Merchant Archive

---

wolfe2k wrote:

I really don't understand why the devs are suddenly focused on "fixing" things that are not broken and not fixing the things that have been broken for months. If they want to make this game better then give us more content. Something to do other than the same old grind and hunt. Spawned "dungeons" with time limits would be nice, cut down on camping and alow you to finish your quest on the first visit. And why is a Super Battle Droid harder than a Giant Krayt Dragon?

---

---

mpdivo wrote:

---

wolfe2k wrote:

I really don't understand why the devs are suddenly focused on "fixing" things that are not broken and not fixing the things that have been broken for months. If they want to make this game better then give us more content. Something to do other than the same old grind and hunt. Spawned "dungeons" with time limits would be nice, cut down on camping and alow you to finish your quest on the first visit. And why is a Super Battle Droid harder than a Giant Krayt Dragon?

---

Hey, they are fixing a huge problem. I've been complaining about having to spend entire days shopping and travelling from mall to mall, searching out of stock vendors for hard to find resources and loot items. It sucks. It is sucky gameplay. It was a broken system. What sort of economy doesn't allow you to advertise?

---

Advertising != Allowing your competitors to sell their merchandise through your shop.
Advertising != Allowing people to use your shop as just a delivery point after doing all their shoping.

There are ways to make this Advertising instead of wrecking the merchant game. One can only hope they listen to them.

---

Elyssa wrote:

The following is my "as a player" opinion:

I disagree with any system that allows a player to see my prices or retrieve their items without visiting my vendor in person.

Being able to comparison shop from a central location will only favor those players who for one reason or another can afford to undercut everyone else.

Secondly, a significant portion of my business comes from people who look around while they're in my store and see other things they may not have been specifically looking for.

This "impulse buying" is extremely valuable to me as a merchant.

However, the ability to see *IF* something you are looking for is on a specific vendor and get a waypoint to go shop there is a very good idea.

---

Totally agree with what you said, except, the last part. I personally think that the number of items on a vendor that is advertised on the planetary map should shown next to the vendors name. I just don't like the idea of making it so easy to comparison shop, (the rich get richer and the poor get poorer) that really is the case here, (a single 1% on your armor, 2 points of max damage, brandy lasting for just 2 minutes longer) will make a huge difference, and anyone who has the backing of a guild, cross server lot trading, or large friend base can sell product for less, now tell me if that does not make it next to impossible to brake into any craft prof without tons of capital and guild/lot trading/friend backing. The forum trade boards are a good way to ask for what you are looking for, there are ways to find what you are looking for. A MMORPG should not put everything at ones finguretips, we are trying to make this semi-realistic right? If you use this thing shouldn't it take days for the item to be delivered? And its all in a warehouse so you can just go buy it from the vendor to save time? I just don't like the way this steps on the little guy trying to craft or start crafting.

Just my thoughts on this...

Ugh. I really hope SOE goes through with this change and doesn't let the complaints of a few ruin a patch that would help the game overall and would make the game so much better for so many others. I'm a master merchant and have been since nearly game start. I have a prominent shop in a prominent location, so generally, this patch is really not all that beneficial to me. However, it would help the game in so many ways.

This should really HELP npc cities. There is less resaon to gather in player cities when you can do all your shopping at the local bazaar. I can really see this change bringing some life back to a couple npc cities. (The argument is made that more people will end up in Coronet and Theed, I disagree, the lag and overpopulation would spill into other cities)

Along with helping npc cities, we would get more player interaction. People may be less scattered across the galaxy in a hundred player cities.

Then, there is the whole issue if competition.

It really hurts one-stop shopping locations, such as malls, or uber crafters. They lose their point as much as merchant cities, if not moreso.

It increases competition. In my mind, it makes it more fair. Crafters who have incredible locations no longer has an advantage over people because of location. Location, which is somewhat of a first-come-first-serve advantage, is eliminated. This VASTLY helps new crafters who get free galactic wide exposure, rather than being in some new place that no one knows about.

But as location is removed from the scheme of things, quality and price become the two competing points. It's argued that such a deep quality and price competition is bad for new crafters, but what's worse? quality+price or quality+price+location+existing customer base? Honestly, I feel like I have a fair shot in any crafting business now. I hate the fact that the economy is made unfair be these artificial means, and I see in a lot of the arguments here that people are trying to cling to their artifical advantages in the economy.

I can't help but think this just makes the economy more fair. Sure, we may have fewer crafters, but only as supply and demand dictate. The change acutally allows supply and demand laws GREATER control over the economy. Prices will better reflect supply and demand. Excess demand can more easily filled by new crafters. Sure it hurts new crafters going into markets with excess supply, but it greatly helps new crafters going into markets with excess demand.

There has been fewer crafters lately anyway. It's hard to find the things you want, I have had to travel to distant planets and buy from people I don't want to buy from to find what I want (after spending an hour searching). Us MERCHANTS don't feel this pain as much, because we keep up on who's selling what and where, we feel this less than most of the people on the server, but this is a TERRIBLE issue to many people, a frustrating, game experience-smashing experience.

I will be very disappointed if this patch doesn't go through AS IS.

No requirement to visit the actual vendor = No requirement to visit player cities = No requirement to live in player cities = Death of Player cities

Here here!!!! Bring back the NPC cities! You know, the ones that we saw in the Star Wars movies? I understand you may not remember them, no one can blame you.

---

Jade92 wrote:

No requirement to visit the actual vendor = No requirement to visit player cities = No requirement to live in player cities = Death of Player cities

Here here!!!! Bring back the NPC cities! You know, the ones that we saw in the Star Wars movies? I understand you may not remember them, no one can blame you.

---

Huh? On my server at least...

• Theed: Busy


• Mos Espa: Dead


• Mos Eisley: Very Busy

Those are the only NPC cities we saw in the movies and 2/3rds of them are busy.

EnigmaBSc

---

DocSavag wrote:
Let me toss out some ideas for you:

Would you accept this:

1. No Delivery.
2. No Viewing other Vendors from private vendors. Only bazaar terminals would allow global searching
3. The # of items that you could be listed on the bazaar globally is controlled by your advertising skills with Master Merchants able to advertise 100% of their items. Non merchants can only advertise the 25 slots they already have on the bazaar. Have to work out how this will work.
4. The Scope the listings to be determined by your Manage Vendors skill (it makes sense because of the next statement --> Business III would give you only Regional Coverage on the bazaar, Novice Merchant would give you Planet Coverage , and Management III would give you Galactic Coverage.
5. Items "Purchased" from the Bazaar show up in the FOR SALE tab along with all the other merchandise in a highlighted manner and only for the person who has purchased the item remotely. The price for the item is 0 since the item has already been purchased. They click buy and the item is retrieved or put into the available items bin if they have no room.

This concedes the pricing issue and I understand if that is still not acceptable to you. I just toss the ideas out as possible solutions. These are my own thoughts based on conversations I've read and had with other people and shouldn't be considered in any way official. I present these as a fellow player. You all have to decide if you want Elyssa to present something to the devs.

---

I totally disagree with the bazaar interfacing into anything. The bazaar is the number one problem that has prevented the Merchant profession from being recognized as an important piece of this game.

Concede nothing as thesechanges amount toa drastic shift in operation with no PURPOSE. Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing is solved with any of this.

There has been zero agenda presented as a problem to the playerbase, much less a single plausible reason for interfacing with the bazaar, which by ANY spirit of fairness in this game should not exist in the first place. People were already getting free skill points as it is by using vendors on the bazaar terminals. People are getting free advertising on the bazaar as it is with the little 6K auctions that never end.

If this is a time cutting effort, then they need to stick to those efforts that PROMOTE communities. Lowering buff times and prep times for BATTLE promoted communities by getting GROUPS into the battles faster when the opposition invariably shows up fully buffed and ready to go. Lowering shuttle times to 5 minutes promoted communities by making the waits on travel faster to get to events. I'm still out on the 1 minute travel times, but eh. This change will not promote COMMUNITIES in any manner and essentially REMOVES the need for a Player City community at all for merchants.

Doc's suggestion of the Player City Terminal that shows the vendors in a community makes much more sense, and gives more validity to developing groups past the simple 'group' command.

I understand the quick fixes going on, but do not destroy the foundation of this game and turn it into something that customers see as little more than some console game that can be dropped at picked up at anytime, like EQ2 and WOW truly are.

Fivo Asia