Merchant Archive
Thread: Creative Solutions to Dropping Merchant Skills
Page 1 of 2
StrvngArtst
Tue May 18, 2004 10:54 pm
#1
First a little about me. I'm one of the players that has 2 accounts my second ismaster artisan and working on merchant and will eventually do some type of elite artisan field. Now I don't know if I will go to master merchant, but I will decide which treesin the merchant skills will work best for me and my business. I do agree if you drop merchant you should lose your vendors and any associated skills from the boxes you dropped, but the devs should keep in the artisan vendors for those that retain the skill. Quite frankly I've only been reading the merchant thread a few days and I'm already tired of people whining about what will happen to there vendors, and I don't believe the slippery slope arguements that it'll destroy the economy or everyone will quit the game if it happens. What I do believe is that people will continue to play, the economy will stabilize and flurish, and players will adapt. This is why I am starting this thread. I'd like to hear from the merchants, masters and novices alike, as well as non-merchants.
With the upcoming changes in merchant, non merchants WILL lose there vendors in some way or another, so what are some creative solutions to this problem? How can merchants, crafters and other players create a system that will be mutually beneficial to all?
*I'm not talking about changing any game mechanics here. I do not believe the devs will drop everything they are doing and develop some sort of system that will handle this, such as automatic vendor consignment sales or percentage mark ups.WhatI'd like to hear about are possible ways the player community can work this out themselves. How can we the merchants help you the crafters/ scouts/ looters, and sell for you or with you?
Please, This is not supposed to be a thread to rant, rave, or **edit** on. This thread is about coming up with creative solutions to achange we all know is coming no matter how much the community doesn't agree with it. Please keep posts constructive and non-flaming (is that a word?)
Thanks for your ideas,
Alistina Eilarv (master tailor)
Alesa Olleske (master artisan)
spoiledbrat
Wed May 19, 2004 1:45 am
#2
I think the best way to be if all non merchants would be able to keep their vendors, but
a) their Vendors wont show up on the planetary map anymore
b) the upkeeping costs should be greatly increased (the higher your merchant skills the lower the upkeeping costs)
Tarnak_Archvold
Wed May 19, 2004 4:37 am
#3
At each server up the vendors should check if the owner have to skill to registrant it on the map, and/or add bark. If not toughs functions and disabled on that vendor.
At the same time, hiring skill is checked. If the vendor owner do not have enough skills for a uniform the vendors clothing is removed and a "standard uniform" is issued. If there is not enough skills to specifically choose the race the vendor a the race of the vendor is changed to something the player can currently place.
When the vendor owner uses the vendor it should check if he/she have a high enough "place vendor skill", if not the player will not be able to put things up for sale, or can the owner pay maintainers on the vendor.
At the same time, hiring skill is checked. If the vendor owner do not have enough skills for a uniform the vendors clothing is removed and a "standard uniform" is issued. If there is not enough skills to specifically choose the race the vendor a the race of the vendor is changed to something the player can currently place.
When the vendor owner uses the vendor it should check if he/she have a high enough "place vendor skill", if not the player will not be able to put things up for sale, or can the owner pay maintainers on the vendor.
DingoBoi
Wed May 19, 2004 7:59 am
#4
spoiledbrat wrote:
I think the best way to be if all non merchants would be able to keep their vendors,
Not only are you a spoiled brat, you are a selfish spoiled brat.
StrvngArtst
Wed May 19, 2004 8:05 am
#5
Ok first let me say Spoiledbrat and Tarnak_Archvold your posts are very valid, unfortunatelychecking if a player has a certain skill or making sure players keep vendors but lose skills such as advertising on the plantetary map etc. those are part of the game mechanics, and players as a community have no way of really altering the game mechanics, only the devs do. On that note my original intention for this thread was not too suggest any type of game mechanics that the devs should implement. My intention for this thread was to come up with solutions the players as a community could implement through the current system of gameplay we have.
For example: Players can offer items to a vendor for a merchant now so maybe use that particular system thats already in the game.Maybe one way of doing this is for the merchant community to adopt some type of loose standard for what general pricing on an item should be, and then making sure that players know that item offer A will only be bought from a player if that player offers to the merchant vendor at 10% under current market value, there by letting themerchant be able to place it on his vendor and still retain a small margin of profit.
So here is one scenario:
Bob ( a TK/Sword/Scout) goes out and loots a krayt pearl, not being Jedi, bob would like to sell it. Bob comes to my vendor, when he looks at my vendor I have a backpack on there with instructions for people offering items to it. The instructions say something like "Hi I'm Alistina your friendly neighborhood merchant. I gladly accept wholesale priced items offered to my vendor. My requirements for accepting offered items are that the item be priced 10% under the current market value." So, lets say the current market value of the pearl is 3,000,000 credits. 3,00,000 credits - 10%= 2,700,000 credits. So, Boboffers itto my vendor for 2.7 million credits. The next day I buy it and resell it on my vendor for the current market value of 3 million credits.
The above example required no change to the game mechanics, there were no system checks or any new game mechanics involved. We did not have to beg the devs to change the system, and go unheard yet once again. It's a simple solution created by the players of SWG using existing game systems. These are the types of solutions I'm hoping to generate on this thread, not that your guys's solutions aren't valid, but the tides are changing and instead of trying to get the dev's to changethe gamemechanicsI'm trying to think like any good business person would and adapt to the new changes that are coming.
Thanks for any suggestions,
Alistina
DocSavag
Wed May 19, 2004 8:17 am
#6
Here is a system I worked out with a supplier:
I created a warehouse (small tatooine) and gave only my supplier and myself admin access to the house. The supplier would make daily visits to the warehouse and would drop off crates of merchandise for sale and send me emails with the crate count and any special instructions (price changes) I would fill the vendor from the crates when the item count in the vendor fell below what we had agreed on (we didn't keep everything on the vendor because we wanted to discourage buying in bulk to resell and we wanted the idea in your mind that you better grab that item quick because there are only 3 left!!!)
My supplier was able to visit the warehouse and then go to the vendor and look and know exactly how many of any item we had in stock to make decisions about adjusting pricing or increasing production for particular items.
This particular relationship worked on a consignment basis with me keeping track of everything (before mailsave!!!) but it would have worked just as well if I had paid her up front when I got the emails and confirmed delivery of the crates.
This worked fairly well for us (I made millions and I was only getting 10%)
Tarnak_Archvold
Wed May 19, 2004 9:37 am
#7
Ok I was not sure what exactly you mend, so here is way to use the current game mechanics.
The crafters use the bulky vendor they get from Artisan:Business III to stock thair wares in bulk for whole sale at a decreased price. For example a WS could stock crates of VK's for what he found a reasonable whole sale price. Then the merchants stop by and buy what they need for thair vendors, brake the crates up and sell them on at a mark up they find reasonable.
I believe that is how the system was intended to work. But most crafters do not think merchants should get even 0.1% of thair positional profits, let alone 10% or what ever the merchant can get on mark-ups.
The crafters use the bulky vendor they get from Artisan:Business III to stock thair wares in bulk for whole sale at a decreased price. For example a WS could stock crates of VK's for what he found a reasonable whole sale price. Then the merchants stop by and buy what they need for thair vendors, brake the crates up and sell them on at a mark up they find reasonable.
I believe that is how the system was intended to work. But most crafters do not think merchants should get even 0.1% of thair positional profits, let alone 10% or what ever the merchant can get on mark-ups.
StrvngArtst
Wed May 19, 2004 11:41 am
#8
DocSavag and Tarnak_Archvold thanks, these are exactly the type of replies im looking for. :-) They're actually great suggestions too. I think if we can come up with more suggestions like these it could help everyone out. I understand WS and other crafters not wanting to give up any percentage of their profits, but i believe the community will have to eventually adapt to it; however if we keep these suggestions coming it might turn out even more great ideas.
Thanks for the suggestions and Keep em coming,
Alistina
StrvngArtst
Wed May 19, 2004 11:48 am
#9
This is a little off topic but it is exactly the type of creative thinking I think makes the merchant class awesome it can probably be adapted to work with wholesales sluppliers
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=merchant&message.id=27922
great idea Tarnak_Archvold
Alistina
GoCanes
Thu May 20, 2004 12:06 am
#10
DocSavag wrote:
Here is a system I worked out with a supplier:
I created a warehouse (small tatooine) and gave only my supplier and myself admin access to the house. The supplier would make daily visits to the warehouse and would drop off crates of merchandise for sale and send me emails with the crate count and any special instructions (price changes) I would fill the vendor from the crates when the item count in the vendor fell below what we had agreed on (we didn't keep everything on the vendor because we wanted to discourage buying in bulk to resell and we wanted the idea in your mind that you better grab that item quick because there are only 3 left!!!)
My supplier was able to visit the warehouse and then go to the vendor and look and know exactly how many of any item we had in stock to make decisions about adjusting pricing or increasing production for particular items.
This particular relationship worked on a consignment basis with me keeping track of everything (before mailsave!!!) but it would have worked just as well if I had paid her up front when I got the emails and confirmed delivery of the crates.
This worked fairly well for us (I made millions and I was only getting 10%)
This is the way it should work, except there should a consignment system in place for the seller to offer to your vendor with a commission to betaken out upon sale...
I have vendors of my own, but still sell some of my crafting tools/stations in bulk to people interested in carrying them to compliment their current business... I make more profit per item selling from my own vendors, but I can makemoreoverall moneyby having my product out there on as many vendors as possible... ^_^
nathan118
Mon May 24, 2004 7:28 pm
#11
Damn, some of you people get waaay pissy over this topic. 
I'm a master AS who just need 100 more ap exp points for master merchant. DoI feel animosity to the merchant droppers like a lot of you? No, not really. I think this problem can be solved in a couple ways.
1) Make having Master Merchant more interesting/rewarding. Give merchants more than just maintenance reductions/advertising. I can't blame people for dropping it because they can....there are 63 skillpoints used up for hardly any purpose. The maintenance/advertising reductions (i won't even mention the lame bazaar) are so minimal it's a mute point.
2) When master merchants get all pissy....do they stop and think that they might already have a lot more benefits than merchant droppers? You can't move/rename/re-clothe your merchants without merchant skills....that's worth something.
3) Do vendors self-destruct without maintenance? Seems like they should. I see lots of stupid emtpy vendors...whether these are from merchant droppers I couldn't say. But seems like it would be easy to keep these from sticking around. When maintenance is gone they go poof...or no activity for a month, they go poof. Something.
4)****MY biggest concern**** - How will SOE handle any changes? Lots of the master merchants on the rag want to see people lose their vendors and all the items OVERNIGHT. What, with no warning? That's frickin lame. Cue master merchants! "But they shouldn't have been using the exploit!!!! I feel sooo cheated! Life is unfair!" Stop crying, now. Here's an easy solution. Let the vendor remain, but be unaccessible for purchases. People can then have a chance to clear out their items, and remove the useless vendor, OR they can regain merchant skills and have a useful merchant. I can almost guarantee there will be no IMMEDIATE out of the blue changes like that. They'd have a riot on their hands.
Aiight, ready, set, flame!
Sixpack
JTGAlpha
Mon May 24, 2004 7:43 pm
#12
The best solution I've heard or thought of would be the you drop the skills, the vendor remains as long as there is maintence....BUT....you can't ADD anything to the vendor. No offers. No new sales. No new maintence. No new clothes. No new locations. Whatever is on there can be bought. Whatever HAS been offered can be bought by you and removed. That is it. Until the vendor runs out of maintence.
spoiledbrat
Tue May 25, 2004 4:27 am
#13
FYI my Master Artisan is a Merchant and will keep his skills, so selfish fits more to yourself, lol.
DingoBoi wrote:
spoiledbrat wrote:
I think the best way to be if all non merchants would be able to keep their vendors,
Not only are you a spoiled brat, you are a selfish spoiled brat.
As you aren´t capable of reading and only read the first line, little"dingoboí" :
"......but
a) their Vendors wont show up on the planetary map anymore
b) the upkeeping costs should be greatly increased (the higher your merchant skills the lower the upkeeping costs)"
Message Edited by spoiledbrat on 05-25-2004 01:29 PM
Page 1 of 2