Merchant Archive

First off - this post is going to be very long, contain a lot of information, and really attempt to go in-depth into the underlying issues and problems of the Merchant profession as well as trying to craft a roadmap for working from our current point of where we are to a system which would be beneficial for the server and players alike.

To start things off - consider it a Mission Statement for the Merchant Class:

Reasons to be a Merchant:
- Money to be made selling items
- Money to be made selling other people's items
- Money to be saved through efficiency
- The capability of using various means to promote your business

Merchants as Credit Sinks:
- Merchants should be a point at which credits are removed from the economy as well as being spent. I know this sounds awful and overbearing - but right now it happens in the form of "Vendor Maintenance" - a fee that will become an issue if Empty Vendors are going to able to just "Vanish"

- Thus items placed on the Bazaar should have a listing fee (as they do, currently) and items sold through a vendor should also suffer a 1% Galactic Tax penalty as opposed to some vendor-maintenance. Sell an item for 100,000 credits, you receive 99,000 in your bank and 1,000 gets gobbled up. Perhaps a "Tax Break" for master merchants to cut that penalty lower.

- This would provide a steady stream of credit removal from the economy through the use of vendors as well as being something that could be parlayed into "Non-Combat Role-Playing Aspects" of the game - such as Voting in a Mayor that promises to lower Tax Rates in the NPC Capitol cities, etc.

Understanding Existing Merchant Issues:
- Without Item Limits on Vendors there is the potential for a series of monopolies by crafters that are capable of amply stocking their vendors with tons and tons of near-top-quality items
- Without Item Limits on Vendors you can run into a series of database related issues
- Currently Players who surrender Merchant Skills retain their vendors
- Currently there is a massive number of empty vendors in the universe
- Currently there is a massive number of advertised vendors on the map
- Currently there is no incentive or reason for someone retaining Merchant Skills
- Currently a number of players use their vendors for additional storage by putting items up for 99,999,999 credits and ensuring no one in their right mind would purchase them.

Fixing Current Merchant Issues:
- If you no longer have the skills necessary to retain either a vendor, or a vendor with the hiring value you created, that vendor will be "Out of Order" until you either reacquire the skills necessary or a two-week timer expires and the vendor is removed.
- Empty vendors will be removed after a two-week timer expires
- Only Master Merchants can enter vendors on the map and only vendors with more than a certain number of items on them (at server restart) are eligible for planetary listing. If a vendor falls below that minimum level, it is removed from the map, as well as if Master Merchant is surrendered

"Resellers"
- Instead of just plain offers, the person offering the items to the merchant should be able to set a "Resale Price" and "Merchant Cut" value on an item that would allow the merchant to then sell the item - and when it is purchased the funds are distributed accordingly. If the item goes unsold, the person offering the item is informed by Email and has 7 days to either retrieve it or re-offer it to the vendor.
- EXAMPLE: I could offer a crate to a vendor. "Resale Price: 150,000" "Merchant Cut: 30,000". The merchant could agree to this rate and sell the item on their vendor and when it is purchased, the Merchant would receive 30,000 credits and I would receive 120,000 credits.

Benefits:
- This would allow players who do not have any desire to spend points in the merchant line a means for securely reselling their wares through other vendors - or even selling their products through a variety of places if they choose.
- This allows someone who chooses to pursue a career of a Merchant as opposed to a Crafter the opportunity to do just that - make their "cut" off of the top of the resales as they deem fit.
- This would lend itself most likely to having fewer, but better stocked, vendors on the server.

"Price Tag Caps"
- Let's face it, there's a world of difference between going into "A For a Dollar" and going into "Sax's Fifth Avenue" - and Merchants should be considered the same way. With each increasing rank a player would be able to list items for a greater value with a hard cap of 30,000,000 for Master Merchants

Benefits:
- Again, this would reinforce the need and value of high end merchants and perhaps even further enhance the resale business for high-end items (Afterall, you would want to go to a merchant of solid repute to purchase a multi-million dollar item and not just Ebay it away)
- This would also help limit using Vendors as "Warehouses" by putting items in bags for 99,999,999 credits and making them unpurchaseable.

"Storage"
- Here's where it really comes out in the wash. Storage represents the total number of items at any given time that a player can have listed on their vendors. Keeping this value independent from the number of Vendors a player has allows a Merchant to tailor their business to their likings - would they rather have a single heavily stocked vendor or a larger number of more lightly stocked vendors, etc.
- Should a player exceed the number of items they are allowed to have listed, they will no longer be able to offer items for sale and any vendors they have will report "Out of Order" to any customers that attempt to use them

Benefits:
- This does place a hard limit on the number of items a single player can have listed
- This encourages acquiring additional skill blocks for a purpose
- This allows players to choose how many items they care to have listed on any given vendor as opposed to having it determined by the system

- An increased allotment for the number of items that could be sold via the Bazaar
- An additional 5% Maintenance Boost at Master Merchant

Merchant Skills:
- VENDORS (Number of Vendors a single merchant can place)
- STORAGE (Total Number of Items that can be offered for sale across a Merchants vendors)
- HIRING (Better selection of vendors when creating them)
- BAZAAR (Number of additional items to be sold on the bazaar)
- PRICE CAP (Maximum amount of credits a merchant can list an item for sale)

Business 1: Access Fees
Business 2: Premium Auctions
Business 3: Vendors +1, Storage +25, Hiring +10, 100,000 price tag cap
Business 4: Storage +25, Hiring +10, 200,000 price tag cap
Master Artisan: Storage +50

Novice Merchant: Vendors +1, Storage +100, Hiring +10, +10 Bazaar Listings

HIRING TREE
- Hiring 1: +1 Vendor, +10 Hiring, 500,000 price tag cap
- Hiring 2: +1 Vendor, +15 Hiring, 1,000,000 price tag cap
- Hiring 3: +1 Vendor, +20 Hiring, 2,500,000 price tag cap
- Hiring 4: +1 Vendor, +25 Hiring, 5,000,000 price tag cap

MANAGEMENT TREE
- Management 1: +150 Storage
- Management 2: +200 Storage
- Management 3: +250 Storage
- Management 4: +300 Storage

EFFICIENCY TREE
- Efficiency 1: +10 Bazaar Listings, +5% Structure Maintenance Bonus
- Efficiency 2: +10 Bazaar Listings, +5% Structure Maintenance Bonus
- Efficiency 3: +15 Bazaar Listings, +5% Structure Maintenance Bonus
- Efficiency 4: +15 Bazaar Listings, +5% Structure Maintenance Bonus

ADVERTISING TREE
- Advertising 1: Vendor Vocalization
- Advertising 2: Droid Vocalication (Merchant Droids)
- Advertising 3: Custom Vocalization
- Advertising 4: CTRL-M Map Display of Vendors

MASTER MERCHANT
- +500 Storage at Master Merchant (1600 Total)
- +20 Bazaar Listings (100 Total)
- +1 Vendor (7 total)
- +15 Bazaar listings (100 total)
- +5% Structure Management Bonus (-25% Total)
- Galactic Map Display of Vendors
- Galactic Tax Reduction (vendor sales fee)

- 30,000,000 price tag cap

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I do realize this system is far from perfect and can definitely use a ton of tweaking, but in light of this rather insane "110 Items x 6" solution proposed by the developers I believe this will also provide a viable, and far better solution for the merchants in addition to making the entire profession much more desireable both for Crafters who need it, and Individuals who would choose to pursue it as a money making opportunity while providing functions to help clear up Empty Vendors, Rule Breakers, Prevent "Stockrooming" and help remove money from the economy.

Opinions?

--Mikka

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I have one suggestion, and will be flamed for it. But to expand on you credit sink ideas, why not give all professions that can craft access to a vendor, this would include Doctors, smugglers, weaponsmiths, Armorsmiths etc. If they do not invest skill points in merchant/business 3 then the max number of items would be say 100. In addition all items sold on these vendors would be subject to a "galactic tax" as you put it but instead of the 1% that master merchants would pay they would pay a rather high 10-15%. On top of this the maintence on these vendors would be5-10 times higher because you would not have the management skills to run an efficient business. This would still encourage people to find a merchant to resell for them, but someone could open up a small business(operate a vendor)on their own if they wanted to. Just a thought.