My Store was Cleaned Out, and I'm not Sure it's a Good Thing

[SCE_Wraith]

Hey fam, this may be a weird question but here we go.

I have a small store on AU Scourge, and this is the second time I've logged in and had all of my goods sold.  My stores are usually small outpost stores for the sake of providing local supplies and not big box stores like some people make.  I have nothing against the big box stores because I generally use them myself.

While making Scrap hand over fist is great, I've run many stores in the past on RustEZ (mostly Pure) and I have never historically had a store sold out of everything.  And this is the second time this has happened in three days.  At first I accepted it as a fluke and moved on as my stock at the time was very small.  However after restocking last night and coming back to a clean and empty store, I now have concerns that I'm being bought out by one of the big box stores on the server to eliminate me as competition.

I know a fellow player on the same server this wipe stopped trying to build a big store after allegedly receiving harassment via anonymous notes in his in-game Mailbox.  There are now only two big box stores on the server and very few small outlier shops.

IF this is being done to push me out of the market, this is a form of commercial bullying and not cool.

As a former RustEZ Admin I'm not familiar with the current admin tools.  Most of them were new right after I retired.  Is there currently a way to investigate such a thing?  And if so can something be done about it if my suspicions are correct?

 

 

[SCE_Wraith]

Okay, now I'm really confused as to what is happening, as one of the two big box stores on AU Scourge was also entirely bought out.

I noticed it missing on my map as I couldn't see their vending machines, and when I went to look the store was still there, but cleaned out, apparently in the same manner.

[UPDATE]

I've restocked my store and I guess we'll see what happens.

Even if what is happening is not malicious, it still messes with the player playing the store game for the sake of providing a player service.

I'm certainly not doing it for the Scrap anymore as I now have 5,000+ Scrap and all Blueprints trained.

Edited April 14, 2022 by SCE_Wraith
Updated

[SCE_Wraith]

And my entire store was bought out again when I just logged back on.

What the hell,...

[SCE_Wraith]

So yesterday evening (US time) I spoke with several other players in chat who had also had their shops cleaned out in the same manner.

In my opinion whomever is doing this needs to STOP.

Yeah it's great to make Scrap when playing the store game, but when one person cleans out the shop every time it's restocked, they are literally preventing that shop owner from providing a service to the community.

I'm probably just tearing down my store today since it's being rendered pointless by whomever is doing this.

[chugalug]

i'm having the same issue. I only put a few things in cheaply for little scrap. I've had two locations emptied. Even the stuff that normally does not always sell has gone.

If there's only one shop standing after all this then it could be the culprit,

I also think a player or players could be buying stuff and selling items back to the EZ shop.

[SCE_Wraith]

Buying grinding down to mats and then selling to the Black Market?  Could be.

[ZOMB]

I had the same issue. I have a DLC shop. First day everything was gone. I stocked up again. I do believe someone could be reselling the items from other stores. Maybe talk to admin on the server about it. So they are able to locate/find the issue. :)

[SCE_Wraith]

Technically no one is breaking any rules by doing it.  That's why I initially posted here instead of bothering an Admin about it.

I already tore down my store, so there's no container history to even look at anymore.  I got sick of seeing the empty store every time I walked out my front door to do something else.

Everyone seems to be too busy hustling Networth to care about how their actions affect other players.  While the Black Market is new to me, the whole premise of it in it's current iteration seems like a cancer.

[HardandSoft]

Raise the price a little each time! supply and demand. Eventually you will find a good balance.

[TiffDust]

hi there! I think someone may have been choosing to spread their scrap wealth around the server.
We have an absolute free market- you have the freedom to buy and sell whatever you have for whatever you want and those buying have the freedom to buy whatever they can.
The only competition out there is whatever you think there is. Not all players will search for the best or cheapest deal and some won't even look at all the shops. You can sell for the lowest price and still not have any sales (just because an item goes out of stock doesn't mean it got sold.)  You have the freedom to put up/down shops and whether or not to restock. I get that empty shops don't look great but most people figure that if it's being sold then it's ok to buy all of it.
The new blackmarket was always going to be interesting to see how it plays with the shops as those who buy using scrap to buy your item and sell for networth vs those who buy to craft or use the item (not for networth.)  And then for the buying- what is available to you for networth vs going out and finding it.  All balanced out by randomness. So far the new blackmarket makes scrap runs fun (go out for longer with less inventory issues) and has cut down on my hoarding of items.

TLDR: Free market. Personal opinion of mine is don't stock things you aren't going to sell and don't sell stuff you'd be unhappy with if they were to be all sold.
 

[TiffDust]

On 4/15/2022 at 7:20 AM, SCE_Wraith said:

I know a fellow player on the same server this wipe stopped trying to build a big store after allegedly receiving harassment via anonymous notes in his in-game Mailbox.  There are now only two big box stores on the server and very few small outlier shops.

As a former RustEZ Admin I'm not familiar with the current admin tools.  Most of them were new right after I retired.  Is there currently a way to investigate such a thing?  And if so can something be done about it if my suspicions are correct?

 

 

No such thing as a anonymous note, the player chose to not involve admins in the issue and recycled the note.

[TiffDust]

Just to add- it's always our preference to deal with nasty notes than to let things get out of hand and have our community feel unsafe.

[SCE_Wraith]

I'm going to try to come back to this with more constructive feedback when I can get my thoughts more organized. 

Edited April 27, 2022 by SCE_Wraith

[TiffDust]

 I know the thought out there that servers need large shops that sell everything as a service to the community but by doing that it cuts down the time players spend on the server by not crafting/researching, finding it themselves and/or trading items with other players.
I have seen in the past a player who ran a shop but it was only open when they were online and in their base (all inside so no drones) and they role played shopkeeper.

[SCE_Wraith]

I don't always like big box stores, but sometimes they have that one thing you just can't find elsewhere.  I myself tend to run a smaller wilderness survival store with mid-grade basics.  I think my biggest store had eight vendies, and that was just to separate and sort goods.

Most normal stores sell stuff for Scrap or other valuable components.  Part of that is earning Scrap to learn BPs.  The other is to sell stuff to help players.

Scrap farming using the Bandit Camp vendors trivializes earning Scrap.

And while vendors at Outpost and Bandit Camp can provide a step up, players can sell more varied items.

The new shopping drones gave players the option to not have to roam the map, and since Scrap farming is now part of the meta, the cost of using the drones is trivial.  At this point few people have to leave their own bases unless they are going to Outpost or Bandit Camp to shop.

So in a way Facepunch has already shot the player economy in the foot by providing ways people can lazy farm Scrap and one stop shopping at Outpost and Bandit Camp.

But even at this point, players still use player shops for commerce because sometimes that's the best way to get certain things.

Now on the modded servers (Survival and Scourge), the RustEZ Black Market in it's current form buys stuff for Networth, which can be used to buy RustEZ specialty items.  Scrap farmers then can become content locusts cleaning out stores to recycle everything down to materials that can be sold on the EZ Black Market for Networth, turning those stores into another farm.

That cannibalizes the above normal economy by removing materials and items from the economy and creating a supply shortage if a player can't farm hard enough to keep stock in their own stores.  That ruins the PVE game for people who like to run shops of any size.

All of this ability to farm in my opinion ruins the base PVE Rust gameplay loop which is survival based.

Edited April 27, 2022 by SCE_Wraith
Fine tuning.