Maybe I’m too old for this, but I didn’t understand some of the questions, especially some combinations of them. For example, a combination of two answers:
“I would prefer to not be able to craft on items after purchase for a different reason.”
“I would prefer to not be able to craft on items before selling them regardless of whether the buyer can craft on them”
=)
It doesn’t matter what either of us thinks. The quote is from the survey. It’s fact.
Could we consider “group self found” leagues? I can trade with my friend group even if they aren’t online? Paid or otherwise, this is what I’m interested in. I want to play with friends but our schedules don’t always line up with families and working different hours. Sometimes we’re only online together for a bit before someone has to leave for work/kids
If I had a choice I’d keep it as-is, or have the option to do a group-self-found league (paid if necessary like in POE) where we have unrestricted trade. EHG gets their $, and our trading between friends/family doesn’t hurt the overall “Economy” of whatever trade league is going on.
I don’t really have much of a dog in this fight, myself. I have always found the most enjoyment in ARPG games by playing solo and relying on what I find to advance. That’s just the way I, myself, like to play these games.
That said, I don’t really have an issue with trading, per se. If that’s the way people enjoy the game then more power to them, even if I enjoy something different. My concern is the impact providing for their enjoyment will/may have on my own. If open trade implementation means that drop rates are gutted for a player like me, then I’m against it. It’s never the right call to screw over one class of player in favor of another (that’s precisely why I left PoE many years ago). Conversely, I think it equally wrong to neglect the trade devotees to appease me.
Ultimately, I think that some iteration of trade is what will best serve the game and it’s chances for long term success. That begs the question that the survey is trying to answer, which is, where is the happy medium? I don’t have the experience on the trading side of things to fairly answer that question. The only suggestions I have are these:
Trading should come at a cost to those involved in the trade. What I mean by that is that, I believe, direct player to player interaction is a must. Any automated system (such as NPC proxies) that allows one to gain the benefit of trade while simultaneously continuing to go about other game play activities would be a mistake. One should be forced to sacrifice, at the very least, the time it takes to make the trade in order to reap the benefit.
In the interest of protection from scammers, trade should incorporate a trade window into which each party places the items/currencies to be traded. Once something is added to that window it may not be removed unless either party opts to decline the trade. Locking each party’s offer to the trade window serves to prevent the “bait and switch” we’ve seen in other games. Given that both parties to the trade must agree to the exchange, which cannot be altered mid trade, the possibility of “scamming” ceases to exist. (And for the record, being offered less than what someone considers a fair value is not a scam, if both sides must agree to the terms for the trade to proceed)
This is, of course, only my opinion, so take it for the absolute nothing it’s worth. All I ask of EHG is to protect both me and the traders in whatever form of trade may be implemented, to the best of their ability.
I don’t really care if there is trading or not, but if ruins the solo self found experience by being balanced around trading and having reduced loot drops like POE, I will be done supporting this game.
Our Russian-speaking community is excited about the trade. Thank you, EHG! 
Did the survey, throwing my 2 cents in as a long time watcher of this game’s development.
For me, trade is desired because the last thing that made me stop playing LE (and other SSF games in the past) was seeing an awesome build idea I wanted to work toward, but not being able to get a build enabling item after more than 24 hours /played (this took me 3-4 weeks due to life) killed the urge to grind. The item in question was Omnividence, I knew what to farm, I knew where to do it, I had already developed characters for speed-running the monolith (this was pre-dungeons and legendaries or whatever they’re called now) and just couldn’t get the dang thing.
Avoiding that situation, the inability to try build ideas because RNG forever says “nah” is all I want out of trade. If a better system is made, I’d be fine with or without it.
Exactly the reason I want it as well. I work and have other things to do as well. I am not gonna spend 2-3 weeks just to find a single item to try a build. I rather play multiple other games in that time frame.
I don’t understand this survey.
I really hope is not about bending the knee to PoE players who don’t understand this game doesn’t need trade.
I would like to see something like ‘guild trade’ much in like with private league concept, so if a friend is offline, you can still save the item for him. Everything else is unnecessary.
But whatever EHG think is best for the game enjoyment, I hope the didn’t lose their way.
I would like to have trade for crafting materials and content things like dungeon keys but not the gear to keep the dopamine shot from getting something good without concern that i’m loosing ‘money’ by not flooding the market with every single drop i got.
I think survey will provide better statistical data for them than reading and sorting through all the forum posts on the topic.
Hopefully enough people take the survey to give EHG good data, whether it’s for more trade options or not.
Any more expansive trade system would likely require a reduction to drop rates to balance it.
Well, I hope that now “pro-trade” people will finally understand the issue with trading for SSF-minded players. It never was about trading per se, but about the effects it will have on drop rate balancing.
If “pro-trade” people keep ignoring that this likely would be the case, coming directly from the developers, any constructive discussion is useless. It is being deliberately obtuse.
I have to disagree with this statement. For some this is true, but for others it is not.
Some want to play in groups and not feel compelled to participate in trade in order to optimize their builds, which is one possible effect of having less restrictive trade.
Not open/unrestricted trade. “Economy” is (at the very least) an emergent phenomenon when you have lots of people trading stuff with each other & a common consensus is achieved over relative value.
TBF, that’s what I’d like, double points if there’s an AH.
Saying it has trading is a bit of a stretch, you can drop items if you’re in the same game, but it’s very much a D1/2-style “trade”.
Until the traders get their BiS gear in a matter of days & complain that there’s nothing to do, no possible gear improvement, etc.
Fair point. Haven’t considered that yet, but I see it being a likely scenario, if you have a group, that wants to play meta builds.
My annoyance stems from people on the other side of the fence consistently ignoring what the developers say.
Of course, you technically don’t have to change drop rates when adding trade to a game, but then item acquisition gets too easy, because the market gets flooded, prices drop and even the traders aren’t happy anymore, because their drops aren’t worth much anymore. Except maybe during a league start, but that is another peeve I have with PoE-style ARPG design. That everything, due to the importance of trading and the economy, is centered on league starts and the consequential FOMO of that.
I see a few replies specifically talking about not wanting to have to grind a long time to get a build specific item. Some of the posts seem to imply that possibly they don’t play 8-10 hours a day every day. I wonder how those posters expect to “buy” those items once the inflation kicks in and it would take them 8-10 hours a day to grind the currency to buy what they want. Hmmmmm… how would they be able to procure that item they want?
Any form of trade will only bring bots, gold farmers and people with no jobs to take an advantage of those who do not have the ability to sit and play 24/7. any trading should be allowed to trade within a parameter of those recently played with or are friends to with in a certain time frame of the drop. this would also allow the drop rates not to be altered to make others play time worth anytime received as casual or hardcore player to be on a equal playing field. this also would cut out any chance of a third party company to benifit from those trades.
Simple math really. Suppose there are 10 rare items. You need a specific 1. Chances of you getting 2 other rare items and selling to buy the 1 you need is higher than of you getting the 1 you need purely by RNG. Anything else you need explained?
Adding another voice to the discussion.
I like min-maxing I like theory crafting. The sole reason I want trade for is to have a deterministic way to get an item. I want to have access to explore all content of the game. That could be farming for currency that can be later exchanged via trade.
While the above mentioned problem for me trade creates many other problems that are not worth it. I want to maintain the sense of achievement for managing to get an item (slaying a difficult boss) while at the same time not making it “luck” dependant on low drop rates if you are ever gonna be able to experience some content. Trade would for me either remove the sense of achievement and only make some items available for people that min-max grinding with optimal builds or remove the sense of achievement by making every item too accessible. There is a sweet spot but that spot is different for every single player. Additional I want to explore/advance in the game by playing it and not engaging in learning the ins and outs of trading.
Finally I would say that I want to have a reason to engage with other players while online while not feeling forced to.
A very large number of players want to see open trading in the game, trading without restrictions. A living economy created by the players themselves, crafting things for sale (crafting in this game is great!). The chance of items falling out will be lower - this is logical and we accept this. There is only one question: why should we suffer, lose the pleasure of the game, because of the small number of players who do not like trading?
Who does not want to trade = play in solo mode. With a very high drop rate. On a separate server without trading with everyone.
Why should all other players, who are many times more numerous, be deprived of pleasure because of you?
I’m from Ukraine. I can only play for a few hours a day, at night, as long as there is electricity (light and internet). I also have a personal life and work. Therefore, I can’t afford to play with someone all the time. We have a different electricity supply schedule with friends. How can I swap items with my friends? No way! This is problem! What if I find a valuable item? Then I can’t leave it for a friend in the general chest of the guild. Why is that?
Also, I just don’t have time to look for all the things for my build and spend weeks on it like in a solo league. I want to be able to sell some of my stuff. And some things to finish and sell. This will allow me to collect several builds in one league! And for this you will not need to quit your job, family and live in the game!
My suggestion is: if you don’t like trading, please play solo league. And give all other players the freedom to trade! Believe us, we will be happy! We will craft, trade and collect many different builds! You will only have to add new activities to the game.