Merchant Archive
Thread: merchant...
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Xieflow
Tue Apr 13, 2004 7:00 pm
#1
First: I used to be a master merchant (I believe I'm something like 4-4-0-0 now, slowly dropping skills for Carbineer skills). IMO, this could have been the COOLEST profession in the game, if done right (I enjoy businessy stuff). Unfortunately, after hitting master merchant, and only running 1 vendor, I decided I was wasting skill points (I ran 1 vendor for about 2 - 3 months, I had plenty of sales, however I realized I could make way more money only doing custom orders, looking specifically for high-end stuff, like krayt weapons). I feel sourly dissapointed with merchant, it could have been done *MUCH* better. Many of the ideas have been said before, however repetition is often the way to get things done (IE: If everyone keeps complaining about _____, the devs *DO* often eventually fix it. Weaponsmiths and Carbineers have both already had a few stuff fixed this way)
right now, the profession is pretty much a joke. You can "solo" most other professions, you can't "solo" merchant (As in just you, and only that profession). More vendors... which have pretty much two uses : More EXP, or "organization" because, oddly enough, too many players haven't figured out the "next page" button, or the filters on the left. More vendor types! How many people really take full advantage of all the races? Personally the only vendors I ever specifically picked (when I was master merchant placing vendors) were Human, Rodian, and Twi'lek. I've seen other players place wookies, mon calamari... all the player races... hardly ever the non-player races.
Also, the randomness in the looks of vendors is awful! I find myself placing terminals all the time 'cause I've never gotten a morbidly obese, balding terminal with the clothing of a clown.
Oh yeah, and then there are all the "misc" abilities that were dumped into merchant just out of convience (or so it seems), like the reduced maintenance (it seems like a holdover from the Miner profession they got rid of real fast in beta).
Right now, a merchant has pretty much 3 uses : Advertising III, merchant tents, and hiring IV (if you happen to get a vendor who isn't uber-ugly). Reduced maintenance is an ok bonus, but it isn't worth crying over if you have to drop the skills.
IMO, Merchant needs a facelift.
First, some viable sales related abilities. Such as : Force "premium" auctions to the first page of the bazaar (if there is room). IE: If you are selling resources in Coronet (which often has 6 - 7 pages of minerals alone), being on the first page can be a major boost in resource sales.
Next, for more advertising, have a "customization" ability for that "Congratulations!" E-mail your clients get when they purchase an item off the bazaar / your vendor. I usually ignore shouts in Coronet (unless I'm looking for buffs, then I scan the shouts for someone who is offering buffs), however when I purchase some iron at a nice price off the Coronet bazaar, and then get an e-mail right aftwards sent by the person selling it, with a shop waypoint attached, I'll often visit the shop (shops on the global map seem to be empty 99% of the time).
Oh yeah, and lets make our vendors look nicer, eh? Bump the vendor item customization at Hiring IV down to Hiring III, and then at Hiring IV offer an ability to /consentImageDesigner to edit your vendor!
What else? How about a skill for merchants at some point : "Mass Production". When placing a crate for sale on a vendor, put a check box "Sell Individually?" for players with the proper skill. If the box is checked, instead of showing up in the awful "crates" tab, the item within the crate will show up in the proper tab (IE: If it's a crate of laser rifles, it'll just show up with ONE laser rifle under the Rifles tab). If the item is bought, it'll drop the count in the crate by one, give the laser rifle to the customer, and put a new laser rifle up. It would basically involve teaching your stupid little vendor guy how to open a crate, and take an item out.
What were the devs saying? Lets drop server load by limiting the number of items per vendor? Maybe I wouldn't have to had list 30 Laser Rifles, 100 Modified Republic Blasters, etc etc on my vendor (when I ran one) if I could have done this crate thing.
Merchant tents are kinda cool... 1 lot to pop up a quick vendor helps, but I would like to see something a little of the... other direction. "Strip Malls" or whatever. Something that takes up an equivilent amount of lots as say something like a Cantina / Cloning Facility / Med Center, however it would have multiple divided rooms (like individual "shops"), could be registered on the global map (under a seperate section than the Advert 3 advertisings, in it's own section like Cloning Facilities, Cantinas, etc),which would make it more noticeable.
And how about some other merchant abilities to help you run a "business" selling many crafters wares (as it seems the profession was intended...). New vendor "abilities" unlocked up the management tree (on top of the maximum vendor increase). Something like adding admins on a building, however only allow crafters to list items up on your vendor (with a small auto-markup like you get with taxes). IE: Bypass the offer to vendor stage, and purchase stage. Let the crafter list his item directly onto your vendor. The problem with the offer to vendor stage is trust. If the crafter offers up his item at a price to make credits immediately, the merchant has to trust that the item will sell (at a markup), or, if the crafter offers the item up at one credit, for credits on sale, the crafter has to trust that the merchant will pay him (And you don't always get e-mails for sales
).
Another vendor ability: Sales. Allow the merchant to click a "Begin Sale" button which would discount the items by your vendor by a marked in amount (either percentage, or number of credits per item), and set the length of the sale (perhaps one week?)
And then, at a higher up skill box, allow the merchant to setup a sale for a specific group. Guild-only, race-only (Maybe a wookie sale for a week?), faction only (imperial sale?), etc. Even allow the merchant to limit sales to ONLY these people, if he/she wishes (Maybe you only want to sell your gear to rebels?).
Even allow the merchant to limit sales of maybe, 2 items per player, or something.
More options when listing an item up. Allow the merchant to perhaps put down a specific player name when putting the item for sale, so only THIS player can buy the item.
And, as the merchant climbs the merchant tree, in one line of boxes, have a steady increase to the auction price max on the bazaar. 6,000 at Novice Merchant, 12,000 at box 1, 24,000 at box 2, 48,000 at box 3, 96,000 at box 4, and 1,000,000 at master. There are too many problems with auctions on the trade forums : "stealth" bids (accepted through board PM, or in-game PM), deadbeat bidders (they never show up / pay for the item), travel (great! You won a nifty geno power cube for 8,000 credits. It'll cost you over 10,000 credits to travel to the planet the auctioneer is selling from, which you didn't know when you bid. You would at least know with the bazaar, and might even already be there), and, of course, sorting issues (I can't click "Ranged Weapon Components" and only see auctions for krayt-tissues, form-fitted stocks, and other weapon enhancements on the trade forum). IMO, the bazaar auction is an underutilized feature (*ALL* I've seen it is for advertising : The seller types in a shop location in the description, or even as the item name, and pulls the item when there is 1 day left)
Even allow a "vendor module" for droids! Yeah, there is the whole issue with movement, so why not force you to "install" the droid in-place (lock him in from moving) before you can activate his sales function. Limit these droid vendors to, say, 50 items, and don't let them work when they are out of power (and have an installed droid vendor take maybe 2-4 hours on one battery). Put a limit of say, 10 droid vendors within 25 meters of a starport (If you try to install a vendor, and it's already at the limit, then you can't put in more), 20 more vendors at 25 - 50 meters, and then unlimited after 50 meters away from a starport. For more "problem solving" : Maybe limit it to 200 droid-vendors per player city, require the player to purchase a limited time ticket to run a vendor (another money sink, too! Maybe 50,000 credits for under 25 meters to the starport in a busy city like Coronet for 2 hours, down to 1,000 credits for 2 hours in a small city like Anchorhead more than 50 meters from the shuttleport). When your time is up on your ticket, then don't allow the player to purchase another vendor-ticket for 4-6 hours (You pop on in the morning real quick before work/school/whatever, drop a vendor, and then go to your work/school/whatever. When you get home, you could pop on another vendor). Oh yeah, and if a droid vendor is empty, have it auto-store to avoid wasting room.
Oh yeah... we will get the Ad-Barking droid, I forgot. Sounds to me like it'll just add more AFK spam into Coronet. And why bother investing in the skill points for ad-barking, and the credits for a droid with the module, when it costs 0 skill points to write a quick "/shout COME TO MY SHOP AND BUY THIS JUNK; pause 5; /toolbarslot01" macro and run it.
What would really stand out (and make people want master merchant) would be alternative vendor interfaces! The current system would be the default, Business III in artisan. The next one you would earn would look just like that one on the left sidebar, however in the listings, it would look like an inventory, complete with the built-in examine window for fast comparison / viewing access. Even more choices at higher levels...
How about, at Advertising IV, instead of cheaper global advertising... "better" advertising. Allow the player to remotely view your wares. Also, auto-remove empty vendors from the global map. Have you looked under... say, "Weapons" on Corellia?
I'm sure I might have more ideas... but that's enough for now...
I doubt anyone will read all that oh well.
right now, the profession is pretty much a joke. You can "solo" most other professions, you can't "solo" merchant (As in just you, and only that profession). More vendors... which have pretty much two uses : More EXP, or "organization" because, oddly enough, too many players haven't figured out the "next page" button, or the filters on the left. More vendor types! How many people really take full advantage of all the races? Personally the only vendors I ever specifically picked (when I was master merchant placing vendors) were Human, Rodian, and Twi'lek. I've seen other players place wookies, mon calamari... all the player races... hardly ever the non-player races.
Also, the randomness in the looks of vendors is awful! I find myself placing terminals all the time 'cause I've never gotten a morbidly obese, balding terminal with the clothing of a clown.
Oh yeah, and then there are all the "misc" abilities that were dumped into merchant just out of convience (or so it seems), like the reduced maintenance (it seems like a holdover from the Miner profession they got rid of real fast in beta).
Right now, a merchant has pretty much 3 uses : Advertising III, merchant tents, and hiring IV (if you happen to get a vendor who isn't uber-ugly). Reduced maintenance is an ok bonus, but it isn't worth crying over if you have to drop the skills.
IMO, Merchant needs a facelift.
First, some viable sales related abilities. Such as : Force "premium" auctions to the first page of the bazaar (if there is room). IE: If you are selling resources in Coronet (which often has 6 - 7 pages of minerals alone), being on the first page can be a major boost in resource sales.
Next, for more advertising, have a "customization" ability for that "Congratulations!" E-mail your clients get when they purchase an item off the bazaar / your vendor. I usually ignore shouts in Coronet (unless I'm looking for buffs, then I scan the shouts for someone who is offering buffs), however when I purchase some iron at a nice price off the Coronet bazaar, and then get an e-mail right aftwards sent by the person selling it, with a shop waypoint attached, I'll often visit the shop (shops on the global map seem to be empty 99% of the time).
Oh yeah, and lets make our vendors look nicer, eh? Bump the vendor item customization at Hiring IV down to Hiring III, and then at Hiring IV offer an ability to /consentImageDesigner to edit your vendor!
What else? How about a skill for merchants at some point : "Mass Production". When placing a crate for sale on a vendor, put a check box "Sell Individually?" for players with the proper skill. If the box is checked, instead of showing up in the awful "crates" tab, the item within the crate will show up in the proper tab (IE: If it's a crate of laser rifles, it'll just show up with ONE laser rifle under the Rifles tab). If the item is bought, it'll drop the count in the crate by one, give the laser rifle to the customer, and put a new laser rifle up. It would basically involve teaching your stupid little vendor guy how to open a crate, and take an item out.
What were the devs saying? Lets drop server load by limiting the number of items per vendor? Maybe I wouldn't have to had list 30 Laser Rifles, 100 Modified Republic Blasters, etc etc on my vendor (when I ran one) if I could have done this crate thing.
Merchant tents are kinda cool... 1 lot to pop up a quick vendor helps, but I would like to see something a little of the... other direction. "Strip Malls" or whatever. Something that takes up an equivilent amount of lots as say something like a Cantina / Cloning Facility / Med Center, however it would have multiple divided rooms (like individual "shops"), could be registered on the global map (under a seperate section than the Advert 3 advertisings, in it's own section like Cloning Facilities, Cantinas, etc),which would make it more noticeable.
And how about some other merchant abilities to help you run a "business" selling many crafters wares (as it seems the profession was intended...). New vendor "abilities" unlocked up the management tree (on top of the maximum vendor increase). Something like adding admins on a building, however only allow crafters to list items up on your vendor (with a small auto-markup like you get with taxes). IE: Bypass the offer to vendor stage, and purchase stage. Let the crafter list his item directly onto your vendor. The problem with the offer to vendor stage is trust. If the crafter offers up his item at a price to make credits immediately, the merchant has to trust that the item will sell (at a markup), or, if the crafter offers the item up at one credit, for credits on sale, the crafter has to trust that the merchant will pay him (And you don't always get e-mails for sales
).Another vendor ability: Sales. Allow the merchant to click a "Begin Sale" button which would discount the items by your vendor by a marked in amount (either percentage, or number of credits per item), and set the length of the sale (perhaps one week?)
And then, at a higher up skill box, allow the merchant to setup a sale for a specific group. Guild-only, race-only (Maybe a wookie sale for a week?), faction only (imperial sale?), etc. Even allow the merchant to limit sales to ONLY these people, if he/she wishes (Maybe you only want to sell your gear to rebels?).
Even allow the merchant to limit sales of maybe, 2 items per player, or something.
More options when listing an item up. Allow the merchant to perhaps put down a specific player name when putting the item for sale, so only THIS player can buy the item.
And, as the merchant climbs the merchant tree, in one line of boxes, have a steady increase to the auction price max on the bazaar. 6,000 at Novice Merchant, 12,000 at box 1, 24,000 at box 2, 48,000 at box 3, 96,000 at box 4, and 1,000,000 at master. There are too many problems with auctions on the trade forums : "stealth" bids (accepted through board PM, or in-game PM), deadbeat bidders (they never show up / pay for the item), travel (great! You won a nifty geno power cube for 8,000 credits. It'll cost you over 10,000 credits to travel to the planet the auctioneer is selling from, which you didn't know when you bid. You would at least know with the bazaar, and might even already be there), and, of course, sorting issues (I can't click "Ranged Weapon Components" and only see auctions for krayt-tissues, form-fitted stocks, and other weapon enhancements on the trade forum). IMO, the bazaar auction is an underutilized feature (*ALL* I've seen it is for advertising : The seller types in a shop location in the description, or even as the item name, and pulls the item when there is 1 day left)
Even allow a "vendor module" for droids! Yeah, there is the whole issue with movement, so why not force you to "install" the droid in-place (lock him in from moving) before you can activate his sales function. Limit these droid vendors to, say, 50 items, and don't let them work when they are out of power (and have an installed droid vendor take maybe 2-4 hours on one battery). Put a limit of say, 10 droid vendors within 25 meters of a starport (If you try to install a vendor, and it's already at the limit, then you can't put in more), 20 more vendors at 25 - 50 meters, and then unlimited after 50 meters away from a starport. For more "problem solving" : Maybe limit it to 200 droid-vendors per player city, require the player to purchase a limited time ticket to run a vendor (another money sink, too! Maybe 50,000 credits for under 25 meters to the starport in a busy city like Coronet for 2 hours, down to 1,000 credits for 2 hours in a small city like Anchorhead more than 50 meters from the shuttleport). When your time is up on your ticket, then don't allow the player to purchase another vendor-ticket for 4-6 hours (You pop on in the morning real quick before work/school/whatever, drop a vendor, and then go to your work/school/whatever. When you get home, you could pop on another vendor). Oh yeah, and if a droid vendor is empty, have it auto-store to avoid wasting room.
Oh yeah... we will get the Ad-Barking droid, I forgot. Sounds to me like it'll just add more AFK spam into Coronet. And why bother investing in the skill points for ad-barking, and the credits for a droid with the module, when it costs 0 skill points to write a quick "/shout COME TO MY SHOP AND BUY THIS JUNK; pause 5; /toolbarslot01" macro and run it.
What would really stand out (and make people want master merchant) would be alternative vendor interfaces! The current system would be the default, Business III in artisan. The next one you would earn would look just like that one on the left sidebar, however in the listings, it would look like an inventory, complete with the built-in examine window for fast comparison / viewing access. Even more choices at higher levels...
How about, at Advertising IV, instead of cheaper global advertising... "better" advertising. Allow the player to remotely view your wares. Also, auto-remove empty vendors from the global map. Have you looked under... say, "Weapons" on Corellia?
I'm sure I might have more ideas... but that's enough for now...
I doubt anyone will read all that
oh well.
Balkstar
Wed Apr 14, 2004 11:53 am
#2
Man you are preaching to the choir.
Excellent points, and you will be happy to know that Doc has added most of these ideas to the Merchant woes list he presented to the devs.
Message Edited by Balkstar on 04-14-2004 11:53 AM
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