Jump to content
Eternal Lands Official Forums
Guest ardinx

Items Delivery

Recommended Posts

Guest ardinx

Yes, I am a newbie, but I searched some topics and could not find something like this. I apologize if someone already suggested it.

 

How difficult would be to program some sort of mail/package service that would transport items to remote buyers and sellers (something like real life express delivery FeD*x or UP* (* in case we should not advertise)? As a booster to market channel, users could use storage bots on each map to ship items to another storage. Items at another location would be picked up by buyer. Storage bots would charge for this service (heavier item+distance=higher price, and vice versa). I think this would offer another (fun) level to the trading. Moreover, since storage bots would charge this service for a fee, this would be a venue for market regulation (i.e. taking gcs for service would take gcs out of circulation => less inflation of prices).

 

What does EL think?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

How difficult would be to program some sort of mail/package service that would transport items to remote buyers and sellers (something like real life express delivery FeD*x or UP*

Currently, I would suggest "hiring" someone to do it. You frequently see newbies on the market channel offering their services to haul stuff, and I think its a great chance for them to make a bit of gc. It's probably not steady enough, or well paying enough to be profitable for them unfortunatly.

 

However, it would be possible to program a bot to do this, although it would take some work to get them map changing perfectly etc. The question is, would people use it? I personally like to make sales face to face with my customers and I know that is the same for quite a lot of sellers. I also like to make things as convenient as possible to my buyers (at least for large sales) so I travel to their location (excluding PK areas naturally). I hope that this encourages return business and however convenient for me a bot to do deliveries for would be, it doesn't have the impact that arriving in person to show I value their custom has.

 

It's a good idea, but I don't think that it would work for the scenario suggested. Maybe a book collector, or other bot that can collect things from NPC's might be an idea, but that would be coming close to the rules for bots and would require permission.

 

(Hmmm, sorry to put a damper on it. It is a good idea. Maybe someone else might have a different perspective)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It will break the bot rules and also the general style of intended gameplay in EL. You are supposed to interact yourself or with other players. Bots will not play for you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It will break the bot rules and also the general style of intended gameplay in EL. You are supposed to interact yourself or with other players. Bots will not play for you.

 

it'd still b breaking fewer of the rules then the ANTs do - imho i'm not sure bots should b allowed at all and for the rules that allow bots i personally think that just because devs created certain 1's doesn't mean that they should b allowed to break the rules so again imho if ANTs r allowed i don't see y those shouldn't b i mean at least those bots wouldn't out and out cheat for the owner like the ANTs do for learner so i'll lead the defense of this idea as long as there are other bots that go against the EL rules in the game

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It will break the bot rules and also the general style of intended gameplay in EL. You are supposed to interact yourself or with other players. Bots will not play for you.

 

it'd still b breaking fewer of the rules then the ANTs do - imho i'm not sure bots should b allowed at all and for the rules that allow bots i personally think that just because devs created certain 1's doesn't mean that they should b allowed to break the rules so again imho if ANTs r allowed i don't see y those shouldn't b i mean at least those bots wouldn't out and out cheat for the owner like the ANTs do for learner so i'll lead the defense of this idea as long as there are other bots that go against the EL rules in the game

 

Im not gong to waste my time taking your post appart point by point. Youve been successfull enough at showing your own total ignorance relating to Learner, the ants, and their purpose.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

at least those bots wouldn't out and out cheat for the owner like the ANTs do for learner

LMAO!!!

 

You have no idea mate.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

at least those bots wouldn't out and out cheat for the owner like the ANTs do for learner

LMAO!!!

 

You have no idea mate.

So true. But I think by the original post, he did not actually mean a bot as we know it, but an NPC type thing... not sure though :S

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It will break the bot rules and also the general style of intended gameplay in EL. You are supposed to interact yourself or with other players. Bots will not play for you.

 

it'd still b breaking fewer of the rules then the ANTs do - imho i'm not sure bots should b allowed at all and for the rules that allow bots i personally think that just because devs created certain 1's doesn't mean that they should b allowed to break the rules so again imho if ANTs r allowed i don't see y those shouldn't b i mean at least those bots wouldn't out and out cheat for the owner like the ANTs do for learner so i'll lead the defense of this idea as long as there are other bots that go against the EL rules in the game

 

Im not gong to waste my time taking your post appart point by point. Youve been successfull enough at showing your own total ignorance relating to Learner, the ants, and their purpose.

 

 

feel free to enlighten me (not that i really care as to their "purpose" as much as their effect) but i will give them this the ants do make the game more interesting as bagjumpers to b a money sink to other newer players and kill thieves to those who to make up for the imbalanced experience system by holding down the home key to get even defence at low levels. - so please feel free to enlighten their "purposes" because all they've managed to do is get in my way and cause inconvienience and haven't done nething special that i've seen. but i'll concede that i'm still on the newer side and have only limited experience w/ them

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ants PURPOSE are to test AI that can someday be used for this or another game.

Ants EFFECTS are cleaning up bags left behind (most bones and other animal items, sometimes deathbags, but rarely), drop them at a community ant hill for everyone can pick and choose what they want, and add an element to the game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest ardinx

at least those bots wouldn't out and out cheat for the owner like the ANTs do for learner

LMAO!!!

 

You have no idea mate.

So true. But I think by the original post, he did not actually mean a bot as we know it, but an NPC type thing... not sure though :S

Atlantis you are right. I was going with this idea more toward upgrading existing storage NPCs to offer this service. I am sorry if I confused people about that and for not being very specific.

 

Thanks to everyone for looking at this and replying. However, my original post was really not intended for disscussion about ants. I am not going to pretend I know a lot about them or to absolutelly love the idea (I am pretty sure I lost few dbs to them), but I absolutely understand their purpose. They are designed to improve AI of the game, and therefore I say all the power to them. Better AI would improve non-linearity of the game, provide numerous "twists" and make the game overall more interesting. Some of us may forget this game is still under development, and ants are there to help devs to upgrade the game now and in the future and extend playability of it. But enough about, back to to the original topic....

 

I want to add one more thing to my original post. I am one of EL players that would always stand behind the idea to encourage roaming and exploring of the maps. Mail service would really not go against this principle; mail service would just serve as alternative option for delivering goods at remote location for a price. For high lvl players (that know maps by heart) would be a saver to spend some money to send tit chain over Seridia, don't you think? I am sure game will not hurt and high lvl players woudl probably love the convinience of it. For us, newbies, there will be alwyas an option to become a mule ;-)). Therefore, by thinking about this idea and maybe coding it (if really being feasible), it would add one more feature to the game. I would agree with someone above that there may be a danger that people would not use it. I see that happening ONLY if service is overpriced. It should be reasonable enough to encourage ALL players to use it and not cost the fortune. It should not replace mules (if people want to that), by offering somewhat higher unit price per delivery than mules. I think it may be one way to withdraw some gcs from circlulation (but I admit it cannot be perfect solution for it). So, I hope this sheds more light to my initial intentions...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This has been suggested before, under the topic of muling.

 

Currently this is not possible, it would require NPCs to leave their locations and that wouldn't be good for storage NPCs.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

and as far as testing AI concepts taht could b done just as well or even better on a test server leaving the game play to actual players

That is a fair statement, but I disagree that it could be done just as well on the test server. My reasoning behind this is that oneof the plans for the ants is for more interaction. You can now go and trade with them for example.

 

Sure, you can test that sort of thing on the test server, but it is far easier to test how they interact with people and where they get in the road and cause problems, in an environment that has far more characters.

 

Apart from that, I enjoy having them around as its quite interesting watching how they fight, and how they come to help each other when one is losing a fight etc.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest ardinx

This has been suggested before, under the topic of muling.

 

Currently this is not possible, it would require NPCs to leave their locations and that wouldn't be good for storage NPCs.

 

Lord V., I was thinking more along the line just transferring item do a distant location (without moving storage NPC anywehere or anyone else in that matter). It would be like moving an item from storage of player A to a storage of player B, adjusted for some time depending on weight of the item and the distance to a remote location (with time delay you would add reality to the shipping, but also prevent immediate shipping for some critical items - healing potions nearby PK areas, for example). During this transaction, seller would be charged no fee (in case if pickup fails, item is just put back to a seller' storage), while buyer would bear the cost of shipping (assuming that he/she has the most interest in making the deal go thru). I am a DB guy (which may not be applicable at all to all of this, but I am thinking here in terms of creating like temp table with these stored items). I admit it seems like it would be difficult to implement charging for items once when they are in storage (I do not know the back-end of the whole process, so I may be talking out of my you know what). Is this still hard to implement or this makes more sense? I still think, regardless someone else or I came up with general idea, the whole principle would add awesome playability to the game and would help market.... It may not be feasible in the way I or someone else envisioned, but there could be some alternative out there...Thx for input everyone....

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×