Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So, anyone who has been around and working the markets long enough is aware of undercutting by .01 ISK.

I see a big problem with this. It is a task that could theoretically be completely automated rather easily. It is my opinion that any task that can be automated easily is probably going to be monotonous and boring. Monotonous and boring tasks are generally not very engaging and make for gameplay that is unapealing. Trading can be fun, being beat by .01 ISK is not, countering that by undercutting the competition by .01 ISK every 5 minutes is also not fun. This is however something can can be difficult to avoid if you want to have fun trading.

There are some things that I am aware of CCP doing to combat this issue. The first is restricting the use of automated tools to perform this task. Second, there is a 5 minute timer between order modifications. Third there is a minimum brokerage fee for order price changes. These things indicate to me that CCP also sees a problem with .01 ISK trading.

I have been thinking about solutions to this issue that are not game breaking. Here is what I have come up with so far, could it work?

Implement a feature similar to automatic bidders on auction sites. The person placing a buy or sell order would input two prices, the start price and the maximum or minimum price (depending on whether or not it is a sell or buy order). If someone else inputs an order with a start price that beats your start price but not your maximum or minimum price then your order will automatically and instantly be adjusted to beat the new order by .01 ISK (provided that their maximum or minimum does not beat yours, should it beat yours then your order will be adjusted to your best price and theirs would be .01 ISK better).

Anyone who does not want to use this feature would have the option of just setting their best price and start price as the same. Also you could have your order not be adjusted to match orders with less than a certain number of units or less than a certain percentage of the number of units that you have on sale.

One consequence of this is that prices would be closer to their actual value which should benefit people who are placing orders with immediate fulfillment.

Another is that time spent participating in .01 ISK trading will be reduced.

What does everyone think?

That's not productive feedback...

Find a better market to invest in.

Works for me.

You will not be at the top of the list 24/7.

Deal with it.

And don't be lazy.

No.

What you're requesting is basically a more efficient trade bot.

This would also ruin the game for a lot of traders, for example me :p there would be no effort in station trading and current tactics would no longer work, not to mention that you'd just end up with people making multiple orders, in short intervals, insuring that they're always above people with single orders.

Where do I sign up for your respective newsletters?

What good does reading my own propaganda do me?

Fair enough. If you guys injoy beating eachother by .01 ISK over and over who am I to complain.

YES DO IT. DO IT NAOW.

I can't wait to see ten bots in jita 0.01 isking each other until the price is below the items mineral value.

11/10

Just two questions: wasn't Burn Jita in summer and didn't it use to involve shooting?