Merchant Archive

Fair enough.

But I think that when people can't play or log in, then it would be nice to still have some way to access the game. No offence, but sitting next to your vendors constantly clicking through your stockroom and single selecting objects to re-sell (possibly while your AFK tag is up so you're not interrupted) doesn't really feel like being part of the game - this moves this part out to times when you can't be playing.

You can't craft while web-based. You can't send tells. You can't go hunting, or buy things from other vendors or the bazaar.

It's just to help those people who would want a) to have a better interface for vendor upkeep, and b) don't want to 'waste' the time they do have logged in doing vendor maintenance.

I didn't see it as a way to stop people from ever logging in to the game. I saw it as a tool to ensure that the time you do have logged in, can be spent more productively.

The Merchant Holo-Net.

Overview
Description
Availability
Usage
Difficulties
Advantages
Expansions

Overview
To propose a web-based, logged in, merchant utility to help with vendor upkeep and economic monitoring.

Description
The Merchant Holo-Net would be an out-of-game system designed to be logged into by the player of the merchant character. It allows, through a web interface, the player to look at the stock of their character's vendors, change prices, restock, describe, look at sales information, accept or decline offers and at higher levels, register with the server wide 'stock market' to let the system know their prices, and see the average prices of similar goods also registered.

Availability
The Merchant Holo-Net would become initially available to characters with Business IV in the Artisan tree. Expanded features would be 'unlocked' with Novice Merchant and higher levels of Merchant skills.

Usage
When the Merchant goes to the Merchant Holo-Net log in page, they are asked for their login information (somewhat like the forums) and they then get to choose from which character (that has applicable skills) that they want to manage.
Once they select the character, they are given several options - offers, mail, sales analysis, stock and register stock market.

• Offers lists any offers that have been made to their vendors - they have the option to accept (and buy) the offer, or decline the offer. In which case, a mail is automatically sent to the person who offered, with a waypoint and time limit to recollect their goods.
  
• Mail lets the merchant read their in game mail, while not being fully 'in game'.
  
• Sales Analysis shows tables and graphs (php) of the sales - sortable by vendor, planet, item, time, etc. There are more economic minds than mine that could describe how to do this.
  
• Stock - this is access to all the vendors the character has, and their stockrooms. Players can change prices, pay maintenance, change speech, register on the planet (if they have the skills) and most importantly, restock at the touch of a button. Every effort should be made to ensure that this is as painless and user friendly as possible.
  
• Register is a whole new kind of ability (and would require a higher level skill to use). Enabling this option would register your prices in a server database and compare your prices for similar items to the server average. That way, sufficiently skilled merchants could see (in colours on their vendor listings) whether their prices were above average, below or about the same. It equates to the increased market knowledge a merchant would have.

Difficulties
Well, it's a whole new system. There is currently no support for a web-based support system for SWG and implementing one would not be simple.
There would have to be 'packets' of information sent to the game servers, and in the instance where a merchant was updating at the same time a player was browsing and/or buying, the player would have to get prioroty and the changes to any objects sold would have to be abandoned. I don't think that would be an insurmountable difficulty (in my ignorant opinion).

Advantages
Maintaining vendors isn't exciting. Some people feel that the time they spend doing that is stolen from them. If the players are allowed to do the 'grind work' of maintaining a vendor while not directly logged into the game (for example, while on a lunchbreak) then they have more in-game time to spend doing the things they find exciting. (And to those people who find restocking exciting, you don't have to use the web-based system, fear not).
SOE would have the same people paying for their subscriptions, but less load on their servers.
The improved interface and increased information given to merchants would make their lives much easier and their play experience less of a chore.
Giving merchants an option to see how their prices compare to other merchants would give a feeling of being part of something much bigger, and price wars could easily pop up (which I think is a good and dynamic thing).
Lets players feel a connection to the game, even while away from the PC that they have the game installed on.

Expansions
Well, why stop at Merchant? Wouldn't it be nice to have a web-based system to see how your factories have progressed (for you advanced profession crafters out there) or to access your mail from wherever you are? How about being able to subscribe to a merchant scout list where merchants could post 'missions' for scouts, rangers and miners to fulfill 'orders' for resourses. First one to accept gets the job. Why just resourses? Why not full crafting orders for finished goods (for merchants).
This would be of the most use to merchants, but nearly every profession could benefit from a web-based interface for some of the things within the game (even if it's only mail access). You could go so far as to have adverts within the holonet paid for by merchants. Not popups, but banners. Chosen from a list of stock (and thusly, of acceptable quality) merchants could have a banner add somewhere on the holonet - and clicking on it could send an email to the clickee with a waypoint.

This idea, while large in scope, I feel would be popular for merchants, advanced artisans and for the SWG economies. By helping to remove the drudgery, and at the same time, giving players a way to access the game during unplayable times, SWG would help players feel connected more, and give them the information that they want for their businesses.

Thoughts?