Merchant Archive
Thread: Time Payment Skill for Merchants
My proposal for a loan system hasn’t gotten any responses. I can’t tell whether people don’t like it, or just don’t understand it yet.
The idea was to have something based on code already in existence. In particular the code for a city “head tax” that (I am told) pulls money out of your bank account to pay that city tax and deposits it in the city treasury. The payments on loans would work the same way, except that they would be paid to the current owner of an object: a “Completed Loan Document” (names of thing are subject to change).
The “Completed Loan Document” would start as a “Blank Loan Form” crafted by a merchant. I would really like to see a couple of variations on them at various levels in the current “Efficiency” tree, which could be renamed “banking”. A “Blank Loan Form” would be tradable, and not do anything until somebody “used” it. Then a dialog box would come up that would allow entry of:
Debtor: (filled in automatically as user’s name)
Next payment due: (filled in automatically as tomorrow?)
Total remaining to be paid:
Payment frequency (daily| weekly| monthly):
Number of payments:
Payment amount: (calculated result= total/num payments)
And buttons for [accept] and [cancel]
Once filled in and accepted, the user has a “Completed Loan Document” that can be traded to someone else for goods, services, or cash. The same fields would appear on it when “examined”, but could no longer be changed. Until traded it wouldn’t do anything, but once it was held by someone else, that character’s bank account would be credited from the owners bank account on the payment dates. As payments were made, the Next payment, Total amount, and number of payments would be decremented. If the Debtor’s bank account didn’t contain enough credits, the holder would get an email and the Total due and Number of payments would remain unchanged.
The “Completed Loan Document” would probably be used most often as payment for some large item the character couldn’t afford at the moment, and wanted to make time payments on. The merchant selling the item might want to ask a higher price to cover the risk and delay on the loan, but would be able to sell large expensive items more easily.
A “Completed Loan Document” with someone else’s name on it would still be tradable, and could be put on a vendor or bazaar. The buyer would receive all the future payments. If you were a Crafter or pure retail Merchant who had made a time sale, then you could sell those loans (at some discount) to a Merchant who wanted the Banker role (like myself), and immediately get the cash to replace your stock.
Meaningful variations on the “Blank Loan Form” might be set for various skill levels.
Promissory Note - Allows only a single future payment set the next day
Future Payment Contract –Allows specifying the day for payment
Time Payments -Allows up to 4 future payments
Long term loan -Allows up to 10 future payments
I think this capability could be a lot of fun. It would let new characters get going more easily by giving them a way to buy the things they needed to get started. It would improve retail sales for merchants of all kinds, and give some needed new skills to the merchant class. And it creates a whole new role in the game for those who wish to become Bankers.
See more in my postings at:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=merchant&message.id=12595
and
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=merchant&message.id=12347&page=2
ahhh.... too...many...words.....can't....understand...
It might be a good idea, but how badly do you think the dev would mess it up?
I like the idea, but what happens in the event the person cannot pay. Theres really no way to have any recourse if someone just doesn't get enough credits to make their payments. Just deferring the payment indefinetly isn't really good enough. Although I don't think people would like the idea of their possessions being automatically "sold" or something like that.
I had a loan set up with some before, just on the honor system. It worked out nicely and would be a fun addition to the game. We'd just have to havea good way of fairly enforcing it.
Lyrn
yes, Armeno, there is a risk of delayed payment, or even complete default, when making a loan. The whole game is built on a risk=fun model. The risk is somewhat limited, since the debtor can't just forget to pay you. But he can delete the character!
Lots of room for skilled play and judgement in making loans. Wouldn't be fun othewise.
I understand it but I don't think I'd use it much.
Automatic payments can cause problems in RL. I don't want that in a game too.
Next time the electric company doubles or triples their withdrawl, and it takes you 6 months to get it straightened out, post this proposal again 
Bugs could wipe you out and the CSR's won't just give people moneybecause they say they had it in their bank.
Well. Von, the whole point was to avoid non-payment arguments. Except for keeping your bank account empty, the only way to skip out on payment is skipping out completely. A bounty on a character who never logged in wouldn't be much fun for anyone.
I played Ancient Anguish in the early 90's which had a bounty system, I never did find one of the targets online :-(
true....still like it thoe...and i would just consider that the same as banks....they declared "bankrupsey"(sp)lol