Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchant needs help against SOE Mafia
Page 3 of 3
Okeefe
Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:24 am
#27
That's it I quit.
To hades with this. Another 60+ weapons dropped off tonight. It's just too much like work to have to tend harvestors, craft crap and reprice everything all the time. It has become more work than RL. I thought games were supposed to be fun?
Since I craft, as there is nothing else to do in-game, I doubt I will retain my account for much longer.There justisn't any reason to take the aggravation. I like the crafting, but I don't need all the other useless, waste time work. I would like to be able to have some time to do a little adventuring, once in a while.
Add this to the fact that, ascrafters, we are pretty much unable tocompetein PvP, there is not a heck of a lot to do in this game.
I can certainly see why many let their vendors rot and go empty. I can see why many have left, or are leaving the game.
PrincessThea
Wed Apr 14, 2004 10:29 am
#28
This is just a general comment about restocking, and is not targeted to the original poster.As usual I dont expect anybody to agree with me :-)
I only get about0-3 "Item not sold" messages a week , out of the 1000+ Items I have spread on 6 vendors.Apparently fromreading this forumI must be part of the minority. The restock timer has never bothered me at all. Restocking a few items a week is not a chore for me at all. Basically Im saying that the current system works well for me in my type of business.
If your not selling the majority of your merchandise in a month, the problem is with your business, not the vendor time limits. Companies in real life do not overproduce products to have them sit inwarehouses. Just because itis convienient to make 1000 items in your factoryat one time doesnt mean its the right thing to do.Because you didnt initially take inventory concerns into consideration,your now left with lots of items that need to be restocked and blaming the vendor time limits for causing your problem, when it was your lack of foresight in the beginning that caused it.
I will agree that for some types of merchants, specifically tailors, it isharder than mostto find the balance between offering a wide selection in many colors and not overstocking. These types of business' will have to do more restocking than most. What I dont agree with is stocking 1000personal harvestorsor chance cubes, and blame the system when they dont sell and your left restocking.
Prinethea
Okeefe
Wed Apr 14, 2004 4:31 pm
#29
Well your asking what I think SOE intentions were by creating a time limit on the stockroom?
I would saythat maybe it was not put in place just to hinder the "storage" vendor abusers as most of us assume. Butthat ithasa more important purpose of controlling the amount of crafted goods to a level which would not flood swg economy (and SOE's database's of course).If we were all allowed to craftendless amounts of stuff, even for the legit purpose ofselling on a vendor, well the supply would be so high, and the merchandisewould be worthless after a while. SoIkinda believethe stockroom limits maintain balance forthe crafting community. It really never occured to me before nowbut maybe SOE does occaisionly :-) know what is best for us economy wise, and we should becommending them for having a system in place that will not let our econony fall apart.
The Problem with this theory is that the time limits in no way limit the amount of items on the market.
Also, what normally keeps the market rolling is that new, innovative products come out, thus making the old ones obsolete. So instead of time limits they need to put BETTER resources in so that products improve. However, most items have not improved in several months, and in fact many items have got worse. What kind of incentive is that to get rid of old stock.
The only reason for the limits that makes any sort of of sense is forcing the people using the vendors for storage to keep an eye on thier items, however this faisl too, as all they do is put 9999999999 in the price slot and then resell every item at that price
Where this hurts people like me is that I price each weapon individually based on DPS, Damage, speed and components used. This makes pricing very unique for each item, so that customers can tell at a glance which is better, but also makes it a pai when 60 or 100 drop off.
Now I realize that no one is sympathetic, so I am not going to bother arguing here anymore. It has come to my realization that SOE has no idea how to put together a game, and as a result I am just going to let my 40+ harvestors, factories, houses and vendors burn. I will let the game delete the millions I have in salable resources and equipment. My city should look quite cool when it's half on fire. I will just add maintenance to try and get it all on fire at the same time. Might be the most fun this game has been...
PrincessThea
Thu Apr 15, 2004 12:26 am
#30
Okeefe wrote:
My biggest question is: What purpose is served by throwing the inventory out? If your answer is that it is to get rid of the 'storage' vendors, then I say to you "Should you cut off your nose to spite your face?" Meaning your pissing off a Core group of people in your game to get at a few people who store items. If, indeed the player economy is SO important then this practice is assinine.
Well your asking what I think SOE intentions were by creating a time limit on the stockroom?
I would saythat maybe it was not put in place just to hinder the "storage" vendor abusers as most of us assume. Butthat ithasa more important purpose of controlling the amount of crafted goods to a level which would not flood swg economy (and SOE's database's of course).If we were all allowed to craftendless amounts of stuff, even for the legit purpose ofselling on a vendor, well the supply would be so high, and the merchandisewould be worthless after a while. SoIkinda believethe stockroom limits maintain balance forthe crafting community. It really never occured to me before nowbut maybe SOE does occaisionly :-) know what is best for us economy wise, and we should becommending them for having a system in place that will not let our econony fall apart.
~Prinethea
Shinte
Thu Apr 15, 2004 12:35 am
#31
Here's my biggest problem with this system and why I think it needs to be removed, or at least revamped. I went on vacation for about a week and a half and while I was gone about half of my inventory (a few hundred items) ran out of their time and went into the stockroom. Well as it turns out, items that run out of time and go into the stockroom will only stay there for 7 days before permanently being deleted. So half of the items from my vendors were deleted with no way to retrieve them. My business is basically ruined now since I don't have nearly enough time or factories to replenish my inventory in any timely manner. My customers are going to stop coming because my vendors aren't stocked. I've never been one to complain about SOE or this game before. I've taken everything with a grain of salt, but this is rediculous. This has turned into too much of a chore, and I'm not having fun with it anymore. I think I'm going to bow out of the merchant business and either sell my weapons in bulk as a distributor or cease being a weaponsmith entirely.
DocSavag
Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:23 am
#32
Okeefe wrote:
Now I realize that no one is sympathetic, so I am not going to bother arguing here anymore. It has come to my realization that SOE has no idea how to put together a game, and as a result I am just going to let my 40+ harvestors, factories, houses and vendors burn. I will let the game delete the millions I have in salable resources and equipment. My city should look quite cool when it's half on fire. I will just add maintenance to try and get it all on fire at the same time. Might be the most fun this game has been...
You seem to be enjoying being annoyed at SOE that is something anyway.
I do have sympathy for you and I hope to get chagnes that will make what you are describing easier. I don't think SOE is trying to "Get at" anyone with the time limits. I think they were trying to prevent items from staying in their database for months and months after someone stopped playing. The same reason houses disappear and harvesters burn. The real issue here isn't really that you have to do periodic inventory management and put your stock up for sale again. It is really that the tools to do it are horrible. If you just had to highlight those 100 items and click return to sale I don't think this would be nearly the issue that it is right now. I suggest that we should focus our efforts on changes like that instead of trying to convince the devs that they shouldn't be worrying about database space or item storage.
Naufragus
Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:06 pm
#33
DocSavag wrote:
You seem to be enjoying being annoyed at SOE that is something anyway.
I do have sympathy for you and I hope to get chagnes that will make what you are describing easier. I don't think SOE is trying to "Get at" anyone with the time limits. I think they were trying to prevent items from staying in their database for months and months after someone stopped playing. The same reason houses disappear and harvesters burn. The real issue here isn't really that you have to do periodic inventory management and put your stock up for sale again. It is really that the tools to do it are horrible. If you just had to highlight those 100 items and click return to sale I don't think this would be nearly the issue that it is right now. I suggest that we should focus our efforts on changes like that instead of trying to convince the devs that they shouldn't be worrying about database space or item storage.
thanks for giving this attention.....
my only negative comment is that adding a relist all or highlight all feature is really pointless and adds a needless step to the process...essentially it is just making us do something we dont really need to....if there was no TIME limit or say a 90 day time limit we wouldnt need this feature at all....and it would have the same effect....most of us are basically going to relist everything anyway so as i said the only thing the interface changes accomplish is making relisting less drudgery...the database doesnt have less items and is helped in no way...all that is happening is that they are moving around.
IMO if they want to help the database removing time limits would be helpful as the DB would not have to track times/dates for millions of items.
At the bare minium the stockroom needs a14 day limit...ideally 30...a week is hardly enough...
The sales listing should be from 60 - 90 days if there must be a limit...
Now what would really be helpful - to me at least - is if i had a droid i could interface with or could do relistings from any vendor....then i wouldnt have to make a special trip to the vendor just to relist items.
ALSO --- you state that the purpose of the limit is so items wont clog the DB after someone quits....well eventually the vendors maintence or the houses maintence will run out and the items will POOF anyway. Now they allow houses - FILLED WITH 150 ITEMS - to remain in the game after someone quits...until the maintence runs out...so if someone comes back all of their stuff is still there waiting for them.
Apparently this does not also apply to Merchants and their stock.
i just have never heard a logical explanation for any of these limits from the devs ---
Naufragus
Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:19 pm
#34
DocSavag wrote:
You seem to be enjoying being annoyed at SOE that is something anyway.
I do have sympathy for you and I hope to get chagnes that will make what you are describing easier. I don't think SOE is trying to "Get at" anyone with the time limits. I think they were trying to prevent items from staying in their database for months and months after someone stopped playing. The same reason houses disappear and harvesters burn. The real issue here isn't really that you have to do periodic inventory management and put your stock up for sale again. It is really that the tools to do it are horrible. If you just had to highlight those 100 items and click return to sale I don't think this would be nearly the issue that it is right now. I suggest that we should focus our efforts on changes like that instead of trying to convince the devs that they shouldn't be worrying about database space or item storage.
thanks for giving this attention.....
my only negative comment is that adding a relist all or highlight all feature is really pointless and adds a needless step to the process...essentially it is just making us do something we dont really need to....if there was no TIME limit or say a 90 day time limit we wouldnt need this feature at all....and it would have the same effect....most of us are basically going to relist everything anyway so as i said the only thing the interface changes accomplish is making relisting less drudgery...the database doesnt have less items and is helped in no way...all that is happening is that they are moving around.
IMO if they want to help the database removing time limits would be helpful as the DB would not have to track times/dates for millions of items.
At the bare minium the stockroom needs a14 day limit...ideally 30...a week is hardly enough...
The sales listing should be from 60 - 90 days if there must be a limit...
Now what would really be helpful - to me at least - is if i had a droid i could interface with or could do relistings from any vendor....then i wouldnt have to make a special trip to the vendor just to relist items.
ALSO --- you state that the purpose of the limit is so items wont clog the DB after someone quits....well eventually the vendors maintence or the houses maintence will run out and the items will POOF anyway. Now they allow houses - FILLED WITH 150 ITEMS - to remain in the game after someone quits...until the maintence runs out...so if someone comes back all of their stuff is still there waiting for them.
Apparently this does not also apply to Merchants and their stock.
i just have never heard a logical explanation for any of these limits from the devs ---
LadyGrey
Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:14 pm
#35
Attack of the Spam E-Mail!
I believe that if the devs really want to lessen the strain on the database, the place they should look first is not the vendors themselves, but some of the inane and ridiculous emails that we get sent all the time.
It would make much more sense to have one email per day (or perhaps allow players to set the time period), detailing what has happened on one particular vendor, or on the bazaar. Or perhaps just one email detailing everything about all vendors and bazaar sales.
In addition, it makes no sense at all to send me an email when I have removed an item from a vendor or the bazaar. I am standing in front of my vendor, or in front of the bazaar terminal, removing an item for whatever reason, and I get an email telling me that the auction is a failure. IT IS NOT A FAILURE! I deliberately removed an item, and I am smart enough to realize that I have deliberately removed an item. I don't need an email telling me about this.
Tedium of sorting through e-mails is not the same as game content!
I believe that if the devs really want to lessen the strain on the database, the place they should look first is not the vendors themselves, but some of the inane and ridiculous emails that we get sent all the time.
It would make much more sense to have one email per day (or perhaps allow players to set the time period), detailing what has happened on one particular vendor, or on the bazaar. Or perhaps just one email detailing everything about all vendors and bazaar sales.
In addition, it makes no sense at all to send me an email when I have removed an item from a vendor or the bazaar. I am standing in front of my vendor, or in front of the bazaar terminal, removing an item for whatever reason, and I get an email telling me that the auction is a failure. IT IS NOT A FAILURE! I deliberately removed an item, and I am smart enough to realize that I have deliberately removed an item. I don't need an email telling me about this.
Tedium of sorting through e-mails is not the same as game content!
Xieflow
Thu Apr 15, 2004 10:27 pm
#36
If your not selling the majority of your merchandise in a month, the problem is with your business, not the vendor time limits. Companies in real life do not overproduce products to have them sit in warehouses
Often times products in real life sit on shelves for more than 30 days before selling.
Also, it's a convienence factor. Pop a bunch of items on now, and just keep relisting until you are almost out, and then make more.
However, as a Weaponsmith, there was other problems. There are *SO MANY* useless weapons out there. Like the Power5 Pistol. No one uses these, however having one on your vendor (along with every other weapon) is "good" because then you can show the pistoleer the full line of pistols. Also, you get the rare customer who buys based on the looks of a weapon, and not the stats of the weapon.
If a weapon is not on your vendor, and someone swings by, they don't assume "Oh... hey, that weapon must SUCK, that's why it's not there!" They assume you either forgot about it, or you sold out or something. Which means, of course, they ask you about it.
Now, many players are educated in what weapons are useless / not useless... but not all of them. Proof of the uneducatedness of the average SWG player comes from the "Next" button, and the filters on vendors. When I did run a vendor, I would get many tells "You've got no more laser carbines on your vendor!" And I would be thinking "I'm sure I do... I just restocked this morning". Then I would check, and yup. The customer didn't click "Weapons" and then "Carbines", and then flip the page.
Oh yeah, and then having 50 - 100 items per weapon listing really added. And the whole "CRATE" page. That crate page sucks.
Basically, I said "I can earn way more credits doing far less work doing only custom orders", and that's what I do now.
Often times products in real life sit on shelves for more than 30 days before selling.
Also, it's a convienence factor. Pop a bunch of items on now, and just keep relisting until you are almost out, and then make more.
However, as a Weaponsmith, there was other problems. There are *SO MANY* useless weapons out there. Like the Power5 Pistol. No one uses these, however having one on your vendor (along with every other weapon) is "good" because then you can show the pistoleer the full line of pistols. Also, you get the rare customer who buys based on the looks of a weapon, and not the stats of the weapon.
If a weapon is not on your vendor, and someone swings by, they don't assume "Oh... hey, that weapon must SUCK, that's why it's not there!" They assume you either forgot about it, or you sold out or something. Which means, of course, they ask you about it.
Now, many players are educated in what weapons are useless / not useless... but not all of them. Proof of the uneducatedness of the average SWG player comes from the "Next" button, and the filters on vendors. When I did run a vendor, I would get many tells "You've got no more laser carbines on your vendor!" And I would be thinking "I'm sure I do... I just restocked this morning". Then I would check, and yup. The customer didn't click "Weapons" and then "Carbines", and then flip the page.
Oh yeah, and then having 50 - 100 items per weapon listing really added. And the whole "CRATE" page. That crate page sucks.
Basically, I said "I can earn way more credits doing far less work doing only custom orders", and that's what I do now.
Naufragus
Sat Apr 17, 2004 9:58 am
#37
Xieflow wrote:
If your not selling the majority of your merchandise in a month, the problem is with your business, not the vendor time limits. Companies in real life do not overproduce products to have them sit in warehouses
this statement i sooooooooooooooooo off the mark....its like he tried to explain earlier...
Say I sell a lot of widgets....I load 50 widgets and with in a couple of weeks all are sold but 10....I load another 50 widgets and in another couple off weeks sell another 25 and load 50 more...
The customer does not look to see what the timing is on the widgets....he is just buying widgets....so even though the prduct is selling well some widgets will not get sold in he 30 days...then just extrapalate this over several products and several vendors...our stuff isnt milk or bread...people arent looking at expiration dates!
another solution to part of this problems is one of Docs ideas about crate sales.....if i could just load a crate of items or if items STACKED on the vendor this would make our lives easier and the database a fewr items.. The cutomer would come in and just see a listing for widgets and a total of 50 items....he wants to buy 5 widgets and inputs that in a # to buy field...the vendor them dispense 5 widgets to the guy....the next customer would see 45 widgets...
this would also help some of us track our inventory better
Xieflow
Sun Apr 18, 2004 12:51 am
#38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xieflow wrote:
If your not selling the majority of your merchandise in a month, the problem is with your business, not the vendor time limits. Companies in real life do not overproduce products to have them sit in warehouses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
this statement i sooooooooooooooooo off the mark....its like he tried to explain earlier...
Say I sell a lot of widgets....I load 50 widgets and with in a couple of weeks all are sold but 10....I load another 50 widgets and in another couple off weeks sell another 25 and load 50 more...
The customer does not look to see what the timing is on the widgets....he is just buying widgets....so even though the prduct is selling well some widgets will not get sold in he 30 days...then just extrapalate this over several products and several vendors...our stuff isnt milk or bread...people arent looking at expiration dates!
another solution to part of this problems is one of Docs ideas about crate sales.....if i could just load a crate of items or if items STACKED on the vendor this would make our lives easier and the database a fewr items.. The cutomer would come in and just see a listing for widgets and a total of 50 items....he wants to buy 5 widgets and inputs that in a # to buy field...the vendor them dispense 5 widgets to the guy....the next customer would see 45 widgets...
this would also help some of us track our inventory better
Umm... I didn't say that, I was quoting someone else. You confused me for a minute
Page 3 of 3