1 (edited by William Bonney 2012-10-24 09:48:53)

Topic: Market Default set to "Markets in Range"

Greetings all,

While taling with a few folks about my first day in Perpetuum and helping out new players with the game, I have been telling them the story about how I made enough nic in my first day of playing, to purchase a Termis, fully deck it out in T2 and T3 modules, and fit inside the bot with my careful EP expenditures (20k back then).

When I purchased that bot, I Paid roughly 6million nic for it (i don't remember the exact number, I do recall the number began with a 6 or and 8 and it was in the millions, mining all that in an Argano was tough going).  I did all that mining Stermonit outside of ICS station (where I first spawned at).

Well, the one thing I did not know at the time was that there was a setting on the market for "Markets in Range."  I don't know why I didn't notice it before, I just knew that the markets were localized, and even though I had Eve experience, it had been quite a few years since I was used to that sort of system.

Well, not a day later I figured it out, and I realized that I had paid about 4 times as much as the ones that were selling on the next island over.  I was, well, not pissed, but a little perturbed by this, I felt cheated.

Well, tonight I was again looking at the market, and I realized, every single time I click that button or push my hot key to open market, I immediately click that "Markets in Range" tab.  I have a feeling that many of us do that now, out of habbit, it's become a normal thing to do, see where it is the cheapest.

So, I was thinking, why is that tab not the default tab?  Why is the local market the first thing that pops up?  Wouldn't it be easier for all of us who are playing the game for it to be that way?

I understand that it takes 2 seconds to do, but I gotta tell you, those 2 seconds I'm wasting every time I open up the market, they add up.

I know there was a true "drive" to make as much as possible different about the systems in this game than in that one.  I recognize it, understand it, and applaud it.  However, making us work, even this minutely of an amount, "harder" then is necessary, not only seems petty, but it also seems a bit careless.

I say that because three times today, I had to tell new player that were searching for something, trying to buy it in trade chat or complaining about a 300k cost for a robot, that "no, I see one is up for 100k."  I then have to explain to them the "market in range" deal, and I even take the time to tell them how to read the "Rates Tab", what the graph means, what the colums on the bottom stand for, and why exactly that line goes up and down like it does.




My other suggestion on this market, is I really don't like how it does that.  The lines should not be jagged and straight like that.  They should be a "smooth gradient" of change, again like Eve's.  Having it all jagged like that, not only makes it look bad, but it also makes it harder to read and comprehend.  Because one person sold that one robot for 500million nic, doesn't invalidate the 4 people who sold one for 200million the week prior.  It needs to be a "weighted slope change" from the "median average."  Now, that's key, median.  Not the "true average" of all of them sold throughout the course of the game's history, but the median average.  That is the difference between the highest price something sold for, added to the lowest price something sold for, divided by two.  You "weight" those medians in your formula based on the number of modules sold at that highest level, to the number of modules sold at that lower level, and get a "weighted median."  That number is then averaged over the course of the sales for a set period of time, either the lifetime of the game as Eve does it, or it could be shorter like a month.  Now you have a "weighted median average."

That number is then applied to the graph, and we see how the "median" average has changed over time, not the true one.  That will give you a more accurate representation on the supply/demand changes that are being delivered by the players who are playing the game at the time, without factoring in what occurred a year ago.


Edited to Add:  Please note, that this topic is concerning what you see in Markets when you are docked inside of a station.

Re: Market Default set to "Markets in Range"

You know, Billy, you aren't half capable of producing a lot of text that essentially does exactly what it says in the subject line. It is curiously very readable, though.

+1 anyway.

William Bonney wrote:

...stuff ... It needs to be a "weighted slope change" from the "median average."  Now, that's key, median.  Not the "true average" ... more stuff...

-1 (sort of). What we need is more options.

3 (edited by William Bonney 2012-10-24 16:18:00)

Re: Market Default set to "Markets in Range"

Ludlow Bursar wrote:

You know, Billy, you aren't half capable of producing a lot of text that essentially does exactly what it says in the subject line. It is curiously very readable, though.

+1 anyway.

William Bonney wrote:

...stuff ... It needs to be a "weighted slope change" from the "median average."  Now, that's key, median.  Not the "true average" ... more stuff...

-1 (sort of). What we need is more options.

Hehe, writing a better algorithmic function would open up the capability for more options in the graph.  As in, cut it down into sections by weekly, monthly, yearly. similar to how it is now withe the "grayed out" attempt that was made to smoothen the rough edges.  They did try.  (yes, we have that option now, but it would make it more viable.)

If i knew their source, i'd do it myself and send it in to 'em.