Development Cycle Archive
Thread: ID#2: Two Changes to Bazaars and Vendors
I always thought that the credit cap was a bug anyway, since it tells you in the text that the max is 10000 (which, to me, would seem to be a good max). Given the going rate on various items, most people end up selling anything truly useful (houses, good harvesters, droids, etc.) face to face or on vendors. As a result, you don't find much that's really useful on the bazaar, nor can you make much money off of it.
As a crafter who doesn't want to shell out the skill points or dough for a vendor, I'm all for this increase (big surprise there).
I think the vendor limit is a bit low, though. I'd say raise it to 250. That way, someone could at least put up a quarter of one of their factory runs if they wanted, but it wouldn't be so much that they'd have a monopoly. I'm not terribly concerned from a self-interested point of view, though, and I don't have enough experience using vendors (as an owner, that is) to really comment beyond this.
One other thing. I've brought this up elsewhere, but I think that we really need a "State of the Economy" post and perhaps an economy correspondent. Economicsare a huge part of this game, but unfortunately seems to be one of the least discussed or regarded. Just a suggestion.
Bazaar Cap: Sure, raise it.
Vendor Limit: Do NOT mess with this!
I am a Master Artisan/Master Architect & Merchant.
One of the products I've built my business around is crates of premium powerups.
As other professions have pointed out (example - tailors) my customers want and expect variety. There are a large number of variations in powerups.
(max dmg/min dmg, speed/min dmg, max dmg/speed, mind cost/speed, speed/mind cost, etc. etc. - you get the picture?)
Now I often have customers that come from off planet and purchase 10 to 20 crates at a time. I've even listed and sold backpacks of 50 crates on there. That one item (50 crate bulk deal) would consume one-third of my vendor's capacity under the proposed limit.
I'vesold as manyas200 to 300+ crates on a good day.
Even assuming that I put *everything* (vehicles, harvesters, houses & furniture) on a different vendor - just the powerup vendor alone would be crippled by a 150 item limit.
It would completely change - if not ruin - my business.
I'm against moving to create more problems. There is already so much that needs address. Leave things like this alone and fix the problems we have instead of creating more.
If it isn't broke, don't fix it. 
I doubt this will be noticed so deep in this thread...
I like both ideas.
Raising the cap should allow for an easier time selling resources in greater quantity (as I would love to do).
Adding a vendor limit will hurt initially, but hopefully it will encourage specialization (only producing certain types of weapons versus every weapon available, etc.) We'll see though; it may just get harder and harder to find what you want in stock (it already is).
I have an additional idea though...
Bazaar Auctions should have no cap. If for any reason, at least it may get people to quit spamming the Coronet starport with sales pitches for krayt pearls and such...
As it stands, who uses the "auction" function for any other reason besides adding an advertisement to your bazaar wares?
Col. Cristos Diaz Regarding this one I think there are one good side and one bad.
- Less player vendors because more stuff will be sold on the bazaar
- BIGGER lists on the bazaar, special in Coronet(Tempest) because everyone will use the 25 slots a lot more
- Garbage will be priced higher. For example, encoded disks sell at 3k because it cant be higher. With the 6k limit I'm sure a lot of stuff will be priced for 6k.
What you should do with the bazaar
- Increase the number of lots and price cap related to merchant skills (Like everything else on this game, stuff should improve as the skills go up)
- Reduce time for 3 days (this way garbage like 1 resource for 3k will disappear faster)
- Auto end the auctions when the 3k cap is reached (currently they stay for a week even if no one can bid anymore)
- Create more sub-depts (Try to list Inorganic resources on Coronet, Tempest. Sometimes there are more than 1k of items and all I want is Iron, or try to find Locked containers that are on the Generic Item in the middle of thousands of garbage items)
- Create a search facility (Let me find Copper if that’s what I want. It will be a lot less traffic and database operation than browsing +1000 items to find what I’m looking for)
2. Limit of items per vendor
I’m sorry to say but this is INSANE. For this one I have to ask. Do you play this game ?
When I start playing SWG I had lots of vendors everywhere. If I want a Scout Blaster, I could easily check 3 or 4 vendors in the same area to compare the product quality and prices then decide which on I’m buying. Now (and for the last months) with all the Holo and Jedi madness all I can find is empty vendors. Players don’t even change the name of the house. Lots of them still have the name like “Weapons vendor, restocked daily” and the vendor haven’t been restocked for the last 2 or 3 months.
I live in Coronet, Tempest, and it used to be full of vendors all around the city. Now only a few survived the Jedi/Holo madness. It’s a happy moment for me when I need something and I can find a vendor with a full stock of items.
Because of this situation, I’ve decided to create a shop and I’ve managed that shop for the last 3/4 months. My vendors have never lived a day without stock. On one of the vendors I always keep about +1000 items of stock and It cant be less than that. Players know that if they need something they can find it there and if you limit to 150 or even 500 most of the items will be gone before I have a chance to restock (we do have other lives besides the game).
But this vendor is like the bazaar and it sells lots of different stuff so lets take the Armor vendor that only sells armor related items. 500 items is not enough.
As you must know, armor is probably the most difficult items to have constant stock because players don’t just buy the full set. They came back and buy 12 more helmets because the previous ones didn’t slice on encumbrance. That means that I have to have a big stock for every armor type. Lets make a small exercise with only 2 armors, Composite and Ubese and the other armor related items.
- Set 1 – Ubese light – Low on Incumbrance. 9 items (including the shirt and bandolier)
- Set 2 – Ubese Heavy – High on the Inc and protection. 9 items
- Set 3 – Standard Composite – 2 colors, 9 pieces
- Set 4 – Advanced Composite – 3 colors, 9 pieces
- Set 5 – Advanced Heavy Composite – 2 colors, 9 pieces
- Personal Shield Type 1 (High Durability) Singles and Factory Crates
- Personal Shield Type 2 (High Protection) Singles and Factory Crates
- Armor Repair Tools Singles and factory crates
- Armor Upgrade Kits (Singles and factory crates)
Now, I have to stock 2 of each set of armor that’s 20* 5 sets * 9 pieces = 900 items
For Personal Shields I have to have at least 10 crates and 40 singles so that’s 50*2 types = 100 items
The repair tools I have to keep the same amount so more 50 items
The Upgrade Kits go for 50 factory crates so more 50 items
This will give me a total of 1100 Items
Now you can say I have to keep the numbers lower and I’ll say that I have to close the shop because if I cant have a good shop that my costumers can count to find what they are looking for, then I prefer to have no shop at all.
I’m trying not to talk about Artisan Components, tailor and resources vendors …
Lets see some of the things you should change:
- Increase the Vendor cost related to the number of items in stock (this will clean the garbage vendors)
- Don’t list the sections that have no items and that way the costumer will know whats on the shop for sale without having to use the “all” button
- Kill the all button
- If possible, make costume sections so that the Merchant can decide how to group his items ( I would make a Composite, Ubese, etc for the armor vendor)
Make multiple items operations on every list like the retrieve option. If I’m buying 50 items don’t make me buy one each time and the same for restocking.
If I have to put 50 items at the same price on the vendor let me do it once with multiple choice. - Make the Merchant skills mean something. Why should I go for Hiring 4 to have a big list of vendors I don’t want and then when I pick the right one it comes out in short size, fat and ugly and I have to do it times and times again to pick one that looks nice or the Efficiency 4 that will give me reduced fees by 20%. I don’t need that. I can pay the 20% more like everyone else. Give me lots for the factories and other good stuff. Not to mention Master that is completely unworthy of the skill points.
- Fix the BUGS like the retrive items desapearing if the inventory is full (yes, its still active if you retreive a bag with items in it and you dont have enough space it will desapear and the CRM will reply to to ticket saying he cant do anything) and the offers to the vendor bug that makes the player that offered the items not getting his money
There are lots of other things we could list that show how bad is the change.
As a last note, let me tell you that I do think that you put your time where is not needed. With so many things broken on this game you guys tend to change the ones that are actually working. If you have Database Problems there are other ways to solve them and this is not of them. On the other hand, if you are having DB problems why do you raise the cap on the Bazaar items ?
Try to put all the efforts on the really important things and it looks to me that this 2 aren’t the important ones.
In case you did read all of this up to this point, thank you for your attention. I hope you decide well and that means deciding for the good of all not for the good of some.
Remember that unless you change this game to have system vendors, all the game depends on the artisans and their ability to bring there stuff to the people. If you kill that anymore you will end up by killing the game. There will be no fighters if they cant find a weapon, armor, etc to fight with.
Sosstuborx wrote:
I doubt this will be noticed so deep in this thread...
I like both ideas.
I should hope the whole point of this In Development forum is that our comments DO GET NOTICED, no matter how deep in a thread they may be.
And yes, BRING BACK THE HEXA CODES!
They both sound like great ideas to me.
Increase bazaar price: YES
Cap on vendor at 150: YES
However it would be good to increase the cap along with merchant skills.
Say 50 more items at novice merchant,50 with each management box, and a bonus 100 at master level.
Novice Merchant: 200 items
Management 1:250 items
Management 2:300 items
Management 3:350 items
Management 4:400 items
Master:500 items
This adds benefit to the Merchant class along with freeing up database space.
Heyas TH,
Glad to hear a thread like this, I hope theres a lot more.
1000% Percent for the Bazaar increase. And that does litterally mean I would say yes 10 times.
Why? I think its a great way to simply get more diverse product to a wider range of customers...
As well as to help crafters who maybe dont have merchant or a friend who has a vendor for them.
Convinence I think would also be a good boon to the econimy.
Bazaars would equate to Convience stores, they sell everything quick and ready on the go in the major towns, Shops/Malls run by PC would be for the more dedicaded buyer looking for something in mass quantity or of supreme quality.'
As Bazaars are right now, they area little bit of a joke with the extreme low prices.
6k is much better than 3. But 10k in my mind would be even better.
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Vendor limits : Against this as it was proposed, Because I am against a lot of kinds of item limits. Not to be offencive but the devs/programmers should of known exactly what kind of game this would be as far as the vast number of items in-game.
The only kind of Vendor Limit I could approve of AT ALL (not saying I would like it but I would be able to deal with it) would be a limit of only 10 of each of the same item, this isnt a thought out idea ive had so it probably wouldnt really work... So on second though... I'll go back to my first thought.
I Hate All Types of Item Limits.
- The bazaar upgrade would be very appreciated. Selling bigger amounts of hide or ore would help alot and would unclog the bazaars.
- I like the cap idea on the vendors. It would give more meaning to the Merchant profession since they are the onesthat can have alot of vendors. Masters in crafting professions would either need to go Merchant or ask for theservices of one. Again great idea on this!
A vendor cap is understandable. But 150? Are you guys crazy? I'd say 750 - 1000 max.
K here goes asa FORMER master merchant...
Most of the fun of this class was to set up you own store...but for the the bugs that were in from day one thru the day I quit the proffession sucked all the fun out of it.
Some of them have been fixed...the one that has not been fixed is the DATABASE.
Unlimited items on a vendor will make the Vendor a storage spot for the Merchant.
After the Money sink Scandal....I gave up merchant in disgust...
Now the DEV are going to gut the Merchants again...and here is why.
THe only thing that keeps prices down is the bazaar...inflation is controled by having a price cap. This makes the Bazaar a dumping ground for junk but I sell loot that is in demand for can you guess the price???
3k - why do I sell it for that???? Becuase of the price cap...no that goes to 6k thats inflation boys.
NOW....
The Bazaar in the good old days allowed the Merchants to list there items on it....Yup thats right....everyone could see what Joe Shiz had for sale in his vendor....AT THE BAZAAR.
IT was great you could search out you items and purchase them....then run to the cords and pick it up.
But the DATAbase could not handle it(guess)
So we have a split system...what was tried could not be done with current resorces so we make due with what we got....
So now we come to this latest change
Placing a cap on vendors...In my experiance as a vendor I did use it for storage...anything I did not have room for I placed on my vendor and priced at a profit...I never had 100k of items...the bugs and deletes and lost items kept me from placing anything but junk or stuff I wanted to sell.
So with the Item cap and Price increase...that will be put in the merchant will be in less demand and the bazaar will be used more offten.
Positives
Reduced load on the Database - Item limit on bazaar
Neg Side
Reduced selection in merchants - 150 items per vendor will reduce options and high selling vendors will run out more often.
Most items on the Bazaar will now sell for double.
Why are the DEV doing this:
1. Reduce load on database - Merchant can place unlimited items in vendor now capped at 150.
2. Inflation control - I am going to argue against myself here - With the reduced use of vendors the Bazaar will be more useful and with the cap at 6k they have a control on the market - a limited control but a control never the less.
/crosses fingers just like every other time and hopes the DEV know what they are doing.