Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchant Item Limits Focus Thread: Please try to be constructive and rational (Pt 2)
Z4Gamer
Fri Aug 13, 2004 10:20 am
#235
Personaly I would rather it if the efficency tree enabled you to sell more items on your vendor rather than the management tree. The limit of 110 for a master merchant is far to low though I would have said that 350 would have been ok for a master
RogaDaynar
Fri Aug 13, 2004 10:51 am
#236
If nothing else, the Devs MUST consider this:
I can understand the small increments in maximums going from Management I-IV, but when a player makes the additional 12 BOX SKILL COMMITMENT to get MASTER, then the increment should be multiplied around a factor of 10-12 from Management IV's maximum limit to Master Merchants maximum. I think that proportionality under the proposed limits would reach a maximum limit that most can accept. After all, if you want to be able to sell 300-500 items on a vendor and have 6-7 vendors, you should have to master the merchant profession. Just like if you want to use the T21 Rifle, you need to achieve a certain high level skill.
Iesaera
Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:14 am
#237
Sure put some limits on the vendors... I think 100 for the low level artisan building up to 500 per for master merchant would be A LOT more realistic. Also they need to increase all the crates to hold at least 100 items, that would make storage of back stock A LOT easier. I am a DE and my droids come out in crates of 5!!! Without being able to put most of them right onto the vendor, storage will be a nightmare. I will have to do really small factory runs which defeats the purpose of having 1000 limit schematics.
I do like the idea of empty vendors disappearing after 2 weeks... I have some in my city mall right now of a player who quit or something... been empty a month and just wasting space and confusing ppl.
BTW I think it SUCKS of SOE not to have a discussion thread about this issue in the "testing" or "development" forums so we could talk directly to them about it, and also for them to nerf the old thread here! Majorly LAME!!!!! Sticking thier fingers in thier ears and pretending not to hear these issues won't make them go away!
Iesaera/Shes'mi Sun
Talon City, Corellia, Tempest
snuff0r
Fri Aug 13, 2004 1:30 pm
#238
ok i havent read this thread cause its way to long, i just wanna point out my problems with this limit and mention a few ideas i have.
lets start with a few things i appreciate:
lets start with a few things i appreciate:
- players without merchant should not be able to own vendors or merchant tents
- players should no langer use vendor for storage
and here i got some points that could cause problems for me:
- i need storage. i am an armorsmith who is producing like 5 diffrent types of armor, thats composite, hunting, ubese, padded, shields. hopefully this is gonna be more after combat revamp
my resource needs simply extend my storage capacities.
not only that houses take so many lots, i simply cant place enough factories to keep my vendor stocked when i have to use all my lots for storage.
furthermore i used to drop 2 or 3 harvesters to get good resources what i cant actually do without using a vendor for storage
i simply dont have the time to restock my vendor 3-5 times a week. - with the mentioned limits i can put like 10 suits of armor on a vendor.
i have 3 diffrent kinds of composite, 1 kind of ubese, 1 kind of padded, 2 diffrent types of hunting armor.
and i would love to place more then 1 suit of each kind in my vendor plus i good hundreds of shield generators to sell.
you may tell me that i can place more than 1 vendor, you are partly correct about this.
i might get another vendor to split my diffrent kinds of armor somehow, i could even go for master merchant to get additional vendors. this still leaves me with the problem that i have to restock my vendor very frequently, and it might run out of a certain kind of armor more than once a day! that would kill my business
here i have a few ideas how you can get rid of some items in your database and still keep the vendor community happy:
- allow loot items with same serial to stack. that will help most fighters to store their NS layers and RIS drop and whatever without using vendors
- give us a structure where crafter can store things with a capacity like 300, theres no need to design floorplans and stuff, just make em work like factories with storage department where crafter can see item details in item description like in vendors, maybe you can increase the lot size of resources in these buildings to further decrease the number of database entries. maybe you can limit these buildings to master crafters to keep their purpose. and hell, make sure they are easier to use then vendors to make players actually use them.
- move additional vendors for merchant further up the merchant tree, maybe you can even spread em over the tree.
this will require more skill points to get a few vendors and therefore many players wont invest all the skillpoints cause they had to drop their fighting skills. - increase the number of items a vendor can hold somewhere in the merchant tree. artisan for example can put in 100 items, master merchant like 1000, maybe you can increase the vendor capacity also on master crafter skill boxes.
- make maximum pricing for items depend on merchant skills, this might be also a good idea for bazaar
this will keep artisan merchants(loot hunter) from putting there expensive loot items for sale on their vendor cause its actually so cheap that they run into the risk of loosing their item. novice crafter won be hurt by this cause they cant make any items beiing worth several millions. this would furthermore increase the value of dedicated merchants that have a wide variety of products they are selling
this are my ideas, i really like em, if anybody reads it, please post your opinions, and to you devs: make it this way 
justin1911
Fri Aug 13, 2004 2:08 pm
#239
1000 items should be the limit.
Pony up some of that money we're paying you per month and buy a few decent database servers jeez.
Pony up some of that money we're paying you per month and buy a few decent database servers jeez.
Trick-eld
Fri Aug 13, 2004 2:21 pm
#240
OK, I haven't read the entire thread, so this idea might have been posted earlier and I overlooked it. My appoligies if I'm taking someone else's idea.
Business 3
+1 Vendors
+50 Items per Vendor
Business 4
+10 Items per Vendor
Master Artisan
+1 Vendors
+20 Items per Vendor
Novice Merchant
+1 Vendors
+10 Items per Vendor
Advertising 1 - 4, Efficiency 1 - 4, Hiring 1 - 4 (each skill box)
+10 Items per Vendor
Management 1 - 4 (each skill box)
+1 Vendors
+10 Items per Vendor
Master Merchant
+1 Vendors
+20 Items per Vendor
Some example of how this plays out:
Business 3 has 1 Vendor with max 50 items each
Business 4 has 1 Vendor with max 60 items each
Master Artisan has 2 Vendors with max 80 items each
(SP Investment = 77 points. Most professions provide a bonus to all lines at Master, so I think Artisan shouldbeno exception)
Novice Merchant has 2 Vendors with max 70 items each
Merchant 4400 has 2 Vendors with max 150 items each
Merchant 0004 has 6 Vendors with max 110 items each
Master Merchant has 7 Vendors with max 250 items each
(SP Investment = 92 points)
Master Artisan & Novice Merchant has 3 Vendors with max 90 items each
(SP Investment = 83 points)
Master Merchant & Master Artisan has 8 Vendors with max 270 items each
(SP Investment = 140 points)
Of course, we also need the ability to assign control of a vendor to another player. That player should be able to stock and remove items from the vendor as though they were the owner. They SHOULD NOT be able to access the maintanance of the vendor. Instead, we Merchants should be able to set a "tax rate" on the vendor to be added on top of each sale, and the proceeds deposited directly into the vendor maint. Since we can remove maint from a vendor, we Merchants can retrieve money when we want to, with no worries that the vendor will run out of maint as long as sales are taking place 
joined42904
Fri Aug 13, 2004 2:29 pm
#241
Trick-eld,
Your vendor proposal will lead to cross-server vendor exchanges. Given how easy master merchant is to achieve passively, I think that is the very last thing we need.
HooperX615
Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:05 pm
#242
First off, let me say I haven't read all of the posts so if I step on or suggest something someone previously suggested, it is unintentional. From what I'm able to gather about what I *have* read regarding the proposed changes, justification for them, according to the devs, is to prohibit monopolies, as well as address overall database issues.
Regarding the database problems and the necessity to implement an overall limit to the items stored on a vendor, is that the root cause of the problem, or simply a contributor to it ? If the database is the true issue, then my suggestions are these, BEFORE any changes are made regarding vendor limits.
1. Purge all empty vendors.
Perhaps institute a qualifier, i.e. if a vendor remains empty without stock, it is purged from the game after a week, 2 weeks, a month, etc. Nothing is more frustrating then going to a merchant tent, house, etc. and finding EACH and EVERY vendor there empty.
2. Purge all vendors that belong to players who do not carry the sufficient merchant skill.
I personally know many players who continue to own and run merchants, yet have dropped the entire merchant skill tree months ago. Why should a player who no longer carries merchant skill still receive the benefits of that skill ? A Master Weaponsmith who drops the entire skill tree to take up another profession doesn't retain the ability to craft weapons, does he/she ? A warning prior to the vendor being purged would be the "nice" thing to do by the devs, but the way I look at it, anyone who continued to operate a vendor after dropping merchant was taking advantage of an exploit that could be fixed at any time, and thus "gambled", and when you gamble, sometimes you lose.
3. Purge all harvesters and buildings that belong to inactive characters, placing the deeds into the players inventory until the upcoming character purge.
Again, as with item 1, perhaps a time limit could be implemented for those players who only play semi-regularly so that a someone who only logs in once a week won't have their harversters and buildings go *poof* simply because they don't play every day.
4. Ban the use of vendors used for "storage" purposes.
Many players, if not all (myself included) make use of their vendors to store items, either as an active sale that other players see, or keeping the items in the stockroom portion of the vendor. If storage is an issue, then that player should be forced to use a lot for an additional house or other similar structure to serve in that capacity. In my case, that would meansacrificing harvesters to get the additional storage space, but the amount of items I should be permitted to own shouldn't be "infinite".
Devs, please consider those changes first, before anything as drastic as limiting the actual number of items on vendors is implemented. If there's still a database issue after they've all been completed, only THEN should any type of limitations be discussed regarding vendor item limits.
joined42904
Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:19 pm
#243
Hooper,
I think both are needed. For the good of the game. And to keep market share fairly distributed among crafters who can make decent items.
debbie1260
Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:36 pm
#244
I just cancelled my pre-order for 10 copies of JTL. I don't think much more needs to be said.
Ewach
Fri Aug 13, 2004 3:51 pm
#245
Hmmm.. For those that speculated the previous vendor thread was deleted because of "forum instability"...
There's a thread on the Everquest forums (also SOE and same software I believe) that is 312 pages and around 8000 posts.
Things that make you go "Hmmmm"
Skijlar
Fri Aug 13, 2004 4:28 pm
#246
I don't have the 2 hours to read an 11 page post right this minute, but I, as a player since launch, a crafter, and a merchant, have 2 cents to add. I hope I am being constructive and rational with such an irrational proposal.
There already are vendor limits, its called time. I have Merchant 4/0/0/0 because I want my 2 vendors listed on the map and wanted to have my own barker droid, which I use to advantage and don't feel it is spamming. I have only 2 vendors because of that, and its enough for what I sell as a Munitions Weaponsmith and to have a resource vendor for other Weaponsmithing resources. The worst time I ever have playing is the couple of hours I have to spend restocking each of my 2 vendors, it is boring, repeatative, and did I mention boring? I am limited by this extreme boredom, so I don't make 300 of each kind of weapon and stock it individually, I sell almost everything in crates. Crates of mines, grenades, and their powerups give me over 300 things in my weapons vendor alone. Often people will come along and buy me completely out of a specific item, for example I can't keep enough XG mines in stock. I don't want any change that makes me more of a slave to my vendors, I already have enough "fun" every 30 days and every time I do a newrun of product. I'd like to keep my barker droid, not need to set up extra vendors that serve no real purpose. In my situation, putting an item limit on the vendors is redundant, since the restocking is so loathsome as it is. It would make me do the exact same thing as I do now, but cost more skill points to do it (who has extra skill points, btw?). But, alas, I am a casual gamer (yep, we do exist in the game), and I need my own place to sell my goods. I don't think it is too much to ask for 1 player to be able to be a Master at a combat profession AND a crafting profession ANDbe able to sell his own goods! It just wouldn't work out for me to have vendors in a mall run by others, which is why I have Merchant in the first place. What has always disturbed me is that people can drop Merchant and their vendors don't disappear. This is cheating and I have never done it. That part of the change, removing those vendors, would be welcomed, and from my point of view, would completely fix the problem with the Merchant profession. Don't ruin things for me in the process.
Zebulon
Naritus Galaxy
Vendors located at Coronet (548 -5235)
Jonni
Fri Aug 13, 2004 11:54 pm
#247
Ewach wrote:
Hmmm.. For those that speculated the previous vendor thread was deleted because of "forum instability"...
There's a thread on the Everquest forums (also SOE and same software I believe) that is 312 pages and around 8000 posts.
Things that make you go "Hmmmm"
there are also many posts in the SWG boards that still exist and are 99 pages long, however i find it very hard to believe that the devs would actually delete a post i appreciate that it does look a bit bad perhaps that fact that it was locked made it unstable ?...i dunno but either way im doing my best to withold the flames until TH posts again which i suspect is happening on monday which is when he supposedly said he was speaking to a developer regarding this issue.