directly. So the more experienced the player (and, by extension, the less novel the shop thing is), the more he has to spend on the convenience of delivery. Creating, incidentally, an excellent money sink.
Further suggestions include:
Selectable delivery location
Delivery time will require balancing - you should have the option of picking it up before the delivery time to save on the fee
If you order multiple items from the same vendor, they arrive in a single package
Gifts - you can choose for it to be delivered to somebody else, maybe even with a note
Anyone else want to add to this?
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[center][color=#ff0000]Interior Map Lead and UI Designer[/color][/center]
In addition to accessing the online versions from your base, perhaps an ability to access them from wherever. I suspect that a good number of heroes are going to have smart phones (or sentient AI neural interface links) that they could use to access the sites. This would also allow heroes who do not have a base to access the online versions of the stores.
A consolidated interface for summarizing all of the player's interactions with the various stores (what they are bidding on, what they are selling, etc) would be good, too.
Its amazing what us nut jobs in the channel can come up with sometimes...
If there is no personal base available (for whatever reason) then default to the character specific mail account (with all your purchases from that store (or auction house) wrapped up in one nice shiny package that only takes up one slot...)
You could also decide to deliver to your global/character specific mail if you intend to deliver to another character on your account
Being able to keep tabs on what you are selling and buying across *all* AH's/Stores is handy as well, as you can keep up to date on stuff that you might need (and also if you have to run across town to pick something up ;) )
I like it.
My main tries to avoid being seen in public, so home delivery is the way to go.
Get yourself right; the world has enough problems.
add "day job" of bicycle messenger/UPD driver, and have NPC messenger/delivery dudes visible around town.
Also another source of revenue...design the website/name the CoT version of Amazon for a fee.
With the Npc vendors they could have an item or two (depending on the rarity and any kind of time limits on it) you need to actually go to the store itself to get people out of there bases. (the fluff behind that is that the vendor doesn't want the chance to have the item broken because it is priceless and so on) I suggest this because if the players are always in there bases then the city becomes obsolete. I understand that bases in CoH were ghost towns and I like the idea of getting more for the base but if you have too much on one then the other will become like the bases in CoH. Need to find that balance point :)
Zekna, Black Mana Guardian. (sewer power leveler)
Good point. And interaction between base/UI functionality and the "brick and mortar" city in the game is important so neither detracts from the other. Gotta be a hard balance to strike.
As Shadow pointed out, having to run all over the place all of the time is a drag--BUT having to run somewhere once in a while is fun and keeps the city alive.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Sounds awesome. Maybe grocery stores could sell food that works as inspirations or something. I've always thought the idea of my villain going to shop casually at the local market was amusing haha.
Puny Heroes.
That actually brings into line a reason as to why the Wildstar housing works as it does on the plug system. You have a certain number of plugs, so you cannot have *everything* on your own plot.
You can have most of it, but not everything.
On the small plots you can have 4 of the following:
Personal Bank
Vendor
Garden plot
Mining/Relic/Survival (only of these)
Appearance change and rune crafting
General Crafting
Several challenge/Short adventure plots/Floor piano (this is awesome in my mind). Other purely decorative pieces.
There are also 2 larger plots, which can have other stuff (generally speaking portals to a zone/ or challenges).
The challenge/short adventure/floor piano can only be found on housing plots though...
So from that list, you have to pick and choose what you want on your plot. And if all else fails, you can always use the city for your bank/crafting/vendor stuff.
And yes, people do use their housing plot for quick repair stuff in the middle of raids if they have to... can sometimes be easier than waiting for the vendor bot summon to come off cooldown.
Good idea about avoiding a possible ghost town effect.
An additional idea can be something like "...we don't often deliver to [check AlignmentType] bases for fear of upsetting [AlignmentType1] and [AlignmentType2] folks. But we can make an exception every now and then..."
(Every now and then = N real-time calendar days)
My main would prefer drone delivery to my feet or drone drop at my feet.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/26pBVBG.png[/img]
([i]Currently developing the Sapphire 7 Initiative[/i])
Something similar was suggested a while back... I honestly cannot remember what the response to this was though:
The basic premise was
1) Instant delivery = High surcharge
2) Wait for delivery = Medium surcharge
3) Pick it up from store = lowest possible price
Some people felt that it was unfair on those who didn't have a lot of funds, others were for it in general.
Perhaps you can also hire an Auctioneer at the Auction house. Hand over the items you want to sell and the AI will try to get the best price automatically. For of course a cut of the profits. Not everyone likes to play the Auction house or have the time to keep track of the market flux. It could also add to the NPC stores perhaps if they could buy from the auction house.
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Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
+1 ;)
Wouldn't this lead to new players/low level toons who haven't had time to build up funds running everywhere because they can't afford it and long-time players/high level toons who have had time to buildup funds never going anywhere?
Maybe I'm missing something.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)
Wouldn't that be a benefit though? The low level or starting characters would go and explore opening the map and leading to new stories and adventures. Those characters who been through the levels and have the cash already went over the map so it be more finding the right items to maximize the build.
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Personal rules of good roleplay
1.) Nothing goes as planned.
2.) If it goes as planned it's not good RP
And the same thing can also be applied to bases and their facilities. The more that they offer to their members, the less likely that players will need to use the "open world" version.
But yes, that is generally how it would go. If people could afford it then they could pay for the "faster" delivery.
And remember that this is a *superhero* MMO. A genre where "quick travel" is pretty much standard. Where getting from A to B is not going to take you 30 minutes just to get something from the shop.
Hell, even in CoX, there were *very few* locations that you couldn't get too within a couple of minutes.
But it is primarily to act as a *small* cash sink. Those who could afford it, would pay the extra cost. Those who are prepared to wait can save money.
Hell, I do this in Wildstar, with the auction house/commodity exchange/mailing stuff to alts. I will pay according to how badly I need it.
Need it fast because I am about to play on an alt? I will pay the slightly higher fee so that it is instantaneous delivery... if I am not fussed, I will save a few pennies sending on day postage.
Need something NOW from the auction house? I will buy it now there and then, even if I have to pay over the odds. If I don't want to pay the fee, then I didn't need it bad enough.
RottenLuck has also hit on one side as well. Almost forced exploration of the map.
I say almost, because you won't necessarily know what is available from a store until you get there. But if you go look around the corner (or hills/buildings)... then new content opens up for you.
Which is strangely enough why quest hubs happens as they do. Sure, some lead you from A to B for the forced exploration of the map/zones. But there will also be area's that they DON'T take you. Areas which can hide some pretty decent experiences if you were just prepared to look over the hill.
And sometimes it is just fun to go and do zones in reverse....
And before I forget. Sometimes having a central ordering place, and then having to option to pick up from the store itself (to save money) can lead the same way as RottenLuck said.
And this is not a new thing. Eve Online does this... you can order stuff from X stations/systems away (depends on character skill level) but you will have to still *go* there (or pay another player to bring to a system/station).
And that is if you couldn't afford the possible higher rates to pay the price of the item at the station you are in.