Filling buy orders from a Hub

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 Rill wrote:

Salararius, you seem to assume in your post that each person who has a trader will be selling every good.  Even if people wanted to, the limitations on number of buy and sell orders would preclude that.  And while traders might like to imagine a world in which they were the only person selling item x at a given hub, I do not see how that would benefit anyone else.  (And probably in the long run would not benefit traders.)
I am basing my thoughts on this at least in part to economic theory, particularly research that has been done around protective tariffs.  The bottom line is that protective tariffs and other barriers to trade tend to inhibit the overall productivity of a "global" economy.

Inefficiency is not necessarily a bad thing.  If the reasons for this inefficiency are creating a system in which lots of people have loads of fun, more power to them.

There certainly is a segment of the playerbase that likes playing with trade.  More power to them.  But changes like visibility limitations in trade for basic resources may ending up making things less fun for a large segment of the playerbase that must contend with inefficient markets that do not have available goods.

I am not in a position to judge where the balance is in that, I am just saying that there are more dimensions on which to base decisions about the way market transactions should be structured than just what will make the most gold.  Another of the decision factors seems to me to be ease of use of markets and/or availability of goods for players who are not interested in complex market systems.

Personally I think limiting trade visibility now would be a death knell for the market in general, as there would now be no reason at all for the vast majority of players to even look at the market.  As it is, when I place an order for basic resources on the global market, there is at least a chance that I might also take a look at the faction hubs.  (I actually do happen to have a trader at one of them.)  If I no longer could place orders from my city with some expectation that people might actually buy them, I might ignore the market entirely and do all trade within my alliance or on the black market.  I think I am far from the only player in the game in that position.

I believe you were concerned about new player's access to the basic resource markets, which I believe would be covered in all regions if traders had an incentive to do so.  Why do you now believe I've made the assumption that traders in all hubs would trade in all goods?  I didn't say that or assume that.

Right now, without a trader there is no market in many places for 90% of the goods.  That's a barrier to trade.

The "Black Market" may have a limited functionality but it honestly will never reach (as in "made aware of") more than a small fraction of the Illy population.  If a player doesn't even know there is a market, that's a trade barrier.

The current city to city model doesn't allow me to accept the exact quantity of goods I need to buy or sell.  That's a trade barrier.

The current unlimited visibility city to city model doesn't allow me any limit to how long my caravans are gone if I do specify (in a buy or sell order) the exact quantity of goods I need to buy or sell.  That's a trade barrier.

Unlimited trade visibility means wider participation and competition for any given resource I want to trade.  Greater competition results in more choices, but less participation (how many competitors does Wal-Mart have?).  Players that don't participate disrupt markets (globally) by dumping their goods or don't buy the things they otherwise would.  That limit's the desire of the genuine "traders" to participate in the system.  That's a barrier to trade.

The limited visibility hub model eliminates these barriers.

Globalization is great, but not if you want wider participation.  In the Illy global model, there are serious limits to trade regardless of the limits imposed by a global model.  If you want more traders, limit the markets so the mom and pop shop can sell you the things Wal-Mart can not.  If you've looked at economic theory, you know that!

Sure it will cost the locals more for the basics but a good mom and pop will get the local people the exact goods they need.  Wal-Mart can only drive the mom and pops out of business and then the local people will never get the exact goods they need (crafting components and equipment).