Armorsmith Archive
Thread: Balancing the mechant nerf for armor vendors
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PadiOne
Thu Aug 12, 2004 6:18 am
#1
I was having a discussion about the merchant nerf with some guildies last night, and we kept coming back to how unfair it was going to be to armor vendors. Overall, we thought it was a good idea, but wanted to see the numbers pushed up to 200 or maybe even 225.
We still didn't think that this was going to be enough to level the playing field for armor vendors, and with hide prices and the rate that ppl are going thru armor, none of us want to see inflated armor prices. I came up with an idea for a 'full suit' schematic for each of the armor types that would allow you to put one of each piece of that armor type into a type of crate and list it on the vendor as one unit. This would be different from a backpack in that it would only count as one unit like a crafting crate. Then the buyer would have to extract the pieces to wear them. This would take another crafting phase, but we thought that the AS community would welcome it since they would be able to list more than 10 sets of armor on a vendor.
The problem with this idea was that it took some changes to how the technology worked. All of the items in the 'crate' would be different and have varying stats. After more discussion on whether we thought we could talk the devs into this, my guildmate pointed out that the technology for this already existed in-game. It was introduced in the last publish as a loot kit. It's a item that you can drop all of the parts into and have them count as one inventory item.
Here's how I propose that it would work. If you're the admin on a vendor, you would be able to 'package a complete armor suit'. This would give you an item similar to a loot kit that you could drop one of each piece into. Since each armor type has a different number of pieces, there would be a 'package' type for each one. In order to prevent customer from getting ripped off, vendors would require that the package have all slots filled to list it for sale.
The majority of these additions into the game are simple. The only part that may cause issue is the extraction of the pieces from the package. That part of the technology does not yet exist.
PadiOne
Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:01 am
#2
With all of the moaning and groaning over the merchant changes, is no one worried about armor sales? I find it hard to believe that AS's don't have a particular interest in this because their sales volume is higher. No comments??
Garnax
Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:04 am
#3
We still don't have enough information to come to any sensible resolution. Is it even known if a backpack will count as 1 item or 1 + contents?
Ryche_Mykola
Fri Aug 13, 2004 7:02 am
#4
The vendor nerf is going to screw everything up, IF it goes live.
I am not changing anything around on my character or business until I see that they indeed go through with the nerf.
PadiOne
Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:10 am
#5
Garnax wrote:
We still don't have enough information to come to any sensible resolution. Is it even known if a backpack will count as 1 item or 1 + contents?
That's tough to say. I'm betting on 1+contents though. This is part of a push to clean up the database (notice threads about deleting old accounts) before the launch of JTL (influx of new players) and the possible expansion of inventory limits for houses. I doubt they would let players store 4000 broken sea's in one backpack on their vendor if they are trying to clean this stuff up.
Part of the reason for this discussion though was to create an item where all of the armor pieces could be viewed though. Inside a backpack you have to take the merchants word for it. There's no way for a buyer to view the actual product. Since many armorsmiths take the time to bag the items in suit packs anyway, this might be a good idea even if backpacks only count as on item, though I doubt that will be the case.
Garnax
Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:16 am
#6
Yeah, I'm sceptical about the backpack remaining 1 item too. The nerf just doesn't make sense if it does. But then, does it have to make sense? It is SOE after all. 
As it is on TC now backpacks count as 1 item and the limits are not affected by contents. But that might change. Who knows? We'll have to live it with when it hits, but not knowing makes it harder to plan ahead.
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