Merchant Archive
Thread: Merchant Revamp Community Vision Document
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LaurnaRose
Sat Jan 29, 2005 11:53 pm
#1
thanks for the imput, but i was kinda told to nix the revamp document, as this was not my responsibility as a community member and to let the new correspondent take initiative towards getting community imput on the profession. hopefully she will get a new one started soon ... especially with as fast as the changes are being made.
LaurnaRose
Sat Feb 05, 2005 8:18 am
#2
elyssa you werent around when this was started and i was told you might want to begin your own. just thought that you would like to see this one to get an idea of the community feedback to some of the ideas.
- laurn
Elyssa
Sat Feb 05, 2005 10:06 am
#3
Oh, I saw it. I've been here for a very long time (despite my apparent registration date).
I've just been in "lurk" mode a lot more lately to avoid influencing the free-flow of ideas.
Rest assured that I'm working to recompile all the work that Doc and the community had done before I took office and once I've got that done I'll be throwing it back out there so we can all work to refine it together and see what we can get done to make Merchant the profession that everyone is just dying to play!
It'll be so popular that Jedi will want to put down their lightsabers just to become merchants instead!
It'll be so popular that Jedi will want to put down their lightsabers just to become merchants instead!
In the meantime, there's LOTs of other things going on that require my attention as well.
Doc neglected to mention all the big things going on behind the scenes that have to be dealt with too. ::shakes fist::
Doc neglected to mention all the big things going on behind the scenes that have to be dealt with too. ::shakes fist::
I always read every post in this forum. Well, except maybe for the ones that want to roll merchant into other professions or give people access to vendors without spending the skill points.
I may not post as often but trust me, I'm here and "I'm listening" (or reading as the case may be).
LaurnaRose
Sat Feb 05, 2005 8:33 pm
#4
DocSavag wrote:
... Big wins with small effort will be very very well received by the devs at this time.
that said ... I want a mall /cry
however, to make what is already here work better ... the restock button, selling mulitple items at one time, and vendor imaging are the 3 things i can think of right off hand that need serious love.
LOL
DocSavag
Sat Feb 05, 2005 8:52 pm
#5
LaurnaRose wrote:
DocSavag wrote:... Big wins with small effort will be very very well received by the devs at this time.that said ... I want a mall /cryhowever, to make what is already here work better ... the restock button, selling mulitple items at one time, and vendor imaging are the 3 things i can think of right off hand that need serious love.LOL
The Vendor imaging from what I recall was going to be a big deal to implement but the devs liked the idea.
In my opinion the restock button or a multiple sales feature seems like the best target for quick hits for the merchant community. The other ideas that I think are possibiles are things like changing the guild taq behaviour on the entry list or allowing private structures to have vendors. Those require smaller amounts of work. The big thing is to try to sell the devs on thier merits vs whatever downside is percieved by these things. The other idea that I tried to sell in my last days as correspondent was the concept of changing the default view of vendors to the vendor view instead of the regional view. I never got any feedback on the dev perspective on that but I know that the idea is almost universially accepted by merchants as a good idea and seems to be very little effort to implement.
DocSavag
Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:33 am
#6
Elyssa wrote:
Doc neglected to mention all the big things going on behind the scenes that have to be dealt with too. ::shakes fist::
*shrug* Don't you like surprises?
To be clear I never told anyone that it was the correspondents responsibility to do a vision document. Anyone is free to write any document they want. What I said was that it was the correspondents responsibilty to submit such documents directly to the dev team. That is simply because the dev team asks the correspondants to submit things at certain times and in certain formats. Vision documents are great and they spark good conversations and lead to new ideas or new slants on old ideas.
From my time as correspondent I can tell you the most helpful thing you can do is to keep posting your thoughts, your ideas and your issues. Those don't necessarily have to be in a huge detailed document but the more information the correspondent has at her fingertips the quicker she can respond when the dev team asks a question or a topic comes up that might provide opportunity for an idea to get developed. Larger plans (like revamps and massive changes) are generally more planned out and will probably start with the dev team asking for such a document or asking for ideas for a revamp. I don't know when that might be. I do know that the team is spending a lot of resources right now on publishes essentially every two weeks. That is a lot of dev time and they have been spreading it around. I hope merchant gets some of that attention but realistically in the mode we are in right now the ideas for these publishes need to be smaller in scope. Big wins with small effort will be very very well received by the devs at this time.
Darkov
Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:38 am
#7
Sweeeet
I like the Mall idea, I think you have two options here for the Mall Manager to make a profit. Either a tax on all goods sold in the Mall or the option to rent-vendors.
The question is, what is more acceptable to the other professions. I can appreciate that many of you don't like the idea of renting out something that costs us skill points, but at the end of the day we're making a profit, which is what concerns a merchant most. Now the other professions opinons could be summed up in two ways, "They rather sacrifice skill points and not pay to rent a vendor" or "They rather rent a vendor than sacrifice skill points" Which is more important to them, and thus which is more viable to us?
I've been a crafter and I have to say I would gladly pay a small fee to rent a vendor under any kind of restrictions, than spend those skill points just on getting a vendor.
Food for thought.
LaurnaRose
Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:06 am
#8
i dont understand how vendor imaging could be that hard to implement. im not calling you a liar by any means ... but think about it. when you destroy a vendor from your inventory, it even says "vendor: xyz (character) destroyed". the imageing side is already there ... so just nix the client side of the imaging process. the merchant can just say ... match the eye color to the trim on the jacket and make her skin color flaming blue, hair color the same as the trim on the shirt, blah blah blah ... if they dont like it in the end ... wow, im still their, we can work on it. it cannot honestly be that hard to implement. they have to be using that as an excuse because they just simply do not see the use for it is all i can think. and if that isnt the case, then they are just saying it is so hard cause they dont want to be bothered with it yet and want to be able to make it seem like a HUGE deal when they do get around to doing it. everything that is needed is already in the game ... the system auto ID's them as they come in so we know their images can be manipulated just like any other character. i think this needs some more explaination from the devs cause it just sounds like a bunch of malarky bull to me.
DocSavag
Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:16 am
#9
LaurnaRose wrote:i dont understand how vendor imaging could be that hard to implement. im not calling you a liar by any means ... but think about it. when you destroy a vendor from your inventory, it even says "vendor: xyz (character) destroyed". the imageing side is already there ... so just nix the client side of the imaging process. the merchant can just say ... match the eye color to the trim on the jacket and make her skin color flaming blue, hair color the same as the trim on the shirt, blah blah blah ... if they dont like it in the end ... wow, im still their, we can work on it. it cannot honestly be that hard to implement. they have to be using that as an excuse because they just simply do not see the use for it is all i can think. and if that isnt the case, then they are just saying it is so hard cause they dont want to be bothered with it yet and want to be able to make it seem like a HUGE deal when they do get around to doing it. everything that is needed is already in the game ... the system auto ID's them as they come in so we know their images can be manipulated just like any other character. i think this needs some more explaination from the devs cause it just sounds like a bunch of malarky bull to me.
With all due respect you don't have any clue how much work it would be to change. Neither do I but I appreciate that its more than it seems or we wouldn't have been told that it was difficult to change.
The system doesn't "auto ID them" there are a series of templates that the system selects at random and gives us one of them. Individual vendors don't, from my understanding, have the storage necessary to store changes to their appearance. Giving them that ability greatly increases the data that must be kept about the vendor in the database. These things are never as easy as they appear.
JeCy
Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:55 pm
#10
malls.. love the idea to add flavor.. mall rooms could have seperate room admins too keep people from pilering other peoples stuff.
Imaging.. who knows how hard it is, Knowing a bit about code, well atleast enough to know there are soo many varriables. One thing for sure is vendors are not PC's and ive gotton the same exact looking vender a few times soo it looks like there aer just 100's of templates and not a variable system. Im all for it down the road though, image designers will love it
transfer vendor..to me your retiring and someone wants a bussiness they should have to build there own rep not live off of someone elses.. building a bussiness is half the fun of merchant prof
Vendor admin,, No way, im totally against this one.Being a merchant is aquring things and reselling them Just cuase many merchants are crafters does not change this.. Giving admin goes against everything i belive in in this game.. its as bad or worse than AFK dancers and Buff bots.
a global add revamp.. i had a post about this a while back you might want to check it out.. ill bump for the heck of it..
All and all, lots of good ideas though.. not sure why ya got hit by the old one star bandit for talking all that time to put out your ideas.. if they agree or not.. everyone has the right to post there ideas and get the community talking.. any well thought out post should be welcomed if you agree or not.
Je'Cy
Cafa
Wed Feb 09, 2005 11:06 am
#11
DocSavag wrote:
With all due respect you don't have any clue how much work it would be to change. Neither do I but I appreciate that its more than it seems or we wouldn't have been told that it was difficult to change.
The system doesn't "auto ID them" there are a series of templates that the system selects at random and gives us one of them. Individual vendors don't, from my understanding, have the storage necessary to store changes to their appearance. Giving them that ability greatly increases the data that must be kept about the vendor in the database. These things are never as easy as they appear.
But, darnit Doc, why do they all look like someone took a sledgehammer to their faces?
I mean 5 hours to get one twi'lek that doesn't look like a crack addict, putting it mildly.
Fivo Asia
DocSavag
Wed Feb 09, 2005 11:42 am
#12
Cafa wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
With all due respect you don't have any clue how much work it would be to change. Neither do I but I appreciate that its more than it seems or we wouldn't have been told that it was difficult to change.
The system doesn't "auto ID them" there are a series of templates that the system selects at random and gives us one of them. Individual vendors don't, from my understanding, have the storage necessary to store changes to their appearance. Giving them that ability greatly increases the data that must be kept about the vendor in the database. These things are never as easy as they appear.But, darnit Doc, why do they all look like someone took a sledgehammer to their faces?I mean 5 hours to get one twi'lek that doesn't look like a crack addict, putting it mildly.Fivo Asia
My theory is all the really good looking ones were sold into slavery are aren't on the employement line
Yea I hope they change it. I support the change it was on every list I ever submitted to the devs. If they announced tomorrow that they were changing it I would dance in the streets (of Mos Eisley).
LaurnaRose
Wed Feb 09, 2005 12:07 pm
#13
DocSavag wrote:
Cafa wrote:
DocSavag wrote:
With all due respect you don't have any clue how much work it would be to change. Neither do I but I appreciate that its more than it seems or we wouldn't have been told that it was difficult to change.
The system doesn't "auto ID them" there are a series of templates that the system selects at random and gives us one of them. Individual vendors don't, from my understanding, have the storage necessary to store changes to their appearance. Giving them that ability greatly increases the data that must be kept about the vendor in the database. These things are never as easy as they appear.
But, darnit Doc, why do they all look like someone took a sledgehammer to their faces?
I mean 5 hours to get one twi'lek that doesn't look like a crack addict, putting it mildly.
Fivo Asia
My theory is all the really good looking ones were sold into slavery are aren't on the employement line
Yea I hope they change it. I support the change it was on every list I ever submitted to the devs. If they announced tomorrow that they were changing it I would dance in the streets (of Mos Eisley).
LOL no joke. I just made a new human female vendor for yen's shop yesterday ... 3 hours later i finally found one. however, i had to settle for a chika with the funky braids ... you know the hairstyle that is all braids and the ones up top are wrapped around the head /sigh (style #33 here). She was pretty - first pretty slender vendor in 3 hours, and I wasnt about to delete her and start over again. I mean, the least they could do is allow us to "MANAGE" our maximum number of vendors at one time. I mean seriously, if im skilled enough to manage 10 vendors at one time, then why do they all have to be hired before I can start to manage a new one. Seriously ... when a company starts going through interviewing processes, they interview SEVERAL applicants before hiring one. So why am i not able to "hold on to the applications" so to speak without actually having to hire someone before viewing another application. (In case you havent figured it out, im using "application" to represent the vendor you see in your inventory. I should be able to hold all 10 of my vendors in my inventory if i want to. It is a retarded limitation - as well is not being able to have ID design them for us. One or the other needs to happen immediately.
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