Merchant Archive

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Wire3k wrote:

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UniformMarshal wrote:

The odds are that a legitamite vendor would be empty is so rare if laughable. That vendor owner put acutal skills into his merchant class, I would think he be a active guy indeed. As opposed to the fighter who grinded himself a vendor so that he could see just his 5 looted components.

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I'd wager a month's salary the MAJORITY of empty vendor are from cancelled accounts - they never go away. Empty vendors have little or nothing to do with this issue.

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SargusQuintek wrote:

Balkster do you have to be a jerk no all of your replies?

As long as you advocate the destruction of the userbase that are legitimate merchants, you are damn skippy.The fact that you are a "legitimate" Merchant, does not give you a free pass from my flames and Dingoboi's eggs. (Hands Dingoboi more eggs) You deserve my ire when A. you exploit the merchant profession B. you advocate to potential exploiters that there is nothing wrong with that behavior. So until you keep quiet about it, you will be in my crosshairs.

On the matter referring to whether legitimate vendors are always full is pure speculation. One of my friends has legitimate merchant skills and his vendor is never stocked. He's just lazy

Fine. He is a lazy merchant. I'm not particularly happy to havea fellow merchant care so little about his profession.

Mytake in the vastnumbersofglobally advertisedempty vendors is by 3 differenttypes of people (Ordered by greatest offenders):

1. Holohunters that long ago gave up merchant but thought it may be handy to keep a vendor or 2 on the map advertised in case any of their future professions included crafting, then being able to sell the grinded items. Or even as a decoration to their abode.

2. Cancelled accounts. (Definately need to have a fasterpurge system here)

3. Lazyor forgetful merchants and crafters that have neglected to restock their vendors afterthe 30 day purge.

Personally, there ismore to the issue of globally advertised vendors than just empty vendors. Although the issue of empty vendors is of paramount importance, we must not lose sight the fact thatmerchants that permenently invest points into Advertising III are still getting screwed byexploiters that drop Advertising III after they globally advertise their vendors, whether the vendors are empty or not.

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Balkstar wrote:

I guess it was too much to think you could critically analyze the situation. I guess that's my fault for assuming too much.

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Then I laughed and laughed.

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SargusQuintek wrote:

BTW here is the link to a poll Stu put up in our architect forum.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=architect&message.id=58125

If you read through those you will see page after page of posters replying that they have the necessary merchant skills to continue uninterrupted. There were a few that didn't and they got flamed a bit for exploiting I pointed this out to help back my claim that there are fewer stocked vendors that are illegitimate thanis thought to exist. That is why I state that poached vendors should not be the top priority. Again, this is just my opinion.

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I am very happy that the architect community has taken the time and skills points to keep themselves legal in vendors. I have never been angry at them for becoming a member of the merchant community. And I am in no way being sarcastic here. To them, I applaud that they concider the skills of merchant valuable enough to keep skill points within the skill tree. It's just that with the numbers of vendors in any given server, you would expect a larger number of contributors to these boards innumbers similar toWeaponsmiths in the WS boards.It doesn't add up, especially when most players here state that the profession needs to be fixed through increased skills.The smuggler forum has 3 times as many posts in it, and, contrary to what some smugglers may say, most players would concider their (my) profession is nowhere near as broken. Somewhere there is a disconnect, and I still believe that it is due to vastnumber of exploiters.

I think everyone has gotten a false impression as to what I want out of the bug fix. I want a largely viable profession filled with hundreds, even thousands of players that really care about the selling of goods and services to help flesh out the economy, not linger in some 2nd account, (although if that were the case, I don't think it would irk me that much,as it means that the player cares so much to be in this game that they need seperate accounts). Contrary to popular beliefs, I don't want to be the uberlord Merchant Godfather-like figure that all goods and cash must pass through. I am a simple merchant looking for vaibility in this profession.

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Balkstar wrote:

It's just that with the numbers of vendors in any given server, you would expect a larger number of contributors to these boards innumbers similar toWeaponsmiths in the WS boards.It doesn't add up, especially when most players here state that the profession needs to be fixed through increased skills.

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I know exactly what it is, and I don't think poaching is a significant part of it.

Everyone on the WS boards is either a Master Weaponsmith or has that as their primary goal, because WS is not a viable profession at anything other than the master level.

This is true of Smuggler (though to a lesser extent), because Smugglers' main source of income right now is weapon slicing, and only Master Smugglers get a lot of slicing business due to the extra 5% they can slice for.

Even with poaching subtracted from the equation, though, the VAST majority of vendors are being used by "dabblers" who get Adv 3, Novice Merchant, or even just Business 3, so they can sell their own goods.

People don't hang out and post on boards that they "dabble" in - they post on the boards of professions that they really identify their character with. I have most of the Exploration line of Scout becauseterrain negotiation is really important in both combat and surveying, but other than that I don't really identify my character as a Scout, so I don't tend to frequent those boards.

Most people think of Merchant as a supplement to their crafting profession, not as a way of life in its own right. For some, it's even a "necessary evil" simply because there's no less painful way to put goods in the hands of customers (the alternatives are all huge pains in the butt, including dealing through a third-party merchant, sadly). This makes them less inclined to come to these boards.

Of course, the egg-throwing and bitterness probably drives a few away. (Others, like myself, find themselves fascinated against their will, but I'm of a perverse breed like that.)

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SargusQuintek wrote:

I guess my main argument is I feel most people who are selling have the skills to do so. I just don't see alot of poachers. I know they exist but I think their numbers are just not important enough to worry about. I just think there are more important issues with merchant other than this one that seems to always get all the attention. I think merchant will for the most part be looked at as a secondary skill. I say this because a merchant must have something to sell. They can't really stand on their own. I guess you could look at it the reverse saying crafting is a secondary skill for a merchant They exist hand in hand and one without the other means you are selling loot or resources only. Loot stinks in SWG and resources is way overdone. Seeing merchant as a middle man to a crafter is not viable to me. I would never depend on another player to sell my stuff. It just isn't practical when people come and go so often. You can do this in real life because the merchant does something other than stocking the shelf and your continued relationship does not depend on them quitting the game hehe.

On a side note a site ebay auction style is going live tomorrow. I hope it truely becomes popular to put an end to the terrible trade forum style Here is the link:

http://www.swgauction.net

BTW I have nothing to do with this site other than the hopes it goes over well.

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Balkstar wrote:

2: The poachers have gone to ground. They finally actually looked through the boards and have gotten their answers fromt eh multitudes of postings, but they still plan on doing it. Poaching is alive and well in its dark alleys andsecret societies. (Conspiracy theories anyone?)

Concider me a pessimist for choosing number 2.

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As you explained it a while ago, your main problem with poaching was not that it was happening, but that people came here and posted questions about it. I'd think number 2 would make you happy.