Merchant Archive
Thread: OK DEVS You've helped our Customers...
SystemJinx wrote:
NJ62 wrote:
Funny - having not even seen this thread, today I posted in the tailor forum a general thread about crafter downtime versus combat player downtime - the trials of resource searching, surveying, placing harvs, babysitting harvs, babysitting factories, and finally managing vendors. So far the tedium of restocking vendors is pretty high on the list of things that are a major time-suck and should be fixed.
Good point.
The devs need to givethe crafters less of a time sink. Here's some of my ideas:
All resources concentrations are at 100%everywhere. - I'm tired of surverying.
1 million unit resource stacks. - saves on inventory and less time moving large quantities.
Harvesters and factories can now be built on hills. - I hate findingsuitableplaces to drop my stuff.
A restock button for merchants. - This one is an absolute must have.
All crafting prototypes are created instantly. - No waiting 110 seconds for one item.
All factories produce a factory run instantly. - No waiting a day for the run to complete.
Anyone else have any ideas?
This is by no means meant as an insult to merchants or any crafting profession. I'm just ticked that the combat class gets everything and we get nothing. The dev's don't think before they act. When's the last time you've seen a dev in the merchant forum? I'm betting once, and that's when this board was firstcreated. Now check the Jedi forums and see who they pander to...
You know, at first I would pale at these suggestions. But a dev team that condones cutting MBH's down like Tyson chickens to make Jedi Master had lead me to wonder, why not? 
Fivo Asia
Cafa wrote:
You know, at first I would pale at these suggestions. But a dev team that condones cutting MBH's down like Tyson chickens to make Jedi Master had lead me to wonder, why not?
Fivo Asia
Fidgiter wrote:Very good points all around. For now I think the priority is to try and influence the wall to move to make this a little less painful but ultimately a contingency is needed. The points about the needlessly repetative tasks we face are extremely good ones.Apart from the restock pains there is also the matter of vendor generation.WHY do I have to generate 100 human vendors to get one without a pink mohawk, lime green lips and a pear shaped body or some other garish and ugly combination? You'd think that a Master Merchant with such hiring skills should be able to have a bit more control over the appearance of their vendors without having to generate hundreds of vendors to find the one they want.
if only they could make it so that ID's could work their magic on vendors...
that would be awesome for us, and would give ID's something new to do.
gojimbogo wrote:
if only they could make it so that ID's could work their magic on vendors...
Fidgiter wrote:
Very good points all around. For now I think the priority is to try and influence the wall to move to make this a little less painful but ultimately a contingency is needed. The points about the needlessly repetative tasks we face are extremely good ones.
Apart from the restock pains there is also the matter of vendor generation.
WHY do I have to generate 100 human vendors to get one without a pink mohawk, lime green lips and a pear shaped body or some other garish and ugly combination? You'd think that a Master Merchant with such hiring skills should be able to have a bit more control over the appearance of their vendors without having to generate hundreds of vendors to find the one they want.
that would be awesome for us, and would give ID's something new to do.
/agree
even if it would be nice for merchants themselves to have the ability...i'd much rather have someone who knows what they're doing to handle it lol...
This happened to me as well.
Cafa wrote:
Elyssa wrote:
Trust me, that's the exact point I intend to make.
Non-combat professions deserve the same "fun" for our $15/month as well.
I have a combat character. I rarely play it because I don't want to.
It's a nice diversion from time to time, but being a merchant and crafter is what I enjoy.
Running my business and working daily to improve it is what keeps me in the game.
There comes a time when you cross the point of diminishing returns.
Once the hassle factor outweighs the fun factor, there's no sense in spending the money anymore.
It is unlikely that we'll see any significant love until the CU and RotW are in place, tho.
Message Edited by Elyssa on 03-21-2005 12:39 PM
Ain't it funny how both our original alts turned into our primary characters?
Fivo Asia
Elyssa wrote:
Yeah.
Too bad I wasted a couple of months on combat before I discovered how much fun it was to sell things!
Well I don't know if I would call my time (similar experience) as a waste. I've had loads of fun with my combat character (which is a few months older than this character).
Elyssa wrote:
I've told a few people who have asked, but I'll say it here for everyone.
We have a LOT of issues that need to be addressed to make OUR gameplay more fun.
The reason I haven't pushed these other things forward yet is because I'm trying to avoid diverting the focus of discussion away from the current crisis.
Thanks, Elyssa, for thinking that way and working hard on this. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes right now. It sounds like you're getting a bit left out of the loop, too, with them springing that stuff on you. Can't say that'd make me real happy, but you're handling it with grace.
I was rather surprised that they decided to do this with zero (other) revamp to the Merchant profession, despite Merchants having asked for a few things for so long. Like a restock button. Oh lord, my kingdom for a restock button.
(Sorry. It's a compulsion.)
Since we're all listing our fondest dreams, my wishlist for this change is:
- Let advertising remain tied to skillpoints. (That will make me so very, very happy.)
- Remove prices from the listing screen.
And that's kinda it. The rest of it seems fine with me. No SP reductions, either, we don't need it.
My future wishlist is much like everyone else's: restock button, IDable or customizable vendors, consignment options, etc. More specific planetary map listing categories. (Oh, and I like the idea of being able to place harvs on hills, though I think that's more an Artisan thing, surveying line and all.)
Basically, just things to make us useful as a profession for something beyond our extra vendor space.
Me too.
I've done this math before, and it's rather distressing. I personally have as much of a problem with loading and unloading harvesters as I do with listing items on the vendors, but I'm not sure exactly whose domain harvester control is.
Needless to say I agree with the original poster, that listing and relisting vendors is far more tedious than it should be. On the subject of the unpleasant experience other characters go through to search for items on vendors, the answer they've created simply goes to punish those of us who do our jobs as merchants and businesspeople.
I work hard to make sure my shop is not only well-stocked, but well-known. I publicize the shop so that the people of Kettemoor *don't* have to wander around looking from empty house to empty house for food, they can simply go to -3833 3510 near Theed and find a vendor that's stocked.
I consider it part of the business of being a Merchant to promote and advertise my shop so that people know it's there. If they're going to remove some of the perks of doing our job well, they might at least fix some of the tedium of doing it at all.
O.
Elyssa wrote:
Trust me, that's the exact point I intend to make.
Non-combat professions deserve the same "fun" for our $15/month as well.
I have a combat character. I rarely play it because I don't want to.
It's a nice diversion from time to time, but being a merchant and crafter is what I enjoy.
Running my business and working daily to improve it is what keeps me in the game.
There comes a time when you cross the point of diminishing returns.
Once the hassle factor outweighs the fun factor, there's no sense in spending the money anymore.
It is unlikely that we'll see any significant love until the CU and RotW are in place, tho.
Message Edited by Elyssa on 03-21-2005 12:39 PM
Believe me when I saw I will be standing behind you on this! Sometimes I will even be in front of you! Its a big issue for me.
SeaRaptor wrote:
An excellent thread full of excellent points.
Since we're removing hideously boring time sinks from the game, why not let the process continue for the crafting community? Seems logical to me. The insanity of trying to keep my vendors stocked combnied with the new search function is what's led me to shut down my vendors after nearly 2 years of operation. If some of the mind-numbing boredom of stocking and re-listing were addressed, I might not have made the same decision.
I haven't shut down my vendors yet, but I think I am about to. We will have to see. I had all my vendors on the search within 10 minutes of the server coming up and within 15 minutes I had almost nothing on the first page in any of the clothing categories. If I get any sales at all I will be really suprised. I can't advertise around that. About the only thing I could do is stand in the middle of Coronet and make orders as people ask for things, but I really don't have time for that anymore.