Merchant Archive

Part of the problem, though, is that there is in many (most?)cases no distinction between merchant and crafter. The merchant is also the crafter that makes the goods that are being sold. There's a nice thread over in the Architect forums about the merchant class and whether someone who is just a crafter would trust a merchant with their goods on the word that they will be paid when the item sells. Haven't seen one "yes" to that yet.

So merchant as it is now (and even if this item cap goes through in any form) is intricately tied to crafters. You don't have a merchant without the crafter because they'd have nothing to sell. And if the merchant can't buy the items up front, they'll have to start making their own goods. Which brings it right back around again.

Crafters enjoy making the items and then in turn selling those items to someone else. They don't want or need someone else to do it for them. It also streamlines the process for crafter and seller in the case where a seller might have a question for the crafter that a merchant might not know.

Yes, in most cases the crafters ARE the merchants. But even in that, it makes no difference. It is still us deciding face values and whatnot.

If it came down to the crafters having to team with another merchant, things would get ugly in a hurry. Complaints of "You didnt tip me my money" and random stuff like that would plague this game. Nobody would trust a merchant anyway, unless it was your own alt or best friend. Its just not going to work.

Being a master armorsmith and weaponsmith, a lot of things i need are also found in the master artisan box. Therefor, I have the three, and 4034 merchant. Its what I need to do what I need, but at that I would easily be ruined. Even WITH master merchant and these proposed limits, I would be destroyed. I have about 800 items on vendors for sale, and thats understocked!! How am I to do bulk business if I cant build in bulk, or offer a variety of weapons?

Imperial Ace Pilot graduate of Jungle Larry's Flight School class of Monday Night.
Instructor for Jungle Larry's Flight School.

Brilyn
Master Weaponsmith
Master Shipwright
Main vendor on Naboo, Vagabond's Rest: -1850, 2330
Secondary vendor on Talus, Kyu'mai: 250, -4680
Starsider

In another thread, which I deemed useless and soon to be deleted, somebody asked "whats so FUN about being a merchant, why dont we just delete it?". My post:

I'll tell you whats fun. What is fun is running a successful business in a virtual world. What is fun is being able to craft something that people need and want, and play the market with prices and so forth. What is fun is having control over a market that we, the players and MERCHANTS, made. I am damn proud of being a merchant, as it is I and my fellow merchants who run our servers. We decide what items are worth, we decide what to sell suits of armor and weaponry at, which everyone uses and NEEDS.

Imperial Ace Pilot graduate of Jungle Larry's Flight School class of Monday Night.
Instructor for Jungle Larry's Flight School.

I agree

ATTENTION DEVELOPERS: We're tired of you ruining the game that we love!

It's time to take a stand and show the development staff that their priorities are out of order.

My proposal for acceptable item limits is here.

------
Elyssa Alexander (Elder Merchant Correspondent)
12pt. Master Structures Trader / Elder Jedi / Mayor, City of Metropolis
Shop Crazy Durni, Inc., now open in Metropolis, Corellia (885 -6605 Gorath)

"Why the big secret? People are smart, they can handle it."
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."

Elyssa was 1000% correct
-Pawlin

Ugh, sorry, my rant is over. I'd like to add changes I would love to see that would fix or at least helpthis database problem (laugh, more like a competence problem).

1) Stack resources in the millions, not the hundred thousands

2) Factory crates should hold 100, not a mere 50 or 25

Ill add to that list as I think. I'm fairly angry at all these "proposed changes" right now. My BIGGEST issue is that limiting the number of items on vendors are not going to help this database problem whatsoever. Those items they are trying to limit will still be somewhere in the game, either in a factory or house, or bankbox or backpack. They arent going to get rid of them. My BIGGEST issue is that we pay more than almost any other MMORPG monthly, at $15 a month. Most are 10-12. Where is this extra money going to, eh? It SHOULD be going into a REAL fix for this problem, I.E. server hardware fixes. Give us something worthwhile, not something that hurts us.

Imperial Ace Pilot graduate of Jungle Larry's Flight School class of Monday Night.
Instructor for Jungle Larry's Flight School.