Welcome to the first installment of my multipart series, Better Conan (BC), in which I will elucidate my suggestions for a game I love to play. Part 1 of this series is all about the Barter Box.
Description: The Barter Box, is a chest that facilitates trading between two parties. It is similar in nature to a legendary weapon chest with a few key distinctions:
- It can be crafted in your inventory at level 20.
- Instead of being opened only by a skeleton key, as legendary chests are, the player may choose which item will be required to open the Barter Box. Here’s how it would work. When placed the player can select one item, from a list of all available items in the game (much like the one in the Admin panel), preferably including broken thralls and pets. The player may then choose a multiplier on selected item. This item, will act as the cost to open the Barter Box.
- The player may then place actual item(s) (from their inventory) they wish to trade into the box. I think ten available slots should be sufficient.
- As another player approaches the box, a pop up will show them what is in the box as well as the cost of opening it.
- Should they choose to make the trade and providing they have the correct payment in their inventory, they may activate the Barter box. This will immediately swap the items in the Box for the payment. And leave a locked Barter box with the payment inside. Should another player come by now, they will see no notification, just a locked chest.
- The original owner of the box may at their convenience come and collect the payment by selecting the box. This will put the payment in their inventory and consume the box in the process (sort of like a legendary weapon chest or fragment of power chest). Should they like to trade again they will need to make and place a new Barter Box.
Example:
Bob the Barbarian what’s to trade the many Dalinsia Snowhunters he has for the Axe of the Lion. Bob crafts a Barter Box and selects the Axe of the Lion x1 as the cost. He places one of his Dalinsia’s in the chest. Jane the Barbarian, finds Bob’s chest see what is inside as well as the cost. She thinks that is a good trade, after all she has two Axe’s of the Lion. She get’s one of her Axe’s and activates the Box. Immediately the Axe is taken out of her inventory and is replaced by a Dalinsia Snowhunter. The Box now simply displays locked and Jane goes about her business. Bob comes back, activates the box which is consumed and he gets the Axe of the Lion. Everyone’s happy.
Additional Info:
- The box should preferably have multiple skins. Perhaps a regular wooden box, a large chest, and a small chest, like those with the fragments of power. It may also have a unique skin by I don’t think this is necessary.
- The box should be destructible on PvP servers and have the same health as regular chests. Otherwise I see too many possible exploits. This would then be a risk for pvp traders to use, but something is better than nothing. And if some miscreant does destroy your barter box placed in good faith, all the more reason to go to war.
- Admins should have a radial option to set the box for multiple uses (1x, 2x, 5x, 10x, infinite). This would make it indestructible, accept if picked up by admins, and not consumed during the transaction. Thus if someone came along to make the deal. The payment item would be consumed from their inventory and they would get the items in the box, but the box with the current items would remain until the set number of transaction is complete. This would provide admins on ALL servers (specifically consoles) with a way to make low maintenance quests and shops in game.
- All items in the Barter Box should not decay.
Motivation:
Players need a way to safely and easily trade goods when they are not both online. While some mods like Pippi provide a similar functionality through the social merchant, that operates through a currency system while this would be straight bartering, available to all. Additionally, many players do not have access to mods: official servers, consoles, etc. This could facilitate a friendly trading system on all servers. It would give people a reason to set up shop. As mentioned it could also be used as tool by Admins on private console or pc servers that do not have access to pippi, to set up quests and shops of their own.
Conclusion:
The Barter Box is a simple, versatile, tool that can be used by players on all servers, to facilitate trade and cooperation. Please consider the Barter Box! Thanks for reading and stay* tuned for upcoming episodes of Better Conan.
*Edit: Present Tense Correction