Merchant Archive
Thread: The Merchant Profession: What works and what doesn't?
DocSavag
Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:07 pm
#14
Cephalo wrote:
The question posed in the origional thread is 'what works and what doesn't.' My post is totally relevant to that question. I think the whole profession is fundamentally flawed and superfluous for the reasons given. I just didn't want to see a big long circular debate without this perspective being part of it. Everyone should continue the debate like I never posted. Unless of course, you have specific arguments against my stance.
I don't agree with your points about the merchant profession (big surprise there) and I don't see it is highly constructive for this thread. The merchant profession isn't going away. The goal of this thread is discuss those things that make the profession fun (for those who play it) and what isn't. The usefulness of that information is to make better suggestions to the dev team about enhancements.
Redguard
Fri Jun 11, 2004 8:37 pm
#15
Docsavg:
My apologies but Cephalo did irk me a bit. I'm a Master Merchant-Weaponsmith-Artisan on Bloodfin and I'm a bit new to your forum so I shoudl have been more polite.
Fun
E-mails tittled- Vendor Sale Complete-Instant Sale Complete
People asking me to set up shops on other planets
People asking me for crates of goods
My bank account
Not So Fun
E-mails tittled- Auction Unsuccessful
Restocking
The interface
Cephalo
Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:09 am
#16
The question posed in the origional thread is 'what works and what doesn't.' My post is totally relevant to that question. I think the whole profession is fundamentally flawed and superfluous for the reasons given. I just didn't want to see a big long circular debate without this perspective being part of it. Everyone should continue the debate like I never posted. Unless of course, you have specific arguments against my stance.
Songe
Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:42 am
#17
What about you contribute to the debate by adding some ideas that would make the profession more useful then? All the arguments against your stance are already on the other threads.
DirthNader
Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:38 am
#18
DingoBoi wrote:
Corporate warfar is pvp in it's own regard...
I'd agree with that 100%. It's amazing how much more rewarding economic PvP is versus combat PvP.
It's interesting to get to a point in your virtual "career" where you're buying things not because you need them, but because you want to keep a competitor from getting them.
DingoBoi
Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:21 pm
#19
Welcome to the forums here! We are vehement in our opinions.... it's just 'ours' are right.
fun:
coordinating 26 player city and a few non-player city employees to form a mega-corporation
unfun:
managing those 26 employees and all their needs
fun: the economic game... I'm proud to be the best in all the galaxies *i think*. Other professions certainly could be more lucrative... power is lucrative in itself.. but not as much as others.. this is my 'niche'.
unfun: poachers stealing sales
fun: being wealthy enough to help support a city, help support new players, powergrind players by providing all the resources needed (recently we needeed an architect) providing an incredible income to up to 26 players.. usually between 600- 1.4 million credits per cycle. I'm glad to help both players and our city.
unfun: /tell hell
fun: throwing huge parties with those credits with prizes.
unfun: splitting stacks of resources...
fun: being a mogul
unfun: not being able to trust what the stockroom is telling you... things in stockroom don't always appear.
fun: having a nicely decorated shop with lots of 'stuff'.. people oooh and aaah and are impressed... well.. noobs anyway.
unfun: relisting manuallly the stockroom stuff.... I keep paper records of what prices should be... flipping through 20 some sheets of paper is unfun... but i need to keep paper records as I don't have backup on my computer.... if it fails.. i won't know what i owe people.
fun: having people thank me for helping them. giving them and opporutnity to earn alot of credits they couldn't have otherwise (hey, the game begins when you have some money)
unfun: copying a pasting a 4 paragraph description that is identical in my lots... can't we get standard descriptions to choose from? If i'm listing 30 lots with same description i want a checkbox for description to be applied. That would help database since each description, even thouugh identical now.. is a seperate record.
fun: creating a theme decorated store.. not just placing a vendor
unfun: losing millions of credits worth of product due to a bug and getting a response from csrs of 'we cannot assist in replacing them' I dont' even file tickets anymore.
fun: getting emails stating you made 500K+ in 2 minutes of time (game time from sales emails)
fun: being recognized as a 'leader' of the community and a successful merchant.
fun: decorating a house/shop
unfun: runnign out of room and not be able to decorate the rest of your pa hall shop except the main room.
fun: hitting novice merchant
unfun: realizing at master merchant you don't have many useful skills.
fun: findign a good deal on product and resellign it
unfun: having employees quit out of the blue costing you 1.3 million credits in harvesters and a million or so in product.
unfun: doing factory calculations
unfun: paying out millions in salaries (dammit, why do employees expect to get paid)
unfun: hauling around a full inventory and full backpack of rads because i can't stack more than 100k in a lot
unfun: splitting all those stacks of 100k to offer lesser quanities to smalll timers.
unfun: small timers buying 10 stacks of 10k units each instead of that 100k stack.
fun: at the end of the day, I know i've made a lasting positive impression on people playing the game... I strive to make this game better for them by providing the opportunities of a 'steady job' that requires litttle work.
Unfun: having to lay off those employees due to poachers
fun: thinking of the busines oppurtunities that JtL was going to offer
unfun: realizing they neglected everything (nearly) but combat in the expansion. no mining... no citiesl... all loot. What's in it for a non-combatant? and don't say shipwright.
fun: chatting with employees in my few spare moments.... i'm usually too busy to chatl....
unfun: having to ignore all those employees due to game mechanics that make me do very very very tedious work
fun: being a merchant
unfun: not being a merchant
This is a wonderful class to play. It is it's own game of the economic version. Corporate warfar is pvp in it's own regard. We all want the profession to be better and our views differ about how to make it better, or at least the timing of changes.
I leave you with this:
fun: me being a merchant
DingoBoi
Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:08 pm
#20
/giggle it is.... One time, I bought out the entire galaxy of power for anybody selling less than I do with an advertised store.
and I have been known to buy from competitors on an infrequent basis but when I do, I buy it all.
lboyd1
Sat Jun 12, 2004 5:27 pm
#21
DocSavag wrote:
As an excercise please take a few moments to list the things you find fun about the merchant profession (whether they be skills based on RP based or whatever) and those things that you find un fun.
Fun: Looking to see what sales .. and trying to figure out my prices again on things that don't sell well.
Unfun: Having to restock every single thing one by one when 100+ things fail from your vendor when they don't sale.. -_-
Dustin_Asche
Sat Jun 12, 2004 7:32 pm
#22
My biggest problem with Merchant is the lack of advertising it offers. I think that real Advertising would make the profession so much more useful. Barker droids were a good idea, but fell through. There was a skill we were supposed to have where we could make random NPCs bark adds for us in cities. This would have been really awesome but it never got propperly implimented back in Beta. Other ideas include the ability to mass-email the server (at a hefty price so that people don't get spammed, something to the tune of 1 mil a pop).
sparkz1111
Sun Jun 13, 2004 10:25 am
#23
most fun thing about merchant is getting all the hate mails or tells saying your items are to much or your vendor is emtpy lol... ( i was been sarcastic) merchant is truely the worst prof in game 
there is nothing fun about it
there is nothing fun about it
Cendatinea
Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:44 pm
#24
Call me sick, but I like making and dressing vendors.
I really get a kick out of seeing what the /createvendor will toss out at me next.
I am getting sick of ALL the Twi'Lek vendors being old and wrinkled. I like seeing the human ones with the funky hair now, but the pink wookiee ones have gotta go. My favorites are the Mon Cals. They have the oddest fashion sense.
Then when I finally get one I truly like, usually after an hour or so of playing with the different vendors, I like the challenge of picking what to dress it in to achieve the look I want.
Ok, before anyone asks, NO, I am not being sarcastic, I really truly do like doing what my friend calls "interviewing" vendors. It is fun for me.
Raijen_ArDesh
Sun Jun 13, 2004 7:34 pm
#25
sparkz1111 wrote:most fun thing about merchant is getting all the hate mails or tells saying your items are to much or your vendor is emtpy lol... ( i was been sarcastic) merchant is truely the worst prof in game
And it's that kind of comments that drive people away from being a merchant.
For me, the thing about being a merchant is being able to apply real-life economic principles to the game. From margin reports, to vendor sales, I've got records from the past two months i've been a merchant on Chilastra (And about four months of records on a CD somewhere from my Shadowfire days).
Not many people care enough about their mall to be able to have someone tell them a name, and you being able to list off their purchases in chronological order, with a margin figure for each purchase, as well as an overall margin.
Either that or i'm the only one wierd enough that has a product and Customer database system
Ewach
Sun Jun 13, 2004 8:13 pm
#26
DocSavag wrote:
The most fun thing about merchant for me has always been that stuff happens when I am way from the game. I get up every day and the first time I log on I eagerly scan my email to see what sales I had over night. Sometimes I get nice a nice surprise and an item that never sells has moved (and a big ticket one at that..woo hoo daddy can buy new armor!)
Doc - So, the "most fun thing" about Merchant for you is the the same email that an Artisan with Business 3 can receive when they sell something? 
That, to me, is a BIG indicator that this profession needs some serious love!