Merchant Archive

I tried it on the weekend, and here's what I thought.

Sorting by price: Meh, this is how's it going to be, so I guess we'll have to deal with it. It's what the combat characters want, and they rule the game, so screaming until you're blue wont change anything.

No buy option: The easiest solution to all the griefing possibilities. No money is exchanged until you arrive at the vendor location and interact with it.

Create Waypoint: Here's the thing. The 'Create Waypoint' button does just that, but it's called 'Waypoint to Vendor' in your datapad. It SHOULD be called '1-Handed Curved Sword' or 'Tokk +4 Melee Defence Reinforced Shirt'. So if you decide to do some shopping, you're going to have a half-dozen identical waypoints in your datapad.

Upon arrival at the vendor location, I found myself at a mall with about 12 vendors. There was nothing to indicate which vendor it was. (Waypoints do not appear in buildings, do they?) Kind of a pain, but I was able to find what I wanted quick enough by the names on the vendors. Possibly the waypoints could be given the name of the vendor in your Datapad? Like 'Tokk's Modified Clothing' or 'Oola Melee Weapons.'

I still don't think I will put my vendors on the Galactic Search. I serve a pretty big city, and I do good business. I have a healthy customer base, and I'll bet my fur they will still be my customers once this hits. I'm not really looking for more, since the people I have consume about all my playtime. Anything above that would make it more work than I can probably handle.

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Tokklyym wrote:

Upon arrival at the vendor location, I found myself at a mall with about 12 vendors. There was nothing to indicate which vendor it was. (Waypoints do not appear in buildings, do they?) Kind of a pain, but I was able to find what I wanted quick enough by the names on the vendors. Possibly the waypoints could be given the name of the vendor in your Datapad? Like 'Tokk's Modified Clothing' or 'Oola Melee Weapons.'

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Dimear wrote:

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Tokklyym wrote:

Upon arrival at the vendor location, I found myself at a mall with about 12 vendors. There was nothing to indicate which vendor it was. (Waypoints do not appear in buildings, do they?) Kind of a pain, but I was able to find what I wanted quick enough by the names on the vendors. Possibly the waypoints could be given the name of the vendor in your Datapad? Like 'Tokk's Modified Clothing' or 'Oola Melee Weapons.'

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Waypoints do show up in buildings. At least they do for me in my merchant tent. Not 100% sure about all the other buildings, but I think it should work...

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The shimmering marker of a wp doesn't appear in a building. But you can zero in on the wp with the on-screen waypoint monitor. Also, using the /way command while targeting an object in a house has never seemed to work for me, correctly. I just sit on the vendor and creat a new wp from the datapad.

Fivo Asia

I really dont understand the point of this change. Who is it benefiting? and who is it hurting?

The supposed benefit is time saving? correct? Well with buff pack kits, armor suits, lightsaber and different crafting kits, as well as many other items being in travel packs. Does this mean the consumer needs to look at 1000s of travel packs to find a suit of armor. Or if the consumer needs to buy a crate of stims, does he have to look through all the factory crates in the galaxy. Or if he is looking for a nice stack of hide he has to sort through 1000s of lines of newbies trying to sell 13units of 120 oq hide. yeah this sounds like a time saver.

Who does it hurt? it destroys the merchant profession. 18 skill boxes so you can store more items on your vendor..oh yeah and have reduced bazaar fees heh. You dont need different species or clothing or advertisement or merchant droids, you dont need multiple vendors, you dont need shops, you dont need merchant cities. The whole of trade and sales in game can be done through the bazaar.

So what is it?!? Are the new devs so eager to please the whiners in this game that they will destroy a profession. Speeders, mounts, 60 second shuttlewaits, travel in JTL..the game has added tons of ways to save time. Now that you can get places faster..you dont even need to go to them. I actually like shopping. A chance to see commerce cities and all the creative ways other people have set up shop. Yeah yeah, sometimes theres an empty vendor, but if it stays empty for long people stop going to it. and if you know who runs the shop you can shoot him/her an email asking if they can make you something. A conversation ensues, you meet someone new....OMFG player interaction in crafting. Dont need that pesky busines anymore.
As far as whoever sells for the lowest should get the most business BULL!! Does the same product in NY city cost the same as the same product in spudville, Idaho. Do products in a mall full of stores charge the same as a walmart..no, your paying for the convenience, the neighborhood, the assurance of quality, the brand and the personalized SERVICE!! If you are a merchant you are building a relationship with your customers, who will in turn keep coming back to you, regardless if you charge 1k more than your competitors.. When I see customers in my shop , I love to give them free stuff. I throw them an extra piece of high end armor or say its on sale today and tip them 1/2 there money back, and thank them for coming. The reactions are awesome. It builds brand loyalty, a customer relationship, and starts word of mouth advertising because who doesnt tell their friends when someone just gave you 1/4 mil worth of merchandise for just being at the shop. This new system will take away tons of consumer traffic and rob us all of the opportunity to be true businessmen.

Put Galaxy Vendor Search capable merchants at Advertising III -- the exact same place Planetary Map Registration is. That way, if you want to have one vendor, undecorated, you can do that and spend minimal skill points. (But not Artisan-BusinessIII kind of minimal.)

If it hits live as it is now in Test, then I agree, Merchant as a Profession becomes incredibly undervalued.

(I disagree with those who say that Master Merchant should be required. You can't Master 3 Crafting professions and everybody knows that a dabbling crafter is really no crafter at all.)

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Tokklyym wrote:
(I disagree with those who say that Master Merchant should be required. You can't Master 3 Crafting professions and everybody knows that a dabbling crafter is really no crafter at all.)

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Sure you can. There are enough points to master Merchant, AS, WS and the entire surveying line. You can master merchant and two other crafting professions.

Sure you can. There are enough points to master Merchant, AS, WS and the entire surveying line. You can master merchant and two other crafting professions.

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I stand corrected. It's possible if you're going off the Engineering tree, of course. My situation is different. I'm a Tailor and Shipwright. If I want to do it, I have to dump the Survey line, which creates a serious pain.

I guess what I meant to say is that you can't become a 'Grand Master Artisan' with two Crafting profs and Master Merchant as well. And since I need basically all four lines of Artisan, what's the extra one point?

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Eeliva wrote:
Sorry, but as a Merchant, I WANT to be a Sears Catalog Outlet! I'm a Merchant to sell. I'm not a Merchant to decorate. I really don't like to search through cluttered shops to find vendors. Some of these places are mazes and it drives me nuts. I've taken to selling on the Bazaar in small lots and have done quite well that way. In fact, I can sell more at higher prices on the Bazaar than I can in my own vendors. (I sell mostly resources, although I am also an Architect )

The problem with the Bazaar is that I have far too much to list there and the price cap makes listing more like work. So yes, I'd like a buy function to the new system as well as displaying prices. I think this would have a leveling effect on the game, and those that don't care for the system can take up another profession. No one says you HAVE to list your vendors on the Bazaar. It is your choice. But don't kill it for those of us that have been looking forward to this system. Competition in this area is a good thing.

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You say that now, but wait until the bulk resource sellers start listing their resources on the bazaar. I'm currently sellingALL my resources at 1.5 cpu and can easily cut that down to 1.0. Can you compete with that? I'm sure even I will be undercut when this new system goes into effect.

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SWG_Miriam wrote:

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Straker_Atrella wrote:

Only the cheapest or the best will sell. This forces people out of what could be their chosen profession.

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Uhh, ... that's how a free market works. The theory behind a free market is that competition will benefit the consumer.

Honestly, I don't understand why some merchant cannot understand this simple thing. It's almost like they've built their business model on ripping off consumers who are ignorant of the competition.

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I wonder if anyone with 1 vendor that has 100 items has actually ran a successful business. I guess we'll find out starting tomorrow.