0 trades should only be seen by the FS

[crackie]

Curious that there is also an apparent shortage of Tree Gum.

I think that might have to do with scroll people quitting and taking their steel boosts with them. 2 out of 3 possible scroll combos come with steel boosts. You need to be boosted in steel to be boosted in tree gum.

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

Scroll people are less satisfied with the game? That is strange!

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

Well maybe they are. I just hated the incessant pounding that steel manufactories make and was glad to get rid of them!

 

[crackie]

Scroll people are less satisfied with the game? That is strange!

Before the Great Migration, there was the Great Moonstone Library Set Debacle. You could win multiple Library sets from the Spire, but both the Library and Endless Scroll pieces produced scrolls. In the higher chapters, they make an obscene amount, thereby flooding the markets with so much scroll that they were cheapened to single-ply toilet paper. To get people to take scroll trades, scroll boosted players had to trade their wares at a 3-star discount, but that only flooded the market with even more cheap scroll. A lot of them just quit. A lot of non-scroll boosted players are also sitting on millions and millions of scrolls from taking their scroll-boosted teammates' scroll trades out of pity. Now you can only have one Moonstone set (unless dev error rotating prizes in Spire...please do that again). As of Dec 21, they finally reassigned the Moonstone pieces to give different things besides scrolls and so the "Endless Scroll" might not even make scrolls anymore. Things are starting to swing the other way. Fewer people are offering scrolls because a lot of older scroll players abandoned their cities. Now scroll boosted players who grind it out get to be the choosers instead of takers. I hear @Iyapo1 is selling some fine hotcakes in her city these days.

 

[Tehya1]

How does one find a good fellowship? This my second fail...

I went through 3 fs before I found my home in one of my worlds. Which world are you in?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Ceravyn is also a new world, so I guess the sentient market would be smaller, like Sinya Arda. Curious that there is also an apparent shortage of Tree Gum.

Ceravyn will be 5 years old next month. That is not new.

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

Before the Great Migration, there was the Great Moonstone Library Set Debacle. You could win multiple Library sets from the Spire, but both the Library and Endless Scroll pieces produced scrolls. In the higher chapters, they make an obscene amount, thereby flooding the markets with so much scroll that they were cheapened to single-ply toilet paper. To get people to take scroll trades, scroll boosted players had to trade their wares at a 3-star discount, but that only flooded the market with even more cheap scroll. A lot of them just quit. A lot of non-scroll boosted players are also sitting on millions and millions of scrolls from taking their scroll-boosted teammates' scroll trades out of pity. Now you can only have one Moonstone set (unless dev error rotating prizes in Spire...please do that again). As of Dec 21, they finally reassigned the Moonstone pieces to give different things besides scrolls and so the "Endless Scroll" might not even make scrolls anymore. Things are starting to swing the other way. Fewer people are offering scrolls because a lot of older scroll players abandoned their cities. Now scroll boosted players who grind it out get to be the choosers instead of takers. I hear @Iyapo1 is selling some fine hotcakes in her city these days.

Well this is quite fascinating, and I loved how you told the story, crackie!

This might explain why there is somewhat of a shortage of Scrolls in my neighbourhood. Not enough to be a problem, but scrolls are always the last trade request to be filled.

And apart from the work of the monopolists, there is likely also a natural shortage of Tree Gum in Sinya Arda too.

Here I was wondering how many folks would be affected by those steel manufactory animations. If I had a steel boost I would have to restart the game because of it. My wife and I both suffer to some degree from misophonia, an aversion to repetitive sounds. This phobia typically extends to visuals of objects that make these repetitive sounds. Both of us have had the experience of apartment living, and neither of us would willing choose to live in an apartment building again because of those neighbourly repetitive sounds.

I told myself that I got rid of the Pilgrim's Set because it was at Chapter 4. But the real reason was that I just couldn't take watching that magical anvil pounding away. No matter where I put it (next the Orcs was the best place ), it was just too distracting. Whereas, at most levels, my Plank manufactory animations are refreshingly soothing!

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

Ceravyn will be 5 years old next month. That is not new.

How do you tell? I was just going by the order the worlds are listed when you start the game. I would be interested in knowing the history.

 

[samidodamage]

How do you tell?

I went to the Announcements sub-forum and searched there for 'Ceravyn'. I found this.
Guessing it looks funny to some, with the 'deleted users' stuff, but there have been changes in moderators and community managers since that announcement, so that does make sense.

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

I went to the Announcements sub-forum and searched there for 'Ceravyn'. I found this.
Guessing it looks funny to some, with the 'deleted users' stuff, but there have been changes in moderators and community managers since that announcement, so that does make sense.

Thanks for the tip, samidodamage (I love the name, BTW).

So in a similar way I found that Sinya Arda is also about five years old. From what I had read in the forums, it sounded like it was new also. Not so much!

 

[Fiona Selah]

Filtering options would def be my cup of tea. There are a couple of players in my neighborhood that are new, and as I had someone helping me not in my fs in the beginning taking my 0 trades I like to pay it forward.

But I completely get your frustrations!

 

[ajqtrz]

@David Dragonsage

There is no "artificial" but only a "temporary." As you said, in regards to OPEC, when the price of oil gets to a certain point it "beneficially works to encourage the development of energy alternatives." That's because OPEC doesn't control all the oil. In a market like gum you get X amount of players producing Y amount of gum. If a bunch of players form a cartel to capture the gum market it only encourages others to produce more gum. Yes, in the mean time the cartel will benefit, and in an emerging commodity where they are big enough to do so they might make a huge profit. But they have to be offering their 0 star trades for something, right? So the something for which they offer 0 star trade has it's demand go up and any doing well and reading the market will produce that something and undercut their price until the whole thing gets down to the aggregate value of gum to those trading for it.

On a similar note. I noticed a steel shortage and a scrolls shortage. I choose to put out 14 very large steel mfrs and now I have 5 million steel -- I was up to 10 -- which I trade for scrolls and everything else. All my goods hover around 2-3 million and I clear the trade board in my neighborhood about twice a day. I sell only 3 star trades exactly because I have a huge surplus. If you think about it, I'm just reflecting what steel is worth to me and trading for it at what I consider a "fair" value.

The most efficient response to the behaviors you describe is to produce whatever they are trying to corner and undercut their prices. It's only "artificial" until the market forces kick in and the supply goes way up.

And finally, I suspect it's pretty hopeless, but if people just quit taking those trades the players wouldn't keep putting them up.

And, yes, you could slow down. Part of being first or at the forefront of the parade is if there's a wrong turn in the parade route, you will be the first to take it...and end up in back parking lot of you local (closed) K-mart.

AJ

 

[crackie]

This might explain why there is somewhat of a shortage of Scrolls in my neighbourhood. Not enough to be a problem, but scrolls are always the last trade request to be filled.

Yes, we (one of my cities is scroll boosted) get to be choosers now and pluck scroll requests at our own pace and whim now! I get to do that with Tree Gum too in my Ceravyn city. My sentient inventory isn't deep enough for me to gobble up my FS trades in that dept yet as I am one of our smaller cities, but I take the Tree Gum trades from the nice people I recognize from forum first in my trader

I told myself that I got rid of the Pilgrim's Set because it was at Chapter 4. But the real reason was that I just couldn't take watching that magical anvil pounding away. No matter where I put it (next the Orcs was the best place ), it was just too distracting.

If you want to forget you put something somewhere, just put it behind the Main Hall.

 

[quin629]

Here I was wondering how many folks would be affected by those steel manufactory animations. If I had a steel boost I would have to restart the game because of it. My wife and I both suffer to some degree from misophonia, an aversion to repetitive sounds.

You do have the option to turn the game sounds off. And to put the city graphic quality on 'low', which essentially stops any movement by any of the manufactories. Might make the game more enjoyable for you without those potential distractions.

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

Filtering options would def be my cup of tea. There are a couple of players in my neighborhood that are new, and as I had someone helping me not in my fs in the beginning taking my 0 trades I like to pay it forward.

But I completely get your frustrations!

Yes, I think that beginners are the most vulnerable to the 0-star traders. I think that this vulnerability can occur again when a player begins to trade in sentients, until one becomes familiar with the system.

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

@David Dragonsage

There is no "artificial" but only a "temporary." As you said, in regards to OPEC, when the price of oil gets to a certain point it "beneficially works to encourage the development of energy alternatives." That's because OPEC doesn't control all the oil. In a market like gum you get X amount of players producing Y amount of gum. If a bunch of players form a cartel to capture the gum market it only encourages others to produce more gum. Yes, in the mean time the cartel will benefit, and in an emerging commodity where they are big enough to do so they might make a huge profit. But they have to be offering their 0 star trades for something, right? So the something for which they offer 0 star trade has it's demand go up and any doing well and reading the market will produce that something and undercut their price until the whole thing gets down to the aggregate value of gum to those trading for it.

On a similar note. I noticed a steel shortage and a scrolls shortage. I choose to put out 14 very large steel mfrs and now I have 5 million steel -- I was up to 10 -- which I trade for scrolls and everything else. All my goods hover around 2-3 million and I clear the trade board in my neighborhood about twice a day. I sell only 3 star trades exactly because I have a huge surplus. If you think about it, I'm just reflecting what steel is worth to me and trading for it at what I consider a "fair" value.

The most efficient response to the behaviors you describe is to produce whatever they are trying to corner and undercut their prices. It's only "artificial" until the market forces kick in and the supply goes way up.

And finally, I suspect it's pretty hopeless, but if people just quit taking those trades the players wouldn't keep putting them up.

And, yes, you could slow down. Part of being first or at the forefront of the parade is if there's a wrong turn in the parade route, you will be the first to take it...and end up in back parking lot of you local (closed) K-mart.

AJ

Hi AJ

I think we could say that "it will work out in time" about almost any issue in the world, or in Elvenar in particular. But I know from what you said earlier that you appreciate when InnoGames makes improvements to the game. You also noted that you could see why some players would want 0-star filtering, but for you it would not be a priority for the developers to pursue.

If nothing else, at least threads like these raise awareness of issues that we can try to work around and/or encourage InnoGames to solve.

Actually this issue may be irritating to me, but it will not slow my progress because I have the luxury of unlimited free time in which I can check up on the Trader and obtain the sentients I need as they come available. And it occurs to me that although I cannot efficiently produce Elven Tree Gum, I can certainly buy it when its available, and then release it at fair prices during prime time when the predators are most active.

I was doing some intermediate trading this morning in which I was trading some Elven Tree Gum that I had in storage for some Platinum. I noticed that I was incorrect in my earlier observations. The Trader does immediately re-sort the offers when you acquire enough goods to be able to make the trade. Of course I was finding this confusing until I realized what was happening.

All the best - David

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

Yes, we (one of my cities is scroll boosted) get to be choosers now and pluck scroll requests at our own pace and whim now! I get to do that with Tree Gum too in my Ceravyn city. My sentient inventory isn't deep enough for me to gobble up my FS trades in that dept yet as I am one of our smaller cities, but I take the Tree Gum trades from the nice people I recognize from forum first in my trader


If you want to forget you put something somewhere, just put it behind the Main Hall.

Ha, ha! Yes of course!

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

You do have the option to turn the game sounds off. And to put the city graphic quality on 'low', which essentially stops any movement by any of the manufactories. Might make the game more enjoyable for you without those potential distractions.

Yes, good point. I should really do that when I play on my poor old laptop which really cannot keep up with the animations and is vulnerable to freezing.

Actually I enjoy most of the animations and find them soothing. So simply banning the ones that bother me works for me!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Yes, I think that beginners are the most vulnerable to the 0-star traders. I think that this vulnerability can occur again when a player begins to trade in sentients, until one becomes familiar with the system.

I think that newer players are also at fault for the 1-star trades because they see both the trades with the undiscovered 50% fee and the horrible 2:1 ratio the Wholesaler charges on the first trade and they think their trades are supposed to be the same because no one tells them differently for a while, or at all.

 

[Deleted User - 849411552]

I think that newer players are also at fault for the 1-star trades because they see both the trades with the undiscovered 50% fee and the horrible 2:1 ratio the Wholesaler charges on the first trade and they think their trades are supposed to be the same because no one tells them differently for a while, or at all.

Yes, I quite agree. And I did find the trading very confusing at first.

In my neighbourhood, I used to think that unfair trades were all done by beginners, and that is certainly true in many cases. But later I realized that some experienced players were making low-ball offers as well. I really don't get the point of doing so because our neighbourhood is well supplied with all the standard goods. I suppose that the unfair traders are relying on mistakes or beginners, or desperation, to make their profit. But this also penalizes their own game play. Without consciously thinking about it, I found that I was avoiding dealing with them at all, even when they were making good offers. I would see their names and just automatically ignore whatever they were offering. I suspect that many other players do the same.