Suggestions

[quote=NOTE]Most of the images in this post are too wide for the forums. They're hyperlinked to themselves, so you can click through to see it in full.[/quote] This is not a suggestion to replace the skins tab in either the item database or auction house. Both of those have important uses that the proposed skin shop does not cover. This is a suggestion for an entirely new page where users can search for and purchase user-made (so not coli or fest) skins and accents [b]directly from the artist[/b]. [url=https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345057_mSwTaD09H9tI3Ub.png][img alt="7.png"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345057_mSwTaD09H9tI3Ub.png[/img][/url] [center][size=4]Functionality Overview:[/size][/center] [b]Skins are shown over a mannequin at roughly one-half size[/b] -This removes the unhelpful item thumbnails from the equation. -The mannequin can be clicked to bring up the preview window just like in the database. -The artist can choose whether the skin appears over a dark or light mannequin on the sale listing. -Both options are available in the preview pane, in addition to the player's own dragons. [img alt="previewer.gif"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345132_ur4JIM5tzqRrG0w.gif[/img] [b]Copies are generated at the moment of purchase[/b] Instead of generating copies and then attempting to sell them on the AH, artists simply publish an accent, set a price in their shop, and allow buyers to purchase as many copies as they want instantly. [b]A fixed tax is paid to the site on purchase[/b] This could simply be 250g for accents and 500g for skins, as that's currently how much it costs per copy if you buy a 10-copy blueprint. [b]The price seen by the buyer already includes that tax[/b] Just like the treasure tax on the Auction House. The seller sees both the amount they will earn, and the amount the buyer will pay, when setting a price. [b]All skins are private by default[/b] Skins do not appear in the skin shop until the artist has set a price. It would be very difficult to accidentally sell a skin one does not want to. [b]Profits go into a till to be claimed, just like the AH[/b] I'm very tired. May or may not return with seller-side mockups. [quote=EDIT]I'm back babey. Here's how things look from the seller's side.[/quote] [url=https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345188_H98sWpC3AkK70ov.png][img alt="seller_private.png"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345188_H98sWpC3AkK70ov.png[/img][/url] A private skin. This is how all skins look until the artist changes something. In order to sell a skin to others, the privacy lock must first be removed. The artist can buy copies for the tax price. [url=https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345244_TwXCLmoWu5jFjZp.png][img alt="seller_unlisted.png"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345244_TwXCLmoWu5jFjZp.png[/img][/url] No longer private, this skin awaits pricing and a method of sale. It can be made private again if un-privating it was an accident. [url=https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345294_STlvyZQZ1lx5e64.png][img alt="seller_public.png"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345294_STlvyZQZ1lx5e64.png[/img][/url] It is for sale! \o/ Infinite copies can sell to anyone instantly. The price or sale type can be changed at the artist's whim, and of course it can still be made private. I didn't create a mockup for it but I also intended that there be a Private Sale type – in which one user is authorised to buy infinite copies. This is great for true customs, so the commissioner can get as many copies as they like of the skin they commissioned. Would authorising multiple players be a good idea? Maybe, I can see that being useful for certain groups. There would have to be a maximum figure, or things would get unwieldy. [img alt="seller-confirmation.gif"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345317_EdtgnSDhDusiIjh.gif[/img] The confirmation windows make it abundantly clear exactly what kind of sale is going to happen, the exact price, earnings minus tax, and in the case of a private sale, the authorised player(s). I realise now that referring to a skin being visible only to the artist, and to an exclusive sale to one or a small group of players, as "private" was a mistake. "Private sale" is like a private auction; just plain "private" is basically like putting the skin in your vault. Only you, the artist, have access to it. [quote=Activity]The skin shop would need an activity page and notifications similar to that of the auction house[/quote] [url=https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345371_bCdNsmWjXmOlRaX.png][img alt="15b.png"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345371_bCdNsmWjXmOlRaX.png[/img][/url] The skin shop activity page, a hub. Here you can: - View recent sales and empty that till I mentioned earlier - View satistics relating to your own skins - View all skins you currently have for sale – functionally, see your own skin shop from a buyer's eyes - View recent purchases. Probably a longer storage period on these since most players aren't buying skins as often as they're buying from the AH (accents georg is an outlier adn should not be counted) [quote=Uploading]Getting a skin onto the site would be similar to the current system, but the site should also support pre-ordering in an official capacity.[/quote] First of all, the standard system. You buy a blueprint, upload the file, and wait for approval. I don't really think that [i]can[/i] change very much, because you do need to pay to upload a skin, and a blueprint is simply a ticket saying you've paid. The only real difference would be that there would be no need for any denomination of blueprint above 1. (NOTE: I'm not advocating the removal of other blueprint denominations, just observing that, with the skin shop, an artist would never need to use them if they didn't want to.) Maybe they could divide between a "pure upload" blueprint – you don't get a copy, the accepted skin just goes straight to your shop and awaits pricing – and a "one copy" blueprint, the current system. The former would be cheaper. Once approved, a skin appears as private in your skin collection and you can decide what to do with it from there. [quote=Pre-Orders]A proper skin shop creates an opportunity for submitting and selling skins with zero up-front cost to the artist[/quote] Ideal for those caught in a well-documented catch-22 of "I need gems to upload my accent, but my primary source of income is accent sales". Here's what a pre-order might look like from a buyer's perspective: [url=https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345394_8EM5wJIWeENwUdb.png][img alt="buyer_pre-order.png"]https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/78345394_8EM5wJIWeENwUdb.png[/img][/url] Some notes on this: - Uploading a skin for pre-order is free, but it still need to be approved by a mod, therefore: - Skin shops should have a very limited number of pre-order slots. Maybe just one. Maybe it starts as one, and they can buy more. Doesn't have to be for gems, I often see cries for a new treasure sink. - Crucially, pre-order listings are not in any way timed. They can stay up for years if necessary. - Because the file has already been uploaded, it's available for preview and even in the dressing room (because let's be honest a huge proportion of players buy accents for dragons they don't own yet) - When you pre-order an accent, the gems are [b]removed from your account[/b] - The artist does not get the gems, they are held in escrow - A pre-order is considered fulfilled when all 10 initial copies are sold - The artist can buy copies from their end, meaning that if they have some gems but not enough for a blueprint, they can speed the pre-order along - The artist sets a price just like in public sales of a pre-approved accent (above) - The standard 250/500g accent/skin tax is paid to the server for each pre-order - When the pre-order is fulfilled, the gems leave escrow and enter the artist's account. - All copies automatically appear in the buyers' inventories (including the artist if they bought any) - If the pre-order is cancelled by the artist, all gems return to the buyers' accounts, and they are notified as to which accent was cancelled by which artist (this is probably somewhere in the skin shop activity hub) - It would be nice if artists could optionally send a short message summarising their reason for cancellation I can forsee an issue of queue flood shortly after release and think a slow roll-out (however that would best be done for a feature like this) should help with that. EDIT: fixed images

This would be pretty cool... it would be useful for selling/skins/accents without having to wait for reprints or presales but I would say that the fixed tax to the site should be slightly higher than the 250/500 cost that it works out for the 10 copy blue print for the convince factor and to help keep the skin bundles relevant. Essentially players who use the bundles could make more profit (assuming they sell them all) when compared to the skin/accent auto print for sales

I don't mind the fix tax being the same as the 10-print blueprint, since this feature will mean a skin/accent that is set as 'public' is purchasable forever, unless the artist decides to take it off market. In other words, it would be nice if this feature also allows the artist to 'take the once-public skin/accent off the market' if they ever choose to.

I've seen more and more artist selling their works through either limited-copies or limited-time, because either the copies don't sell quick enough for presale to cover the cost for more prints, or they just couldn't keep up with everyone asking for reprints of their older works (Not everyone is Autopilot who's keeping hundreds of their works available for order lol). This would make selling/buying so much easier.

The one issue I can think about is the initial approval stage. Do artists still need to submit their work with a blueprint for assessment and approval? Many artists rely on presale to get the funds for blueprint bundles, so how would that work in this case? I can think of two scenario right off the bat:
1. Artist need to supply a 1-print blueprint when submitting for the first time.
2. Submission no longer requires a blueprint, and when approved the artist would get a notice to either pay certain amount for a single/limited amount of copies, or set it to public so it can be purchased by everyone.

[quote name="hat17" date="2021-01-18 18:05:09" ] The one issue I can think about is the initial approval stage. Do artists still need to submit their work with a blueprint for assessment and approval? Many artists rely on presale to get the funds for blueprint bundles, so how would that work in this case? I can think of two scenario right off the bat: 1. Artist need to supply a 1-print blueprint when submitting for the first time. 2. Submission no longer requires a blueprint, and when approved the artist would get a notice to either pay certain amount for a single/limited amount of copies, or set it to public so it can be purchased by everyone. [/quote] Maybe you'd need to print it at least once before you can input it into this shop? Blueprints would still be necessary for private printing and limited runs, so it's not as if they're going away. But you also don't want to punish the user by forcing them to buy the most expensive blueprint, or unnecessarily work the people behind skin approval by having them approve skins that might not even get printed (because you could easily never pay the fee, or never put the skin up on the shop). Once you submit a skin, it's linked to your account so you can reprint it without having to resubmit the png. We can just use that function- after you print a skin for the first time, it gets linked to your account as a skin you've made, and you can then put it up in this shop for others to order. But you can't have an accent on the shop from the get-go. (Which doesn't seem like a big deal, because you'd probably want to advertise the skin/accent on the forums first anyways.)

Support. great mockups btw

as an accent maker i need this so bad- i was surprised a system like this wasnt already in place

Yes. Please.

Support.



First, the background choice is great. As an artist and a person that regularly buys skins/accents for my dragons, being able to choose a dark or light background for the showcase would help a lot. Sometimes a simple colour can help you to show your piece in better detail, independent of the other features you suggest, this specific one should really be added in game, even for the coli/fest ones. We should be able to toggle between light and dark to check stuff better.

Also, the tax thing is very nice. As someone that recently started to sell my art, it is difficult to get pre-orders or gems to create packs, in my opinion this would be a more democratic way of doing things. One thing I don't understand is how are we supposed to upload our art. Will this work with skins/accents that have been previously printed? Or we will have a little submission button so the team can approve our stuff before it goes to auction? Besides that, this is a very nice idea, I really hope to see something like this someday.