God I hate Dead Vendors

Can I get an Amen?

Running past 10 vendors who haven't logged in since the market crash, and have everything at 10x realistic prices? Screwing their neighbors over because no one comes around anymore due to how many useless vendors you have to check before you find one good one?

(And this is also why I always Date my updates.)

 

I've started to date my vendor as well....lots of dead vendors out there that have been picked over already. It's been about 7 months since the last wipe and I think people just got burned out with the current content, but will be back for the official launch.

 

I was thinking about this. Maybe vendors could subtly get darker as they go without update, or be slightly brighter for a couple days after update

 

This is why we need global or regional search, there are WAAAAY too many vendors in too many towns to search for the good deals/gear in all the trash.

And I dont claim to be helping, though my house/vendor is (intentionally) away from the nearest neighbor.

 

That.... is a really good idea.

 

Or maybe just be able to hover your cursor over them and see a simple number that says "63 Item for Sale" or something.

 

There are a few Player Owned Town market places, without dead vendors... because the governors would evict, the newest is Novia Market governed by @Bamboozle .

 

I don't think you can rely on that in the slightest. I've spoken with plenty of people who have decided the game "is what it is", there's no more wipes coming, and they've decided it's not for them. They aren't returning.

 

they def need to do something to indicate the quality / freshness of vendors... maybe their beards grow longer and longer when they aren't updated/refreshed or purchased from... so clean shaven vendors are the best

 

Moss then vines should grow on them if nothing is bought hahaha

 

I like this idea a lot! I like how the POT map icons were updated so you can tell which ones are busier, this would be even more helpful. Plus it would encourage people to price to sell, helping the market.

 

maybe active vendors could do emotes and stuff to get players attention?

 

While you may not believe it, my opinion is based off of conversations I've had as well. Of course we are probably talking to different people. We don't talk about wipes because it's persistence and most I know don't want to cut off their nose despite their face, losing almost half a year's of work. The people I know don't want to redo the old....they want to explore something new.

Let's pretend the last wipe was a soft launch. Most people I know who heavily play an MMO at launch get bored 6-7 months in. They go away for a change of pace and come back for large episodes or expansions. Some never come back of course but that it doesn't mean they hated it, they just 'won the game'. It's an inherent MMO problem, keeping that fresh feel. That and end game content, but that's another story.

For those grinding since wipe we are around that same timeframe of boredom. It's perfectly normal. To me, it seems those who really protested the game for what it is had left already as most of the game is already finished.

 

This is a job for @Kabalyero

 

Absolutely, if we're talking in general, those are all MMO issues; all are things that happen. I agree with you. There's just this persistent idea on the forum that come launch, a huge influx of people will arrive from over the next hill.

And my comment is, I don't see that happening at all. Only time is going to show if my hunch is right, of course, but I've got a nose for this and the reasons why many people have left don't really leave the door open to their returning.

There was a time when the vibe was, "When we go persistent, people will come back... that's all they want; persistence..." And what happened? We started with a large-ish group (for SotA), which evaporated in less than 6 months.

 

Sota hit the same thing that all mmorpgs do. People play as long as the game is fun for their motivation to play.

Whether they play to pad their characters level, net worth or leaderboard rank or to work through the story content.

Of those all the systems were principally in at last wipe except the story. And I have to say as a quester to this day I can't be bothered to do quests in this game because the clicky chat system (even with changes) and the actual quests are neither interesting or rewarding.

For loot the core design was that nothing dropped off mobs would be very good, it would all be crafted gear so they eliminated the play for drops almost completely from the start (and the pure gold earn rate is set to increase more with your ability to kill quickly than your ability to kill higher tier mobs).

For playing for level this is the first game where progression in theory has no cap which I like (usually games have a fear of players getting too strong for he pvp they felt they had to include for whatever dumb reason) but the return on time and the xp curve gets ridiculously steep about 5 months into where a "plays a lot" player can get. I looked at the spreadsheet earlier this week to go up 10al I need twice the amount of new xp than I have total already for my skills to go up 1% to 5%.

So why do I play? Aside from boredom I don't have a clear answer. But I intend to double the number of things I have gmd this weekend for ...reasons.

 

I have several ideas in regards to empty vendors...Make an addendum to a vendor name as such; <My vendors name>{Empty}. A hoverover could give Last Activity Date; Now there's a good LAD! Additionally I think Vendor malls would make things much easier for people. Each town could have a centralized Vendor Mall in which residents could rent a stall to sell their wares. If a vendor remains empty for say more than 1 week, that vendor is removed and the player will have to start the renting process over. These centralized Vendor Malls should have teleporters/gates, or some other form of transport, to the vendor mall. This way, players don't have to traverse the entire map to shop. Players can still have vendors at their homes and if people like wht they see you could Right-Click on the vendor and get directions to the owners house(not unlike the markers for house Lots.)

 

If this is true (and it might be for some) the problem will resolve itself as deeds will eventually autoevict and send all those vendors to the bank.

Add a date for that indicating the last update, and that would work. A visual cue as others suggested might be more fun.

For me, I tried to update my vendor at least once a week in the beginning, but as sales were infrequent and I had such limited time to grind, I found it better to do it every few weeks. I will typically go weeks without a sale, and then have a single person clear out half my inventory. So, for me, the lack of updating a vendor is partially a demand issue.

 

What about have the vendor holding a clipboard or such in front of him about waist height and have a piece of paper on it. fresh sharp looking piece of paper means vendor has been interacted with by the owner recently and worn dirty / scratched up pieces of paper could mean no interaction recently and no paper at all would mean empty.

 

Animation wise, it might be easiest to simply have the vendor 'sit' after two weeks of no new listings.