Sneak Peek!

[Speeder]

I'm planning to open my shop soon.

Yep.

But first, I'll need someone to say what kind of creatures that want.

I'm allready doing the Cabbit, a Rabbit/Cat combo.

And I might do sort of lizard.

Just tell me what you want!

[3kul]

((Planning to open? You'll have to wait until the item system for the shops is sorted out first. ))

I thought that Lep was a cabbit (or something that looks like that), so I find the concept of being able to buy and sell Leps to be very strange. Personally, I don't really care what kind of animals they are, I'm more interested in what they'd do.

[LordPsycho]

I think you have the wrong idea of what the store system is supposed to be about there.

The idea is to sell services. Example: You can hire out yourself as a merc in RP's your not currently active in.

But it goes beyond that. You can hire yourself out as a writer, poet, songwriter, artist, spriter, coder, whatever! It's all about equal trade...Giving the person paying something more than an item they can't use! It's about selling them an item they can redeem for something they can own and keep (or use once and leave).

And example is my charms. They redeem a charm, tell me the RP they wish to use it in, and I'll swoop in there and use my awesome administrative powers to put the charm into affect.

Or Danikat's renting out Veamoth. You redeem that, tell her the RP it's in, and she'll post Veamoth coming to your aid.

Or you may have noticed my Avatar. I got that using the same system at the EC's private forums. Paid 600 's to have Spook (who was selling a "custom Avatar item) draw me a new, updated Avatar. And Trust me, you want his work...

Does that help at all?

[Danikat]

Selling items for use in an RP is still an option as well isn't it?

[Embri]

"I guess I have this all wrong, too." *confused*

((Wonders how Veamoth will take to being "rented" out.... ))

"Um, well I guess I could make sprites for people's allied creatures and such.... your very own personal arsenal of NPC's... hurr."

I think we need a better description of this store system and what you want it to be, if possible, Sensei. Please?

[3kul]

Charms? DP, you stole my bit!

I'm pretty sure that DP was more getting at the fact that you shouldn't really sell something that does nothing, Danikat. (which is kinda what Speeder's pets seem like, since he didn't put any details up).

As an example (to anyone who doesn't know), the services I offer in the EC store which I will most likely offer up here are charm 'samples'. These are charms that are used by HollowEyes (and some that aren't) in 'sample' form - they last 3-5 posts, and require no sacrifices or anything like that. So far, these charms have been some of HollowEyes more common ones, as releasing the more powerful ones would be a little unrealistic.

It's kind of like a hybrid between leasing out HollowEyes and an RP item, in that it's an item that only HollowEyes would use/have access to. I prefer something like this to simply leasing my characters out, as I like to pick and choose which threads I post in, and I think it's a little more fun for the customer this way, because they can choose exactly how they want to use it.

[Embri]

Thanks 3kul, that helps somewhat. I'd still like some details about how this whole store/inventory system works. Who controls what we put in our stores, and how many? Will we be able to add descriptions of the items in the stores? Why are owls tasty? Wait, scratch that last one.

[3kul]

Assuming that the Blackstar forum store system works similarily to the EC one, you have to ask for an item to be made to put in your store, specifying how much you intend for it to cost, how many you want available, etc. However, this is only for the first time. From then on, it's up to you to re-stock, decide how many of which items you want available, and how much they cost.

Items can have descriptions, but I believe that the description of the item is made when you request the item, and I don't think that you can edit it after that. Again, you'll have to keep in mind that this is all how our store system works - DP might have different ideas, so you should probably still wait for his input on this.

[LordPsycho]

The store system will indeed be similar to the EC's system, with a few modifications.

I'm debating whether it would be wise or not to let the user create items, but I am leaning in the direction of letting them (although I would like to reserve the option to change that at a later date)

Yes, RP items will be allowed, but sparingly...there is not way to automatically decrement a user's inventory when they use an item, so it will have to be done by a mod or admin. But that is not really the idea of the system, Danikat, that was mearly an Idea I was kicking around.

The Idea is to exchange real work for "money" on the board, so you can buy other's work so they can earn , and et cetra, et cetra.

Also keep in mind that people are always earning more and more , so there is more constantlyadded into circulation, i.e. built-in inflation. This means that you may find it to your advantage to up your prices every now and then.

You may also sell "Special Items" if you wish. I plan to do this with the Sanity Blade (and if you post 1000000 times without spamming the heck out of my board, you can by all rights have it! That's an average of what I'm setting the price to!). This is merely to hold it over your heads...and if I see anyone nearing the price of the Sanity Blade in savings, you can bet I"ll be upping its price by a factor of a couple of thousand...

but again, I must ask you to refrain from this. Special Items are going to be reserved for relics of the Dojo...and just may come into play later...

[Embri]

I too would like to see user controlled item creation, otherwise the store management may very well get too complicated for the mods to monitor... speaking of which, if you require help managing the store system, I'd love to lend a hoof, so to speak. (You probably don't need me, but feel free to ask if you do.)

Perhalps there could be a limit on the total number of spaces in your store? This would cut down on the potential disaster of grossly oversized inventories a bit. I also think that beyond opening an intitial store, additional retail "space" (i.e. more item quantity or type stocked) should require an expenditure by the store owner - either we should rent our vitrual store space, or buy it outright.

Say the initial store holds 5 items. Each additional retail space could cost x number of , or , or whatever currency you prefer. This would help take out some of the money from the system, reducing inflation. Rent would be even better, because it automatically takes out money each week or month or whatever term you specify for it.

Just some thoughts. Ultimately, there has to be some way to take the money out of the economy.

EDIT: Oh, and I thought of another way of getting money out of the economy. Charge for changing the item descriptions, if it's done by a Mod. Not only will this reduce the workload (people are more likely to be careful about getting it right the first time if money is involved) but it will ultimately make the economy healthier.

EDIT EDIT: Is there any way of allowing a user to destroy or throw away an item? That would be a good way of "using" something during a RP session. I'm probably asking for something well beyond the possibilites of programming, but if you could cause the "destruction" of an object to cause the Forum to insert some type of text in the user's next post like this:
_____________________________
|Action: Embri used item Napalm. |

In a box or something, that would be perfect.... (like I said, the programmers are going to hunt me down and shoot me for suggesting something so complicated now.... )

[Swix]

TheDarkPsycho wrote:

[Danikat]

[GBE]

So, will there be an option to have a joint shop so to speak. So two rp characters join forces so to speak and hire out their services. So one or both or characters can be hired, or something they provide.... Hmmmm... Sounds Interesting....

[Speeder]

That changed what I was going to do...

[Embri]

I'm sticking with my elemental creatures. No idea if anyone likes them, but I think they're cute, and you don't have to worry about taking them out of your inventory.

Ooohh, imagine what Angel and I could do together! *Imagines firey destruction of incredible proportions* I'd better go find my heartsister and see if she wants to "hire out", so to speak.

Oh, and no matter how much you pay me, I am NOT a walking BBQ. Get yourself a Magadillo.