Merchant Archive
Thread: Removing full, maintenance paid abandoned vendors has to end!
LadyGrey wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
Vendors exist to sell things. If you want to use one as a prop put something up for sale in it. Frankly put crap up for sale at outrageous prices. If someone wants to annoy you by buying it they will at least have to pay a nice sum for it.
With all due respect, Doc, I will disagree with you on this. I am an engineer in RL, and my job is to figure out how to do things, things that haven't been done yet. I do these things with whatever tools and equipment I can get my hands on, within whatever parameters exist (occasionally bending those parameters if needed). I have createdthings that should not exist, using equipment that should not be able to do what I have it doing.
In SWG, we havepeople that build aquariums. Do aquariums exist as a crafted item? No, they don't. But you can take legitimate crafted items, and put them together in such a way as to have an aquarium. I have seen hot tubs with steam coming off of them, zoos with cages, computer terminals, cubicles, fireplaces, pool tables, etc. All coming from the varied imaginations of creative people, using limited items to make limitless creations. I've made "security cameras" to put up over my hot tub.
Vendors exist for whatever we choose to have them exist for. To limit them to just selling is to limit our imaginations,to limit this game, and to limit this world.
I expect better from you, Doc. Don't let me down on this.
Message Edited by LadyGrey on 10-04-2004 04:42 PM
You should be careful what you are saying here. Double slicing used to be possible in the game. It was, in effect, bending the parameters of the game. But it was an outright exploit and got some abusersbanned.
Creating aquariums and hot tubsin the game is using the opened framework of the game to create unique displays. There is nothing wrong with the game mechanic of placing objects into a house.
Again, using a vendor as anNPC is a gray area. The vendors are supposed to be usedfor sales. Using then for other purposes is possible, but ultimatly, you still need to follow the rules of the game and have something for sale on the vendor. Otherwise it will follow the game rules and delete itselfafter 2 weeks.
LadyGrey wrote:
How about a straight-forward fee, that allows you to set up a"presentation" vendor? However, after you pay the fee, the vendor cannot be shown on the planetary map, doesn't show up on an overhead map, and thus does not present itself as a problem to potential buyers, because they don't even know it is there unless they go into a shop. Other than that, it still acts like a normal vendor, still needs to have one item restocked on it every 2 weeks (or 4 weeks, or 6 weeks, or whatever they've decided on this week), though it would be better if the fee would allow it to remain empty. So, if it can't remain empty,the merchant creates a "presentation" item, that somehow describes the shop or themselves, and has to completely remove it and then replace it to keep the vendor active. But they can then use the vendor as a mannequin (because asking the devs to put mannequins into the game is not a viable solution, it is just asking for trouble to ask for new things). This would be a modification of an existing item (vendors), and since we can now have 12 vendors, a lot of merchants could probably use this idea to enhance gameplay for themselves and others.
The idea is to have fun, isn't it? The idea of having really rigid set rules is for RL. This is a fantasy world, and should be bound only by our imaginations and creativity. If we are treated as if we are rebellious teenagers that are just trying to break all of the rules, then that is how we will act. If we are treated as co-producers of a rich vibrant world with a lot of possibilities, then we can all have fun (maybe even the devs could fun. hehe).
So, bottom line is, are we having fun? Are we ALLOWED to have fun?
I was thinking some more about this. What you want is a mannequin. I am wondering if this might not be something that the Image Designers could supply.
Imagine that an image designer could craft a mannequin that could be placed in a store. The Image designers could style them using the same interface windows they use on players. Once crafted, then could sell them to any player. Then any player could buy them, add clothing, and place them into a house like any other piece of furniture. It could be a container which you could place cloths into.
Anyways, you can still have fun. All you need to do is place some small object, like a change cube, on your NPC vendor for 9999999cr. And keep reposting it every 30 days. Doesn't seem like too much of a sacrifice to me.
-Indene-
DocSavag wrote:
What you are asking is that the rules be changed not for any benefit for the merchant profession or our abilities to sell things but so you can use vendors as decorations. Sorry I don't support that.
And what you're failing to realize is that NPC vendors are not limited in their usefulnes to merchants by the game-given mechanics. People in RL usually prefer an nice, decorated store over a bare-bones, bland store. That is what these NPCs do. They may not help YOU sell things, but they very well may help ME sell things.
If you want to petition the devs for decorative NPC's I'll post supporting you.
At fan fest, in the roleplaying forum, the devs already supported our use of vendors as NPCs. They liked it. I can't imagine how long it would take, or what priority level decorative NPCs would hold--but I'm sure it would be months down the road. Vendor NPCs required no additional dev time.
A vendor that is empty and selling nothing hurts the merchant profession becuase people get tired of seeing them. They stop looking at legitimate vendors and they get jaded about the whole profession. I know that ususally decorative NPC's are obviously not selling anything but the effect is really the same.
Now you're reaching. None of my NPC vendors are listed on the planetary map, so if people do enter, it's by chance. And when they do, it's pretty obvious they are decorative. No, what ticks people off is when Vendor: Jack's Resources and Deeds, registered on the map, draws them in only to be empty. Not, as in my case, Vendor: Librarian Va'tok, or Vendor: Security Chief, neither of which would registered.
Selling 1 item on your vendor that is named "Read ME" and describes what the vendor is for is not deceptive. It will keep your vendor alive and allow you to do what you want to do without changing the rules for others.
Except that I have to be bothered to go around to all my vendors, withdraw sale, resell. You keep talking about 'changing the rules for others.' Well, somebody, a few weeks ago, changed the rules on quite a few of US. Changing the rules is a meaningless arguement. And appealing to the sense of 'fair play' via 'rules' implies somehow that I, and many others, are cheating. How are we cheating if our maintenence is kept up?
There is a reason that empty vendors are removed now. It is a solution to the problem of people putting up vendors and then going away and never coming back. They sit there forever and take up space. Now they don't unless you sell things. Its pretty simple to keep them with minimal effort. You have to put something up for sale on them every 30 days. Thats really not that hard to do.
I support removal of inactive vendors whose MAINTENENCE hasn't been paid. I assume by sit there forever and take up 'space' you mean Mall space. Well, I support Mall owners being able to boot these delinquents. If by 'space' you mean the house that I OWN, that I PAY for, then you have no right to tell me what to do with it. This change really will not stop any grief you envision it will. Vendors used for storage..yep, still gonna happen. Empty vendors belonging to casual players...yep.
I suppose next we will see requirements for your house. You must enter your house at least 1 time every two weeks, or your house disappears. Those reinforced staves you're using to create a zoo pen, better use that for combat once every two weeks or poof, it's going to disappear.
For the love of god, they have NPC vendors in the Homeshows all the time and the devs always "love the creativity". Now you want to nerf vendor decorations? Weee make sure no one has fun on this sinking ship! Lets just sit here relisting crap every 2 weeks so our stormtrooper vendor doesn't disappear. THis game rules!!
I lost a fully maintained fully stocked medium harvester vendor yesterday. I'm out on Rori so my sales are few and far between. I thought it would be cool to split up my harvesters into a vendor for mediums and one for heavies (ya know, since they just gave us more vendors to play around with). Well that was a big mistake.
It seems that no one bought a medium harvester off me in the last month. I had been relisting the harvs as normal when their 30 days would run out. Apparently adding money and relisting items is considered abandoned, since it wasn't a NEW item I was listing. The whole vendor, the 115 days of maintenance, the nice outfit, and the 50+ medium harvs all went in the trash. I had just checked the vendor 2 days ago and it appeared fine.
So now I ask myself... is this even fun anymore? It was always kind of like work, but now I have to come play grabass with like 10 vendors every 2 weeks for fear of them vanishing? God forbid I just enjoy myself... apparently that wasn't in their design.
No more decoration vendors (thanks for all the tears whoever got that changed, probably looked like people were havin fun). Pressure to sell an item every 14 days OR ELSE (just what I need out of a game... work-like time commitments). What’s next? If I don't pick up and redeed my house every 10 days it will get destroyed? (oh crap.. I may be giving them ideas).
The kicker? Not one email about the deletion. No email saying there had been no sales in the last 2 weeks. No email informing me of the upcoming deletion prior to it happening. No email notifying me that the vendor had been deleted by the system. I just walked into the tent to find an empty spot behind the counter and had to find out from a CSR what happened. What a great system!
Get over it.
Message Edited by GraySeven on 10-10-2004 11:15 AM
DocSavag wrote:
"use the same rules the rest of us use"
Now, if we could just figure out what those rules are . . .
Or, if they would stop changing the rules (like how long does something stay in the storeroom?), so we could figure out what those rules are . . .
And, to pretend that I'm not hijacking this thread . . . Stop removing our master merchant, maintenance paid, fully stocked vendors!!!!