Merchant Archive

ok so here are my thoughts on how the Devs could change the profession of Merchant to make it better for crafters and customers alike. The original idea behind the Merchant class was that it would be completely independant from any crafting class. It was meant to be a player who worked in partnership with crafters to sell things to consumers. If this were to be emphasized more, I think it would be beneficial to sellers and buyers alike. The following are some ideas as to how this would be implemented:

a) It would bring more commodities to single locations - all of the most successful merchants were people who had a number of crafters working for them, so they could put all the items up for sale at a single location, allowing for the one=stop shopping experience. A person who plays SWG for PvE or PvP combat does not want to have to search far and wide for obscurefood or a specialized suit of armour, so collectivize the vendors. In order to accomplish this, you may need to put a restriction on this class so that a crafter could not be a merchant as well for this to work effectively.

b) A consignment concept may be put into place - It may be a good idea to place either a global rate or a customizable rate on the amount of money a crafter will receive from his/her sales. The merchant would require a cut of the profits for stocking and vendor maintenance fees, but id say the crafter should receive the lion's share of the proceeds for obvious reasons.

c) More interactive merchant droids/vendors - This could be implemented to allow a customer to find exactly what they are looking for. Perhaps a more user-friendly radial menu filter could be implemented.

d) More description on vendors - All that a customer has to go on for the contents of a vendor when search on the planetary map is it's name. I think this is a big flaw, especially since there is so much that cannot be written in the name due to the ultra-conservative profantiy filter place.

So these are just a couple ideas on how the system could be revamped. Please feel free to add your own comments and contribute any ideas you can to this thread.I think this profession could use a top-down overhaul, so with enough feedback, we can make a change!

thanks for listening to my rant!

-Stormy

For in-game contact, PM any of my toons, Tyress, Hurricane or Stormii - Thanks