I've been meaning to make this thread for a few weeks, apologies for it being behind!

Shop Restocking System Overhaul: What's Changed?

Hey everyone! We've been hard at work revamping our shop restocking system to make it more dynamic, balanced, and engaging for everyone. Let's dive into what's new with our updated system compared to the old one.

🔧 Core Mechanics Changes

Goodbye User Count Dependency

• OLD SYSTEM: Relied heavily on the number of users online to determine stock levels
  • Had to hardcode user numbers (1,000) to prevent system imbalance
  • $var["maxItems"] = rand(10, round($var["usersOnline"]/10*2));
• NEW SYSTEM: Completely independent of user count
  • Uses a fixed total capacity with smart distribution

Hello Truck System 🚚

• NEW SYSTEM: Introduces a "truck" allocation system
  • Each shop gets allocated a number of delivery trucks based on activity
  • Each truck has a capacity of 500 items
  • Shops with more activity get more trucks
  • System includes random bonuses: $luckyShop = $activeShops->random(); $truckAllocation[$luckyShop->shopid] += self::BONUS_TRUCKS;
  • Weekly purchase activity directly influences truck allocation

More Strategic Item Selection

• OLD SYSTEM: Pure randomness with basic rarity checks
• NEW SYSTEM: Uses sophisticated popularity metrics:
  • Purchase frequency (50% weight)
  • Purchase recency (30% weight)
  • Profit margin history (20% weight)
  • Items not currently in stock get a 50% boost to their score

💰 Dynamic Pricing

Price Adjustments Based on Rarity

• NEW SYSTEM: Maximum price adjustments are now tied to item rarity
  • Common items (1-10): Up to 50% increase
  • Uncommon items (11-29): Up to 80% increase
  • Rare items (30-70): Up to 100% increase
  • Very rare items (71-90): Up to 150% increase
  • Ultra rare items (91-99): Up to 200% increase
  • All items can decrease to 60% of base price

Intelligent Market-Aware Pricing

• OLD SYSTEM: Static pricing with no market awareness
• NEW SYSTEM:
  • Prices adjust gradually (max 5% per restock)
  • Considers user shop prices without matching them (ensuring profit margins)
  • Adds small random variance (±3%) for a natural feel
  • Tracks demand trends

📊 Stock Management

Maximum Stock Limits by Rarity

• NEW SYSTEM: Enforces stock limits based on rarity:
  • Common/uncommon (30-70): 500 units max
  • Rare (71-90): 100 units max
  • Very rare (91-97): 50 units max
  • Ultra rare (98-99): 1 unit max

Smart Inventory Rotation

• OLD SYSTEM: Random emptying of all shops on a 1/40 chance
• NEW SYSTEM: Sophisticated tracking of unpopular items
  • Items that don't sell get flagged, then retired
  • Retired items return later with boosted scores
  • Prevents shop clutter while maintaining variety

🔄 Tracking and Monitoring

Unpopular Item Management

• NEW SYSTEM: New tracking system for item performance
  • Flags items not selling well
  • Reduces their restocking priority by 50%
  • Eventually retires them completely
  • Re-introduces them later with a 50% boost to their score

Demand Factor Calculation

• NEW SYSTEM: Calculates a demand factor between -1.0 and 1.0
  • Considers purchase history, recent sales, and price trends
  • Items sitting in shops without selling get negative demand scores
  • Recent purchases create positive demand

🌟 Quest Integration

Quest-Friendly Items

• NEW SYSTEM: Items marked as frequent quest items get priority
  • $questFrequency = $item->getMetadata('quest_frequency', 0);
  • Quest items get up to 20% boost in selection scoring

💭 Final Thoughts

The new shop restocking system represents a major upgrade from our old randomized system. It's designed to create a more dynamic economy that responds to actual player behavior rather than arbitrary user counts.

Resellers should still find plenty of profit opportunities, as the system deliberately doesn't match user shop prices. The graduated price adjustments based on rarity ensure that rare items maintain their value while common items remain accessible.

I'm excited to see how the new system shakes out, please give any feedback or report any glaring errors you see!

Note: This update is part of our ongoing efforts to improve game balance and create more engaging economic gameplay. Thanks for your continued support!

This is going to be hard to watch how it runs because other than Spells Galore selling out a lot, there isn't a lot incentitve for me to try Kumos shops when the Legacy shops are still cheaper and the profit margins are still better. Somethings are kind of profitable on Kumos (Moon Stone could net like 2k) but some are still a loss (Demon Wing is ). Maybe if they don't sell on Kumos and the prices do go down, they're actually become worth it to grab, but as long they are at a loss, it's not that appealing to try.

The item limits kind of worry me. I don't think a max of 50 of anything is particularly rare but I have to watch it and see what happens. I think it's also straight up broken for some items like the Wavy Athame - Kumos details page says it's super rare (I don't actually see super rare on your list - is it supposed to very rare and not super rare?) and there's 166 of them. If it's supposed to be some sort of rare, it's restocking like a common item.

Discount cards - what is going to happen with these guys?

Also, all the shops on the right (Spells Galore, Clothing Rack, Stick to the Man, etc.) are hovering and I doubt it's supposed to be like that. They go up and down a few pixels.

"Considers user shop prices without matching them (ensuring profit margins)"

This hasn't really been what I have seen for the items. Take all that glitters Ultra Rare, every item in there right now is MORE than the user shop price with a few matching the shop price. I see a few for trading card center that is like 2-5k difference in price, but when I can only buy one its not really worth the risk of spending 50k on an item that MIGHT sell for a profit, when before it was 10-20k higher and I was more willing to take the gamble.

Bean me up is a better mix, I found one item for 11k, that sells for 66k, thats worth it. But for others the shop price is 62,720, but user price is 64000 (Common Kanis Beanbag) its a gamble. Or again the Golden Legeica Beanbag is 72.8k, but user price is 67k.

I can agree that pricing based on market makes sense, but I would like to see more adjustment that makes it worth it to come try to get the item. Even if it means fewer items are restocked throughout the day that are rare!

Adding another thing - the buy more option really needs a calculator that shows you how much you're actually spending.

Legacy quest prizes can include rare items which have a good resale value - Library, Major Drills and Carl. The items keep their value because these quests don't keep handing out the same few items over and over again.

The legacy NPC shop system might be illogical but player restocking requires some skill - we have to learn which items have resale value and keep track of NPC shop restocking times.

The Kumos NPC shop system is a bit pointless at the moment with the high prices, especially as discount cards aren't activated on the Kumos site. For example, in Spells Galore the Demon Wing is priced at 72,100 sP but is selling in player shops for 69,950 sP. This is because the legacy shops are still running - if I'm lucky enough to restock a Demon Wing from the legacy shop it only costs 451 sP so reselling it gives a very good profit even without a discount card.

Absolutely NOT liking the kumos shops right now. First, many things are not sold at the price listed on the quest areas (NPC or quest bar). When you click them, the shop price has changed. Also many things are WAY more expensive in the NPC kumos shops than they are on legacy NPC shops and even more expensive than the user shops! I am having to check three different locations to get the best price and be careful about where I make my purchase.

I will also be honest, I am NOT a restocker. I do not buy and resell items for profit, I am a quester, I mostly just buy items to complete my quests, unless its something I want or need for an achievement or pet. So this system is horrible to me. But I do understand where you are trying to go with it.

Thank you so much for making this board! I know the community as a whole appreciates as much communication about updates as possible. ❤️

A few questions:

1. How many users are generally on-site per day? (I promise this is relevant)

2. How is when a certain item stocked determined? For example, if there is only 1 of certain rarity items stocked in a 24hr period and there are 800 players from around the world playing in a given day how are we ensuring different time zones get a fair shake at restocking that item?

3. There has been concern that people will buy up some items (especially, for example, items frequently requested for quests or needed for common activities) to drive up the NPC shop price then sell them all at unreasonable prices in user shops. Am I correct in thinking that (1) the data collection and use system in place will ensure these items stock more often if they are bought up more often and (2) the price cap for the NPC shop will then limit the user shop price rise for these items?

Thank you! Looking forward to the continued growth of Subeta!

especially more pet slots and mass reading

is there a finite number of trucks? is it possible to pull all trucks away from a shop and stop a given shop's restocks all together? is there a minimum number of trucks per shop?

what does an item's score mean to me/us?

will currently retired items retroactively apply to this system?

do you have rough expectations on where you think items for each rarity range might settle in user price? like will the ultra rares conceivably make their way to 1m+ price and just live there?

i remember you mentioning that previously there were no real guideline on item distribution. how will this rework affect battle rewards - either from battle quests or from random loot rewards?

Reposting here , but I finally found a good example of NPC shop prices being all over the place for the same item.

First image (top left) is from the quest itself. Then going to the right image, on top is the NPC shop price on the quest bar, and immediately at the bottom is the Kumos NPC shop. And below that is the legacy shop, which is usually cheaper than any of the Kumos NPC shops (not counting the discount card, as I know that's not coded in yet)

Will Discount Cards be integrated into the Kumos NPC shops after NPC prices get adjusted to reflect consitancy?

I've just discovered that the SubetaTeam have bought all the R99 items I had in one of my shops. I got them over a long time through restocking and Lizard Minion events. A few of them have now shot up in price. I'm wondering if this is because R99 items in Kumos NPC shops are going to be a lot more expensive to buy so the SubetaTeam are clearing out the cheaper ones from player shops. I'm not complaining because if I restock more R99s or get them from the Lizard Minions it will be more sP for me.

kumos.subeta.net/forums/t/939986/subetateam-user-shop-purchases Just posted about it!

I’m hesitant to really say much about the new npc shop system, at the risk of sounding too critical. But i’ve been holding it in for a while, and feel it’s time to voice my opinion - and i’ll try my best to put it in the nicest words possible. 🙃 Even though i know that ultimately my feedback likely won’t amount to much, here goes:

I really, really don’t like the new system. At all. I can say this with honesty…there’s nothing positive i can say about it, as an avid restocker on the legacy site. It takes everything i love about restocking as it is now and strips it bare. There is no thrill. No effort involved. Want to only see the good stuff? Filter everything out by super rares only and voila, everything valuable is laid out for you. With legacy, you have to teach yourself what’s valuable and what isn’t. It takes practice. But with the new system? All you need to do is filter out the junk. There’s no learning curve, no skill you need to hone. That’s boring. It leaves me cold. I can’t snipe things. There’s no refreshing and the surprise of something rare popping up in stock. That’s what made restocking fun and thrilling for me, personally. This new system, in my eyes? Restocking-for-those-who-hate-restocking. I’m not one of those people. So there’s nothing there for me. and this is why i’m so hesitant to say my feedback…because i don’t know what tweaks could possibly be made to get that legacy restocking feel back to me, other than a complete overhaul to change it to work in the exact same way. Which i know ultimately won’t happen. 🫠 so, for what it’s worth…these are my thoughts. Sorry if i sounded too critical. I tried to like it, i really did.

I know you try very hard to do what’s best for the site, and there is no doubt that you are phenomenal at what you do. I still appreciate you for your hard work to try and give us the best of the best. But this…i just personally don’t think that changing so many vital parts of what makes subeta subeta is a good move to make. ;_;

Prices are much better!

One thing I've noticed is that going back to the shop after using the buy more option always sets back to page 1. I would ideally like to go back to the page I was already on (unless that page doesn't exist anymore).

I agree with this perspective concerning restocking on the Kumos site. Just going through the rare items and buying my allocated share until stocks run out will take all the thrill out of it. Having said that, though, there don't seem to be many avid restockers on the site now. I still restock a lot if I'm physically able to and am genuinely surprised if I click on an item only to be told it is sold out.

Maybe Keith is changing things because a small number of players have a kind of monopoly on rare items for resale. I'm one of these players but only because I am retired and can spend all day on Subeta. This is a bit unfair on players who have a limited time to play because of real life commitments. Some of these players will be working and spending real money for CSC which keeps Subeta going.

PS: I have just been checking out the Kumos restock system now that the prices are sensible. The thrill is limited to finding a rare item where there is only one in stock and buying it. So far I haven't had any 404 errors. The only way that Keith can see if the Kumos system is working is if people buy from the NPC shops.

I shall now go back to doing legacy restocks for a while.

Everything seems good at the moment except for the amount of rares and super rares being restocked. I think I restocked one of every 80+ rarity item on the site. lol

Hopefully it adjusts or gets adjusted or else the prices of high rarity items are going to crash.

That's why the SubetaTeam is buying rare items from user shops again. We can test out the Kumos restock system without the prices of high rarity items crashing. If prices get too low the SubetaTeam will buy out the cheapest ones.

Oh that's cool. I missed that had already been mentioned, thanks for letting me know. Restockers stay winning. :>

Quantities and prices aren't going to be accurate until the site goes over to the Kumos system because rare items are still being stocked in the legacy NPC shops. I restocked an R99 book from the legacy Book Nook earlier on - it was one of the more expensive ones (9,268 sP) so I was glad I was able to use my discount card.

This is my second day of trying out the Kumos Spells Galore. It's hard to tell now what I already hit my limit on - this is especially true for the items with a daily limit of one. The only place that tells you how many you already bought is the pages that lets you buy multiples, which I don't click on when I can buy one in the first place. If you try your limit, it just refreshes and it's not super clear that you can't buy it because you hit your limit.