Merchant Archive
Thread: Do away with Merchant, but let Crafters keep it
NarcoticFrog wrote:
The burden does not fall upon me or anyone else to wade through thousands of posts to see if a point had been stated or brought up before.
And if i had and decided to wade through them and find something that was old and replied to it what would you have said? I'll tell you, "Dont reopen these old threads start a new one". Ive seen it before when old threads are reopened.
These forums are here so people can express an opinion, if you feel the point has been done to death DONT RESPOND, let the thread die, or if you feel the need to protect your profession from the obvious masses who have expressed and are still expressing their belief about your profession (but obviously its not a problem) then refer posters to previous debates.
It's called the Current Merchant Issues thread. It's stickied right on top there so that those of you that are board-challenged can easily find it and read it. Also you might want to just read some of the Discussion topic lines for each thread. Its best to get a feel for the types of posts that are happening in the board, especiallybefore spouting off on a rant that the profession needs to be dissasembled and all its goodies divied up FOR FREE to every little crybaby.
Oh, and Crimsonsplat? Yes there has been a big problem for some time. Its the fact that the proprietary tools that were meant to be Businessman and and Merchant specific, arn't. SOE's vision of the economy never came to fruition, because to many people exploited that bug. The fact is that you are too scared to run a new economic system in a MMORPG that more represents a real-life economic model. Try stepping out of your cave sometime and looking into the real world to see how it actually runs.
Smurfwalker wrote:
it has to be out of all professions in the game, the largest number of skill points for least amount of gain.
Lol, I know a lot of people in the Politician forum who would argue that statement.
I don't necessarily agree or disagree. There are parts of the original post I like... and other parts I don't. I don't think that merchant as it is, or with the asked-for additions, that it is worth the skill point cost. Even with P4samwise's proposal -- which would have been better than the system is now -- I don't think it would be worth the skill point cost.
As it is now, merchant is nothing but a utility profession, and you can't blame the people that only have it as a utility for wanting that cost removed. Other professions in the game actually have a purpose for their skill point cost. Merchant doesn't. You stock your vendor.. and it sits. To me... that isn't playing. That is like loading your gun with bullets and sending it off to hunt for you. That is why I have always argued that the merchant profession needs skills/abilities/features that allow you to actively play a merchant -- like stock markets and trading missions.
As far as putting vendors into the crafting professions. I don't necessarily think it would be that terrible if at master weaponsmith or whatever... you also got a +1 to vendors. This could also help out merchants... since most merchants are primarily crafters, and it would then give them more than 6 vendors to use or lease out.
My idea would be for merchant to become like the pilot professions. Make it a basic profession and have it use 'phantom' skill points. That right there would solve all the vendor poaching crap in a heart beat, and be incredibly simple to do, no extra coding really. Then they would just have to find something to replace the business tree with (which wouldnt be that hard).. and in general.. it would make everyone happy. Anyone could have vendors (maybe they would just require lots), and the profession wouldn't disappear.
DragonScout wrote:
Lol. How exactly did I get into this conversation Balkstar? I havent posted here yet as far as I can remember. But.. since I was dragged into this.
Furthermore I still cannot grasp how you could expect to gain the benefits of marketing just because you are a crafter. In the real world companies spend tons of cash on name recognition, advertising, product, etc. Just because you have the skills to make something, doesn't mean you have the skills to sell it, thats why advertising companies exist. In game context, you can handle your own advertising by taking Merchant and getting the benefits of Plantery advertising, more vendors so you can sell in more locations, tax breaks (read reduced structure and bazaar costs), branches, and the ability to create your own identity with how you make your employees (read vendors) and shops look. Conversely you can make an amateur effort out of it by taking business 3 or 4, which is about the equivilant of a badly designed/poorly placed website. But it can still move product. Plus, Merchant on it's own is really close to what it would look like if you sold through a bigger company (watch some infomercials, that As Seen on TV company is an awesome example).
To sum up, the class might need some polishing but it holds pretty true to actual business practices. Don't like it, bummer. This is how things work.
Fixed.
Balkstar wrote:
DragonScout wrote:
Lol. How exactly did I get into this conversation Balkstar? I havent posted here yet as far as I can remember. But.. since I was dragged into this.
You are a focal into everything thatI amfighting against.
p4Samwise wrote:
Fixed.
Balkstar wrote:
DragonScout wrote:
Lol. How exactly did I get into this conversation Balkstar? I havent posted here yet as far as I can remember. But.. since I was dragged into this.
You are a focal into everything thatI amfighting against.
Typical, putting words into peoples mouths...I hope Doom 3 is really good, you're obviously too bored if this is how you amuse yourself.
mhal9000 wrote:
p4Samwise wrote:
Fixed.
Balkstar wrote:
You are a focal into everything thatI amfighting against.
Typical, putting words into peoples mouths...I hope Doom 3 is really good, you're obviously too bored if this is how you amuse yourself.
See, it's ironic... Balki was putting words into other people's mouths by claiming to speak for the entire board. So when I reminded him of this, I did it by doing the very thing he did. Ha! A clever jest, was it not? Like rain on your wedding day!
And yeah, I alsohope Doom 3 is good. And yes, the forums are definitely at least as entertaining than the game. With the latest Lithium patch they aren't even as buggy.
DocSavag wrote:
I wonder what part of "Please don't have the same arguement over and over again" is difficult to grasp.
Um, Doc, that would be the "Please don't have the same arguement over and over again" part of it, I think.
Astev_Aris wrote:
Lol, I know a lot of people in the Politician forum who would argue that statement.
Smurfwalker wrote:
it has to be out of all professions in the game, the largest number of skill points for least amount of gain.
Politician is a skillpoint sink, plain and simple. Merchant is most definitely NOT like politician, and if you wanna have this debate with me, we can start a new thread.
Cendatinea wrote:
Politician is a skillpoint sink, plain and simple. Merchant is most definitely NOT like politician, and if you wanna have this debate with me, we can start a new thread.
