Merchant Archive

I looked through the first page of posts and didn't see a topic related to this, so if this has been posted before, please forgive me.

I was wondering if anyone had suggested changing the vendor code and making vendors do something or say something when they are empty, prior to having to actually look at them. This would require a slight reworking in the initialialization code I know, which would probably make it unfeasible, but you never know til you suggest...

There's nothing more annoying to me as a customer than to get into a shop, see a vendor that is entitled what I'm looking for, double-click on it, double-click on All, and have it be empty. I don't mind that they're empty (everyone runs out of stock, and I understand the XP-grind that is also a good thing for you) butI do mind the effort that I had to do to find this out.

If a real-life vending machine is empty, it indicates so, pretty much at first glance. Perhaps in-game vendors should be the same?

Some ideas I had:

--the vendor changes its name to <whateveritwas>: Empty
--the vendor changes color in some way (becomes black&white, becomes darker, etc)
--the name of the vendor changes to an agreed-upon empty color (warning-red?)
--the vendor wears a sign saying "Empty"
--Stocked vendors light up (slightly, or glow) when you get near them or target them. Empty vendors don't.
--Stocked NPC vendors are standing. Empty NPC vendors are sitting down.

Prior to these sorts if changes (if any), would it be an inconvenience for merchants who have vendors, if you plan on leaving it empty for a long time, to turn your vendor towards the wall while it's empty? I don't want to cause a lot of hassle, but as a purchaser it would really help me/us out a lot to know on-sight which vendors we should go to and which we shouldn't.

Thank you for your consideration.

Good ideas. I like the sitting down idea. Though the name change would help with the map issue... Though I have used empty vendors just to register on the map.

I REALLY think empty vendors should not be allowed to be placed on the planetary map and if they sell out while on the planetary map they should auto remove from the map...I am running around looking for harvesters and have wasted half a night hitting empty vendors

I disagree with Empty Vendors not being able to be registered. I belong to a PA, and since I am almost a Master Merchant, my PA Members give me thier items for me to sell. I have weapons, armor, clothing, deeds, furniture, resources, food, and about anything else that I sell, and I organize my Vendors. So, to do all my ad barking, and to be registered, I made a Vendor that announces, the Mall and is registered on the map. Because one thing I hate most about looking for something, is when someone has 3 registered vendors all standing next to each other, and you cant read what they say because they bleed over each other.

Very good topic, at the very least.

As a new merchant and struggling crafter, not sure if I would like these ideas, but with my first and still main character, I would love them. So annoying wandering around looking for new shopping spots and finding more than half the vendors empty.

(testing sig.)

hehe...nice to see that sigs can change retroactively. My embarrassing attempt to colorize my sig won't be laughed at now. Danz, how do add colors to board sigs?

I dislike empty vendors, as well. However, this cannot always be blamed on lazy merchants and the like. An example for you:

Currently, my own vendors are empty. Why? Because I signed in today, after about a week's hiatus, to find that the items I had placed on my very well stocked vendors outside of Moenia had "expired," and then been removed from my "stockroom." Hundreds of thousands of credits worth of inventory...furniture, harvesters, houses, components...all gone.

If I have gone through the trouble of getting the merchant profession, and if I have gone through the trouble of not only setting up my home but also setting up two vendors...and then paying all the maintenence required to keep house and vendors current, I ask what possible reasoning could there be to make items on personal vendors "expire?" What is the use behind this? As an architect I already have to go through endless trouble and effort to collect the monstrous amounts of ore I need for my profession. Now I can't even keep items on the vendors I already pay a lot of money to keep active.

I look forward to the day that private vendor item expiration is finally removed. It was asinine to implement it in the first place. If it can't be removed due to omnipresent database limitations, then my own suggestion would be that it should be changed to reflect the amount of maintenence on the vendor. My vendor maintenance has 42 days on it; therefore, the items on that vendor should be there for 42 days. If the vendor maintenance falls below zero, then move everything to the stockroom and delete it after a couple of days. But expiring all private vendor auctions after seven days is a really, really, really, really bad idea.

So, don't always blame empty vendors on lack of attention from the merchants. Sometimes, it's sheer frustration that keeps those vendors empty. I know that after suffering such an extreme loss, I won't be in much of a hurry to restock my vendors. I can't even go on vacation!

I am for changing it so that when you try to use an empty vendor (unless you are the merchant or one day please God a merchant Admin) the vendor simply doesn't give you the screen it replies to you that it currently has nothing to sell. Please try again later.

I know this has been posted before, but need to rant. 90 percent of the vendors outthere are empty or selling garbage. Usually im wasting time looking for resources, but today it was armor.

I think merchants, master if need be, should have there vendors searchable from afar in some way. I hate never being able to find anything without spending hours looking.

When the vendor exploit is fixed a lot of these empty vendorswill probably disappear. Would be nice to search vendors from town before wasting 20 minutes to get there and find two units of hide for 999999 credits though.

Blame it on the Holo Grinder. They have nothing to sell but they still advertise so they can get XP. I was so disgusted when I had to spend an entire Saturday looking for Clamps andFoodand vendors after vendors were empty.