Concerning the topic of cloned vendors who « sleep outside ».

As you may know, this is a concern that has already been raised here.
1. Vendors are all clones.
2. Most of the time, they get outlandish names like « CHEAP SCROLLS » (with caps lock, of course).
3. They are all placed outside the houses.
4. Then, every buyer has to go to each vendor to check all the available goods and their prices in each town.
Total : no immersion at all and opacity of supply. That's why videos such as @Kabalyero 's ones are very useful. I think this is a problem for the game and I think that it’s fairly simple to solve.

The uncloning vendor solution :
That has already been said. Player owned vendors will be personalized soon. This will solve the "1. Vendor are all clones" problem, but every other problem will stay as it is.
Also, personalized vendors means performances implications. It could be not very satisfying.

The marketplace solution :
To avoid having to travel miles and filling excell sheets, all vendos in the same city should be able to be at the same place.
One of the solutions would be that Portalarium allow every players to place their vendors wherever they want in a limited space corresponding to the market place in each town. In POTs, the governor could have a marker (like every lot marker), corresponding to the market place. There would be no deed claim on it. That would only situate the zone where player owned vendors can be placed.
Problem solved : 4th only.
First problem : This would break the lot placement market. Some people used thousands of dollars to buy a spot for their lot deeds. Of course Portalarium never said that the current system would be definitive, but those people would undoubtedly be very dissatisfied.
This means that the marketplace solution must be optional.
Others problems : That would not solve :
1. the clone problem,
2. the outlandish names problem,
3. the « vendors sleeping outside » problem.
Personaly, I don’t think that is a good solution, but I had to speak about that.

The public vendor « franchise » solution :
Each vendor and commission free vendor could be transformed into some sort of « deed ». Each deed would allow each player to place a limited number of orders and goods in the public vendor inventory. The commission would be free for those who have commission free deeds. This way, there would be only one vendor to check in town for the buyer and everyone would have the same chance to sell or buy things. Someone who lives in a city might choose to sell in another city. In POTs, the governor would only have to place a public vendor in the town.
Problems solved : 1st, 2nd and 4yh
First problem : This would break the lot placement market. This means that the public vendor franchise must be optional.
Second problem : In the biggest towns, the public vendor inventory would take a while to be loaded and would be a pain to check with tens of thousands of selling offers.
Other problems : That would not solve :
3. the « vendor sleeping outside » problem as long as the public vendor is part of this.
Personaly, I don’t think that is a good solution, but I had to speak about that.

The specialized vendor « franchise » solution :
The franchise idea could be used with the carpenter vendor, the blacksmith, and every other specialized vendor in town. Those vendors would refuse every item which is not created with the proper skill. In POTs, the governor would only have to place the NPC vendors already available. That would heavilly mitigate the second problem of the public vendor « franchise » solution.
First problem : This would break the lot placement market. This means that the public vendor franchise must be optional.
Every other problems would be solved as well, because those specialized vendors generaly have proper names and are living inside a few shops (except in some POTs).
Personaly, I think that is a good solution, as long as the player can use the deed to place his own vendor or use the specialized ones. Each player should be allowed to choose.

Feel free to add your own ideas below. I made a poll and I don't know if I will be able to add more options, but I'll do that if that's possible. Also keep in mind that combos are possible (optional 4th solution with personalized vendor for those who don't use it).

 

My old stopgap solution suggestion until a proper one is in place:

Iteration 1

Replace the current Commission Free Vendor with an Automaton visual like the ones in Soltown.
Not only does this explain the cloning factor of them all looking the same - it also makes it an in game reason for them not costing a commission. Plus it makes it less weird that they are standing outdoors 24/7.​

Iteration 2

Then replace the 'edvard' clone for in-game-gold Vendors with one of the more basic NPC merchant looks, and name that "Hired Male Vendor". For I think it is 20 000g.​

Iteration 3

Then add to all places that sell the "Hired Male Vendor" the "Hired Female Vendor" of the same type but female for the same price.​

Iteration 4

Then add to all places that sell the vendors a "Fancy Male Vendor and a "Fancy Female Vendor" with the matching merchant looks from NPCs, BUT for +50% higher price, like 30 000g.​

​

Iteration 5+
Wait on making a long term solution.


(If I were portalarium I would then keep that going forward as the way that Commission Free Vendors look - where if you want to have cool looking ones you have to get commissioned ones.)

 

@Hornpipe

Have cast my vote but where was the news that the vendors are going to be uncloned soon ? Hope so as it really bugs me along with all the beggers, women in red dresses etc all being identical as well. How hard can it be to inject at least some variety ? @DarkStarr

 

I cant see a problem at all and I dont think that a change is needed.
[Dracheninsel Hanse] has placed his 30 Vendors all over Novia and after Release we will fill and advertise them in and outside the game on our website and in forums.
With the planned features from Port we are good to go.

 

one more concern i recall from previous discussions: the ability to see whether a vendor has things to buy, things to sell, both, or neither without engaging with him.

prev thread

 

Note that this doesn't solve the "outlandish names" problem.

 

To solve the "outlandish names" problem: When a user places a vendor, they should (in addition to having options for visual customization) be allowed to select one of, say 200 common names. In addition, there should be a description field where the player can specify which wares the vendor is selling. So I might have my vendor, whose name Jacob is displayed above his head, and underneath his name there is a short custom description: Jacob <Furniture and Houses, buying wood>, or Elisabeth <Rares and Rewards, buying COTOs and ore>.

Empty vendors should display an (inactive) tag above their heads (and possibly after being empty for a week be deeded again and end up in their owners' bank box), so the user skips clicking on them and waiting for the non-existant list of wares to load.

While considering myself to be a hardcore roleplayer, I never really had an issue with vendors "sleeping" outside. They are NPCs, part of the game mechanics, not a real part of my roleplaying world. But that is just my personal way of dealing with them and with other unrealistic features of this game. If we really want a solution to that, I guess giving each vendor a stand-in would be an option: When I configure my vendor Jacob, at the same time and with the same vendor deed I configure his stand-in Joel, who has a different appearance but the same goods. Half of the day you can buy stuff from Jacob, and the other half of the day you can buy from Joel. Yes, having people stand in front of a house in the cold and rain to work for 12 hours without a break is still to be considered slavery, especially in the case of commission free vendors, but at least that way each vendor gets some freetime and sleep.

About the rest, I'm not sure. On the one hand it is very userfriendly to avoid having to run around to find vendors, and to be able to compare prices immediately. On the other hand this really will force standardized prices on sellers, if they want to be able to sell at all. If I price a rug at 500 gold where the six other people who sell the same rug on the same vendor or on a vendor standing right next to mine price it at 400 gold, I probably won't sell it. This might also allow people who can afford selling stuff for lower than the production cost to force others with more realistic prices out of the market. At the same time it will probably take away the triumphant feeling a buyer sometimes gets when he finds a player vendor in some hidden alley that sells stuff at ridiculously low prices...

But then again I like the idea of my vendor Jacob to stand in a warm and cozy market hall, in his booth right between Mary's booth and Sigrid's booth, happy because a lot of customers come to the market hall. And in the evenings he might retreat to one of the small bedrooms upstairs, while his stand-in Joel takes over the night shift...

Oh and for those who prefer selling on their own lot, they should of course be allowed to continue doing so. Perhaps some will place one vendor in the hall and one on their lot, and give the vendor in the market hall directions for prospective customers to find their owner's other shop. Yes, I think this sounds good. So I'll vote for the market idea.

 

My comment would be for player owned towns we dont get to put vendors down on the town they have to go on lots, so how would these nice ideas work for all player owned towns.

Part of me would want a player owned town lot whichis "the market place" where all vendors can be placed

 

Liz, I think it would be very cool if every POT owner would get one, or perhaps for a large POT even two market places or market halls to place like the oracle confirmatory or the NPC tavern. The size and maximum allowance of vendors could depend on POT size, and perhaps could be upgraded through the add-on store. Then automatically every player who owns a lot in the POT should get the option to place one vendor per ownd lot in the market, and perhaps additionally the POT's governor could add others to the list of people who can place vendors.

 

So, say a crossroads village gets by default an outdoors market place with 30 vendor slots. The POT's owner could now purchase several upgrades, like make it a market hall (indoor market) for 30 USD, or upgrade it to an outdoors market with 50 vendor slots for 35 USD, and so on. Mind you I have no idea about realistic prices, just giving an example. This would allow governors to invest in making their POT a supreme market town, if they so wish, and it'll give Portalarium another thing to sell for fundraising.

 

We have very good suggestions here. I try to keep up with the poll but that's not so easy

 

the vendors can almost be like the tennant system it seems in a way the codes halfway there anyway

 

Something needs to be done to relieve the problems before things get out of control!

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...36-unreliable-travel-guide.74194/#post-722957

 

Vendors suck. I cannot say I ever bought anything off of a vendor and only looked at a couple in high traffic areas out of curiosity.

The deliberately inefficient market of running to each vendor and scrolling through their wares is not a method I will ever use. As far as I'm concerned there is no player economy and they might as well be removed completely. They are useless eyesores.

Correction, the player economy takes place a couple forums down from this discussion with $$$. A nice efficient worldwide market.

 

I guess I'll be the counterpoint and say that I've been going from POT to POT looking for obscure vendors and curiosities.

 

I voted: Switching vendor appearance for day/night

During the day he's a boring guy who could use a shave, but during the night..oh my.

 

lolbroek

 

My vendor, Slapping Bird, is a dear friend of the owner of the tavern in which he resides. He has a meal, his ale, some shelter, and a big comfy chair to lounge in. He also has a room in the apartment complex below the tavern. He even has a website.

You cant really control what people name their elements in the game, so naturally people are going to pollute the scene with self interest at times. CHEAP GOODZ 4 SALE is a stupid name for a character and degrades the game experience, but I dont think that behavior should be controlled either (solution is just like real life - dont shop there!).

I think players should commit to bringing their vendors to life. We need help from the dev team to do this, so custom outfits, automaton-like behavior, and day/night schedule are a decent start. I think we should have some limited programability as well, like being able to script where they walk, things they say spontaneously, and bits of dialog they have for other people. Id like my vendor to be able to tell you his story, if you click through the keywords for it. Until then, Ill just print a book and leave it conveniently next to him, titled "Slapping Bird's Journal".

Im not fond of the whole marketplace idea for one reason - I built my tavern and chose its location just so I could have NPC vendors there that greet you and serve you food. I plan on buying other vendors purely to immerse and enhance the experience of being in my tavern. I would not like to see my tavern emptied of cooks and waitstaff! I want to visit your establishments as well, and see the colorful characters youve created for everyone to experience as well!

This game isnt about being king of a pile of virtual reality currency to me, its about creating immersive virtual experiences. I dont like the cruft people have created with vendors, and I feel the same about the marketplace ideas - youre trying to focus so hard on maximizing profits in the virtual economy that youre willing to sacrifice actual game elements and content for it. WTF is the point? Just go join the world of finance and do that IRL, its a lot more rewarding than doing it in SOTA lol.

This just game me a great idea - can we get another feature added to the poll: AdBlock Plus for SOTA - block all the crass, immersion breaking vendors from the game, and only display vendors that present themselves as immersive elements/actual-NPCs

 

My vendor is usually named "Water for the lazy." If it is named something else the name includes whatever I don't want to buy bankslots to store (or chests to hold) and the date that I last stocked it.
If there was an quick (because opening a vendor takes forever for the dialog to refresh sometimes.) It seems that performance and UI functionality make it hard to support the game experience you want. I hope that the team sees fit to support you because that would make for a better game.

 

I have been a fan of the marketplace solution for years. It seems like the best way to give all players an opportunity to have "a good spot" while also giving visiting players the ability to find all the active vendors without playing where's waldo.

As an added bonus, if your vendor is in the marketplace that might potentially freeing up a pet spot on your lot.

It seems reasonable to me that ALL players could pay some type of fee to add a vendor to the marketplace for a period of time (probably 1 week).

But really the big problem as I see it now is more about the fact that all the vendors look the same. We really need the ability to change what vendors look like regardless of the long term solution.