Merchant Archive
Thread: What is it with Artisans / Crafters ?
Agrred Krupperift,
I'm -not- against anyone selling their own whares at all. They can stand around in the bank or starport and shout to their hearts content. BUT, to gain access to special tools and skills they should be required to spend points in the Merchant tree.
Its not at all unlike having to train to learn to use a new gun properly. Or a special move. If you want those skills, pay for 'em.
You can have your one vendor.. I don't care a squat about artisans having vendors. All I want is the tools such as private vendor sales showing on the global bazaar etc. to be Merchant only. I don't want to take anything away from teh artisan as it stands, I just want the Merchant tools put in the game where they belong, in the merchant tree. NOT just given out as an integral part of owning a vendor that any business 3 artisan can get.
MichelaSundiver wrote:
Oh, and Kruppe ... I don't want all of the benefits of the Merchant class. I haven't earned it. Just like I don't want you making droids if you haven't earned it. It's all about fairness.
I just want my one vendor. I'm happy with that.
My experience has been 100% the opposite with Merchants ... none of them, as yet, have kept up. I've heard "build ALL the droids you want at X price, I'll buy them!" only to build twenty in a night and hear "oh, geez! I only want four."
All I want is the tools such as private vendor sales showing on the global bazaar etc. to be Merchant only.
That's cool. Works for me.
MichelaSundiver wrote:
My experience has been 100% the opposite with Merchants ... none of them, as yet, have kept up. I've heard "build ALL the droids you want at X price, I'll buy them!" only to build twenty in a night and hear "oh, geez! I only want four."
I only want, or I can only afford 4 ???
Because Merchants have to compete with Crafters who can sell 90% as efficiently as us, and our margins have to beso small, we cant't make enough money to be able to buy 300,000 Credits worth of droids up front - at least I can't.
I turn over 100k a day (not bad I think considering the terrible position of my PA in relation to sales)- 70k of that goes back to the crafter, 10k to my PA and I retain the other 20K which goes towards maintenance etc. - So I probably show 15k a day profit. Now thats the majority of a month to be in a position to buy 20 droids..
Once you take into account I'm spending probably 10-15ka week on training my merchant skills (as I know no other merchants on Eclipse / Naboo anywhere near Master..) - I have very little surplus income
Huh? Do you mean that if we aren't Merchants, we shouldn't even haveone vendor? I really hope that's not what you meant.
Sorry, that's exaclty what I meant.
Sorry, that's exaclty what I meant.
Wow, now that's petty. An attitude like that is bound to get you zero support from other classes.
I only want, or I can only afford 4 ???
It turned out to be "I can only afford ..." But, if that is the case, don't tell the crafter that "I'll take ALL of the 20k items you can make". Say "I'll take four".
Personally, I would like to find a decent Merchant on Bloodfin who could handle business for me and just send me orders. It'd make the game much smoother for me.
Trouble is, most merchants don't want to hold stock, they want emergency orders, and they want me to deliver. Quite frankly, they make it more of a hassle to sell through them than to just do it myself.
I'm willing to give up some profits to make the whole process smoother. But, if I'm giving up profits to make it more of a hassle ... well, you can guess what I'm going to do.
Not petty at all.
Just my -opinion- on something that needs to be done to balance the classes. Don't take it personally. Its an old argument on this board. In -my- opinion the Bazaar fee skills should be moved to Artisan and Vendors should be a Merchant only skill. It may never change, but that's my opinion.
It's all about character skill vs. player skill. People are used to MMPORPGs rewarding catassing for 16 hours a day with success. Merchanting doesn't work that way.
Merchanting isa player skill not a character skill. You have to do it, your character skills won't carry you. If you're a lousy merchant as a PLAYER you won't prosper no matter how badly you nerf everyone else. If you're a good PLAYER it won't matter how few boxes your character fills in, you'll do quite well.
Merchanting is a real person player to player skill, you can't win just by filling in enough boxes. You the player have to have actual skill. That's what makes it so special and wonderful. And that's what makes it frustrating for people who are used to just filling in the right skill boxes and guaranteeing success.
I agree with this Numti.
However, as this is a game, there are rules within the world that have to be followed. Structures put down in code. A lot of things I'm lobbying for are to alter the code to bring some things more in line with what we need to make it a better "player" skill. Tnings like shops, signs, etc.
You'll also find I"m a HUGE proponent of taking away the per tic Merchant XP, and making the player have to earn the right to use those new skills.
A lot of things I'm lobbying for are to alter the code to bring some things more in line with what we need to make it a better "player" skill. Tnings like shops, signs, etc.
Exactly and those would make a huge difference.
Really when you're in a world without any of the skills you're thinking of, no merchants, no houses, no advertising at all; you begin to appreciate what there is available.