Merchant Archive
Thread: Smugglers pushing for elimination of sliced items from vendors
My reasons may not entirely be the same, for I'm not a Smuggler, and therefore don't gain any profit from this regarless of which way it goes...
But allowing sliced weapons (and spice) on vendors is the same thing as if you could sell crystal meth and pot on TV info-mercials. We're talking about things that are supposed to be illegal within the realm of the game.
If they're not disallowed from the vendor I would at least suggest that any time an Imperial player character looks at a vendor that has such items on them that the owner would be placed on the Bounty Hunter boards or some such similar operation.
Ahnlida wrote:
I completely, and entirely support the Smuggler's in this.
My reasons may not entirely be the same, for I'm not a Smuggler, and therefore don't gain any profit from this regarless of which way it goes...
But allowing sliced weapons (and spice) on vendors is the same thing as if you could sell crystal meth and pot on TV info-mercials (out of your house). We're talking about things that are supposed to be illegal within the realm of the game.
If they're not disallowed from the vendor I would at least suggest that any time an Imperial player character looks at a vendor that has such items on them that the owner would be placed on the Bounty Hunter boards or some such similar operation.
Hmmm.... selling illegal items on TV info-mercials seemsa bit of a stretch, but out of one'shouse, whether you know it or not is a reality that occurs every day in almost every town in America. Merchants come in many forms from the Disneys, Enrons, Duponts, Walmarts to the Mom and Pop retailers to the guy who sits on his computer and buys cars and then sells them for a profit. It wasn't long ago that I read on the net about someone who got busted selling bags of pot from the drive-thru window of a fast-food restaurant,and people running illegal businesses within a legitimate business is a time-honored tradition. Some businesses are altruistic, some are benign, and some are malevolent in their disregard for the law as headlines of recent times confirm. I'm actually offended by people's insistence that as a merchant I wouldn't be willing to break the law for personal gain. I must not be playing my character very well if that's the case.
I've already suggested in other posts that I'd agree with vendors of sliced goods being subject to inspection, though I think an NPC would be more appropriate since most Imp players are in possession of sliced goods themselves. This would also provide an opportunity to allow smugglers to employ their underworld skills to either screen your vendors from discovery (for a price of course) or to make a bribe on your behalf to convince the authorties to overlook your transgression.
Darkov wrote:
Well... as a Master Smuggler / Master Merchant, this is a very touchy subject for me. But....
I have two points of view, first is simple enough I want Smugglers to be SMUGGLERS, this gets to the point of illegal goods, and thus sliced weapons and armor should not be on vendors.
The other is more complex, as a Merchant my vendors are the key to my business, and being able to put all my goods on them is important, but more so are my contracts with Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths, if they can't sell the sliced goods, then I lose my contract to slice their crafted items. That is going to hurt my income. What's more it reduces me to hawking my slicing ability, standing around looking for people who need a slice or doing something that will make them contact me for a slice, in the game's current state the latter is extremely hard.
So, a compromise should be Smuggler only skill to add a "black market" list to vendors, which can be viewed by appropriate faction members or neutrals at a click of a button. This imo should be a Master Smuggler skill, and require Novice Merchant. Thus ensuring that it benefits the Smugglers and doesn't harm the Merchants.
What it would do though is cause problems to the smiths who sell pre-sliced goods, they'd either have to expand their contracts with the Smugglers to include selling of sliced goods not just slicing or stop selling sliced goods.
You know, I really want smugglers to get some love..I really do, they've been lead on since launch with no real significant update to show for it...but does it need to come at the expense of merchants everywhere? I understand the "smuggle" arguments, but who's to say that I can't sell items in my shop and never get caught? Maybe, I have a small, out-of-the-way store in the backwoods of Rori that only a few people know about?
Instead of something so drastic asremoving the ability for a merchant to sell sliced goods, why not, at the very least, consider a compromise wheresuch sales are still possible, but with bonuses/penalties for the smuggler/merchant (as an example)? It just seems like few smugglers are even willing to consider this - all or nothing, no debate.
Message Edited by Jaer_Allanon on 02-22-2005 09:15 PM
Hurlobacca wrote:
Hmmm.... selling illegal items on TV info-mercials seemsa bit of a stretch, but out of one'shouse, whether you know it or not is a reality that occurs every day in almost every town in America. Merchants come in many forms from the Disneys, Enrons, Duponts, Walmarts to the Mom and Pop retailers to the guy who sits on his computer and buys cars and then sells them for a profit. It wasn't long ago that I read on the net about someone who got busted selling bags of pot from the drive-thru window of a fast-food restaurant,and people running illegal businesses within a legitimate business is a time-honored tradition. Some businesses are altruistic, some are benign, and some are malevolent in their disregard for the law as headlines of recent times confirm. I'm actually offended by people's insistence that as a merchant I wouldn't be willing to break the law for personal gain. I must not be playing my character very well if that's the case.
What you are not seeing is the difference between these types of sales. Shops/retailers (vendors) advertise their wares in public through means of media/word of mouth (PAC/satisfied customers). The guy selling pot through the drive through window is a "word of mouth" sell as to advertise such illegal activities in a more public manner would draw attention to the illegal activity.
I totally agree that if this is something the smugglers are asking for that it should go into effect. Make smuggler a hands on profession. However, if they are pushing for this, I would agree that NO smuggling item should be able to be sold on the common market. - Maybe a solution would be to not allow vendors selling smuggler goods to be advertised on the PAC? Not sure. But I can see how it makes sense what they are trying to do. There are too many people out there with alt accounts to supplement a profession (Armorsmiths and Weaponsmiths using Alt.Smugglers to sell their wares takes a lot of business away from the ppl who play Smuggler as a main character). But I do not think they should have their cake and eat it too with this issue. Either NO smuggler goods allowed on vendors orremove advertisment from any vendor that has illegal controband.
I've already suggested in other posts that I'd agree with vendors of sliced goods being subject to inspection, though I think an NPC would be more appropriate since most Imp players are in possession of sliced goods themselves. This would also provide an opportunity to allow smugglers to employ their underworld skills to either screen your vendors from discovery (for a price of course) or to make a bribe on your behalf to convince the authorties to overlook your transgression.
Andymantium wrote:
You know, I really want smugglers to get some love..I really do, they've been lead on since launch with no real significant update to show for it...but does it need to come at the expense of merchants everywhere? I understand the "smuggle" arguments, but who's to say that I can't sell items in my shop and never get caught? Maybe, I have a small, out-of-the-way store in the backwoods of Rori that only a few people know about?