TL;DR
With bazaar visibility removed from the item market and the market becoming very user-friendly, bazaars have become somewhat obsolete. However, this creates an opportunity to level the playing field for traders—big or small—and introduce a new dimension to the game. This can be achieved by adding unique features to bazaars, such as:
- Discounts for specific players or factions
- An automatic buying mechanism that allows people to sell items directly to your bazaar
- A bazaar vault for partial money protection AND/OR mechanics to rob the vault
If you were responsible for redesigning bazaars, what changes would you implement?
Longer text
Recently, with the introduction of item market fees, I tried selling through my bazaar, but it just doesn’t seem fast enough. At the moment, it's still more profitable for a (beginning) trader to sell directly on the item market, as it allows for quicker sales when an opportunity arises to sell items at a higher margin. This makes bazaars feel quite useless—at least while lower tax rates are still in play. The recent news about a bazaar directory aims to address the irrelevance of bazaars, but it got me thinking—are there other ways to make them viable again?
One aspect I appreciate about the changes to the item market and bazaars, as a newer player, is that they help even out the playing field for traders. However, if the bazaar directory prioritizes popularity (if that’s how it works), it could benefit top traders more than others. So, are there alternative ways to encourage people to use bazaars again?
When these changes were introduced, Ched mentioned that traders should advertise their goods and essentially "work" for their money. I can see the appeal of this approach, but bazaars need to offer unique advantages. If I were in charge of redesigning them, I would introduce new features that don't rely solely on visibility:
- Discounts – Allow traders to set up special discounts for specific players or factions. For example, certain players could purchase items at a percentage discount, or bulk purchases could trigger higher discounts. This would introduce a relational aspect to trading, encouraging loyalty and higher-volume sales.
- Buying Automation – Implement an automated system that lets players sell specific items to your bazaar, automatically adding them to your stock. This could create an interesting competitive dynamic among traders setting buying prices. However, it would need balancing to prevent it from overshadowing the item market.
- Bazaar Vault – Earnings from sales would automatically go into a vault. To balance this, muggers could have a way to rob the vault through a job special or by spending a specific amount of energy. To prevent abuse, restrictions could be added, such as requiring a certain amount of sales before the vault becomes vulnerable, a cooldown period, or the bazaar owner needing to be inactive for a set amount of time.
All of these features could be tied to a point sink, potentially consumption-based. For example, every X amount of money spent buying from a bazaar could cost 1 point, meaning bazaar owners would need to allocate points to maintain these features. If the vault runs out of points, the features would become inactive until replenished.
I believe there are countless ways to make bazaars relevant again without simply reverting to the old system. Instead, we could introduce a completely new layer of gameplay. This makes me really curious—what creative ideas would others come up with if they were responsible for redesigning bazaars?