Merchant Archive
Thread: May as well make merchant a prereq for all crafters or just get rid of it as a profession
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Duckfat
Sat Aug 07, 2004 8:16 pm
#14
Please sign and keep this bumped. IMHO this is a very valid arguement for why the nerf should not be implemented. Merchant is the only completely passive profession in the game and should be removed. Every other profession requires that you actually do something to gain your xp instead of just waiting around and taking part in some other profession. In fact even at master there really is not much for a merchant to do as most of the skills are passive. It has already been proven that most people only get merchant to use initiate the passive skills then give it up. Sure there are the few exceptions but is it really worth destroying the game for the few people that dont even have active skills to use? I mean what does a master merchant do during his time online anyway? Stock his vendors? And then what? I would imagine even a master only does merchant related things for about 5% of the time they are online and 95% of the time they are doing something else like crafting. Just get rid of it already.
Jordan_Karr
Sun Aug 08, 2004 9:14 am
#18
/agree
I also made some suggestions in the big thread, but I will repost them here also so that other may see them with out hunting for 30+ pages
Heres My proposal... this is not a favorable one... because it does away with the Merchant class all together.... So here goes.. Note I am stealing some ideas from several people who came up with great ideas, and incorperating them into this proposal..
Vendor System Revamp.
1) Remove Merchant from the game as it exists now and put it off to the side until theres Development time to Make merchant a Viable and Useful support class... If no Ideas on how to make it Viable can be determined then it should be cut from the game much like the Minner and the Farmer where cut.... this is unfavorable with those few master merchants... But I doubt that theres really all that many of them in the first place...
Until the mercant can be revamped to something that would enhance the over all Community the perscribed changes to crafting classes and the control of vendors below should be considered...
2) Vendor Item Caps.
Ok If the issue with caps is for database Space then we will accept the caps, but at a level thats better suited for the gaming community of Live Servers. The Test Center has a much smaller community and there for does not always see the impact that serious changes will do to the Games community.
Artisan
Business 3 - Box Vendor - Max Item Limit 250 +1 Vendor
Business 4 - Bazaar Term Vendor selection+250 Itemsto thelimit
So with Business 4 you can Maintain a 500 Itemvendor witch for a lot of people who dont sell the 1000's that some vendorsdo can find as a comfortable middle range... and Honestly those of you who sell thousands of items (excluding the taliors)are the onesSOE is trying to Control... No needs to sell 20 million resouces in 10k Blocks...
With an elite Crafting Class (I will use Master Armorsmith as an Example) you will find merchat abilites sprinkled into their classes... Some of the features that Merchants get do not need to be included into the crafting trees...
All Merchant like skills would be placed into the crafting experimentation lines along with some at novice and Master.
Novice Armorsmith - +1 Vendor, +100 Item Cap per vendor, Random NPC's can be generated
Armor Experimentation 1 -+100 Item to the cap
Armor Experimentation 2 - +1 Vendor +100 Items per vendor
Armor Experimentation 3 - +100 Items per vendor
Armor Experimentation 4 -+100 Items per vendor
Master Armorsmith - +1 vendor, +500 items, Selectable NPC vendors, Able to register on the Map as a Master of the Elite Crafting class, and can be uniformed.
Max Number Of vendors any one Crafter no mater the number of elite crafting classes the have on their character would be 6 vendors like it is now... Note This is WITH OUT MERCHANT!!!
That Creates a Master Armorsmith who has 4 vendors witch each has 1500 listing capablity, with it maxing out at6,000 for all 4 vendors... and in reality thats an acceptable amount of Listing capability, gives a person whos an Elite Crafter their Vendors for thier business with out using up any more skill points... as the armorsmtih will only give up their Experimentation lines when they are done with being an armorsmith.
Also note that you must be an elite crafter class to have those vendors, if not you are limited to having only 500 items on your vendors... Sorry Resouce Sellers.. But it you guys who got just enough merchant to get an NPC slap it down and register it and then gave back all the merchant skills and run successful Resouce Vendors as a secondary income from your mission grindingare the people whoSOE is trying to stop...
3) Control Verables for vendors to help on Database
- Owners of Vendors from the merchant class with out the skill will be sent an email warning them at server restart any vendors with items on the vendors and with out vendor skills, will be deleted... if you want to keep your items, remove them from vendors before this Date... If you do not We are sorry but we can not replace what you lose to an Exploit of the Game System...
NOTE: this is a general email to send to everyone in the game... just makes it easier than finding all those who have vendors with out the skills...
-All vendors Without any items on them for more than a week willremove itself from the planetary map. After two weeks the vendor will shut down and revert to the Inactive status, after 1 additional week of inactivity the Vendor is deleted from the game world... Owner must wait 30 days to place another one upon the deleting of the Vendor.
-Delete all Vendors upon surrendering of the Merchant Hireing/Experimentation Lines for the proposal up above.
- PURGE all Inactive/Cancled Characters with out an activity listing of 6 months or more (already in the works with SOE) This should be done regualry...
- Remove USELESS Junk Loot, Only things that are important to classes for example Crystals for jedi, Tissues for Weaponsmiths and Doctors, and Armor Segment Enhancers/ Replacment segments and Locked containers
- No more CDEF pistols droping, we get rid of them so fast as it is any how..
- No more broken things that get sold for 4 credits
- No more loot clothing
- Armor and Skill tapes are moved to Higher Level NPC's Only
- Loot Componets Other than the ones listed above are removed from the Database
- Remove all other useless loot, Disks, random 1 unit of a resource from the Database
- Remove the ability to store items other than Factory Crates of Componets and Resouces Inside factories
- Factories may only be placed by Those with Novice Artisan, and Novice Artisan must be maintained to use a factory. This prevents people from just having a factory as storage
- Create a Special Server (NOTE SERVER UPGRADES ARE A PART OF RUNNING SYSTMES LIKE THIS) that is used as a Item Storage Server. Create a Warhouse that can only be placed by either Master Elite Crafting Classes, and Master Artisans... When Master title is dropped, the structure can not be accessed until obtaining a new Master Crafter title... or regaining your old title...
This wearhouse is a 2 Lot Sturcture you Can not enter (so no artwork other than external artwork), it has a Terminal Outside of the building, that the owner and only the Owner may access as a Storage space for their resouces and goods, Max of 1000 Items may be stored inside the Wearhouse
- make Crates stackable to 1000, Either switch it to one crate, or allow after Factory Creation to be stacked Back up to 1000
- Make Resouces Stack to either 500k or 1 million. Only IDENTICAL Resouces are able to be stacked.
- Prevent Cross Server Lot Trades, this is a hard one to do... its another reason why there are so many Database problems...
- Expand the Hardwear for the servers, either add more servers in preperations for JTL or upgrade. Its strange after a Year of Live Game Time the servers have not recivedany majorUpgrades. I as a player would accept a weeks down time for server upgrades and it makes me wonder why your trying to stuff JTL on to the same server Database that the Ground Servers are eating up!
Merchant Class Revamp...
Goal: to create merchants as a viable and truely useful class with abilities that the live community would find useful, not just a waste of skill points...
1) Novice Merchants can place a Merchant tent, though the moment they give up novice merchant, the Tent they placed in the game world blocks them outof the structure until they get Novice Merchant Back...
Novice Merchants Gain +1 Vendor, + 500 Item perVendor Limit Cap
Management 1 +1 Vendor +250 Items
Management 2 +1 Vendor + 250 Items
Management 3 +1 Vendor + 250 Items
Management 4 +1 Vendor +250 Item limit per vendor
Hireing 1 - 4Vendor Customization, you can change the look, race, colors and clothing of your vendors much like an Image desinger can with PCs. you would need an image desinger to create the full look, but this would let you as a merchant design the style of shop you want and have vendors that look good and are not needing paper bags over their heads... Multipul Droid styles can be selected from this ability also... and they may be repainted with Droid kits to a color of your choosing...
Advertising 1-4 Ad Barking stays the Same, Vendor Registation allows you as a Merchant to advertise on a planetary Bazaar terminal... the Player may access and buy items from your Vendor at a bazaar terminal, they will then recieve a Waypoint to your shop location where they may pick up their orders... the reduced fees will still be in affect for Advertising 4
Efficancy 1-4 No Change to the basic of efficancy,May lease vendors to crafters and non Crafters for a Set % of the profits from all sales gained through that vendor. They leaser may Stock and price thier goods with out your assistance, but full Control of Advertising, Barking, Maitinace belong to the merchant. Vendors leased out in this mannor count against both parties Total vendor numbers...
To prevent Greafing in this system, only the Leaser can access and delist items on the vendor.To prevent Vendor Deletion and further greafing at the loss of all Items on that vendor, Vendors may not be deleted until they are empty, and the Leaser has given consent for the vendor to be removed.
If Efficancy skill is ever lost, all Leased Vendors will delete themselfs at the next server restart, the items on a vendor lost this way will be placed into a container on the bazaar recovery page, and all Credits payed to the Merchant as a % for vendor leassing will be refunded to the Orginal Owner of the items that had to be sent to the bazaar... That is also to keep merchants honest...
Master Merchant +1000 Item limit per vendor, +1 Vendor (note Max for a Merchant is 7 vendors - Even if you are a master of an Elite Crafting class) Free bazaar Listings, Placement of a Storage Wearhouse
Vendor Capacity for master Merchant is 3000 per vendor, so thats 21,000 Items for a master merchant... I would hope that would make a Merchant a viable and useful class...
So a master crafter can go with thier limit of 6000 items and a master merchant is way more cabaple of Bulk Voulme Sales because they get more vendor capaity...
So the master crafter can say well I want to be a merchant also... Or they can say I want the services of a merchant, or they can say I will live with what I have access now...
There its a little long, but I think it covers all the stuff both Crafters and Merchants want... But I will state this, I will not accept a community where I have to deal with a merchant to sell my goods ... Because if they dont want to buy my goods at my prices and cant afford my goods at my prices, then thats just more incentivefor menot todeal with people in the class, and just turn an Alt. Account into a master merchant and just transfer money to me every other day or so... So then I would have no interaction with a PC merchant...
Message Edited by Jordan_Karr on 08-08-2004 09:16 AM
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