Merchant Archive

I've been trying to think of a way to make the merchants more viable as a stand-alone profession and I think something along the lines of the master musician/dancer buff would encourage artisans to give a wholesale price. This buff would inspire an artisan providing a bonus to experimentation and an crafting xp bonus scaled to the level of experimentation success when crafting an item.

The merchant makes a deal with an artisan, providing the buff and...say 1% xp per bubble of success...in return for a discount on the completed item.

I think this alone would be good, but to reduce the burden of trust the merchant could also be given the ability to switch their personal crafting station to 'employee mode' allowing someone else to work with, but not take,materials that the merchant has placed in an input hopper and the finished product would automatically go to an output hopper only the merchant has access to.

If this buff only works on others, it would be unnattractive to artisans who are only taking the class to be more independent. Perhaps it should still only be available to master merchants, but it might also work as an incremental ability added to the hiring line of skills.

That being said, the number one priority should be...please, please for the love of god, please...fix planetary advertising so that I can stop logging in every morning before work, and open up shops on other planets. Devs, let nothing distract you from this mission and let all your will be bent upon it!