Merchant Archive
Thread: Do away with Merchant, but let Crafters keep it
Doshae
Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:11 pm
#92
If merchant is such a waste of skill points then why do you want their skills so badly? Is it because we can actually do something that you want to do without having to put anything out for it? I am a master merchant with no crafting skills. I sell items for others on my vendors and just because I am a minority does not mean I am a nobody. I think you can take your idea and try and pawn it off on some other prof. that want to be deleted from the game. From the beginning of the game everyone has been complaining about not having enough skill points. Your little rant is no different. Just suck it up and play the game. Merchants are here to stay. Like it or not. 
aswex
Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:46 pm
#93
I'd like to raise a compromise here (this posting addresses the original post and not the petty sarcasmscattered throughout the rest of the thread). Ratherthan making Business 4 the prerequisite for Merchant, why not make it an entire branch of a tree that contains craftable items (i.e. Engineering 4, DNA Sampling 4, Trapping 4, etc). Also, the first vendor would be obtained at the 6-skill-point Novice Merchant. It seems to make sense in a RL kind of way- artists and doctors takebusiness classes if they're interested in that aspect of their profession, but they don't have to (RL example: a friend of my father is a dentist. He runs the business in addition to seeing patients. He also has other dentists that work in his office, but they don't know anything about running the business end). I've never understood why a weaponsmith, armorsmith or droid engineergets a sp savings and a bio-engineer (like me) doesn't. Heck, all four of my skill trees have to do with crafting!
ResourceMan
Thu Jul 22, 2004 10:30 pm
#94
I have been a merchant from day one. While I agree that the abilities within the profession are good, I do not feel they are a worth the total skill point cost. This profession really should be condensed into 2 trees instead of 4, there is just not enough to warrant so many skill points. I have hung onto my master Merchant for so long hoping for cool improvements, but as of today I will be slowly dropping the weakest trees in this profession.
This is by no means knocking the rest of you guys in the profession. I just see more fun out there that costs skills, and these Merchant skills I have are mostly wasted.
This is by no means knocking the rest of you guys in the profession. I just see more fun out there that costs skills, and these Merchant skills I have are mostly wasted.
BountyBlunter
Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:51 pm
#95
To be honest, I've been re-examining my position on all this and have come to one conclusion..
I no longer care what happens because my account runs out before anything will ever happen to this profession... Sorry, but there is no way any of these changes are coming before JTL/CB/GCW dev time, considering the situation with those I doubt it's worth arguing any point on anything to do with merchant until at least two of those are out of the way...
Oh and my account has five months left on it, I'm not confident.
I no longer care what happens because my account runs out before anything will ever happen to this profession... Sorry, but there is no way any of these changes are coming before JTL/CB/GCW dev time, considering the situation with those I doubt it's worth arguing any point on anything to do with merchant until at least two of those are out of the way...
Oh and my account has five months left on it, I'm not confident.
p4Samwise
Sun Jul 25, 2004 12:48 am
#96
BountyBlunter wrote:
To be honest, I've been re-examining my position on all this and have come to one conclusion..
I no longer care what happens because my account runs out before anything will ever happen to this profession... Sorry, but there is no way any of these changes are coming before JTL/CB/GCW dev time, considering the situation with those I doubt it's worth arguing any point on anything to do with merchant until at least two of those are out of the way...
Oh and my account has five months left on it, I'm not confident.
*hands Bounty a Jawa beer*
You are wise, and have seen the light. Cheers!
*clink*
ofim
Sun Jul 25, 2004 7:52 am
#97
DocSavag wrote:
Maybe you'd like a flame thrower and a scatter pistol to use with Pistoleer..we could abolish Commando and Bounty Hunter for you?
Well the problem is that your profession produces nothing, yet you all feel you're the only ones that have a right to make money, Sorry but merchant skills should have been spred thru the master crafting professions or merchant should be able to sell vendors making them actualy do something for thier money. I've read the requests that everyone should offer the items to you on "consignment",I'm sorry butthats a joke. If the dev's would fix the bazaar cap and make auctions not have a cap then no one would be "stealing" your profesions skills. Everyone should have the right to atleast one vendor irregardless of having merchant skills or not. In a real economy the person who produces nothing and does nothing makes nothing, simple economics.
Feralcom
Sun Jul 25, 2004 7:21 pm
#98
Wow..this is a lot to take in.
I just got where I wanted to be in Merchant. I take a step back to look it and I applaud the game designers.
Not that it is a great profession. It is a skill-point sinkhole no doubt. On its own, it is darn close to useless. The skills you acquire are unimaginative and need much work. I can also imagine that the majority of players do not find only buying and selling goods "fun". Heck, we wouldn’t have to worry about all these Jedi revamps if everyone wanted to play shopkeeper. However…
It plays a very important role in the game.
Crafting Professions take up skill points, which limits the goods in the game…
Merchant Profession takes up more skill points and limits the availability of those goods even more…
This maintains a strong economy while at the same time not having to limit loot drops.
Genius is the way I see it.
Now it stinks to have to give up skill points for the better of the game. Necessary evil or not, I feel a little cheated when I look at what other professions offer. I think if they beefed the profession up some, I would not feel that way. In any case, removing the profession is a very bad idea. It needs to stay…um…and get a little work done to it.
DocSavag
Mon Jul 26, 2004 5:48 am
#99
ofim wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
Maybe you'd like a flame thrower and a scatter pistol to use with Pistoleer..we could abolish Commando and Bounty Hunter for you?
Well the problem is that your profession produces nothing, yet you all feel you're the only ones that have a right to make money, Sorry but merchant skills should have been spred thru the master crafting professions or merchant should be able to sell vendors making them actualy do something for thier money. I've read the requests that everyone should offer the items to you on "consignment",I'm sorry butthats a joke. If the dev's would fix the bazaar cap and make auctions not have a cap then no one would be "stealing" your profesions skills. Everyone should have the right to atleast one vendor irregardless of having merchant skills or not. In a real economy the person who produces nothing and does nothing makes nothing, simple economics.
That isn't simple economics its false economics. In the real world the merchant profession is populated by Wal-Mart and Comp-USA and Office Depot. None of those companies produce their own products. The buy them and resell them to the public.
What we "do" is provice 24/7 selling opportunities, advertising, and inventory management. If you don't have the merchant skills to do that yourself you hire someone to do it for you.
OckVofad
Mon Jul 26, 2004 3:26 pm
#100
Ok I just Mastered Mechant today. I have to say that getting rid of the profession and dividing the skills among crafters would be impossible. There aretoo manyenhancements that are given by having this prof.
I still say that it is a skill point sink and i'd like to see that changed. Hopefully we can get some changes hotfixed in.
p4Samwise
Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:39 pm
#101
5 stars for you. You're a funny funny man.
OckVofad wrote:
Hopefully we can get some changes hotfixed in.
OrionSeven
Tue Jul 27, 2004 3:49 am
#102
Smurfwalker said :
Perhaps you'd like to take another go at explaining why you think the idea is a bad one?
I'll take a crack at it....
I'm a TK/Merchant.
I don't do much but farm resources. I like the idea of owning my own little shop, and maybe even getting to the point where I'm successful. I try to sell resources that everyone needs and uses. And I like to do it in an affordable way.
The original poster said something along the lines of non-elite crafters selling their wares on the bazaar. I think the same holds true for Elite Crafters as well. I'm sure the original poster might not have a problem selling his own wares on the Bazaar.
From experience, I know it doesn't cost me much more than 1/3 cpu to harvest resources. I sell them at 2cpu, regardless of quality (and yes, I try to get only the best stuff for my vendor). I make an insane profit. I'm sure, if an Elite Crafter harvests their own resources efficiently, they could afford to put all their wares on the Bazaar, regardless of quality. well.... except maybe an Architect. Those poor architects use a LOT of resources... lol
This is a bad idea, because some of us (like me) want to own our own little shops, and we don't mind spending the skill points to do it. I think, if an elite crafter doesn't want to spend the skill points, they should become friends with a merchant. I know for a fact that the Devs didn't just make the game and spam outside my house with it. They sold it to a distributor, who then sold it to a retail outlet, who then sold it to us.
If an Elite Crafter wants to sell things, they should find a merchant, and work out an agreement. I sure wouldn't mind someone putting a terminal-vendor in MY shop. It would be an honor to share my skills with an elite crafter. It would definately help create a feeling of mutual success, and create a bond between 2 people with similar goals.
so, to sum up my response....
If you want to free up some skill points.. Find a Merchant. Ask them politely if you can place an artisan vendor in their shop. Work out an advertising agreement. Then, you're free to drop skills to pick up other professions.
regardless of which way you go, I wish you the best of luck, and I hope you have fun along the way 
-07-
Wanderhome
Handb00k
Tue Jul 27, 2004 4:58 pm
#103
as has been mentioned in this and other threads, I would like to see the ability to rent out vendors to other players. From a crafters perspective (chef/doc in this case) I have to have a vendor to sell my wares. With the SP sink I can barely make business 3 for that ugly mean vendor. If I could rent a placed vendor in my Guild Hall from a Master Merchant then I would be very happy. However I would have to have full control over it, so that the merchant can't just up and off with my wares (which under current system can happen too if you trade goods to a merchant to sell on your behalf).
So basically the system I would like to see is :
Merchant : so you want to rent a Vendor?
Player : Yes please
Merchant : 25k per week for a Terminal type, 28k p/w for a NPC type , 45k for a fully customised advertising planet map registerd.
Player : I'll take 1 Terminal and 1 45k full for 1 month please
<Merchant places Vendor and Admins Player by enabling a 'lease'>
Player pays 'lease' and vendor cannot be removed for the time of the 'lease' - by either player or Merchant. (Kinda like a real lease).
Player adds anything to Vendor. It is players responsibility to contact Merchant that adds extra 'lease' time to Vendor. After lease expires the Merchant can remove Vendor, and all good potentially vanish/return to owner.
There are expansions to the idea. The Merchant can take x% of all sales (kinda like sales tax but to the Merchant)
and many more, but it's late (early!) and I am tired.
Wire3k
Tue Jul 27, 2004 9:20 pm
#104
Handb00k wrote:
as has been mentioned in this and other threads, I would like to see the ability to rent out vendors to other players. From a crafters perspective (chef/doc in this case) I have to have a vendor to sell my wares. With the SP sink I can barely make business 3 for that ugly mean vendor. If I could rent a placed vendor in my Guild Hall from a Master Merchant then I would be very happy. However I would have to have full control over it, so that the merchant can't just up and off with my wares (which under current system can happen too if you trade goods to a merchant to sell on your behalf).
So basically the system I would like to see is :
Merchant : so you want to rent a Vendor?
Player : Yes please
Merchant : 25k per week for a Terminal type, 28k p/w for a NPC type , 45k for a fully customised advertising planet map registerd.
Player : I'll take 1 Terminal and 1 45k full for 1 month please
Player pays 'lease' and vendor cannot be removed for the time of the 'lease' - by either player or Merchant. (Kinda like a real lease).
Player adds anything to Vendor. It is players responsibility to contact Merchant that adds extra 'lease' time to Vendor. After lease expires the Merchant can remove Vendor, and all good potentially vanish/return to owner.
There are expansions to the idea. The Merchant can take x% of all sales (kinda like sales tax but to the Merchant)
and many more, but it's late (early!) and I am tired.
And Merchant ups and quits - crafter then is vendorless and potentially has a LOT of merchandise in danger of disappearing - whatcha gonna do with a ton of items on a wellstocked vendor that's due to expire tommorrow?
One of the most basic problems with any kind of leasing is the transience of players. I've had this happen in my own shop twice with folks that I allowed to place vendors - the problem is even bigger if it's the other way around.
Making vendors expensive (to buy) from the GAME would be a potentially workable solution, but again - you are coming back round full circle to the current system. Uncoupling sales from production as mandantory (i.e., different class) was just not a well thought out propostion. Having it as an OPTION would have been fine, or an initial expense (beyond maintanience) but hooking it to a class is splitting activities that go hand in hand. It's like saying - ok - you can HOLD that gun, but to be able to actually like - shoot something, you have to invest in another entire class.