[Feature Discussion] Empire Shop Update v2

Hey guys... We've taken your feed back on the new market ideas and pretty much started over on the drawing board. We don't think it's a good idea to try to have 2 systems, as it will be too confusing to new players, but you guys have pointed out some major pitfalls with removing the old system.

I've come up with a new design that should satisfy most, if not all, of your concerns, while still maintaining the overall goal of making it easier to buy and sell items.

In some ways, I think this system can be easier to use than the market idea as it doesn't involve going to the website, though we could of done fancier things with a web version. However here's hoping to 1.4 giving us custom UI options

But here's the summary!

Overview
/shop has been overhauled, with the following subcommands added (prefix all of these with /shop):

• buy <partial item name>
  Searches for an item to buy. (Does not actually buy the item)
  • If more than 1 item is returned, player will be listed all matches and asked to refine search more.
  • If only 1 match, the top 10 items sorted by price will be returned in the following format:
    Code:

     
     #  |    ITEM  | PRICE  | QTY | STOCK | SELLER
         1  | Diamond  | 40r    |  1  | 30    | Leowaste (3456 - SMP2 - Red Floor)

    The note for red floor will be explained below
• sell <partial item name>
  Searches for shops willing to buy an item.
  • Same as buy, but reversed order in that it shows the top 10 HIGHEST priced items that a player is willing to buy, and how much quantity they will purchase from you.
• quickbuy <partialitemname> [qty] (qty is optional and will default to 1, same rule applies for multiple matches as search on multiple results)
  • Will Let a player buy a specific amount of an item and have it "delivered" to his or her vault for a fee (Delivery fee). Player can avoid the fee by manually going to the shop and buying it.
  • Upon issueing command, the system will find all of the cheapest prices to complete the order, and list all items bought, and from who at what price to complete the order, then the player will type /shop confirmbuy to complete the purchase. Items will land in the players vault, or fail to purchase if not enough room in vault.
  • If noone is selling item, the system will go to the Empire Shop to fill the request.
• globalshop [on/off] (toggles if you do not specify on/off)
  SUPPORTER PERK ONLY
  Will allow searching all servers for the /shop quickbuy command. Default off. This will not apply to search functions.
• allowquickbuy [on/off] (toggles if you do not specify on/off)
  Will disable your shops from being bought from using the quickbuy command. Use this to force people to visit your residence, at the sacrifice of less sales.
  
• setcomment <comment>
  Issued while mouse cursor is on a chest. This will allow the user to set a comment describing the location of this chest, to help users find it quicker, Such as color coded floors. This comment will be used for every shop sign linked to that chest in the /shop search results.
• setprice buy:sell
  Issued while mouse cursor is on a shop sign. This will allow the user to edit the price of the shop quickly without replacing entire sign, using same format as you would when creating it eg: /shop setprice 32:28 would be B 32 : 28 S
• setqty qty [maxbuy] (Max buy optional, will be described below, new feature)
  Issued while mouse cursor is on a shop sign. This will allow the user to edit the quantity of the shop without replacing the sign. New Max Buy feature will let you specify the maximum stock you will purchase from other players for said item.
• setvisit
  Sets your current position to be the arrival point of players coming to your shop. This is seperate from your /res tpset
• visit <player/res #>
  Teleports you to the players residence at the location they specify for /shop setvisit. If the shop owner has not set a specific arrival location, defaults to /res tpset location.
• empire
  Teleports player to the Empire Shop, just like /shop use to do.

New Features:
Some of these pretty much detailed in the above comments:

• Ability to adjust the shop price and quantities without replacing the entire sign.
• Ability to see CURRENT stock on the sign (Green if in stock, red if not)
• Ability to set the maximum quantity you will buy from other players on an item on the sign, the quantity line now can be entered as 1:40 and it will render as "1 (<green>38/40</green>)"
  So if you enter
  Code:

  Aikar
   1:40
   40:35
   Diamond

  Then you will buy 1 diamond for 35 rupees until you have 40 total, then you will not buy any more.
• All items for sale will track stock and be searchable so players can easily find where they can buy an item, and quickly buy items and have them delivered to them for a convenience fee.
• Shop owners can now set a different teleport location for players coming to visit their shop.

Major new feature: Packages
To solve the problem of 3 enchant items, and add more options, a new "Package" shop sign has been added.
Usage:

Code:

Aikar
[PACKAGE]
14000
Fort3/Ubr3 D Pick

This sign must be placed directly above a chest. Upon left clicking the sign, the player will receive a summary of every item in the chest just as enchanted item purchases already do.

A 2nd click on the sign will confirm purchase, and the player will receive every item in the chest, and the package sign will be replaced with "SOLD"

So players wanting to sell bulk item packs can use this feature. Players should put additional signs around the package to describe it in more detail, but buyers will always get the full summary before purchasing.

THIS FEATURE IS NOT LIMITED TO ENCHANTED ITEMS!

Fees:
As discussed in the previous market idea, we want to add additional fees to help maintain the healthy state of the economy and avoid inflation ever becoming a problem. So we are going to add fees to the shop system

Selling an item (Seller loses % of the sale to fees, includes players selling to a chest shop):
- Free: 3% of the sale price
- Supporter: 1% of the sale price
Buying items with /shop buy (convenience fee):
- Free: 5% of the purchase price
- Supporter: 1% of the purchase price.

With the fee introduction, it doesn't make sense to have a vault fee when retrieving items from /shop buy, so this will be removed.

We hope that these changes will satisfy your concerns, and bring a much more enjoyable shop experience to everyone.

http://empire.us/guide

No new player knows how to use the CURRENT shop system either, that's what the guide is for!
Don't worry, the guide will be properly updated with simpler terms to understand... (aka: not written by me haha)
This is a feature detail thread, its not worded in a way to "teach you how to use it"

The taxes/fees is a major goal.. We HAVE to take action to keep the economy in balance before its a problem.

As discussed by Max here: http://empireminecraft.com/threads/discussion-emc-questionnaire.11715/
were looking at other options of earning rupees

The incoming rupees per day have to be "offset" to keep the economy in check.

Simply adjust your prices so that you earn a fair amount of rupees AFTER the fees hit

I think you read that wrong...

Delivery to vault will cost you, however the comment about vault free was about the 10r cost of opening the vault... However Justin hasn't reviewed this yet so he could veto that part... though I don't think he will. It's not too fair to charge you to use the feature then charge you again to open vault to get it, and 10r will be miniscule in the grand scheme of things since a real money sink will finally exists