Chef Archive

I really enjoy the social aspects of playing a chef, but I find the technical aspects of selling food frustrating.

Selling food person-to-person (bartending) is challenging because the trade system is so broken:
1. Many times the person you're trading with doesn't realize that you've initiated a trade request.
2. The trade window is bugged and the recipient sometimes doesn't see the items I've added to trade, even though they're there. But when they accept the items appear in their inventory.
3. Doing just about anything else while the trade window is up will cancel the trade.
4. If the person's inventory is too full, the trade will fail and exit completely (instead of failing, but staying open and letting you adjust hte trade or the other person adjust their inventory), so you have to start the trade again from the beginning.
5. can't remove items from a trade w/o canceling it.

One thing that I think would be great for for person-to-person sales is a vendor module for droids. Remember how R2-D2 was serving drinks on Jabba's sled in Return of the Jedi, I want a droid that'll do that. It would work just like a vendor in a house, but it would be a droid module, so it'd be portable and travel with you.

When listing items on the bazaar I have to re-enter the description every time. It gets old quick. It would be nice if it kept the description (just like it kept the price) for the previous item you added.

I guess that's the end of my rant for now... does anyone else agree with me? Have any other sore points w/ selling food?

L

I think the idea for a droid vendor module is great, but you should not be able to sell infinite items as you can in a normal vendor, only as many as the droid could hold. Also, I think you should then be required to pay maintenance on the droid just like you would for a normal vendor.

As to the item description, there is a copy and paste feature in the game, you just have to add it to your keymap. That should save you a lot of time and hassle.

I like your ideas. I also wish there was a way to hold food in your hands and have a drink/eat emote so it looks like you're actually having that drink. Bar stools would be cool too.

I too like all of your ideas except for Number 5. Being able to alter a trade once it has begun is a bad idea. They took this from the EQ trade system but the reason is that scammers could put up an incredible weapon/armor/item in the box then wait for you to put you money in and hit accept, then remove their item and click accept and steal your money from you.

The trade cancellation is just a buyer protection, it is a hassle if you need to change your trade but it is a small price to pay instead of having to worry about everyone scamming you on every trade.

I believe the 2-stage commit (accept-trade buttons that switch off automatically out if the contents of the trade are changed, and separate "ok" buttons that only appear when both "accept trade" boxes are checked) already prevents being switched or duped like you describe. I fail to see how removal of an item from a trade (if implemented so that it cancels out the "accept trade" button, just like changing the trade in another way) would open up an avenue for fraud and abuse.

Seller: adds items to trade
Buyer: adds cash to trade
Seller: checks "accept trade" button
Buyer: checks "accept trade" button. "ok" buttons have appeared and trade is ready to complete
Buyer: clicks on "ok" button
Seller: tries to be sneaky and removes item from trade and replaces it with something else. The system removes the "ok" buttons and unchecks both "accept trade" buttons (which is what happens now if the trade is changed. Either by adding items or changing the amount of cash in them)
Buyer: sees that the "accept trade" buttons have cleared out and "ok" buttons have disappeared so checks out items in trade again and sees that something is up

Would you care to explain in more detail how you believe this system as implemented could be subverted in the way you describe?

L

maefly2,

I agree %100 that limiting a droid vendor's inventory to 20 items (or the droid's inventory size, or something similar) would be apropriate. There would have to be some sort of maintenance involved; whether it would be cred maintenance as houses incur or somr sort of wear and tear on the droid that would be have to be repaired I leave up to the experts (if this is ever implemented). Not sure how I feel about a droid vendor and how it realtes to the merchant profession (should droid-vendors be able to advertize, should you get merchant XP for sales through them, etc..)

Thanks for the info on copy-and-paste that will save me a lot of typing.

L