Forum Thread

Apologies if this has been suggested before but I looked through the past year and can't see anything.

Well we all know the current gem exchange is very difficult to use, and it is not helped by the amount of ridiculous trades due to a lack of knowledge (*cough* or attempted scam exchanges *cough*), or loads of spam lines of 1 for 1 exchanges.

So why not take out the human to human element - which we will be able to do on the new GTS anyways.

My suggestion is for an NPC that you can hand gems in to and get other types of gems in return for them.

The main great thing about this is that the gem prices can automatically be decided by the site based the amount and type of gems users both hand in and take from the NPC.

So less of a gem handed in means it has a higher value, and more of a gem handed in means it's a lower value.

If users don't hand in any dragon gems then their value will be high meaning it will take a lot of other gems the users have to hand in to get one.

If users hand in 10000's of steel gems then their value will be low meaning you will get a lot of them if you hand in a valuable gem.

So the gem market should regulate itself automatically and keep gem for gem values up to date and current based on exactly what users are getting rid of or keeping at any given time. Users will be the ones dictating the value of gems based on their actions and not a written thread.

If users see a certain type of gem is super cheap they should decide to do hunts based on those cheaper gems - so the NPC should be able to maintain a good balance. It would be "real time" supply and demand prices.

(I'm not sure how difficult the coding would be for this though, it's quite a big change)

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Support, the current system lists a lot of "unfair" trades and to search for one that fits needs a lot of time...i don´t think its a fast way of exchanging right now.

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I too agree with SallyAnn. I find it difficult to navigate through the gem exchange with the way it is set up.

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Thanks for poking my interest onto this thread.

Here's my food for thought on this one:

-> The current state is, frankly said, flummery (Town of Salem-players can relate, if not, google). It's hard to browse through all the trades, it's even harder to find trades that are actually somewhat fair to do. I could provide you with examples, but just check out the Gem Exchange. There are plenty

-> As I already mentioned in chat, I really do enjoy the human-to-human-interaction. As a few people noticed, I place a lot of trades at the Exchange. Which means, my notifications get flooded with stuff. Almost everytime I message those people and ask if they're looking for something specific (funnily enough, people are just browsing and "wasting" Gems, sometimes even accepting Mirror-Trades all the time (3Bug->4Rock and 3Rock-4Bug)). That's an important part in a game like PokeHeroes (in my opinion).

-> I like the idea of a self-regulating market. Currently, we have 2? 3? players "controlling" the Gem Exchange. Everyone else just drops off one offer and leave again. Only the "hardCORES" (get it? Core? Haha... I'm funny.) really stay there and are regulating the market.
Here's something out of my own experience: I'm currently trying to lower the Gem Exchange-price of Dragon Gems down. They usually go by 45+ Normal Gems for a single Dragon Gem. I'm giving away my Dragon Gems for 34 Normal Gems. Since I'm a single player that just started with Gem Exchange, I can't really do anything against that. But I saw, that other people are picking up on that. Dragon Gems are going down slowly (currently at ~40NG). That's great.

-> I dislike the idea of a full-NPC market. Your idea is nice as it is (really, I like that), I'd just miss the interactions I have today.

Conclusion:
A full-on NPC Market? No. Maybe think about a semi-NPC-regulated market tho. Like, there's a NPC that trades (just examples here) 3 regular Gems (Non-Normal/Dragon/Fairy) for 2 regular Gems of your choice. I'm looking for Ice Gems? I trade in 3 Bug Gems and would have 2 Ice Gems. The market would kinda slow down due to accessive amounts of NPC-trades (atleast I think) and would in the end fix your problem.

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Thank's for the feedback, I'm definitely interested in getting feedback from heavy gem exchange users.

I figure if the bigger players manipulate an NPC regulated market too much then it might mean more business on the new GTS where old style gem offers could still be placed human to human.

But if bigger gem players do choose to forcibly inflate certain gem prices by taking all those gems - then the benefit is that another type of gem must be super cheap. With an NPC exchange for something to go up - something must come down.

I would find it interesting to watch for sure, I've seen players manipulate/maintain prices on the auction house through sensible selling procedures - so I'd be interested in how users would react to a "stock market" for gems and see the tactics used.

Maybe we could even keep the gem exchange as it is but have the site display an average price per gem based on recently taken trades - so users could quickly check what's trending on any given day. (coding might be really hard for that though)

(bug gems are a bit weird though, they should be priced higher since they can't be got from rumbling but they are a bit undesirable hence they sometimes fall lower than common rumble gems)

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total support.
i absolutely LOVE this idea.
it would cut back on scamming, and spamming.
plus most people don't really know how to use the gem exchange and set up bad trades on accidents and give up on it. due to lack of hits.
plus it would give players the gems they want/need automatically without having to wait.

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Title: in accordiance with sallyann

here is an idea to go with that like you can exchange gems for gem credit like you need ->3 normal gems for 1 bug <- example or 1 dragon gem for =50 store credit or what ever the case maybe

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I totally support this idea. My reasons and thoughts follow:

The most frustrating thing about the gem exchange for me is sorting through all the exchanges that are just downright ridiculous. And they've been there forever. Leading me to believe that the people who posted them in the first place are probably no longer active. Sorting through trash trades is frustrating to say the least.

Second, I think we need a system to regulate the prices of of gems. Most of us go by Toothie's Price check guide to gauge gem prices but those prices are out of date. For one reason in particular. Supply and demand. Right now Normal and Dragon Gems seem to be the most wanted. Then Ice, Fire, Electric, Flying, Ghost, and Psychic. Then Water, Grass, and Poison. Then Fighting, Steel, Rock, and Ground. Then you have Fairy and Bug gems which can not be gotten through Rumbling. You'd think that would make them very well sought out. But I get tons of Bug gems from the Golden Slots and don't use them very much at all. Again, I don't use Fairy Gems for much but they are not easy to find, so yeah they are very sought out too almost as much as Normal and Dragon. So as an example the price check lists say Ice and Ground gems at the same price. That's just not right going by supply and demand.

As far as removing the human element of trades I can see what Xangar is talking about but there are two types of players on here. The players that crave human contact and love having conversations as they trade items. But there are also players who would prefer to just do their exchanges and get on with other parts of the game. I do believe that the new GTS system that Riako is working on will be a good system for the people that like the human interaction, but I think the Gem exchange should more focus on the players that just want to do their exchanges without any hassle. And those that prefer the human interaction can arrange trades through GTS.

Now as far as my thoughts on how to do the system itself I like killerbee2202's idea. Because looking at the suggested system the first few people who add gems to it aren't gonna have any gems to pull out. There needs to be some kind of credit system set up so you can turn in the gems you don't want one day and then come back later and purchase gems that have been added since you deposited yours. And working the prices like a stock market type of system would definitely be an added dynamic that some users might find fascinating.

I really think this would be an awesome update to the site and hope it is implemented some time in the future.

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Bump

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Love the idea and full support.

I find GE to be intimidating as well as difficult to maneuver. You can use CTRL+F to search for specific gems but that can take ages to do. There are multitudes of bogus and uninformed offers that make GE difficult and frustrating to use.

An automated system would be very useful for many reasons - easy, regulated prices based on supply and demand in real time rather than outdated information.

Atavus mentioned concern for the first few users not being able to access it fully due to no gems in the "bank" to begin with, but if it is automated, why not have it act as a bank fully funded for business from exchange one with gems already in the coffers so to speak (they are just digital after all). If there are, say, 10k of each kind set up at the beginning in the "gem bank" that might be a good start and replenish-able as discretion or need allowed - arbitrary numbers for example only.

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I agree. the gem exchange is very hard to use and it would be nice to have something like that.

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no support

while I love the idea, I think it´s way too easy to abuse (uh, how to explain that)
so the only way I can imagine this being done is the price regullation takes place after each trade. So watch this:

At first, steel and grass gems are worth the same, so there is one on one trades possible
A user comes along, puts 100 grass gems in and takes 100 steel gems out, the prizes ajust, steel gets a higher value, grass a lower value
this very same user puts in the 100steel he just got, but because they are worth more now takes out 200grass, prizes adjust, grass more valuable, steel less
now this player puts in the 200 grass and takes out 400 steel
and so one, multiplying his gems all by himself, without doing a thing

I´d like to see this scenario to be set off, because I don´t see a realizable solution to this, so if you´ve got aany ideas, hit me up^^

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It wouldn't work like that Gottesbob - you can only buy gems that are placed in the exchange by users, it won't create any new gems out of thin air. The exchange rate works only on gems that are in there.

But you have a good point, the main difficulty would be setting an exchange rate because if an exchange rate is 1 ice gem for 1.6 fire gems then would the user be able to buy 1 or 2 fire gems for their 1 ice? This could force trades to be over 100 gems per trade.

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well and you still have to start off with some gems, because otherwise the first users would have to put gems in without getting any back, that´s not fair eighter. So there is a set amount of gems in there already and those get taken out and replaced by less through the same process, just a bit changed (100in 100out -> 50in 100 out -> 25in 50 out and so on)

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