Turn Merchant Alliance into Uber Eats

This seems like a good idea. I like what you did with the ledger system. The worse your credit the more it costs. But I think the merchants should have to grab most of the supplies themselves. If the MA gives you a crate full of pineapples and says go deliver it to that gallon over there... Are you really going to? But I think this would be a fun and whimsical idea for the merchants.

I've always liked the idea of Merchant Alliance actually being tied into delivering goods and or helping out other players.

The current Merchant Alliance setup is just infinitely less rewarding because I know that the plants, pigs, wood etc are just going to an NPC and not a real player.

While I think your setup is a little crude, the idea of having MA somewhat act as a functional service is cool. I might elect that they just deliver the goods to an outpost or seapost and the traders there will determine what the cost of the supplies will be. The MA gets a cut and a notification when their goods have been sold.

@icygecko-dude said in Turn Merchant Alliance into Uber Eats:

This seems like a good idea. I like what you did with the ledger system. The worse your credit the more it costs. But I think the merchants should have to grab most of the supplies themselves. If the MA gives you a crate full of pineapples and says go deliver it to that gallon over there... Are you really going to? But I think this would be a fun and whimsical idea for the merchants.

Having players gather the goods themselves was my intent. Edited my original post for clarity!

@prescafatty This is a great idea! But how will I see the flare? Here you need a pop-up notification on the screen that an order has been placed. In addition, the players who placed the order can agree with another team that is waiting in ambush and will attack the courier. It's worth considering here. This can be done as a separate trading company.

@prescafatty
The problem is, I can gather supplies very easily. I hop off at islands for meat when needed, I hop off to shipwrecks/whatnot. Whatever I can't get myself, I buy crates to get. The difference in cost of crates and having a merchant do it has to match the potential of the merchant not fulfilling the order. Why have a chance of getting supplies when you can just buy/get them yourself?
Not to mention, with server limitations, unless the merchant goes through a portal to fulfill the order, there's no way I'm getting the order filled 99% of the time.

@grumpyw01f

Yeah, the beauty is, if you want to resupply yourself, you can!

I hear you on server limitations. Maybe this system needs to be simplified. Maybe there's just a universal price for goods, and any player can sell their goods to other players. How they arrange these "sales" is up to them. The player looking to buy could send up a special flare, or put a flag up that makes you visible and is the "looking to buy" flag so other ships know they can sell to you.

Something missing from Sea of Thieves—but part of pirate lore—is scenarios where two gangs of marauders meet at midnight on a deserted island for negotiations that might turn sour. Selling goods could create opportunity for these scenarios. How will goods be exchanged? Will they be left ashore? Buried with a treasure map? Delivered onto the other players boat? Is one crew planning a double cross? Will weapons be holstered, or out? Negotiating the terms for a pirate meetup is something I'd love to see—we just need a reason to negotiate! Selling goods to another players is a great way to start.

Imagine meeting up with another crew to buy Wraithballs... what a terrifying transaction!

@prescafatty Perhaps you should come up with the quest "smuggling". The NPC offers you to transport prohibited goods, at the appointed place you meet another team of players whom the NPC asked to pick up the cargo.
Those players who carry contraband to the meeting place pay the NPC a large insurance against possible losses.
Players who pick up the cargo at the specified location pay other players a large amount of gold and take the cargo for later sale, substantially recovering the losses.
If the parties cannot agree, then weapons are used, the winning team takes the cargo.

As a merchant I would use this to steal other merchants loot so I can get ‘em 5

@prescafatty
A sort of buy/sell trading system for unique items would be cool. I'd have to think that the prices for items would drop very low due to surplus at the end of a session, and then it would make it even easier to get good supplies when you start with nothing.

I like the idea of trade deals and the chance of things going wrong... and if something like this could be implemented, I would be all for it!

@robby0316 said in Turn Merchant Alliance into Uber Eats:

As a merchant I would use this to steal other merchants loot so I can get ‘em 5

But then your reputation would drop and no one else would trust you...

@prescafatty im comfortable with that