Merchant Archive

Thread: How can holding venders after you give merchant up be called an exploit...

PSpitz
Mon Aug 09, 2004 7:43 am
#66






Super_nice_jedi wrote:


Actually that is a pretty good point.

If you're not a merchant, you can't



  • Remove vendors and rename them

  • Can't give them new clothes

  • Can't move them, if moving shop from one location to another,eg Tatooine to Naboo, without reacquiring Merchant, or if wanting to replace them in a large house, instead of being in a small/medium house

  • Don't benefit from structure maintenance discounts

  • Don't benefit from vendor/bazaar discounts

  • Can't alter the ad barking, or temporarily remove it if it gets annoying

See a load of restrictions if not a merchant, and it takes ages to get the merchant xp, time is what gets you the xp, and if your business grows, which is the plan, when you want to move, you're screwed. With other professions, like TKA, Medic, Doctor, Combat Medic etc these can all be mastered in a day or two, but with Merchant it takes months.


I agree it is an explot and always has been, but it is TOO LATE to change it now, when everyones buinesses relies on it. The explot should have been fixed from the second the first person spotted it, welll, the next hotfix anyway, not over 1 year later when everybody have built up their business around this explot, and now if it gets fixed everybodies buinessess will come crashing down, and the whole SWG experience will be dead. Crafters/Merchants will now not be able to keep up with the demand, and customers will find trying to buy items rarer than lootingcrystals from kreetles, resulting in doing combat more difficult, especially after devs boosted the difficulty rating due to buffs etc






I agree 100% with this post, the only thing that going to happen with this so called "fix" will be prices will be driven up (again) and acquiring good quality products will be next to impossible.


As if the economy is messed up enough. I see dark days ahead for SWG if they go through with this vendor nerf...






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Kershakk
Mon Aug 09, 2004 12:09 pm
#67









*throws hands in air* There we go again. "Having to keep them when they are of very little value" you say is pointless. Yet you're obviously gaining benefit out of them. What you're really saying is - I've been able to get away with no SP expenditure to get all the benefits of vendors and now this is going to take away my cake. The benefits I get from this tree are pointless if I can't have them for free, that's what you're saying.


Pointless is using a torch in broad daylight.


Pointless is trying to dry yourself off with a towel - when you're still standing in the shower.


Pointless is the Vendors Tree if you could get all the benefits without keeping the tree.


Pointless is what it was. Making vendor retention tied to the Vendors Tree gives it a POINT.


As for krayt weapons, then either find a Merchant you trust, or do the sale manually. Besides, any Merchant that pulls a stunt like that would have his/her reputation destroyed and find themselves out of suppliers.


Ok, I'll reword it, as I do see your argument. It is a pain/annoyance to have to keep this skill tree inorder to keep venders operational. Since by having to keep it, it will criple a template, be it a smuggler crafter (AS/WS), or myself, a PvE / PvPer. My living comes from looting and selling krayt goods. Having to give up CM (which would make me useless really in pvp, since rifles stacked with nothing sucks, lol), or give up rifles, which is how I get permission on npcs and stay in business. So I'm going to have to give up CM (which was also very affective against krayt ancients/DJK/DJM's, as well as very fun for PvE/PvP) inorder to keep a cash income.



Sure, it's a pain/annoyance to keep them operational after all this time that we've been able to operate the vendors with no skill point expenditure, but if it was working as intended in the first place, we'd not be in a position to see it this way.


Personally I don't see anything wrong with a bit of template changing. Templates are changing all the time with this change or that fix, or the game evolves (e.g. Riflemen were such outcasts in the beginning, but with the evolution of doctor buffs, well crafted T-21s and high end armour, suddenly mind attacks became dangerous and then Riflemen became prolific - when nothing in the underlying game mechanic actually changed - just the environment - saving the 2.5x multiplier but that doesn't detract from the damage output and type). Or a more recent change, the lowering of pre-requisites for BH.


Personally I fail to see how your income will be affected, if you simply do manual sales on the forum for such high end goods. As a weaponsmith I have a few good relationships with combat types who bring me looted components, and I split sales with them of goods made from this allowing them to make some money off their loot and allowing me to offer a broader range of upgrades on my vendor.


You could also run missions, which is a real money spinner. Combat Profession friends of mine all talk about making a million credits, and then some, in a single buff run.


The point is, you will adapt and it won't be at the expense of another profession's right to existence. Bottom line, you'll never win over anyone with arguments about how YOUR template will be affected. With all due respect (and I mean that, this has been a civil debate and I'm rather surprised and pleased) that approach is too self centric and offers no real broad justifications. My best buddy on my server is a straight combat class, with no vendors to speak of and he does just fine. I can't see how loss of free vendors for you will truly impede you - whereas this has been a breaking issue for Merchants since the year dot.


I will have to dropMaster Riflemanto properly maintain my weaponsmith business - especially with these proposed caps, and I want to be able to offer a broad range of weapons, but that's a choice I have to make. I won't be bemoaning not being able to do everything at once. It's a choice.


That being said, the proposed caps are too darn low. I bet they're lowballing us.










Barris
Mon Aug 09, 2004 12:12 pm
#68






Kershakk wrote:








*throws hands in air* There we go again. "Having to keep them when they are of very little value" you say is pointless. Yet you're obviously gaining benefit out of them. What you're really saying is - I've been able to get away with no SP expenditure to get all the benefits of vendors and now this is going to take away my cake. The benefits I get from this tree are pointless if I can't have them for free, that's what you're saying.


Pointless is using a torch in broad daylight.


Pointless is trying to dry yourself off with a towel - when you're still standing in the shower.


Pointless is the Vendors Tree if you could get all the benefits without keeping the tree.


Pointless is what it was. Making vendor retention tied to the Vendors Tree gives it a POINT.


As for krayt weapons, then either find a Merchant you trust, or do the sale manually. Besides, any Merchant that pulls a stunt like that would have his/her reputation destroyed and find themselves out of suppliers.


Ok, I'll reword it, as I do see your argument. It is a pain/annoyance to have to keep this skill tree inorder to keep venders operational. Since by having to keep it, it will criple a template, be it a smuggler crafter (AS/WS), or myself, a PvE / PvPer. My living comes from looting and selling krayt goods. Having to give up CM (which would make me useless really in pvp, since rifles stacked with nothing sucks, lol), or give up rifles, which is how I get permission on npcs and stay in business. So I'm going to have to give up CM (which was also very affective against krayt ancients/DJK/DJM's, as well as very fun for PvE/PvP) inorder to keep a cash income.



Sure, it's a pain/annoyance to keep them operational after all this time that we've been able to operate the vendors with no skill point expenditure, but if it was working as intended in the first place, we'd not be in a position to see it this way.


Personally I don't see anything wrong with a bit of template changing. Templates are changing all the time with this change or that fix, or the game evolves (e.g. Riflemen were such outcasts in the beginning, but with the evolution of doctor buffs, well crafted T-21s and high end armour, suddenly mind attacks became dangerous and then Riflemen became prolific - when nothing in the underlying game mechanic actually changed - just the environment - saving the 2.5x multiplier but that doesn't detract from the damage output and type). Or a more recent change, the lowering of pre-requisites for BH.


Personally I fail to see how your income will be affected, if you simply do manual sales on the forum for such high end goods. As a weaponsmith I have a few good relationships with combat types who bring me looted components, and I split sales with them of goods made from this allowing them to make some money off their loot and allowing me to offer a broader range of upgrades on my vendor.


You could also run missions, which is a real money spinner. Combat Profession friends of mine all talk about making a million credits, and then some, in a single buff run.


The point is, you will adapt and it won't be at the expense of another profession's right to existence. Bottom line, you'll never win over anyone with arguments about how YOUR template will be affected. With all due respect (and I mean that, this has been a civil debate and I'm rather surprised and pleased) that approach is too self centric and offers no real broad justifications. My best buddy on my server is a straight combat class, with no vendors to speak of and he does just fine. I can't see how loss of free vendors for you will truly impede you - whereas this has been a breaking issue for Merchants since the year dot.


I will have to dropMaster Riflemanto properly maintain my weaponsmith business - especially with these proposed caps, and I want to be able to offer a broad range of weapons, but that's a choice I have to make. I won't be bemoaning not being able to do everything at once. It's a choice.


That being said, the proposed caps are too darn low. I bet they're lowballing us.


I hope so

















Andreshyyk
Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:21 am
#69






zukem wrote:

Barris,


Actually there is still a cost to the cantina analogy that you gave. That person had to surrender 5 lots for it. So, even though they don't have the skill, they do have a cost still associated with it.


With this merchant exploit, there is no cost. If you put the vendors up, and surrender the skills, there is no penalty for doing so. As opposed to those keeping the merchant skills, there cost is those skill points that they had to surrender.






Not to mention the maintenance fees...
ElvisTheKing
Tue Aug 10, 2004 9:31 am
#70






Yastar wrote:

Once you give up pistoleer...as soon as you equip the DX2 novice pistoleer weapon it tells you you don't have the skills to use this weapon properly...well then why should an non merchant be allowed to vend then? If what it seems some folks are thinking, then the T21 should be of use to anyone that was ever master rifleman..even after giving it up!!..just an example. Does that sound like a good idea?






Yastar,


You can equip a DX2 or a T21 and fire it. You can not fire it well (barking - map placement). You can not use specials (reduced vendor fees), but you can use it.


Just another point of view.






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Super_nice_jedi
Wed Aug 11, 2004 10:35 am
#71






EnigmaBSc wrote:
Forgive me for reposting this from another thread, but "How can holding vendors after you give merchant up be called an exploit?". This is how:

From the Community Standards:

12. You will not exploit any bug in Star Wars Galaxies, and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug either directly or through public posting, to any other Sony Station member. You will promptly report such bugs via the /bug command in-game or by emailing [email protected]. Exploitable bugs include, but are not limited to bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits in-game.

From one of Thunderheart's 19 Answers threads:

It was never intended for players to be able to keep and manage vendors after surrendering the Management skill boxes used to acquire them. This is scheduled to be fixed in a future publish and we want to upgrade vendors also, but it’s a bit early to start talking about that.

EnigmaBSc





Actually both those statements together declare that the vendor thing (able to keep them after dropping merchant) is NOT an exploit:


In the community standards it says ".....and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug either directly or through public posting, to any other Sony Station member." If the vendor thing is an exploit, then Thunderheart is breaking their own rules by posting his message there.



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You're out of time, SOE The whole 2.5 months shouldn't have been. The game was fine up until Nov 15th. If the CU was worked on, instead of devoting time to the NGE (including the many months prior to November), the game could possibly be totally bug free by now.

My account cancels on 2nd Feb, which was a waste as only played game for 1 day to get the life day gifts, will be resubbing when creature handler, Bio-engineer, scout, and ranger return, oh and the FS village.
Andreshyyk
Fri Aug 20, 2004 2:05 pm
#72






EnigmaBSc wrote:
Forgive me for reposting this from another thread, but "How can holding vendors after you give merchant up be called an exploit?". This is how:

From the Community Standards:

12. You will not exploit any bug in Star Wars Galaxies, and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug either directly or through public posting, to any other Sony Station member. You will promptly report such bugs via the /bug command in-game or by emailing [email protected]. Exploitable bugs include, but are not limited to bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits in-game.

From one of Thunderheart's 19 Answers threads:

It was never intended for players to be able to keep and manage vendors after surrendering the Management skill boxes used to acquire them. This is scheduled to be fixed in a future publish and we want to upgrade vendors also, but it’s a bit early to start talking about that.

EnigmaBSc





Way to throw out the EULA. My only real question is how do you KNOW for sure something that the game just ALLOWS, is a bug? Unless of course you spend countless hours scouring message board? I'm so SICK of the PLAYERS being called, exploiters, and getting banned because the devs did NOT program the game right. Most people do not even READ the forums. So unless SOE makes more of an effort to contact people and inform them "Hey doing this is wrong!", How are they supposed to know continuing to manage the vendor is an exploit? If it had been programmed properly as soon as you drop the skill needed to manage vendors they would simply poof. End of problem.
DingoBoi
Fri Aug 20, 2004 2:58 pm
#73






gieda wrote:

man this barris guy is an idiot




QFE




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MaceHalcyon
Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:36 pm
#74

Ok... From what I've read through the posts the orginator needs to get his facts straight. The use of vendors after dropping the skills is unintended by Sony and in many ways IS an Exploit that if SOE wished to crack down on COULD be a banable offense.


As stated in previous posts at the time you surrender the skills you should loose the ability to utilize the bonuses of them skills that being Vendors in terms of the Merchant standpoint. Now look at it from this perspective Merchants are now braceing for an upcomeing revamp of the profession. My bet this is more than just a database issue that is being addressed but an issue to stop those that dropped Merchant from useing Vendors as storage and bypassing the max limit of storage within there homes. That make sense?


More or less the past actions of players biteing the Merchants hard in the rear.
Astev_Aris
Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:03 pm
#75


Barris is arguing semantics again. Everyone knows that the skill granted by the management line of the merchant tree is intended to allow you to manage your vendors and not to simply place them. As a merchant you should be skilled in the day-to-day co-ordination of your staff (NPC vendors are NPCs - people, not machines), and that is what management is, it's not simply hiring people and leaving it at that, which is what the description in the boxes equates to atm.And that is what fires this ridiculous argument that the skill granted is to place a vendor and not to operate one. As I said before, it's like going to a business management class and being issued your diploma after having been taught nothing except how to hire employees.


Whether it can be called an exploit or not is somewhat moot. It's an unintended game mechanic that will be fixed, and those who have been getting a free ride until now will have to bite the bullet and make some decisions. We all know this is the case, and if we didn't know before, Thunderheart's most unambiguous statement has left no doubt on the matter.


As for the argument that the skills are a waste of SP... Well if that were true, then why do these people even want the skills in the first place? The whining and complaining I've witnessed on this board tells me that the skills are indeed valuable, it's just that people like Barris have grown used to the status-quo which allowed them to benefit from skills they no longer have, and now they're upset that they will now have to "gimp" their poor templates the way all the legit merchants have been doing the whole time.


As it was before, the solution remains. Give merchants the tools to make them effective as merchants (proper consignment interface, vendor sales/rentals, etc...). Make the profession worthy of the skill points it requires. And when you're done with merchant, do the same thing for politician please, kthks.

Message Edited by Astev_Aris on 08-20-2004 07:04 PM



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  • Be0Wulfe
    Fri Aug 20, 2004 5:42 pm
    #76

    blah blah blah
    It was a bug, you're arguing semantics if you're arguing it wasn't.
    It's stated in the EULA and in TH's post.
    If you're still running your mouth about it, spend your energies on getting some storage structures ready.



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    Anach
    Fri Aug 20, 2004 10:36 pm
    #77

    whats going to happen also if they dont allow us to keep vendors without merc skills, is more people will simply have numerous small houses to store their stuff.


    What would you rather, 1 vendor capped at say 50 items for everyone, or a planet full of small houses with nothing but storage.


    It will come down to less vendors selling stuff, and less sales for furniture, as no one will bother filling thier houses full of furniture when they need the room for storage.



    They sh ouldnt be removed for people without merc skills, simply disallow the move/replace and half the item count per vendor originally placed.



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    KRONOS1974
    Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:29 pm
    #78

    people really need to use a dictionary and look up the word : exploit.


    Than decide if this is an exploit.


    Exploit means taking advantage of a situation. When you master merchant and use your skill point for vendors. THen drop merchant and keep said vendors you are taking advantage of the system. You are using something that you shouldnt have, i mean imagine if everyone that mastereda profession kept their abilities and mastered another and another. You would have a master chef, tkm, commando, smuggler, ws, as,, arch, doc, medic, ranger, yadda yadda yadda all in one package.


    If you want vendors- so like everyone else does and become and stay a merchant.



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