Merchant Archive

Merchant tents would be a good idea, but only if they were allowed to be built on the outskirts of cities.. like camps currently are.

My biggest problem is re-registering every day.. but another bug along with that, If I un-register while the vendor is currently registered.. I can not register it again until a reset..

Having a way to better display my wares would be nice.. for example, in the weaponsmith trainers room, there are guns hanging on the walls.

I would like office furniture like desks, and store furniture like counters and registers

I'm not going to comment on current bugs, but I do have a suggestion I would like to see implemented.

I'd like to see the ability to discount a price based on faction and/or PA.

Csin, I told you, I am not going to add your fighter to the list, I am not, stop asking

I wont beat a dead horse on the fixes required.

Some ideas for the Merchant that have been discussed but i think need to be readressed:

More lots tied to efficiency. Let a master merchant have 16-20 lots so they can run multiple large houses on different planets.

Merchants should have SIGNIFICANTLY more space per lot in a house too. Say 100 - 125 items per lot. This would allow for the required displays.

Merchants should be able to PAY for significant advertising. Say 100k to Email everyone on the planet with WP and message.

Freighter... I just want to be able to move things from planet to planet cheaply. My PA is on a different planet than me.Hey wait... I do want that freighter.

Oki,

Bugs first:

I want the invisible item in the inventory bug fixed. 60%+ of my customers get nailed by this bug daily. They buy something, snag a shuttle or go out for 15 minutes and poof the item dissappears from their inventory, only to reappear after the morning reboot. This is a vendor killer folks.

Improvements:

Removal and replacement of the Efficiency line with something more useful. I won't repeat the hundreds of good ideas already all over this board.

I'd like to see a Binary Load lifter that I could actually use to store stuff in AND a vendor droid module to go with it. So I could have my trusty droid follow me around acting as a mobile bazaar terminal. Akin to the tinker carts of old.

I'd also like the ability to decorate OUTSIDE my structure in my build space, oh and while we're at it, the ability to place Merchant ONLY structuresand shops.

I'd like Vendor admin rights back on structures so I can allow other merchants the ability to place a vendor but not the ability to do anythign else.

I'd like to see Admin rights on the vendors themselves so I could allow a PC employee to help my stock and manage inventory. Yes I currenlty have 2player department managers who actually shop for me, maintain my inventory levels and purchases, and handle some of my bulk accounts for specific item types. I've gotten too large to do it myself feasibly.

I want Master Merchant to be worth something, and I want it to require some work on the players parts, and not just "Drop a vendor behind locked doors and suck up XP."

That's my list for now...

I totally agree that the vendor maintenance fees are out of line. I'm just starting off selling my goods and I have to say the overhead of the vendor is killing any profits I might have made. Something must be done about it or starting merchants will be unable to use them at all.

Cheers,

I've sorta been advancing in Merchant only because I keep hitting the experience cap. While I am a full-time crafter/merchant, I see no value in using up 63 skill points to become a Master Merchant as there is nothing of value in the profession. Anyway, here are my bugs and wish list to make this a profession worth pursuing.

Bugs

1. Fix the disappearing items after purchase. As a weaponsmith, I get /tells and emails everyday (even though I have posted a warning) over items going poof after they leave the shop.
   


2. Fix the need to reset planet ads and vendor barking daily
   


3. Disable the vendor from turning to face someone when barking an add (they always talk to the wall)
   


4. Fix the stuck items in the stockroom
   


5. Fix the non-release of inventory space when deleting a vendor in your inventory
   

Wishlist

General

1. Mass selection of items on vendor with option to change price, retrieve to storage room, retrieve to personal inventory, deletion
   


2. The option to display a message to anyone using the vendor (pop-up asking if they wish to read the message). This can be used to provide warning (disappearing items), advance notice of when a product will be back in stock, etc.
   


3. Add an option to provide an automatic discount to specific players (add their name to the vendor list and the amount of discount)
   


4. Add an option to assign an item to a specific player
   


5. Offer a skill improvement that allows music to be played in your shop similar to the trainer rooms in town
   


6. Add an option to transfer all items from one vendor to another (i.e. replacing vendor with a prettier face )
   


7. Add an auto-restock option (great idea KruppeRift). This shortens the list to browse (add an available count beside the item) while letting me load up the storage room. Make sure this will auto-pull from a crate

Vendor Maintenance

1. Review all maintenance costs starting with the business 3/4 line. Apply a maximum per day cap (just because something is 100K does not mean the seller is making any profit from it).
   - Business 3 = 10% of value, cap = 5,000 / day
   - Business 4 = 7.5% of value, cap = 3,500 / day
   - Novice Merchant = 5% of value, cap = 1,500 / day / per vendor
   - Each Efficient Skill box = -1% reduction, -250 off cap
   - Master Merchant = 1 credit per vendor per day
   


2. Combined with 1, applyincreasing storage limits to vendor storage.
   - Business 3 = 20
   - Business 4 = 40
   - Novice Merchant = 150
   - Every Extra vendor skill box +50
   


3. Add a auto-pay maintenance option in one of the skill boxes (money withdrawn from bank)
   

Efficiency Skills

1. Skill box 1
   - Reduced vendor maintenance as above
   - No charge Bazaar fees
   - House storage +25
   


2. Skill box 2
   - Reduced vendor maintenance as above
   - No charge Premium Bazaar fees (when they ever work)
   - House storage +25
   - Lots +1
   


3. Skill box 3
   - Reduced vendor maintenance as above
   - Increased bazaar sale price limit to 5K
   - House storage +25
   - Lots + 1
   - Planetary travel costs -25% (need a protection from buying and selling these to other players)
   


4. Skill box 4
   - Reduced vendor maintenance as above
   - Maintenance fees reduced 50% on all structures on player lots (excludes structures you have permissions for, i.e access to someone else's harvester)
   - House storage +25
   - Planetary Travel - 35%
   - Ability to put a bazaar terminal in player shop
   

Advertising

1. Ad1
   - Add a "Thank you" message when someone purchases an item
   - Add a "Come back soon" when they close the vendor window or leave the area
   


2. Ad2
   - While more database space, hey why not ask Add the ability to list up to 100 player namesthat receive adifferent custom greeting (i.e. "Welcome back %PlayerName%, so nice to see again, you are one of my favorites you know)
   - Ability to create a mailing list of players and a list of items to be listed in the email
   


3. Add a new option for the overhead map to display your shop (future player cities)
   


4. Ad 3
   - Plantary Map
   - Ability to display tall flags on the corners of our shop
   


5. Ad 4
   - In addition to normal ad barking, allow the vendor to say of up to 5 featured items (i.e. Welcome, blah, blah, Today'sfeatureditems include,DX2 Pistols, Crates of Neutron Pixie and Excellent copper

Hiring/Vendors

1. Blend these two skill boxes together (you can tell they were fill in, let's get creative with the 4th tree)

New 4th Skill Tree

1. Possibly shop types (i.e. the new tents)


2. Mobile sales droids


3. Shop Music


4. Other??

Master Merchant

• Hiring +10


• Vendors +2


• Vendor Storage +150


• Lots +2


• House storage +100


• Vendor Maintenance 1 credit per day per vendor


• Plantary Travel -50%


• Special Shop with fenced yard (like the POI house)


• Ability to retrieve bazaar items from any bazaar terminal (1 hour delay)


• Shop vendor can be seen on planet's bazaar terminals (optional)


• Power costs -50%

I'm sure others have a lot more creative benefits to becoming a Master Merchant. At this point, it's not worth the skill points. Hope this helps move the profession along.

Merett, Lowca
Master Weaponsmith

Good post/list Marq. For the person who asked about custom barking, it's workin on Gorath. I did it last night.

Despite all the important issues, my biggest one is the planetary ad getting reset every morning. I work during the day, and I'm usually gone before the server comes back up. So basically my vendor sits all day with no planetary ad. I come home at night, log on, and hardly anything has sold. I turn on advertising (if I happen to be at my house) and go to bed, and sales pick up dramatically.

But I'm in the US and I'm on Gorath, which turned out to be the German server, so half of my customers are playing during my "day" time when the ad isn't in effect. I'm losing a lot of business because of this stupid bug. The game can remember what my vendors have in their inventory between reboots. It can remember what they look like! In fact it can even remember that they ARE registered. It just can't remember to actually register them. How hard is this to fix for gosh sakes??

All I want is to get the bugs fixed so I stop getting the following two tells:

"I bought this weapon off your vendor and I can't retrieve it."

"I bought this weapon off your vendor and it disappeared from my inventory."

If the devs do not add a single new feature to the merchant class, I will be absolutely ecstatic if they just get these two bugs fixed... almost one third of all my tells now are people complaining about weapons that they bought being irretreivable or missing.

I'm about ready to just make a bloody macro so I don't have to type out an explanation of how it isn't my fault.

New Bazaar category - Advertising or Classifieds.
Name of shop, Waypoint, Sales Type(s) (like Seller's description text box), name of Merchant/Crafter, City, Planet.

Pleasegive us an option to disable the mass e-mails!This gets really anoying when I buy 10 items and I get 10 e-mails, then I put those up for sale and I get 10 more e-mails for the sales of the items. Plus I get a popup box every time I buy an item reminding me to get that one item from the stockroom that I have to click ok on. And if I decide I want to sell something for a different price, I get another e-mail when I withdraw the sale... I end up with maybe 300 e-mails in just a few hours most days.....

Private sales and the ablility for to allow other plays to pick up items. Sort of like an admin list items...who can purchase and retrieve.