Merchant Archive
Thread: I'm a little bit disapointed ...
Hello all,
I'm a little bit disapointed by the Merchant Profession. The problem is not related to sales in SWG since I can easily buy or sell various kind of products to different kind of player and so, earn a lot of money with fun. I'm disapointed by the profession's trees since I can be a merchant without training them. May be the Managing skills which enable us to have more than 1 vendor seems to be more important than the other but i'm not sure of that point since i can sell every thing I want with only 1 vendor and maybe without any.
Infact, I'm not sure of the interest of each skill. A merchant, in real life, don't need this kind of skill. No ?
Advertising : yes good but what you call advertising is not advertising. I would like to be everywhere in town (in starport, for example where people are waiting for their shuttle or on video screen) and i'm ready to pay very much for that.
Efficiency : The different reduced fees are and will stay worthless. Good business don't need reduced fees. These fees are a part of our price.
Hiring : Sorry but i'm not a tailor. I'm not a marketing agency too !!
Managing : not sure if it's better to have 6 or just 1 vendor (except for xp). Someone can tell me ?
Don't you think there is a problem somewhere ? But maybe i'm a special merchant ...
So here is my point of view of what is missing in this profession. It is just some ideas cos i guess i can write a book ...
Shop : Most of the district in town are empty. Why can we have shop in the existent building. There is enough space for lot of vendor and may be we need to be Master merchant to be present here. Furthermore, a shop must be recognized easily. A special architecture will be really appreciate. What can i do with my small house which holds only 150 items !! If i would like to be on different planet, i can't use large house !!
Merchant tools : we have absolutly no tools to make our business. We don't need sophisticated tools but at least something to help us keeping a good relationship with our customer and have an idea of what is buy or not. You know, a kind of calculator with mathematical sign like these one '+ ; - ; * ;/ ; %'. you remember at school ?
/me are we supposed to be the great merchant of the SWG univers or just a kind of artisan selling bread or french patatoes to their neighbourhood ?
Bazaar : I don't want to talk about premium sales which are a dev's joke. But if I, a master merchant (i'm not) with no combat skill (i have), can sell the same number of products than anyone, I prefer to be anyone and have a chance to kill the blue-rabbit-dark-Jedi that hold my FS unlocked holocron crazy device (de la mort qui tue grave). Just for the bazaar, there is lot of things to do for us, poor merchant which have no chance to meet the famous Rabbit :
- Have a baazar terminal at home (depending of skill level)
- Be able to sell more than 25 products (depending of skill level)
- Be able to sell item at higher price than 3000 cr (depending of skill level)
- Be able to leave Way Point of our shop
- Find Holocron on our vendors 
) (yes i would like to be the first Jedi Merchant)
- etc.
Bank (depending of skill level) : This subject is a true one cos i will really enjoy to lend money to other players (but i need the services of Bounty Hunter for bad players).
Product delivery : I have played different MMPOG and for most of them, it was fantastic medieval univers and i was used to travel over land, again and again, to sell my products. SWG is supposed to be in a far future where man travel faster than light (oups). But unfortunatly, there is a small part of this univers called "the forgotten SWG" where merchant just travel faster than blue rabbit (with burnst run). In this world, there is no way to sell easily large amount of products (ressources for example). Too bad ...
- Why don't we have a Market Place where only merchant (depending of skill level) can put items directly from their home ?
- Why can we sell Item only using mail ? There will be a delivery delay, maybe with a particular fee. I can do this in the XXI centuries why not in SWG ?
PS 1 : Sorry for my very bad english, i'm a french blue rabbit ...
PS 2 : I guess every thing I say in this post have been already said. So sorry again ...
Anobih wrote:
PS 1 : Sorry for my very bad english, i'm a french blue rabbit ...
PS 2 : I guess every thing I say in this post have been already said. So sorry again ...
Don't you EAT a lot of rabbits in France? 
A seriously well-written post with some good ideas, particularly considering the language gap. Merchant skills are a general disappointment, but we hold onto them mostly because a: we're stubborn and b: when I CREATED my character I wanted to be a merchant, so a merchant I remain.
Good luck with your new skills, hopefully one day being a Master Merchant will be important and useful.
Anobih wrote:
Hello all, Well Hello.
I'm a little bit disapointed by the Merchant Profession. The problem is not related to sales in SWG since I can easily buy or sell various kind of products to different kind of player and so, earn a lot of money with fun. I'm disapointed by the profession's trees since I can be a merchant without training them. May be the Managing skills which enable us to have more than 1 vendor seems to be more important than the other but i'm not sure of that point since i can sell every thing I want with only 1 vendor and maybe without any.
Multiple vendors should not be advantageous, but they are. First, they help you gain experience faster (useless to me at Master). Secound, they help with the public who just does not get how to use categories. I have had season players have a hard time with my vendor, because they always used All. When you have 300+ items this can be hard. Therefore I have set-ip three vendors so far; weapons and power-ups, food and medice, & misc (will be adding deed and furniture one soon). Third, it make the store look busier. Mostly it is to deal with stupid people.
Infact, I'm not sure of the interest of each skill. A merchant, in real life, don't need this kind of skill. No ? They help, but I could probably do almost as well with novice.
Advertising : yes good but what you call advertising is not advertising. I would like to be everywhere in town (in starport, for example where people are waiting for their shuttle or on video screen) and i'm ready to pay very much for that. We agree we need more.
Efficiency : The different reduced fees are and will stay worthless. Good business don't need reduced fees. These fees are a part of our price. Only really good one is 4.
Hiring : Sorry but i'm not a tailor. I'm not a marketing agency too !! Should be mixed in like they did with CH.
Managing : not sure if it's better to have 6 or just 1 vendor (except for xp). Someone can tell me ? See above. Needs more stuff.
Don't you think there is a problem somewhere ? But maybe i'm a special merchant ... No I aggree. Either give us more stuff or lower the skill point requirements. Let me do more stuff...
So here is my point of view of what is missing in this profession. It is just some ideas cos i guess i can write a book ...
Shop : Most of the district in town are empty. Why can we have shop in the existent building. There is enough space for lot of vendor and may be we need to be Master merchant to be present here. Furthermore, a shop must be recognized easily. A special architecture will be really appreciate. What can i do with my small house which holds only 150 items !! If i would like to be on different planet, i can't use large house !! Player Cities will help with this. Hopefully Tents will not take up lots.
Merchant tools : we have absolutly no tools to make our business. We don't need sophisticated tools but at least something to help us keeping a good relationship with our customer and have an idea of what is buy or not. You know, a kind of calculator with mathematical sign like these one '+ ; - ; * ;/ ; %'. you remember at school ? The friend list is the best so far. I would like consolidated e-mails and sales reports.
Bazaar : I don't want to talk about premium sales which are a dev's joke. But if I, a master merchant (i'm not) with no combat skill (i have), can sell the same number of products than anyone, I prefer to be anyone and have a chance to kill the blue-rabbit-dark-Jedi that hold my FS unlocked holocron crazy device (de la mort qui tue grave). Just for the bazaar, there is lot of things to do for us, poor merchant which have no chance to meet the famous Rabbit :
- Have a baazar terminal at home (depending of skill level) Not interested in this.
- Be able to sell more than 25 products (depending of skill level) Would love this.
- Be able to sell item at higher price than 3000 cr (depending of skill level) OK, but not needed
- Be able to leave Way Point of our shop I email it with a sales letter to all my customers (SPAM)
- Find Holocron on our vendors
Bank (depending of skill level) : This subject is a true one cos i will really enjoy to lend money to other players (but i need the services of Bounty Hunter for bad players). Maybe in the future. I would though love to be able to access my Safe Deposit boy from my house (vendor).
Product delivery : I have played different MMPOG and for most of them, it was fantastic medieval univers and i was used to travel over land, again and again, to sell my products. SWG is supposed to be in a far future where man travel faster than light (oups). But unfortunatly, there is a small part of this univers called "the forgotten SWG" where merchant just travel faster than blue rabbit (with burnst run). In this world, there is no way to sell easily large amount of products (ressources for example). Too bad ... Can we say delivery droids for custome orders, usable only by Master Merchants.
Product delivery : I have played different MMPOG and for most of them, it was fantastic medieval univers and i was used to travel over land, again and again, to sell my products. SWG is supposed to be in a far future where man travel faster than light (oups). But unfortunatly, there is a small part of this univers called "the forgotten SWG" where merchant just travel faster than blue rabbit (with burnst run). In this world, there is no way to sell easily large amount of products (ressources for example). Too bad ... Can we say delivery droids for custome orders, usable only by Master Merchants
This is what player created missions should be for. Also, don't forget your friendly neighborhood smuggler. Moving goods is what we SHOULD be doing, but we're not. It might make us feel more useful.