Merchant Archive
Thread: Consumer testing of the new vendor search
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Washell
Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:10 pm
#1
P__Day wrote:
Then i switch to the armor catagory and hit Body armor im no longer in hte mood to wait to long, so i just grab the wp for the closest place they have them at 21k pr
Welcome tothe newmerchant profession. Have enough luck to get your items high up in the listing and a tent near the Dantooine Mining Outpost. Hmm, would the FS Luck tree help?
Elyssa
Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:27 pm
#2
I don't know if it would help with that, but it works wonders when you're fishing!
Washell wrote:
would the FS Luck tree help?
DesktopSaki
Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:31 pm
#3
Elyssa wrote:
I don't know if it would help with that, but it works wonders when you're fishing!
Washell wrote:
would the FS Luck tree help?
I was just wondering what FS tree to look at next. You just decided for me!
Elyssa
Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:42 pm
#4
I should add that this was apparently the case.
I caught twice as many as my friend standing next to me did, but then again she might just have sub-par fishing skills. 
JTGAlpha
Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:48 pm
#5
Yeah, I've always loved the Merchant Profession. But honestly the only thing keeping me a Master anymore is I need the vendors for Player Made Quests.
P__Day
Sat Mar 26, 2005 1:54 am
#6
So the vendor search is live, and in that spirith i chose to try it out to see how practical it really is. I set up a list of items i was looking for and which i normally buy or used to buy, to see if it would beat the old system.
1 crate of +25 bivoli
1. crate of +400 40 min + brandy
1. T21 rifle with atleast 400+ 7.5 or so speed
1. Powerhammer 470+ damage
1. Composite armor chestplate with 80% kinetic protection
1. +4 melee def +16 or more def vs stunshirt
1. crate of med use 40 stim e's with atleast 900 power
1. crate of droid battery's
1. crate of ranged 16% min 32% max powerups
I started with the easy items the weapons. hit vendor search, galaxy wide, and checked the rifles category halfway down page 3 i see one that fits, 406 max 7.4 speed 40k credits.... but is the best for the amount of credits? so i keep looking and on the 3rd page i find another one same stats but at 30k credits. But is this the best deal so i keep going and after seeing 20 more pages i decide to go for the 30k one.
Ok now for the hammer top on the second page i find a hammer that fits at 9k so ok i write down the WP, and keep going. Then i switch to the armor catagory and hit Body armor im no longer in hte mood to wait to long, so i just grab the wp for the closest place they have them at 21k pr
Ok now for the food after opening the misc - factory crate category, i feel like shooting something, page upon page of items, from armor reapair tools to carbosyrup to mind poison area C delivery units , page 4 i find the brandy and the bivoli side by side and grab a waypoint, and on hte next page i find a crate of droid batterys so i grab that waypoint to. and in pure anger switch from the vendor search to the regular bazar to find the powerups and in the first click i find a crate of those.
Next the shirt, page 2 i find one at 9k so i grab anohter waypoint.
To finish this little test, i decided to check how hard it was to find these items without the search, so i flip over to guildchat to ask for the items, and in about 45 seconds i have waypoints and names of crafters who stock them regularly..... not sure what this means...... but i guess being a long time crafter and being known to have stocked vendors help a bit.
Well the galaxy wide thing seems good in a way if they had limited it to master merchants, or atleast adv 4 so you had to spend a few skillpoints for it, now i can just drop 4-4-4-x and just keep x-x-x-4 merchant pull my shop up, set up a bulky vendor in a small naboo house, and save myself the total of 4 lots i use for 2 shops now, one med naboo, and one med tat, save myself the maint on a total of 6 vendors, and just put everything on one, no need for map registration or taht stuff now or barker droids...
I would lastly like to add that i would advice all merchant to insert stats on their product from now on, since i for one am to lazy to bother doubleclicking each non stat item named : Vaserian brandy for instance.
Brainplay
Sat Mar 26, 2005 5:46 am
#7
To finish this little test, i decided to check how hard it was to find these items without the search, so i flip over to guildchat to ask for the items, and in about 45 seconds i have waypoints and names of crafters who stock them regularly..... not sure what this means...... but i guess being a long time crafter and being known to have stocked vendors help a bit.
Its called "word of mouth" advertising. Its being regularly stocked and having a customer base that always knows that you are stocked with items they need. These are the people you have in your datapad with names like "buy harvesters here" "awesome T21's here" and "great chef foods".
In the coming price wars you're going to have to wonder if those same people will be able to survive. I thought my 430power/42min/21charges brandy was reasonably priced at 175k for per crate (I have to buy my BE enhancements). I can't compete with the 2nd account dedicated BE/chef person with brandy slightly lower power but at 100kper crate (found 3 of those already). So now I have to either match that template, pick up BE and give up all of my combat skills (what good are credits if I can't use anything) or give up chef and go all combat.
So much for that server and character....
FantasticPlastic
Sat Mar 26, 2005 5:55 am
#8
"Its called "word of mouth" advertising. Its being regularly stocked and having a customer base that always knows that you are stocked with items they need."
I would tend to agree. I've been arguing for caution and patience on the Chef forums over people who are afraid the CU will ruin us, but in my opinion the Vendor Search situation is actually something worth being concerned about.
I've spent all 8 months I have been in business as a Chef doing my best to be creative about my promotions, to make sure that people know that they can get high-quality food for affordable prices at O.Foods Chef Vendor at -3833 3510 near Theed.
I know what it's like to try to remember "I need another droid, where did I buy that one last week?" and be unable to remember, because the shop doesn't advertise well enough.
I am hoping that the advantages of these kinds of promotions, and the loyal customer base I've been honored to have will continue to help my business run smoothly and that people will remember my waypoint, rather than having to search through page after page of Factory Crates on the Bazaar to find a place to buy food.
I feel like it's too early to tell what kind of effect it will have, but it's pretty troubling that our Merchant Correspondent raised all the logical objections very early in the process, there was a large outcry from the population voicing our concerns, and then... it was implemented anyway without any further discussion.
And then the Vendor cap was raised to 20k, which also seems a bit weird. I hate to say it, but it does seem like an approach designed to weed out the Merchants who have been enjoying the economy of this game so much that it was worth paying an entire profession's worth of skill points for the privelege.
O.
I would tend to agree. I've been arguing for caution and patience on the Chef forums over people who are afraid the CU will ruin us, but in my opinion the Vendor Search situation is actually something worth being concerned about.
I've spent all 8 months I have been in business as a Chef doing my best to be creative about my promotions, to make sure that people know that they can get high-quality food for affordable prices at O.Foods Chef Vendor at -3833 3510 near Theed.
I know what it's like to try to remember "I need another droid, where did I buy that one last week?" and be unable to remember, because the shop doesn't advertise well enough.
I am hoping that the advantages of these kinds of promotions, and the loyal customer base I've been honored to have will continue to help my business run smoothly and that people will remember my waypoint, rather than having to search through page after page of Factory Crates on the Bazaar to find a place to buy food.
I feel like it's too early to tell what kind of effect it will have, but it's pretty troubling that our Merchant Correspondent raised all the logical objections very early in the process, there was a large outcry from the population voicing our concerns, and then... it was implemented anyway without any further discussion.
And then the Vendor cap was raised to 20k, which also seems a bit weird. I hate to say it, but it does seem like an approach designed to weed out the Merchants who have been enjoying the economy of this game so much that it was worth paying an entire profession's worth of skill points for the privelege.
O.
QuiJonOz
Sun Mar 27, 2005 1:50 am
#9
FantasticPlastic wrote:
I feel like it's too early to tell what kind of effect it will have, but it's pretty troubling that our Merchant Correspondent raised all the logical objections very early in the process, there was a large outcry from the population voicing our concerns, and then... it was implemented anyway without any further discussion.
And then the Vendor cap was raised to 20k, which also seems a bit weird. I hate to say it, but it does seem like an approach designed to weed out the Merchants who have been enjoying the economy of this game so much that it was worth paying an entire profession's worth of skill points for the privelege.
O.
I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed. This yet another item that when tested the players spoke out against and were ignored, and when it goes to live even more players are upset by this (remember "snappy movement"?).
I would really like to hear why the dev team has been ignoring our feedback and why they chose to push a broken system to live instead of taking a week or two to get it right and make some adjustments based on our feedback. It wasn't like the masses were clamoring for this this like the CURB, a little extra time could have been well invested without an outcry.
Also, was the increase in the bazaar cap to 20k in the patch notes? I never heard about it until it was already live.
Even though this system has driven a significant increase in my sales, I am extremely unhappy with it from a shopper standpoint. I think I just lucked out by being on of the early ones to enable my vendors so my stuff appears in the front (at least that's my guess).
bluejanus
Sun Mar 27, 2005 9:53 pm
#10
FantasticPlastic wrote:
"Its called "word of mouth" advertising. Its being regularly stocked and having a customer base that always knows that you are stocked with items they need."
I would tend to agree. I've been arguing for caution and patience on the Chef forums over people who are afraid the CU will ruin us, but in my opinion the Vendor Search situation is actually something worth being concerned about.
I've spent all 8 months I have been in business as a Chef doing my best to be creative about my promotions, to make sure that people know that they can get high-quality food for affordable prices at O.Foods Chef Vendor at -3833 3510 near Theed.
I know what it's like to try to remember "I need another droid, where did I buy that one last week?" and be unable to remember, because the shop doesn't advertise well enough.
I am hoping that the advantages of these kinds of promotions, and the loyal customer base I've been honored to have will continue to help my business run smoothly and that people will remember my waypoint, rather than having to search through page after page of Factory Crates on the Bazaar to find a place to buy food.
I feel like it's too early to tell what kind of effect it will have, but it's pretty troubling that our Merchant Correspondent raised all the logical objections very early in the process, there was a large outcry from the population voicing our concerns, and then... it was implemented anyway without any further discussion.
And then the Vendor cap was raised to 20k, which also seems a bit weird. I hate to say it, but it does seem like an approach designed to weed out the Merchants who have been enjoying the economy of this game so much that it was worth paying an entire profession's worth of skill points for the privelege.
O.
Yeah I enjoyed a lot of word of mouth sales from other crafters and merchants I had developed relationships with. Raiyne, Nihiec, Zofo, Tenki and Dronayus just to name a few.
Guess this patch does seem intended to gut the merchant profession. Do you suppose as some are saying that the devs are going to make merchant a zero skillpoint profession like politician?
Beercules
Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:25 pm
#11
QuiJonOz wrote:
Even though this system has driven a significant increase in my sales, I am extremely unhappy with it from a shopper standpoint. I think I just lucked out by being on of the early ones to enable my vendors so my stuff appears in the front (at least that's my guess).
I don't follow.
I thought that as a shopper, you don't need to use this if you don't want to. Am I missing something?
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