Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchant Changes Some unexpected benefits
Rurry wrote:
Good points. I think that "storage" problems are really a non-issue if people do things creatively. Say I have 2 characters, and 1 set of lot trades from another server. Each character has a backpack and say 4 storage droids.
character w/ pack 109, + 4 droids 40 = 149
alt= 149
I have a total of 4 med houses @ 150= 600
2 bank accounts=200
2 structure factories =200
2 euipment and 1 wearable fact. = 300
That's 1600 items, and that is not counting keeping completed items in output hoppers until needed (up to another 500 items with me)
I don't have to worry about auction ends and stockroom worries. If I need more storage I could swap some more lots for more factories.
So to me, the DEVs have just made the packrats be a little more creative in their storage - people will find a way to keep things.
well this is kinda a hijack, so
/stop hijack
Like i said we need the combat balance to remove the stupidly high money making potential of elite combat templates.
So what you want is the only the only "stupidly high money making potential" to be the merchants/artisans (oddly enough like you)? Whichthey arenow, if Im not mistaken. Combat profs, if you can stand the grind, can make maybe 12-20 mil a week, working your ass offtwo to three buffs aday. Any good chef, WS, AS, archmakefive to ten times that. (Its funny they brag about it when bidding on auctions, but will come here as say "oh poor me.") You might also try to remember its the money the from missions,which combat profsrun, that is the only real, legal, means of getting credits ingame.
Sigrun wrote:
In Real Life, I can hire considerably more than 12 sales clerks.
You must have a nice RL bank balance.
In Real Life, I can stock considerably more than 4000 items. Unsure about that? Check out NewEgg or Dell's sales... Hell, go to Wal-Mart and start counting.
In Real Life the world isnt flat and 16km across. Ever hear of scale?
Indeed, there are limits to what one person can accomplish in business. In Real Life, those limits are imposed in the form of economic controls. Sales clerks expect to be paid. Storage / warehouse space costs money. But as long as I have the revenue coming in to cover the expenses, I can hire all the sales clerks I want and buy as many houses as I care to.
The government doesn't tell me that I can only hire 12 people. Nor that I can only buy 5 buildings and I can only store 150 items in each. At least they don't do that in America. They might have in the USSR at some point...
So, wouldyousupport a system that charged you an rapidly increasing amount of money for storing and offering more goods, charged you money for moving them from one store to another, forced you tomove your production facility awayfromthe sales floor, and laid a heavier and heaver *administrative* burden on you, such as health insurance, overtime, SS Taxes, etc. etc. as you grew your business? Each of these functions as a limiting factor on growth in the real world.In RL,government doesn't tell you what you can't do, it tells you what you MUST do if you want to have a business of size X. In RL, you can't run an entire Wal-Mart with ONE clerk (vendor) and ONE supplier (you), but you can inSWG. SOE is telling you, if you want to grow a bigger business than that, the "must" is "buy another account." Maybe that sucks, but it's a limit that exists because of REAL WORLD constraints that you cannot ignore just because it's a game--Sony's database limits.
joined42904 wrote:
Now the numbers are so high they won't break up the oligopolies. The devs caved in. That's their right. It's not that much worse to cave in to oligopolists than it is to cave in to jedi after all.
I thought your privilege to use the word 'oligopoly' had been revoked. 
Please people, the only remotely legitimate problem vendor caps solve is database storage. It is pure fantasy to assume that it will make novice crafters any better off, it only hurts what they can achieve. The only barriers to entry are a master crafting profession, knowledge and time. Vendor caps grant you non of that.
Successful crafters are successful because they consistantly provide quality goods. If you want novice crafters to have a chance, make useful goods that they can craft. Period.
Avair wrote:
Please people, the only remotely legitimate problem vendor caps solve is database storage. It is pure fantasy to assume that it will make novice crafters any better off, it only hurts what they can achieve. The only barriers to entry are a master crafting profession, knowledge and time. Vendor caps grant you non of that.
If you are a master then you are not a novice, i am not talking about competition between masters.
Successful crafters are successful because they consistantly provide quality goods. If you want novice crafters to have a chance, make useful goods that they can craft. Period.
They already can:
- Bone armour / mabari is useful if you can't afford abything better
- BER 2 personal harvesters are useful if you can't afford better ones
- Low quality tools are useful to those who can't afford good quality ones
- etc.
Everyone, for some odd reason, assumes that everyone should use only the best and that prices should be low enough to facilitate this.
I believe that only the richest should be able to afford the very best and if you want that you need to work towards it, on the way you can purchase lower quality stuff at lower prices from non-masters.
If you play, note play not grind, a combat elite to mastery it will take you some time, probably several weeks. During that time you wont have much cash and will be buying cheaper equipment. Once you reach the master elite you will be able to start saving towards a suit of composite, each step up the ladder makes it a bit easier to reach the next step, and it can be fun.
Message Edited by lisasdarren on 08-26-2004 04:34 PM
Crimsonsplat wrote:
Sigrun wrote:
In Real Life, I can hire considerably more than 12 sales clerks.
You must have a nice RL bank balance.
Oh please. How many stores do you walk into that have less than 12 sales clerks? Ever been to Wal-Mart? Sears? Best Buy?
In Real Life, I can stock considerably more than 4000 items. Unsure about that? Check out NewEgg or Dell's sales... Hell, go to Wal-Mart and start counting.
In Real Life the world isnt flat and 16km across. Ever hear of scale?
In Real Life, Wal-Mart stocks 10's or 100's of thousands of items PER STORE. One store covers maybe a 10 mile square area. I think SW:G is on the low end of that particular scaling exercise.
Indeed, there are limits to what one person can accomplish in business. In Real Life, those limits are imposed in the form of economic controls. Sales clerks expect to be paid. Storage / warehouse space costs money. But as long as I have the revenue coming in to cover the expenses, I can hire all the sales clerks I want and buy as many houses as I care to.
The government doesn't tell me that I can only hire 12 people. Nor that I can only buy 5 buildings and I can only store 150 items in each. At least they don't do that in America. They might have in the USSR at some point...
So, wouldyousupport a system that charged you an rapidly increasing amount of money for storing and offering more goods,
I would support a system that charged me a *linearly* increasing amount of money for storing and offering more goods.
charged you money for moving them from one store to another, forced you tomove your production facility awayfromthe sales floor, and laid a heavier and heaver *administrative* burden on you, such as health insurance, overtime, SS Taxes, etc. etc. as you grew your business?
That's all great. Increase my costs as I increase my market. That would be a nice simulation.
Each of these functions as a limiting factor on growth in the real world.In RL,government doesn't tell you what you can't do, it tells you what you MUST do if you want to have a business of size X. In RL, you can't run an entire Wal-Mart with ONE clerk (vendor) and ONE supplier (you), but you can inSWG.
Can't even get close to Wal-Mart in SWG. 4000 items doesn't even approach what Wal-Mart can do.
SOE is telling you, if you want to grow a bigger business than that, the "must" is "buy another account."
Nice money making ploy. If it succeeds. However in my case alone, they'll need 4 merchants to replace the accounts they've lost and 5 if they want to realize any gains from this. No, I'm not leaving specifically because they nerfed vendors. I'm leaving because I see a pattern forming and I'm not at allinterested in continuing to pay for what that pattern will bring.
Maybe that sucks, but it's a limit that exists because of REAL WORLD constraints that you cannot ignore just because it's a game--Sony's database limits.
It's not their database limits. They've never indicated that was a problem. The simple fact that they increased caps from 660 to 4000 indicates that the database can probably handle significantly more load than that. A well-designed data model can handle thousands of times the load that SWG puts on a database server, even in the complete absence of storage limits.
Message Edited by Zanholo on 08-26-2004 12:08 PM
Zanholo wrote:
And to the person who said a ber 2 harv is good for someone to use...I think P.T. Barmun (sp) said it best, "There's one born every minute"...
IF a BER 3 personal costs 6000 and a BER 4 personal costs 12000, but a BER 2 Personal only costs 3000 and the person who wants a harvester only has 4000 then the BER 2 is better than nothing.
It's that simple.