Basically, two things gave me this idea: first, in one of the interviews with the developers, a few words were mentioned about wandering merchants; and second, the number of forum posts where players complained that they couldn’t find what seemed to be a common item (hello, Limestone). Given that the assortment of merchants (that are already in curent version of the game) changes periodically, why couldn't we place orders for specific items that might appear in the next assortment update? (obviously, based on the type of product the merchant is selling). Long story short, I have a few ideas on how to implement this:
Upgrade existing merchants. During the current item cycle, a player can place an order for an item that could theoretically appear in this merchant’s rotation (based on the table of possible trades), which will result in the selected item appearing in the next cycle. Perhaps, for the balance, players should pay a small amount up front to assure the merchant that their efforts to find a specific item won't be pointless.
Wandering merchants. While exploring the world, player may come across a camp that is empty most of the time. In the camp itself, there may be a sign or a note with specific dates on which the wandering merchant arrives. Overall, he can sell completely random items, but I’d like to focus specifically on the ordering feature. So player could order any items from the “ore,” “stones,” “seeds,” and other similar categories (obviously, no items specific to ancient ruins and certainly not RA, so that the motivation to travel in search of unique items would still be there). Obviously, the balance restrictions in this case need to be even stricter. For example, the number of items that can be ordered at one time will depend on the rarity of that item. And, of course, no more than one type of item per order.
Both options at the same time, because "why not?".
I understand that, from a game balance perspective, there may be a few rough edges here, but I'm really excited about the idea of such orders. So, perhaps not in the form I proposed, but the concept could work.
