Merchant Archive

Thread: Starting Town Vendors

Silverjohn
Fri Apr 02, 2004 8:30 am
#1

I''ve already posted this in the Core Sytems forum but thought I'd drop the dime here as well to get the debate started.


Basically what I'd like to see isone player vendor in each of the starting cities to supply the needs of the players new to the game or just to the server. Merchants would be allowed to bid for a one month concession and would be expected to provide basic CDEF and melee weapons as well as crafting and surveying tools at a reasonable price for people who want to cross train different professions and, in return, would be allowed to sell as much of any other gear as they want.


Now why not just use the Bazaar you ask? Well my experience is that the Bazaar tends to be pretty hit and miss especially in some of the lower population towns that the character creation process shunts you off to. Unless you have a community minded Artisan keeping the Bazaar stocked you can have trouble finding the items you need at a fair price. For example, starting as a Scout, I have a general crafting tool but still need a Mineral Survey Tool before I can start making very much as an Artisan. Yet these can be very hard to find in the Bazaar and some players, realizing this, will often charge several thousand dollars for them.


Anyway, this is just a thought. Any feed back would be appreciated. For example do you think the concession should be for a whole planet so the lower profit margins in smaller towns would be offset by the higher margins in larger towns. Or would it be better on a town by town basis so less wealthy players wouldn't be crowded out all together but could get a lower cost concession in a smaller town to get their foot in the door. Also, should a merchant be limited to a one month concession then not be allowed to bid on the next month to allow different players to get a chance at the concession?


"Democracy is the worst form of government... until you consider the alternatives."
Winston Churchill.
DocSavag
Fri Apr 02, 2004 12:10 pm
#2

The problem is that non of the people who would bid for that spot would likely be happy providing cost effective solutions to new players. They would be high powered merchants who want to move the top of the line merchnadise. I also don't think that a merchant is going to be very excited about having to stock everything for a month..then take everything down and let someone else have the spot after that. If you don't prevent the same merchant from getting the contract all the time you'll have a local monopoly in that area that will damage the business of all the other merchants.





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Chataka Windae
Rifleman/Combat Medic
CEO, Windae Enterprises
Mesric Sanctuary Founder



Bachreus
Fri Apr 02, 2004 2:11 pm
#3

I agree with Doc on this one. It would be nice to lease space in a NPC city and set up shop though. It would actually be a good money sink for the economy.



Bachreus







Bachreus
Master Artisan--Master Weaponsmith--Master Merchant
Granock
Mayor of Ghost Town--Master Shipwright
Charos
Master Commando--Master Smuggler

Armorlite Weapons -5084 -6056 Dantooine in Ghost Town
Tarnak_Archvold
Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:08 pm
#4

A better solution to the problem bight be to lower the price limit on the bazaar to 500 cr for non resources... and say 5 cpu for resources. (thus a stack of 100.000 steel could be sold for 500.000 but a stack of 1000 only for 5000).

Oh yes. ALL your characters should start as artisans if they is to hav that skill... an novice artisan can build what he needs for other professions.




"Once upon a time Rangers roamed the galaxies... Before the dark times, before the NGE. "
Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger.
DocSavag
Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:37 pm
#5

I don't know that I would agree to a price control on resources like that. I would agree to a separate cap for resources and non resources.



----------------------------------
Chataka Windae
Rifleman/Combat Medic
CEO, Windae Enterprises
Mesric Sanctuary Founder



LadyGrey
Sat Apr 03, 2004 6:38 am
#6






DocSavag wrote:

The problem is that non of the people who would bid for that spot would likely be happy providing cost effective solutions to new players. They would be high powered merchants who want to move the top of the line merchnadise. I also don't think that a merchant is going to be very excited about having to stock everything for a month..then take everything down and let someone else have the spot after that. If you don't prevent the same merchant from getting the contract all the time you'll have a local monopoly in that area that will damage the business of all the other merchants.






Not all of the high-powered merchants are selling top-of-the-line merchandise. If you get a chance to check out the GrayMART stores on Kettemoor, we have a good selection of starting merchandise. Ever try to find just a simple pair of shoes? or gloves? or cheap pants? I need to spend this weekend restocking, because we regularly sell out of our shoes and gloves and pants (most at 500 credits, and all in black). And we carry personal harvesters, surveying tools, and bounty hunter droids. Got to admit, we're not making much money, but we're having a lot of fun, and planning on expanding from our stores near Kaadara, Theed and Coronet, to several other planets and cities. We also carry CDEF weapons, and low-end stim packs.


We want to become the alternative to the bazaar. However, once the item cap goes in on vendors, the whole chain will probably collapse, because it is only our ability to put numerous items on the vendors that is the key to success. It takes time to cart items around from world to world, stocking all of the vendors. It is a shame that the devs are thinking in terms of numbers of items, and ignoring the five-and-dime concept of having numerous items with a low overall monetary value. It is only the ability to sell in bulk that allows us to remain in business. Would be nice able to declare a vendor as having either an item number cap, or a monetary value cap, so that people who want to sell large amounts of low-price items could still do that. The only other option is that I could start charging 5k for all of my 500 credits items, and just keep 2 or 3 at a time on the vendor, instead of 20 or 30. I'll let the devs make that decision for me, I guess.


Another item that would be immensely useful in this game, would be a packing crate. It would be an item with a limited life-span of perhaps one week, and it would be able to hold all the items from a large house (I believe that would be 250 items?). It would have a count-down timer, and would disappear (along with anything in it) at the end of that time. This would allow people to move the contents of a house, or items from or to a vendor, with relative ease. And make it possible to unpack it directly into a vendor.




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LadyGrey

Don't let the negative AFKophobes get you down. Play the game however you want.

Is the beta testing almost over for this game?
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