Business And Economy Archive
Thread: Browse all player vendors on a planet.
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bluejanus
Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:35 am
#27
Mallize wrote:Wouldn't that be great? I get tired of flying from shop to shop only to find 'left overs' when the vendor title said 'Tons of good weapons'. Why can't we browse all of the player vendors, by category, just like we do the bazaar? Then we could purchase our items and go pick them up, without wasting hours looking at empty vendors.
Hmm, isn't this limited by the number of vendors that loaded from memory? I'm not entirely sure how the overhead map updates with vendors, but I imagine the game doesn't load the vendor unless some character causes the vendor to be recalled from memory. You're talking a constant check of the updating of all player vendors. That sounds like a lot of processing.
Mosdl
Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:58 pm
#28
I think there should be several ways of finding player vendors, depending on the merchant skills status of the seller.
Create a UI that allows a player to search for item(s), such as say "a cdef pistol with min dmg 1", and the player can buy and go get the item (via a waypoint). Buying from this service would also give merchant XP like visiting a vendor does.
At some point in the merchant tree, merchants should get an delivery service option, which can be used from said UI. It would cost extra (and take money out of the economy) for the buyer. The higher you get up the tree, perhaps the cheaper the service becomes? Or faster?
I agree with the fact that a vendor search might hurt merchants as it reduces the use (planet registration), but if a master merchant allows you to buy an item and get it delivered instantly and for a novice takes 10 minutes, it might be enough. Also, the main attraction imho for the merchant tree is more vendors/vendor items.
Make it easier for players to buy and for artisans to sell I say!
Create a UI that allows a player to search for item(s), such as say "a cdef pistol with min dmg 1", and the player can buy and go get the item (via a waypoint). Buying from this service would also give merchant XP like visiting a vendor does.
At some point in the merchant tree, merchants should get an delivery service option, which can be used from said UI. It would cost extra (and take money out of the economy) for the buyer. The higher you get up the tree, perhaps the cheaper the service becomes? Or faster?
I agree with the fact that a vendor search might hurt merchants as it reduces the use (planet registration), but if a master merchant allows you to buy an item and get it delivered instantly and for a novice takes 10 minutes, it might be enough. Also, the main attraction imho for the merchant tree is more vendors/vendor items.
Make it easier for players to buy and for artisans to sell I say!
bluejanus
Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:36 pm
#29
Hmm but all registered vendors aren't from the same company. You can't search different company inventories in real life with the same interface. If you could do that, you'd basically end up having one company providing everything essentially.
In the swg game, this would eliminate waste in the game. Wasted credits, wasted time. Course it would also cut a lot of crafters out. Prices would have to be equalized everywhere. It would become effective price controls. I don't think this is such a hot idea.
In the swg game, this would eliminate waste in the game. Wasted credits, wasted time. Course it would also cut a lot of crafters out. Prices would have to be equalized everywhere. It would become effective price controls. I don't think this is such a hot idea.
Haten
Sat Feb 05, 2005 7:37 pm
#30
diepa wrote:
Mallize wrote:
yeah.. garunteed to have something, you just don't know what.
yes, one backpack for 99999999
ROFL
Mallize
Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:55 am
#31
bluejanus wrote:
Mallize wrote:
Wouldn't that be great? I get tired of flying from shop to shop only to find 'left overs' when the vendor title said 'Tons of good weapons'. Why can't we browse all of the player vendors, by category, just like we do the bazaar? Then we could purchase our items and go pick them up, without wasting hours looking at empty vendors.
Hmm, isn't this limited by the number of vendors that loaded from memory? I'm not entirely sure how the overhead map updates with vendors, but I imagine the game doesn't load the vendor unless some character causes the vendor to be recalled from memory. You're talking a constant check of the updating of all player vendors. That sounds like a lot of processing.
Nope. It's on demand processing, just like browsing the vendors by galaxy. It only loads the items, or subitems, you select. The opening screen would just show the vendors( maybe sorted by the categories on the panetary map ). When you click a category, it loads the vendors for that category. When you click a vendor, it loads the items on that vendor. There is ZERO more processing than normal.
Mallize
Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:56 am
#32
bluejanus wrote:
Hmm but all registered vendors aren't from the same company. You can't search different company inventories in real life with the same interface. If you could do that, you'd basically end up having one company providing everything essentially.
In the swg game, this would eliminate waste in the game. Wasted credits, wasted time. Course it would also cut a lot of crafters out. Prices would have to be equalized everywhere. It would become effective price controls. I don't think this is such a hot idea.
Actually I can browse most merchants by the same technology, the internet. I don't have to drive to Best Buy, CompUSA, and Sears to check their prices for items. I can sit down at my pc and check out what they have before a make the trip.
bluejanus
Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:59 am
#33
Mallize wrote:
bluejanus wrote:
Hmm but all registered vendors aren't from the same company. You can't search different company inventories in real life with the same interface. If you could do that, you'd basically end up having one company providing everything essentially.
In the swg game, this would eliminate waste in the game. Wasted credits, wasted time. Course it would also cut a lot of crafters out. Prices would have to be equalized everywhere. It would become effective price controls. I don't think this is such a hot idea.
Actually I can browse most merchants by the same technology, the internet. I don't have to drive to Best Buy, CompUSA, and Sears to check their prices for items. I can sit down at my pc and check out what they have before a make the trip.
I said checking company inventories in real life. Not pricing. While CRM and ERP are advancing companys' efforts to maintain better counts on inventory and customer wants, most businesses don't have a good inventory check without actually going to the store. Sites like Bestbuy and CompUSA have websites with online ordering, but they caution that the information may not reflect what inventory is available in your local store. Obviously this is different for an entity like Ebay, but I'd consider that an exception due to business model.
SKLOKAZOID
Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:21 am
#34
I think this is totally necessary. One of the big things that detracts from the player experience is travelling to all of the different vendors and finding absolutely nothing in 90% of them. Eventually, you find what you're looking for but it takes a LOT of time.
If only Master Merchants can use this, so be it. I fully understand that they work hard for their visibility and it should pay off. What I'd really like is the ability to purchase an item and then reserve it and have it ready for you once you get there. But, there definitely needs to be a more efficient way for Merchants to let their potential customers know their product line instead of shouting in front of the Coronet starport.
Even with many of the barking merchants, I find that they're low in stock on some items or don't have what I'm looking for. We need some way of knowing before travelling 3000m.
Talmor1
Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:34 am
#35
Perhaps try contacting the owner of the vendor in game. Or send him an e-mail.
I personally would like the ability to advertise your name next to your vendor name on the Planetary Map. That way people may be inclined to do this.
I do agree though that this is extremely frustrating. I do not know how this could be resolved. It is stupid that people can place a backpack or crafting tool for max selling on their vendor and not loose their ability to advertise on the planetary map when there is only one item left.
This is really lame.
Fidgiter
Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:54 am
#36
Mallize wrote:
Wouldn't that be great? I get tired of flying from shop to shop only to find 'left overs' when the vendor title said 'Tons of good weapons'. Why can't we browse all of the player vendors, by category, just like we do the bazaar? Then we could purchase our items and go pick them up, without wasting hours looking at empty vendors.
Being able to browse the contents of all the vendors on a planet would likely cause performance problems as the volume of data to be loaded for each transaction would be MASSIVE. While it is a GREAT idea and I would LOVE to have such a feature it is impractical at best. If I'm right about the technical hurdle I have offered an alternative that would give greater purpose to Major Cities while making shoping a bit easier.
A Merchant could take a single vendor and flag it as a "Showcase" vendor which can only have 50 items loaded. Add a new option off the existing bazaar terminals that would let you search the contents of "Showcase" vendors in the way you describe. People would use this to find the vendors they want and in doing this would then be exposed to the other vendors which that Merchant or Businessman operates in the same area.
This is akin to having "Coupons" in a circular with items for sale (except if you see them listed they are actually for sale at the time you see them listed!)
Mallize
Sat Feb 12, 2005 11:08 am
#37
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