Development Cycle Archive

I'm a Master Tailor and I often have 1000 items of clothing on my vendors. I do custom work, but I much prefer having a well stocked vendor that has what most people are looking for. I have 6 vendors, one for clothes, one for BE clothes, one for resources, and one for special orders in my PA Hall. I then have another BE Clothes vendor in a tent, and a setup a vendor in our cities Cantia for a friend who's a Master Chef. love being a Tailor, and I had planned to never give it up. However if this change goes through, I will cancel both my accounts thats day and go play something else!
Ehia Wavingwalker
Master Tailor
Master Image Designer

Raising Bazaar cap good. Lowering Merchant to 150, very bad.

I think you should look at how much a merchant's stock varies from day to day, and then come up with a reasonable number from that. Like other WS have said, it isn't uncommon for us to have 500 plus weapons sold in a day. Cutting the number to 150 is going to annoy alot of people (mostly us crafters).

*Most Important Part*

If you want to cut down on the number of entries in your database, why not let us crafters have crates of weapons on our vendors, and set a price per item. That way both sides will be happy. At most I only have about 30 distinct differnet Items on a vendor. I will have lots of items up for sale (and lots of selection for players), and the tech guys at SOE will have nice concise databases, instead of the monstrosities they have now

I think that both changes should be made. It might make the economy shifty for a little while as things settle, but I think it's worth it. As is, the number of vendors available to a merchant is only considered when one is first starting out and when trying to get merchant experience. Solitary merchants selling their goods in their own shop have no incentive to gain the skills that allow them to have more vendors, other then those who are merchants only to reach Master Merchant for Jedi purposes by having tons of empty merchants just for the experience. There's nothing more annoying then looking for items to buy and find that most of the vendors in the shop are empty because the merchant is only using them to gain experience.

Ok, now it's my two cents on this matter, as a Master Merchant on Tempest.

First: Bazaar limit. Great idea! But let's raise it to 10000? After I got pistols 2, I don't think I ever used the bazaar again except to place "Advertisement" items. Also, why bother with an "auction" option if you're going to cap that too? Isn't the point of an "auction" to have the highest bid win? I saw a Holocron put on the Bazaar last week while I was re-posting my "ads" (boy, did I laugh). What was it's "Auction" price? 3000cr..... Could I bid 3001? NOooooo.... pretty pointless if you ask me.

And that's another thing.... we Merchants need to ADVERTISE! Right now, I pay friends to sit in front of the starport spamming incomming people. Does it bring me a lot of traffic? Yep, it just about cleans me out every time. Is it a preferred way of doing business? No. It annoys most players. Here's a totally radical idea I came up with..... how about a BULLETIN BOARD?! Yea.... this new... high tech public contraption, can be used to do such wonderful things as announce Player Events, Advertise Shops in the area, and serve as a general local-information system. Afraid people are going to spam things on it? Limit it's use and charge per post. Only 4th-rank Business Artisans and Merchants can advertise on it.... and Merchants can put fancy effects, and colors and holographic imagry in their ads as they go up the ladder...

Ok.... next topic... Vendors.

I have right now.... 400 resources on my resource vendor. Various resources.... most not even a week old due to my high turnover, in quantities of 1000, 5000, 10000 and 50000..... I do this so people with different needs can buy different items. I sell grinding junk alongside expensive quality stuff. Also... most people who have played the game more than a week know by now that you can hit the "next page" button....

But... WHY when I sort things alphabetically.... do they only alphabetize across the EACH page, rather than ALL pages.... Most people, interested in Aluminum.... want to see Aluminum at the top of page 1.... not at the top of page 1, 3 and 4.... I see this as more of an inconvience than a "next page" button.... and why even PUT a "next page" button? What's wrong with ONE page? This is text information.... I should be able to download the equivelant of Homor's Odyssey as text on a 33.6 connection in about 5 seconds....

And while I'm on the subject of vendors.... why can't I pick up and move a vendor after it's been dropped? Or use the /rotate command, but not the /move command? What's with the teeth gratingly annoying error message "If you want to move the vendor, you must pick up and re-drop the vendor" when you know very well you CAN'T pick up and drop the vendor?! You can only DESTROY the vendor, and spend another half an hour to find another one that looks "normal".... without a prune wrinkly face on a 21 yr old's athletic body.... or a beautiful face on an obese 300 pound body... or,when you do manage to get a "young" face (age 16 to 50... no wrinkles) on a "normal" body.... why do they seem to always have some bizarre wacked out hairdo or neon green lips and bright red eyes?! Where are the NORMAL people? Must I cycle through 200 vendor creates to get one I like? Maybe I could use the "player builder" to make a vendor? It is modular code, isn't it?

Here's another idea that would be jolly nice.... a resource vendor, where you can just dump ALL of a resource on, and set a "cost per unit" amount.... have it listed ONCE with the amount in stock and players choose how much they wish to buy...

Or instead of littering a vendor with 30 copies of an identacle weapon from a factory run... maybe allowing all 30 to be dumped into the vendor,and listing the thing ONCE with an "amount in stock: 30" column? I mean... objects take up database room, right? This method... you're DELETING, 29 instances of the object, storing ONE variable, and letting the system re-generate them as they are bought. Sounds like more efficient code to me. Probably cut WAY down on dataspace too!

Heck.... put those last two suggestions in... I'd say SURE! 150 items is PLENTY. But right now... it's just not enough.

Jenner Cobrari
Imperial Staff Sergeant
Founder of Imperium Resources and Cobrari-Co Artisan Goods.
New Bergen, Naboo
Tempest Galaxy

Bazaar, I'm fairly indifferent too. I don't see it'd effect me.

The items will effect me. I tend average about 150-250 items per vendor, split over four vendors. This is because I mainly sell clothing, which involves a lot of different schematics, with various colour combinations. Though I could technically use my last two vendors for clothing too, any more of a split in the clothing types wouldn't be logical. With clothes, it make sense to split it into the three clothing lines, then one for bioengineer/misc stuff. I have a slightly different system based on colour and type, but it still doesn't make that much sense to split it further.

It's probably not an issue for professions with a small number of schematics, but it's hard to have a good selection with 150 per if you have a lot of schematics with a lot of customisation options. It's just not sensible to have 'Casual Wear Vendor 1' and 'Casual Wear Vendor 2'. It will confuse customers, not help them. I also don't see that a good selection is having a monooly. If we can't have a good selection with obscure items and colours for sale, there's less reason for people to visit the shop. Might as well use the bazaar if you're after a black spec-ops duster. It's the search for the unusual that brings people out to clothes shops.

So a slightly higher limit would be nice. However, I assume this is a database issue, and 150 is therefore the number that will be used... in which case, what will happen if we have over the amount? Will it be deleted, or will we simply not be able to add more stock till the numbers drop below the limit?

So basicly your NERFING the vendors now? Hmm 15 sets of composite in the vendor not even 1 of each color and your full. Ok so i setup a new vendor so now ill have to do

Armor Vendor1

Armor Vendor2

Armor Vendor3

etc....

Bad idea

These are both horrible ideas. What is the point of the Merchant class? Hologrinders are the ones who are trying to push this through: people with no connections or desire to work with merchants. Pure merchants get the shaft even more, as they have to stock way more items and gear than a standard "I craft it, I sell it" merchant. With the 6k limit, people can sell most anything on the bazaar, and there's no limit to who can see it, and you have a captive audience, all advantages that a merchant doesn't have. I'd have a better time being a non-merchant, buying and selling lower end items on the global bazaar, and hunting the rest of the time. And I'm not even considering the fact that the bazaar is essentially free, where every vendor a merchant places costs them daily. The holodumpers will drive the price way down on higher quality items, as a 6k price point allows them to break even on their resource investment. Bad BAD BAD ideas.

I too think the 150 item limit to vendors is a bad idea. If theres a problem with the database now, what will happen with expansions anditems that get added to the game?Fix the database if it cant handle it. Dont take things away thats not a fix.

...ANOTHER extra cent....

On vendors advertised on the planetary map.... list the number of items they hold!

Example: Vendors: Armorsmiths: Joe's Cool Armor (240)

Wow.... no more paying 250cred, waiting 8 minutes for a shuttle, travelling 1200m OUTSIDE of the Capitol City of Naboo, because there are NO vendors there.... and finding.... *gasp* EMPTY VENDORS!

God forbid you decide to check out another planet....

Oooh ooh! Advertisements attached to the planetary listing! As a hover-over window!

Example: Vendors: Armorsmiths: Joe's Cool Armor (240)[hover mouse over listing] "Come visit Joe's Cool armor, located in the beautiful city of Mos Bleck....Full suits of Advanced Composite (because no armorsmithcan ever sell anything else except kinetic layered maybe Ubese...) available inMANY NEW COLORS!"

*sighs*

Come on.... the whole merchant system can be made great... you wanted a totally free, player run economy in this game.... give us the tools to make it really happen.

-Jenner (again)

What bothers me is in the last 6 months we have had the house items limit reduced, and now the vendor supplied item limit reduced.... all because the Database can not handle the load.

This is month 7 out of a suggested 60 month game. What is to happen when cool new items are added to the game... new armor, weapons, droids, vehicles, and loot.

Just fix the database once and for all. Otherwise we will have bi-annual database causing nerf every year. Please fix the database, don’t nerf the merchant profession. Merchant is a borderline poodo profession as it is. This is like kicking a man while he is down.

Putting a limit on the amount of items on vendors it a terrible idea! If I could only have 150 items per vendor, you would force me to be become master merchant just to have a selection that is anywhere near as good as what I have now.

I personally HATE visiting a vendor that has few items. When I visit a shop I want it to have lots of things, and this idea would kill the idea of actually havinga shop. It wouldn't be worth the trouble.

I am a master artisan and master weaponsmith and I need to have a lot of things on a few vendors.

If I was forced to make master merchant to have more vendors that would limit the possibility to havethe rifleman skills that I have now. If I don't have them, what's the point in going hunting with my guild on Endor? I would be useless, and it would greatly decrease my fun.

Think about what you're doing before you kill every decent shopkeeper out there who isn't a master merchant!

VOTE NO on the player vendor nerf.

SOE, stop punishing your players for your poor database design. There is NO ISSUES with vendors. At most you have tortured the merchant class with repeatedly eating items the first 3 months, the item eating update at 6 months, and your crappy database design wich causes everything to crash.

Consider my account canceled if your idea of fixing the database is nerfing merchant. Do your job, correct your database issues, and don't make up some lame excuse so you can ligten the load at the expense of your players.

Raise Bazaar cap, i can live with that.

Now to vendor cap: Please don't come here and insult our intelligence by mumbling something about economical reasons for the vendor cap when it's quite obviously a database issue .
You always try to put phoney reasons up if you want to nerf something, because of database issues, we've had the house item cap (always intended), the cool and mysterious journey to FS slot (yeah very mysterious how someone could come up with that creative idea) ...
If the economy needs any help it's by makeing low level crafters able to compete with masters. That should be your priority if you wanted to fix something about the economy, but you want to fix your database problem so we'll get the vendor nerf.

If you have a technical problem tell us and then in gods name fix it on the hardware side and if need be on the software side and don't tell us why we want something or why we should be joyful that the nerfbat is gonna hit us.