Merchant Archive
Thread: Dropping Most of my merchant skills /rant on
/rant on
I am a Master Merchant for more than 2 months. Im dropping half my skills, (no not becuase of a stupid holo) but because the cost of being a merchant as far as sklill points.....stinks.
In my opinion Merchant can be one of the best skills to master but there is not enough good things in the trees...here is my list of likes and dislikes:
LIKES
- Reduced Vendor Maintance = The cost is so **edit** high now
- 20% Maintance on Structues = Great Idea
- ADV 3 - Should be at Master for people who really care about merchant
- Able to place 6 vendors at master.
DISLIKES
- Hiring = BIGGEST WASTE OF SKILL POINTS IN THE GAME (who cares what your vendor looks like)
- Reduced Bazaar Fees & Vendor Fees = I have millions and so do most good WS & AS along with resource suppliersin the game. Another waste. There should be just one skill that reduced the fee from 20 to 15 and it should be the Eff 1.
- ADV 4 = Terrible you get all the way to ADV 4 and get a discount WOW. Gotta give me something better
- Master Merchant - If you have dedicated yourself to become a master merchant...why not give us an inventive....(1) FREE MERCHANT tent to place with no lot cost.
- Why 6 vendors....Im a WS there are many many different things I sell, (1) Custom Order Vendor, (2) Resource Vendor, (3) Powerup Vendor, (4) ADV weapons, (5) Non Adv Weapons, (6) Misc. I always have alot of weapon in stock, and it get cluttered. Master Merchant should award the hard working people two more vendors at least one. Yeah most people wont use them but for the people who need them it would help sort out the mess.
Wish I could setup a Melee Weapon Vendor or Heavy Weapon vendor its easier for people to walk in the BANG here is everything you want laid out in front....now they must access and check and serach "Where is that LLC now"
/rant off
Like I said earlier i love the vendor skill tree, just wish they would reward us a little better. Hope someone from the DEV team reads this.
Please let me hear your comments.....
Ok. From the original post I take issue with the hiring line because I think for MANY merchants appearance is important and more options gives them more control over that. Some people don't care and that is fine But it is not a useless skill line.
Now..effiency..yes most of effiency is a waste of time and I've never talked to a dev who didn't agree there. The problem is what to do about it. The bazaar fees used to be a LOT higher in beta and a 20% reduction from 100 credits was meaningful. It isn't meaningful now.
I dont' personaly think that the 15 credits per hour is that bad it is only 360 credits a day and that is cheap. The fact that it was 0 for so long spoiled some of us. Out of the entire Effiency line only the structure one makes any difference and honestly it is now able to be misused.
I don't think Ad IV is particularlly useful either and I don't know why that isn't in Effiency anyway (except that Ad IV was supposed to be a feature of NPC's adbarking for you and they nixed that feature in beta)
This all goes back to the fact that we all have different ways to play the game. Hiring has advantages to many merchants, advertising does too. Efficiency doesn't until you get to IV.
Master btw also includes a vendor maintenance reduction in addition to Stony the silent Protocol droid.
If I was asked to identify quick ways to fix our skill tree I would say Eff I-IV and Ad IV could be merged into the mgmt tree and give us something else..what would that be?
Master needs something special.. maybe another vendor but there has to be a reason why it isn't there already but SOMETHING.
But what would you do with another four boxes where efficiency is?
Doc wrote:
But what would you do with another four boxes where efficiency is?
Remote administration and shipping
1. The ability to ship items to customers via game-mail. It can be slow, and it can be pricy, but I want it. Bonuses for the ability to ship COD. Why don't we have parcel post?
2. The ability to stock items on a distant vendor and retrieve items from a distant vendor. It can be expensive or slow, but I want it.
3. The ability to look at stock on a distant vendor, specifically. I can look at the current vendor, or all vendors on the planet, but it is difficult to check if my Theed vendor still has black sunguards, except by counting the sunguards on the local vendors and subtracting. (If I had a third shop, I'd have no prayer of ever figuring out which vendor had what.) If that's too difficult, at least the vendor name on the list of items for sale.
DocSavag wrote:
If I was asked to identify quick ways to fix our skill tree I would say Eff I-IV and Ad IV could be merged into the mgmt tree and give us something else..what would that be?
Master needs something special.. maybe another vendor but there has to be a reason why it isn't there already but SOMETHING.
But what would you do with another four boxes where efficiency is?
Real Estate (lot management)I - IV
+lot (1 for each level)
-maintenance%
Master Merchant
+lot (1 or 2)
+vendor (1 or 2)
Some sort of vendor scroll to select vendor type like doing ID. Being able to design a vendor graphically instead of luck of the draw.
Korrack wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
If I was asked to identify quick ways to fix our skill tree I would say Eff I-IV and Ad IV could be merged into the mgmt tree and give us something else..what would that be?
Master needs something special.. maybe another vendor but there has to be a reason why it isn't there already but SOMETHING.
But what would you do with another four boxes where efficiency is?
Real Estate (lot management)I - IV
+lot (1 for each level)
-maintenance%
Master Merchant
+lot (1 or 2)
+vendor (1 or 2)
Some sort of vendor scroll to select vendor type like doing ID. Being able to design a vendor graphically instead of luck of the draw.
Understand that ultimately I take whatever the majority wants to the devs on issues like this but I warn you any lot increase plan will be shot down. EVERY player in the game wants more lots. Lots = storage = more items in the galaxy.. it isn't going to happen to one profession. It simply isn't.
DocSavag wrote:
Understand that ultimately I take whatever the majority wants to the devs on issues like this but I warn you any lot increase plan will be shot down. EVERY player in the game wants more lots. Lots = storage = more items in the galaxy.. it isn't going to happen to one profession. It simply isn't.
I know it will be shot down. So will almost anything that makes a non combat class in this game useful. You asked for suggestions, I posted mine suggestion and it is not an unreasonable one. Master Merchant to get 5 lots is not unreasonable. I will hazard to guess that players will not ultimately be using more lots for storage than they are now, but more lots for vendor tents in other cities and more lots for harvesters.
5 extra lots for me would mean a couple of tents and harvesters. And be actually useful as opposed to savign money on the bazaar or being able to use a R2D2 droid to sell drinks off of or anything else that is useless.
This game is neither meant for casual players or people not being able to fight. I am a merchant and politician with some scout and artisan skills to boot. I can't fight worth crap, and anything to add to my experience would be viewed as favoritism to Merchant and would either cause nerfing or everyone to complain.
My personal feeling is there is nothing of any value that could be given to a merchant besides more lots. Lots is an issue to the game. But what else can you realistically give toMerchant that would be of any use? I hope you guys come up with something. Till then, my vote goes to LOTS...
Korrack wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
Understand that ultimately I take whatever the majority wants to the devs on issues like this but I warn you any lot increase plan will be shot down. EVERY player in the game wants more lots. Lots = storage = more items in the galaxy.. it isn't going to happen to one profession. It simply isn't.
I know it will be shot down. So will almost anything that makes a non combat class in this game useful. You asked for suggestions, I posted mine suggestion and it is not an unreasonable one. Master Merchant to get 5 lots is not unreasonable. I will hazard to guess that players will not ultimately be using more lots for storage than they are now, but more lots for vendor tents in other cities and more lots for harvesters.
5 extra lots for me would mean a couple of tents and harvesters. And be actually useful as opposed to savign money on the bazaar or being able to use a R2D2 droid to sell drinks off of or anything else that is useless.
This game is neither meant for casual players or people not being able to fight. I am a merchant and politician with some scout and artisan skills to boot. I can't fight worth crap, and anything to add to my experience would be viewed as favoritism to Merchant and would either cause nerfing or everyone to complain.
My personal feeling is there is nothing of any value that could be given to a merchant besides more lots. Lots is an issue to the game. But what else can you realistically give toMerchant that would be of any use? I hope you guys come up with something. Till then, my vote goes to LOTS...
Yea harvesters are a problem too. The devs rightly point out that there is enough harvesting of resources going on already and they don't want it to increase because it hurts the already shaky player economy on many servers.
What else could be useful? I don't know. The shipping idea comes up a LOT. So does remote administration. Mobile administration comes up too though I hear there are some technical challenges for that idea.
There are without a doubt other things that could make merchant more fun to play. We should think of what they might be. And while I wish I had more lots too.. I don't believe it will happen.
Ultimate control over how my vendors look and where I can place them! Now, I realize that going through the character creation process ever time we make a new vendor can be a pain. So,why not be able to create a random looking NPC, place them, dress them up and THEN customize their look?
DocSavag wrote:
Yea harvesters are a problem too. The devs rightly point out that there is enough harvesting of resources going on already and they don't want it to increase because it hurts the already shaky player economy on many servers.
What else could be useful? I don't know. The shipping idea comes up a LOT. So does remote administration. Mobile administration comes up too though I hear there are some technical challenges for that idea.
There are without a doubt other things that could make merchant more fun to play. We should think of what they might be. And while I wish I had more lots too.. I don't believe it will happen.
Well, part of this problem is that anyone can slap down a harvester. Why not limit which classes can place them? Sounds harsh, but it could work. Only downside to this is the boards will burst into flames from the mobs of unhappy players. *shrugs* Just a thought..
JamesHighwest wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
Yea harvesters are a problem too. The devs rightly point out that there is enough harvesting of resources going on already and they don't want it to increase because it hurts the already shaky player economy on many servers.
What else could be useful? I don't know. The shipping idea comes up a LOT. So does remote administration. Mobile administration comes up too though I hear there are some technical challenges for that idea.
There are without a doubt other things that could make merchant more fun to play. We should think of what they might be. And while I wish I had more lots too.. I don't believe it will happen.
Well, part of this problem is that anyone can slap down a harvester. Why not limit which classes can place them? Sounds harsh, but it could work. Only downside to this is the boards will burst into flames from the mobs of unhappy players. *shrugs* Just a thought..
Originally I think the plan was a mining profesion..that got dumped sometime before beta 3 (I came on in beta 3 and it was already one) I think that is the origin of everyone owning a harvester.
Who would be able to own them under your scenario? Logically only Artisans with Surveying experience in my mind..maybe one harvester at Novice Artisan..
I don't think it will change at this point however.
I like the customization idea, the thing that was tossed around was allowing us to hire Image Designers to customize our NPC vendors. I like that idea because it creates a new business for ID's and gives us a nice feature too.
One i thought would be nice is Bazaar integration at some level, so your vendor items show up on searches onthe bazaar. Possibly only available on a merchant placed in a player city maybe..., Could be a very nice bonus for master merchants..
Alexoin Darkwood
Master