Merchant Archive
Thread: Vendors and private houses
Holocron wrote:
We cannot give people all the storage they want. In UO for a while players had effectively unlimited storage. The result nearly killed the game. There have to be limits somewhere.
The key problem with private vendors is that they serve as a huge storage multiplier.
Since you brought up UO, there's another point I want to make. I wasn't going to say this, because this game isn't UO, and as much as I like both games (still have activeaccountssince day 1 on both) they really can't be accurately compared. But since you went there, here's some numbers on UO's storage limits.
7x7 house - 425 items
8x8 house - 650 items
13x13 house - 1300 items
18x8 house - 2119 items
Some of the old style houses go even further;
Tower - 2119 items
Keep - 2625 items
Castle - 4076 items
If we're going to make comparisions, I'd say a small SWG house is something like a 7x7 UO house. A Large SWG house would be more like an 18x18. A PA hall, is along the lines of a Castle. And in my opinion, the crafting system in SWG requires far more resources to be kept on hand than UO.
DesignerDragon is dead, long live Holocron.
Is this true if you only have Business III? I'm pretty sure I'm paying more than this.
Have you looked at NPC vendors lately? Regardless of how much you dump on them, they charge 1 maintainance (0 if you have Efficiency III). People use NPC vendors to avoid maintenance charges.
Yeah, expect that to be fixed.
Holocron wrote:
Have you looked at NPC vendors lately? Regardless of how much you dump on them, they charge 1 maintainance (0 if you have Efficiency III). People use NPC vendors to avoid maintenance charges.Yeah, expect that to be fixed.
I'm just curious, but shouldn't something like this be a priority instead of fiddling with mission rewards? I'm not arguing since Devs have a LOT more data then players about the economy, but if on average the playerbase is increasing their wealth by 7% per day, these broken merchant fees would seem to be a pretty darn good first step.
I avoided NPC vendors for a couple weeks mainly out of guilt of the maintenance fee. I'll exploit a bug by accident once to /bug it, but I have a hard time exploiting something I know is broken like this. I did eventually break down and put up a NPC vendor, only to pull all the items off it (well the ones I could get off it anyway) after one day when several customers reported not being able to retrieve some of their purchased items. I'd rather have customers sending me their orders and I build it instead of upset customers because they cannot retrieve their purchases (something I as a seller can't verify either way plus CSRs can't help with).
I'm sorry if this isn't on topic enough, but I havetwo questions for Holo.
First, was it ever supposed to be where anyone could drop their vendor in anyone elses house as long as they're made a Admin? I really would like to share a shop with my friend, but I'd like my own Vendor...
Second, would it be possible to have a 'Pick-Up' type vendor for merchants? Basically its a NPC that holds items that are only buyable to the person specified by you. This would allow me to make up all my Mail Orders and throw them into the 'Pick-Up Vendor' send out e-mails to my customers and not worry about someone else buying their order. I know this would go against your 'Not supposed to be storage units' rule... But couldn't you just put a 24 hour time limit on the items or something? Say if the items arn't picked up in 24 hours the Vendor eats them? =P
Anyway, thats all.
Thanks
If you fix the 1c per hour vendor, make sure you make it something reasonable..you do realize that if any item, at any price, stays on the vendor for more than 100 hours, that item looses money? Thats just over 4 days...NO ONE will use a vendor if that is the case.
1% of the total value per hour per day simply can't stay.
Holo,
I've got 2 stores. One is public and the other is private. The public store is my retail face, and where I sell to everyone. My private store is set to "private" and has an entrance list. On this vendor I sell crates and bulk stacks of resources as a wholesale outlet. I only sell to other merchants and vendors I've made arrangements with, who are going to be purchasing in bulk and reselling in there own stores. The only way I have of selling at this reduced cost is to create a "private" store.
How do I manage this now?
Hero_DarkJedi wrote:
Put an "Access" list on the elevator controls in the PA hall. Allow anybody on the "elevator" access list to have Pickup/Drop authority *only* in the downstairs of the PA hall :-)
Great idea, and I like it....but some of our PA Members now still have a problem getting into and out of the basement. They get the message "You are already on the (lowest/highest) level" when trying to use the elevator. The only way to get them out is to kill them, and that might mean getting someone else stuck down there.
Holo...
I understand the 'storage' issue as you put it forth...however, please look at our situation ...Sabacc City Mall...and the trickle down implications to those doing business in Sabacc City.
I assumeyou have the records...look at the volume we do ...and we can't keep up with demand and continue to increase output ...if you charge the vendor for that type of volume which is needed to meet demand the result will obviously be higher prices...if that is ok by design...understood...but you see where this is going...ifcrafters are to produce at the volume needed to meet demand this adds another layer of complexity that could be addressed by a game mechanic provision. Instead..they are forced to shove extra goods into the vendors or run to city banks or give stuff to friends to hold in order to get the space they need for their production lines.
Maybe again this is a scenario not fully considered in your metrics...one location doing high volume of business and how that effects those suppling that location with goods.
Then again it's also the big v. small dilemna ... we've built our trade and city ... and continue to reach out to more artisan's to provide for the ever increasing traffic we get... this is not so much of an issue with smaller artisan/merchant shops.
So I ask is some skill provision for Master crafters to get them the extra storage they need really something that can't be accomodated?
Oh...and any comments on the lack of business skills ??? PLZ! 
Modest suggestions for this issue.
I think a big part of the problem could be resolved with something like the following solution.
Allow a "Sell to" tag on all items placed on a vendor. In the sales window of a vendor, directly under where you set the price would be a drop-down menu of the following choices "Public (Default), Guild Only, Faction Only, Friends, and Custom". When and item is placed for sale, the merchant would be able to select one (or possibly a combination of these options via checkboxes) of the target customers. Obviously, the option are self-explanatory for Public sales, Factional sales, or Guild sales. The "Friends" would of course be open to everyone on your friends list, and "Custom" would allow the merchant to specify ONE person thats able to make the purchase. When other people that do not qualify to buy this item browse the market, the items simply to not get shown.
This type of solution, though may not cover ALL concerns, would solve most of the issues presented here, and still not cause problems in your item-limits. As far as the database is concerned, you would only need to add one array into a new data column, thus keeping database load to a moderate level. I cant guess what the extra check routines would starin the system, in order to filter sales by elegibility, but I suspect that a compromise similar to this would be one of the more effecient solutions. Just an off the cuff if-then structure like "If playerFaction == merchFaction then ListSale()..... elseif playerGuild == merchGuild.... etc" Crude, but I think you can get the idea.
The great thing about Brainstorming is nothing can be deemed as wrong!
Suboshi wrote:Holo,
Setting aside the advantages some people consider in selling to PA Members only, one big thing about private vendors are for commission based sales. What happens is the crafter receives an order (particularly high level crafting, suits of armor, buildings, etc.) that may take a few days to fulfill. This may make it harder for the crafter to meet with the person "in person" to deliver the goods.
What often happens in this scenario is the following:
1) Crafter completes the order.
2) Crafter places the order in a travel pack named after the person who ordered it in the first place and puts it on his private vendor for the agreed upon price.
3) Crafter adds that person to their Entry list on the private house (set private so that not just anyone can come in and purchase the order that was commissioned for someone else).
4) Crafter sends an in game mail to the person telling them WP and that their order is complete and in the vendor.
The problem is that some types of sales people (doctors, bio-engineers, tailors, chefs, etc.) NEED to cater to the public at all times, but some times likeMaster Weaponsmiths, Architects who aren't handling furniture, etc. will want to use a private vendor to allow for pickup in that fashion. They often have TWO houses, one for public sales, one for private sales/discounts/commission pickups. There have been problems when the houses were set public with people just randomly buying other peoples commissions even though they were clearly named after the person who was supposed to get it.
This is the exact scenario I am using to slice weapons. A weaponsmith can drop their goods on my public house vendor, then when I can get time to get them I slice them and place them on my private vendor for pick-up.
My current solution was to have them sell the items to mee at a high fee, like 4,000 credits. I then would set the access fee at 4,000 for 15 minutes.
The problem here is if some old customer knows this system and knows I am slicing 25 - 50 items for someone the 4,000 access fee is cheap price for 50 weapons.
One solution I would like to see is e able to set a private sell up on a public vendor. This would be fine for me. I could then set Backpack A with 50 sliced weapons for sale to my client with no fear of anyone else even able to see it.
This actually would be the best solution for me. One, I don't have to worry about managing access fees or if they would go private entry rights. Two, I could put my vendor in the PA Hall, and not worry if Jimmy Freshman is going to grief my client and I. Of course having the ability to sell to your PA or your faction would also be nice. Maybe a selection like region, or entire galaxy is.
I would think that could be enough control. A individual, PA, and Faction. This would allow us to have some control over who can buy goods yet stop the storing of resources you did not intend it to be.
Etzee, Slicer
Sunrunner, Coronet
