Merchant Archive
Thread: Vendor rentals
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Xieflow
Thu Mar 04, 2004 3:04 pm
#1
Like most non-combat classes, merchant shouldn't really be a "solo" deal. (you need to find people to buy your stuff as a smith)
And, I've noticed that one vendor is enough for me. Yet, when I was a master merchant I had 5 extra vendor slots (and now, at 4-4-4-1 I've only got a couple).
The problem with setting up a vendor to sell other peoples items is an issue of trust : You either trust him that his items will sell (have him offer stuff to your vendor, and then you tack on a 1% - 3% "merchant tax" for him), this also requires the merchant to already have large amounts of cash.
Or, trust on his part : He offers items to your vendor at 1 cr a piece, tells you how much to sell them for, and then he hopes that when you do sell the items, you'll give him the credits.
Why not allow merchants to place other players in an "admin" position on the vendor, but for a price. A kinda "Admin maintenance" (at regular maintenance rate), this would be on top of your maintenance (which you would also have this player pay), or, it could work like city-taxes, and an extra 1% - 10% would be tacked onto the price (depending on how the merchant sets it up : and, players have no problems with the bank-tip system, so a 3% city tax with a 2% merchant admin rights wouldn't be too bad).
This allows the client to "manage his own vendor".
Only allow one "admin" per vendor, and only allow the admin of the vendor to add / remove items (this way the merchant doesn't steal from him). The merchant can only delete a vendor if it is out of items (which is a 37 day wait at most, which isn't bad compared to the years of maintenance some players can pay into buildings they leave in... bad positions and disrupt gameplay)
This would make a *USE* for all those vendors, and make the merchant class less of a "secondary" class, and a real class that one player could spend all their time with (I know I would love to be able to drop the rest of my merchant skills, and rent out another players vendor)
And, I've noticed that one vendor is enough for me. Yet, when I was a master merchant I had 5 extra vendor slots (and now, at 4-4-4-1 I've only got a couple).
The problem with setting up a vendor to sell other peoples items is an issue of trust : You either trust him that his items will sell (have him offer stuff to your vendor, and then you tack on a 1% - 3% "merchant tax" for him), this also requires the merchant to already have large amounts of cash.
Or, trust on his part : He offers items to your vendor at 1 cr a piece, tells you how much to sell them for, and then he hopes that when you do sell the items, you'll give him the credits.
Why not allow merchants to place other players in an "admin" position on the vendor, but for a price. A kinda "Admin maintenance" (at regular maintenance rate), this would be on top of your maintenance (which you would also have this player pay), or, it could work like city-taxes, and an extra 1% - 10% would be tacked onto the price (depending on how the merchant sets it up : and, players have no problems with the bank-tip system, so a 3% city tax with a 2% merchant admin rights wouldn't be too bad).
This allows the client to "manage his own vendor".
Only allow one "admin" per vendor, and only allow the admin of the vendor to add / remove items (this way the merchant doesn't steal from him). The merchant can only delete a vendor if it is out of items (which is a 37 day wait at most, which isn't bad compared to the years of maintenance some players can pay into buildings they leave in... bad positions and disrupt gameplay)
This would make a *USE* for all those vendors, and make the merchant class less of a "secondary" class, and a real class that one player could spend all their time with (I know I would love to be able to drop the rest of my merchant skills, and rent out another players vendor)
NJ62
Thu Mar 04, 2004 6:42 pm
#2
Under that scenario, what would the merchant "do" with his skills, besides watching the money come in? It would be soooo boring!
Xieflow
Thu Mar 04, 2004 7:03 pm
#3
Under that scenario, what would the merchant "do" with his skills, besides watching the money come in? It would be soooo boring!
same thing he does now? That's just the current system + the ability to charge people admin rights to your vendor.
same thing he does now? That's just the current system + the ability to charge people admin rights to your vendor.
DocSavag
Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:52 pm
#4
Xieflow wrote:
Under that scenario, what would the merchant "do" with his skills, besides watching the money come in? It would be soooo boring!
same thing he does now? That's just the current system + the ability to charge people admin rights to your vendor.
No..right now the merchant is in charge of stocking the vendor, setting prices, deciding what merchandise to put on and what deals to be made, advertising categories and adbarking, etc. Under this system he would just rent out his 6 vendors (or 5 keeping one for himself) and forget about them. I don't see this anywhere else in the game. I want to get some better features for allowing crafters and merchants to work together but I really don't like the idea of removing the merchant from the sale completely. It makes his role in the whole thing so much less than it is now. He essentially becomes a Vendor Engineer instead of a Vendor Commander. I think the profession is limited by that route. I know many of you don't think the vendors are what makes a merchant, but they are the unique tool that we have.
Xieflow
Thu Mar 04, 2004 11:36 pm
#5
No..right now the merchant is in charge of stocking the vendor, setting prices, deciding what merchandise to put on and what deals to be made, advertising categories and adbarking, etc. Under this system he would just rent out his 6 vendors (or 5 keeping one for himself) and forget about them. I don't see this anywhere else in the game. I want to get some better features for allowing crafters and merchants to work together but I really don't like the idea of removing the merchant from the sale completely. It makes his role in the whole thing so much less than it is now. He essentially becomes a Vendor Engineer instead of a Vendor Commander. I think the profession is limited by that route. I know many of you don't think the vendors are what makes a merchant, but they are the unique tool that we have.
Well, what I find wrong with the current system is it requires a massive investment on the merchants part (which makes it hard for a straight up merchant to succeed, or a new merchant), or massive trust on the other players part (and then the merchant has to keep track of specific sales and everything)
In fact, I've noticed running a vendor slows me down. I make between 300,000 and 1,500,000 credits a day from custom orders. My vendor makes me like 50,000 credits a day from sales (down a lot now that I haven't kept up with stocking it, because custom orders are more profitable)
Well, what I find wrong with the current system is it requires a massive investment on the merchants part (which makes it hard for a straight up merchant to succeed, or a new merchant), or massive trust on the other players part (and then the merchant has to keep track of specific sales and everything)
In fact, I've noticed running a vendor slows me down. I make between 300,000 and 1,500,000 credits a day from custom orders. My vendor makes me like 50,000 credits a day from sales (down a lot now that I haven't kept up with stocking it, because custom orders are more profitable)
DocSavag
Fri Mar 05, 2004 5:58 am
#6
Xieflow wrote:
Well, what I find wrong with the current system is it requires a massive investment on the merchants part (which makes it hard for a straight up merchant to succeed, or a new merchant), or massive trust on the other players part (and then the merchant has to keep track of specific sales and everything)
I agree completely with this statement and have said so many times. In fact it is the basis for part of our top 5 issues. Our solution to that was consignment sales. This would allow the supplier to set the price, get a sales email, and get paid their percentage. The merchant however would still have to approve the sale and set the percentages. It still requires trust between the two but I don't think that is a bad thing. It makes the whole accounting system less of a burdon and makes the payments regular instead of having to bank tip everything. There would also have to be a lifting or raising of that annoying 24 item limit which is tied to all other vendor offers and the bazaar.
Our goals were to create something basically using existing functionality (not creating an entirely new system) that would allow better sales transactions between players but not remove the merchant from the transaction. I think the consignment system would do that.
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