Architect Archive
Thread: Galaxy Wide Vendor Search
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elevenbravo11b2
Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:51 am
#1
When?
To me, this update is almost as important as the combat revamp. Im SO sick of having to shop for stuff. If I wanted to go shopping I would just go with my wife in RL.
To me, this update is almost as important as the combat revamp. Im SO sick of having to shop for stuff. If I wanted to go shopping I would just go with my wife in RL.
ELAzalin
Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:56 am
#2
I hope the never do this lazy arse system that they want to do.,.... you should get no instant delivery or shopping
Puertoriqueno
Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:03 am
#3
There was allot of controversy over this issue. A great many concerns about the impact on prices, price wars, overall market and price and market protections. Crafters want to avoid an open market, as it would hurt the individuality of price setting and profit margins and would force an overall price war. Just an FYI before someone flames you. it was a good idea, but all sides, customers and crafters have to be considered.
Puertoriqueno
Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:05 am
#4
ELAzalin wrote:
I hope the never do this lazy arse system that they want to do.,.... you should get no instant delivery or shopping
Thats a little serving to the crafter and not the consumer, dont you think? I tend to feel like these people are our customers, and they owe us nothing. We need to be a bit more empathetic. We can still retain the stock in our stores, but people should be able to browse for what they want at least....
Oh man, here we go.....
RamondChappell
Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:39 am
#5
Puertoriqueno wrote:There was allot of controversy over this issue. A great many concerns about the impact on prices, price wars, overall market and price and market protections. Crafters want to avoid an open market, as it would hurt the individuality of price setting and profit margins and would force an overall price war. Just an FYI before someone flames you. it was a good idea, but all sides, customers and crafters have to be considered.
It's not an open market that crafters want to avoid because there is already a free and open market existing in game. What crafters want to avoid are certain barriers to market equalization that are keeping them afloat.
If the original galaxy wide vendor search were to go through as proposed, it would create a vast economy of scale the likes of which there would no longer be a need for a player based market/economy/craft system. Eventually, extremely large guilds would hold a vast amount of the market share and be able to regulate the market as they saw fit. Not only would it squeeze out the little guy (small firms can never compete in economies of scale because they can't keep up with volume and in this game, niche markets can still be consumed by the main market leader), but it would also make the rich guys that much richer (not so much at first, but it would skyrocket exponentially as market share increased).
Most players don't want to spend any more time doing anything they didn't absolutely have to do. I understand that. However, this is one place where the time sink needs to be preserved. There are many ways around it, but it would seem as if there are too many "single players" looking for blue frog vendors to be right next to the starport.
Balzan
Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:09 am
#6
tbh I think it is going to be a useful addition to the game. Do you have any idea how long it takes to find some one who sells houses? I speant 40 minutes looking of r a Large Nubian... On Naboo!
However I do think that the item should require you to travel to the store and purchase it there.
However I do think that the item should require you to travel to the store and purchase it there.
Vurtorax
Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:24 am
#7
I'm in favor of this, as a consumer I want to be able to find the best product for my money. I would be happy if I could just browse through everyone's merchandise, sorta like looking something up on the internet or in a catalog. I'd be more than willing to go to someone's shop if I knew there was something there I wanted. Besides, the way I see it this would help crafters by giving them a larger base of customers.
Diaso
Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:35 am
#8
Have you ever typed /who rebel,imperial,neutral... Just look for the Master Architect thing and then order crap
jphillips1868
Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:20 am
#9
I must respectfully disagree.
Requiring players to go to shops ecourages players to develop business relationships with specific crafters. It also encourages crafters to make their places of business hospitable and offer benefits to the consumer, such as regularly stocking the vendors, providing several types of goods in one location, having the shop in an convenient location, and decorating the shop. It also providesan incentive for players cities to be hubs of commercial activity.
I am not a crafter and while this change would be convenient, it would destroy wonderfully complex merchant economy.
LukeBorgman
Thu Mar 03, 2005 10:43 am
#10
jphillips1868 wrote:
I must respectfully disagree.
Requiring players to go to shops ecourages players to develop business relationships with specific crafters. It also encourages crafters to make their places of business hospitable and offer benefits to the consumer, such as regularly stocking the vendors, providing several types of goods in one location, having the shop in an convenient location, and decorating the shop. It also providesan incentive for players cities to be hubs of commercial activity.
I am not a crafter and while this change would be convenient, it would destroy wonderfully complex merchant economy.
Wow. I thought my position on this was settled until I read this. Nice post. I've spent plenty of time on both sides of the crafter/consumer fence and thought: I want Global Vendor Search ASAP with pickup required after purchase (like Bazaar is now for Galaxy-wide purchase). Then I think about what you said...
I still think a Galaxy-wide vendor search should be available for vendors and work like the Bazaar. When searching galaxy-wide, the customer is likely to get multiple pages which are hard to wade through efficiently. How many times have you searched galaxy-wide Bazaar, or even local in a popular catagory, seen something that seemed reasonable, bought it then turned the page a few more times to find a better deal? When the pages go on forever, I tend to buy "good enough" priced items rather than spending a lot more time going through endless pages. Maybe a Galaxy-Wide Vendor Search needs a good set of filters, so that lazy customers like me can quickly get to a list of items offered by my favorite crafters first.
...or maybe other search features could be added to allow the customer to assign listing sort priority to favorite craafters, merchants, cities,guilds, and even faction. ...or those with "widest selection", "best quality", "lowest prices", "fullest stock", etc. ...sort of like multi-vendor searches work on websites in real-life.
sciguyCO
Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:29 am
#11
The problem with the original proposal is that it seemed to have been designed with only the buyer's perspective in mind.
Yes, when I'm buying stuff I would absolutely love to be able to search for (say) blank canvas, get back a listing of all the blank canvases up for sale throughout the galaxy, find the cheapest one, buy it from the bazaar terminal, then have it pop up in my inventory a few seconds later.
But that design pretty much guts the Merchant profession of all useful skills except for "total items" and the various efficiency bonuses. If all shopping is done from the bazaar, why bother with planetary advertising? If items are delivered directly to the customer wherever they are, why bother having multiple vendors for different item categories? Why dress a vendor? Why decorate a shop? Why bother getting any vendor other than a basic bulky terminal to toss in a backroom of my house? Why bother getting a merchant tent?
The devs dropped the "instant delivery" mechanism pretty quickly, although that brought up a list of other possible problems: If you buy an item from the bazaar, what if you go to pick it up and find that you've been banned from the shop, or that there's a 50k entry fee?
Also, I think they may have underestimated just how much stuff is up for sale at any given point. If you're shopping for a new Composite chestplate, how many items do you think would come up under the "Body Armor" bazaar category if it polled all vendors in the galaxy?
I think being able to search for a particular item type and getting back just a list of vendor waypoints (along with structure entry fees to reduce griefing possibilities) is the bare minimum that's required. That in and of itself would greatly reduce the time required shopping since you don't have to worry about traveling to vendors that don't sell what you're looking for. Other nice features would be to narrow searches based on item stats, displaying item price (although crafters and merchants are split on this due to worrys about price wars), and maybe even browse a vendor's stock from the bazaar.
In my opinion, trying to squeeze a galaxy's worth of vendors into the bazaar categories is just the wrong way to go. Heck, if you select "Entire galaxy" right now, some categories get up to 10 or 20 pages as it is. A search mechanism is a better way to go, rather than a "browse everybody" terminal. And galactic listings should also be tied into Merchant skills, with more skills allowing more vendors / items to be listed in the galactic market, and possibly limiting vendor listings to same-planet searches except for Master Merchant.
Tumbler2002
Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:50 am
#12
If the original galaxy wide vendor search were to go through as proposed, it would create a vast economy of scale the likes of which there would no longer be a need for a player based market/economy/craft system. Eventually, extremely large guilds would hold a vast amount of the market share and be able to regulate the market as they saw fit. Not only would it squeeze out the little guy (small firms can never compete in economies of scale because they can't keep up with volume and in this game, niche markets can still be consumed by the main market leader), but it would also make the rich guys that much richer (not so much at first, but it would skyrocket exponentially as market share increased).
LOL, you make no sense! No need for a player based market/economy/craft system? What?! Are droids going to come in and provide everything for us now?! Oh man! I can't make my swoops anymore cause those darn pesky npc droids crank out swoops all day long!?! - Players will still be providing all the goods on the market smart guy.
Large Guilds of players working together in a MMORPG have an advantage over a single player! That is horrible!! Punish all those people for working together right now!!!! - This is a MULTI Player game and players who work together should be rewarded.
How can anyone be squeezed out of anything?! Are the banks that give loans to start player business's going to stop giving money? Are they going to foreclose on our shops!? Are you going to hire our vendors away for better prices?!!? OH MY GOD THE HUMANITY. - Reality Check, there is nothing that will force any player out of business. Resources are free, vendors are infinite, shop space is always available. Skills are trained from a 1 time fee.
The one thing that even resembles a correct statement is that large guilds will be very powerful. Man I hope that never happens. Cause then they'd probably put up shopping malls and put tons of vendors inside and stock 1000's of items. How will the little guy every compete with all that!? Man I sure am glad that isn't happening now - Reality check, Large guilds already have an advantage, and it hasn't forced the little guy out of business.
Update:
Yeah 1 starred again in these forums! I guess my thoughts on the subjects are completely against what most people feel are correct.
Message Edited by Tumbler2002 on 03-03-2005 01:55 PM
bluejanus
Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:00 pm
#13
Tumbler2002 wrote:If the original galaxy wide vendor search were to go through as proposed, it would create a vast economy of scale the likes of which there would no longer be a need for a player based market/economy/craft system. Eventually, extremely large guilds would hold a vast amount of the market share and be able to regulate the market as they saw fit. Not only would it squeeze out the little guy (small firms can never compete in economies of scale because they can't keep up with volume and in this game, niche markets can still be consumed by the main market leader), but it would also make the rich guys that much richer (not so much at first, but it would skyrocket exponentially as market share increased).
LOL, you make no sense! No need for a player based market/economy/craft system? What?! Are droids going to come in and provide everything for us now?! Oh man! I can't make my swoops anymore cause those darn pesky npc droids crank out swoops all day long!?! - Players will still be providing all the goods on the market smart guy.
Large Guilds of players working together in a MMORPG have an advantage over a single player! That is horrible!! Punish all those people for working together right now!!!! - This is a MULTI Player game and players who work together should be rewarded.
How can anyone be squeezed out of anything?! Are the banks that give loans to start player business's going to stop giving money? Are they going to foreclose on our shops!? Are you going to hire our vendors away for better prices?!!? OH MY GOD THE HUMANITY. - Reality Check, there is nothing that will force any player out of business. Resources are free, vendors are infinite, shop space is always available. Skills are trained from a 1 time fee.
The one thing that even resembles a correct statement is that large guilds will be very powerful. Man I hope that never happens. Cause then they'd probably put up shopping malls and put tons of vendors inside and stock 1000's of items. How will the little guy every compete with all that!? Man I sure am glad that isn't happening now - Reality check, Large guilds already have an advantage, and it hasn't forced the little guy out of business.
Update:
Yeah 1 starred again in these forums! I guess my thoughts on the subjects are completely against what most people feel are correct.Message Edited by Tumbler2002 on 03-03-2005 01:55 PM
True, but we also don't have a galaxy search function now, do we.
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