Merchant Archive

Ok, a couple of words before i start. First, i know merchant has a ton of problems that have to be fixed before they actually starting adding merchant content, but i suspect this suggestion will represent a programming challenge the devs won't want to mess with anyway so there's no worry Also, i realize that the basis of this idea is something already done by many merchants likely on every single server. It's a basic idea that makes sense. However, i have not seen a post about trying to make this an actual merchant skill (i may have overlooked said thread of course) and i wanted to get some feedback on it. That being said, here is my suggestion.

I think adding a "contracts" skill to the merchant tree (novice, master, or somewhere in between-i don't personally care) could be fun, help with immersion, and be both beneficial to merchantsand profitable to those who interact with them. Alot of people are already "renting" lots from other players in various fashions. What i'd like to see is that merchant's with the "contracts" skill will have an additional option on the radial menu of harvester deeds. This menu allows youto set a contract.

Youhave the ability to placemaintenance and power directly into the deed via this menu and then set a contract rate(ie: 1-10 credits per unit) and an optional resource limit (ie 10k, no limit, etc). you then find someone willing to fill the contract and give them the deed at which point they have to pick "accept contract" from the radial menu. They place it and turn it on for whatever resource you're requesting ( i suppose you could make it so contractor set the deed for one specific resource butleaving thatstep out would be fine with me), They leave it until the resource runs out or hits the contract or hopper limit, at which point they recieve an email notification (how's that for a novel idea?). The individual then pulls up the contract and returns to merchant. Merchant selects "retrieve resource" from the deed and the resource goes into his inventory and the individual recieves his contracted fee based onthe amountof resources collected.

Obviously there are a lot of tweaks or modifications that could be done to this, and before anyone posts a flame, yes, i am well aware that contracts of this nature can be agreed upon without this intricacy. Two things led me to wanting something like this, 1. It feels more emersive to me and makes contract workers a more "official" and (I think) more fun part of the game. 2. I've had troubles recruiting people to do a lot rental in this fashion because they either don't quite get the concept without an in depth explanation, or they think, "hey, i'll just go out collect resources and sell them myself on the bazaar.

This way is simple. I just tell folks If you go place this heavy harvester on Tatooine set for fiberplast and then go pick it up when notified by email and return to me, you'll recieve X cpu. Heavy harvester (extraction 11-13)+ 75% resource concentration x Y days= well...you do the math

As a related side question, I'm wanting to do some contracts like this now. I'm on Radiant server, and was thinking if i supply a heavy harvester fully maintained with adequate energy and give a planet/resource to the individual (even a specific waypoint if they want) that 2cpu would be fair, 3cpu if person supplies/maintains there own harvester finds location themselves and provides there own energy. I have thus far had little luck getting takers. So, am i asking too little? asking more seems like i'm paying too much for currently available resources that the person has to put out little to no effort to collect. Anyone have a good way to get people interested? I ask around and sent emails to all my guild members but no takers. I haven't posted on Radiant galaxy forums but am considering this. Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments?

Ok, that's it. Let me know what you think

It seems like a playermade resource gathering mission. I like the idea.

Some tweaks :

Contracts could be "manufactured" from a blueprint available to merchants. They would have radial menus allowing to choose a resource or manufactured item, number of units, and the price you are willing to pay.

These could then be posted on the bazaar, allowing galaxywide access to them. The items would become available items in the bazaar when the contract is fulfilled.

Possible problem : Payment. How is the contractee guaranteed payment once filling the contract ?

Suggested solution : Credits should be tied to the contract itself, guaranteeing payment. Contracts timing out or withdrawn should have the option to be cancelled ( only available to the person initiating the contract ), transferring the bound credits back to the merchant.

Another problem would be getting people to trust such a system. SOE does not have a good reputation for keeping data integrity : items vanish without a trace, and no logs to find out what happened to them. Its conceivable that contracts with money tied to them might poof as well.

Anyway, yes, some sort of game mechanic like this would be a very welcome addition.

Thanks Xexo,

I definitely intended the payment to be tied to the contract. My thought was that merchant sets the contract then trades to another. They would then have to select 'accept contract' from the radial menu. This would tie the two together. When the harvester/contract is returned, merchant could select 'fulfill contract' from radial menu which would empty resources into his inventory and generate an automatic payment to the person who accepted the contract.

I love the idea of having a "blueprint" for a contract to be placed on bazaar, my question is would they be placed in a special section so that the person didn't have to pay for them (or only paid 1cr), and then they recieved payment at time of fulfillment. Also, this would only work for people with their own heavy harvesters (mediums don't collect at a rate that will fill most of the contracts that i would be interested in), I was wanting a way to do a contract where i supply harvester and contract was tied to that specific harvester.

I think using the blueprint idea for bazaar advertising (with a contracts section added to bazaar), would allow people who have own harvesters to obtain and fill the contracts very efficiently, but still do a harvester based contract, as i described, for people who need you to supply the equipment. For those individuals it allows them to make money without having to purchase equipment, and it allows me the ability to hire people who's only job is to place harvester and them pick it up when they recieve the email notification that i described. You can even give contracts to people with no survey experience just by finding a waypoint and including it with the contract. In this situation, 1.5 cpu becomes a very good profit for them since so little work is involved and merchants can obtain resources at a good price.

As you mentioned, programming problems could result in deleted contracts, contractees not being paid, resource loss, failure of proper email notification, etc. But that isn't really something that we as players can address. Just try to get the ability and hope it is tested and tweaked to the point it eventually becomes useable.

Thanks again for the input!

Anyone else have any thoughts or suggestions on this? Love it? Hate it? Think it's a stupid idea? Let me know