CUEmu - Thread Posts

ZenDragonMLS

Mon Aug 09, 2004 6:43 pm

rofak wrote:
I wonder. I am still pondering why people think they can have everything and not pay for it. I want 110 items, but I couldnt bare to drop master rifleman. Why should you get 6 vendors, Master Architect, and Master Rifleman? You can't do everything.

Stop and read for a moment. Many / most of us fully support the other parts of this. I like the idea of empty vendors disappearing off the map. I like the idea that if someone drops the skills they no longer get the benifits. Many of us made our choices to get and *retain* various merchant skills so we could play without doing things that that were clearly (to us) against the spirit of the skill system.

****IF**** there were a *viable* Merchant profession that could provide the appropriate infrastructure necessary for merchant to work in a viable manner, I would applaud very hard. I would then have a choice to make to retain the merchant skills that I have (3044) or contract with a merchant to sell my goods. I'm ALL for social interaction in the game and I constantly deal with suppliers and customers.

BUT - not only do we NOT have the infrastructure (e.g., consignment sales, vendor rental, etc) that the poor Merchants have been asking for for a year, but the vendor limits are such that even IF I wanted to hand my stuff over to a Master Merchant to sell, I would have to retain *two* of them to cover all of my merchandise.

That's the real problem here - they are making some changes that will *help* the merchant class, and then they are doing this absolutely asinine limits thing that will cripple any crafter or merchant who moves any amount of product at all.

Chilastra: Mikka R'zrPoint, Spy (Master Ranger/Master Pistoleer)
Chilastra: Zalle RazorPoint, Trader:Engineer (Master Architect, Master DE, Master Shipwright) - vendors just north of Theed at -3858 6181
Test Center: Rikka R'zrPoint, Master Artisan, Master Architect - showroom just south of Theed at -5370, 3139

Sevardos

Mon Aug 09, 2004 7:20 pm

#54

rofak wrote:

I wonder. I am still pondering why people think they can have everything and not pay for it. I want 110 items, but I couldnt bare to drop master rifleman. Why should you get 6 vendors, Master Architect, and Master Rifleman? You can't do everything.

You are confusing 2 different things here. The majority of the uproar in the Merchant forums is the item limits - NOT the fact that you will now have to have the skill boxes to have merchant.

I am a Master Merchant. The proposed limits are painfully too too low.

Sevardos

The ))SUN(( Centre

636 -3836 Corellia (just outside Coronet) - Bria

Buff Packs * All Meds * Harvesters * Factories * Designer Furniture * Tools

*** ALPHA TESTER: Combat Balance ***

SephieDAvanti

Mon Aug 09, 2004 9:56 pm

#55

Hey all,

1) Will you pick up merchant?

1a) will you have enough with the item limits to hold your viable business.. ?

Before this change was announced, my plan was to be a Master Architect/Master Tailor, but I seriously doubt that this would be feasible now. With a proposed item limit of 50-600 or so (based on # of vendors and # per vendor), this would make it impossible to have a steady and reliable supply of items available -- unless if I were online all of the time and restocked on an ongoing basis. As for my architect vendor, I keep it filled with a handful of deeds and a bunch of furniture.. but I'm not sure what I would do with a 50 item limit. As it is, most people who buy furniture tend to buy it in bunches (for house decorating, guild halls, etc), and a rich -- or desperate -- customer could easily buy 50 items.

If anything, this willprobably hurtTailors the most since they rely on keeping a diverse stock that is filled with a variety of colors. It would be easy for one to fill the 50 item limitby having 5 types of clothing in 10 different colors. And I'm just guessing here, but Tailors have way more than 50 item schematics (I'm pretty sure that Architects do too).. so even having one of each item would fill up a vendor real fast.

Of course, this goes without mentioning how a lot of people have "combo characters" -- like a Tailor/Armorsmith, for example. If one would need to add Merchant on top of that, it would be impossible to either master all three professions (four if you include Artisan). In essense, we'd be reduced to single-craft professions + Merchant.

2) will you find a merchant to sell your stuff?

3) will you give your items to that merchant and have them pay you as they sell... ?

4) Will you make the merchant pay you first?

Highly doubtful. Would they be required to buy the stuff from us first and consequently hold all of the risk? Or would we get a cut of the profit? Either way is uber problematic.Just think about it.A crafter wouldneed either: a really rich merchant that could buy the stuff from you; a merchant that doesn't have a lot of stuff (even he has limits!); a merchant that you could trust if you waited to get money from the sales; a merchant that was reliable and didn't magically disappear or cancel his/her acct; or more. And if you were a merchant/broker, I'd imagine that that'd turn into a full time job since you'd have to replenish your supply much more frequently.

Though I see the need for "reasonable" vendor limits, I'm not convinced that the current plan is a good idea. The limits are simply too low to accomodate crafting professions that rely on variety and quantity.

*****Just a thought, perhaps Master Crafters should get bonuses to the vendor item limits, and proportionally based on the number of schematics/options (hypothetical example:Master Tailors could get, lets say, +100 per vendor.. an Architect, maybe, +50.. and these would be on top of any applicable Merchant bonuses as well..) Or if it weren't based on "Master" titles, then sub-titles (like Foreman, Interior Decorator, other lvl.4 blocks) could grant smaller bonuses.*****

Of course, with the way things are heading with this massive change, the in-game economy will definitely take a serious hit, and crafting professions -- and those that rely on them -- will be highly volitile for a significant period of time. And this is quite dangerous.

Consider this downward spiral: Crafters get pissed because of the nerf, and then decide to leave en masse. Without a supply of high-quality crafted weapons, armor, buildings, and other goods, the enjoyment of the other classes (mainly those combat oriented ones) would diminish and potentially lead to more people leaving. Having less people around would make it tough for a crafter to make a living (assuming that one doesn't live off of the mission terminals!), and hence there would be fewer people willing to become crafters. But combat oriented professions would suffer due to the lack of high-quality equipment, leading to more frustration and less players.

Etc. ad nauseum.

And the real kicker? EVEN IF all of the crafters decided to stay after all of this, a number would either have to dropone of their professions in order togain Merchant, need to peddle their wares with the aid of spamming macros (manual macros I suppose) and clogging up cities,filltheir small vendors with ADs instead of actual purchasable items, ormooch a living off of friends -- and neither of these are really reasonable or acceptable alternatives.

Would that scenario happen? Possibly. Who knows, maybe not. But based on the replies on this forum, it sounds like a lot of people are going to pack their bags and close their accounts. And if that really did happen, it'd mean less revenue for SOE, less money to pay the developers, less money to maintain the servers, etc. They might even run out of hamsters for Bria.

Anyhow, just my two credits.

Sephie D'Avanti,

Master Architect on BRIA (Better Reboot It Again)

Khristen

Tue Aug 10, 2004 12:46 am

#56

OHafi wrote:

What is really funny about this whole thread is that WE are all right, and the DEVS are all wrong and not ONE of them answers this thread. In guild chat, people are saying no Dev will answer because they will get slammed. Now, I have really believed that this game DOES, in general, listen and respond favorably to the customers. That would be US..the paying customers. I mean, what do they really care about our little 15 dollars a month? It is not gonna break them. So heretofore, they have always been responsive. I am HOPING they will be again.

I too logged my crafter in, looked around at the whole TOWN I built, and customized to be a roleplay refugee town, paid for, plotted and planned. And all I could feel was depression. We have only a handful of vendors, not all mine. We dont have or want a shuttle. The few vendors we have supply the needs of the town because they are always well stocked. They will not be able to be well stocked anymore. So the town will have to shop elsewhere? I cant keep medical supplies, housing supplies, food, clothes, harvestors, smugglers supplies all on one vendor, the trading post. They will only be able to stock maybe 50.....

SO another ghost town appears and disappears on the map....A roleplaying town...but after all, this isnt REALLY a MMORPG....its a MMOCJG.....combat jedi game....c'est la vie?

Bah.

signed

Disgusted enough to go back to UO

All I can do is sit here and applaud and agree with everything you just said, for it is exactly where I'm at right now.

I've spent almost a year creating my business as it is today. I was a very well-known and well-travelled merchant crafter in the city I helped others create on Naboo. When the politics of the city went sour, making the choice to leave was a hard one. I knew it would have a HUGE impact on my business, my "baby" in this game. But it had to be done and a few of my friends and I moved to Corellia. I had 5 million credits when I moved from Naboo and started putting every bit of that into creating a role-playing city with my close companions, along with a very large portion of resources that I had worked to build. The move hit me hard, but it didn't debilitate me since I keep a record of all my past customers so I can send thank you notes and pass on information on the rare occassion that it is needed. People knew me by now and knew that they could find what they wanted from my vendors....and that word spread as it will. So from that drop of 5 million credits where I didn't have to worry once about credits to absolutely nothing left over from paying harvesters and maintenance with the sales I made, I've had to rebuild what started in it's earliest form a month or so after launch.

Last week, I just hit a million again. I have people that come in weekly to buy components because they know I'll have the crates in stock. I have people that come in just as frequently because they know I have more than enough smuggler supply crates to meet their needs (as well as what they need to grind up through slicing). People come to me for houses because they know I carry them. For clothes, because they know my vendor is stocked with a good selection.

And I haven't wanted to log in all weekend because it really hurts me to go into my shop that I have poured so much time and effort and love into and know that it could all be gone in about a month. Because they want to put out a change that the community has never wanted instead of focusing on the things we did want and had suggested to save their database space. SWG is a second home to me, and for them to arbitrarily attempt to destroy what I've put so much into without even a response or notice really hits me hard. Announcing a vendor item cap that will destroy my business hits me just as hard as if they had come out and said "We decided that player cities aren't a good thing, so we're going to remove all city halls."

Sorry it's off-topic to the initial question. But the heart of the answer to it is in there somewhere.

| Khristen Lockslett Barezz |

| Galactic Senator |00

Owner of The KhrisNea Companylocated in Kor Spera,Corellia, Naritus-730, 1195

Lordartex

Tue Aug 10, 2004 10:52 am

#57

1) Will you pick up merchant?

1a) will you have enough with the item limits to hold your viable business.. ?

2) will you find a merchant to sell your stuff?

1) I had master merchant but dropped it to try to get into some combat after 1 year of being mostly a merchant/architect. Guess I'll have to make a choice now between just crafting or just combat. And no, I have to rent houses by the car-load just to store stuff as it is. You put limits on vendors and I'll have to junk harvesters to hold merchandise. This is just not very well thought out.

BTW, to address the issue of 500 items on a vendor (which I do easily with houses, harvesters, furniture, and misc), isn't that what a filter is for?

2) No. Here are a few reasons beyond being taken by a merchant: What if that merchant goes on vacation or leaves the game for a while. Or for good? He loses my merchandise and I have no access to selling my wears unless I get another merchant. And I guarantee that if someone is a merchant... he will be a crafter too. So whatassurance will there be within the game that we can FIND merchants to hock our goods???

I'd rather be responsible for my own stuff and sales. If I go away and lose my merchandise, then I only have myself to blame.

Here's something else to consider as to why this is a BAD idea for professional crafters. As I said, I've been an architect for almost 1 year now. I have one vendor on two planets and two vendors on Naboo. If this goes through, I'll have to pull everything to one planet losing sales across the galaxy, or else put far less stock on those vendors, and lose sales that way.

I would have to go to a mostly order-only business. Right now I have 1/2 and 1/2 from repeat customers with orders and vendor sales cause I keep them stocked. After a nerf like this it would be 80% - 20%. So as a crafter with a lot of hard work to build a name, reputation, and business... I'd lose a lot of that hard work for reasons that can't REALLY be explained to me. Not enough main-class merchants? Come on. It's a class of middle-men. Therefore, it can ONLY be a secondary Class (by that I mean taken to augment a crafting class). How many BH / Merchants do you think there will be? lol Server has too many empty vendors? DELETE those with unactive accounts once a month or something.

So in conclusion, this is something that shouldn't be nerfed. It should be enhanced. Give houses more item room and leave vendors and merchants alone. It will only hurt those like myself who love to craft and sell for a living. I love this game and hope to be playing a year from now. Changes should be made to bring about better experience and entertainment, NOT to bring things down and limit things. Just my humble opinion and some random assorted thoughts.

Artex

Master Architect

Colonel Artex Bluebane

Commander, 312th Imperial Reserves (TCB)

Guildleader of SWOOP

Roadhawg Structure & Resource Vendors, Swoop Territory Naboo -5620, 3000

Voted "Shadowfire Most Honorable 2005" - Thank you!

Iannyen

Tue Aug 10, 2004 1:16 pm

#58

___________________________________________

I wonder. I am still pondering why people think they can have everything and not pay for it. I want 110 items, but I couldnt bare to drop master rifleman. Why should you get 6 vendors, Master Architect, and Master Rifleman? You can't do everything

___________________________________________

No one is talking about dropping merchant. I, for one, am willing to remain at Novice Rifleman, so that I CAN sell items as a master Merchant. But what they came out with was far, far too low. As a Master Merchant, under their guidelines, I wouldn't even have been able to support my own business, much less what their deifnition of a Master Merchant is *supposed* to be, which is the main retailer for an area.

By instituting such low levels, they would actually be making it impossible for a Merchant to Succeed at all.

Its the Merchants, and the people with Merchant abilities, that are crying foul here.

Iannyen Cap'asin
Offer Vendor: Mith Elaniouth Goodth
Corellia, Junction, 1212 -4809

Selling Top Quality Furniture at Coronet Mall;
Personal Orders are available, as well as decorating services;

Master Architect, Master Merchant, 100% hawt.

mastertruth

Tue Aug 10, 2004 1:38 pm

#59

thanks for asking

First let me something first you don't fix something by breaking it more.

I have a thriving Architec buisness on the flurry server, and have since the second week of the server being up.

I have 2 accounts one thats a master swordaman that i go adventuring and hunting with the other stays near our player city crafts, maintains harversters, and stocks the vendor. the vendor (one) vendor with over 200 furniture items and 50 -100 structures at any time and when i stock it with furniture there can be as many as 600 items that day.

I keep the architec going for two reasons, to make money and to help out my guild mates with structures and furniture, I usally charge guildmates nothing for there needs.

To answere your question i will close my architec account, its has already become difficult with lack of storage, and this vendor nerf is the straw on the cammels back.

I have already started making more money running high level mission with the swordsman.

A Good idea!

Yesterday i read a thread that made good sence, combinding some usless proffesions to make great ones.

Take merchant and politician and merge their trees,

Take scout and ranger and combine their trees,

Take dancer, musician, and ID and make them useful.

my $2 worth

Alzanob-CH

Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:03 pm

#60

1. I'm merchant since January 2004 - First Master Merchant -Now 1414

1a. NO, i'm too Architect and i have worked hard for give to the citizens of Gaia (and much others) a complete list of items i can make with my skill (some from artisan Dom Arts like simple food). Only my structures & furnitures vendor have 1500 item in stock, my "resources" vendor have near 150 items, the other two (one weapons and one armor) near 400 each.

2. No, if the 110 limit goes live i will drop all my crafting skills.

3 & 4. Like the answer 2.

I think that for keeping with crafting and merchant with funlike nowi need at least 1000 item on each vendor i have (i mean at master merchant)

-= Horak Alza, Urban Planner, Mayor of Gaia, Talus =-
Politician--Master Artisan--Master Shipwrighter--Master Merchant

-= Nicoletta Alza, Jedi Padawan =-
Healer--Enhancer--Defender
ALZA Consumer Sale, Gaia 5267 -524

Elyssa

Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:23 pm

#61

Crimsonsplat wrote:
Quit NOW. Then maybe they'll get the point. You can still play until the sub expires, which will give you time to find out if they do or not.

I agree.

Click the link in my sig!

------
Elyssa Alexander (Elder Merchant Correspondent)
12pt. Master Structures Trader / Elder Jedi / Mayor, City of Metropolis
Shop Crazy Durni, Inc., now open in Metropolis, Corellia (885 -6605 Gorath)

"Why the big secret? People are smart, they can handle it."
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."

Elyssa was 1000% correct
-Pawlin

LadyIllyria

Tue Aug 10, 2004 11:51 pm

#62

1) Will you pick up merchant?

I am already a Master Merchant and have been since before I mastered Architect (I think, they were mastered very close together). I am also a Master Artisan and Politician 2/4/2/1. My husband's alt is also a Master Merchant. Should it be necessary, I have access to three other accounts in our guild with free skill points left to Master Merchant, before I have to ask others of our 17 member crafter community to also pick up Master Merchant.

1a) Will you have enough with the item limits to hold your viable business.. ?

No. Not even close, not even if all 17 of us have Master Merchant if we wish to offer a wide variety of goods and constantly stocked vendors which draw the repeat customers to make not only our overhead, but profit. Our overhead runs almost a million a week now, wait, make that 1.5 million. I just contracted out for a delivery of 700k of power each week to run our harvesters and factories rather than having to place our own fusion generators. I'm thinking of contracting out our ore needs now as well, and free up the need for dedicated ore harvesters.

2) Will you find a merchant to sell your stuff?

No.

3) Will you give your items to that merchant and have them pay you as they sell? 4) Will you make the merchant pay you first?

My entire guild keeps a look out for good deals on other vendors, or word of a reputable crafter needing a new sales outlet. Recently, I approved 1.2 million credits to buy out a vendor that had stocked a high quality product at a price that utterly insulted the architect profession. I've already made profit off that very hostile acquisition. Other times, I have bought items as a test purpose to see if they sell, how fast and for what amount. If it's viable, I will contract out and buy up front in larger quantities. However, it has taken me eight months to get to the point where I can drop a million or two a week and know that I can at least make it up with little effort. If I am actively seeking deals, I cannot keep up with the transactions (often having three-four people in my business with personal transations to do at a time) to the point where I have a time limit on when I start doing such transactions and I know that if I start too late at night, I'll be on til server shut down. But, these also can bring in 1-5 million for a few hours work. (Of course, it can also see our guild bank account drop by 1-5 million depending on if I'm buying or selling that day.)

5) I always have contingency plans. But this major of a change to how vendors work, would require a decision of the entire guild on what we do. Options include but are not limited to, having more of us Master Merchant (nothing less than Master Merchant), giving up crafting/merchanting business and going to all combat to support our RP guild and just supplying ourselves. However, because I already have a catalog listing our services and products, I could also just as easily go to a mail-order/delivery only business. More work for me in some ways, less work in that less time will need to be devoted to managing vendors with awful interfaces that suck out time I could be spending role-playing with my guild instead.

:auses as that last bit sinks into her brain:: You know... that just might work. I don't have PC slaves for nothing. The business house could be taken down and replaced with storage facilties... And, I wouldn't need Merchant skills at all. Instead, I could use those skill points for shipwright later, and master politician. Put the 24 lots we have left as a guild reserved for harvesters to storage, buy all our resources from those that need to dump inventory from their vendors.

Okay, new answers with new battle plan in mind should the 110/660 cap go in place, or another equally undesirable outcome...

1) Will you pick up merchant?

No, we will be dropping those skills entirely.

1a) will you have enough with the item limits to hold your viable business.. ?

Vendors will not be needed with alternative plan should the vendor item limit go in.

2) Will you find a merchant to sell your stuff?

No, I will become a Master Merchant without having the need to put skill points to the title. Me and my guild will get richer and more popular, ultimately becoming one of a few monopolies on the Bria server due to having the resources in place before hand to do so and lack of any competition to the market. People will come to me to sell their goods because I will be able to pay up front and sell for a mark-up and still deal in volume and multi-million credit deals. Newer crafters/merchants will never be able to get a foot in the door, not with the availablity of at least one if not more, live merchants on staff from server start to shutdown, able to go into the 'backroom' and get anything that is needed.

3) will you give your items to that merchant and have them pay you as they sell... ?

Hell no, I'm in a position to take over the galaxy and wield more power than the Emporer if these changes go in. They will come to me!

4) Will you make the merchant pay you first?

No. I will pay them first up front a pittance of the price and my mark-up will be enough that I will...

Hum, what? Oh sorry, must have fell asleep there. I had such a lovely dream though. ::shifty eyes as she hides the employment applications she already had written up for scouts/rangers that she could edit to apply in a more general level::

Honestly, I could do a person to person business. I have the free time, the know-how and the resources to do it. I don't want to though, because I'd rather have time to play and not work. Once the game becomes 'work', I will shut down my business. With my business shut down, the need for multiple accounts in order to have two characters on one server so I can both fight with my guild and still craft, will become unnecessary and they will probably become cancelled in time. Our primary accounts may soon follow suit, or they may not.

Without having experienced the changes, it is very hard to predict exactly what will happen. I am however, fighting the proposed vendor item limit change. It will make the rich richer, and the poor poorer, and new crafters/merchants will never be able to compete with established names/business - with our without vendors - from those of us with a will and a way to suceed despite such changes.

Mistress Kyphi Makarha

New badge available... :has read and understood the rambling posts from Mistress Kyphi Makarha.

Saagaloo

Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:16 am

#63

1. Currentlymaster merchant anyway, but if I wasn't I'd look to get it pretty damn sharpish for the extra vendors.

1a. As the limits currently stand, no I don't believe my current business model would be viable.

2. Only if the merchant in question was a guild member and someone I could trust 100%, but since the item limit proposed is so low, having another merchant doesn't really help me (or the merchant concerned unless he just wants to sell architect products).

3. This only works where there is 100% trust between the crafter and merchant. I doubt this would be viable for anyone in the game that does not have a rl merchant / crafter friend. I currently run a loot vendor for some of my guild's combat players. They offer to my vendor at 1 credit, I put the loot up for sale and tip or transfer the cash as and when it sells. To be honest, with the lack of admin support on vendors it's just a complete nightmare to keep track of (reduced to pen and paper records of sales). I only do it as a favour to my friends otherwise I wouldn't bother.

4. As an architect, I'd want to get the money up front. In some ways instant sales would improve my cash flow but I'd be concerned at the prices I would sell at if a third party merchant was added to the sales chain. Prices on my server are already rather lowand customers have "set prices" in their mind when they buy architect goods, so to maintain those prices I'd have to sell to the merchant at a lower price to account for his/her commission. No thank you! Conversely, as a merchant (assuming for a moment that I'd use the profession as SOE are trying to persuade us to do), I'd only be interestedat sourcing the very best possible products for the cheapest price possible that I'd be 80-90% sure would sell and I would definitetly resist wherever possible paying a crafter up front for their goods.That would only work if you had multipleretail outletsin every major sales hot spot in the galaxy (rather like Walmart) and with six vendors and 110 items limit, that ain't gonna happen. And where would this leave novice or new master crafters?Merchants would only look for the best products to sell from crafters that can keep up with demand, so this change effectively favours the long time successful masters and leaves scrapsfor the little guy.

I will have to have a huge rethink of my business model to accomodate this change if it happens, but I'm alreadyfairly sure of a few things;

1. I will stop selling Furniture by personal vendor. I may look at using the bazaare for sellingfurniture that goes for less than 6000, but I'm not sure at this moment whether the additional hassle would be worth it.

2. I will raise all of my prices significantly if this change comes in, purely to reduce the amount of time I spend restocking vendors. But I can still see myself spending a huge amount of game time on vendor management which just isn't fun.

3.I'll abandon my expansion plansandremove vendors frommy branch retail network (currently have a number of vendors dotted around the galaxy) and centralise in one shop, using one vendor to stock specific goods (eg one for generators, one for heavy harvs etc). Even this will reduce my usual stock quotas I normally have on my vendors by a huge margin.

4. Storage is going to be a huge problem. I currently use a vendor to store sub components as I run GTs, SSSMs etc by the 1000 and just leave final assembly of the finished products to meet demand. That vendor will have to go, so I'm back to finding every place I can in our city to store stuff. In future, I guess I'll have tokeep the raw materials in my workshop and do much smaller runsof subcomponents as and when needed. More hassle, inefficient and a waste of valuable game time.

All in all, the proposed changes are really just adding more aggrevation and wasting more game time when I could be doing something much more fun.I don't really want to be in the position of having to do my vendor chores when i log in before I get on and do something more fun in the game. I'll try to adapt but if I don't enjoy it anymore I'll cancel my accounts. Shame really, because the other changes proposed for Merchant are actually very good and would greatly benefit the whole player community. Ho hum.

jason67

Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:38 am

#64

Dvnce wrote:

Ok... So .. If things with vendors Should happen to stay the way they are presented now...

1) Will you pick up merchant?

1a) will you have enough with the item limits to hold your viable business.. ?

2) will you find a merchant to sell your stuff?

3) will you give your items to that merchant and have them pay you as they sell... ?

4) Will you make the merchant pay you first?

If none of these questions fit for what you are planning on doing what will you be doing?

Ok .. Please No flames.. just simple answers... thanks ... and be as kandid as you can be....

Message Edited by Dvnce on 08-07-2004 11:43 PM

The solution here is really very simple. Use the current limits for novice merchants, give master merchants a reason to actually go master. If they actually gave master merchants the ability to increase storage space(significantly) it would give people a reason to master and give master merchants the ability to actually run a vendor business. Increase master merchants ability to store items either in houses or on vendors, or even both. This would give the merchant class some sort of scope and purpose for being a master merchant and would actually allow master merchants to do worthwhile things in games, instead of the current alt being partial merchant just so you can post up items on a vendor to sell.

Will pure merchants have a hard time getting started, yes probably, and it should be this way. A merchant will need to build a relationship with a crafter before selling his goods on a "commission" basis. This will allow a merchant to be what most would picturea merchant as, someone who deals with the consumers on the frontline while the crafters can focus on crafting on the backend. The key to making this work is that Master Merchants must be able to store goods, and with the current system no one can store any worthwhile amount unless they have either picked up more than one account or used cross server lot trades or uses a friends lots, etc... This is just my opinion one that I think would give SOE the ability to use their current system while at the same time making merchant a whorthwhile profession that would have purpose.

HostageH
Master Lightsaber /3003Enhancer /4100Healer /0044Defender
/0044Force Reflexes /Master Force Combat

Arisa
MasterWeaponsmith(125exp/130assembly/25repair/22weapons repair) /MasterArtisan(14pt) /MasterShipwright /4400Force Crafting
Vendor Location 2355, -3922 just outside Coronet

Bandola

Thu Aug 12, 2004 1:12 am

#65

Dvnce wrote:

Ok... So .. If things with vendors Should happen to stay the way they are presented now...

1) Will you pick up merchant?

1a) will you have enough with the item limits to hold your viable business.. ?

2) will you find a merchant to sell your stuff?

3) will you give your items to that merchant and have them pay you as they sell... ?

4) Will you make the merchant pay you first?

1. already Master Merchant

1a) Barely, but I would have to cancel my expansion plans.

2. No

3. Never

4. N/A

5. I would consider quitting, if I cannot expand then there is no future development, to stagnate would kill it for me, why pay every month just to do the same things day in day out, people quit RL jobs when it gets too routine, I don't want my leisure time to become tedious.

__________________________________________________________
Bandola Da'Gear
-RETIRED-
((The Blue Ghost))

Architect Archive

Thread: Very Important Question for Architects... and I guess any crafter.. or anyone with something to sell