Merchant Archive
Thread: Ideas for a much better merchant revamp
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BRAYNEDRAYNE
Sat Sep 04, 2004 6:05 am
#1
I have spent weeks grinding merchant so that i can have a couple of nice looking vendors in a merchant tent and a couple in my house for storage. I will then give it up. WHAT IS THE EXPLOIT? if i ever decide to move or anything, illl have to lose all my vendors. I dont actually make anything but i loot so much stuff that must be worth something to someone (crystals, lances, message fragments, armor segs, auto-build components etc.). I have put all the effort in (note not much as merchant xp is calculated hourly from the vendors you have[read the Holocron]) but now it has all been in vain! I suggest the folowing things for ex-merchants;
1: Ludicrously exspensive merchant upkeep fees (similar to harvester fees).
2: Very low item limits forcing you to use a large number of exspensive vendors (25-50 should do it).
3: Have to pay a kind of tax (like PA taxes only taken off the money recieved by the sale instead of added to the asking price).
4: Be able to share or buy vendors of a merchant (sort of possible ATM but the money goes to the vendor owner).
Having to be a merchant to have vendors is ridiculous. A friend of mine is a Weaponsmith/Armoursmith who loves crafting and has fotten Master merchant and given it up to be a rifleman so as too enjoy the rest of the game. Now they will have to give up rifleman if they want to keep doing what they love!
AND this problem leads to another crappy duel-acccount exploit. Where a player has a character who can be a vendor and sell the other characters things. I suppose this is good for Sony but what about players who cant afford another account and subscription?
I do have one other suggestion though, alot of players have been talking about using skilll points to"buy" perks. A charecter should beable to "buy" vendors using skill points. These should be terrible and not a patch on merchant ones and suffer the penalties I have listed above but could be bought on a sliding scale. Paye 2-3 points and you wil have a terrible, clunky vendor hardly capable of selling anything due to terrible taxes and item limits. Pay 10+ points and you will have an NPCvendor almost as good as merchant ones.
Some players would say this would make MErchants obselete but the answer is to vastly improve the slightly crappy merchant proffesion. Give HUGE reductions in maintanence feesfor harvesters. Give bonus lots to high level merchants for the use of harvesters. Actually make it so that merchants recieve more money than is payed for items (not sure how this would work to avoid an exploit... maybe they wont have PA taxes instead but have the tax money still come through).
I have not mentioned the Bazaar as of yet. It is possible for non-merchants to sell their wares through the bazaar. But the Bazaar is terrible. A few improvements to the bazaar could be;
1: Have a proper search engine instead of the terrible filter, allowing you to look for lances instead of every single type of weapon from aknife toa flamethrower.
2: Be able to pay a small shipping charge instead of travelling across the galaxy for your items. This shipping charge could be higher or lower depending on where you are. (being on Lok and wanted an item from Dathomir would cost a small fortune but Being in Kor Vella and wanting an item from Coronet would cost very little).
I feel that by implementing these things you could have a way for everyone to sell their wares and make the Merchant profesion a desirable one, not just one that all crafters have to have and is a complete waste of points. Please would everyone give their comments on thios and maybe we can lead to a better Merchant profesion and a better game in general.
Timeless164
Sat Sep 04, 2004 6:11 am
#2
Would you mind writing a seperate message specifically about your ideas for bazaar upgrades? I think the ones I read are really good and I'd like to see more ideas about the bazaar.
MaDuece
Sat Sep 04, 2004 10:36 am
#3
Just because you loot doesn't mean its worth anything to someone else. If your loot is on a vendor and noone purchases the stuff, it should tell you something.
BOTTOM LINE: IF YOU DON'T KEEP THE PROPER SKILLS FOR A CERTAIN PROFESSION, YOU SHOULDN'T GET TO KEEP THE BENFITS.
Its not fair to the TKM profession if people drop TKA and get to keep meditation skills. Its not fair to the scout profession if people drop scout and get to keep terrain negotiation skills. Its not fair to the medic profession if people drop medic and get to keep healing skills.
Merchant shouldn't be any different simply because it "inconviences" you or your buddies.
A second account is hardly an exploit if you have to pay real money for it.
There are other options besides purchasing a second account. Your friend can expend another measely 9 points to get business 3 and sell his weapons on a more limited basis. That should leave him plenty of points for a combat profession if he so insists on being able to participate in that aspect of the game as well.
OR he can find someone with master merchant skills to sell his weapons to at wholesale. They DO exist. There are scores of them popping up on my server and I would venture to say that they are/will be popping up on yours as well.
This horse carcass has been flogged over and over again for weeks now. The majority of the merchant community, the merchant correspondent, and the devs have disagreed with this point of view. The changes are here because of that and it needs to stay.
You can continue to spend your time arguing a point that won't be received for much consideration or you can spend the time finding a way to adapt.
lycanthropy
Sat Sep 04, 2004 11:25 am
#4
BRAYNEDRAYNE wrote:
AND this problem leads to another crappy duel-acccount exploit. Where a player has a character who can be a vendor and sell the other characters things. I suppose this is good for Sony but what about players who cant afford another account and subscription?
just because you can't afford another account doesn't make people with duel accounts exploiters. Thats the same thing as saying "its not fair that i can only afford an "Alero" while a rich guy can afford a porsche!"
There is nothing wrong or illegal about have duel accounts, SOE gets their money and thats what matters in that dept. SOE knows i have two accounts, and im sure they enjoy my extra 14.99 a month.
And once again beating a dead horse. Placing vendors then dropping the skills needed to run that vendor is exploiting by alot of peoples standards. you can't do everything in this game, that is why we have the skill point limit, otherwise we have "jack of all trades" running all over the place. They will end up fixing this merchant exploit one day, so i guess enjoy it while you can...........
lycanthropy
Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:22 pm
#5
not everyone can afford a broadband connection, a broadband connection could possibly give you an advantage over someone still using the olde 56k's. If being able to AFFORD another account to you is an exploit then why don't we say AFFORDiING a better connection is an exploit too!
lycanthropy
Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:28 pm
#6
call having two accounts an exploit if you wish, this CSR seems to think its completely ok! and IMO it is.
enough beating the dead horse, have better things to do.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Techsupport&message.id=140420&highlight=account+exploit#M140420
BRAYNEDRAYNE
Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:34 pm
#7
Thank you Super_nice_jedi, I love you! This isnt really a post about me saying i want to exploit the ex-merchant thing, this is me saying that there should be better ways for non-merchants to be able to sell items than the exsisting Bazaar. Be that through a better Bazaar system or a way for non-merchants to get vendors (albeit crappy ones). This post also suggests making merchants into proper money making machines, instead of the easily exploitable wastes of time they used to be and now the nessacary drag they are. The only non-vendor bonus a merchant gets is a crappy maintanence bonus. Please would people try ad support what is right about this post rather than blamming it becuse you think i am trying to find a way to ruin your "noble" profession. Thenthe dev's might just listen to us and well have better merchants as well as better ways for non-merchants to sell their stuff.
BRAYNEDRAYNE
Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:37 pm
#8
Oh, and MaDuece, whoever said anything about not selling anything? Oh, wait a minute,I forgot that anything not made by some craftsman with his head stuck so far up his own arse that he can see daylight through his mouth isnt worth anything to anybody. Oh wait no. Loots are actually worth something.
N.B. Im not saying all crafters are stuck-up pigs, just some of them.
Super_nice_jedi
Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:40 pm
#9
Starting to feel guilty?
Actually its probably cheaper to have Broadband now than dial up, well for me definately anyway, as an extra line costs £10, plus Freeserves Anytime deal costs £14.99, thats a total of £24.99 per month. With Telewest Blueyonder don't need an extra line, just pay for the Broadband service, which was £24.99 (same as dial up), but now is £17.99 and is 768MB instead of512MB.
Probably the reason some people don't have Broadband because they can't get Broadband in their area.
lycanthropy
Sat Sep 04, 2004 1:58 pm
#10
no need to feel guilty, im using a cable modem, and paying for two accounts, im not exploiting in any fashion.
i've never heard SOE say the merchant bug was an official exploit, all im saying is that i think it should get fixed.
anyways im through with this post, beating the dead horse senseless we are.
Message Edited by lycanthropy on 09-04-2004 02:00 PM
Tarnak_Archvold
Sat Sep 04, 2004 3:58 pm
#11
Exploiting means being able to have an advantage over other players in game.
No exploiting is: Obtaining an advantage, item, or service throe unintended use of game mechanics.
More accounts are ment to give you an advantage... just like is several players work together that do better then one player do on his or her own.
BRAYNEDRAYNE
Sat Sep 04, 2004 4:01 pm
#12
Why doesnt anyone read the original post? Ok there may be stuff you disagree with but there are (what i feel to be) decent suggestions about making Merchant a really desirable prof.
DingoBoi
Sat Sep 04, 2004 4:20 pm
#13
i read the post and you are full of **edit**.
And I only have one account and I seem to do well as a combatant, a master crafter and a merchant.
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