Merchant Archive
Thread: Alternate Ways to Fix the Problem
ADVERTISING:
The Basic Ideas
The current advertising system is nice, but lower level merchants should be allowed to advertise and dedicated merchants really need a unique advertising system. It is difficult to compete with the bazaar and countless number of Merchant 3000 vendors.
· NPC/PC Billboards
· NPC Galactic Kiosk
* More in depth skill based advertisement abilities
* Expanded classifications for planitary ad campain
* Item Number Requirement for PAC/Kiosk Advertisment
VENDOR PURGE:
The Basic Ideas
Okay, we get that you are trying to figure out what to do about all the ppl complaining that going from empy vendor to empty vendor is a waste of time. There is a very simple way to fix this. No matter what you do, someone is going to complain, but I myself as a merchant would much rather see you impliment this idea as opposed to the one that you are currently planning on sending live.
- Vendor Maintenance Cap
- Shorter Purge Times (back to the 30 days) along with addition of a restock button and shift and ctrl function to allow for multiple sales of items to be sold at the same price
- Data Discs
ADVERTISING
The Good and The Bad
The Good -
· Dedicated merchants who are more likely to have a larger variety or quantity would be more easily located by customers.
· Customers would have access to locate more stores than what is located on the same planet as their current location.
· This would add a more realistic feel to the NPC/PCs.
*Seller can advertise vendor items with more clarification
* Buyer can be more assured as to vendor items before traveling to the vendor as the owner of an empty or storage vendor will likely not pay for advertisement.
* PAC expansion features would allow for a customer to have more knowledge of the vendors statistics before traveling to the vendor (ie. last stocked date, last maintenance payment,and item count)
* Item Number requirment would ensure that any vendor with the mere 1 item holder sale could not be advertised.
The Bad -
· Would require more memory to store the information.
· Would take business away from the "dabbling" salesman.
VENDOR PURGE
The Good and The Bad
The Good -
- This will help to decrease the number of empty vendors by forcing merchants to be hands on with their vendors constantly.
- Data discs will keep lost vendor owners from loosing their vendor's inventory.
The Bad -
- Unless the restock button is incoroporated, merchants will be even more frustrated with having to go back to the 30-day purges. If we were thrown a vendor restock button and shift and ctrl functionality for multiple sales and possibly even the ability to stock all our vendors from one location - we would be very greatful and accept a shorter purge time with open arms if it kept the vendor listings off the bazaar.
Skill Tree Changes for Advertising
Advertising I
o Regional Advertising
ط Vendor can be located by anyone using the Ctrl+V function within a 1000m radius of the vendor in question.
Advertising II
o Expanded Regional Advertising
ط Vendor can be located by anyone using the Ctrl+V function within a 5000m radius of the vendor in question.
Advertising III
o Planetary Advertising
ط Vendor can be located by anyone using the Ctrl+V function on the same planet the vendor in question is located.
Advertising IV
o Galactic Advertising
ط Merchants can list their vendor on a NPC/PC Galactic Kiosk for a fee similar to that of a vendor fee.
Master Merchant:
o Interactive Advertising
Inserting The System
Galactic Kiosk System
* The Galactic Kiosk would function similar to the ctrl+v function, but would be placed as a terminal in all NPCities (in the bank area) PCities by polititians. Politicians with the ability to place terminals would be able to chose the galactic kiosk as one of their terminal options along with the mission terminals or it would be availabe in place of one of the bank terminals in the current banking structure for player cities.
* Merchants could advertise on the kiosk at a setfee, example 100cph, all players could access the kiosk to find vendors on any planet. All Kiosks would be connected under one single system so all merchants advertising on the Kiosk would be searchable from any Kiosk.
* The vendors being advertised would be listed by Planet, City, Vendor Type.
* The vendors being advertised would be placed on a time limit of 7 day cycles. Once the 7-day cycle has completed, the merchant will need to re-subscribe to the service.
* The merchant will be given the option to incert a vendor description of their store/services instead of an "seller's description".
* Only one vendor may be advertised per entry, but the merchants may advertise all of their vendors at one time for separate fees.
* The merchant could upload a waypoint into the system for their advertisment that customers could then download.
Billboard System
* NPCities would havesigns placedin certain areas near key buildings (ie - cantina, shuttle, med center, salon, starport, guild halls). Say up to 20 signs in each NPCity. These signs would charge a set fee of 100cph for advertising.
* Politicians would be able to use architect crafted "signs" or billboards as city decorations and rent them out to merchants who wish to advertise on them for a fee from 0-1000cph.
*The billboardswould have have "waiting lists" where a merchant could enter their advertisement using similar filter progs as vendor names, char names, ect, anda pre-pay for up to 7 days of maintenance. The merchants advertisement will then be displayed in order of the "wait list". Merchants would be limited to one billboard advertisement or reservation at a time to deter the wealthier merchants from monopolizing the billboards.
or
* The billboards would have a rotating sdvertisement system where any registered advertisement would show for 30 seconds before the next advertisement would replace it. There would still be a time limit implemented on how long an advertisement could run for before having to be resubmitted, and would only be advertised in the city where "billboard time" was purchased.
PAC System Upgrade
When adding a vendor to the Planitary Ad Campain (PAC) system, the merchant should be given more in deapth options. The Vendor listing on the PAC should be that similar to the listing on Bazaar/Vendors themselves. As well, the merchant should be allowed to chose multiple (say up to 5) listings. Example: I sell outfits packed in wearable containers (A) as well as bestine paintings and completed furniture schematics (B)on two vendors.
Vendor A I wouldadvertise as: Clothing (Generic) and if I wanted, I could also list it under Misc/WearableContainers
Vendor B I would advertise as: Misc/Furniture
Had I combined the sells of these vendors to one vendor, I could have advertised the one vendor under: Clothing (Generic), Misc/WearableContainers, Misc/Furniture
Now my vendors will show up under each of those listings on the PAC.
As well, the PAC should offer the customer more information about the vendor such as the last stock date, total number of items available on the vendor, and the last day maintenance was paid.
Item Requirment for Advertising
This is simple. A vendor must have at least 10 items listed for sale before the merchant is allowed to advertise it on the PAC. Should a vendor fall below 10 items, it would automatically be removed from the PAC.
Vendor Maintenance Cap
Make it so that a vendor cannot hold more than 30 days worth of maintenance. You would not normally advance more than 30 days worth of pay to any employee, so this seems EXTREMELY reasonable to me. As well, once a vendor's maintenance is depleted, it would be removed from the PAC until maintenance was added by the owner and manually replaced onto the PAC.
Data Discs
Once a vendor has completely purged, the owner will have 14 days to remove their items. If the vendor has not been cleaned out, stock room emptied on the 14th day the system will put all of the items onto a "Vendor: My Vendor's NameData Disc" and placed into the player's inventory. If the player returns, and sets up another vendor, they would have the option (under vendor options) to upooad data disc. Doing this would place the items into the vendors stockroom ready to be sold.