TokenTrade (TknT) - exchanging services via the trading api (harvest/syndicate/etc.)

TokenTrade (TknT)
Coding system to trade harvest crafts, betrayal benches and other services via the normal PoE trade api (https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/)

This is an attempt to create a system for players to exchange services (harvest, syndicate, etc.) without resorting to 3rd party channels (most notably TFT (The Forbidden Trove), which is only accessible via discord and not available to every player).
Edit:The only thing needed for this to work is a formalized encoding list. No need for any extra stuff from GGG or extra channels (discord, etc.).
It is just a convenient way to list and find harvest/syndicate crafts.

Core idea:
Items not normally offered on the trade site (e.g. magic rings or amulets with a cheap craft) can encode a specific service and function as a kind of token to list this service with the trade api either via premium stash or 3rd party apps maintaining a forum post (such as "acquisition" https://github.com/xyzz/acquisition).
Token-items are crafted with the crafting bench, so that they are a magic item with 1 crafted affix (with a specific roll).
Token-items can be listed with a note (e.g. : "~b/o 5 chaos TknT Har 0-0 74 x3 3ex" to denote an offer of three harvest reforge caster for 5c each). The note is a string composed of the "TknT" (TokenTrade) as a systemspecifier, "Har" as a subspecifier for harvest, "0-0" to specify the harvest craft offered, "74" to give the craftlvl, "x3" as the number of times this craft is available and "3ex" as the maximal collateral you are prepared to offer. For non negotiable prices replace "~b/o 5 chaos" with "~price 5 chaos".
It is then possible to find these items in the trade api by choosing the sale type of "price with note" and looking for exactly the token item describing the craft you are looking for. In case of the above example, you would look for a Ruby ring crafted with +16% Fire Resistance listed with a "price with note".

Scamming/stealing an item/bad crafting etc. cannot be prevented (same as in TFT), but after a bad trade you can ignore listings from the offending poe account.
This could be improved upon with one or more exchange threads/platforms, where scammed people can offer proof and mods maintain a list with recommended bad poe accounts (about the same as in TFT at the moment), which you can choose to incorporate into your own ignore list.

Proposed encoding system:

1. The token-items should be as small as possible and easily obtainable. Rings and amulets fit this bill with a stash space of 1 unit and being obtainable from e.g heist chests or even act vendors.
2. Crafts to further distinguish the items should be from recipes in the acts (obtained on normal playthrough) and as cheap as possible. So no syndicate crafts (Jun) but only Helena crafts and if possible not from maps.
3. These item configurations should be able to be saved as search-patterns in BetterTradingPoE or other browser extensions or even simply as a bookmark.


Specifics:

Harvest: list taken from https://poedb.tw/us/Horticrafting

Wild Ursaling Id : Craft
0-0 : Reforge Caster
0-1 : Remove non-Caster + add Caster
0-2 : Augment Caster
0-3 : Reforge Caster more common
0-4 : Augment Caster lucky

Wild Hellion
1-0 : Reforge Physical
1-1 : Remove non-Physical + add Physical
1-2 : Augment Physical
1-3 : Reforge Physical more common
1-4 : Augment Physical lucky

Wild Thornwolf
2-0 : non-red Socket to red
2-1 : non-blue Socket to blue
2-2 : non-green Socket to green
2-3 : 2s to red and blue
2-4 : 2s to red and green
2-5 : 2s to blue and green
2-6 : 3s to red, blue and green
2-7 : 1s to white

Wild Ape
3-0 : Reforge Fire
3-1 : Remove non-Fire + add Fire
3-2 : Augment Fire
3-3 : Reforge Fire more common
3-4 : Augment Fire lucky

Wild Hatchling
4-0 : reforge number of sockets 10 times
4-1 : reforge links 10 times
4-2 : reforge number of colours 10 times

.... etc.

Harvest-encoding:
Wild (Ruby ring) (described by "Helena" crafts from https://poedb.tw/us/Rings#RingCraftingBench)
0-0 : Ruby ring crafted with +16% Fire Resistance
0-1 : " " " " +17% " "
0-2 : +18%
0-3 : +19%
0-4 : +20%

1-0 : Ruby ring crafted with +16% Cold Resistance
1-1 : " " " " +17% " "
1-2 : +18%
1-3 : +19%
1-4 : +20%

...etc.

The same can be done for syndicate bench service etc.
If there are still enough possible token combinations left after completing the list, it might even be possible to make a WTB Token (e.g. a coral ring instead of a ruby ring to denote WTB instead of WTS)

Complete example:
You have 3x Reforge Caster lvl 74 in your horticrafting station which you would like to sell.
You look up which token-item describes "reforge caster" (ideally in a "BetterTradingPoE" list) and find that its a Ruby ring crafted with +16% Fire Resistance.
You get yourself a white (normal rarity) ruby ring and benchcraft +16% Fire Res. on it.
You list it on the trade api with the note "~b/o p chaos TknT Har 0-0 74 x3 c", where "p" is your suggested price per craft and "c" is the maximal collateral you are prepared to offer.

You are looking for a Reforge Caster harvest craft.
You look up which token-item describes "reforge caster" (ideally in a "BetterTradingPoE" list) and find that its a Ruby ring crafted with +16% Fire Resistance.
You search the tradesite for a Ruby ring crafted with +16% Fire Resistance and liste with a "price with note" (or just by clicking on the premade BetterTradingPoE item search)
You contact the seller via the normal trade msg copy-paste.
You can then discuss if and how much collateral is needed etc.
Proceed with the crafting service. (link the item in chat and really specify which type of craft you want to apply to it. best if the seller types the craft out too and asks for confirmation.)
Most likely no issues will come up (such as seller keeping the item on a good craft or the buyer keeping the collateral on a bad craft), but if they do and you cannot resolve the problem satisfactorily, ignore the offending account, move on and choose to report the issue in seperate (yet to be specified) exchange platforms.

The seller simply delists the token item and vendors it or keeps it for future use.

Searching for and listing harvest crafts should be made easier with this and not be tied to a discord server.
This is NOT designed to prevent scamming etc. it is simply an alternative way to list and search for services.
I have no idea how to prevent the scamming issues many people seem to encounter. Maybe you could try a specific seller out a few times with low risk/cost crafts, so you can build confidence in him/her and then try for bigger crafts. (yeah i am aware that the "bigger craft" is where a con-man gets you afer building confidence in the previous crafts, but in the end its just a game and crafting is lots of rng anyway... just think of it as an extra layer of rng...).
Let me know of the issues you find with this system and of possible improvements you can think of.
If nothing comes up that will break this system, i will try to create a complete list (if possible as a "BetterTradingPoE" item list) of tokens and crafts describing the harvest or syndicate services before the next league launch (or if any of you has much time on their hands at the moment, maybe one of you can create it, post it and i will add it here), so we can try it out in the next league.

Have fun!

Making something easier means it gets nerfed even further. Please, no.

"

SpacePilot3000 wrote:

Making something easier means it gets nerfed even further. Please, no.

Why tho? Strictly speaking, there's already a not-so-nice 3rd party community called TFT, which the proverbial 1% uses anyway. Making some kind of a tradable vessel to store harvest crafts wouldn't magically increase the number of these crafts to trade, it might be even made some kind of rare drop, say egg-salt rarity or even more rare to prevent flooding teh Holy Market with the "cheap" crafts, but eliminating the need for another crutch.

"

dW2005 wrote:

Why tho? Strictly speaking, there's already a not-so-nice 3rd party community called TFT, which the proverbial 1% uses anyway. Making some kind of a tradable vessel to store harvest crafts wouldn't magically increase the number of these crafts to trade, it might be even made some kind of rare drop, say egg-salt rarity or even more rare to prevent flooding teh Holy Market with the "cheap" crafts, but eliminating the need for another crutch.

Chris talked about it on some of the podcasts, they rebalance things on how easily they are accessible. Regarding TFT, they don't care that 1% use it but making it official means more people will start doing so and apparently it will be OP this way.

"

SpacePilot3000 wrote:

Regarding TFT, they don't care that 1% use it but making it official means more people will start doing so and apparently it will be OP this way.

It's doubtful it will suddenly become too "OP" for that regular Joe who can afford like 10 crafts in a whole 3-month league, and its kinda funny how "they don't care about 1%" but at the same time many nerfs are based on some videos posted by 1% of that 1%.

Good luck. You're suggesting a major shift in design philosophy. Letting players get what they want is contrary to what makes these games tick. The whole idea is that you have to PLAY to get what you want. If you can get better through a trade or a purchase, the game stops being fun.

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Shagsbeard wrote:

Good luck. You're suggesting a major shift in design philosophy. Letting players get what they want is contrary to what makes these games tick. The whole idea is that you have to PLAY to get what you want. If you can get better through a trade or a purchase, the game stops being fun.

The game is balanced around trade. Having harvest crafts tradable is just asking for some consistency.

You can play all you want and wont get a gg aura stacker in SSF at a reasonable or fun pace.

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impulze3 wrote:

The game is balanced around trade.

Sure it is, but that doesn't mean it's balanced around you getting what you want, when you want it - all the time. Most items we trade for, are luxuries - not necessities. The game may be "balanced around trade", but it has never been balanced around "trading for services".

Hell, IMO trading for services should be impossible.

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dW2005 wrote:

and its kinda funny how "they don't care about 1%" but at the same time many nerfs are based on some videos posted by 1% of that 1%.

Yes, they don't care now because they already nerfed harvest because of TFT and they are happy with it. But if it will be 2% I think we won't see even t3 crafts at all, like t4 currently.

"

Shagsbeard wrote:

The whole idea is that you have to PLAY to get what you want.

The idea is "go buy new shoes" as Chris said. In trade league you don't PLAY to get what you want, because its a lottery and you won't get it by just playing 99% of time.

At this point I'd like to see the drop rates for Harvest stay the same and GGG add a Harvest Orb that costs 1ex to put any Harvest craft in an orb.