Merchant Archive

I have been a Master Merchant for over 2 months. Two days ago, I began surrendering my Merchant skills. I am now down to the only good parts of the profession, being 3/4/0/0 on the tree. Soon they will be gone as I use the boxes for my new profession.

With absolutely nothing done to fix this profession in the 2+ months I was a Master, I feel absolutely nothing as I type yes to surrender skills. The worst part will be loosing my global advertising and 20% reduction in structure fee's, but I will getover it as I sell over 100k credits worth of radioactives on the bazaar daily. Why would anyone make the 1.5k run out through Maulers and Shaupauts to get to my shop when the bazaar is so much easier.

Face it. Merchant as it stands is a joke. It is a waste of skill points and, as nothing continues to be done about the profession, more people will realize it and drop it. Oh, you will still see the dabblers who take novice merchant because they have 6 skill points left over just for the extra vendor and the humanoid option, but for the most part it is a dying profession.

In real life, Merchants make money by reselling goods that others have made (at its most basic level). Here, there is no hope of that, since anyone with Business 3 of Artisan can sell their own goods. In real life, location is important, but I can't sell my goods in the city where everyone is at. No, I have to put up a house 1.5 kilometers from the city limits and hope that people see my vendor. If I want to sell in the city, I can't charge more than 3k. Oh well, guess I just put up a garbage piece of composite for auction at 3k and advertise my wears, or better yet, run around with the Master Armorsmith title up. I don't need any more advertisement than that.

But when player cities come out, you can have a vendor in the city then? Get real. All of the content is in the current cities. All new cities will be nothing more than extended PA halls and nothing more. On Starsider, you can't run from Mos Eisley to Bestine without always having multiple houses on your overhead map, and player cities will just make it worse. Every planet will soon be Coruscant, overrun with structures until there is no place left to drop a harvester. Personal harvesters will once again come into vogue as they are the only thing small enough to be dropped into the gaps between buildings.

No, there is no hope that the Merchant profession will ever be viable. I can't understand how Miner gets dropped because of a lack of content, but Chef and Merchant make the cut.

For those of you who are gluttons for punishment, I wish you the best of luck. Maybe the Dev team will prove me wrong, but I seriously doubt it.