Merchant Archive

I have a feeling that the vendors reseting on the planetary map bug is being intentionally left as is by the developers and it makes a certain sense. If they fix planetary ad campaign then whoever puts there vendor up first will always have the first spot on the list. This isn't quite fair to any new merchants as they will always be at the bottom of the list. This doenst make much difference for somethign like tools or equipment, but new weapon and droid vendors will be out of luck.

I propose they implement planetary ad campaign as an actual ad campaign. When you go to register the vendor on the global map, you will have to pay up front for the amount of time you want the ad to run, up to 7 days for a price of, say, 1K/day (this can be adjusted.) Vendors will be listed, at first, in the order they are registered. When your ad campaign is over, however, and you relist your vendor, you go to the bottom of the list. This will allow the newer merchants to get their vendors in more of a prime spot on the map list, as well as adding another money sink into the game as the developers originally intended.

Of course, they have to fix the resetting bug first.

Comments? Questions? Complaints?

Actually I'm all for making the list alphabetical anyways. The top of the list thing means nothing to me anyways if the vendor at the top of the list is 6000m away from me. I click on all the vendors in a category and see where they are. If I am hunting for an item I start with the vendors closest to me and work my way out. Unless I am looking for a specific vendor in which case I just look until I find them.

The only arguement that makes sense for the devs leaving this broken is that it is another case where something isn't getting written to the database (since it is only active as long as the server is up) .

Alphabettically works for me too. I just wish they could fix it. I don't get home for 12 hours after they reset the server, so I can't have my vendor on themap for 1/2 the frigging day.

Yea one of my vendors is on another planet ( I have no idea how people keep up with more than 2 planets but they do) and if I want to keep them running I have to spend 1600 credits per day just to travel to get the vendor back on the map. Which means I have to do it on my lunch hour since I leave for work before the servers are back up. Usually this means I don't do it.

I am for the way CA is doing the recall

First they write a program, that randomly picks all 26 letters into a new, more confusing order.

Then as each person opens there map, The vendors are shown to you in a way that takes the letter of your first name, and lists the "New order" to you starting with the next letter in the order.

Example: New Order

Q S I F D E P B O L M W ...

And your name is Debbie then they will be displayed E P B O L M W ....Q S I F D

Now repeat this process every 15 mins so we have a new order.

That way it is always fair

I pesonaly would like them listed close to far that way the one on top is the one closest to you

Personally, when I am searching for something I start at the top of the list and work my way down until I find a vendor near the city I am in, then I stop.

So if there are more than one weapon shop near Kaadara, for example, I will go to the first one.

If they do it alphabetically, there will be a ton of AAAAAACME goods vendors.

Darn it, there are several good ideas here -- how am I supposed to choose between them?

The concept of paying for ad time is great. It fits with economic reality, and it solves an in-game problem.

OTOH, adding a simple function to sort vendors by radial distance from your current location also solves the problem, and in a highly useful way, too.

I'd be delighted if either of these ideas was implemented.

I'd also very much like the vendor name issue to be resolved. I created and named some of my vendors before I saw a planetary ad list, so I didn't name my early vendors according to my shop and what it sold. Now the only way I can make that one-to-one correspondence between vendor name and sales typeis by withdrawing every sale, deleting that vendor, creating a new one with a more appropriate name, and reselling all items. Eeewwwww.

Finally, I have to wonder why the resetting of ad barking and planetary ads Every Steenkin' Morning hasn't been fixed. I'm not normally of a conspiratorial mindset, but in the absence of provided facts, it's all too easy to guess that the goal is to force merchants to log into the game every single day. I don't like to imagine such a thing... but why hasn't this obvious bug been fixed? Raph K. himself has mentioned these things as the fun part of being a Merchant -- so why have they been left broken while the damage value of some rare weapon gets tweaked repeatedly?

Seriously, I personallythink the Merchant professionshould be completely overhauled. But at a minimum, make the profession's existingskillswork properly!

--Flatfingers [Radiant/Naboo, shop:-443,2315]

I'm for displaying them by radius of your current location when you ctrl+v. It's fair to the customer and it is fair to the businesses as... well... who knows where he/she will be when they open your map, its a way to keep everyone fair. Alphabetical is stupid because it will be abused by using AAAA everything. I ama retail person as it is in RL, and I would like to see the planetary map list actual names of businesses, not a bunch of AAAA's to get your business on top. It would save the integrity of the SWG business world to do it by radius location. Thanks.

Too- Proprietor of the Tisiphone Mall, Right behind the Moenia Starport on the Valcyn Server

Gen, I have 3 AAAAAAACME vendors, what's your beef? Just kidding they are really AAAACME

My main problem with the planetary ad is that it uses the name of a vendor. I run a General Store. I have hundreds of items split among 4 vendors. So the vendors are named "Food and Spices", "Weapons and Droids" etc.

I would really like to be able to put my name on the map as my store name, not one of these vendors. This will require me to create ANOTHER vendor with the store name.

Why isn't there a sturcture option to put the sturctures name on the planetary map?

make it alphabetical categories, and random vendor names. if you make vendor names list alphabetically you'll find alot of ACME and AAA SERVICES vendor names sudenly appearing (check the phone book, real life shops do this too). but it does need to be fixed.

I think that use to be a lot more popular than it is now in real life phone books. But It doesn't matter to me. When my advertising is on I see a noticable pickup in business. I doubt that will change no matter how you sort the list. I think most people are looking for shops near them. If there are dozens of shops near me on the map I might lose out to some sorted above me. But then again I hope that my shop is starting to get name recognition.

radial disrance is by far the most unexploitable and sensible idea