User blog comment:Richard Daggerbeard/Trading/@comment-2084412-20120609005417

Response, Bob and Joe, and earning your loot.

I understand the points made in this blog, but the fact is, you aren't getting items without earning them if you make a trade. You will have already earned the item you are trading FOR the item you want. If you have duplicate swords, you can trade those for other swords that other pirates have duplicates of. For example. A pirate named Bob loots two Bush Master Pistols. His reaction when he found the second one: "Darn! I really wanted some good daggers like Dagger of the Dark Idol, or any other good weapon, but I had to loot for 3 hours only to find another Bush Masters!". Bob earned two Bush Master Pistols. He earned two famed items by looting, not by just grabbing them from trading.

Now, here comes a pirate using Dagger of the Dark Idol to loot. His name is Joe. He considers himself a good looter, but can't seem to find any good Famed Pistols. He throws a vipers nest at an enemy, and receives a Skull Chest. He opens it to find another Dark Idol Dagger. Joe earned two Dark Idol Daggers. He earned two famed weapons. Well, assuming trading is released, this is a good chance for both pirates to receive a new weapon. They make a trade, Bush Master's Pistol for Dark Idol Dagger. Bob is very pleased with his trade. You might say this is bad for the game, that people wouldn't loot, that... Bob didn't earn that Dagger. Well, in my opinion, Bob earned that Dark Idol Dagger. He spent 3 hours of hard work looting, and received a Bush Master's Pistol. He traded that pistol for his dagger. He now has both Dark Idol Dagger and his first Bush Master's Pistol. You might say, "Oh, he only looted two of the same type of Famed. He only earned one weapon, just twice". Well, rubbish! He spent 6 hours total to find 2 famed items. He traded one of his famed items for another famed item. In the end, he left with 2 famed items, just like he earned. Just because his Bush Master's Pistol was a duplicate, doesn't mean he didn't earn it. Now, I can understand, if Bob tricked someone into giving him a famed dagger, and he gave them a rusty cutlass. But in this case, it's up to the person with the dagger to decide if he thinks that rusty cutlass is worth a Famed Dagger.

Trading Items for Gold

There is also the idea of trading items for gold, materials, clothing, etc etc etc. I think this is fine. If you earned a famed item, you should be able to sell it if you don't want it. I know, you can sell items at Peddlers or other merchants, but then, the item is lost. Gone. No one is going to have that item unless they find another one. You see, with trading, the item will go to someone else. This way, your work isn't just destroyed. We all know that gold values for weapons are very slim, and it's hard to get anything decent out of even rare weapons. If you put your item for sale to other players, who will use the item, unlike destroying it through merchants, you are likely to get more out of it. You might consider this a steal, but you will have to work to find someone who wants that particular item. This would also help teach our younger players how to manage their money, to always be careful what you spend, and alot more about buying items. Now, a good thing to do to find someone to buy your item, brings me to my next topic.

Auctions

Many pirates have had this idea, so I don't take full credit, but what if, there was a feature, for you to set your item out for sale, and allow multiple players to consider buying it. There would be a set time, perhaps a price requirement, and some sort of advertisement. There would be alot of ways to do this. You could have every server with 1 building for auctions, and a list of items for sale, sort of like public ships. This way, you could leave your item listed overnight, and return the next day to see if anyone bought it. You could also have a server just for auctions, where you could set up a small stand ( Similar to ship repair areas ) anywhere on that server and sell your items there. This way, you could spend some gold to buy your stand, and it wouldn't all just be free wins. You could also just have an option on another player's card to add them to your auction list, and then dicuss with them how much you wanted, and the bidding could begin.

Well, just thought I'd share my opinions and ideas. Hope you like them :)