[2023] It should be noted that the developers tried extremely hard since the announcement of the game to make trading work without completely breaking it. Deciding not to have trading wasn't low effort.

All we've definitively said so far is that at multiplayer launch (patch 0.9), the only way to move an item from one player to another is through limited gifting as outlined in the dev blog.

We've given some reasons why this is our frontrunner for launch targets too but it's not set in stone and we will be looking closely at feedback from people who are experiencing the system directly once the patch drops on March 9th.

Full Devblog Link

We've seen many different similar suggestions that are interesting for various reasons. We came close to moving forward with a variant of this about a year ago, even had a sweet name for it. At the time we found it to be likely too complicated for most people to use intuitively while still enabling a frustrating version of free trade. It's not impossible though.

The devlog link above has some in depth details and reasoning for ya. I'm on mobile so I'd rather not go copy pasting if that's ok.

I'm curious to know what you view is punishing about the system to casual consumers. I'm not saying you're right or wrong, just looking to get some specifics.

The issue is that it's just what is happening at 0.9. Much like the post you're replying to, conversions on the topic so frequently have misinformation in them. Many people have mistakenly assumed that this is not open for any changes or feedback.

Yes, the opening line says it's specifically about 0.9. The section header that outlines the actual system details specifically states that it's for 0.9.

This is the final line of the post:

We’ll be closely monitoring feedback regarding the details of this system while we look forward to everyone getting their hands on item gifting and more in Patch 0.9 on March 9th.

Yea, that's a solid point. I know that I work really hard to be as precise as possible with what I say, especially when I'm doing the weekly dev streams. Things tend to fall into 2 categories, way too difficult to even consider changing (e.g. switching genres) and things that could change as the game evolves. Even if the game launches with the current gifting system in tact (which I'm not saying that it will), it could still change over time.

Thanks :)

It's a tricky minefield to navigate for sure. You really want to please everyone and make everyone happy but most of the time that's just not possible so we've just gotta do our best and hope someone likes it.

I'm not one of the networking engineers so I'm not an authority on exactly what is possible and what is not but with my understanding of the system, that should be possible. It is something we have talked about and we did find an exploit case with it.

That's not in and of itself a deal breaker, just makes things more complicated and we have to weigh it in the discussion.

Personally I would really like to see a 1.0 version of "trade" which enabled friends who play together to be able to share items not found together. I have no idea if that's going to happen or not but if I could wave a magic wand and have it happen with no problems, I would.

We looked into a system very much like that too. Had a different name for it too. It's interesting because it rewards people for playing together. All of these very specific restrictions end up feeling very arbitrary. It's like you have restrictions that aren't tight enough because it allows an exploit case and then you slowly tighten things up bit by bit until it flips over some invisible line and suddenly it's no longer worth it to jump through the hoops but at the same time, it's a pain to have to jump through those same hoops.

This is a scenario that we would ideally like to avoid if possible.

Timmy: Thanks for getting this game for me, I'm really excited to play with you.

Jack: Here are some cool leveling items to get you started.

System: Can't trade with that friend, need more playtime together.

Jack: Hunh? That's weird, it let me trade with our other friend who plays.

Timmy: sadge