Bartering is a secondary economy in TCoM where any item found can be used as trading material for other goods and services rather than direct currency.

Item Categories

Items fall under these broad categories. Items are sorted from least to most valuable inside of their categories.

Natural

Anything found in nature.

• Stones
• Wood Sticks
• Assorted Fibers
• Bones
• Shells
• Wood Limbs
• Clay
• Polished Stones
• Raw Assorted Gemstones
• Polished Assorted Gemstones

Industrial

Anything metallic or manufactured. (Nothing added as of yet)

Crafted

Anything that has been crafted by hand. (Nothing added as of yet)

Foodstuff

Anything that is edible (Nothing added as of yet)

Unsorted

Anything that doesn't fit into these categories (Nothing added as of yet)

Items can be earned by foraging, crafting, purchasing, or bartering. Anything that goes into the player inventory counts as potential trade material.

Inventory Management

The trade bag is what determines the size of a player's inventory for both general purpose and trading material.

Players start with a 4×4 grid (16 slots). The trade bag can be expanded by purchasing an upgraded trade bag, but requires a set global reputation to purchase an upgrade. Upgrades increase size by 1 row every 2 global reputation tiers up to a max size of 4×8 (32 slots).

Items placed in the trade bag can be stacked only up to their defined stack limit.

Bartering

Bartering occurs anytime the player enters a trade with another NPC

Overview

Every trade is a negotiation between:

• Seller
  • Holds the item or service the buyer wants.
  • Has a hidden target value representing their satisfaction threshold. (When NPC)
  • Attempts to get as many valuable items out of a buyer as possible to meet their satisfaction.
• Buyer
  • Holds trade material that the seller wants.
  • Attempts to reach or surpass the target value using the least valuable items possible.

The player can be either buyer or seller depending on who initiated the trade.

NPC Item Evaluations

Each seller evaluates items based on their base hidden value, category preferences, daily demands, and variety. Evaluations will occur when the trade table has reached a sellers satisfaction level. They will then be accepted or rejected, and the cycle will complete until the seller has accepted enough items to fill their satisfaction.

Base Hidden Value

Every item has an internal currency-equivalent value (e.g. Stones = 2c).

Preference Modifiers

NPCs can have a preference on categories. For key NPCs, these are rolled once per game save. generic NPCs are rolled once a day.

• Like increases acceptance chance by 10% & perceived value
• Dislike decreases acceptance chance by 10% & perceived value
• Neutral preferences leave items unchanged

Daily Demand Modifiers

Each day shops will rotate what they have in surplus, and what they are in demand of. This greatly impacts the evaluation of bartered items.

When a category is in demand:

• +20% acceptance chance
• +20% added to base value

When a specific item is in demand

• +50% acceptance chance
• +50% added to base value

When a category is in surplus:

• -20% acceptance chance
• -20% added to base value

When a specific item is in surplus

• -50% acceptance chance
• -50% added to base value

Variety Modifier

Sellers prefer variety on the trade table and will gradually get tired of repeated items.

Items will remain at full value when placed onto the table, but subsequent items will lose an incrementing percentage of their base value for each duplicate item is already on the trade table or has been accepted already.

Accepting & Rejecting Items

Trades revolve around buyers and sellers evaluating, accepting, and rejecting items to get the most value possible for their efforts.

Acceptance

An item is considered accepted when a seller wants the item.

When an item is accepted:

• The accepted item becomes locked to the board space it occupies
• The accepted item will contribute to the sellers satisfaction permanently

Accepted items cannot be removed unless the entire trade is canceled or are haggled off the board.

Rejection

An item is considered rejected when a seller does not want the item.

When an item is rejected:

• Rejected items are returned to the buyer’s bag
• Rejected items get a strike added to their burnout counter

Burnout

When an item reaches 3 rejection strikes, it is considered burnt out.

When an item is burnt out:

• The item cannot be added back to the trade table
• Penalizes all similar items by reducing their odds of acceptance by -50%

Haggling & Bargaining

During evaluations, both buyers and sellers may propose a haggle to sweeten the deal in their favor.

Seller Haggles (NPC only)

A seller may challenge the buyer with conditions, such as:

• Accepting an existing item on the condition another specific item is added to the table
• Accepting or rejecting 2+ items as a pair
• Accepting an existing item on the condition another is burnt out instantly

Conditions must be accepted or rejected immediately before the evaluation can continue.

Buyer Haggles

The buyer can attempt to:

• Increase the perceived value of items
  • Adds a 10% bonus to the base value of all items on the trade table
• Lower the seller’s satisfaction requirement
  • Reduces the satisfaction by a set % depending on the player / NPCs bartering skill
• Add bonus items to the trade
  • NPCs will add an additional item at random from their stock to the sale at no cost
• Restore a burned item
  • Items that are burned out are allowed to return to the trade table
• Pull an accepted item off the table
  • Items that are accepted and be removed from the trade, in the event a high value item was accidentally accepted

Mutual Bargaining

Mutual bargains can occur when both parties are close to satisfaction. This is a period in which a seller or buyer will accept a lesser, but simpler deal to end the trade rather than attempting to get the most value possible.

When a mutual bargain is presented:

• The offer will be worse than a "perfect" trade
• Will instantly end the trade if accepted
• Can potentially cause buyers / sellers to increase their satisfaction requirements if rejected
• Reduces the overall value of the next mutual bargain when rejected