Ships Market discussion

[Most Lee Harmless]

Just a few thoughts about the new ship market :

Overall, I'm finding it frustratingly slow : I have ships sitting there awaiting bids and when they get one, at a price I am happy with, its another long wait for the bidding process to start, run and finish. I'm sure the buyers aint happy either, their credits get locked down for the duration and they get to wait days for their new ship, assuming after 2-3 days no-one jumps in at the last moment and trumps their bid. And so they have to choose another ship to bid on and the whole lengthy process repeats for them. That's a recipe for discontent on both sides of the deal

If I want a new ship, well, I want it now, not next week. When I find a buyer at my set price, I want it sold now, not in 3 days time in the vague hope I might get another credit or two on it.

I just dont think there is the demand in place to justify this long bidding/waiting period. For run-of-the-mill ships like trade ships and small warships, a bidding war is not that likely anyway and sufficient stock is in the market to meet most buyers needs so why should they start a bidding war for them?

The exception is the large frigate and above or for the high attribute frigate which some favor for raiding: there is a place for auctions for such high attribute or major capital ships : but there is also room for a take-it-or-leave -it set price for immediate delivery on them.

So, I'd like to see a dual system : the buyer can select to auction them and wait for the best bid as now : or place them on direct immediate sale.

As it stands, trying to be a 'pro' dealer is a bit hard unless some throughput is possible on a speedier basis. I feel this will become even more important when enhanced or specialist ship-building gets to be a hide-out option :

opinions welcome.

[Grapefruit]

I agree that the waiting period is too long
As you say if someone is buying a ship for credits they want it now not next week
As it stands it would be easier and cheaper to sell the credits and wait for the turns to generate.
I have nothing to suggest as a soulution. either a 'buy it now' or 'sell it now' button I suppose but some
sort of penalty for using it......
However I can see the reasons for not being able to take ships off the market as this would
enable players to hide whole fleets of ships at extortionate prices while they go on holiday.
Maybe restricting taking ships off the market to one a week would be appropriate, As it would
then be a pain to get the ships back and enable us dealers to free up market spaces currently
occupied by lemons that nobody is going to buy.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Aye, using the market to 'park' ships is a valid issue : I would think that any penalty might be worth paying if you do want to keep your capital ships safe while off-line for a period, but then that would screw the dealers with a valid reason to be moving ships in and out : as you say, a lemon sitting on the market for months aids nobody. So, a limit on ship removals from the market of the kind you suggest is a workable alternative.

Currently, there is a 'tax' on ship sales : it only kicks in on the higher prices as part-credits seem to get rounded down : an additional 'instant sale' tax would be one way of working it.

[Captain Jack]

We have ships market for 26 days now and the stats we have are encouraging.

A total of 455 ships have already been sold through the market (or about 18 ships a day). Perhaps this may not sound impressive for most but it is a very good record. If you compare it with the Cards Market (977 completed trades in the same period, or about 38 per day) then you might get a hint of how good it is.

A total of 10,875 credits have been traded through the market! A great number, especially if you compare it with the cards market which scored 13,000 credits in the same period.

The ships market has improved game activity. In particular, it seems to engage users a lot more with activity in the game hitting its greatest levels of ALL TIME. Surely, not only because of the ships market but it surely plays its role.

Now, nearly 1 month afterwards, it is perhaps time to get your feedback and ideas for further improvement of it.

[Most Lee Harmless]

edited as threads now merged.

[Grapefruit]

Time to remove the extra slot special offer and the recent auctions prices bit hasn't kicked in yet.

[Jim Hawkins]

I would like the price of low value ships like the hawker to be addressed either by the ability to sell more than 1 per credit or offer such ships at a fraction of a credit, EG 5 hawkers for 1 credit or 1 hawker for 0.2 of a credit.

Jim Hawkins

[Sebena]

I'd like to see another filter implemented since all of ships have type merchant and war why don't put that in filter also like show all war type or show all merchant type

[Most Lee Harmless]

I agree that multiple ship sales would be a useful option : perhaps a 'sell fleet' category : this would enable sellers to offer various combinations of large or small trade and war fleets.

[Crackedcubes]

I'd like to see another filter implemented since all of ships have type merchant and war why don't put that in filter also like show all war type or show all merchant type

Wolfie...you can filter by specific ship, such as just viewing all LMMs or Sotls