Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Thoughts on the new vendor changes?
Page 7 of 7
Jenden
Mon Feb 14, 2005 6:33 am
#79
RasalTheWise wrote:
Atan wrote:The Changes are postponed for now, but somehow i dont like her choice of words...
Tiggs wrote:Based upon community feedback we have decided to take this design internally and work on it some more before we release it to Test Center.We are leaving this thread open so you can continue to give us feedback and we can update you once the new design is posted.Thanks!
You know, this reminds me when they were going to completely revamp how crafting works. Remember that? People were up at arms about it, and the day before the were going to publish it, they announced it was going to be in Live for a day and then revoked. It never returned.
I truly believe that in a heavily modified way, this market idea could be a good thing for everyone. The best thing I can think of is having all our products show up on the bazaar, but only provide waypoints and possibly an advertising blurb. No prices and no way to purchase it from the bazaar. That way, non-crafters know exactly where the products are (which was their biggest beef), and crafters can protect their prices and emphasize their shops.
I think this is what a lot of people want to see, and hopefully we'll end up with a fianl change somewhere around there.
DarkRenown
Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:13 am
#80
Just my twopenneth.
I like the proposed changes. In fact, I have argued for them on many boards for some time. The only thing I don't 100% agree with is the instant delivery, I still think a surcharge should be charged for this, or the person be made to travel to collect the item (as they do if they purchase on the bazaar currently)
Here are my reasons why
I have 1 account. This means I have limited lots for buildings. I place a house (2 lots), I place a Merchant Tent or house (1 lot), 2 factories, 1 power harv, 4 harvs. Thats my 10 lots. I now can fully supply my own resources, and can create factory runs of all I need to make my own droids.
I am a casual gamer. I have been hardcore, and have taken breaks. I currently run a successful business for both droids and ships on Corellia.
Currently, I spend nearly all my time keeping my 2 vendors fully stocked. I have no problem with this. I would like to expand my product line or expand to different planets, but I have neither the lots or time to do so.
This change would allow me to open up my products to a galaxy wide customer base. I already compete with the local DE's on price, and am generally one of the best priced DE's around. My products are of very good quality, (not the best, but very good).
I see this change as allowing me to open up my markets. If I find I sell a product more, then I can produce more, I can expand my product line and make lower quantities of more products. I would be happy to do so, I find it repetitive to keep cranking out combat probots, BH droids, Astromechs, Med Droids, which I sell a lot of.
I am not rich. Well, actually I am rich, but thats because I don;t spend my credits. I have spent 9 months making my money, and I have done it making good products and providing excellent customer service. I will still do this.
I have always wanted to expand, but can't, lack of lot,s and lack of quality sites prevents you doing so. The long time gamers have houses in key locations. Just travel 1km outside Coro and look. No building space at all. Same on most major planets. So unless I put up a house in the middle of nowhere, and spam the bejeesus out of the spaceports, I am unlikely to raise my business profile.
I don't like spamming, but see it as a necessary evil.
I have many repeat cusomters, because they know my service, and know my quality.
This change will not take them away, they will still know where my shop is, and will still recommend me. But now I can go galaxywide. I can price competitively. I already do. I could do the buying/reselling but I won't. I like to sell only what I make.
I didn;t become a DE to turn over a massive profit and make hoards of cash. I love droids. I wanted ot make droids for me, my guildmates, and the discerning customer. Happy to keep doing this.
But in short, I think these changes will be good for most of the people, who like me, are not power gamers, have only 1 account, and have a small business. It may adversely affect some crafters, who run massive malls, who have multiple accounts to harvest and place buildings, or who are part of the bigger guilds. But, this would bring in a level playing field.
I know people disagree over this. They have every right to do so. If I am in the minority, then so be it. But, personally, I think this will open up crafting and selling to a wide range of people who currently don;t do it, as the markets are choked with the people in key locations.
I hope they bring these changes in.
Jenden
Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:37 am
#81
I'm not sure a lack of lots can really hold you back from expanding, there are (at least on Tarquinas) always player malls looking for crafters to supply them. Not only do these allow players to expand, but they increase the interaction between players, which is what an MMORPG is all about.
Straker_Atrella
Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:22 pm
#82
I am glad that they pulled it as well, hopefully now they are aware of what effects it may have. That is what annoys me the most. Our correspondants are excellent, they should have been talknig about this change on the Corr boards for the past month. The fact that they spent a second of coding time on it without talking to our corrs bothers me.
My hope is that the new system simply provides a list of what vendors have your item, and how many they have. They can also get a waypoint to the vendor. The ability to be inn this system should be a Merchant Skill.
For example, let's say you want Probe Droids. You do a search for them.
You then get a list of 10 Vendors with probe droids, it also says how many each vendor has. You then have an option to get a waypoint to them. No quality, no prices, nothing else.
People have a choice, they can go to the closest vendor and buy there, or they can price shop all 10. Either way, they know all 10 vendors have Probe Droids. The main complaint was empty vendors, and looking for stuff, this will eleviate that.
The reason that I don't think either price or stats should be listed is simple.
On quality items, if stats are listed, only 12 point crafters with the best stuff will sell anything. They will never go to the lower quality vendors. A shopper doesn't need to know anything at all about the product, he simply selects the best stats. With no stats listed, he then goes to one of the listed vendors, there, he decides if the product is "good enough," for him, or if he should go to the other vendors. This leaves the buyer as a factor inthe equation, it doesn't simply rely on the quality of the product.
For non-quality items, stats don't matter, but price does. Merchants price thier goods at what they think they are worth. It's up the the buyer to decide if looking for a cheaper price is worth his time. Again, a side by side comparison destroys this and knowledge of the product is not needed. The cheaper product will be bought and this will start price wars. In a price war, nobody really wins, and it will drive people to leave crafting.
Wirebiter
Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:10 am
#83
I am glad to hear about the postponed changes, but it still seems like we are losing yet another droid module function (merchant barker). With Survey droids sales at a all time low, merchant barker modules will take a chop at the knees. It seems that we are seeing a slow roll-back of pub 8.
The delivery droid idea is a sound one, IMO. I think it could be intergrated quite nicely along with these possible new changes.
I just hope that the prices are left out of the final bazaar set-up. If not, SWG will become a "galaxy economy". Just like Wal-Mart has driven down prices by seeking the cheapest labor/resources, so too will crafters have to seek cheaper resources to maintain a lower overhead. This new system would work if the entire SWG economy was restructured to incorporate lower payouts on missions and such. If this vendor system was in place since launch, coupled with a 90% cut of rewards and pay-outs, then making that 2 or 3 pcu profit would be accetable, or at leasted a little easier to swallow. But, since we are accostumed to the opportunity to make 800k+ an hour, we will never be able to regress back to a stronger credit economy.
Gron_DM
Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:39 am
#84
one way to make aversion of this system is to make going to the shop a discounted price. So instead of paying cost for buying from the bazaar, make it 110% or higher. This will allow people to use the bazaar to find stores by buying a few items then make them go back cause they like the price/availbility. just an idea.
lindalu
Tue Feb 15, 2005 5:00 pm
#85
price competition is the result of having a free market economy. you want people to buy your stuff and not someone else's, and the best way is to offer better prices and/or better quality. if the price is 'fixed' (a.k.a. a socialist or comunist economy) there will be no difference between your goods and joe blow's goods, so you have to find different incentives for people to come to your place (namely location or specialization), in which those crafters who dont have a mall/vendor close to a starport/shuttleport will get little to 0 sales while those who have thier malls/vendors near a shuttleport/starport will get all the sales (i have 2 vendor locations, one in my guild mall which atm is 1600m from the closest shuttleport and one 500m from dantooine mining outpost).
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