Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchants, Player Cities & Tatooine...
I'm a Master Merchant and I've hooked up with a dedicated crafter. Together we're planning to open a big store.
Arethere any advantages to openinga store in a player city as opposed to a location in the wilds near a non-player city?
The store will be on Tatooine. Does anyone have any advice for a location?
Thanks,
Chroso
Heh. Never mind the Tatooine location question. Somehow in my mind I thought this was a Corbantis Merchant Forum. 
First question still applicable!
5 of my vendors are in a player city, 1 near anchorhead. Each location has it's advantages, but nothing beats the convenience of living and working in the same town. Not to mention the fact that the wide variety of other merchants in the player city, in an organized and structured layout, make a great shopping experience, and therefore increases my sales.
Since moving the bulk of my business to Utopia on Lok (Eclipse) my sales have practically tripled.
Just my observations.
In a player city, your vendor can be within a few meters of the shuttle. You'll always be at least 800 meters away from thenon-player city.
Faellyn wrote:
In a player city, your vendor can be within a few meters of the shuttle. You'll always be at least 800 meters away from thenon-player city.
The thing to consider is the amount of traffice at each location. If the player city has a large base of residents and has a good amount of traffic (its on the way to something cool maybe) then that is your best bet. People will wander in and out of player cities for various reasons and most people will eventually stop and check out the local vendors (its hard to resist).
On the other hand if it is a small city (outpost or village) and not really getting a lot of people passing through you might be better off near the static city.
You could be the reason a small city becomes a larger one though. If you are attracting people to the city with your vendor it could start slow and get bigger.
I think the upshot is that people will go to the best shops, wherever they might be. A well-stocked shop with quality goods will attract customers, even if they might have to go slightly out of their way to get there.
Side Note: The tax rate also affects Offers to Vendors, so if people are selling things to you (i.e. you have a supplier), you may want to avoid cities with sales tax.
One thing to ponder with player cities... if they have a halfway decent city plan (and you want a city that's planned... random cities don't make good places to find shops), the really great vendor spots by the shuttleports will have gone by the time the shuttle is in. The early residents will live round it already. Sometimes taking a risk, and moving in before they get to that stage, can be worth it.
Even without shuttleports though, I sell more in a shuttle-less player city than I did by a major NPC city. It's a case of choose your city wisely.
I sell more in our player city, because a lot of the residents enjoy buying local. We don't have a shuttleport yet, but we do host events, and that helps folks find my shop.
I also get a lot of business from the next town over, since they don't have a tailor shop yet, but still want to stay in the area to buy. 
Polenth wrote:
One thing to ponder with player cities... if they have a halfway decent city plan (and you want a city that's planned... random cities don't make good places to find shops), the really great vendor spots by the shuttleports will have gone by the time the shuttle is in. The early residents will live round it already. Sometimes taking a risk, and moving in before they get to that stage, can be worth it.
Even without shuttleports though, I sell more in a shuttle-less player city than I did by a major NPC city. It's a case of choose your city wisely.
One of the challenges to Virtual Mayors (and real mayors for that matter) is moving people and things around to make your city better. When the shuttle port goes in any good mayor will buy up the houses right around it to make room for a merchant area or for a nice square where you can find trainers etc.. things are possible even after the city is built.
DocSavag wrote:
One of the challenges to Virtual Mayors (and real mayors for that matter) is moving people and things around to make your city better. When the shuttle port goes in any good mayor will buy up the houses right around it to make room for a merchant area or for a nice square where you can find trainers etc.. things are possible even after the city is built.
You're assuming the mayor didn't plan their city very far ahead, and will be forced to move people to make a good merchant area, place civic buildings, etc. This isn't needed. There's enough room in each radius of a city to put people where they can stay, if you plan ahead and make a map. This is more popular with residents, as they don't have to keep moving. The 'cram people in and move them later' approach is arguably nota sign of a good mayor/city council.
If the city has a planning map, it's wise to study it carefully... if it looks like it won't even need major changes, then you have the choice of move in early for a prime spot, or move in late for whatever is left. It shouldn't be assumed that no city plans that far ahead. Some certainly do.