Merchant Archive

Okay first I was skeptical on seriousness of SWG database issue. It seems like this is something they have gave lot of though before deciding on it, and the decision they made was pretty much final. (i.e. no point in talking about it since it is the way it is and it is the way it is going to be)

When everyone was talking about Merchant Vendor & How it is REALLY related to Database and not about "money sink", I was again skeptical.

Then I see this post

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=443576#M443576

WELL call me pink money and color me purple!

Look like they were right!

So I've look thru the cwap I posted, and I found what I though was wrong with database, and I tried to look for the discussion I can swear was there but can't find now.

Soo....

I will repost what I think is the biggest Database problem, and I will post what I think is good "temporary" solution.

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skip this section if you don't care what I think there is biggest problem

I haven't seen how they set their database up, But here is something to think about.

Currently there are about 30-40 different resource "type" in the game. Like metal, or ferrous metal or as far down the "tree" as aluminum. Now lets take one person, me for example. I am harvesting chemical, gas and ore. And today resource shift. Now I start harvesting another kind of resource. another kind of metal, another kind of aluminum. difference is pretty much their stat. So now I have two copies of resources. And I wouldn't always use the old one first. Maybe new one is not as good and I would use them up first (You should see the different "version" of chemical in my house) and this happen every resource shift.

I think there about about 12391 "different" resource since the game launched(www.swgcraft.com). This list will grow as more "new" resource are added by random resource generator unles they start using old ones again because as long as ONE person, still have single one of that resource, that resource must be in database. So that list will grow and grow.

Now ofcourse 12k entry in database is trivial. But you gotta remember that in many of crafter, they have hundreds of these resources, and probably more in bank and their house. The amount of resource (ESPECIALLY those tiny small stack of 200 or less that never got thrown away) just build up and up until there are MILLIONS of entries when you comb thru the player database. And guess what get checked when you try to access bazzar, bank, house, trade, craft? yup. those personal database. And just multiply that by number of crafter, scout who harvest hide/meat/bone and how many of those access the crafting tool at any given time, you see that database get checked quite often. too dang often is how I see it. (actually it is not how often they get checked, but how long each check last, and if they have to check 12k table that is growing each time, thats gonna be problem)

The way resource system is, I can see that it will get harder and harder to manage. SoE decided on 1 account per person because of database problem, yet decided on unlimited resource type. Sound strange to me.

Anyway thats the way I see the database problem of SWG.
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So here is my "temporary" solution part.

I think that most important thing is to get rid of them small stacks of "old" resources.

To do that, I think there need to be a way to "recycle" old resource for new one.

Thats the idea behind "Intergalactic commodity trade" for merchant profession.

How this work is give merchant access to new function which allow them to trade one resource to new resource "currently availiable" on server.

this can be simple / command like

/commoditytrade

listed in their "other" macro section

What it does is it list all the old "resources" in merchant's inventory, and list all the new resource currently available in the server.

Now I know what you are thinking. What if he have crummy old resource and new ones are great?

soo.... answer is you have to trade in more of old resources until sum of it's lowest stat match the new one.

What I mean is let say your old resource have

100 overall quality, 200 mellability and 900 potential energy

and new resource is

300 overall quality, 300 mellability and 400 potential energy.

Then you have to trade in 3 old resource for 1 new one. So you just keep adding old resources until the sum of each quality component is greater than or atleast equal to the new resource.

Now, this alone wouldn't make everyone turn their old stuff in for new, so you post on each monday, that this, this and this resource will be "purged" from servers at the end of two weeks. This give ample time for people to trade in their old resource.

And ofcourse it would help if future resources are choosen from smaller "variety".

And once you have this Database problem licked, you can go on and just introduce more variety.

I think this is reasonable solution.

Would this help Merchants as well?