Random Trading - Be Surprised!

Hello everyone! 

Do you have wolves lying around that even the trading center isn't snatching up? Have too many feathers from explore and want something more substantial? My idea that I'm sharing with you today is, in fact, random trading.

But Chippy, what is it exactly?

If you've played any of the more recent Pokemon titles you may be familiar with the idea of Wonder/Surprise trading in where you offer up a Pokemon and it gets randomly traded with someone else for their Pokemon. You might find a hidden treasure or an absolute trashbag, but the suspense is still there!

The same concept would be used for this idea with the following tweaks to make it Wolvden friendly.

This was also somewhat inspired by the Give a Pup - Get a Pup threads in the forum games!

The Possible Random Trades:

Wolf for Wolf:

Random trades marked with this flag can only contain one wolf. In return you will also get one wolf.

Item for Item: 

Random trades marked with this flag can only contain one item. In return you will also get one item.

Completely Random:

Random trades marked with this flag can only contain one item OR one wolf. In return you will get one item OR one wolf.

With this we have 3 pools of trading going on. An item placed in the Item for Item pool cannot be traded with an item placed in the Completely Random pool. That way, hopefully, there is always a trade for a trade.

So what goes into a random trade? What about GC/SC?

In order to make things fair, only one item or wolf can be placed in a random trade at a time. Pups must be weaned and all wolves must be in good mood/hunger standing and not flagged for about to leave due to neglect. Grove and Event items can also be offered for random trade if you're really feeling generous!

SC and GC would be off limits for random trading. For some reason I see this as being more of a problem than intended. Any future event currency that may possibly be transferable is also prohibited.

A confirmation message should be posted before every random trade is finalized on the user end to make sure that no unintended wolves/items are included in the random trade. Random trades cannot be cancelled.

What if I don't like what I get?

That's the risk/reward of random trading. You might get an absolute steal and get a 10 Event-Marked Pup for your Total Shuffle! Oooor you might get a Grouse Carcass. Random trading should only be used on items and wolves you are willing to part with. If you don't like what you get, try again!

And hey, who knows, you might send off a pup when they're weaned and get them back as an adult weeks later!

How many trades could I do a day?

In a perfect world the trade would be completed within 5 minutes of placing your wolf/item in and you'd be able to do this multiple times a day for as long as you can. However as I know this would probably be a great strain on the server, I offer the following suggestion until the above is possible:

10 random trades a day can be submitted and are all processed at 0:00 Wolvden Time.

If for some reason there were to be not enough trades where everyone's trade can be completed, any items and wolves that did not get processed will be returned to their respective players.

What about the cost?

Honestly, I see no reason for this to have a cost surrounding it. It's just like the trading center now with a few tweaks.

If a limit on submissions a day is implemented, there could be a GC option like the Auto Play/Feed that allows you for X amount of days to submit an extra 5-10 trades, but that would be up to the devs. 

And new members? Can they use this too?

Part of me says yes, part of me says no. I can see a new member giving away something important accidentally and not truly understanding what they did. If there was a lock on random trading (similar to the herbalist) perhaps 1 week so new members get a good grasp on the game. Perhaps Tala can come back for another unique quest!

What would need to be done to implement this idea?

Yes, I will admit, I know nothing of coding and this would be including a new fully automatic random trading system. The logistics of this are somewhat end-game and do not need to be considered right now.

A mock up for what the initial trading page could look like is as follows and most of that coding can be copy/pasted over:

Just like for regular trades now, notifications for the completion of the random trade would come through your inbox.

Final Thoughts:

Random trading would be a fun alternative to trading now, especially for wolves that members can't sell through the oversaturated Chatter threads and Trading Center entries. All constructive criticism is welcome! This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those looking for some randomness in their lives, it could be fun!

Yes please. Wondertrade is my favorite feature of the pokemon games...Something similar here, especially with restrictions like wolf for wolf would be lovely and exciting.

I don't play Pokemon, but this seems really cool!

Wow I’d love to have something like this in the game, it Sounds really fun! 

While I'd love for this to be implemented, I'm certain it's not going to be. However, that being said, perhaps something like this could be conducted through a forum by some very trustworthy individuals + a ticket or ID number system?

My support is neutral, due to enjoying the idea, but feeling it could potentially be something handled by players already ( just won't be as safe ).

I support!
An idea to add to this:

A sub-tier of the "wolf for wolf" category where wolf stats are in tiers and you can trade a wolf with between 299 to 399 stats to get another one of the same tier, for example! Would make it so you can have some different genetics in your pack but less likely to get "bad" stats. Or maybe you are MORE likely to get a wolf within that tier but there is a small chance you can get a wolf from a lower or higher tier?

I support, though I think their should be some limitations and/or mechanics in place to try to make this feature fair.

This is a bit of an odd comparison but kind of similar? For the Lioden Christmas event you always get people who are disappointed in their yields on Cristmas morning due to getting tons of explore trash and common items that have no use. I could definitely see this happening on WD if this were implemented.

Someone might feel the giving mood and trade out a mutie, for example, and then wind up with a no marked small-stated potato male. Or send out a RMA and wind up with a rock in return.

It would be interesting to see a possible teir system put in place to sort wolves or items and try to get fair trades. Perhaps wolves could be ranked similar to how special NBWs are with different stars based on different things and when sending a wolf out into trade you could 'mark' what it is being traded for - stats trade or a genetics trade. The teirs would be broad enough that you're not getting total trash, but are still putting up a gamble and have a wide range of possible things you could get in return.

Feel like the system would end up much like the mystery trade systems in other games. Loads of folk sending out common items for a chance at a rare item. At this point I feel it's better for folks to arrange raffles themselves on the Chatter boards.

This would very much be a nice-to-have feature and not one that'd be implemented any time soon I reckon.

Oh this sounds like a hilarious gamble, I support.