Request for the dev team. Re:Cf vendors

1) When would you have a vendor placed, but not space to put any storage?

2) Yes. That basically fixes everything.

3) Leave the commission so CF vendors are still the best, but charge the commission AFTER sale (duh) so commissioned vendors aren't totally broken and useless.

Problem solved.

 

Public vendors.

 

Agreed... number one doesn't makes sense... where would you place the vendor if you don't have a lot?

 

oh I see... I assumed the subject of the discussion were the Private Commissioned Vendors... sorry... I misunderstood...

 

Pretty sure this thread is about purchased commissioned vendors.

 

ah... okay... then number one doesn't make sense... you'll need a lot to place anything (vendor, containers, etc.)...

 

I am considering all vendors public, private as well as guild vendors, and friends vendors. There was no mention in the OP about purchased vendors vrs public vendors.

 

I will not use the Public Vendor as a Storage... listed items expire... I've lost a few items because I forgot about the expiration...

 

also, if used as a storage, Public Vendors suck... you can only store or make 10 listings... the bank is way better (for those who don't have land yet)...

 

should be small flat fee to list than 10% when it sells. getting more people using vendors that charge a fee as a gold sink I think would better for the game than the small number of people who would use them as storage.

 

Is that really that much of an issue? My row house has dozens of chests that hold 150 items and a vendor only holds 200. A bag costs 50 gold, a taxed vendor is what 10,000? Not a very effective use.

 

I could put everything I own and that includes all the deco from two player owned towns into 8 chests out of 40 you can place on a row lot.

8x300=2400 line items +600 (bank)

vendors cost 20k and you need said row house to place one.

 

Here's my experience the the vendors:
I started with a standard vendor. I didn't mind the commission so much as I did mind the inability to reprice items and conduct price discovery without a heavy penalty. And god forbid if you accidentally inventoried your vendor and he sent all items back to your bank for you to relist (and repay for).

So I did whole lot of mining. A WHOLE lot. I made enough in game gold to buy a commission free vendor from another player. The value of the CF vendor to me is the ability relist things at different prices with no penalty.

If the regular vendors had had a commission at sale policy with no relisting fees, I'd have probably not bought a CF vendor.

The idea that vendors would be used as storage under current game mechanics is silly. However, the real issue is the potential reduction of value for CF vendors by making regular ones more functional. For me, the at sale commission for regular vendors would devalue my CF vendor (and the substantial time I spent to obtain him).

All that being said, it probably is best for the game that new players feel like they have a competitive opportunity to participate in the economy. Changing the regular vendors to at sale commission would advance that idea. But it comes with a bit of sacrifice in the value of their CF vendor. Could be a slippery slope, though. What comes next; reduced tax rates on taxable deeds? Prosperity tools bought on NPC vendors? I think a change to vendors could put other ideas on the table aimed at making the game more accessible to basic accounts at the sacrifice of backer/bundle buyer value. It might actually be what's best for the health of the game, but everyone should consider the implications.

 

True if a public vendor, and I'm all for keeping the pre-paid commission there. We certainly don't want people using public vendors as storage.

But if they have access to a private CF vendor, why wouldn't they have access to put a chest on the same property? And right now the CF vendor limit is 200 items, which isn't even a full chest. If it's your vendor, why aren't you using a chest, and if it's not your vendor you are going to have to share that item limit with other people.

Seriously, the "people will use it as storage" argument only works at all for public vendors.

...and effort that you should not have had to go through just for the ability to re-price. The reason it would "devalue" CF vendors is simply because CF vendors are overpowered. As much as I hate to use the "pay2win" argument, CF vendors vs regular vendors is the one place where there is truly a pay-to-win difference.

I also think that 10% is really really steep, especially for non-public vendors, having come from a game where the fee was more like 1-2%. This makes CF vendors even more pay-to-win than they would otherwise be. I know they want gold sinks, but I think that 10%, even on a private vendor when the item doesn't sell, is really overdoing it.

Has anyone done a survey of public auction house fees on different MMOs? Note that I have no idea what UO did (because I never played UO, duh), so if the 10% is merely being carried over from UO, then maybe they should review it.

Good. Then just change the private vendors. I've seen public vendors be overloaded when the limits were lower before persistence, and the pre-paid fee helps prevent people from hogging the limit by listing items that they don't intend to sell.

 

Hmm, not sure how I feel about this topic.

On one hand, I want new players to have an option to sell some things without the hassles of public vendors or commissioned vendors. A new player is not going to know the market value for things and may easily overprice something. This will not only charge them a hefty 10% up front, but they will get charged again if they have to remove and relist it... or worse lose the item on top if they don't know about expirations on a public vendor. A few mishaps when first trying to establish a business could be detrimental and likely cause someone to quit the game.

On the other hand, these pitfalls were around when there were pledges and some of us upgraded our pledge(s) to get a CF Vendor because of those pitfalls. To change the way public and commisioned vendors (the ones you buy from NPC merchant) now would certainly devalue what some of us have paid for. And I'm not talking about a resale value or anything like that... I'm talking about what a CF Vendor would now be worth to me as a player for the lifetime of the game. Why did I pay for a benefit that could be given freely to everyone (if the penalties are changed/removed from public vendors)?

As someone who owns a CF Vendor or two and someone who is interested in getting and keeping customers to play the game... I'd be OK if they changed the commision cost to be when the item is sold and not at time of listing. I might even be ok if price adjustments were allowed for free (without having to re-list the item). I think that would be a fair compromise because it will still cost the player something if they don't own a CF Vendor but it won't gouge them if they need to adjust for the market.

 

You said the magic words! *Unwraps popcorn bag to put in microwave*

In all seriousness, everyone who plays this game has to accept that there are various ways to pay real money for advantage as an accepted practice in the game. It will always be difficult for the devs to balance 'fairness' vs 'virtual asset value'. I don't envy them these decisions, but this is the path they chose.

 

On thing that hasn't been said so far is that the Commissioned Vendors could have their prices raised to offset the huge gain in value they will receive by no longer being broken.

Currently CF Vendors are around 800,000 gold, while Commissioned Vendors are 20,000g. If I were buying another vendor, I think I'd seriously consider anything up to, and perhaps beyond, 100,000g if the commissions were charged after sale.

 

Im not trying to steal ur investment in CF vendors and I still want them to be good. Id just like new players not to feel like they are at to big of a disadvantage if they cannot afford the better vendor.

The post tax would be a huge step in the right direction.

 

I will admit that was the main reason I got two Edelmann pledges instead of a larger pledge. Close behind was the extra TF Village lot deed instead of a single Town deed. (I later ended up buying a TF Town from another player.) Having another alt with two logins at the same time was another benefit, but is mostly untapped potential right now.

 

I fully back this, I'm not worried about personally losing value, a healthy game is far more important. Everything is worth 0 if the game fails.

But games are about choices and balance. Once they fix the commission problem, a 20,000g vendor price isn't even a choice anymore, it's the obvious move. So perhaps the balance would be to raise their prices a bit. This might also appease anyone that might get their feathers ruffled because they are more sensitive to the value of their stuff.