Merchant Archive

Right, but I think what P4samwise and myself have been trying to get at is that if the DEVs spend so much time on your number one issue, the one that is constantly complained about without anything else ever being mentioned, the chances that the DEVs will come back anytime 'soon', is going to be next to nil.

Yes, poached vendors should be fixed, but the question in my mind, is should it be the ONLY fix, or just a small part of an overall merchant fix. I hope for the #2.

Message Edited by DragonScout on 06-16-2004 04:15 PM

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JTGAlpha wrote:

My point is, don't worry. Vendor poaching isn't the ONLY thing we want as a profession. Doc's sent tons of issues. This one needs to be fixed as much as any of them, however, if only because of the community problems it's caused.

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My worry is the fact that it's been given much higher priority makes it a very realpossibility that the devs will take that as reason to fix it while ignoring the rest of the profession, thus leaving every crafter in the game with little choice but to permanently dabble in merchant (and probably making a full Merchant revamp further down the lineabout as likely as a full Scout revamp, since the Merchant profession will then be flooded with people who have no interest in being Merchants, just like most Scouts have no interest in really being Scouts).

Vendor poaching IS a hard issue to fix from a coding standpoint. It is obvious they coded it this way in the first place intentionally. Not necessarily for them to remain after you drop merchant, but so that the vendor doesn't disappear. Can you imagine the Customer Service Nightmare it would be if legit vendors poofed?

It isn't something they can just fix overnight. Or it would have been done.

And, when it is fixed, most people won't really notice -- because most people aren't poachers, and the rest will just shrug and move on. And then.. basically all the issues with merchant as a profession are going to drop into the 'taken care of' basket on the DEVs' desks.. and they will move on to Jedi, jedi, more jedi... JTLS, jedi... more JTLS... combat revamp... more jedi... etc etc etc etc.. just throw jedi in there a few more times. By the time Merchant gets any more love, it will be 2006 -- assuming of course that they even get to poached vendors this year.

This is speculation, but it is based on how SOE does things. If they get this profession working 'as intended'... it will never be anything more than a utility profession based around vendors. Yes, they might get some upgrades to vendors, but in the long run, that doesn't improve the profession. it improves VENDORS.

And that is what I have a problem with. I don't think this profession should be focused primarily on vendors. I think they should just be one tree out of four.

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JTGAlpha wrote:

Hey, I've got just as much stored up cynicism as you, but why would they fix ONE issue and leave? They've NEVER done that in ANY revamp. EVER. NEVER.

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That's true. They at the very least fix one issue and then generate a whole slew of worse ones.

(Cf. ID revamp.)

So maybe they'll A) make vendors vanish when skills are dropped and B) make Merchant more "challenging" to advance in by mandating that you get a maximum of 10XP per hour, and you only get that XP if you do at least 10,000 credits in sales during that hour. That'll definitely cut down on the number of empty vendors, right?

The problem is though, that vendor poaching doesn't count as a profession revamp. It is just a fix. And yes, I have seen on more than one patch a profession getting just a single thing fixed. So it is very likely for it to happen.

Also.. if it was so easy to fix.. why hasn't it been? this has been a problem for so long.. not just a few months, but since the game began? So if it is so easy.. it should have been done long ago. And yet we still do not even have a rough date for when it will be fixed.

Message Edited by JTGAlpha on 06-16-2004 05:01 PM

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JTGAlpha wrote:

So, p4, you're entire reason for continuing a worthless debate is based on what the dev's MIGHT do?

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Actually, it's more because while passing through these forums a while ago, I was struck by the religious zealotry I was seeing coming from some of the community members, thinly disguised as rational argument, and was annoyed that nobody was calling them on their flaming BS.

Of course, whenever I see a constructive thread talking about merchant enhancements, I post in there with whatever constructive comments I just have. It's just that the egg-throwing and religious fervor outnumbers the constructive threads. I go wherever I am needed.

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JTGAlpha wrote:

Oh. So you're just trolling. Cuz you're certainly not changing any minds. That's why I say trolling. Because you're purposely engaging in arguements you know are going to get heated and go nowhere. Well excuse me, but I have to live on these forums. You mind taking your flamethrower with you? I had more respect for your views when I thought you actually believed something to be good or bad for my profession. Now I see you're just here baiting people.

So... what now? Keep up the flames, or drop it and move on, which is what we ALL need to be doing, because we're not changing ANYONE's mind at this point. Can't we all just agree to disagree on this andmove on now?

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Oh, I have definite beliefs on what's good for the profession, and I've stated them. I just think it's rather pointless for everyone to state their beliefs in a vacuum, without attempting to refute opposing points of view in a rational fashion.

And it's beyond pointless (which would be what, concave?) to state beliefs and then mix them with flaming rhetoric. Such flames need to be put out with the cool water of logic, lest they spread.

I think these forums have gotten a lot more civil since I first started posting here, actually. Which is a good sign. Keep it up long enough and I'll go back into lurk mode.