Merchant Archive
Thread: Shared Vendors? Guess this is for you Doc.
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p4Samwise
Mon Nov 01, 2004 7:55 pm
#14
If you were able to "share" vendors, you'd be missing out on the thrill-a-minutegameplay that is restocking vendors by hand. It'd be a death blow to the profession.
GraffDavu
Tue Nov 02, 2004 5:40 am
#15
Wow... this thread took off more then I expected.
I think Cafa and Doc brought up a better point with consignment 'tools'. That's currently the big problem for me with vendors. If I have a weaponsmith friend who has 350 weapons that I need to put up for sale. Getting all of the weapons up.... at the correct price, is a pain, but it's possible. Where it gets to be completely unwieldy is when I have to use the internal E-mail system to track the sales and then, on paper, figure out what I need to bank tip the wedaponsmith for their share. This is especially important for new mercants who don't have the bank roll to purchase large quanities of items...or small quanities for that matter,to get started by selling them at a markup.
Now if I understand what was said earlier, I think it would be perfect that you set up a feature that during the listing process, the merchant has the option to set that a preset fee or percantage went to another specific player (i.e. the maker of the goods)
Of coures another more apppropriate system... but impractle for the DEVs would be a tool for the mercants... a ledger. An interface that tracked all of the sales, who the items came from, what price they sold for, and how much was given back to the maker of the items, or if you bought the item outright at wholesale and sold it yourself at a mark-up. This is technically how it should work. My guess though is that if we recently had Email over a certain size or number cleared off to make space on the servers... this sort of database system just wouldn't fly
pervel
Tue Nov 02, 2004 7:55 am
#16
Andymantium wrote:
We need to find ways to provide real tools for the merchant to improve, not take its skills and spread them out to the masses.I'm sorry, but this has been discussed for over 1 year, most merchants do not want this.
I didn't know that it had been discussed in great detail before as I don't follow this forum much. Most merchants don't post or read here simply because most of them consider it to be purely a supporting profession (or even a skillpoint sink). I just responded in this thread because I felt that it had potential.If an issuepops up again then perhaps it is because there are still people that think it would benefit the profession.
Andymantium
Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:05 am
#17
Sorry if I came across a bit harsh...there have been too many arguments over things like this..it just gets tiresome after a while, nothing against you personally..
pervel wrote:
Andymantium wrote:
We need to find ways to provide real tools for the merchant to improve, not take its skills and spread them out to the masses.I'm sorry, but this has been discussed for over 1 year, most merchants do not want this.
I didn't know that it had been discussed in great detail before as I don't follow this forum much. Most merchants don't post or read here simply because most of them consider it to be purely a supporting profession (or even a skillpoint sink). I just responded in this thread because I felt that it had potential.If an issuepops up again then perhaps it is because there are still people that think it would benefit the profession.
TyfoE
Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:37 am
#18
Suggestion:
- Two (or more) people could use the same vendor, if the non-owner has skills to have a vendor. So if the non-owner, who was part of Owner A's vendor, have Business 3, he wouldn't be allowed to placeor take part in another vendor.
- The owner of the vendor would have to give the non-owner permission to use vendor.
- All pays will go the person who put the item for sale.
- You would still have to have merchant skills, but you could now share a vendor with other persons (me and my brother's big dream pre-launch, to have a shop together in one vendor).
- There would still be a item-limit, but it would be "personal", meaning that each person have different item-limits.
- So basically it's just two vendors merged into one (maybe with the maintenance cost of one vendor though).
DarkRenown
Tue Nov 02, 2004 8:38 am
#19
Wow, interesting thread, here's my tuppence.
I am a Master Merchant, solely so I can get the bonuses in the way of Maintenance, and sell my Droids (and now Ships).
I do see my merchant skills as supporting my other crafting skills. I know in our guild I am one of 3 master Merchants, all of whom use merchant in the same way.
Now, we have several other crafters in our guild who want to sell. That is fine, currently we are able to put up a Vendor and manually list everythign etc etc etc. thankfully one of our guys has created an offline program to track sales, not that hard, imports saved mails and uploads them into a simple database. The nice touch is that you can flag a Vendor as being 'rented' and then on a weekly/monthly basis, tip back to them the proceeds from the sales (minus a commission agreed beforehand).
this works fine for us, but is cumbersome. Yes I would like to see 'rented' vendors, but, I agree I don;t want my Merchant to become some kind of AFK player. The way I see it working is that I could set up my vendor, I would be responsible for the upkeep, registering of it, and general maintenance. All sales on it would count towards my total limit, but I am also able to apply a limit on that vendor (say max of 200 items) to stop one person taking my whole limit up.
I would then add someone as an 'owner', and set a percentage (from 0 to 50).All that means is that they can then list items for sales, withdraw sales etc. Any sales would be reported back to the 'owner' minus my percentage.
I agree that Merchants should be the ones selling, but I also see this as a way of letting a Merchant generate income from his/her unique skills. Keeping overall responsibility for the vendor retains this.
I knwo this has been discussed before, and many similar ideas posted. These are just my thoughts on the subject.
in conclusion, I enjoy being a MM. I enjoy setting up vendors in key locations, tracking sales, outfitting them, and I love the maintenance bonuses we get. The only sad part is that I will have to drop some Merchant skills to get master Shipwright, which I will regret.
ofim
Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:23 am
#20
DocSavag wrote:
I don't support anything that has anyone other than a merchant actually managing the vendor. Giving me the power to rent out my skills just means that my merchant becomes an alt that never has to log on. Then I can just drop vendors for all my friends and never come back. That isn't playing a profession. Can your doctor rent you the ability to buff yoruself? No. Can an artisan rent you the ability to make a swoop? No. Merchants provide a service..renting the ability to perform that service is NOT the same thing as performing the service yourself.
I support a number of initiatives to make the merchant-supplier relationship easier and more robust and I"m open to anything that keeps the merchant involved in the transaction. The merchant is the one doing the selling.
Message Edited by DocSavag on 10-31-2004 12:23 PM
Actualy the "skill renting" system already exists Via the player schematic system. as a WeaposmithI can make a schematic that anyone could use to play, in esence, a weaponsmith. However I totaly agree with you on this Doc, The type of system described by the roginal poster and just about any variant would kill the merchant profession.
DocSavag
Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:19 am
#21
ofim wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
I don't support anything that has anyone other than a merchant actually managing the vendor. Giving me the power to rent out my skills just means that my merchant becomes an alt that never has to log on. Then I can just drop vendors for all my friends and never come back. That isn't playing a profession. Can your doctor rent you the ability to buff yoruself? No. Can an artisan rent you the ability to make a swoop? No. Merchants provide a service..renting the ability to perform that service is NOT the same thing as performing the service yourself.
I support a number of initiatives to make the merchant-supplier relationship easier and more robust and I"m open to anything that keeps the merchant involved in the transaction. The merchant is the one doing the selling.Message Edited by DocSavag on 10-31-2004 12:23 PM
Actualy the "skill renting" system already exists Via the player schematic system. as a WeaposmithI can make a schematic that anyone could use to play, in esence, a weaponsmith. However I totaly agree with you on this Doc, The type of system described by the roginal poster and just about any variant would kill the merchant profession.
There are issues with schecmatics and factories but you aren't really giving them the skills to make the items. The shematic is in fact already a product. I can't chagne it I can only produce a set amount of items that the crafter has already used their skill to create.
I don't want to see merchant mule accounts that log on once a month to pay maintenance or something like that. The point of having merchant skills is to sell things. And you don't do that by just giving rights to someone else to manage the vendor. I think we can VASTLY improve the ability for a merchant to handle hundreds of sales and numerous crafters without granting those people control over the skills that we provide. We can make the process faster, more efficient, and more secure and make the profession stronger.
p4Samwise
Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:29 pm
#22
That should be the priority. Don't fall for the SOE trap of equating "clicking a button" with "gameplay". Merchants deserve far better.
DocSavag wrote:
I think we can VASTLY improve the ability for a merchant to handle hundreds of sales and numerous crafters without granting those people control over the skills that we provide. We can make the process faster, more efficient, and more secure and make the profession stronger.
gera
Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:02 pm
#23
* EDIT * Yet another new post idea 
Message Edited by gera on 11-02-2004 12:04 AM
Cafa
Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:23 pm
#24
pervel wrote:
Andymantium wrote:
We need to find ways to provide real tools for the merchant to improve, not take its skills and spread them out to the masses.I'm sorry, but this has been discussed for over 1 year, most merchants do not want this.
I didn't know that it had been discussed in great detail before as I don't follow this forum much. Most merchants don't post or read here simply because most of them consider it to be purely a supporting profession (or even a skillpoint sink). I just responded in this thread because I felt that it had potential.If an issuepops up again then perhaps it is because there are still people that think it would benefit the profession.
This has been my point all along. A necessary skill point sink with tools that are archaic compared to the setting we game within.
I wonder how long it would take to change if all combat professions required you to wait 5 secs to 1 minute inbetween your ability to strike someone. That's what loading a vendor is like to me.
Fivo Asia
p4Samwise
Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:17 pm
#25
A more apt analogy would be requiring you to navigate a creaky UI and press two buttons for each individual attack.
Arnwald
Sat Nov 06, 2004 7:24 am
#26
How so?
DocSavag wrote:
ofim wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
I don't support anything that has anyone other than a merchant actually managing the vendor. Giving me the power to rent out my skills just means that my merchant becomes an alt that never has to log on. Then I can just drop vendors for all my friends and never come back. That isn't playing a profession. Can your doctor rent you the ability to buff yoruself? No. Can an artisan rent you the ability to make a swoop? No. Merchants provide a service..renting the ability to perform that service is NOT the same thing as performing the service yourself.
I support a number of initiatives to make the merchant-supplier relationship easier and more robust and I"m open to anything that keeps the merchant involved in the transaction. The merchant is the one doing the selling.
Message Edited by DocSavag on 10-31-2004 12:23 PM
Actualy the "skill renting" system already exists Via the player schematic system. as a WeaposmithI can make a schematic that anyone could use to play, in esence, a weaponsmith. However I totaly agree with you on this Doc, The type of system described by the roginal poster and just about any variant would kill the merchant profession.
There are issues with schecmatics and factories but you aren't really giving them the skills to make the items. The shematic is in fact already a product. I can't chagne it I can only produce a set amount of items that the crafter has already used their skill to create.
I don't want to see merchant mule accounts that log on once a month to pay maintenance or something like that. The point of having merchant skills is to sell things. And you don't do that by just giving rights to someone else to manage the vendor. I think we can VASTLY improve the ability for a merchant to handle hundreds of sales and numerous crafters without granting those people control over the skills that we provide. We can make the process faster, more efficient, and more secure and make the profession stronger.
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