Merchant Archive
Thread: IF they change vendors they should change advertising too
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BzeHound
Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:19 am
#1
So now that Merchants will be the only ones with multiple shops, and the profession is moving in a direction where Merchants will be more powerful, we should be able to advertise our vendors in multiple categories.
On the vendor in my newest shop I have over 250 items in each of the following categories - Pharms, Weps, Deeds, Food, Resources, Armor, Pets, Clothes soon I'll have over 250 Droids as well. But I can only choose one category to advertise stuff in.
So if we're really to become Merchants and our vendors will become sought after items, can we change the way that advertising works, somehow. Or do I just need to play russian roulette by stepping outside, wetting my finger, hold it up in the air and say "I think today people are looking for armor" then go in and list my vendor under armor and hope that most of the people looking for stuff to buy that day are looking for armor and just hope that people looking for Deeds, don't just pass my shop by????
A little more thought is needed methinks before trying to piecemeal move Merchant into a more mainstream profession.
Trajen
Elioi
Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:37 am
#2
I think that the current grain of thought here runs against that notion. If you could advertise in multiple areas, why have multiple vendors? Only being able to have one category per vendor makes having multiple vendors more desireable. Want an armor vendor? make one and list it under armor. Want to sell houses too? Invest the SP into management and get another vendor to list under housing.
Also it would lead to false advertising as many would list every vendor everywhere to increase visibility - and then where would you be? just guessing if those listed under "armor" had anything to do with armor.
ZallusNuranxis
Fri Jun 11, 2004 7:25 am
#3
BzeHound wrote:
So now that Merchants will be the only ones with multiple shops, and the profession is moving in a direction where Merchants will be more powerful, we should be able to advertise our vendors in multiple categories.
On the vendor in my newest shop I have over 250 items in each of the following categories - Pharms, Weps, Deeds, Food, Resources, Armor, Pets, Clothes soon I'll have over 250 Droids as well. But I can only choose one category to advertise stuff in.
I think that by allowing more than 1 category listing for each vendor we would be back to a list of vendors that noone wants to sort through again. One category for each vendor would make the list more searchable and better for everyone. You get 6 vendors as a Master.
BzeHound
Fri Jun 11, 2004 9:58 am
#4
Elioi wrote:
I think that the current grain of thought here runs against that notion. If you could advertise in multiple areas, why have multiple vendors? Only being able to have one category per vendor makes having multiple vendors more desireable. Want an armor vendor? make one and list it under armor. Want to sell houses too? Invest the SP into management and get another vendor to list under housing.
Also it would lead to false advertising as many would list every vendor everywhere to increase visibility - and then where would you be? just guessing if those listed under "armor" had anything to do with armor.
Elioi I'm talking about functionality for the Merchant (I'm Master Merch OK), I'm not talking about the crafter who has merchant so they can sell their own stuff. I'm referring to those that will try and do try to make the Merchant a Profession and not just a subset of skills.
I've invested the SP, I've got the houses, on multiple planets, now I just think it'd be nice to be able to advertise that in addition to over 400 pieces of furniture, I also have over 300 deeds, 500 pieces of armor 250 weapons, electronic components, powerups, droids, pets, medicines, loot, resources, bikes etc etc.
Or is the "direction of the community" that merchants are ONLY there to be an outlet for the items you have crafted yourself. If that's the case lets just call it the Proprietor profession.
Trajen
Songe
Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:43 am
#5
Well hopefully we can have more vendors soon after what TH has answered to our question. But to answer your question... I don't know. I understand the problem as I have been confronted to it myself, but it would prolly surcharge the planetary map for only a few merchants. With 6 vendors you should be able to spread out your wares to have one category per vendor. Or maybe we could have another category called 'misc'?
DingoBoi
Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:00 am
#6
While interesting, i don't really see this as feasible given the technical side.
Keep in mind the fix to remove empty vendors from the map. That system will just check the vendor to see if it has any items on it... period.
A system of multiple listings would require the game query every item on the vendor to see if that type of item is still for sale and that's a query from every category the vendor would be listed under for every item. I don't know that it's worth the additional programming to check multiple listings for every item rather than keeping it simpler with the one category.
I like it, but I also think it's fairly effective to name vendors like : "Weapons and powerups' as the vendor name itself which...not quite a nice as multi categories but pretty sufficient.
Given limited dev time, i'd rather see them work on better/new tools.
BountyBlunter
Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:14 am
#7
When I search for a specific vendor on the map I go first by catagory and then by name. For example, all of my architect vendors are named differently EG: Lighting, Plants, Structures, Furniture. They all come under 'Housing' in my mind.. Just as 'Foods' is .. etc.. Naming and vendor advertising on the planetary map finished for me when they got on there, and i got the reduction in fee's. If i look, I look in a general location adjacent to me.. If there is nothing I wait until I move on.
I think restocking tools are the biggest thing on my mind. If an item could be restocked with all details and pricing intact and the entire stockroom could be selected at once (like e-mail), it would be a good thing.. Copy/Pasting general descriptions is fine, but..
I think restocking tools are the biggest thing on my mind. If an item could be restocked with all details and pricing intact and the entire stockroom could be selected at once (like e-mail), it would be a good thing.. Copy/Pasting general descriptions is fine, but..
BountyBlunter
Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:40 am
#8
BzeHound wrote:So now that Merchants will be the only ones with multiple shops, and the profession is moving in a direction where Merchants will be more powerful, we should be able to advertise our vendors in multiple categories.On the vendor in my newest shop I have over 250 items in each of the following categories - Pharms, Weps, Deeds, Food, Resources, Armor, Pets, Clothes soon I'll have over 250 Droids as well. But I can only choose one category to advertise stuff in.So if we're really to become Merchants and our vendors will become sought after items, can we change the way that advertising works, somehow. Or do I just need to play russian roulette by stepping outside, wetting my finger, hold it up in the air and say "I think today people are looking for armor" then go in and list my vendor under armor and hope that most of the people looking for stuff to buy that day are looking for armor and just hope that people looking for Deeds, don't just pass my shop by????A little more thought is needed methinks before trying to piecemeal move Merchant into a more mainstream profession.Trajen
Probably been said times before, but.. Give the merchant vendor interface to the client in essence. Colour the catagory on the interface differently if any catagory/sub-catagory has an item available, also include that for the merchant.
It's not exactly planetary map, but it is intergalactic bazzar if they do drop by.
Elioi
Sun Jun 13, 2004 10:07 pm
#10
BzeHound wrote:
Elioi I'm talking about functionality for the Merchant (I'm Master Merch OK), I'm not talking about the crafter who has merchant so they can sell their own stuff. I'm referring to those that will try and do try to make the Merchant a Profession and not just a subset of skills.
I've invested the SP, I've got the houses, on multiple planets, now I just think it'd be nice to be able to advertise that in addition to over 400 pieces of furniture, I also have over 300 deeds, 500 pieces of armor 250 weapons, electronic components, powerups, droids, pets, medicines, loot, resources, bikes etc etc.
Or is the "direction of the community" that merchants are ONLY there to be an outlet for the items you have crafted yourself. If that's the case lets just call it the Proprietor profession.
I know, I'm talking about merchant functionality as well. And I think multiple listings would be great if used properly, particularly to fill the ADV 4 slot. But with the current grain and no vendor item limits how long untill we get whining like "I keep losing sales to these darn exploiters who put their vendor in every catagory while selling one thing!" and "Why do they get the benifits of my management skillpoints! I have skillpoints for each type of thing i'm selling, those cross sales should belong to me!"
Again I think its a good idea, but it would need a lot of safeguards against cross posting in every category regardless of stock to prevent listing chaos and whining.
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