Merchant Archive

I think Q-3PO's recent post about jacking up vendor fees represents a larger problem with the way things in the game are being handled (and I'm not just talking about merchants.)

There seems to be a real attitude among the players that the devs aren't taking the time to fix bugs in game systems before introducing "balance changes."

Merchants have been contending with a lot of problems since beta. Most of these problems still haven't been fixed, despite numerous bug reports and great suggestions for changes. Yet now, the devs want us to pay more to use our vendors.

There's one particular part of Q's post that sticks out to me.

"The fix will make NPC vendors properly charge the maintenance they should have been charging since day 1 just like Droid and Terminal vendors are currently doing now."

The problem is that there are a lot of other things that vendors should have been doing since Day 1, things that would help us, that they're not doing. But Q's post makes it appear that everything will be working as intended once we start paying fees on a bizarre formula.

Why can't the devs look at some of the major problems the Merchant profession has, problems that if fixed would ease our state of mind, and fix those at the same time?

Let's take a few examples of things that are still problematic:

1) Two skill boxes that basically do nothing more than shave 4 credits each off bazaar listing prices. Honestly, are two skills for this necessary. How many merchants out there are actually HAPPY to only have to pay 12 credits to list something?

Proposed Change: Make Efficiency 1 and 3 lower vendor maintenance by 20% each, and make Efficiency 2 lower bazaar costs by 20%. A third-tier, elite skill should do more than shave 4 credits off the price of a bazaar listing. This would allow us to defray the increasing costs of vendors by investing skill points.

2)The Hiring branch only offers new races, not the ability to change those races or gain any additional functionality.

Proposed change: Allow the appearance of vendors to be customized at Hiring 3, or at least allow an image designer to change appearance at that level. Make Hiring 4 work the way it's supposed to, so they'll actually put on the clothes they're given. Perhaps allow for functional differences (INTENTIONAL functional differences) between vendor types... for example, allow droids to serve as "resource dispensers" where customers can choose how much they want to buy.

3)Ad barking and planetary map listings often "shut off" on a server reset and have to be manually reactivated.

Proposed change: Fix these functions so merchants who can't log in every weekday aren't punished.

4)Items disappear from inventory after purchase if players cross server boundaries too quickly.

Proposed change: Fix it.

5)Players can't retrieve items from vendors, and the merchant has no way of getting to the item either.

Proposed change: Fix it.

I think the best thing the devs can do to restore some "good faith" in the players is to offer us changes that help us at the same time as offering changes that hurt us. The attitude of "We're going to fix the vendor fees, and it's coming whether you want it to or not" only perpetuates an "players vs. devs" scenario, instead of some kind of mutual cooperation to benefit the game... and that kind of cooperation can be what makes the difference between a game surviving for several years, or collapsing under its own weight.

To quote chevy chase in seems like old times , WELL SAID WELL SPOKEN B.G. ... ( chevy chase nod)

I am starting to feel very at odds with the developers as it seems their focus is on thinning out our fun as much as they can in the hopes we wont get bored and thus end up paying them longer - how about this FIX the broken stuff before you nerf us to death - and also if the nerf bat is going to swing all over and the FUN bat isnt swung twice as often - Im outta here- star wars or not - if the game is micromanagement and job like - well I already have a job - I come here to have fun ---

Its also true that we cannot know what the real state of the game where vendors are concerned since the economy ( choke) hasnt had a chnce to function for even one solar cycle - even a minute - with vendors actually working properly - and alredy they are being nerfed ? Even broken and never fixed sony will nerf it ! Verant employees Im telling you this all feels very REDEYE VERANTish.... its a conspiracy -- no but seriously come on its a game - everyone and anyone making the stuff they dont want or need available to me weather they are online or not - thats ADDS ALOT of VALUE for me - since I feel exposed to the items that I dont get through looting ( given the tables are actually working) as a doctor - at least at some level - remove the ability for average joe to make his loots available for me you make my class worse. you take some of the diversity out of the game - you make this like Earth and Beyond with planets - why would you do that ?

I think the devs are aware of the vendor bugs just as I'm sure they've been aware of the vendor maintenance bugs. Yet the one easiest to fix (maintenance) is only now getting fixed. Plus they are asking for out input as to what would be fair. Ask yourself why this might be.

Might they not care about the other vendor bugs that make almost half the merchant skill tree a waste of time and skill points? This isn't likely. These bugs have persisted long enough that one can draw the conclusion that these are proving harder to stomp than they thought.

Might they just want to suck the fun out of being a merchant? Also not likely. But they've got the economy metrics. They've got the numbers and from other posts I gather that the economy is hotter that the hinges of hell at the moment is essentially out of control and all proportion. One might draw the conclusion that they wan't to cool it off to more reasonable rates of growth.

So for items 3, 4, and 5, one could figure that they are working on it.

For item one though, how do we even know the efficency line doesn't already do that? I mean, NPC vendors already only cost a few credits per day. How much less could it get? And the really advantage to the bazaar reduction is saving 20cr on premium sales, not the few credits on normal sales

For item two though, a vendor customization screen for body attributes at hiring 2 would be a nice perk in addition to the larger variety of species. Having some limited to change what they wear at hiring 2 would be nice as well

But as an addtion to this list though I add that AD4 which reduces the planetary map registration costs should be in the effiency line and that AD4 should tie your vendors inventory into the planetary bazaar the way it used to at one time in beta.

I really wish I could believe that the devs are aware of the vendor bugs. But I really don't feel like they are.

There was a post in TC yesterday where two people claimed to have "nailed" a new bug... the resource bug on NPC vendors. Vass certainly made it sound like it was something completely new. Which, of course, it isn't.

Until the devs publicly state that they're aware of the problems, then I have to run on the assumption that they still don't know about them.

" How much less could it get? And the really advantage to the bazaar reduction is saving 20cr on premium sales, not the few credits on normal sales"

Wow, so I save 20 credits to list something on the bazaar in a fancy color. I still can only charge a max of 3K for it, and I certainly haven't heard any evidence (even anecdotal) that the "premium" means anything more than "premium listing fee." It certainly doesn't translate to faster sales, from what I've heard.

"So for items 3, 4, and 5, one could figure that they are working on it."

Then all they have to do is SAY that they're working on it... give us SOME indication that they're trying to fix it... because we haven't even gotten that so far.