Merchant Archive
Thread: Concept: Using vendors to make marginalized cities matter again
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sixtyhertzdrone
Sat Oct 23, 2004 9:34 am
#1
I live on Naboo in the Bloodfin galaxie, and i've found that i never visit cities like Keren, Kaadara etc.. It seems to me that any city with a starport should be a major hub for commerce which isn't the case.
What I propose is that instead of just having bazaar terminals you have actual bazaars. All the original non-player cities would have a bazaar area that has static permanent tents that players can rent for X amount. In all ways they would be like any other merchant tents. These would be prime locations for sales especially in cities like theed.
Not only would this make some of the lesser used cities no longer appear to be ghost towns, but it would also add some flavor to the whole experience of being in a major city. My understanding is that Keren for example is supposed to be a major trade city so you could give it more tents than a city that is more of a political hub.
More than anything, I just hate being in a city full of buildings that are just there for show, I see they're making changes to things to have theatres and such actually matter, but it would be great if they took it further.
The only major drawback I can see to all this is even more lag in the major cities. If anyone else has any pro's or con's i'd love to hear them.
Chaosium_451
Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:38 pm
#3
/applaud
I love this idea! There would be some logitics involved, like tent camping. You might want it so that the tents had to rotate ownership periodically. Also there is the question of what happens to your stuff / vendor when your lease expires.
Or maybe there is a pre-placed vendor there, and you rent access to that vendor for a period of time. Once your time is up you can't place any more items there, but the items stay there for sale.
Or, maybe you rent space for a certian number of items. This reduces the tent camping problem. So I buy, say, 100 item slots for a given price. That sounds kind of like a bazaar though, so that might not fly.
Just thinking out loud to promote discussion.
DaBarius
Tue Oct 26, 2004 7:46 pm
#4
Good idea... but what will happen to player cities with vendors.... deserted?
Will coronet become a city runned by a certain guild/artisan?
JTGAlpha
Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:06 pm
#5
Yep. We've heard this one before...but it bears further discussion...
There are a couple of things that are contradictory but certain:
1) NPC cities on the major planets that aren't the "key" city for that planet are worthless. If it's not Naboo, Coronet, or Mos Eisley, don't bother going there. Something needs to be done about this. Either delete them, now that we have player cities or make them useful again. People flock to key cities because they are the most populated. So, because that's where the business is, that's where the business went, until there was no more business outside of those cities. If there were set, capped amounts of vendors in NPC cities, you might actually find people in them again.
2) PC cities should always be more important than ANYNPC city. One good thing about them is, they have vendors of ALL kinds right there by the shuttleport. Take that away and you lose a key advantage for having people visit your city. Commerce is one of the biggest reasons to leave C-Net/Mos Eisley/Naboo and without that advantage Player Cities will whither and die.
Personally, I believe that Player Cities should get all kinds of MAJOR perks over NPC cities. NPC cities should be complex warrens of things to do. They should be where you go to interact with NPC's. I think ALL player services should be relegated to Player cities. Doctors should have to buff in hospitals. No NPC hospital or cantina or theater should have the ability to confer the benefits of those professions. The purpose of doing so was because we didn't have player cities at launch. Now we do. So get rid of it. Instead put in long, elaborate quest givers.
But that's just my two cents.
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