Merchant Archive
Thread: Vendor Poaching -- What is a VIABLE Solution?
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...what gets merchants all riled up is that many come onto this forum and post in a tone that screams of a "I-don't-have-enough-skill-points-to-be-uber-or-do-what-I-want-and-still-run-a-vendor-so-I'm-going-to-exploit" mentality. Multiply those posts by about 10 per day, and I'm sure you can begin to understand why most of us don't react well to them.
I'm all for discussion on how to improve things, but when 50% of the forum is filled with the above posts, how are we supposed to focus on anything else?
Songe wrote:
Seriously, there are some interesting posts on the forums, the problem is that there is at least one new post everyday about people asking if they can drop the skills and keep the vendors and it gets old fast. You prolly haven't looked at the right ones.
Songe - I agree with you - do a search and a dozens (if not more) threads are found.
However, not everyone knows they can search. Some people may have limits (time, bandwidth, perhaps they are on dial up) preventing them from reading through all the messages and seeing what has previously been written.
It is true that, in Doc's stickied merchant guide he has the following entry:
I have all these skills, now what happens if I give them up? Right now due to an oversight in the code it is possible to surrender all of your merchant skills and not lose any vendors or real functionality. You lose the ability to add new vendors, change adbarking or re-register the vendors. But everything continue to work as it did before. The SWG Development Team has confirmed with us that this is not the intended behavior of the game and that it will be fixed in an upcoming publish to require you to maintain your skills in order to continue to operate vendors as a merchant. Until then many merchants consider using vendors without skills to be unfair and would suggest that you don't do it. Let your own conscience be your guide.
However, that may not be an obvious enough place to look for some people. Perhaps that statement should be placed in a thread subject "FAQ: Dropping Skills & Keeping Vendor". Then lock the thread. (If Doc can't lock it himself, surely he can get a forum moderator to lock it). Then sticky the thread.
Voila!The #1 asked (and frequently flamed) question is now sticked at top of the Merchant forum.
If someone misses it, then (rather than throwing eggs, insulting, or ridiculing the person) - DingoBoi or Admantium (or others, if I missed one of the flamers please chime in) could simply reply "Please see the stickied thread entitled...."
Of course, I realize that requires a certain degree of civility which may never be achieved in an open forum, but one can always dream.
Message Edited by Ewach on 06-26-2004 12:47 AM
What I'm trying to get across is that this info can be freely accessed, so if anyone doesn't know about it, it's their own fault.
Sorry - that's PURE BS. The forums are a "valued added" feature (although that's very debatable) of the game.
I have a co-worker that has never been able to register on the forum and I've read of many others that have had that problem. For quite awhile, if you weren't registered you could not even read them.
But, registration problems aside, there all kinds of people playing this game. Are you using broadband service to access the forums? I can just imagine trying to navigate these forums and using dial up speeds.
What about all the people that play and English is not their first language? I don't see a French, Germanor Spanish mirror of all the forum messages.
Stating that "it's their own fault" if they don't know because it was in the forum is forum elitism in its purest form. That statement is not just ignorant, it reeks of arrogance.
Ewach wrote:
What I'm trying to get across is that this info can be freely accessed, so if anyone doesn't know about it, it's their own fault.
Sorry - that's PURE BS. The forums are a "valued added" feature (although that's very debatable) of the game.
That's your own opinion, doesn't make it right.
I have a co-worker that has never been able to register on the forum and I've read of many others that have had that problem. For quite awhile, if you weren't registered you could not even read them.
For a while if you weren't playing the game you couldn't read them. Have I had troubles logging in? Yes, but guess what, I can still read the forums, and most times after a little surfing I find myself mystically logged in. Does SOE need to find another type of forum software? Yes, but that's outside the realm of this discussion.
But, registration problems aside, there all kinds of people playing this game. Are you using broadband service to access the forums? I can just imagine trying to navigate these forums and using dial up speeds.
I've read these boards using both broadband and dial up. The dial up is painful, but you can still navigate. If you can play the game using dial up, you'll be able to read the frigging forums.
What about all the people that play and English is not their first language? I don't see a French, Germanor Spanish mirror of all the forum messages.
How do they play the game if they don't know english then? The manuals might be translated buteverything in game is still in english. Poor example and again, outside the realm of this discussion.
Stating that "it's their own fault" if they don't know because it was in the forum is forum elitism in its purest form. That statement is not just ignorant, it reeks of arrogance
It's the truth, plain and simple. Repeat after me, nobody is blocking anyone's access to these forums. Try getting pulled over for speeding and tell the cop it isn't your fault because you didn't know what the speed limit is. He'll laugh at you and still give you the ticket anyways.
Just because you don't know about it, doesn'tmean that it's not going to happen. If you choose not to be a part of this community, and add your two cents in, your opinion is going to mean squat. I'm not being elitist, or arrogant. I'm stating a fact.
Message Edited by Ewach on 06-27-2004 08:37 PM
Message Edited by mhal9000 on 06-28-2004 02:40 AM
Ewach wrote:
Something else that just occurred to me - what about all of the people that do not read the forums?
I think we (the frequent forum users) often tend to forget we represent but a small fraction of the overall SWG player population.
Ignorance of the law is still no excuse though.
I can see where you're coming from, and I'd love to see a workable consignment system introduced to merchant as a solution, but the plain fact of the matter is this:
Something needs to change, either give everyone the ability to use vendors, and eliminate the profession as a skill tree or take steps to ensure that only merchants are able to place and use vendors (outside of a admin/consignment system).
okay.. got that? good.
Now.. show me any proof you can find of where it says in game that vendors are supposed to poof when you drop merchant. If anything, I can show textual evidence from the merchant skill boxes saying that you gain the ability to 'place' vendors.. nothing about maintaining them. And regardless or not if that was the developers intentions, it does nothing to suggest to casual players that they are doing anything wrong.
So stop trying to say players 'should' know.. because there is nothing that requires them to come read the boards.