Asmodea:

I know this is a little off topic, but I thought it might help a little with accruing amounts of stock. I think a big reason that stop accumulates in city shops is because it is alot easier to just go to the portal room and PORTAL SEARCH SHOPS to find what you want rather than walk around your local city looking for things, especially in places like Hallifax where the shops are wide spread.

So, I thought maybe a way to help this, which might also move stock faster, would maybe be to add a similar command, maybe in the COMM shops of cities/communes, where you can COMMUNE SEARCH SHOPS to find what you want. Not sure how viable or code heavy it would be but just an idea to think about.

Been suggested. Haven't heard an admin response on it, but hearing people say that it would be resource consuming to implement...

One recommendation.

If people really want devices to store items with a no-decay time, perhaps we can make that auction artifact purchasable--I forget the name, it was an auction for some kind of "freezer" that would store things with no decay time. At least that way, the "no-decay" thing would be made official for a specific artifact that is not a store.

My own personal opinion is that the portal search function for wares is a big part of the appeal for aethershops. I'm not sure they would be so appealing were such functionality to be mimicked in the cities, particularly following a slash in stockroom size.

Phred:

One recommendation.

If people really want devices to store items with a no-decay time, perhaps we can make that auction artifact purchasable--I forget the name, it was an auction for some kind of "freezer" that would store things with no decay time. At least that way, the "no-decay" thing would be made official for a specific artifact that is not a store.

People can always consider paying the 50 credits to make items non-decay, as well. Or, in the case of crafted goods, rune them (and what can't be rune does have racks, cabinets, etc).

Eventru:

My own personal opinion is that the portal search function for wares is a big part of the appeal for aethershops. I'm not sure they would be so appealing were such functionality to be mimicked in the cities, particularly following a slash in stockroom size.

The big appeals for aethershops are that anyone can own them and they're centrally located outside of org territory, (generally) globally available, subject to access restrictions by the owner, exempt from taxes, can never be repossessed, and can be used as personal storerooms at no detriment to anyone else (game lag exempting). None of these apply to org-owned shops. Being able to browse through org shops would not, in any way, hamper any of these rather noteworthy bonuses that are intrinsic to aethershops, and would still leave the org-owned shops at a (slightly lessened) disadvantage.

Yeah. Also a depreciated search function would work just fine, it wouldn't have to go as indepth into the specifics of each item. As is, I can see no real perk of a commune/city shop over an aethershop.

if you advertise more, an org shop is better.

If you advertise at a particular rate and have both a commune and a plex store, I'm going to assume that you receive the same amount of business from advertising (if not more, because you can reach a bigger audience with a aetherplex store, no enemy statuses to deal with). However, with an aethershop, you can get ADDITIONAL business with the PORTAL SEARCH SHOPS function.

Tit for tat. Come to Glomdoring, your Aethershop will be forced to stop selling to enemies because of competition and such / under the guise that you are selling devastating items that will smite your allies by your enemies / when in reality other shops selling worse items are still open just for a little bit of money. So, tit for tat. edit: currently doing this for instance, but there is another shop policy that nullifies it to allow lianmor members to shop O.o

Now Portal search shops is currently nullified by Lianmor because we are first in the shop marketing list for the 2nd, 3rd year in the row? PORTAL SEARCH SHOPS RING for proof. You will need to scan the page two, three times to get to the next competitor, but most people don't bother with that and just shop at L'ianmor. But i still say that commune shops are better. 2 shops in alternative places, lets say the same cost, of 7k rent per year, 750 years of paying rent till you would have paid for an aethershop in rental fees. Cost wise though org shops give enough of the value at a far cheaper price. Advertise more, use the market ads more, and look, customers. Sell a novelty good, with great prices to the side. Oh hey look, customers. Take a niche, because that's how org shops would always do better than aethershops. If a good enough niche is found. And there are plenty.

Tit, for tat.

Falcon:

Now Portal search shops is currently nullified by Lianmor because we are first in the shop marketing list for the 2nd, 3rd year in the row? PORTAL SEARCH SHOPS RING for proof. You will need to scan the page two, three times to get to the next competitor, but most people don't bother with that and just shop at L'ianmor.

I don't mean to rain on your parade (not too too much at least), but I know a lot of people who refuse to shop at your store.

And being first in the list really doesn't matter, unless your customers have the shortest attention spans ever.

And also you are crazy if you think org shops all do better than aethershops.

AND if you don't want to be limited by your commune's policy of not selling to enemies (way to show org loyalty there by the way (lolforumrp)), just don't have your shop connected to their portals.

Ok, maybe I do like raining on parades. But I just read through that post and go, whaaat? I think there are some key differences between how we perceive the world.

There are a ton of Glom aethershops that sell to enemies. Hell, the LEADERS of guilds have had shops open to everyone. They only exercise that law if they don't like you.

i know :s

Let's try to keep this to discussing stockroom changes and not org-politics, hmm?

The biggest advantage of the aethershop is that it can't be taken from you involuntarily. I think this is an issue that has laxed some over time, as back in the day of four orgs when I started playing, I don't think anyone was allowed to keep org shops if they were not org members. If they did, it was under unusual circumstances. This has definitely changed.

There were many people willing to pay that premium before a proper shopping function was added to the aetherplex, but it's also true that many, many more people have bought them since. Looking at how many shops there are now, I think it's fair to say the number has doubled in the last two years. Maybe an even shorter span of time. The aetherplex search shop function has certainly facilitated this.

Which is why it is a delicate subject. The problem isn't just that a few select shops might have 5000+ items - it is just as much that there are 30+ more shops than in the past, with each likely holding a minimum of 500-1000 items. There's a lot of investment at stake here, and cutting down the few outliers to the same size that the rest are currently at might simply not be enough. Hence the measures being taken.

I think I had a point when I started this post, but now I forgot. Derp.

I always thought the appeal of aethershops was that they existed at all. Cities and communes have a limited number of shops. Being able to buy one in your manse means you don't need to wait for someone in your city to die or quit the game (whichever happens first) so you can inherit theirs.

ASK MILLA WARES


Woah, people do that!? I would love to know the proportion of stock that gets sold through her.

Razenth:


Woah, people do that!? I would love to know the proportion of stock that gets sold through her.

A lot. People are lazy. In fact Milla's part of the reason I IDEA'd obliviousness cutting out things like emptying and buying vials, since certain people spam the heck out of the plex doing that.

Milla also has some semi-rare cartel designs that I can't get elsewhere, so there's that.

Question then. Other than limiting a shop stockroom, what other things could be cut down like the vials / liquid rift? Food? Rings? Enchantments? Origami? If enchantment bubbles could be made, to be attached to any ring, and be riftable at that...

Falcon:

Question then. Other than limiting a shop stockroom, what other things could be cut down like the vials / liquid rift? Food? Rings? Enchantments? Origami? If enchantment bubbles could be made, to be attached to any ring, and be riftable at that...

Since the rift change reduced lag by 80% and we're going to get that RAM upgrade, I don't know if more is necessary at this point (hopefully including the 250 limit). Can Estarra confirm/deny?