Merchant Archive

Thread: Suggestion: Remove the merchant profession!

Bermag
Thu Feb 19, 2004 5:07 am
#1

As I see it the merchant class does not work the way I think it should, i.e. to buy and sell stuff. 99% at least of all merchants are also an elite crafting profession and is selling their own stuff only. It is necessary to be a merchant in most cases if you are a crafter.

There is actually nothing you can do as a merchant, only passive skills (you get some extra vendors/signs etc).

I think either make the merchant class useful (some actual gameplay), for example give us tools to do commision sales etc then there is some use for it. If not then just remove the class and give everything you get as merchant to the business tree in artisan.

Giving us more passive benefits like better item limits (when/if these change go live) doens't change anything.

It is just a waste of skill points IMO which could be used for something that make the game more fun to play.



---
Bermag [SiyBer Arms]

ex-NGE 12 pt Master Weaponsmith/FS Crafting Mastery- Wanderhome
Corellia: (Coronet -200, -5500) Dantooine Imp op -4422 -2383
High quality and low price
Now playing Eve
Varsoon
Thu Feb 19, 2004 5:21 am
#2

/agree
DocSavag
Thu Feb 19, 2004 6:26 am
#3

This is a tired argument. It isn't worth the skillpoints.. but please give me all the skills without any cost to me. If the skills are valuable enough to want to move them into the business tree they are valuable enough to pay skill points for. The statement that no one who isn't an elite crafter is a merchant isn't true as various polls here in this forum have proved.


We are fighting for new tools and better features just like every other profession in the game. Undoubtedly over time we will get some of the things we ask for and not get others. Regardless the merchant profession as it stands now can be a very fun profession to play in the game. It could be a lot better, but it has been a lot worse.






----------------------------------
Chataka Windae
Rifleman/Combat Medic
CEO, Windae Enterprises
Mesric Sanctuary Founder



Obi007
Thu Feb 19, 2004 6:50 am
#4

Everyone wants to have skills from other professions without actually having to be that professons. People ask for having some medic skills or scout skills but they don't want to be a scout or a medic. It seems its same with merchant. Merchant will be better and more important when they fix the bug of being able to keep venders in my opinion.
Korrack
Thu Feb 19, 2004 7:28 am
#5






DocSavag wrote:

This is a tired argument.





I think this is thread number 586 on this subject.





OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK __________________________
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK R E V E R E N C E
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK Black Sun Droid Engineer
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK Outer Rim Droidworks
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK Restuss Rori 5679 6517
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK __________________________
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
OKIEKORRACKOKIEKORRACK
Gaedel
Thu Feb 19, 2004 7:29 am
#6

You can play this profession however you want to.


Suggestion:

1. Setup vendors (you get 5) inside merchant tents at prime locations.

2. Use your other 5 lots to place Harvesters at good quality resource spots. Remember, Master Merchant gets 20% discount on maintenance.

3. Sell your resources.

4. If you are a crafting profession as well, sell your goods.

5. If you are not a crafting profession, you probably have some combat skills and scout skills. Kill stuff and sell creature harvests. Sell eggs from lairs. Do these from missions so you get paid to run the mission.

6. If you are not a crafting profession or combat profession, you must be an Entertainer. Well, go out and milk creatures and go fishing and sell the products. These bring in good money.

7. Advertise that you will buy wholesale and sell retail. Make sure you buy stuff that will sell and know the value of what you buy.


Sounds like a Merchant to me.


If you are having problems with this concept, maybe you shouldn't be a merchant!



Gaedel Threefootseven - Master Architect, Master Artisan, Master Merchant, Mayor of Wind Valley
Krypt O'Nite - Master Bio-Engineer, Carbineer
Conagurr - Master Creature Handler, Master Rifleman, Master Scout, Ranger
Emerille BAM'Lagasse - Master Chef, Master Merchant, Master Droid Engineer
DEFIANT Player Association - Tattooine, Wind Valley Player City
Starsider Galaxy - http://www.swgfan.com
LadyGrey
Thu Feb 19, 2004 11:50 am
#7

I belong to a consortium of five characters. We are starting up a chain of stores, hoping to eventually have at least one store outside of every major city. We have started with some minor goods, aiming at doing quantity business. We are now at the point of having enough money to go to some of the crafters and purchasing from them, at a discount, with the sole purpose of putting the goods onto our vendors, using the discount from the crafters as our profit.

We are looking at perhaps a 5% profit margin to begin with. This will have an added benefit of being advertising for the crafters, as their name will be on the product itself, and we will be putting the address of their vendor as part of the description of the item when we put it up for sale in the store.

We currently have a showroom outside of Kaadara, and merchant tents outside of Theed and Coronet. Within the week we will have a merchant tent near Moenia. We will not be using the pitiful interface that comes with a vendor, but will actually go to the crafters and pick up their goods. We believe the merchant class should be the interface between crafters and buyers, thus allowing both of those groups with more free time to actually play the game.



/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
LadyGrey

Don't let the negative AFKophobes get you down. Play the game however you want.

Is the beta testing almost over for this game?
Zanholo
Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:40 pm
#8

My suggstion to those who want to crap on the merchant profession: GO PLAY ANOTHER PROFESSION AND LEAVE THE TRUE MERCHANTS ALONE!


Many of us play the profession and enjoy it, so take your lame comments and go get commando or something.



(((Oishii Sou'Na))) - Scylla, Silver Bay, Naboo, SS Ace
(((LAkers Pwn))) - Tempest, CorSec Master Pilot
Furnishings, city items, art, p-ups, best repair tools & more!
Lakers Pro Shop & City Tent, S. Coronet, -410/-5480Interior Visions, S. Theed, -5275/3355
(((Goki Buri))) - Chilastra, South Coronet, Havoc 2/2/1/1
chipper1701
Thu Feb 19, 2004 6:28 pm
#9

master merchant isnt for me only doing it for the holo BUT


i can see its potential it can make you alot of money it ties in very well for true crafters or for ppl like ladygray who set up there own business selling other peoples stuff (i wouldnt have thought of that). since starting merchant and having vendors on hand ive never been so rich but the the content of the profession seems to be lacking there doesnt seem to be much reason to get some of the lines hopefully the devs will one day add more content to these lines making them more needed but im glad we have merchants it gives us access to all our wonderful supplies we HAVE to have


the only thing that bugs me is that anyone can get a vendor at business 3 then drop it and keep it etc, obviously this is a good thing but youve got your vendor why bother with merchant ? all the other skills above business 3 seem very superficial there doesnt appear to be any skills that make it worth while to go the whole hogg merchants need a really big boost and i hope they get it





chipper master smuggler/pistoleer on the farstar server.
DarthBukai
Sat Feb 21, 2004 12:47 am
#10

Nobody, not even crafters are forced to spend points on Merchant skills. Nobody. If you are a crafter and you don't want to spend the points for Merchant, then just contract a wholesale agreement and go spend your points of getting leet skillz. Then you can go bugger yourself for starting this thread.



Zuni Fhettisch - Future Uncertain
Ex-Master Droid Engineer/ Artisan/ Merchant - Loved his 'Droids but saw no love
Gone to Medical Academy like Mom always wanted him to - Master Medic/ Master Doc
Ex-Master Marksman, Commando, Swordsman, Brawler, TKA, Fencer
DionDroids
Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:50 am
#11

It is clear that those who frequent this forum dont agree with Bermag (or me for that matter). The question is whether the merchant community is large and viable enough to out way the desires of the crafter community. This profession is like scout was when the game launched. Everyone had to get the terrain neggoitation ladder or they couldnt keep up with their friends. Since then we have received mounts and vehicles which belittles this concern. Still one has to be able to set a camp to call a vehicle. Next patch they are changing that. No profession should be an earnest necessity. They should be career CHOICES. In the current system I have no hope of making a dime as a Master Droid Engineer without my grandfathered merchant placements.


Instead of being put in artisan though I'd like to see the few abilities merchants havestuck in the Mastery of every elite crafting profession.





"All Animals are Equal but Some Animals are More Equal than Others."

Dion MDE Naritus
BioPrototypeFXVI
Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:18 pm
#12

I don't think the crafter professions shuold have merchant skills in them at all. Take a look at real life. Very few people/companies who MAKE stuff actually sell directly to the public. Their goods are sold wholesale to distributers, who then sell to retailers, who in turn sell to the public. It caninvolve even more stages than that in some areas of commerce. Hey, at least the middleman (distributor) isn't a concern in SWG. Sure, you do see some people in real life who sell their own crafted goods directly to the public, but these artisans generally run small operations with only one or two outlets. And the reason that they do so is because they've learned the business. Something that is completely separate from the crafting skills that go into whatever it is that they make. Hardly a master merchant, I'd say. This parallel can be shown in the game by the business skills present in the Artisan profession. One vendor, some fee reductions, etc etc. There you go. If you want to make money in the game (and lets face it, what merchant doesn't?), you don't need to master Merchant unless you want to maximmize your operation. As for me, I run merchant with 3/0/0/1. That gives me planetary advertising and 3 vendors. Yeah, I know I can't get my choice of NPC races with that, but I don't mind. For my rather spartan operation I use the bulky terminals because it suits my business. I have one vendor for weapons, one for armor, and a third for med supplies. Maintenance fees? They're a joke. I drop 50k on each vendor and forget about them for three months. Personally, with 4.5 mil in the bank and about 5 mil in retail value on my vendors, I'm quite happy. Could I go bigger? Sure. Do I want to? No. I'm happy dealing with a small group of suppliers for specific inventory. I sell top quality merchandise at premium prices and I make a fair killing at it. The way I see it, if I sold weapons, armor, meds, resources, furniture, deeds, food, spice, clothes, etc etc etc.(ad nauseum) in multiple locations, I'd be running around like a nuna with its head cut off just trying to maintain decent levels of stock. I'd start looking for any old crafter, regardless of the quality of their goods as long as they can crank it out fast. Then I'd have to drop my prices because of the lower quality. I'd be Wal-Mart instead of Saks 5th Avenue. I'd be too busy maintaining my business. I wouldn't have time to run around and have fun beinga ranger and a carbineer and a thorn in the sides of my enemies. Master merchants.... good on ya. You want to do it, then that's awesome. Semi-merchants like me... good on ya too. Get out there and do it your own way. And all you complainers out there.... bug off and find something that works for you and stop whining to those of us who have found success.


WHEW....

/gets off her soap box
Puck_Starfire
Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:05 am
#13

OK, two things.


1. Whoever said that the crafter community doesn't like Merchant, well this is the Merchant community, not the crafter community. Yes, I am a Droid Engineer first. But I am a Master Merchant second, and have been one forever. And I enjoy being a businessman and do it quite well.


2. The devs have Merchant for a reason. Maybe it's to "eat" points so that if you want to sell better you have to throw points away. Maybe it's another reason. But... it's here and I doubt the devs are gonna move any of the skills much less all the skills to Business.


So....for the 1000th time on this subject, it's not gonna happen.
Page 1 of 2
Previous Next