Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchant Top Issues List (as of May 2005)
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Elyssa
Wed May 11, 2005 6:49 pm
#1
Top Merchant Issues
(May 2005)
Now that the Combat Upgrade and Rage of the Wookiees have gone live, it's time to present our top issues.
If there is no serious community objection, this is the list I will be submitting to the developers in the next couple of days.
The top 5 issues are the most important and are presented first. Below that are other items in no particular order that represent the major issues based on community feedback. Many of these issues are taken from Doc's previous list since very few of them have been addressed.
While not every idea that has been presented is listed, these represent the majority of suggestions and issues that seem to have broad based community support.
#1 Gameplay Vendor Interface Overhaul
The vendor interface is very clunky and inefficient.
The sales, offers, and stock room interfaces need fewer clicks and batch processing support to allow large-scale sale sand re-pricing efforts to be done with a minimum number of clicks.
The vendor interface is very clunky and inefficient.
The sales, offers, and stock room interfaces need fewer clicks and batch processing support to allow large-scale sale sand re-pricing efforts to be done with a minimum number of clicks.
We request the following items:
- A feature commonly referred to as the "magic relist button" which would allow the merchant to select multiple items in the stockroom and with the click of a single button, all selected items would be placed back on sale at their previous sale price with their previous player-entered description intact.
- Batch sales listing which would allow the merchant to select multiple items from their inventory and place each item on sale at a single price with identical player-entered descriptions by pressing a single button.
- Change the default vendor filter to "this vendor" rather than "this region."
- Add a column in the stockroom listing to show the item's previous sale price.
- Give an option to disable offers on a given vendor to prevent random people offering unwanted items.
- Item category revamp (see below)
- Vendor email revamp (see below)
#2 New Feature Consignment Sales Support
Wholesale purchases for retail sales is only one method of merchant-supplier collaboration. Another is consignment sales. For the purposes of this feature request, consignment sales is defined as items purchased by the merchant with little or no up front cost with the understanding that a split of the sales revenue at a predetermined amount (percentage or flat cost) will automatically take place upon the sale of the merchandise.
Wholesale purchases for retail sales is only one method of merchant-supplier collaboration. Another is consignment sales. For the purposes of this feature request, consignment sales is defined as items purchased by the merchant with little or no up front cost with the understanding that a split of the sales revenue at a predetermined amount (percentage or flat cost) will automatically take place upon the sale of the merchandise.
Currently this system is envisioned as an extension of the "offers" system such that the seller can offer an item to a vendor for consignment sale but the merchant is required to actually place the item on sale. The item should be unavailable for retrieval by the merchant so as to insure the security of the transaction for the seller. In this mode, all items would be filtered through the offers system.
In another mode of operation, the merchant should be able to sell items directly from his or her own inventory and designate a split of the money to a second character. In this mode, a supplier could drop off large quantities of inventory for the merchant to sell.
These relationships are desirable because it removes the financial burden from the merchant.
#3 New Feature Directed Sales
Vendors should be able to allow a merchant to place an item up for sale that can only be viewed and purchased by the indicated party or group. We suggest the following groupings: Player, Guild, or Faction (Imperial/Rebel/Neutral). The directed items would not be visible to players who did not meet the requirements of the filter.
Vendors should be able to allow a merchant to place an item up for sale that can only be viewed and purchased by the indicated party or group. We suggest the following groupings: Player, Guild, or Faction (Imperial/Rebel/Neutral). The directed items would not be visible to players who did not meet the requirements of the filter.
#4 Gameplay Vendor Email System Overhaul
The current email system used by vendors is far from optimal. We get email when we purchase the item, when an item is purchased from us, but not when items are offered for sale to the vendor. Unless a merchant specifically looks to see if any items have been offered to a vendor, the items can sit for an extended amount of time until they are either auto-rejected by the vendor or the seller cancels the offer.
Furthermore, merchants are flooded by "auction unsuccessful" emails as their items reach the end of their listing time and fall into the stockroom. While it is necessary to know that items are no longer on sale, the sheer volume of email is annoying. Since most merchants list many items at once, the flood of emails comes in cycles and can last for several minutes while you may be off experiencing another part of the game. Additionally, a flood of email is generated when the merchant deliberately de-lists items.
We request the following changes:
- Email is generated when an item is offered to a vendor.
- Merchants receive a digest version of items that have fallen off sale within a given timeframe. Something similar to "Within the past 60 minutes the following items have exceeded their listing time and been moved to the stockroom..." One email for multiple items from each vendor.
- No email is generated when a merchant manually withdraws an item from sale.
- Email needs to be generated when a vendor's maintenance pool drops to zero.
Additionally, there are also some bugs that have been introduced into the vendor status emails lately and need to be fixed. When the vendor status changes (empty, unused, ok), it is sending out the wrong notification. An empty vendor generates a "working normally" email. Listing an item generates a "danger of deletion" email. Though untested, it is presumed that a vendor in danger of deletion would generate an "empty" email.
#5 Gameplay Merchants are Concerned that the Profession is Being Devalued.
Changes to the global bazaar (galactic search without skill point cost and price cap increase) are giving the benefits of the merchant profession to players who have not spent the skill points for them and are resulting in the marginalization of the merchant profession.
Changes to the global bazaar (galactic search without skill point cost and price cap increase) are giving the benefits of the merchant profession to players who have not spent the skill points for them and are resulting in the marginalization of the merchant profession.
Most merchant skill boxes have little "real" benefit.
The only significant skills are the management line for extra vendors and an increased item limit, Advertising 3 for planet map listing (devalued by galactic search), Efficiency 4 for placing a merchant tent (the tent is retained after dropping the skill), and Hiring 4 for the ability to dress vendors (the clothing is retained after the skill is dropped).
The only significant skills are the management line for extra vendors and an increased item limit, Advertising 3 for planet map listing (devalued by galactic search), Efficiency 4 for placing a merchant tent (the tent is retained after dropping the skill), and Hiring 4 for the ability to dress vendors (the clothing is retained after the skill is dropped).
The benefits from all other skillboxes are marginal at best.
In fact, you can grind to master merchant, lay down a merchant tent, place 9 vendors (including a protocol droid from the master box), put clothes on all your NPC vendors, create custom ad barking and then drop your skills to 3004 Merchant (recovering 31 skill points) and the only significant thing that will differentiate you from someone who is still a Master is the fact that they can have 3 more vendors and offer 1250 more items for sale than you.
We request a significant content upgrade such that 1) our skill boxes become more valuable, 2) our gameplay becomes less mind-numbing, and 3) the removal of the ability to retain merchant skill benefits after dropping the skill that grants them.
Message Edited by Elyssa on 05-11-2005 09:32 PM
Ani_cul
Wed May 11, 2005 6:58 pm
#2
Elyssa wrote:
21+
*cough* so is this section R-Rated?
Iwill edit later just had to post that now
EDIT:
Think that covers it.
I know for me personally #2 is lower on the list then a few others.
{#3 and #10 for example, these two would go along ways to 'revamp' us}
#3 alone would create such a impact it would rock the galaxies,
Merchants being able to support a 'side' or create a specific client base by name..OH yeah there is #2 on my list
Wish the bugfixes weren't there at all , since we know at some time certain ones did actually work 
and dangit I SOOO want #6 what a market would be opened up there for Image Designers.
I myself would hire one more then likely weekly for a facelift on vendors ,
since that would be by far easier then pulling stock and createing a 'new' vendor {which can takes hrs for a acceptable one}
#14 would be most awesome if implented. This itself would go a long way to help folks who would need #15.
So apart from my own personal rearrangment, I would say its all fairly covered, great list Elyssa. 
Very simply put as well {we all know how hard it is to be breif AND meaningful}
Message Edited by Ani_cul on 05-12-2005 06:02 AM
Pappi
Wed May 11, 2005 7:10 pm
#3
Ani_cul wrote:
Elyssa wrote:
21+
*cough* so is this section R-Rated?
I WILL edit later just had to post that now
everyone's post count buffering
Elyssa
Wed May 11, 2005 7:12 pm
#4
Ok, there ya go.
Now you impatient types have something to read. 
Message Edited by Elyssa on 05-11-2005 09:37 PM
Pappi
Wed May 11, 2005 7:19 pm
#5
Elyssa wrote:
Pappi wrote:
Ani_cul wrote:
Elyssa wrote:
21+
*cough* so is this section R-Rated?I WILL edit later just had to post that now
everyone's post count buffering
You people are just lucky I'm at work./shakefist
what, get off your lawn?
Ragnaat
Wed May 11, 2005 7:49 pm
#6
Is there room for vendor naming rules in that big list there? Between the inability to sell ASSault armor and the general lack of feedback one gets when a name isn't acceptable it can be as much of a pain as the vendor appearance issue.
(and on vendor appearance, even if we can't get IDs to work on our vendors, is there any chance we can get a higher chance at a "normal" colored wookiee?)
(and on vendor appearance, even if we can't get IDs to work on our vendors, is there any chance we can get a higher chance at a "normal" colored wookiee?)
Elyssa
Wed May 11, 2005 8:10 pm
#7
The name filter is apparently set largely by LucasArts and the developers have never been willing to bend on it before. That's why I didn't include it.
Rehavam
Thu May 12, 2005 6:21 am
#8
Fantastic list, great Job Elyssa.
About the name filter - I could be wrong - but I suspect that it is both from SOE and LA. All the copyright stuff might come from LA but it seems strange that pretty general and generic expressions are filtered out too e.g. "Doctor" or "Enhancer". It rather seems that the filter checking vendor names is the same that checks character names on the create character screen. This filter obviously has restrictions to prevent people to name their characters like in game items or in game creatues which would explain why we can'tname our vendors accordingly. If I'm right perhaps there is a way that they could split the name filter for character and vendors in future and allow us to use in game item names and generic expressions like "Doctor" on our vendors that are obviously not allowed for character names.
Elyssa
Thu May 12, 2005 7:41 am
#9
I'm sorry. What I meant to imply about the name filter was that SoE says "These things will be on the name filter" and then LucasArts says "Ok, add these things too."
Either way, they've always been unwilling to bend on the name filter thing in the past.
Ragnaat
Thu May 12, 2005 8:46 am
#10
Thanks Elyssa, Its an otherwise great list... everytime i got to the end of a post thinking "damn that was left out" i scrolled to see there was more and my issues were there!
Jutewr
Thu May 12, 2005 10:06 am
#11
Pappi wrote:
Ani_cul wrote:
Elyssa wrote:
21+
*cough* so is this section R-Rated?
I WILL edit later just had to post that now
everyone's post count buffering
I can't help it if I'm popular and everyone else wants to copy me. lol
Great list Elyssa! 
Ani_cul
Thu May 12, 2005 10:14 am
#12
Jutewr wrote:
I can't help it if I'm popular and everyone else wants to copy me.
Great list Elyssa!
and who are you?
sciguyCO
Thu May 12, 2005 9:36 pm
#13
Elyssa wrote:
#24 Bugfix Building Signs Behaving Improperly
...
Along with the other stuff you had there, maybe you could also include the weirdness some sign types show with some building types.
For example, I've got a medium generic house. If I set the sign type to style 2 (or whatever the pyramidal style is) it ends up about 5-10m in front of the "porch" by the entrance. Since my shop is on a small hill, it's also floating 2-3m off the ground.
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