Merchant Archive
Thread: The Stand Alone Merchant
I accidentally posted this to the SWG Discussion Forum. Here it is in it's proper place:
I play Star Wars Galaxies because I believe the developers have a design philosophy aimed at promoting social roleplaying. The inclusion of professions such as entertainers, image designers, artisans, etc. gives me hope that my belief is true. The merchant profession is right along these lines. A social, interactive class that does not rely on killing or fighting to advance. Unfortunately, I don't find the merchant particularly playable or rewarding as a stand alone occupation.
I'm not a crafter. I don't enjoy hunting down resources, and I REALLY don't like crafting process itself (though I'm happy that there are those that do. 
) ) Trying to play a merchant without creating the goods to sell is more difficult and less rewarding than it should/could be.It is my opinion that every profession should be playable, worthwhile, and fun in its own right. Here are some ways that I think the merchant class could be improved so that itWOULD stand on it's own two feet.
1. Business License.
Merchants are the only class able to own commercial retail shops (but can give admin rights to others). These would be a set of buildings of various sizes that are specifically desinged to showcase and sell goods. Signage could be obvious and flashy, rooms would be open and few, hallways would be eliminated, and specialized furnitrue would be available. The size of the shop (and number of items that it can hold in its stockroom) would be limited to the skill of the merchant. Vendors would be limited to such buldings and cantinas (cantinas being 'ownable" by merchants and entertainers alike.).
In player cities, the Mayor issues building permits of various types. These types include commercial (the just discussed buildings including cantinas and hospitals), industrial (harvesters and factories), residential (the current crop of buildings), and civic (the types of buildings only placeable by the politician him/herself.) No one can place a building within a city's boundaries without a proper permit.
Merchants will be a vital component to a city (as economic activity should be) and this will enhance the desirablity of the profession.
2. Vendors and Shops
Vendors are neat. The idea is great and shows an understanding that people cannot be logged in playing all the time, but the game goes on. Havingsome automationto operate your business when you cannot play is essential. That said, the implimentation of vendors is I think rather frustrating for those that have to maintain them. Vendor implimentation needs to be reworked to be more useful, less painful, and most importantly...fun. I've a few ideas (some stolen from other threads)on how to do that. )
First of all, the shop, not the vendor is the main selling device of the merchant. Vendors interact with the building they are in.
Allow merchants to maintain a supplier list for their shop. Suppliers (the merchant is automatically added to this list) are able to sell items at predetermined prices to the store and these items are placed in the stockroom. Item attributes can also be specified depending on the item. (color, durablity, effectiveness, etc)
The stockroom is a locked room that can't actually be entered. (No need to render all the merchandise in storage, but do place a (non functional)door to the room and make the building large enough to encompass the imagined area). Items placed in the stockroom do not go "off sale" unless the vendor removes them.
TerminalVendorsfunction simply as a catalog and special order device. Customers can browse thelist of items that the shop purchases from suppliers complete with what prices they sell such items for. A symbol by the item name will indicate if an item is in stock or not.
If an item is in stock it will be added to the customer's bill of sale. When the customer exits the terminal interface he or she will be instructed to take the bill of sale to a sales clerk to pick up the merchandise. If an item is not in stock customers can place orders in an email type system attached to the terminal. The merchant is NOT notified through email that an order has been made. She must check on the orders herself and may have to arrange with a manufacturer to fill the order.
Terminal Vendors can be created by Engineers and must be purchased. The require no maintainance. They are available to mid skill level merchants.
Droid Vendors are able to give customers merchandise that they have purchased from the shop's terminal vendors. They are also capable of operating exactly as current droidvendors do, having aSMALL storage compartment of their own that only the owningmerchant can access.Items offered for sale directly through droid vendors do not go off sale after 7 days. A very real limit is kept on the number of items a single droid can store for sale. Perhaps 50?
Droid vendors can be created by Droid Engineers and must be purchased. They degraid over time and must be repaired by adroid engineer. They are available to lower level Merchants
NPC Vendors are the creme of the crop. They are usedin conjuction with theTerminal Vendors, exchanging thebill of salefor the goods purchased. They can be dressed, and they can be "trained" to say certain salespitches. Customers can interact with them, asking them to describe the various products that are for sale. The merchant of course trains his employees on how to answer such questions (the merchant writes the descriptions). If the merchant hasn't trained his employee with a description of a particular item, the employee will simply give a default response (which can also be edited by the merchant).
NPC Vendorsallow the store to operate as a pawnshop. They will accept items and prices from anyone on their pawn list, and will offer said items for sale through the store. The person that pawned the item will be paid the asking price minus a preset commission should the item be sold.
NPC Vendors can be hired from Merchant Trainers, requiring a finders fee. They require weekly salaries. They are available to high skill level merchants.
3. Business Tools
Some in game record keeping tools available only to Merchants. Legders, Customer Lists, Price Lists, Profit/Loss statements, etc. Not so much as we need to have MBAs to play the profession, but enough that some business related record keeping is automated for us, and organised by us. These things could even be stored on the player's computer, but should have an in game interface.
4. Presentation
Merchants should be able to create signage, and properly display their wares in an attractive manner. This means being able to place signage and merchandise along the z axis as well as the x and the y.
5. Promotion
Allow merchants to create flyers and coupons. Flyers could just be a form of signage that the merchant could hand out to folks (with a waypoint attached?). Coupons would be for certain items at certain prices and WOULD be accepted by the vendors of the store.
I'm sure there is more, but that's all I'm thinking of right now. )
I forgot to mention that I think vendor maintainence should be done away with.
Terminal Vendors do not require maintainence.
Droid Vendors need periodic repaires from Droid Engineers.
NPC Vendors require a fixed weekly salary.
Note that all vendors cost money to acquire though. Terminals from Engineres, Droids from Droid Engineers, and NPCs from Merchant Trainers.
I see nothing wrong with a planetary sales tax though. Every item sold through a vendor is charged a sales tax (over and above whatever tax is required by the local government, [the mayor in otherwords].
But do NOT make vendor maintainence relative to the total cost items available. That would be horrible.