Intro
This isn’t going to be a super long post as this is a very simple idea that would, very effectively, allow for UTs (and other rare items like the Oryx 3 and Lost Halls tops) to be tradeable once again. Without further ado, introducing LIMITED TRADING!!
How It Works
Limited trade items are items that can only be traded once per week (or whatever allotted amount of time deemed necessary by DECA if this idea were to be implemented). The “once per week” aspect of limited trade items is applied to your entire account, in other words, you can only make one trade per week that involves a limited trade item. If you made a trade for a Helm of the Juggernaut today, you would not be able to make another trade that includes a limited trade item for at least 7 days.
Limited trades do not have to be one to one, limited trade item to limited trade item. They can involve items that are currently available via normal trading. Here are some examples of trades that you could do:
You: Helm of the Juggernaut
FOR
Seller: 8 Greater Life
You: Helm of the Juggernaut
FOR
Seller: Orb of Conflict
You: 8 Greater Life
FOR
Seller: Orb of Conflict
All of these trade scenarios would trigger the limited trade cooldown time of 7 days. Whether you are the seller or the buyer of the limited trade item, the cooldown will be triggered.
Above I have shown a simple example just for reference of what an item tagged as a “Limited Trade” item would look like. Instead of displaying “Soulbound” right above the item’s description, it says “Limited Trade” to show that it will have the cooldown time. It might even be worth it for it to have a little extra description underneath the “Limited Trade” text stating “Limited Trade items can only be traded once every 7 days” to avoid confusion with the process of trading these rare items.
How This Combats Duping
This method of trading hard-to-get items directly combats duping by limiting the amount of trade transactions that can occur from one account. By having a 7 day cooldown, this essentially would allow for dupers to sell, at most, one rare item per week, which obviously wouldn’t be very efficient for their business.
Okay, but what if they just trade these items to a bunch of alts and sell them there? Well, the problem with that is that even if they have traded these items to an alt, they still have the 7 day cooldown from their original account from which they obtained (or duplicated) their items before they can make another transaction with another player or another alt.
So does it entirely get rid of duping? Well, no, unfortunately duping will always be an issue, however, this idea severely restricts item duping and would make it nigh-impossible for anyone to efficiently real world trade these items.
Additionally, some rarer items that are currently available such as legacy STs and Deca Rings could have this applied to them retroactively which would almost entirely force real world trade sites to shut down as these items tend to be where they make their big bucks at.
What Can Be Limited Traded?
- Non-vanity UT Items such as Event Whites and Dungeon Whites
- T13 Weapons
- T14 Weapons
- T7 Abilities
- T14 Armors
- T15 Armors
- Legacy STs
- Ring of Decades
What Can’t Be Limited Traded?
- Wine Cellar Tops and below tiered items (normal traded)
- Vanity UTs (soulbound)
- Non-legacy STs (soulbound)
- Most Consumables (normal traded)
- Skins (soulbound)
(Probably forgetting some things, but if it’s soulbound now and not on this list, it would most likely stay soulbound. Same goes for things that are tradeable now but not on this list)
In Conclusion
This method would be very effective in combating duping while also allowing items that have not been tradeable for years to return to the market. Additionally, the UT exchange could coexist with this idea as another means of receiving certain rare items. While it’s not my own cup of tea, my hope is that some day trading will return to prominence as another way to play the game.