The head of Path of Exile 2 explained the new trading system in a press preview for the new season and nearly fulfills all the fans’ wishes with this new system.
How does the new trading system work? With the second season of Path of Exile 2 “The Third Edict,” the developers have made a significant change to the trading system. Instead of allowing trading only face-to-face, the developers are introducing an asynchronous trading system.
The new trading system will continue to operate through the trading website of Path of Exile 2, also allowing trading offline. This gives players the opportunity to offer their items at a fixed price with a new NPC in their hideout. Interested parties can then click on the website to teleport directly into the seller’s hideout in the game and purchase the item there.
To ensure that the trading system is not overwhelmed by cheaters, purchasing also incurs gold costs, which ensures that trading characters must be genuinely played.
You can watch the trailer for the new season here:
Limits or a bouncer against congestion
How should trading actually work? During a press preview of the new season, MeinMMO and other journalists were able to ask questions to the head, Jonathan Rogers. He was also asked about the new trading system, how they plan to prevent a cheap item from directly causing congestion, and what they generally want to do to avoid overcrowding the hideouts.
Jonathan Rogers then explained that they want to introduce limits for the hideouts. There should always be a few reserved spots for friends or group members to access the hideouts despite the traders.
He himself had wished for a bouncer NPC from the team, with which they could implement a kind of guest list to allow certain players or set general limits. However, he did not know if this idea would make it into the major update.
Players also have the option to convert premium trading slots purchased before Season 2 into slots for the new shop. After the update, these will likely be purchasable in the shop. So anyone who trades a lot now can unlock several pages for free.
Why is the change coming only now? Since Path of Exile (1) was released in 2013, players have been asking for an asynchronous trading system. In MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, the auction house system was already common at that time, and the decision to completely forego such a system was met with incomprehension.
Four years after the release, the developers then published their trading manifesto in 2017. A document in the Path of Exile forum that thoroughly explains the developers’ vision on trading and outlines their decision with four points:
- Reduces the number of item upgrades: The developers believed that easy trading would destroy the fun of the game as it renders the slow gradual progress of a character unnecessary.
- Leads to lower drop rates: They argued that a simplified trading system would force them to lower drop rates to maintain game balance.
- Increases inequality between players: The developers believed that easy trading would widen the gap between casual players and committed players, leading to an unfair gaming experience.
- Encourages abuse by bots: They warned that easy trading would be more susceptible to exploitation by automated bots, which would harm the entire game economy.
Since the manifesto was published eight years ago, much time has passed, and the developers’ vision has evolved. In conversation, the head also revealed that they want to introduce the new additional trading system into Path of Exile (1) if it works well in the sequel.
With the new trading system, the old one will not disappear. Player-to-player trading will still be possible, and there will still be a website for it. There has also been a change regarding the release, reveals the head: The head of Path of Exile 2 talks about the new release date, explaining why it won’t be coming in 2025
