Merchant Archive
Thread: Some reasons why vendors should stay after you drop Merchant.
Attikus wrote:
Thats great, because non-merchants cant place vendors.... thus they cant do what we can.
That's exactly the point. Non-merchants don't *care* about not being able to place vendors, they are still reaping the rewards of a skill they have previously dropped. In laymans terms, it's simply unfair.
The problem isn't just with vendors either, if you dropped merchant today, your rent would still be cheaper (until you payed into it), your vendor would still bark, and i'm willing to bet your vendor would still be registered on the map.
Whether this is a bug or not, no-one but the developers can say for sure, but it sure is annoying.
No I do not think it is a slap in the face... no more so than someone who drops any other skill in the game from any other proffesion and still retains the benefits of having used that skill. EVERY PROFFESION experiences this to one degree or another. We are no exception, and we should not be an exception. Like the above mentioned 'Transfer command' for example. I do not think that people who train up to the Transfer command, train a few pets, untrain it, and then sell the pets they trained are slapping Creature Handlers in the face.
What I DO think is a slap to our faces is the fact that we have so little in our Merchant skill tree to hold on to that we have a bunch of people crying and moaning about a skill that is working EXACTLY the way it is supposed to be working.
The devs need to throw us a bone or two and give us a reason to stay Masters.
I hear what you WANT. I even understand WHY you want it, and I do sympathize - I really do.... but you are barking up the wrong tree. This skill mod works exactly as it is described and it works exactly the same way that ALL other skill mods work in the game work.
It is not broken, it is not a bug or exploit.... it is the way the game works.
My real life analogies were brought into this as a last ditch effort and ONLY because you have ignored the actual in-game examples that have been spelled out for you that PROVE my point. Heck, the 'Transfer Command' example which you unwittingly walked right into, highlighted on the top of this page, is a PERFECT EXAMPLE of how skills work in this game... and how I am right about this, and how you are wrong. Pet training, crafted schematics, image designing, our very own Vendor uniform skill.... these are all examples of skill mods whose benefits, when used, are retained regardless of whether or not you drop the skill.
This is simply how the skill mods work in this game - throughout the game, without exception.
Merchants are, for the most part, a throw-away proffession. Because most of our skills are static and long term. So using them once is enough. We need skills that can be used multiple times, such as auctions. Then people would want to stay Merchants because they would need to use those skills over and over again.
Another fine example, would be if the advertisments expired after a set time. Then you would have to keep that branch, or at the very least, re train it every so often.
Another way would be to add a 'vendor use' skill that complimented the 'vendor place' skill.
These are things we should be exploring, and this is how we will get attention and hopefully results.... yelling about bugs and exploits that do not exists will not do it.
Yolner, have you actually read any of the posts here besides your own?
On this page alone, there are at least 5 solid, clear as day, irrefutable examples of proffesions that do exactly that.
Including the post right above yours..... HILARIOUS
Attikus wrote:
That is a big distinction..... and I agree completely.
Merchants are, for the most part, a throw-away proffession. Because most of our skills are static and long term. So using them once is enough. We need skills that can be used multiple times, such as auctions. Then people would want to stay Merchants because they would need to use those skills over and over again.
Another fine example, would be if the advertisments expired after a set time. Then you would have to keep that branch, or at the very least, re train it every so often.
Another way would be to add a 'vendor use' skill that complimented the 'vendor place' skill.
These are things we should be exploring, and this is how we will get attention and hopefully results.... yelling about bugs and exploits that do not exists will not do it.
Our skills aren't static and long term. You are trying to turn them into that but it won't fly. The skill that defines merchants is the management of a Vendor. Not the placement of it. Themanagement of it. You should have to have certain skills tomanage one and if you don't have the skill you shouldn't have the ability to manage it any more.
If it will help you sleep at night we can petition the devs to change the word "place" to "manage" in the skill description. 
Because so far the USE of that word is the only real aguement. The product of the merchant skills isn't the vendor itself. That is just the tool to ply your trade. The tool a weaponsmith uses to ply his trade is his ability to make weapons. Once he gives up that right he keeps all items he made but loses his ability to make any more. You are suggesting that the weapon a weaponsmith makes = a vendor that a merchant sets down. They aren't the same. The weapon isn't the tool the weaponsmith uses..it is the product he produces from his abilities. The vendor is merely a tool for the merchant to use his skills to sell items. Really..there is no real justification for calling a vendor a work product. It isn't. It is an advantage given to merchants to allow them to sell things easier and more efficiently than people without those skills.
Allowing people to use the same tools devalues merchants and damages the profession.
I made an NPC merchant when I was Novice Merchant. I since then dropped the skill to pursue Armorsmithing (I am master Artisan). I still do have my NPC merchant and do hope he wont suddenly go *poof* just because he is not a robo bartender.
I do agree about the multiple vendor bit. A simple solution of saying "We need NO long term benefits" is simply remove the Pay Maintenance function once you drop the skill. Voila you still retain temporary benefits like a schematic but will run out in the end just like you would run out of schematics.
Just as you have a cap on how many schematics you can have (At least I believe so) you should have a cap on how much maintenance you can pay. Say 30 days or so.
Yes you could get merchant back every month but so could a weaponsmith to get schematics back.
I hate to restate (or requote) the obvious, but once again, here goes:
5. Currently it is possible to give up practically all of your merchant
skills without having to give up the vendors that you received as a benefit
of those skills.
We would like to see some suggested changes that would address this
situation. We agree in principle that Merchant Skills should not be
surrendered without the loss of the benefits of those skills.
Clearly the devs had no intention of people being allowed to keep vendor skills after dropping merchant ... otherwise they wouldnt being looking for 'suggested changes that would address this situation'. Some might ask, "why then is it currently possible?" to which i would replay ... have you been playing this game AT ALL since this release? This game is rife with bugs, exploits, and downright mistakes the devs didnt anticpate, but attempt to hot fix from time to time. So, non merchants, instead of trying to defend a position whose demise is only a matter of time, why not come up with useful solutions that will save you an enormous headache?