Merchant Archive
Thread: Could Merchant Stand Alone? A Suggestion
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Fitzhume
Tue May 03, 2005 9:55 pm
#1
I have made a similar suggestion a long time ago, but it was not at such a new and dynamic point in the SWG lifecycle. With the Combat Upgrade, I am noticing alot of posts that express people who have a crafting/merchant mix are dropping merchant to gain some combat skills. (not a bad idea btw 
) This new trend reinforces my original belief that the developers should have (or tried) to make the merchant profession a form of tradesman/women, that did not ultimately require a crafting mastery as well.
So my question is simple : Can the merchant profession stand alone? I say yes, and here is how!
The developers have always pushed the idea that players can shape their own characters, and that although advantageous, it is not required to have complimentary professions in order to simply compete with the others. Nowadays, any serious crafter realizes that without having at least some merchant skills, its almost impossible to hold an amount of items required to satisfy a large population. Ideally, the crafter would sell their goods to the merchant, whereas the merchent would markup the items and sell them for some profit. Considering how long it would take to actually trade those items, track those items, or compete with a merchent/crafter mix makes this suggestion not realistic. But, there could be a solution!
What I propose is that the developers use much of the same technology already implemented in game to allow crafters and merchants to create a successful relationship without hours of interaction, and thus lowering potential for monetary disputes. I propose that merchants have the ability to 'sell' their vendors.. how this would work would be simple.
A crafter could approach a merchant and ask to 'buy' the rights to a vendor. The merchant could place a vendor at the location (doesnt matter which house), and then 'assign' the vendor over to the crafter. At this point an interface would open that would allow an agreed upon monetary exchange, and the cycle. This could be in weeks or months. So the crafter may agree to 50k a week for the use of a vendor, with a Master Merchant capacity. At this point the crafter would have full control over the vendor, be responsible for the maintenance, and do what they want with the appearance as would a merchant. But, a week later when the crafter logged in, it would prompt them just like the systems prompts for a respec.. "Do you wish to renew your contract with *name* for another week?" - if you say yes, it automatically deducts the amount agreed upon from your bank account.. if you say no, it gives you a timeframe (48 hours?) to remove your items and the vendor dissappears.
A system like this would allow players to profit by using their vendors, and would remove the 'requirement' aspect to having a crafting/merchant mix. I know there are many other important combat related things that need to be addressed, as well as countless other game improvements.. but I have been a MM for a long time and truthfully feel like without being a master crafter I have no use for the profession. I also truly believe that the developers did not intend for this to be the case, and wanted to have these two genres of characters to have their own roles without having one require the other.
Again, this is only a suggestion.. I just felt that this new push for crafter/combat mix will furthur diminish the merchants role, and it might be time for a respecification of this profession in SWG.
Take care,
-Fitzhume
) This new trend reinforces my original belief that the developers should have (or tried) to make the merchant profession a form of tradesman/women, that did not ultimately require a crafting mastery as well.So my question is simple : Can the merchant profession stand alone? I say yes, and here is how!
The developers have always pushed the idea that players can shape their own characters, and that although advantageous, it is not required to have complimentary professions in order to simply compete with the others. Nowadays, any serious crafter realizes that without having at least some merchant skills, its almost impossible to hold an amount of items required to satisfy a large population. Ideally, the crafter would sell their goods to the merchant, whereas the merchent would markup the items and sell them for some profit. Considering how long it would take to actually trade those items, track those items, or compete with a merchent/crafter mix makes this suggestion not realistic. But, there could be a solution!
What I propose is that the developers use much of the same technology already implemented in game to allow crafters and merchants to create a successful relationship without hours of interaction, and thus lowering potential for monetary disputes. I propose that merchants have the ability to 'sell' their vendors.. how this would work would be simple.
A crafter could approach a merchant and ask to 'buy' the rights to a vendor. The merchant could place a vendor at the location (doesnt matter which house), and then 'assign' the vendor over to the crafter. At this point an interface would open that would allow an agreed upon monetary exchange, and the cycle. This could be in weeks or months. So the crafter may agree to 50k a week for the use of a vendor, with a Master Merchant capacity. At this point the crafter would have full control over the vendor, be responsible for the maintenance, and do what they want with the appearance as would a merchant. But, a week later when the crafter logged in, it would prompt them just like the systems prompts for a respec.. "Do you wish to renew your contract with *name* for another week?" - if you say yes, it automatically deducts the amount agreed upon from your bank account.. if you say no, it gives you a timeframe (48 hours?) to remove your items and the vendor dissappears.
A system like this would allow players to profit by using their vendors, and would remove the 'requirement' aspect to having a crafting/merchant mix. I know there are many other important combat related things that need to be addressed, as well as countless other game improvements.. but I have been a MM for a long time and truthfully feel like without being a master crafter I have no use for the profession. I also truly believe that the developers did not intend for this to be the case, and wanted to have these two genres of characters to have their own roles without having one require the other.
Again, this is only a suggestion.. I just felt that this new push for crafter/combat mix will furthur diminish the merchants role, and it might be time for a respecification of this profession in SWG.
Take care,
-Fitzhume
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