Firstly, thank you for your thoughtful response. I've built 16 cities in 8 worlds over 2 cities. I may be less experienced but the sheer quantity of builds means I understand the teething problems quite well.
"Method A says that big players should flood the trader with tiny trades, so that little guys can get them.. The positives are that VERY FEW small players can get those trades at a fair price, since the vast majority won't have more than 50 provinces discovered and they'll mostly have traders fees".
In every world I have had at least one big player I could have traded with without a fee. Their trades were too big for me and most of them never took my trades. In my experience my trades were most often taken by similar sized cities.
"If crowding out the sharks is your goal, this will just feed the hungry sharks".
If I was a shark and I could spend half an hour grabbing a bunch of 25k trades to recycle OR sit all day waiting to poach every small trade on offer I know what I'd do.
"If there are no sharks, then there is no other positive but one ... that a very few small guys will have a smorgasbord to choose from in the trader. Nice for them."
Yes, nice for them to be able to build, upgrade, grow and eventually help other small cities to grow. I'm seeing flourishing full neighbourhoods, not wastelands of dead cities.
"2. The trader is SO FULL of these little trades that neighbors and fs have to go through page after page after page after page of them in order to get anything they want in the numbers that they need. My fellowship members sometimes trade for half a million goods ... in one transaction. They will not appreciate having to go through 50 pages just to see what they need in the quantities they require."
Just post one extra cycle instead of 10 or 20 then.
"3. The trades that LITTLE GUYS put up in the trader are rendered invisible. There are now 50 pages of trades and those trades wait longer to be picked up because there are so many pages to go through. Big players that would normally have scooped up those little trades in a heartbeat are now being told to leave trades for new players ... and heck, going through every name on 50 pages to check for new players would waste every moment of time they have to play the game. Therefore, the little players' trades get lost in the shuffle."
There's no need to check for new players. Community trades can be 'marked' like we've done - trades under 100 that end in a 9 are community trades so ignore. Works a treat. And if people posted smaller trades then the little guys could just grab those instead of posting their own trades if they wanted. And I assume that's where the sharks are getting their business from...those that need stuff now.
"4. More little players get lost in the shuffle if they happen upon my city and gift me. I would normally gift them back, but since my notifications are now flooded with small trades, I can no longer see that they've gifted me and they don't get the needed help back."
This is a valid concern. Limiting community trades to one cycle per day should prevent any inundation.
"5. Since I no longer get notifications of gifts, my bigger neighbors don't get gifted back either. We've lost camaraderie and reciprocation that we normally enjoy."
Solved above, only post one cycle.
"6. Without notifications, I must now go and physically visit .... load load load .... every player that MIGHT have gifted me, in the desire not to alienate anyone, without being sure to hit each one, and then get out of the city .... load load load.... and return to the map".
...as above
"7. The game has been rendered so time consuming that big players ... the ones that can help little players the most .... now get frustrated and leave the game."
To be fair 4,5, 6, 7 are all the same problem extrapolated to appear as a worst case scenario of epic proportions. This problem is completely manageable IF you actually wanted to manage the problem.
"Now let's try Method B, which calls for all little players to post trades for their boosts and wait for them to be picked up. The ONLY negative to this method is that if no one is out there to pick up the trade, the trades will sit there for days. Well, guess what? If no one is out there to pick up the trade, then NO ONE is there to POST TRADES within their circle. So what's the point of having all these big players post trades if they are nowhere near the small player who needs help?"
It would really help if the problem wasn't view in extremes. We aren't talking about "no one". We're talking about the fact that there are big traders who do take smaller trades and those who don't. Some big players post trades/ play every day, some trade and play 3 or 4 times a week. The big neighbours I had on Khelonaar didn't pick up my trades and I couldn't take theirs. My trades were ignored until I messaged one of them and asked nicely and even then they only did it when they played...which was every 2 or 3 days.
The thing is you're presenting an either/or scenario and if you'd really thought it through you'd see there is no method a/b. I didn't once advocate for small player to forego posting their own trades yet that has been thrown back as a complaint time and time again.
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