Gear Seems Harder To Get

[*b00seven]

Junathoraxus is always available for merchanting (basically just to help newer players out).

One thing I have noticed is that it is very rare to have any players by anything other than top tier. I have a ton of 'electrifier fodder' which I would happily sell cheaply to newer/younger players, or even give up for RP if someone can IC convince a dragon they are worthy.

[*Sunshine]

One thing I have noticed is that it is very rare to have any players by anything other than top tier.

This.

Most are not interested in low tier enchants either.

[*Sinlinara]

And if as a merchant you want high activity, why not come up with some theme "events" while being a merchant? Discount tickets, lottery for everyone that has bought with at least X amount of gold, I don't know... garlic festival for all the vampires? Merchandize doesn't need to be the main event, it can be  supplementary avenue while trying to keep other characters around with a daily theme.

The most likely outcome of a lottery I can imagine is the winner buying their items, going off to grind for a few hours, and then logging off so that I can never actually give them their winnings. I think most players just want their transactions over and done with so they can move on with their lives. The alternative is that if they all did stay you'd get 5 or 6 people standing around, clustering, and warding off other potential customers.

As for the discounts... well, I can make a pretty convincing argument for why it might work being a psychology student and all, but I can also see its efficacy not being nearly what you would expect. There are a few reasons for this. To begin with, a potential customer first has to have a need or desire for an item. If someone already has all of the best gear then why would they want to spend gold on things they already have? Another mitigating factor is that someone who does want and need gear will already want and need that gear, so selling at a discount will at best incentivize them to buy from you over another merchant for less.
Where I see the idea of discount tickets working best is with consumable items. Offering a reduced cost of Greater Potions and stuff like that; things that people wouldn't normally consider but might if they were told they (specifically them) were being offered it at a reduced price this one time and that in the future they would have to pay an increased price.


As an aside, my own personal reaction as a player to seeing that some merchant was having a special event would probably be to avoid them. Being the introverted sort of person I am, I'd much rather avoid all the fuss about some special thing they're doing and I would feel like I'd have to push through that in order to get what I actually wanted from the merchant.

[*Plaxy100]

One thing I have noticed is that it is very rare to have any players by anything other than top tier.

This.

Most are not interested in low tier enchants either.

The problem with low tier enchantments is what I call the magic world with easily accessible mage spells paradox. Heck often times I avoid armors with less than a +6 enchantment and get 3 special abilites cause improved Mage armor wand< this line of thinking could be fixed by setting a check on the spell and reducing the bonus by the base armor of what one is wearing. In pnp the spell doesnt stack with armor cause if it did then a party could run around in +6 fullplate at level 5. Technically only the cleric spell should temoparily increase armor and shield enchantments.

Weapons are a bit different theres no wand thats gonna give ya better than +2 for any decent amount of time. Then again if im playing cleric or mage class meleer then im better picking up a weapon wirh 3 damage types or effects as i can easily buff the weapon up afterword..

A bit of rant but this is where the crux and no desire for low tier equipment comes from.

[*Spider Queen]

I'd say my biggest complaint is how hard it is to level alone. Simply put, it can't be done without massively powerful gear...Jeneesa can't do it at all and Salmora relies on summons with limited time-spans of activity, and some of them even require buffing to be effective. The "Gate" spell summon can't handle the Abyss without buffs because its AC leads to it getting hit a lot while its activating its divine might or something so it's down 1/4 health before it even starts swinging in a good crowd...

I don't like having to schedule my play according to when I can rope someone into going somewhere with me...and with some characters that isn't an RP opportunity because they might be disinclined to work with others of certain alignments. It's jarring to have a Chaotic Evil character and a Lawful Good character working together and takes you out of your RP.

[*Neethanial]

This is why Clanggedin invested a bunch of time into the scry tool. The LFG option in there, along with showing your level, lets people know from a glance that you need help, and (concept permitting) a lot of people would be happy to help out. Even if it's with an alt.
Hell, I've remade Kriegan more than a dozen times into the exact same build just to help new players level lol. Every time he falls asleep, he forgets himself. Just a little :P

[*Ariella]

On my opinion the best solution is to make merchanting easier. I mean it has already been mentioned here and there that it's cumbersome. Sure there will be the nay-sayers that argue there's already massive benefits for merchanting, as it is the most profitable thing to do, which is true. But at the same time, merchants do provide an integral service, so I'm not one to argue. They enable people to do so much more too.

Current chest system is great, but at the same time very time consuming to place down. You need a massive amount of chests for easy categorization for customers, then the chests need to be named for marketing purposes and such, then select bag to put merchant content into etc. Why not instead simplify it by condensing a lot of those features? I have mentioned it in the past too:

Make a new bag, which also creates container, copying the name of the container, and setting the bags contents to be merchant items inside the new container. Practically making it a quick one click job to create a ready to browse chest.


Another aspect is to sell your 'decent' wares for people fairly cheaply. And that means even the lesser merchants. The more competition there is, the better, as that'll keep prices in check. And that may help your new characters too. If they are items even you wouldn't buy, I'd just chuck them to NPC merchant however.

That's why i no longer set up most of the time, It takes to long. Fix that and i would set up a few times a week.

[*Bogus]

And for lower tier gear there really ain't that much merchant RP to preserve. "I would like this +3 longsword, sir." "That will be 3000 gold." "Welp I can't afford that, another time." "K." I notice most PC merchants don't do the whole.. Haggling thing. So not much merchant RP yo.

That price is absurd. Were you seriously given such an offer? +3/+4 is barely worth the 300 you get by lugging them to the npc vendor... I girt my teeth every time I see a blank +5 for more than 2-3k (mind you, I'm guilty of trying once myself; closed down my stall from shame very fast).

I think the bigger problem is that there is little point in bothering to sell (what do you do with all that jink anyway)... so you end up hoarding bags of loot you'll never use. Or just randomly give it to others.

And there is no chance of resale of lower tier items because what merchant will bother to buy a blank +5 (or less)?

Edit: Updated the price to save my teeth a bit.

[*Niryain]

I got charged 2k for +0 mundane full plate once and I'm saying this with a straight face. Different merchants have different price points in mind for items and it's been veering up lately because of minimal competition, among other things I imagine.

[*Nimiane]

It only takes 5-10 minutes tops to set up a stall. I don't have much gear, so honestly I can get it done in three. My character isn't a 'merchant' per say, but I do buy, sell and trade what is found. I always try to sell at an affordable price though, usually on par with what the enchanting cost would be. Most of the time, not always. Lemons and clueless also get a bit of special pampering.

Additionally, I always leave it up to the buyer to haggle if they wish to. Depending on the item, they'll get an IC response and additional banter! Generally though, it's not the merchant that would offer to haggle, it's the buyer who would offer a counter price. What merchant is going to undercut themselves?