Merchant Archive
Thread: Remove Vendors from Business Line
Wire3k wrote:
Make schematics and you can.
Tira-Misu wrote:
yeah, and i think that i should be able to drop tailor and still be able to make master level clothing! I mean, wow, making us have to actually USE our skill points to have profession skills that we deem useful? how unkind of them.
DeuceX wrote:
It's not hard. I am making brand lines and mass producing them. Yes there are lots of schematics but some work together as outfits better than others so i put togethera series of looks that are based off of putting those items together. Once i have those items together and sold to the merchant, i get feedback from them on what items sell and what items dont. I adjust the line based on that to optimize sales and increase production. When i have one line selling well i design another line with different color sets and do the same thing. As my production needs increase I put down more factories and as it decreases i redeed them. It's easy to custom make items per customer, its harder to make clothing that is widely accepted and liked so i focus more on that. This way people can put together outfits strictly off the rack or can go to other tailors and buy items not in the line to personalize their look.
Having mass produced clothing items keeps the venders filled and for tailors takes some of the grunt work out of tailoring so they can focus on more personal stuff. I may not provide alot of variety but i do make clothing more accessable to the community.
My concept of the way it should work is leaving the vendor at Business III but limiting the use of that vendor. If there are going to be vendor item limits the best place to start is limiting the number of items you can sell from your business III vendor and increasing that at Novice Merchant and up until you get to Master. This has the effect of allowing any artisan based crafter the ability to have a small business (ideal for custom sales expecially if we can get directed sales implemented) while making it desirable to either contract with a merchant for more sales power or giving up the skill points yourself to become a merchant.
DocSavag wrote:
My concept of the way it should work is leaving the vendor at Business III but limiting the use of that vendor. If there are going to be vendor item limits the best place to start is limiting the number of items you can sell from your business III vendor and increasing that at Novice Merchant and up until you get to Master. This has the effect of allowing any artisan based crafter the ability to have a small business (ideal for custom sales expecially if we can get directed sales implemented) while making it desirable to either contract with a merchant for more sales power or giving up the skill points yourself to become a merchant.
Yes, thank you. All this talk of killing the non-Merchant crafter was getting on my nerves. Doc's solution here is a very nice compromise. People without the Merchant skills can still make a shop and sell from it, but they have to re-stock quite a bit more often to sell the volume of a true Merchant.If the "inventory limit" falls into the Management skill line, then there is more incentive to keep the skills high.
This is a sensible solution that rewards true merchants without completely obliterating non-Merchant crafters. Thanks Doc for keeping a sense of fair play.
(btw, I am a Master Merchant and have been for months.)
The fact is when you unlearn merchant you do indeed lose all your merchant abilities. You can no longer create a vendor, place one, move one, show it up on the planetary map, you lose all reductions in maintance cost. What you don't lose is what you already had in place. Think of it this way. The last item I made as a doctor, before unlearning it, still exists. I simply cannot make it anymore, or do anything with it. A house doesn't disappear simply because the architect who made it quit, or surrendered the skills. It is the nature of the things that merchants create (vendors) that makes the situation seem so unique.
Not saying it's right that a player can drop merchant and artisan altogether and still have 6 merchants, all of which are visible on the planetary map (assuming the merchant paid for them all to be), but it's not as unique as it appears.
Kinda funny to be honest.
Sal.