Merchant Archive
Thread: True Galactic Commerce
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FatEd060186
Sat Aug 06, 2005 1:01 pm
#14
Ufed_106 wrote:
It actually makes the merchant in an actual profession, and becoming a master worthwhile.
I'll be interested in you thoughts
SO Pilot, and Image Designer & Politician, are those actual professions, orjust skillpoint dumps too? (oh wait, 2 of them don't even take skill points, and the other one doesn't take the normal ammount. So does that make them less of a profession? IMO NO, They're Still as much of a Prof as Merchant or Doctor.... \The only thing wrong with Merchant is the lack of user friend vendor interfaces!)
Sometimes I wish people would stop with the "How the Devs Could make this Game more StarWarsey" and do more " Im holding a player Event to make this game more StarWarsey"
BadChef
Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:59 pm
#15
They're right that it sounds tedius and can cause some hassle, but I'd enjoy it if it were coded well. Except maybe tie it into JTL and the GCW somehow makeing authority and enforcement on trade routes depend on faction or guild controle. Most likely it would end up being a huge mess but I'm not talking about weather it would work or not so no need to argue it, but it would be fun...just most likely not universaly fun.
FatEd060186
Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:53 am
#16
I agree, They don't need to make something already semi-tedious to be full blown bothersom. If this game doesn't offer enough that your imagination can pick up the rest maybe you need to watch a movie, or some television.
You could have a weekly player event where you pay duty taxes on your own resorces and can leave everyone else alone.
Sneev
Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:33 am
#17
I appreciate the concept you are trying to suggest as an improvement, but it has some major problems.
What if I am not a Merchant, and I have resources on me and I try to travel from Planet A to Planet B? Do I simply lose those resources - that won't be acceptable. Am I prevented from traveling? That won't be accepted either because there is no guarantee the person has a house they can drop their resources in. Basically, I don't think you can prevent people from moving from place to place and bringing items in their inventory with them. That is not the way to make being a Merchant a viable option. I appreciate the Smugglers bypassing the rules though - and paying fines and/or having carge seized if they get caught though so the mechanic is worth exploring.
How about this instead:
* If you are NOT a merchant, you are charged a duty on each resource in your inventory if you travel from planet to planet. This amount of this duty is based on some quality or qualities of the resource in question (probably OQ is all that is required) and the volume being transported. Furthermore from time to time, the Empire will ban certain components from random planets and you will not be allowed to bring those components onto the planet - this changes on its own cycle independant of resources. So you might suddenly find its illegal to bring Droid Storage Components onto Dantooine. The max a duty can be is calculated by some formula along the lines of (OQ*Volume/1000)*1000. So if you are moving 100k of 1000 Overall Quality resources, you might be charged 100k for that. It adds up in other words.
* If you are NOT a merchant, you cannot move resources in stacks of more than 20k from Planet to Planet. If you attempt to do so, you are told you must reorganize your stacks before you can leave the planet.
* If you are a Merchant, then depending on your Merchant Skill you pay a reduced duty on each item, and you can move resources in stacks up to 50k (or possibly varying on Merchant Skill, ie 20k base, +5k per box from Novice to Master up one tree). Master Merchants pay a further reduced duty to a max of 40% off.
* If you are a Smuggler, you can smuggle resources and any banned components off of and onto a planet. To do this you must actually travel their via your spacecraft and cannot just use a terminal. You are liable to being stopped at any point - but may save your bacon using Bribes (depending on your skill to determine the amount the NPC will accept to just turn a blind eye), or may face fines and or having your cargo seized. Some items are more hazardous to transport than others presumably, resulting in larger fines and greater chance of having it siezed. High risk items include Weapons, Armor, Medical Supplies, Munitions etc, Low risk items include Food, Clothing, Animals etc. Spice is just plain illegal period. Of course the Empire could randomly start seizing all Medical Supplies to Dantooine, or allowing weapons and armor onto Talus without explanation - Government is Government after all, and need not follow reason
* If you are a Smuggler, your various types of spacecraft have a storage rating that is the maximum you can transport at a time as Smuggled Goods - everything else is considered Duty charged goods. This storage takes the form of an openable area on board the ship. Naturally the YT1300 has the most storage. Each type of ship has an efficiency rating for the effectiveness of the storage too, so you must balance concealment and volume.
* Oh, additional duties would be added for moving goods through major hubs like Coronet or Theed, smaller duties via other routes, so that people are encouraged to move their goods throughout the galaxy. In fact I would predict the arising of Planetary Resource Merchants whose sole business was to purchase and sell resources from all over to planetary crafters, thus passing their savings on to those crafters and letting them offer a better price.
The idea is not to prevent people from moving resources around if they really want to, but to make it advantageous for them to move it via a Merchant or Smuggler.
Now, this would annoy almost all other crafters intensely - or at least force them to add Merchant Skills. While it would add greatly to the Smuggler and Merchant professions (finally letting Smuggler smuggle in fact), it might affect the entire economy by raising the price of resources across the board. Still, Merchants would be able to buy and sell resources and turn a profit just from moving good and items, and it might merely mean a heavy change in the way items move from place to place.
What if I am not a Merchant, and I have resources on me and I try to travel from Planet A to Planet B? Do I simply lose those resources - that won't be acceptable. Am I prevented from traveling? That won't be accepted either because there is no guarantee the person has a house they can drop their resources in. Basically, I don't think you can prevent people from moving from place to place and bringing items in their inventory with them. That is not the way to make being a Merchant a viable option. I appreciate the Smugglers bypassing the rules though - and paying fines and/or having carge seized if they get caught though so the mechanic is worth exploring.
How about this instead:
* If you are NOT a merchant, you are charged a duty on each resource in your inventory if you travel from planet to planet. This amount of this duty is based on some quality or qualities of the resource in question (probably OQ is all that is required) and the volume being transported. Furthermore from time to time, the Empire will ban certain components from random planets and you will not be allowed to bring those components onto the planet - this changes on its own cycle independant of resources. So you might suddenly find its illegal to bring Droid Storage Components onto Dantooine. The max a duty can be is calculated by some formula along the lines of (OQ*Volume/1000)*1000. So if you are moving 100k of 1000 Overall Quality resources, you might be charged 100k for that. It adds up in other words.
* If you are NOT a merchant, you cannot move resources in stacks of more than 20k from Planet to Planet. If you attempt to do so, you are told you must reorganize your stacks before you can leave the planet.
* If you are a Merchant, then depending on your Merchant Skill you pay a reduced duty on each item, and you can move resources in stacks up to 50k (or possibly varying on Merchant Skill, ie 20k base, +5k per box from Novice to Master up one tree). Master Merchants pay a further reduced duty to a max of 40% off.
* If you are a Smuggler, you can smuggle resources and any banned components off of and onto a planet. To do this you must actually travel their via your spacecraft and cannot just use a terminal. You are liable to being stopped at any point - but may save your bacon using Bribes (depending on your skill to determine the amount the NPC will accept to just turn a blind eye), or may face fines and or having your cargo seized. Some items are more hazardous to transport than others presumably, resulting in larger fines and greater chance of having it siezed. High risk items include Weapons, Armor, Medical Supplies, Munitions etc, Low risk items include Food, Clothing, Animals etc. Spice is just plain illegal period. Of course the Empire could randomly start seizing all Medical Supplies to Dantooine, or allowing weapons and armor onto Talus without explanation - Government is Government after all, and need not follow reason
* If you are a Smuggler, your various types of spacecraft have a storage rating that is the maximum you can transport at a time as Smuggled Goods - everything else is considered Duty charged goods. This storage takes the form of an openable area on board the ship. Naturally the YT1300 has the most storage. Each type of ship has an efficiency rating for the effectiveness of the storage too, so you must balance concealment and volume.
* Oh, additional duties would be added for moving goods through major hubs like Coronet or Theed, smaller duties via other routes, so that people are encouraged to move their goods throughout the galaxy. In fact I would predict the arising of Planetary Resource Merchants whose sole business was to purchase and sell resources from all over to planetary crafters, thus passing their savings on to those crafters and letting them offer a better price.
The idea is not to prevent people from moving resources around if they really want to, but to make it advantageous for them to move it via a Merchant or Smuggler.
Now, this would annoy almost all other crafters intensely - or at least force them to add Merchant Skills. While it would add greatly to the Smuggler and Merchant professions (finally letting Smuggler smuggle in fact), it might affect the entire economy by raising the price of resources across the board. Still, Merchants would be able to buy and sell resources and turn a profit just from moving good and items, and it might merely mean a heavy change in the way items move from place to place.
bluejanus
Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:16 pm
#18
The problem with this is along the same lines as the inherent ease of travel whether via speeder or by shuttle. It's far too easy and too fast to travel via either means. For your system to work, both of those systems would have to changed as well to comply with the slowness. Time delays in hyperspacing to various locations is very Star Warsy yet our system allows for near instantaneously travel. Time sinks in a game are generally a drag on fun.
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