Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Well stocked BH/Smuggler Droid Vendor and the vendor nerf
Even Barney Fife is too risque` for this forum!Rippen
Let me state a few things:
- Some kind of vendor item limit change is/was alwaysin the works.
- Some of the reasons:
- Merchants needed some kind of 'love'. Right now, the ability own/operate vendors (and the number of items stored thereon)is one of the only things that they can really hang their hat on, unfortunately.
- There's simply too much bloat in the DB. This change may well be loosened up (but that's not definite). The Devs have historically had a change cut too deeply and backed off to try to find the good, happy medium.
- There are too many crafters that are getting very close to monopolizing markets in their entirety. There are other reasons for this but it is not good for the overall health of the crafting economies when a few serious crafting industrialists can 'run' a market outright. This change opens the door for more crafters to be able to step into the marketplace and have some chance to compete.
- Part of this may very well be an interdependence change. I'm sorry to have to say it but they do want you to "need" to work with other players to operate at certain level. This change is an attempt to fix the crafting equivalent of being able to solo the Corvette as a combat profession. It's simply not a good thing for the game when Joe Player can have thousands of items on a vendor with no invested skill points. (Note: AO - I understand the aspect of being able to trust a partner. I'm usually a sole proprietor but I have to tell you....the days of being able to run a giant business alone are likely to go away).
- Players have been used to the 'free checkers' associated with past vendor item storage/listings for too long. I'm not convinced that the current numbers are where they will stay....this may simply be a starting to point from which to tweak the numbers. It's not a fun thing to accept but too many people were storing too much stuff on too many vendors without committing the skill points to gain that 'checker'. I know it's no fun...this will hurt me pretty badly too. However, I have to respect that Merchants need their love too. Yes, it would be preferable to find a better way to get there (and that will likely continue).
- This is, to the best of my current knowledge, not a change that's 187% set in stone. Until I hear otherwise from a red name, I'm personally going to assume that the numbers might changed based on player feedback. I caution everyone however....do not take this as an announcement that these numbers will change. I can only state that myself and the other concerned Corrs. will be doing what we can to see that this overly-restrictive change is altered to become less draconian.
Here's one of my personal reasons why this hurts:
I now support 2-3 active toons (2 MDEs - 1 Live, 1 on TC and 1 Master Musician/Medic on SS). I get very little time to log to my Live toon much nowadays, due to the 'toon juggling', Corr. stuff and having some kind of life. Now, in that situation, I often need to get my vendors setup and managed in what is a pretty short period of time ultimately. Along with the survey/mining, setting up factory runs, etc., I need to do on Live, this change means that I'll have to spend a lot more time actively babysitting my vendors.
I personally feel like the low-end numbers are okay. I mean...what Bus. 3 Artisan is going to be in a situation where they really need to stock more than 50 items at a time? Now...at the top (upper level Merchant), those numbers are the ones that are entirelytoo restrictive.
I'll keep an eye on this thread for DE comments on the change and also rely on what Doc brings to the Corr. boards (as well as others).
It may help you to know that a few of the Corrs. have DE alts so they will feel this pain as much as us (and will likely be able to stand on the side of the crafting professions more than you'll know).
/bow
Respectfully,
I can understand a item limit for the level of merchant you are. I can NOT understand a limit this low though.
What reason do you have to be a master merchant? None right now. Not to keep master merchant at least. Most folks I know got enough merchant to get the vendors they needed, then dropped it. I kept all my merchant because I like to use my merchant barking droid.
I also have a feeling that the database admins are to blame. They probably thought "Hey, lets kill two birds with one stone here. Give people a reason to master merchant AND shrink the database size!". I bet someone got a raise for that idea.
How will it affect my business?
I get a lot of repeat business. I get the repeat and word of mouth business from always having a good selection and having thing in stock. With a item cap like this I can NOT keep a good selection and keep it in stock.
Just tonight I was feeling good because I caught up on my BH/Smuggler Droid Vendor. I sell seekers, probes, and detonation droids on this vendor. These droids are used up when used. A typical bounty hunter will buy 2-3 crates of probes, and 3-5 crates of seekers. So anyway, tonight after I finished loading the vendor I had 194 items on it and I was feeling good. With that many items I can advertise with my merhcant barking droid, advertise on the forums, keep my existing customers supplied, and hand the word of mouth traffic. With an item cap this low I won't be able to do that anymore.
BTW, this is just ONE of my vendors. I also have to keep my droid vendor stocked with about 50 droid deeds (25 different droids), droid repair kits (in singles plus 2 different crate sizes), droid reconstuction kits (same as the repair kits), and droid batteries. I also have a master artisan vendor with all the different crafting tools, survey tools, power conditioners, etc. Then there is my Architect vendor, look at how many different pieces of furniture, candles, lights, paintings, deeds, etc. And last, my loot vendor. I sell looted items that a guildie supplies me with, and boy does he supply me.
This cap will also affect my business in the fact that I will not be able to quickly find the resources I need, in the quantities I need it in, from resource vendors.
Message Edited by TheOrb on 08-07-2004 12:03 PM
I do have more.
I just keep them in my factory.
Stock is easier to manage this way for me.
On the change itself, I'm all for it.
I just think that they need to slightly increase the limits (3 times more at master, 2 times at novice) and find a better way to deal with consumable product like batteries, repair and customization kit.
I'll never put 194 crate of seeker on my vendor.
Only 2 things can happen if I do that :
- they stay there for months (6 I would say).
- smart merchant come and buy as much as they can to sell them somewhere else for twice my price.
Message Edited by Gavvot on 08-07-2004 08:49 PM
