It could still clear every 10 minutes though? I mean if I see something 20 in stock I think screw it, not buying it because it's essentially "forever in stock" and its price on the shop search is likely abysmal anyway (I can buy it and then the next restock will have a ton stocked because it's common), but if I knew shops cleared every time, or at the very least a lot more than they seem to do now, it makes restocking more engaging. Nothing would stock to 12 in stock. Items wouldn't sit there and stagnate, because people would be motivated to get them.

I just don't believe this system of going into a shop and seeing almost every single item up to a certain rarity stocking is working. I'd rather try this "bandaid" fix and see if it changes anything, because right now, I'm not sure if anyone is actually satisfied seeing dozens of one item in stock. Maybe the fraggers. But as for shop search prices and the economy, it's not working, so leaving it be isn't really doing anyone any favors either, you know?

. The old system where shops cleared every hour was much better than this one. Does it matter if it was 8 years old if it worked? Is there any reason why you can't change it back to how it was?

Items vanishing could be annoying but -

I preferred the annoyance of shop wipes to staring at 14 copies of Collecting Seashells for Beginners all day. :)

Hmm, I think the best way to avoid that confusion is clearing the shop and having it not immediately restock but wait 30 seconds - 1 minute? I think that would be enough time for people to hit back or go to the shop again to see it empty.

I feel like clearing is the only option there is in this situation. It's also easiest imo. The alternative would be only stocking a % of certain rarities and making sure items like Apple Bread don't restock each restock to slow down their accumulation in the shop or trying to figure out how much of a certain rarity should restock (by 1-2 each time if restocks are more frequent and shops don't clear?).

With the changing in quest format and shop search format, it's so much easier to buy straight out of NPC shops if the items are in stock. If the items would just rotate more and clear out more, people would buy more from user shops. The demand would increase, the price should increase. It would be a good thing.

Or have a note/text that says "Store has just been cleared", "shopkeeper on coffee break"

That's such a good idea! :D A "Be back soon. On coffee break." note image would explain everything and keep it in lore (imagine different ones for different NPCs, like on tea break or something undead for zombie shops or pirate-y for omen island ones).

I think there's a problem with the new restocking...an r60 item that is not used for brand new achievements should not be 3 mil on user shops:

http://subeta.net/ushop.php?act=dosearch&itemname=Carton+of+Two+Percent+Milk&type=shops

Its a low rarity and has an average price of 4k. So why is it suddenly 3 mil? Because the new method of restocking the shops means since nobody bought them during the last restock, they're gone for weeks? I just....I don't think this was the best method.

It's one of the items Esther asks for, causing a huge increase in demand. However, it clearly still isn't stocking enough. :/

Yeah - I think having her only ask from a set pool (if that's what's happening) is a bit crazy. One item was only 500, the next was 990k, then one for 3m? This is all in a one day span. Very weird.

Exactly. The same thing happened the last couple of times the site introduced an event-related quest giver who only wanted specific items. A better method would be only asking for low rarity items or making all items from the pool have a reduced rarity for the period of the event. Inflation of a few items isn't fun and is kind of pointless, although I like the general idea of an event-related quest giver. c: And as you say, if one of the items is pulled from restocking entirely then that just turns out ridiculously. XD

I'm in agreement - shift the pool to all items below X rarity - stop themeing the items asked for -_-

Granted I rarely if ever restock these days, but I dedicate every spare moment of time to restocking while Keels going down (I'm both excited and terrified of how all these restocking changes will effect that shop this yeara haha...) (thank god for Carl..) and I used to be very dedicated to the holiday shop too before it was culled.

I feel like, personally (obviously a lot of people enjoy restocking still), my biggest "meh" when it comes to restocking is something that could easily be fixed in two easy steps:

1. Start retiring worthless items that just sit there forever???

2. If items aren't actively being consumed AND asked for by quests they do not under any circumstances need to vend unless the items start having a shelf life.

Both of these are largely in part due to vending, but instead of just letting it nose dive into oblivion there's two really easy fixes for this?

One of them is to obviously remove all of the items that aren't actively being used + asked for by quests from vending (this is primarily clothes, beanbags, plushies, MINIONS, and flower shop stuff). Obviously one of the main reasons people vend (I assume?) (I'm not a vender, so I'm assuming) is for new fashion-- so instead of handing it to everyone on a silver platter it needs to be less black/white (as I've said several times you shouldn't be able to vend one machine for 2 days and get every single new item) and every single clothes shop needs to have it's stock culled every 6 months where every thing that's entire set is under 5k needs to be retired. If that's including brand new items (which again, thanks to vending) then the source of this rapid deflation needs to be nipped in the bud.

The other option, is to start tweaking quests to ask for these items.

Minions: Crazy "minion" lady quests? Or Maleria.. weapons + minions (I mean she is planning something right? And who doesn't need a ton of minions when attempting world conquest..) Plushies, Beanbags, Toys, Stickers: Cinthia. Not-Graveyard stuff: This stuff needs to be unretired and moved to various other relevant shops (Books, minions, plushies, toys, clothes, food can go to the lost skeleton, weapons are all obvious. The other stuff could stay retired and be moved to relevant shops during Morostide), and in turn Quentin could give out Lost Skeleton/Half Baked items and retired goodies during Survival/Morostide (like Carl during Keel). Flowers and stuff: Cinthia? Sarah? Wears: There SERIOUSLY needs to be a dedicated quest giver for clothes, there's so so many of them that're so not worth much and they're not going anywhere on their own.

Seriously weapons used to be utterly worthless, then Maleria started asking for them and most of them are 4k+ now (with a few low low rarity stragglers). I'd like to believe that if quest givers started asking for some of these problem items then the prices would start to right themselves and restocking would be more profitable and the abundance of items would be in check?

I feel like it's a lot easier to just modify a vending machine to not offer something or offer something once an item vacuum was created than it would be to try and modify both vending and restocking knowing that the items still aren't going anywhere.

THAT is the true burden on the economy. It'd be different if the vended items were one-of-a-kind and could not be resold in user shops. But that is not the case, and this is why the changes being made to RSing haven't been effective.

Restocking is not the root of the problem. It's the vending machines.

Unless wizard tokens replace sPs and become the new official currency of the site, there is no need for vending machines. Before any further changes are made to the main shops and restocking system, remove the vending machines for a week to two weeks.

Compare multiple interval data points before, during, and after turning off the vending machines, and see if there's any significant difference.

I have personally never thought to vend new items. I don't get why anyone vends. It's boring and it seems all that it does is mess with the economy. I wouldn't mind if the machines ONLY gave out exclusive items, if they were more like chance machines. I have more than 20,000 WT that I'm not using because I don't play carnival games and there are never enough TS restocks to spend them. The vending machines giving out special items would be an excuse to spend them. Otherwise, they can keep on rotting in my vault. However I DO restock (not that often because restocking is also kind of dull but I do it way more than a vend which is pretty much never). I have been trying to restock at the Grooming Parlour and not much has been happening in that shop for the last few days. It's rather aggravating.

Just saying.

A more limited supply (due to shops clearing out periodically) + a consistent demand (from quests, fragmentizer, etc) = a healthier, more robust economy. It's not exactly rocket science.

Alright guys. The minions shop -just- restocked and I made out like a bandit.

A Nips(r99), Rainbie(r98), Teeny Pie Minion(r99), Ivory(r94), Rackle(r97), Nursling(r86) and Kerops(r87) ALL RESTOCKED AT ONCE. Either that's not uspposed to happen, or I got really lucky. I'm going with that's not supposed to happen. Also I didn't need to put in a captcha to buy either one, what happened to captchas for higher rarity items?

Wow, yes! I miss the restocking wars and rushing to type that captcha :)