Merchant Archive

Thread: I think the proffesion of merchant itself is stupid. So I have a new idea.

Balkstar
Wed May 19, 2004 12:37 am
#14

Well after reading all the above posts, I guess I'm not so sure that everyone is on board forthe vendor lease.


Face facts everyone. First and foremost, we as merchants need to get our tools back. Vendor management is pretty much our sole reason for existing in the profession in the first place. With that said, once we get the vendors back under control, wouldn't they make a great barter chip to all the crafters out there? Most of them complain about how they don't have access to the vendors in the first place (which is a load of bull crap). Why not give them as a carrot to play nice with us, instead of beating them over with them by saying that we are the only game in town?


MMORPG players are a strange lot. They really trust noone, and if they feel threatened, they will form coalitions to beat the threat down to a mighty pulp. Right now their angry is at SOE. Let's try not to focus it on us by saying that we are the only syndicate to deal with if you want to sell anything.



Balkstar Bartoc - 56th level Smuggler, Ex-Master Smuggler, Ex-Master Merchant, Privateer Ace Pilot,

Coosin Larstar - 90th Level Jedi, Ex-Master Fencer, Ex-TKM

Flurry

Balkstar
Thu May 20, 2004 8:11 am
#15








roysterer wrote:


Am I the only one who wants to see pure merchants?








/raisehand



Balkstar Bartoc - 56th level Smuggler, Ex-Master Smuggler, Ex-Master Merchant, Privateer Ace Pilot,

Coosin Larstar - 90th Level Jedi, Ex-Master Fencer, Ex-TKM

Flurry

DocSavag
Thu May 20, 2004 8:17 am
#16






Balkstar wrote:








roysterer wrote:


Am I the only one who wants to see pure merchants?








/raisehand






I want to see more of them too but that is accomplished by a number of changes including making it cost skill points to keep vendors. But beyond that better tools to help the merchant sell things more efficiently and more tools to make buying things from suppliers easier.




----------------------------------
Chataka Windae
Rifleman/Combat Medic
CEO, Windae Enterprises
Mesric Sanctuary Founder



Songe
Thu May 20, 2004 10:01 am
#17

I don't think vendors should be totally reserved to merchants. But higher maintenance costs,a smaller maximum number of items, and less tools for non merchants would be a good thing... like Doc said. I don't think that totally removing vendors from the artisan tree is a good idea personally. But there must be a bigger difference for merchants than what we have now.



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Novice Lekku Stomper
roysterer
Thu May 20, 2004 12:53 pm
#18

I think that foremost among the major problems for merchants is that there is very little for them to do when they're not stocking their vendors. Or at least there is very little for them to do that other professions couldn't also do. Andit would be nice ifsomeone would come up with an idea to fix that.





__________________________________________________________________
Elim Garak
Master Tailor

Visit the Promenade (2632 -4427), Mos Eisley's premier shopping destination.
roysterer
Thu May 20, 2004 12:58 pm
#19

Oh, and this really irritates me...




Songe wrote:


That's silly. Most of us are also crafters and decided to take the SP cost to have our vendors. Some people decide not to, and we feel that we should have some advantages over them, how is that feeling threatened? People just have to spend 9 points to get a vendor, why are they trying to convince everyone that it's the end of the world? Why can they expect to have the same advantages than people who have spent way more points than them in the first place?


It's a choice. If you want to have a vendor to sell your stuff, spend those 9 points... it's not the end of the world.


Message Edited by Songe on 05-18-2004 05:15 PM



Don't you see this as a problem? Most of the time merchant is basically an auxiliary profession for crafters to spend skill points on. Am I the only one who wants to see pure merchants?




__________________________________________________________________
Elim Garak
Master Tailor

Visit the Promenade (2632 -4427), Mos Eisley's premier shopping destination.
Songe
Thu May 20, 2004 1:03 pm
#20

I know, was replying to the posts above yours



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Novice Lekku Stomper
rexan
Thu May 20, 2004 1:48 pm
#21






Songe wrote:
I don't think vendors should be totally reserved to merchants. But higher maintenance costs,a smaller maximum number of items, and less tools for non merchants would be a good thing... like Doc said. I don't think that totally removing vendors from the artisan tree is a good idea personally. But there must be a bigger difference for merchants than what we have now.






I disagree with the concept of one profession being able to BUY the abilities of another profession. If, in your example, non-merchants can use vendors at an increased cost than merchantsthen I want to be able toBUY the ability to use a flamethrower.



Rexan Ryu
Master Smuggler
Flurry Server
Songe
Thu May 20, 2004 2:02 pm
#22

Well you can use pistols before getting pistoleer, just not half as well, it's not really different here.



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Novice Lekku Stomper
Andymantium
Thu May 20, 2004 2:24 pm
#23






rexan wrote:

I disagree with the concept of one profession being able to BUY the abilities of another profession. If, in your example, non-merchants can use vendors at an increased cost than merchantsthen I want to be able toBUY the ability to use a flamethrower.




You can use a flamethrower anytime. Just pick one up and test it ona durni. You'll likely miss 75% of the time, and only do 50 damage, but you can use it. If you want to gain improved abilities to use the flamethrower in the form of increased accuracy and damage, you need to move up the commando skill boxes.


Same principle applies to merchant. Better merchant abilities requires more merchant skill boxes. I don't see what's so complicated here.





K

DragonScout
Thu May 20, 2004 4:55 pm
#24

grrr. double posts.

Message Edited by DragonScout on 05-20-2004 05:05 PM



Zerathi/Shawn -- the grumpy wookiee of Shadowfire
DragonScout
Thu May 20, 2004 5:04 pm
#25

first off.. "irregardless" is not a word. Not sure who said it, but just think about it for a second.

next... I am just going to repost something I said earlier...

this is such a joke. I don't understand why people get upset when people drop merchant and keep their vendors. I plan to do it. Merchant is a WASTE of a profession and a complete waste of skill points. If they should fix anything, they should completely remove the skill point cost for it and make it like they are talking about making the pilot professions for JTLS. I am not even sure how they can justify those not taking skill points if they are going to require merchants to take skill points -- because at least as a pilot you can continue to actively use your pilot skills as you fly once you master. Merchant is a completely passive profession that once you master you can't do ANYTHING with because you set up vendors and then it's over. Don't complain about people who use the system in the only way that makes sense, complain about the system that doesn't make sense.

If you are so hot for them to change it -- to fix the abuse you think is happening, come up with ideas to make the profession active. Because as it is now, you can't just claim that stocking vendors is active. It isn't. And it needs something beyond just setting up vendors and stocking them to make it a real profession.

If you aren't another profession, being a merchant is pointless because you can't do anything with it. Every other profession in the game you can actively participate in the world around you with, if you are only that profession. But you can't with merchant because it requires items to be sold which means you either have to get them through hunting loot or crafting them or buying them -- and I don't know about you, but I can't see any way of getting credits as just a merchant so that you COULD buy/resell unless you use ebay or have friends give you loans.

And dont mention scout/ranger because you can actively participate in groups that need camps, and it is fairly easy to hook up with someone and get good resource harvests. So they are viable professions, unlike merchant.

Sorry if I come off strong, but I really do think this entire issue is stupid. If you want to keep merchant, good for you. if you don't but want to keep your vendors, good for you. Let people do their own thing, and if/when the DEVs decide it should be changed, they will do it and people will adjust.

Zerathi/Shawn -- the grumpy wookiee of shadowfire



Zerathi/Shawn -- the grumpy wookiee of Shadowfire
Ffej_Cra
Thu May 20, 2004 5:07 pm
#26

Well, in order to be a merchant in the first place, you have to have another profession, because you need to go through artisan to get there in the first place.

I agree that merchant doesn't have enough abilities compared to other professions with the same skill points. (It's a must for me though because it's the economic part of the game is what keeps me interested.)

I wouldn't be opposed if they lowered (or eliminated) the skill point requirements for merchant. However, I doubt they do that anytime soon, because I think the number of vendors on the map may represent a server scalability/performance issue of some sort.

Another answer is to give the merchants more purpose. I think that with the way the rest of the game works, letting anyone use a factory or a harvester seems a little strange. Maybe those should be limited to merchants. (Maybe personal harvester usecould be an artisan skill.) Or maybe the maintenance on harvesters and factories should be greatly increased, and the merchant's discounts also increased, so that others could still use them but it was a lot more practical for merchants.




Ffej Cra --- Bria
FCI Weapons -
Coronet Riverside Mall east of Coronet, Corellia (868, -4844)
FCI Weapons Anchorhead/Mos Eisley (Tatooine 1716, -4860)
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