Architect Archive
Thread: State of the profession
I am having more fun now that I did in August, and I thought Merchant was fun then. Our Camelot accounts are long since cancelled.
I get a real kick out of playing a viable character in a Star Wars universe that is not combat centered. I enjoy combat very much, but it's a nice change to make a sizable fortune in an online game by using your brain instead of the hamster wheel of auto-target/attack.
Long haul should find Merchants a very desirable class, if the class is taken seriously by the devs and given the natural fleshing-out enhancments over time that all skills will receive. I see us becomming the Landos, the Wattos and even the Nute Gunrays of our particular servers.
Due appreciation to Marqie for her tireless efforts on all our behalfs, and to Draznar & the others in the forum who provide guidance and council.
Some points that still depress me?
Everything you have worked hard for and stocked can vanish in an instant, with NO recourse. That is an account breaker for most of us.
"Auction unsuccessful" email avalanches, even when you try to be proactive on stocking & restocking(being fixed by longer auction times, praise be),
Master Merchant itself has no defining reward (we need the "dizzy/knock-down" equivalent in selling ability)
No meaningful way to participate in GCW. Or even contribute.
Merchant vendor interface was obviously designed by someone who did not actually play a merchant.
How the dev's react instantly to weapon, armor and tactics bugs that let you get something for nothing, but ignore the orphaned vendor issue with dropped merch skills. Odd.
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Merchant vendor interface was obviously designed by someone who did not actually play a merchant.
THIS IS MISERABLE..PLEASE HELP! (yelling intended). It is inconcieveable that I should..in this highly technological era, be tied to my store for 5 hours at a stretch overcoming the very interface that should be making my job easier.
Lando, Watto, Solo,..and don't forget the Hutt..the real living, breathing Star Wars universe had commerce at it's very core. Even Uncle Owen was a merchant of sorts, selling Tattooine water vapor presumeably at the market in Anchorhead or Bestine.
Merchants should have something special for their efforts, particularly at the master merchant level.
Malevelor wrote:
Great post. But I'd like to comment on the issue of, say, becoming a master merchant, placing a c-3po vendor, and then giving up the skill.
I believe the skill involved here is the creation of the droid. Not the maintenance. Besides, can't i simply make a vendor for someone who's not even a vendor? Granted, there should be cost to giving up the ability to operate more than one vendor at a time, but if i just give up the variety, then I should not be penalized for not having the Hiring skill to run a 3po droid. So, can i have some clarification on the issue presented in your post regarding people backing out of the merchant class?
As a novice weaponsmith, Master Merchant/Artisan with some carbineer & scout skills, I'm pretty much maxed out on points. Any further advancement in my weaponsmith skill will come at a loss to the rest of the other classes. When I'm done giving up as much scout skills i can tolerate, The next thing on the list is the Merchant points. Now, what I believe should happen is that I should no longer be able to manage the same number of vendors if I mess with my Management skills. But if I want to trade point for point any new weaponsmith skills with Hiring skills, then i should lose them accordingly. the other 2 skill trees are self explanatory, give up advertising, or maintenance skills and you lose them, period. I just want some clarification here on what you presented, please.
thanx
It is very simple. You give up the skill you give up the skill perk. If you are NOT a master merchant you don't have the right to use the protocol droid. The arguement that the skill is only to make one is specious. If that were true you would be able to give that droid to someone else. You can't because it requires you to be a merchant to have it. Once you don't have the skill for it you should not be able to manage the vendor any longer. If you gave up your weaponsmith skills you wouldn't have the power to create weapons only weaponsmiths can make. You can't use the weapons you have made as an arguement because ANYONE can use them. The skill per is making the weapons for other people. In merchant all of our skills are to allow US to sell things. Giving up your skills and keeping your vendor is stealing our business. You aren't a merchant why should you have the skill perks as if you were. I know many artisans think that they should be able to sell their wares themselves without any merchant skills but since my merchant skills don't give me the skill to make weapons why should your weaponsmith skills give you the skill to sell things?
Ad Barking and Planetary Map don't need to be messed with once setup. Awesome. I also haven't lost any items in my vendors yet. /knock wood
When we had a house bug crop up, I needed to empty and redo my vendors. Empyting a Vendor is a breeze now. I was able to move my stock from one vendor to another in less than 5 minutes. The hardest part was rekeying the prices for everything (still can't cntl-click items in your inventory to sell multiple items at same price - hint, hint DEVS). You can select all, or cntl-select groups of items in the vendor list once inside. Same with emails, so you can click/shift-click delete all the 'auction unsuccessful' messages in a couple of seconds.
In addition to some of the great suggestions already made, one thing I would like to see is some kind of notice if someone makes an offer on your vendor. I usually don't think to check unless I receive a /tell that someone has done this. Nothing like one an item, I think a daily (you have stuff offered to you) message would suffice.
Oh, and with player cities, efficiency helps offset the taxes for vendors and buildings. If you plan on setting up in a city, get the entire efficiency line.
- Malikor [Dragon Pearl Enclave] : TestCenter
The /mailsave is going to be great to. I plan on writing a tool to automate entry of those items into a database. Will save a LOT of typing 
The /mailsave is going to be great to. I plan on writing a tool to automate entry of those items into a database.
For those of us that have not been able to get on to TC, could you please elaborate how the "/mailsave" command actually works?
Does it save all messages currently in your inbox? or just one message at a time?
Does it create sequential files or append to an existing file?
DocSavag wrote:
The /mailsave is going to be great to. I plan on writing a tool to automate entry of those items into a database. Will save a LOT of typing
Please contact me about this when you've completed it. I've been WISHING for this a while now.
Ewach wrote:
The /mailsave is going to be great to. I plan on writing a tool to automate entry of those items into a database.
For those of us that have not been able to get on to TC, could you please elaborate how the "/mailsave" command actually works?
Does it save all messages currently in your inbox? or just one message at a time?
Does it create sequential files or append to an existing file?
It saves every message in your inbox as a separated text file (with a file extention of .mail) into a folder under your swg directory and the profile and character you are using at the time.
Each message has a message id number and that number is used for the file name so you see:
1342123.mail
1234512.mail
1234513.mail
Inside you have the message id, the sender, the timestamp (in UNIX Time) , a subject and the body of the message.
DocSavag wrote:
He posted on the wishlist post I believe.
I lie. It was the week nine post:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=merchant&message.id=12347&page=2
I would agree with all of the issues that were listed before, especially about the tediousness of vendor and supplier management. I was originally a Master Merchant who gave most of it up when I was not able to convince suppliers to sell through me because Business 3 and Novice Merchant gave them enough to be self-sufficient as well as allowing them to maintain their own stock levels as they saw fit. I am now working with a number of crafters while gaining my Merchant skills back as they now feel the skill point crunch and the tediousness of running a shop. The problem is that managing the supplier relationship is still difficult.
The main issues I have relate to the skills of the Merchant and product advertising. I run 6 shops, each with a single vendor that sell a wide variety of items from armor to droids to food. My problem with this is planetary advertising. I cannot compete with the PA Malls who have a separate vendor for each category of item. Even if I created my own mall of 6 vendors I could not cover all of the categories. What I would like to see is the ability to advertise under a "Superstore" category that encompases multiple item categories.
In addition to the above planetary advertising change, there needs to be a much more effective way for Merchants to attract customers. It is great to be able to color and change your house signs, but that is only effective if people are in the area to see it. I personally hate wandering through a thicket of houses hoping to see a sign for a product I am interested in. Placing items for sale in the Bazaar with the title of "Come to Joe's Weapon Shop at 0,0" is really the only option available right now and is extremely ineffective because of the sorting problems and other limitiations of the bazaar - assuming the potential customers are even using the bazaar (which they don't for higher-end items). We have an entire skill line dedicated to advertising and the only benefits we get are planetary advertising (which I mentioned above) and ad barking which only helps if someone happens to be near you shop in the thicket of houses.
My understanding of a player economy states that there are makers, sellers, and buyers. There have been a whole lot of strides made to help the makers (crafting professions), a whole lot of strides to help the buyers (combat professions), but not a lot to make selling any easier. The Devs talk a whole lot about SWG as being a game that favors the casual gamer and the profession dabbler and I couldn't agree more unless you are trying to be a Merchant.
Thanks.
Would be very good if Master Merchant could:
gain perks on bazaar,
vendor privilages in permanent cities,
advertising like more signage, rentable signage/advertising in perm. cities,
store fronts (on buildings, not just a little tent for the vendor to stand in)
There should be some real advantages to being a MASTER afterall, it is an Elite profession is it not?