Merchant Archive

I think most agree that the vendor issue is really one of storage and not economics...

By gating Vendors at Novice Merchant you accomplish so many positive things...

1) eliminates at least 75% of the vendors....thus preventing the "storage" issue and over population of the DB.

2) forces crafters to rely on merchants...no longer will EVERY weaponsmith or armorsmithhave a vendor thus making us a REAL profession and giving a us a real service to provide to other players...

3) Will allow vendors to charge a listing fee...people will want the good shops or good locations to sell their goods...GASP all that Advertisng tree will actually be worth something...

4) Would reduce the "suburbanization" of SWG....frankly the landsacpe is UGLY now..too many houses...leave any big town and there are TOOOO many shops...everyone has the same items..its worse than Starbucks you see every 2 blocks....do we need a weapons store every 20 feet????

I normally don't agree with Naufragus' views on things, but I will admit he has hit it dead to rights on this one. Make the artisan business line reduce fees for the Bazaar or, maybe, increase the amount people can sell an item for on the Bazaar.

It will sure make being a Merchant attractive again. Of course, you will see most everyone spending the 6 skill points to get that one vendor so it may not work all that well....

You have some good points, I also think that there really is a DB issues as well. The NPC vendor defect could have very easily been fixed long before this, you have to ask, Why now?

I do think that it will kill many of the part time merchants, they will move to the bazaar, barking, or turning to a merchant. If they go forward with this, I would like to see a HUGE reduction in fees at master merchant, that a way there is a payoff for all the fees we will have to pay.

I think it will add some value to the merchant line, if there are any of us left.

Time will tell, there may not be anyone left on this game if some changes soon, and this will all be moot.

I agree..gate the vendors and a percentage of this problem will disappear overnight.

The economy needscoolingtoo, anyone can see that...but let's admit this is about items not about economics. Merchants know all about the server economy, you can't Greenspan us and expect to get away with it.

The business line already sucks as it stands - while I appreciate why merchants want the vendor removed your going to need to put forward some compelling 'compensation' unless you want an artisan revolt.

Personally as long as artisan vendors have a higher maint fee than merchant vendors I dont think the business line should be changed (but I believe the maint fee should be based on the player not the vendor - so if a Master mechant wanted to use the 'coke machine' vendor he pays the same maint as he would using an NPC (which is less than the artisan is paying)

There was a really good post about Merchants wantingcrafters forced to use them without having to do any work themselves -

"forces crafters to rely on merchants...no longer will EVERY weaponsmith or armorsmithhave a vendor thus making us a REAL profession and giving a us a real service to provide to other players... "

You tread a thin line here........ you can already provide the service, I'm a merchant, I produce nothing (even though I am master artisan) for general sale, but there is lots of money to be made if you know your markets and how to play them - unfortunately some merchants (and I'm not suggesting you are one of them) want to eliminate the need for player skill and make money purely from the fact that they are the only ones who can run vendors (i.e. force crafter to sell to them at a discount or face hawking their goods on the street corner - and then slam the customer for them because its the only way they can obtain the goods unless they are lucky enough to find the crafter hawking on the street corner) - more likely this would just force all goods down to 3k (as is almost happening now) and every crafter selling on the bazaar

If Merchants would stop acting like flakes, more elite Artisans would likely be willing to deal with them. Most of us (that I've talked to) would prefer that. But, since it's hard to find a merchant anyway, and most seem to have no clue about supplier relations, why bother?

I just dealt with Csin on Bloodfin. And, I'm thrilled to finally find a merchant that places an order and then accepts the order when delivered.

If vendors are removed from the Business line, I foresee advanced probots on the Bazaar for 3k each. I know other Master Elite Crafters who would likely do the same thing ... rather than being forced in a GAME to sell through another class.

It doesn't have to be that way. You folks could stop asking for vendors to be removed from the Business line. You could start asking for your class to get fixed and not nerf another one. The person who talked about an Artisan revolt above was quite right.

Again, I'd like to say that you folks are supposed to be the selling specialists ... not the only ones selling.

Overall, I agree that Merchant needs some leverage and that by eliminating vendors from the Business line would do this and reduce the DB issue. However, there was no suggestion on how to gain the Merchant XP to get Novice Merchant.

Instead of eliminating vendors for Business, limit them. Business Vendors should be limited to 20 items, including stockroom.

Merchant Vendor maintainence reudctions should be significant, and Merchants need to ability to set up Vendors for consignment work by giving a person Admin rights on the vendor and charging them a % of sale fee.

For the 1874839th time.

Every other Elite Artisan profession takes General Crafting XP. So Merchant can also. Even though you can make armor,weapon,clothes,food in Artisan, the corresponding elite professions does not require a specific item to be crafted.

Artisans should use the bazaar. So the Business line should contain enhancements for bazaar use only. Premium auctions, lower fees, extending time, etc.

how many shops have you been to with nothing but the ugly basic vendor.....

i had to give up scout and lose some valuable skills to finish training some artisan skills...only to find that my mechant skills are pointless because 2/3 artisans have a vendor...i have had to give things up for all this interdependency crap...i have yet to have a profression be depenent on me for anything...as it stands why would a weaponsmsith cut me a wholesale deal when all he has to do is set up a house and do it himself...seems like every noob artisan has a "shop"

i listed some changes to the biz line in the big thread

maybe..

biz 1 --- reducedbazaar fee

biz 2 --- global listings...make it local only without this skill

biz 3 - premium sales

biz 4 -- 5% increase in bazaar listings

evne moving vendors to Biz 4 would eliminate some...koster wants to have a vendor genocide....i would rather have one that actually strengthens our profession than one that makes it unviable....

It occurs to me that simply increasing the maint on a house to match the maint on, say, a heavy harvester would remove thousands of items from the database, eliminate one-empty-vendor 'stores' and make homeownership more 'elite'.

Sure..more people would bitch than just one class..but this is the kind of change the playerbase overall is ready to accept. This doesn't nerf newbies, and it doesn't eliminate the possibility of maintaining a healthy business.

It seems silly that my Large Cor. House costs me pennies compared to my Resources Vendor..