Merchant Archive

• Make it easy for a buyer to find what they want without spending hours visiting empty vendors.


• Keep the actual shops and player cities useful.


• Make listing items easier for Merchants.


• Making auctions viable for auctioning.

• Create new Merchant Terminals that can be placed in player cities (and willonly be in player cities.)


• At Advertising I, grant a skill to list your vendor and items on Merchant Terminals in your city.


• At Advertising II, grant a skill to list your vendor on Merchant Terminals on your planet.


• At Advertising IV, grant a skill to list your vendor on all Merchant Terminals in the galaxy.


• Items listed for a city can be bought from the terminal, but must be picked up at the vendor.


• If a player is banned form a house, they cannot see items on the terminal. If they have already bought items, they will be delivered upon attempting to walk in the door.


• Vendors are listed with te following stats: Planet, City (if applicable), Items Listed, Sales in the past 7 days, Average Price Per Item. (Due to processing concerns, the last3 categories will be calculated once per day.)


• Drilling down through categories will update with stats per category (i.e. how many Ranged Weapon Powerups listed/sold/avg price.)

• Remove Auctions from the Bazaar.


• Create new Auction Terminals that can be placed in player cities (and willonly be in player cities.)


• Allow Novice Merchants and up to create auctions


• Auctions do not have a price cap, but they may have a buyout set by the seller.


• Auctions cannot be cancelled once they have been bid on.

• Allow multiple items to be selected and sold for the same price, this would reduce a lot of redundant clicking.


• Don't send me email when I manually cancel a sale or buy an item that was offered to my vendor. I know I did, I was there.


• Do send me an email when someone offers an item to my vendor. I actually need this information.

Vendor/Bazaar Interface

• Read my Category Revamp thread. Redo the broken category hierarchy.


• Create a search feature, which at a bare minimum is a min/max price.


• Fix sorting so results are actually sorted (i.e. the first page is A-B, not just A-Z of the first page.) Allow users to jump to a page.


• Fix the bug where some items show up on many, many pages of the listings. This simply creates clutter. Making sort work would probably do this for you.

• Create newAdvertising Terminals that can be placed in player cities (and willalso be placed inNPC cities.)


• Ads for individual items will display on a screen viewable by passers by.


• The ads would contain the image, name of the item, the name of the vendor, and the coordinates.


• Details on the items could be obtained by accessing the terminal. All advertiseditems listed in that city could also be viewed.


• Up to 15 spots would be available on the ad terminal, rotating every 60 seconds.


• Players would bid on ad space,with the top 15 bidders getting a 7-day ad. (This would be a great money sink if placed in Coronet or Theed.)

---

Tirranus wrote:

Advertising Terminals

• Create newAdvertising Terminals that can be placed in player cities (and willalso be placed inNPC cities.)


• Ads for individual items will display on a screen viewable by passers by.


• The ads would contain the image, name of the item, the name of the vendor, and the coordinates.


• Details on the items could be obtained by accessing the terminal. All advertiseditems listed in that city could also be viewed.


• Up to15 spots would be available on the ad terminal, rotating every 60 seconds.


• Players would bid on ad space,with the top 15 bidders getting a 7-day ad. (This would be a great money sink if placed in Coronet or Theed.)

I'm waiting to hear comments, suggestions, cirticisms. What do you think?

Love everything ... including this, but here would be my thoughts on it.

• Okay


• Okay (Im assuming like a video screen or a holonet concept)


• Okay


• The holonet images would be those advertisements where the ad space has been bid on by the top 15 bidders (only master merchants could bid on holonet add space)


• Okay


• Okay - But for m.merchs only. N.Merchs and above could also place "newspaper ads" on the terminal. The "newspaper ads" would have a set fee of500 creditsper hour (84k per 7-day period) and the holonet ad bids would start at 500 credits per hour. Once a holonet ad cycle has completed, m.merchs will have 48 hours to bid on that spot.


• "newspaper ads"could be viewed across the galaxy from any ad term, where holonet ads can only be viewed from the terminal where they were aquired.

of course your wording is much better than mine but i think you will get the drift of what im suggesting ... maybe somehow incoporate it ???

---

1. The Player City Merchant Terminals would see all registered vendors within that Player City


2. The Major City Merchant Terminals would see all the registered vendors on the Planet,


3. The Capital City Merchant Terminals would see all the registered vendors in the Galaxy.

1. Advertising 3 - Register for Player City


2. Advertising 4 - Register for Planet


3. Master Merchant - Register for Galaxy

I fundamentally really like this idea as it is adding content to a profession which needs it. I agree with the others that the rewards need to be higher up the tree so that they are rewarded for their investment.

Only thing I would ad is my take on the delivery as I want to see a proper delivery system in place to enhance rolelay.

Upon purchasing an item, the buyer would select a delivery option from:
- Collection from the vendor
- 1 day delivery
- 3 day delivery
- 5 day delivery
Delivery companies would need to register in the appropriate categories depending on what they can realistically service with their staff.

1. Interface (similar to existing delivery terminals) for Delivery Companies to register and receive delivery requests.
2. The delivery request would appear on the companies delivery terminal
3. Someone takes the delivery mission
4. The delivery person travels to the vendor to 'collect' the item, though this would just be a flag trigger or datapad entry - NOT the physical item.
5. The delivery person travels to the buyer to deliver the item and trades the datapad entry which turns into the actual item once in the buyer's inventory.
6. This would then deliver x amount to the delivery person. Fee based on set fee of say 5k or 10% of the item cost, whichever is higher.

There would need to be an addition to this system that says if the item has not been delivered within the time specified that the item is auto-delivered to the buyer at a reduced fee.

---

Dawgypoo wrote:

An additional option as a vendor I would like to have would be a price check planet and/or galaxy wide. But only able to get an average price of an item. This way I can see where my pricing stands, so that I'm not under selling myself or overpricing my customers.

---

Ihave always liked the whole delivery mission system idea in theory, but I just can't see many people enjoying being a delivery person in practice.

---

Meplorium wrote:

Some things I would change. No remote buying at all. I want people to come to my shop and shop. Secondary sales are a big part of my business, especially when you offer loss leaders to get people to come in. Just walking in the shop isn't enough, they need to use that vendor.

---

You'd still have to go to the shop to pick up the items, and I figure most searches will be galactic or planetary anyway. I'm not dead set on remote buying from in a city either, though.

---

Meplorium wrote:
Second I don't see this being a player city only item. The Devs seem to love their NPC cities and hate our player cities. I would push to have these put into the player cities though. The skill no matter where the terminal goes needs to be advertizing skill dependant, good job on that.

---

---

Meplorium wrote:
For auctions I would ask for a seperate 'Open Tent' structure placeable by mayors that will hold NPC vendor type auctioners. These can also be available in NPC cities, but only master merchants can use those vendors while novice merchants can list a few items on a player cities vendors. I wouldn't bother with the no cancel option, they can just get a friend to buy it out or offer a stupid amount of money to buy it thengive it back to them. I would really push for a seperate structure like the out door tents we see in NPC cities. They can be small, 3x3, to fit almost anywhere but could bark ect to passerbys.

---

I think that auctions are really intended for the high-end items. The rare posters and such. In that case, any auction that is not galaxy-wide is unusable. I would be in support of the auction system taking a cut of the profits from an auction and this being dependant on skill (i.e. 40% for anybody, 35% at some level ofBusiness,30% for a Novice, and 5% decrements through some branch (Efficiency?)and into Master which is down to 5%.)

As for the no cancel clause, just because there's a workaround to something doesn't mean we should leave it out(provided it doesn't hinder legitimiate play or give exploiters an advantage.) Also, if there was an "auction tax" then this behavior (as well as trying to "bid-up" buyers)would at least be somewhat discouraged.

---

Tirranus wrote:

• Items listed for a city can be bought from the terminal, but must be picked up at the vendor.

---

Overall a very good suggestion, but I still see problems with letting people purchase directly:

1. The Evil-Merchant Scenario:
   
   
   • Customer X browses Evil-Merchant's vendor from the bazaar and changes across Evil-Merchant's "Über-Weapon-O-Doom" for 1M credits.
   
   
   • Customer X is so overawed by Evil-Merchant's "Über-Weapon-O-Doom" that he just has to have it, and dutifully pays 1M credits.
   
   
   • Customer X heads to Evil-Merchant's vendor in the city of Thieves & Vagabonds.
   
   
   • Evil-Merchant just happens to be online at the time and upon receiving the e-mail stating that Customer X has purchased "Über-Weapon-O-Doom" decides that it would be very funny if Customer X, having paid that 1M credits already, were now not to be able to pick up the weapon.
   
   
   • Evil-Merchant adds Customer X to the buildings ban list to ensure that he cannot pick up the "Über-Weapon-O-Doom".
   
   
   • Thirty days later "Über-Weapon-O-Doom has not been picked up by Customer X and disappears into the void.
   
   
   • Customer X is out 1M credits and has nothing to show for it.


2. The Lame-Griefer Scenario:
   
   
   • In order to prevent the Evil-Merchant scenario outlined above changes are made so that a customer who has purchased an item from a vendor cannot be banned from the building until they have picked up that item.
   
   
   • Lame-Griefer decides it would be really fun to be jerk and completely ruin Honest-Merchant's evening and disrupt Honest-Merchant's carefully planned guild event.
   
   
   • Lame-Griefer pops to the bazaar and purchases Honest-Merchant's "Cheap-Cdef-Pistol-O-Nast" for 1k credits.
   
   
   • Lame-Griefer now heads to Honest-Merchant's store, where he knows a guild auction will be taking place tonight.
   
   
   • Honest-Merchant begins the auction.
   
   
   • After the first lot has been sold Lame-Griefer decides it's time to have some fun.
   
   
   • Lame-Griefer makes fake bids on the next lot, wins and refuses to pay up.
   
   
   • Honest-Merchant informs Lame-Griefer that the auction is for guild members only and asks him to leave.
   
   
   • Lame-Griefer sticks around.
   
   
   • Honest-Merchant decides to carry on with the auction and goes on to lot three.
   
   
   • Lame-Griefer again makes fake bids on the item.
   
   
   • Honest-Merchant decides to ban Lame-Griefer from the building, but can't because Lame-Griefer has an item on his vendor which hasn't been picked up yet.
   
   
   • Lame-Griefer continues to ruin the evening in a way that only a lame griefer can.
   
   
   • Twenty-Nine days later Lame-Griefer returns to the bazaar and purchases another "Cheap-Cdef-Pistol-O-Nast"
   
   
   • A day later the first "Cheap-Cdef-Pistol-O-Nast" has not been picked up by Lame-Griefer and disappears into the void.
   
   
   • Honest-Merchant again tried to ban Lame-Griefer from the building to prevent him from ruining the next upcoming auction, but cannot because Lame-Griefer now has another item sitting on Honest-Merchant's vendor waiting for pickup


3. The Instant-Delivery-With-No-Instant-Delivery Scenario:
   
   
   • In order to avoid both scenarios above changes are made so a customer may be banned while they have an item sitting on a player vendor, but if they are then the item is instantly transported to their inventory.
   
   
   • Sneaky-Merchant sets up a barker droid in Coronet advertising instant delivery on all of his products bought from the bazaar
   
   
   • Random-Punter sends a tell to Sneaky-Merchant asking how this works.
   
   
   • Sneaky-Merchant tells Random-Punter that if he purchases one of his items off of the bazaar he'll find out.
   
   
   • Random-Punter is curious so he searches for items sold by Sneaky-Merchant and finds a "Power-Hammer-O-Reasonable-Quality" for a not-extortionate price.
   
   
   • Random-Punter purchases Sneaky-Merchant's "Power-Hammer-O-Reasonable-Quality" from the bazaar.
   
   
   • Sneaky-Merchant receives the sales email and immediately adds Random-Punter to his shop's ban-list.
   
   
   • Having been banned from the store Random-Punter's new "Power-Hammer-O-Reasonable-Quality" is immediately transported to his inventory.
   
   
   • Sneaky-Merchant now removes Random-Punter from the shop ban-list so that he can continue to purchase more items.

For these reasons I can't see a remote purchase system working without instant delivery, but I am against instant-delivery for reasons that I and many others have posted previously. The only workable solution I can see is to have no instant delivery and no remote purchase, only searching.

EnigmaBSc

To start with, overall I do find the intial post to be very good. However, I believe that there should be a competative advantage to a Master of the Merchant profession. Thus the focus of my feedback is centered around giving purpose to something which under the proposed system will be useless.

---

Tirranus wrote:

---

Fidgiter wrote:

I would suggest the skill breakdown is different to reward the truely dedicated Master Merchants with an advantage over dabblers.

1. Advertising 3 - Register for Player City
   
2. Advertising 4 - Register for Planet
   
3. Master Merchant - Register for Galaxy

---

A lot of people said similar things to this, but in my opinion this doesn't give Master Merchants and advantage over dabblers, it makes anything except Master worthless.

I disagree here as having it as you suggested would make MASTER MERCHANT useless. Let's face the facts here, a Novice Armorsmith can't compete with a Master Armorsmith and they shouldn't be able too. Being the MASTER in a profession should provide a competative edge. For this reason the Master Merchant should have the galactic market edge.

With skill points as they are, a player cannot be a Master of a crafting profession, combat profession, and Merchant.This would severely hurt the business of any player who's not a pure crafter, or force them to give up a chunk of combat skills. I think thatbeing half a merchant needs to be viable option.

A jack-of-trades but master-of-none. If someone chooses to spread themselves thin on the skill points that is a choice they make. If they are truely dedicated to the commercial game they should be more effective than someone who spreads themselves thin.

This being said I do not see Planetary Merchant Terminal registration as being usless at all. The search size of the galactic list could be unbearable and there will people who will filter this by choosing to look at Plantary or City listings actually *gasp* travelling a bit in their shopping pursuits.

---

Fidgiter wrote:
Having a search list that excludes items on vendors in structures the consumer is banned from could have coding complexity issues. Having the purchase/pickup exclusively done through the offering vendor is the least grief prone option.

---

It may add complexity, but I don't know how this is allimplemented and since I think it would be a good idea, I figured I should post it whether or not it would be really put in.

A concern of mine was the "Buywhile Banned" threat and this elimites that. However, it doesn't address the "Buy THEN Banned" threat. ie: someone buys an item, the merchant recognizes the name and for some reason has a beef with him/her, the merchant then bans the person from the shop before they have a chance to make the pickup. People will always find a way to grief and while no system is perfect there are some systems which present too great an opportunity.

---

Message Edited by Fidgiter on 02-17-2005 07:04 AM