Merchant Archive

Well I was thinking the other day about UO. I remember that the most successful shops in UO were the stripmalls. However Lo and Behold they aren't quite as easy to run here because every party involved needs merchant xp to have a merchant. Now you have the choice to sell to another player so he can host your wares, but why would people want to take a pay cut when they could do it themselves. So then it hit me. Merchant should be more of a support role.

Ok you have a Master Merchant with a shop. The merchant has the ability to place 7 vendors. Now you find Joe the weaponsmith that wants to sell his guns. So you add Joe to your vendor list for your shop. When a new player is added you get a screen that has a few stats.

1. How many of your vendors Joe can place. In this instance we'll say one. Also if Joe had the ability to place his own vendor you could choose whether or not he can place it. Everything is the same whether he uses your vendor or his own vendor. More importantly this allows you to choose how many vendors everyone runs in your shop.


2. How many credits per day it costs Joe to "rent" your space.


3. How much of a precentage per sale you get off of Joe's sales.


4. And finally how many credits it costs Joe to start the contract. This way if you have a desirable shop you can charge 10,000 credits to join. Contracts can last for any length of time and then they would have to be renewed. To stop exploits contracts cannot be cancelled once initiated by either party.

When you finish the "contract" Joe gets to see it and either hits accept or decline. Now Joe can place one of your vendors in your shop. Joe runs the vendor and you get a kickback on it. Now the hiring and efficiency line is used by Joe. So Joe can place any of the vendor choices you have access to. Alsobecause you have reduce vendor costs, Joe gets to take advantage of it.

What this will do is allow other players to drop Merchant. If you are only running one vendor then it would be more beneficial to seek out a merchant. Finally it also encourages running stripmalls which are good for all parties involved, buyer and seller.

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Flatfingers wrote:

This would encourage stripmalls. (Though I'm a little fuzzy on this one...tellme again whywe want to encourage strip malls?)

--Flatfingers

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It helps with selling more items. If everything a player wants is in one location they tell their friends. It's easier for combat oriented players to decide to go buy a gun and then while they're looking pick up a new piece of armor at the same time or maybe some powerups. Basically it is just a great way to increase foot traffic to a single entity.

I really like this suggestion, as it combines a couple of the ideas I've offered recently: shops, and contracts. The notion of multi-vendor shops solves a number of minor problems, but I could live without it. It's the notion of being able to create long-term, ongoing contracts that has the most promise for making the Merchant professionworth learning.

I would like to to propose some minor tweaks to Rath's suggestions, howeve:

1.I think there really must beway for playersto terminate a contract. One possibility not far removed from Rath's initial proposal is for players to be able to agree on a termination clause based on hitting some preset limit, either on units sold or credits earned. Maybe two players agree that the contract will last until 10 droids are sold, or until the seller makes 10,000 credits, or until the merchant makes 1,000 credits. At that point the contract is considered fulfilled, and it ends. If the players want to continue their joint business operations, they can write another contract.

Another approach, which I suggested elsewhere, would be to set up an escrow account into which both players place some amount of money when they write a contract. Once the contract is agreed to by both parties, then either party can-- at any time and for any reason -- choose to breakthe contract, at which point the other party receives all the money in the escrow account. I like this idea as it's a real incentive to honor contracts and minimize griefing, but I'd say the "pre-set" contract termination agreement described above still needs to be implemented, too, otherwise someone gets forced to break the contract.

2. Artisans should lose the ability to place vendors, which should be Merchant-only. This would further promote the use ofcontracts, helping the Merchantplay amore meaningful rolein SWG. It does constitute a nerf of the Artisan, but there really should have been a more distinct split between crafting (Artisan) and selling (Merchant) to begin with. It's not wrong for Artisans to have some minor skill related to selling; it just shouldn't be something as powerful as vendors, which (assuming the suggestions above were followed) relate directly to contracts, a putatively Merchant-only skill.

3. Shops built near each other should get reductions to their costs in the same way that home maintenance costswill be lowered by building houses near each otheronce player cities are implemented. This would encourage stripmalls. (Though I'm a little fuzzy on this one...tellme again whywe want to encourage strip malls?)

Comments?

--Flatfingers