Merchant Archive

raise price cap on bazaar by 1k for each box of business and 3k for master (total 10k)

No! This would empower merchants over non-merchants but it would kill shopkeepers, which are what most merchants want to be!

Here's a few more suggestions

Store model buildings available only to merchants (novice through master under advertising)
1 lot kiosks/pushcarts available only to merchants (efficiency 2 & Advertising 2)
Restructuring of vendor pricing to make efficiency worthwhile (efficiency)
Ability for merchants to charge and manage placement of vendors and limit placement of vendors in other peoples homes to the merchant skill (only merchants can accept other players vendors in their house and would have a variety of methods to charge "rent" for the space starting with a static charge up to a percentage or any combination) (Hiring)
Allow master merchants to place shop buildings within the 1km unbuildable city zone (master)
Shop signs with improving functionality (advertising)
In city billboards for Master Merchants -- just need a few let them rotate between displays -- click on sign fora waypoint. (master)
Allow merchants only to "bundle" goods so a suit of armor could be sold as a unit rathr than as individual pieces (efficiency)
Allow merchants only to "tag" goods for a specific customer to allow for special orders (efficiency)
Bazaar Waypoints -- New category under bazaar. In addition to listing a vendor on the map, any listed vendor could have a free waypoint "purchased" from the bazaar and loaded into the buyers datapad. The number of listings and cross-listings would go up with advertising. Ie, at novice merchant you get one listing in one category. By master merchant you would be able to list each merchant (is it 7 or 8 you max out on?) and choose up to 4 (1 for each advertising) additional categories for each merchant. So if you have 7 merchants in 7 locations each selling guns, armor, clothing and resources each one would be listable under all those categories at master. At novice only one could be listed in only one category. (Advertising)

I think this type of an overhaul would first of all be reasonably possible. And second would make each line worthwhile without nerfing anyone else. (Well actually placing foreign vendors as a merchant only feature would be a nerf, but since it's never worked for anyone, it would be a minimal one.)

Existing:
Advertising: Only useful feature is listing on planetary map and that's minimal.
Efficiency: Unknown because correct pricing for NPC vendors is bugged. Of moderate value to crafters.
Hiring: Useless. Anyone at novice can reroll until they get something they like.
Management: Additional vendors are useless to some and most important skill to other.
Master: Useless

My suggested additions:

Advertising: Add progressively better shop only buildings and buliding signs
Efficiency: Add abilities to bundle and target sales
Hiring: Add a new line dedicated to managing and charging for placed vendors
Management: Adds nothing, additional vendors are a solid line.
Master: Allows city sell and city advertising.

100% exactly what I was thinking!... Nox Rox!... I think that would help business people and leave merchants as an actual profession (Still a weak excuse for one but...) that at least has ONE thing they can actually do that no one else can do...

So...if I understand this Nox, you don't want a shop anymore just the bazaar?

So...you don't really want to play merchant?

I think that's a fairly unrealistic response.

I am most of the way towards master merchant, and I was a master merchant throughout beta. I don't see my suggestions as undercutting merchant at all - but rather replacing the things that artisans need a vendor for.

Your response is especially strange in light of the fact that taking a vendor away from artisans and giving them this, in fact reduces their sales capacities rather than making them 'do away with vendors.'

- nox

While some of these ideas aren't bad, I do take issue with the whole "let the artisan's do what they need to do" bit. The whole reason that many people want vendors to be exclusive to merchant is so that artisans MUST go through merchants to sell many of their wares. The whole idea is to make it so that while artisans can sell their stuff on the bazaar at low prices or run around yelling, it's just a heck of alot more profitable and easier to find a real merchant to do it for you. By replacing the vendor with other ways the artisan can get by without the use of the merchant doesn't really solve the merchant's problem of being rather useless...

That being said I do think that an obvious choice of bazaar fee reduction and maybe an increase in number of items in the bazaar (but only by 5 or 10, bringing it upby 50 is just insane for an artisan skill, that's about the same as allowing a Master Artisan make a DLT20a Rifle... it's just way too much for a starter profession. Honestly this is the worst of your ideas.) could be ways to replace the vendor

---

ajm317 wrote:

So...if I understand this Nox, you don't want a shop anymore just the bazaar?

So...you don't really want to play merchant?

---

Huh. Dont see that anywhere in his post.I guess you dont understand it.

---

Nox_SWG wrote:

I'd like to propose some alternatives, and give some ideas that might make this more appealing or possible.

* Add +10 bazaar sales to each box of business in artisan (total of 50)

---

I agree that maybe a good emphasis for business would be in the bazaar. I made a whole series of suggestions to that end on an artisan thread. One of the things I wanted to see was the number of bazzar slots determined by the business skill of the character, same as you suggested. This would give an unskilled character less, but a businessman more, and provide a "point" to the business skill. Artisans dont really need merchants to sell survey tools.

For the bazaar cap.. I think one way to handle that is to scale the cost of listing dramatically with the price you are offering. A sort of "transaction fee" or "commision". This would provide incentive for a player to own a store where listing would be a lot less expensive while at the same time not completely gating people from using the bazaar for selling higher priced items, like resources.

Resources, perhaps, should have their own cap. I am finding that resources sold via merchant just doesnt work very well. The stock is so flexible, and people's needs so immediate, that a bazaar (which was originally a commodities market) format is far more useful.

I would like to see a 10k limit on resources. This can only be better for everyone.

I also think the cap could be flexible. That is.. right now merchants are seriously fubar, especially for resource merchants such as myself. I am FORCED to use the bazaar. Other people constantly report problems. Until these issues are resolved, I think we should raise the cap.

Of course,maybe I dont really want to play a merchant, that my desire to buy and sell things is because I want to play a commando. This "merchant elitism" is a hoot.. like merchants do anything other then have a vendor exist to gain xp.

Regards,

Artuk

Horizontal integration on skills is good. Horizontal interdependency is much less good.

However convenient for the merchant it might be to gate everyone who wanted to sell something on your chosen profession - however you must realize that this is an urealistic and uncooperative attitude. You will never get something like this, the artisans, tailors, droid engineers etc. will never permit it.

You need to have a more realistic attitude about what you can achieve, and crippling everyone else's professions to benefit your own isn't one of them.

I see some clamoring here for artisans to lose vendors, without a lot of thought given to what that might do to the artisans who don't go merchant. That is a fairly callous and destructive attitude. The point to this post is to say that you must give artisans some way to do what they need to do, if you are taking away vendors.

I'd like to propose some alternatives, and give some ideas that might make this more appealing or possible.

* Add +10 bazaar sales to each box of business in artisan (total of 50)
* Reduce bazaar posting fees / premium fees with business 3+4
* raise price cap on bazaar by 1k for each box of business and 3k for master (total 10k)
* make highlighted bazaar sales a filter box (show only highlighted sales) (yes this helps artisans)

The net result here is that a master artisan would have the tools to sell mid-level items on the bazaar and do a moderate amount of business with the tools to distribute their wares - without the obvious advantages a vendor brings.

Then, and only then can we discuss removing the vendor from the artisan tree. When the bazaar becomes usable, then artisans can use it for artisan/non merchant purposes.

Now, I have a whole 50 yard long wishlist of things I wanted merchant to be, but never shaped up to be in beta - including the ability to allow other people to use the vendor for a % fee...

- nox

People looking for ideas on adding things to our class rather than taking them away from someone else?

Look no further....

good post, Tag for later use

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

Also, something I -swear- was in beta but seems to have been taken out was... at a certain level of sales skill in merchant, you could sell items from -any- of your vendors and they would get delivered. Also, I could have sworn that people could buy items from anywhere in the galaxy and retrieve it if you were high enough on the merchant tree, and the merchant whose terminal was used would charge a set fee.

I reviewed the merchant skill trees, but all that stuff seems to have been taken out, or isn't apparent?