Merchant Archive

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Tokklyym wrote:
This new feature, if implimented, implodes the Merchant profession.

The difference between an OK tailor and a great Tailor is selection. People would visit my vendors because I have a wide variety of goods to chose from. Now? Big-fn-deal. You can scour the galaxy for those Yellow Snow Boots from the bazaar term in Coronet.

Our player city was built on the backs of Master Crafters, hoping that a mall with a good selection of products from a number of varying merchant vendors would attract citizens. This is useless now. Commerce has been taken away from player cities and put back into the NPC cities.

I can drop all my merchant skills, and just have one vendor in my house, possibly a vending machine or a bartender droid, and list everything I want. (Within the vendor item limit, which seems to be all Merchant skill boxes will be good for anymore.)

All I will have to worry about is pricing: Because its pretty obvious that if there are 3300 Melee Defence shirts to chose from, Joe Combat is going to buy the cheapest one while he waits for his buff.

Crafting is dead to me now.

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You know, I went shopping today. I spent the whole day at it. Let me say now, a well stocked vendor is still a rare thing. Most vendors have the same few items. If you are a merchant with a lot of variety, then you are going to make a killing. Yours may be the ONLY yellow snow boots for sale in the galaxy, because the other tailors couldn't be bothered to make 'em. Laziness doesn't change; you still have an advantage.

I posted this in the original thread by Tiggs, but thought I'd reproduce it here.

[9 pages of comments, I haven't read each one, so if this idea or one like it has been floated, I'm not trying to steal thunder, just making a suggestion. ]

I think overall this is a good change- and I'm a long-time Master Merchant who has always run a nice looking shop. I think it's possible to implement something like this AND make it more, not less, immersive and actually give something to the Merchants, as well as the customers.

Here's my thinking: Keep the search functionality, but make the delivery a premium service. Read on for my suggestions on how to make this change truly awesome.

Merchants who want to make their stock searchable can do so, as noted already. Just click a button and boom, your vendor's stock is searchable. Vendor maintenance goes up a bit for this functionality, which should only be available at Advertising III or something like that.

When a customer purchases an item, it is NOT placed in their inventory, they have to go get it, wherever it is. However, if the customer wishes, he or she can pay a "premium" to have the item delivered. Just for starters, make it 25 credits + 10% of the item's value. The merchant takes a cut of this premium- say 20%.

But wait- it gets better. The delivery service is only available from vendors in player cities, and only if that city has a shuttleport (and maybe an appropriate city specialization? Might be hard to get a delivery from a Stronghold, for example). Maybe calculate the number of shuttle "hops" required from point A to point B and add another 10% per hop. Delivery is not instantaneous; it takes a couple of minutes per shuttle hop, at which point the item(s) are placed in your inventory. No room, it goes back to the vendor and you have to get it- but you forfeit the delivery charge.

And here's the best (in my mind, anyway) part: The delivery service ONLY works for items that aren't contraband. Sliced weapons, spices, and other items that can be found on a scan cannot be delivered- you can go pick it up, OR you can request delivery by a player Smuggler. Smugglers can go to the Smuggler mission terminals and register themselves as "delivery agents", similar to how entertainers/medics/etc do their thing. While registered as a "delivery agent", they'll receive delivery requests. They can accept or decline. Missions are only sent to registered Smugglers within a reasonable distance of the vendor. If the Smuggler accepts the mission, he or she can go to the vendor, collect the item and take it to the customer, potentially dealing with "problems" along the way.

Smugglers would have a certain amount of time to complete the delivery. Fail to do so and the item is taken back and returned to the vendor inventory. Items being delivered are not tradeable and cannot be taken out of inventory except to be given to the player who purchased it. If an smuggler fails his mission by being scanned, found out, killed, whatever- the item is returned to the originating vendor.

I think this idea gives new abilities to both the merchant/crafter types, AND involves the smugglers, which is a really cool thing in my mind.

Hi all,

I have read re read and then again read.............

I have spent 3 weeks with my guild asetting up a new mall, and its due to go live Tomorrow.....

This "patch" basically negates the need for malls as plasces to shop.

The players can just go to their nearest bazzar terminal and bishh bosh buy from any "registered" vendor ANYWHERE...........

No need to go shopping, meet people etc etc

I am master archi/arti and now merchant. and 3 times in recent weeks SOE and SWG devs. have done something that critically alters the way I have played in the past. No sooner have we gotten used to no decay structures and harvies than they introduce non decy item and self powered harvy kits FFS

Now the shaft the merchant skill tree royally.

WEll thats 3rd time unlucky. With the recent release of several other games, here is one user thats decided enough already.

I cry foul , and if it was possible i would ask SOIe to look at their own definitions of grief play etc. Or do rules not apply evenly to both sides.

My 3 accounts expirte in a couple weeks, I wont be renewing all of them if any. Since Beta 2 have I played, enjoyed immensly, but I find now i play in fear of the next "uber l337" stuff it up more patch.

Can some SOE offical confirm if they r activly seeking to wreck the game, so we go play another ............ cos they r doing a bang up job imho.

Frank

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Tokklyym wrote:
This new feature, if implimented, implodes the Merchant profession.

The difference between an OK tailor and a great Tailor is selection. People would visit my vendors because I have a wide variety of goods to chose from. Now? Big-fn-deal. You can scour the galaxy for those Yellow Snow Boots from the bazaar term in Coronet.

Our player city was built on the backs of Master Crafters, hoping that a mall with a good selection of products from a number of varying merchant vendors would attract citizens. This is useless now. Commerce has been taken away from player cities and put back into the NPC cities.

I can drop all my merchant skills, and just have one vendor in my house, possibly a vending machine or a bartender droid, and list everything I want. (Within the vendor item limit, which seems to be all Merchant skill boxes will be good for anymore.)

All I will have to worry about is pricing: Because its pretty obvious that if there are 3300 Melee Defence shirts to chose from, Joe Combat is going to buy the cheapest one while he waits for his buff.

Crafting is dead to me now.

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/agreed

It's a very sad day for me. The cantinas are empty except for the afk'rs in Coronet and the buff bot houses. (My dancer was my first char.) Now is tailor going by the wayside as well? Get ready for alot of black clothes...as if there aren't enough of them already. :/ I guess combat is the way to go. It was a support char for my other two.

/sigh

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Feisen wrote:
You know, I went shopping today. I spent the whole day at it. Let me say now, a well stocked vendor is still a rare thing. Most vendors have the same few items. If you are a merchant with a lot of variety, then you are going to make a killing. Yours may be the ONLY yellow snow boots for sale in the galaxy, because the other tailors couldn't be bothered to make 'em. Laziness doesn't change; you still have an advantage.

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I may have the advantage when it comes to unique or hard to find items, but my city loses out on my sales. The other vendors in my mall get nothing.

I also lose any chance of multiple sales. The chances of someone also picking up pants and gloves, or a crafting apron, are gone.

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JimerLins wrote:
If the Smuggler accepts the mission, he or she can go to the vendor, collect the item and take it to the customer, potentially dealing with "problems" along the way.

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Some really nice ideas, but smugglers should not get the actual items for delivery in their inventory...too much temptation to abort the delivery mission. Some sort of game generated item of no value should be moved from the vendor to a delivery terminal somewhere (at a starport?)by the smuggler, thus no temptation.

Our feelings about players needing to pick up items from the vendors really needs to be emphasized to the Devs. The concerns about shuttle fees and hurting player towns could be assuaged, if the galaxy wide search changes brought MORE players into cities and player shops.

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Feisen wrote:

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JimerLins wrote:
If the Smuggler accepts the mission, he or she can go to the vendor, collect the item and take it to the customer, potentially dealing with "problems" along the way.

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Some really nice ideas, but smugglers should not get the actual items for delivery in their inventory...too much temptation to abort the delivery mission. Some sort of game generated item of no value should be moved from the vendor to a delivery terminal somewhere (at a starport?)by the smuggler, thus no temptation.

Our feelings about players needing to pick up items from the vendors really needs to be emphasized to the Devs. The concerns about shuttle fees and hurting player towns could be assuaged, if the galaxy wide search changes brought MORE players into cities and player shops.

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Yeah, that's why I said the item would be taken back if not delivered within the time limit. And it couldn't be used, equipped, whatever. But maybe a "box" that represents the actual item would be better.

And if you put in a rating/tip system for the smugglers, then let the customer choose which one he wants, the "bad" smugglers would quickly find themselves getting no more delivery missions.

I'm thinking that putting a premium delivery fee as a percentage of cost is the thing that will keep the "insta-purchase" down- you might pay the fee for a repair tool, but for a 250k suit of armor? Maybe not so much- it'd be cheaper to go pick it up.

You could also implement size/price restrictions; items above a certain price simply wouldn't be searchable. That would force people to continue to look for the high-end stuff, but make the finding of the sundries like droid batteries and survey tools that much easier. And lets face it- I don't mind shopping for a new pair of VKs; that's fun because you can find all kinds of neat/uber stuff. But if I just need a crafting tool, I'm not interested in spending a ton of time looking.

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Feisen wrote:



You know, I went shopping today. I spent the whole day at it. Let me say now, a well stocked vendor is still a rare thing. Most vendors have the same few items. If you are a merchant with a lot of variety, then you are going to make a killing. Yours may be the ONLY yellow snow boots for sale in the galaxy, because the other tailors couldn't be bothered to make 'em. Laziness doesn't change; you still have an advantage.

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Once I find a good shop with reasonable prices and a good selection, I save the waypoint. The next time I need what that shop is selling, I go there first. That is the reward for the crafterwho puts in the effort of maintaining a well stocked store (and perhaps an interesting looking shop as well). With a global search feature, any lazy-ass wanna-be crafter can throw something up and it would have just as much chance of selling as something made by a dedicated hard working crafter. Price will be the ONLY consideration.

If this change goes live, we all might as well be playing World of Warcraft.

Slim Vargo, Corbantis

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Tokklyym wrote:

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Feisen wrote:
You know, I went shopping today. I spent the whole day at it. Let me say now, a well stocked vendor is still a rare thing. Most vendors have the same few items. If you are a merchant with a lot of variety, then you are going to make a killing. Yours may be the ONLY yellow snow boots for sale in the galaxy, because the other tailors couldn't be bothered to make 'em. Laziness doesn't change; you still have an advantage.

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I may have the advantage when it comes to unique or hard to find items, but my city loses out on my sales. The other vendors in my mall get nothing.

I also lose any chance of multiple sales. The chances of someone also picking up pants and gloves, or a crafting apron, are gone.

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If the instant delivery galaxy wide option is left in, then I fear you have a point. I'm seeing lots of people in Tiggs' original thread (both merchants and customers) saying the items should be picked up from the vendors, though. I think that would be a really reasonable compromise. It's not difficult to travel planet to planet now that we have JtL. It's hardly an inconvenience at all, and if implemented, then we WOULD get customers in our shops and player towns. And I, as a shopper, would be able to find your yellow snow boots and be able to add you to my list of shops to visit again.

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There are a lot of issues that make the vendor change a very bad thing for merchants and crafters.

First off, undercutting. Sure, its good for the consumer, but it wreaks havoc on the economy. All of a sudden people just immediately search for the cheapest item (or the cheapest at minimum standards for weapons/armor/food).

Second, it makes an entire line of the merchant tree, as well as a droid module entirely worthless. advertising will no longer contain any worthwhile skills, and merchant barking droids will no longer serve a purpose.

Third, it completely destroys all the hard work merchants have put in to making a nice shop, or putting together a mall with a great selection of items. Thats countless hours of work and millions of credits in decorations down the drain.

Fourth, it is yet another blow to player cities. As it is one of the only things that brings players into a player city is merchants and vendors. Now nobody needs to leave theed/coronet.

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Say goodbye to the people coming for one thing and buying off aother vendor out of curiousity...my BE vendor may bring in somebody, who then wants to see the loot vendor, chef vendor, dotor buff vendor, combat medic vendor, etc. Those sales will die off if compulsive shopping is made obsolete.

It will also kill a few lines from the merchant tree and make decorating or possibly even having a true vendor house pointless. It will virtually eliminate "drive by" traffic to other shops in a player city when the customer comes to your shop from the map, since now nobody will need to visit the player city at all. Say goodbye to taxes for player cities on items purchased and shuttle ticket sales. I believe this will make player cities even more empty and virtually kill the economy of them.

If you want to do this...limit it solely to items sold on the bazaar and do not include player run vendors.

Message Edited by Shi_Dira on 02-11-2005 05:54 PM