Merchant Archive

Message Edited by Nimhnoid on 01-18-2005 11:39 PM

That is a great idea! I am a master merchant and this would make my life so much easier. I especially like the single line with a quantity in stock! That would be some much cleaner.

Add to that list the ability to create special orders that can only be purchased by people who you specify. That would be grrrrrrrrreeeaaaaaatt!!

Message Edited by Cafa on 01-18-2005 04:03 PM

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Nimhnoid wrote:

1) A way to stock multiple items at once. The only way I can see this happening is by having a Slide bar (best way I could explain this is like the bar on the schematics that moves to show how many items it want it to be for). This way you can click Sale an Item, and then you just slide the bar, or manually type how many of this item you would like to stock. This idea could also save vendor space (game space), by only listing one named item, with a number next to it of how many are in stock. Then if people wish to purchase this item, they can buy 1 or 5 or even all you have stocked at 1 time, with one sale. This would be great for the merchants and for the customers too.

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You've got my vote.

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Nimhnoid wrote:

2) A searchable data base for customers. This consept is pretty much a venor map that is searchable for all of the different crafting items. Example: Player Character is looking for a T21 rifle. He can open his merchant map, and click on weapons, then ranged then T21. Now he can see a list of waypoints where these guns are stocked. Not only would this be great for the customers, but it would also help out people that are just starting a crafting class, and dont quite have there name out in the public yet.

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It would be more convenient, yes. It would also remove any "shop location" strategy from the picture.

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Nimhnoid wrote:

3) The vendors listed on the global map. A color codeing system for these would be great. Could you imagine driving down the road, and seeing a geen vendor title on your overhead map stating the vendor is stocked, a yellow name saying that the venodor is running low on items and a red name stating that it is unstocked. This could also be used for actual vendor titles in the shops. This idea would save players tons of time while riding around looking for items, and also let the merchants know how their total stock is with out having to look at each vendor.

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Absolutely, any of this kind of sorting would be welcome!

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Nimhnoid wrote:

4) Allowing a master merchant to rent vendors to other players. The master merchant makes a vendor, places it, transfers it to a player, sets a % of the sales to go to his bank, and gets a weekly fee. All stocking, vendor sales and offers go to the player that rents the Merchant.

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I used to support this one but I'm now convinced that it's lame. I would like to officially revert to my old request of, "Give us a freakin relist all button already so it's not such a nightmare merchanting for crafters."

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Nimhnoid wrote:

3) The vendors listed on the global map. A color codeing system for these would be great. Could you imagine driving down the road, and seeing a geen vendor title on your overhead map stating the vendor is stocked,a yellow name saying that the venodor is running lowon items anda red name stating that it is unstocked. This could also be used for actual vendor titles in the shops. This idea would save players tons of time while riding around looking for items, and also let the merchants know how their total stock is with out having to look at each vendor.

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I really like this idea, but the "yellow running low indicator" may throw many customers off. My vendor have a specific stock, so they dont have tons of items on them. So if i just sell swoops on a vendor, and i have 12 swoops on it, the indicator might say that vendor is running low while it is actually fully stocked.

Maybe then the merchant could control the setting, at least the Stocked or Low Stocked controls, then automatically it changes to Not Stocked.

This indicator system would be great though! Shopping would be soo much easier.

(just fixed a spelling mistake)

Message Edited by jeffnc on 01-18-2005 07:02 PM

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jeffnc wrote:

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Nimhnoid wrote:

3) The vendors listed on the global map. A color codeing system for these would be great. Could you imagine driving down the road, and seeing a geen vendor title on your overhead map stating the vendor is stocked,a yellow name saying that the venodor is running lowon items anda red name stating that it is unstocked. This could also be used for actual vendor titles in the shops. This idea would save players tons of time while riding around looking for items, and also let the merchants know how their total stock is with out having to look at each vendor.

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I really like this idea, but the "yellow running low indicator" may throw many customers off. My vendor have a specific stock, so they dont have tons of items on them. So if i just sell swoops on a vendor, and i have 12 swoops on it, the indicator might say that vendor is running low while it is actually fully stocked.

Maybe then the merchant could control the setting, at least the Stocked or Low Stocked controls, then automatically it changes to Not Stocked.

This indicator system would be great though! Shopping would be soo much easier.

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Vastar wrote:

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Nimhnoid wrote:

4) Allowing a master merchant to rent vendors to other players. The master merchant makes a vendor, places it, transfers it to a player, sets a % of the sales to go to his bank, and gets a weekly fee. All stocking, vendor sales and offers go to the player that rents the Merchant.

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I used to support this one but I'm now convinced that it's lame. I would like to officially revert to my old request of, "Give us a freakin relist all button already so it's not such a nightmare merchanting for crafters."

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Changed the wording a bit on 4)describe it a bit better.

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Vastar wrote:

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Nimhnoid wrote:

2) A searchable data base for customers. This consept is pretty much a venor map that is searchable for all of the different crafting items. Example: Player Character is looking for a T21 rifle. He can open his merchant map, and click on weapons, then ranged then T21. Now he can see a list of waypoints where these guns are stocked. Not only would this be great for the customers, but it would also help out people that are just starting a crafting class, and dont quite have there name out in the public yet.

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It would be more convenient, yes. It would also remove any "shop location" strategy from the picture.

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I still think shop location and client referals would make a crafter. Was just thinking for that one guy thats looking for Natural Gas harvesters and cant find them. Because we've all been there. But still hung myself on wether its a good/bad idea.

Per previous feedback in various threads, I believe most of the community is against #4 on the basis that it will discourage the active playing of the merchant role.

I believe a robust (yet simple) consignment system would be superior and much more easily implemented. For an example, see here.

I don't see #2 being implemented. We know SWG has had database size limitations in the past, and anything with massive number of records is pretty slow. Its a neat idea, but i don't imagine it would be feasible. Perhaps we could accomplish much of this same goal with a (much easier to implement) revision to the planetary map vendor categories, instead of one category for weapons we could have ranged weapons, melee weapons, enhanced weapons, etc. We could add a loot category, whatever...

Stocking multiple items, #1, is a common thread here. I'm not quite sure how it could actually be implemented - perhaps crated items could be listed within a crate for a unit price (price per item in the crate) and then on purchase the seller has the opportunity to purchase the items separately (or with a slider, as you propose).

With #3, I don't understand what you mean about being listed on the global map. Vendors can already be registered with the planetary map (control + v in the default keymap) and the vendor names also appear in the overhead map (control + m in the default keymap). Empty vendors automatically disappear from these maps already. I'm not sure how you would differentiate between the "fully stocked" and "slightly stocked" - for some people a 10-item vendor is "fully stocked" and I don't see that its fair to "discriminate" against a smaller specialty shop as such (I've got more than 1000 items on my vendors, so i'm definately to benefit from such a change, I just don't think its necessarily fair).

1) This idea has been around for a long time, and is definitely something that most are in support of.

2) Based on some comments TH made a while ago, it doesn't seem like the current DB architecture can easily support that kind of linked-vendors system. I think it's a neat idea, so long as it remains a listing only - the actual purchases are still transacted at the player vendor.

3) Hmm..well, merchants should have an idea of how much/what they're selling...and quantity of listed items doesn't necessarily reflect quality. You could have a vendor stocked with 5 Mandalorian helms, and it would obviously be better than a vendor stocked with 4000 melons. Some sort of color coding system on the planetary map would be neat though, tied-in to the merchant's skill level perhaps..

4) I still don't like the idea of renting vendors out to players. Instead, I think it would be better to have an interface/system where revenue fromsales is automatically transferred back to the "renter" (with a certain % commission for the merchant, of course). That way, the vendor skills remain where they're supposed to be, but everyone gets what they want...well, sort of. The above is just an example, but I definitely don't like the idea of merchant skills being used by those who don't possess the skill boxes for them.