Merchant Archive

I don't normally come to these boards, but have been stewing on this one for a week.

Frankly I'm sick of the bazaar where any bozo can come and dump up to 25 items of crap for a 20cr fee per item.

This doesn't really effect the higher priced Merchants, people selling things like droids, weapons, armour or houses/factories, but its certainly annoying for Tailor/Merchants and Chef/Merchants. Most of our product is under the 3k cap.

What I would like to see is either the cap lowered to a real low level, say 500cr or further limits placed upon the number of items you can list, to say 5 or less to make the Bazaar the selling place of last resort.

This would then help drive people to open more shops, and get people out of the cities and towns and to our own villages and proto-cities.

Yes, but the bazaars 3k limit, even in auction makes it more of a nuiscance (sp) than a real issue. Here is what I have noticed is that some people place a vendor in thier house, with nothing in it ever, but because of how the merchant exps works (Or doesn't) that they get, for the most part, totaly free exps.

What I think would help midigate this is the fix of the "vendor" menu in the houses. I think players want to come to one shop, and visit 3 or 4 diff vendors in one stop.

We could also advicate a limit one the low level vendors (like the bazzar). There are many ways this can be approched, but as it stands now, I think that the busIII vendor, along with the vendor list bug, is killing us.

I think the point of a merchant is to buy and sell things. I have found that most people that become elite at any prof (Except Merchant) find that as they move up, it is harder and harder for them to tend to a shop and find all the parts for there craft.

I have entered dealls with many crafters that sell me the thinks I sell. They make money and I make money.

I would say leave the low-level vendors, but fot the fact that as it stands now, you do not have to do anything to earn mercahnt experience. It just takes time. You can not gain any other exps that I know of without haveing to do something, then there are merchants.

Whats the real enemy for Merchants?

I'd say the fact that you Merchants aren't keeping your vendors stocked with quality items. I've grown so sick and tired of traveling from one shanty town to the next only to find that the player vendors are empty or stocked with worthless low quality items.

And the Dev's created the Bazaar. And it was good. Then a few players bitched and got a cap put on the bazaar. And that was bad, very bad.

With every trip I make out to an empty player vendor my dislike for the Merchant profession grows. Right now I think the Merchant should be taken out of the game.They're not making the playing experience of others better,They're making it worse.

The key to get people using your vendors is to ALWAYS keep them fully stocked with quality items. Place them in an easy and quick place to get to. Place them all in one house or PA hall, so other players don't have to waste night after night wandering from house to house to find what they need.

You're the reason why the Merchant profession isn't working! Stop asking for changes in game mechanics to force players to use your vendors. They'd want to use them if they were stocked and in a convenient place to get to.

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AlbinoWookiee wrote:

Whats the real enemy for Merchants?

I'd say the fact that you Merchants aren't keeping your vendors stocked with quality items. I've grown so sick and tired of traveling from one shanty town to the next only to find that the player vendors are empty or stocked with worthless low quality items.

And the Dev's created the Bazaar. And it was good. Then a few players bitched and got a cap put on the bazaar. And that was bad, very bad.

With every trip I make out to an empty player vendor my dislike for the Merchant profession grows. Right now I think the Merchant should be taken out of the game.They're not making the playing experience of others better,They're making it worse.

The key to get people using your vendors is to ALWAYS keep them fully stocked with quality items. Place them in an easy and quick place to get to. Place them all in one house or PA hall, so other players don't have to waste night after night wandering from house to house to find what they need.

You're the reason why the Merchant profession isn't working! Stop asking for changes in game mechanics to force players to use your vendors. They'd want to use them if they were stocked and in a convenient place to get to.

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I couldn't have said it better, Al. What's worse is when they charge an admission fee, but when you check inside their vendor is empty (or non-existent).

Hint: If your shop is empty please close it, or at least change your sign to reflect that you're out of business.

- Grym Reepa : Engineer

odd to see flamers on a lesser populated board, usually they sit in the high density areas.

At any rate, how are you so sure you are visiting real merchants and not just crafters trying to sell their wares? because they are listed on global map? That is only 3 skills up and I know many crafters who train up that far just to get cheap NPC merchants and get listed globally. Difficult to tell real merchants from wannabes just by visiting their shop once or twice.

The second problem is that due to high fees and being limited to 250 items with no furniture in your house, it is quite difficult to keep your shop filled 24 hours a day unless you are on 24 hours a day. It is even more difficult to have 4 or 5 vendors selling everything under the sun in one store. I sell weapons and armor in my shop and have about 150 items and only carry about 2 or 3 of each type of item that I have access to. If I were to want to add another type of item, say housing supplies, medical supplies, etc... I would likely build another house next door and to put the new vendor so that I can keep at least some furniture in the shops to make them somewhat attractive. I wouldn't even mind if the vendors had 75 to 100 items per vendor and if you went above that it went into house supply that was lowered to 100. The item limit is a problem.

Also I have a 1 cred access fee. I do this because it's half of the way I get xp. I am bugged, I don't get free xp from vendors like everyone else. I get xp too slowly as it is, not giving up the access fee. And if I am in the shop and I see someone in the shop I will tip them 2 creds back. I don't care bout the money and i'd bet most merchants don't either.

Overall, I think crafter merchants are always gonna be the merchant's biggest problem. No one will ever want to rely on someone else to sell their stuff, they wanna do it themselves and make that extra whatever that merchants charge for their service. And at this point I don't blame em, merchant profession offers so little in return that most crafters can get 2/3s of what merchant really has to offer just by training up to adv3 (read 18 creds). The only thing I can do to try to differentiate myself from all the crafters out there is to make a two shop area that carries all a player could ever want. It will be difficult to keep stocked though as it currently stands but I will try.

Advertising a shop and charging an access fee while having no inventory is foolish. Merchants who do so should find another profession, and not whine about how hard it is to keep their store stocked (what a nice problem to have!). Change the sign to add "- Closed" while you restock, and take off the access fee and turn off the advertising.

The vendor from Business III should have a cap like the bazaar, IMO. The cap should be higher, like 6K, and should increaseto 9K at Business IV. That way lower levelcrafters can run a small business, but higher levels ones will need a merchant or to become a merchant, and Business IV could actually have a purpose.

The bazaar is fine as is. There are plenty of items worth much more than 3K that a merchant can sell, and merchants can also sell containers of bulk quantities at prices that distributors can pay and thenresell individual items to the bazaar.

"At any rate, how are you so sure you are visiting real merchants and not just crafters trying to sell their wares? because they are listed on global map? That is only 3 skills up and I know many crafters who train up that far just to get cheap NPC merchants and get listed globally. Difficult to tell real merchants from wannabes just by visiting their shop once or twice."

Just because someone doesn't master becoming a doctor doesn't mean they aren't a real doctor. Just because I only take the Merchant skills that are useful to me doesn't mean I'm not a "real merchant", whatever that is.

Now if you're saying that a real merchant is someone who is a reseller...someone who doesn't just sell what they craft...then I agree. We need more of that type of merchant to stimulate the economy.

Jamga Gibbrad

"odd to see flamers on a lesser populated board, usually they sit in the high density areas."

I wouldn’t call my post a flame. Just stating the facts about why I’m fed up with Merchants and their calls for nerfing the bazaar.

"At any rate, how are you so sure you are visiting real merchants and not just crafters trying to sell their wares? because they are listed on global map? That is only 3 skills up and I know many crafters who train up that far just to get cheap NPC merchants and get listed globally. Difficult to tell real merchants from wannabes just by visiting their shop once or twice."

Trust me I’ve spent a week of nights now shopping around visiting every player town on Corellia, Naboo, and Tatooine. If there are any Master Merchants out there I’ve hit their shops. Unless of course they were stupid enough to charge a cover charge for entering. I refuse to pay a charge to check your vendors.

And you bring up another good point. Just how many Master Merchants are there? Judging by the number of vendors that are listed on the global map, which I know you don’t have to be a Master to do. I’d say that there are less than ten each on both of the servers I’ve been playing on. Should SOE really gimp the selling system to please less than 10 players on each server?

"The second problem is that due to high fees and being limited to 250 items with no furniture in your house, it is quite difficult to keep your shop filled 24 hours a day unless you are on 24 hours a day. It is even more difficult to have 4 or 5 vendors selling everything under the sun in one store. I sell weapons and armor in my shop and have about 150 items and only carry about 2 or 3 of each type of item that I have access to. If I were to want to add another type of item, say housing supplies, medical supplies, etc... I would likely build another house next door and to put the new vendor so that I can keep at least some furniture in the shops to make them somewhat attractive. I wouldn't even mind if the vendors had 75 to 100 items per vendor and if you went above that it went into house supply that was lowered to 100. The item limit is a problem."

Sounds like you should be asking for some player vendor changes before you go asking for more bazaar nerfs. I would agree with you that it’s absolutely rediculous for items on your vendor to count against your house inventory. One vendor should be able to hold thousands of items.

"Also I have a 1 cred access fee. I do this because it's half of the way I get xp. I am bugged, I don't get free xp from vendors like everyone else. I get xp too slowly as it is, not giving up the access fee. And if I am in the shop and I see someone in the shop I will tip them 2 creds back. I don't care bout the money and i'd bet most merchants don't either."

Poor game design. Needs to be changed if you need to charge an access fee for exp. I’ll never shop at a place that charges one. I’ll pay one to enter a place where an event is being held, but not to shop.

"Overall, I think crafter merchants are always gonna be the merchant's biggest problem. No one will ever want to rely on someone else to sell their stuff, they wanna do it themselves and make that extra whatever that merchants charge for their service. And at this point I don't blame em, merchant profession offers so little in return that most crafters can get 2/3s of what merchant really has to offer just by training up to adv3 (read 18 creds). The only thing I can do to try to differentiate myself from all the crafters out there is to make a two shop area that carries all a player could ever want. It will be difficult to keep stocked though as it currently stands but I will try."

I personally wouldn’t even think about being a crafter without the ability to sell my own goods. Trying to be a middleman that creates nothing is just stupid IMO.

The Miner profession was more critical to this game than Merchants, and it was deleted because crafters didn't want to have to buy resources from other players. Why should the Merchant profession still be around? So far you've just made buying goods a pain in the ass.

Maybe instead of calling for the bazaar to be nerfed it would be better to ask that merchants be given some of the features that make the bazaar good.

An efficient exchange of goods is very important to an economy, and the bazaar helps that. Reducing other forms of commerce in order to make merchants desirable is the wrong way to do it. Instead, merchants should be desirable in ways that help the economy.

The major drawbacks of the bazaar are the price cap and the item limit. Other than those two things, is therea reason to use a vendor? There should be.

It would be nice to have a terminal in town where players could view what items were for sale on nearby vendors, as well as their locations. Remote browsing is something that makes the bazaar very desirable.

Another thing that would help merchants is to give them a way to advertisewhat they are interested in buying.

See Numtini...

Crafter-Merchants are nerfing the Merchant profession by pissing off all the players. House after house of empty vendor... You and "your friends" are giving the rest of us merchants a bad name.

Every other post-artisan skill takes General Crafting XP. So why would it be so outrageous for Novice Merchant to also take General Crafting also?

Move vendors to the Merchant class... Make the Business linereduce bazaar fees. Or make the Business-class vendors have a 6k price limit perhaps. I still vote for no vendors at all though.

AlbinoWookie you obviously dont' play on Bloodfin, or you would have seen a REAL store at Csin's Bargain Csity.

I DO have a 1 credit fee to get in. Its stopped MANY people from training creatures into my store to kill off afk chars who happen to be inside. Their security is MY responsibility (typically the mob whacks them enough waiting to pay the fee to make them reconsider).

I charge ONE credit to get into my store. This credit gives me 50 exp points, which are already difficult to get. I cannot 'grind' merchant experience. There are no Jax's to kite or muzzles togrind out. There are no macro's to dance or play out. We can't parkourselves on alight-colored spawn spot and auto-kill anything stupid enough to attack us. Merchantshave tomarket their store, keep it well-stocked, andwork with buyers to get exp.This means i have to spend half my play-time driving people to the store, and the other half making sure it's stocked.If you think your ONE credit is too steep a price to pay to help out a fellow player..then you'rebeing a selfish ass.

So while I fully empathize with yourissues as a frustrated customer, to come to our board and call forMerchants to be eliminated is out of line. Many of us work **edit** hard toput our best feetforward. We play a VERY important part in facilitating a player-run economy (or should), and we bring more to this game than just being another whack-a-mole whacker.

You need a good lesson in learning to walk a mile in other people's shoes. Perhaps next year your junior high should do some kind of workshop.