Merchant Archive

I was over at SWG warcry, reading the back issues of the wookie walkabout, and I stumbled on the author's suggested changes for the merchant profession, and after thinking about it, alot of what he says makes sense.I am just going to touch on a few points here. Again, I dont know how much of this has been said here before, or is in the works, but I figured I'd say it anyway.

The whole article can be found at the link below

http://swg.warcry.com/scripts/columns/view_columns.phtml?site=13&id=1062

The big thing is the price cap. You seldom see anything good on the bazaar other than minerals and such. Thats because no one can afford to sell high level items at only 3k per item. I know that people are supposed to have vendors if they are skilled enough to craft such items, but putting a slightly lower quality item on the bazaar for a discounted price is great advertising. (provided you post your shop name and coordinates with the sale, and people actually READ what you write in the discription).

That actually brings me to my second point, which isnt really a bug with the system as it is with the players. They let you write a brief discription of what your selling for a reason. Use it. And when others use it, Read it! That way we can cut back on the "hey, you have any more of these?" or "do you have a store?" simply look at the discription, and look, a waypoint. Though it would be nice if there was a copy/paste feature so we could easily copy the same simple message onto multiple sales.....

Since I am ranting a bit on player quirks, let me mention the people who have no concept of basic economics. If you understand the laws of supply and demand, you might want to skip this. If you mine 20 million units of steel, DONT PUT IT ALL UP FOR SALE!! all that does is flood the market and drop the price of that type of steel to dirt. If you post more something than there is demand for, it wont sell, at least not for a decent price. A flooded market is a salesman's worst nightmare. My usual rule of thumb is I find out what going rate is, drop it by half a credit, then break it into whatever sized lot will put me at 3k creds at whatever my cpu is. if it starts to sell good, I do my best to maintain about 5 lots at that cpu on the bazaar till it runs out, or I find a buyer for my whole inventory. That way, I keep demand up, but not high enough to price myself out of the market. Basically it comes down to this. Demand too high= no one can afford to buy it. Available Supply too high= no one wants(or needs)to buy it. End of rant.

To end, I will put the list of other changes that were suggested, all of which I endorse fully in one way or another.

1. First, fix the bugs!
   
   
2. Add searching capabilities to the Bazaar and vendors to make it even easier for players to find what they are looking for.
   
   
3. Enhance the merchant class. Efficiency II should connect the player's vendors to the regional network, all the vendors and bazaars within a given distance, possibly all those within a player city. Efficiency III should connect the player's vendors to all the bazaars and vendors on the planet. Efficiency IV should connect the player's vendors to all the vendors and bazaars on all the planets.
   
   
4. Allow players to pay a delivery fee to have items delivered to their home. Later, this can be used to drive delivery missions run by players when space flight is added to the game.
   
   
5. Allow players to put items on reserve for other players. That way when my character BamitJim makes a deal to sell a droid to another player, say Dantae, I can place the item on the vendor and tell the vendor it is reserved for Dantae.
   

I realize that some of these, like the reserve and the delivery missions would be hard to do, but it would be nice to see it in some form. The rest would allow the economy's in the various galaxies to finishstablizing and even finally start to thrive, not to mention make it easier for us to find buyers and buyers to find vendors.

Just a thought.

Gan'r Pistoleer/Rifleman/Merchant - Ahazi

Sales Department Head, Alliance Industries, XWA

All has been previously suggested. I am with you on all but the Bazaar cap raising. Unless the raise is dependent on merchant skill.

I thought as much. Therefore, count me among the huddled masses who cry out for these changes to come to pass in one form or another.

And I agree that the bazaar's cap shouldn't be bases on skill level. Save that for the region that your Vendor is effective in. (As your skill levels increase, your vendor's items should be shown on terminals greater distances from its location.)

Ibelieve that we all agree though, that merchant is one of several classes that is in desperate need of renovation.

Gan'r

Pistoleer/Rifleman/Merchant - Ahazi

Sales Department Head, Alliance Industries, XWA