Merchant Archive
Thread: Some reasons why vendors should stay after you drop Merchant.
Dragnam wrote:
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.
If the NPC stopped working but allowed you to remove all the items and put them in a robo bartender that would solve that problem. Would it be nice for you? No. Would it be a pain? Yes..but it would be possible and wouln't be an undue burdon on you. I know it SEEMS like no big deal but if you don't want the NPC merchants ( because you gave up Novice Merchant which is required to have ANY NPC's ) then you should expect to have to replace them with vendors you do have access for. Otherwise, again , there is no reason to keep the skill box.
Why do not they use the same technique they used when they fixed the disappearing vendor bug. All you items appear in a satchel that will give you a one way trip to any planet.
Draznar wrote:
Why do not they use the same technique they used when they fixed the disappearing vendor bug. All you items appear in a satchel that will give you a one way trip to any planet.
The satchel idea worked only because most of us still HAD vendors to put those items in. If you just lost all of your vendors because you gave up Business III (and Novice Artisan for that matter) weeks ago you are stuck with 500 items you ahve no place to put them. At least with the vendors sticking around and being disabled you would have 30 days to sell them on the corner, give them away or find a merchant.
Vendors dissapearing is NOT the solution. The product you created (Vendor) does have to exist but of course you have to lose something for dropping it. I believe that the ability to pay maintenance is ea pretty good solution.
Also there needs to be more incentive to going master Merchant. I mean some guy with a Robo Merchant gets what, 20% more maintenance?A joke! I think I have a solution that would make Master Merchants in VERY high demand but still keep non merchants selling items.
Price caps.
It's an easy solution already made in the bazaar. Add to a line a price cap that increases as you raise. I dont know much about pricing but here is an example.
Business III 3K
Business IV 5K
Novice Merchant 10K
Merchant Tree I 15K
Merchant Tree II 30k
Merchant Tree III 50K
Merchant Tree IV 100k
Master Merchant Unlimited.
THEN I guarantee you will see a lot more Merchants around.
Give even MORE bonuses to Merchants? Put caps on the number of items you can have. With Master Merchant have NO CAP.
It's ridiculously easy to make this profession a lot more interesting without making vendors dissapear.
Maybe we can at least all agree that we want the merchant class to havemore good fun stuff to do with our skills every day!
The following link has some ideas for additions/tweaks to the profession that would make it valuable to keep the skills no matter how the vendor issue plays out.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=merchant&message.id=18251
hey you are starting to understand how the game really works.... progress, im impressed.
Creature Handlers have a skill mod called, Max Pet Levels, which is very clearly described and is what permits a Handler to call pets of certain levels. Without the skill, you cant call pets.
The training skill mods on the other hand, that allow you to train pets certain commands, have no such restrictions.... and the benefit of using that skill once is kept indefinitely. JUST LIKE OUR VENDORS>
We have no such skill in the Merchant tree that would restrict the usage or maintenance of vendors. We only have a PLACE vendor skill mod. Vendor usage(maintenance) is a universal skill granted to ALL players and the benefit gained by placing a vendor lasts indefinitely..... Just like a trained command on a creature pet.
Dont like that? Ask for it to be changed, but stop saying its not working the way it should, because as decsribed, the skill is working perfectly. Stop crying bug and exploit whene there isnt one. Ya look foolish, but more importantly you are being counterproductive and pulling attention away from our real issues.
Nonsense. It is NOT working as it's intended. The dev's who have been advocating Interdependency between professions and using skill points as profession balance all of the sudden decided to allow people to keep THE MOST POWERFUL AND LUCRATIVE part of a skill for NOTHING? BS. If a retired CH can call the same level and same amount of pets he could when he was a master, THAT'S a problem. THAT'S a bug. That's bad game design. If they intended it (and I really don't believe they did) then that was a mistake. Because that undermines the integrity of the profession. Look, we've already got people who have NO idea why we're even necessary (and really we ARE very useful and our profession IS rather lucrative) without people going, "Ah, why keep the skills, you can keep your vendors without them!" That doesn't help. That hurts.
Wrong - it works just like every other skill mod in the game
"That's bad game design."
You wont get any argument out of me
It does not work like every other skill. The only real and comparable example you have is CH which has been fiddled with so many times (and is about to be fiddled with again) that it's moot anyway. That profession has been bugged and screwey and out of line since day one. Once again, why would the same developers who have been advocating interdependancy and skill points as a balance countermeasure INTENTIONALLY allow you to keep the most valuable part of the profession without spending skill points? Now honestly, you REALLY think that because they said "place" instead of "maintain" or whathaveyou that they INTENTIONALLY wanted this? Really?
Wrong, wrong and wrong
Your analysis, while thorough, is missing the boat by several meters because you are not looking at the idividual skill mods that make up a class and how they work - instead it seems like you starting with assumptions about 'class defining abilities' and tailoring your argument to that.
A proffession is a group of skill mods... and no matter what you THINK a proffesion should be, it is essentially the sum of its Skill Mods. And you have to know how they work....it seems like you dont.
I dont know how else to explain this: THE BENEFITS THAT SKILL MODS PROVIDE, ONCE USED, DO NOT GO AWAY. For anyone, in any proffession.
If a Transfer command is taught to a pet, and then that pet is traded away, the benefit of that skill mod is not lost... it doesnt go poof.... it doesnt dissappear. Heck here is a scenario I have seen quite often that directly contradicts yor argument.
Group of people hunting...An Old CH that has trained down out of the proffesion but has kept his pets in case he ever trains back up, and a New CH who is going up the skill tree but hasnt acquired a good stock of pets yet.
Come across a nasty critter, decide they need more firepower than what they have, so the Old CH trades a few pets to the New CH (because they were taught the Transfer command a long time ago) and the New CH uses them for the battle. When its all done and over, the New CH trades them back to Old CH.
BINGO.
Transfer Command skill mod (AND The Stored Pets skill mod) that were attained by leveling in a proffesion, and then dropping out of that proffession, were used to the benefit of the player well after he had the ability to use it.
This is exactly how skill mods work. It's not a strawman, im not disorting anything... im pointing out HOW the game works. It appears to be you who is trying to bend the rules of the game, as is, to fit what you THINK classes should and should not be.
Dont like how the class is, then try to get different skill mods for your class, or change the skill mods that you currently have... but dont say they arent working when they clearly are.
You are really pissing me off. If a master CHtamed a lvl36 graul and taught it the transfer command then dropped all the ch skills can he still call the graul? NOOOOOOO so this stuff about commands means nothing. So please stop saying that this isnt a bug when it clearly is.
That is not the point at all.... I have no clue what they intentionally wanted. All I have been arguing since page one is that the skill, as described, works perfectly and it works exactly the way all skills for all other proffesions work. The Transfer is not the only skill I have to back me up.... ALL SKILL WORK THIS WAY. GO ahead and name one..... all skills, once used, provide you with a benefit per their description... this benefit, once provided doesnt go away when you untrain the skill. The only thing that goes away is your ability to get that benefit again.
".....allow you to keep the most valuable part of the profession without spending skill points?"
Ya see? You are placing emphasis on the skill that is simply not relevant to this argument. You are essentially saying, 'because this is such an important skill it should be treated different from all other skills in the game.' I reject that. The skill itself should be changed if that is what you want, not how the skill is applied. Because as it is described, the skill works exactly as it should.