Vendor Variations & Improvements

Personally, instead of a cash register or vendor, just have the merchant replaced by a vending machine.

 

I agree with pretty much everything here. I am all for doubling the amount of cfv, but I also think most people greatly overestimate their value. I have many vendors in many locations. Despite that, the way I sell the majority of my stuff is just advertising in player channels/forums and meeting up with other players for trades. People have this idea that if you have a cfv that loads of people come and buy your stuff and that really isn't true. However, the more cfv out there, the better. More people willing to share them with new players via renting, inns, guild vendors, pot shared vendors etc the better off everyone is.

A vending machine makes more sense than an unattended cash register.

 

Heh, that's funny because i tested a couple of locations and there are tremendous differences between locations. But you are correct, the easiest way to sell stuff is on the forum and that's comission free. Always. ^^

 

I think it might be a good thing. And I'm on both sides of this, as I have two CFV from my own pledges, and bought one recently for IGG. I certainly wouldn't mind it happening, even if it means the person I bought the third vendor from gets the CF register, but I think the change in gold sinks might be more of an issue than the change in market POT dynamics.

Then again, a lot of people are sharing CF vendors through guilds, so there is a lot of gold sink bypass already. The gold sink would still apply for people using the "centrally" located public vendors, and more CFVs in the form of registers might mean more guild vendors. That might even be a good thing when population starts to (hopefully) arrive in a few months, and (hopefully) starts to fill in the "backwater" towns. They still wouldn't have the common location advantage of the public vendors, and while current "entrance row" areas would still get the same traffic, now more towns would have people taking advantage of such areas.

This can't be done because it requires new code to support it, which I understand they already want to do someday, but not soon. If they could do this, we would already have it.

It needs to be an appropriately Victorian steampunk-themed vending machine, of course. And again, this would go along with the idea of vendor skinning, if there were some way that you could apply a skin sort of like a pattern, and still be able to remove it.

Skinning might be a way to make this work. I suppose a gear menu with something like the house/basement changer would work, and it could also add useful options for the vendor. Then the ornate version would literally be just the ornate register skin as a deed item. And so would the Victorian version, and yes, even the vending machine.

It still doesn't inherently deal with the "sometimes an NPC" issue with animated humanoid vendor vs register/machine, but it is better than having dozens of individually themed vendor objects, some CF and some not, and lets you apply any of them to a CFV. I like the cleanness of this idea enough to live without getting more CF vendors, just from avoiding all the design headaches I see from a proliferation of vendor styles as distinct objects.

And for those who just want to use the register as deco, the "deed" skin could perhaps be placeable as a standalone, inoperable cash register. I think the NPC skins (Victorian, etc.) might have to be specifically not be placeable as such to avoid confusing players, but I'd leave that for the devs to decide.

Hmm, one more thing, this might could even be expanded to the "NPC servant" that some pledges get. Then you could apply the android or squire skins to a vendor, for instance. But it would need to be done in a way such that people who bought the NPC would be the ones to get the skin. Perhaps the current NPC items could be used as the skins, or default to "containing" the original skin that could be removed.

 

Musings for @DarkStarr

• If the cash register doesn't count as an NPC you will have as many in the store as the limit. If there is no limit then you will have 100 cash registers in every row.
• It's nice of you to give them away
  • But it's probably breaking your brain figuring out how. We've already got the fancy toy of customizing our vendors coming, it wouldn't kill us to have to buy the cash registers
• Functionality: The cash register should contain the Buy and Sell lists of the entire store, all vendors on the property. It is the central hub, just like in RL.
  • Castle lots can have 6 vendors right now, how handy to be able to go to the cash register and access all of them at once?
    • Vendors now have movement, but we won't have to chase them because the register has all items on it.
    • You could then use this to allow players to buy from NPC stores when the proprietor is asleep, if you like.

 

Purchasing vendors now is limited to bundles. If they add them to the bundles then they need make it retroactive. If they don't add them to the bundles then they would be allowing people to buy vendors on there own which probably isn't something they want either. Maybe a new bundle I suppose?

 

Right. See the next part, where I suggested they are a window into all other vendors on the property, not a vendor themselves.

 

Make cash registers much less stockage than NPCs, like 10 items max.
People will dedicate cash registers into categories like foods, regs, mats, weapons, etc
Adding some signs and that'll be great =)

 

You're talking about what would have been called an "automat."

This is what the most popular use was, circa the 1940s,


1920s,


Some Victorian era automats (or close to it anyway, I think these are around 1905),



Exact date unclear for the following, these are a bit fancier,




One thing is clear -- they were made by kobolds,


"Automat" also referred to other automated machines like music players and games.

But it just doesn't translate well imo, because the game would have to display the items, plus you have to explain how trees, walls, suits of armor, tables, etc fit into the machine.

Maybe its makes a little more sense in some ways than a register, but makes less sense in other ways.

Anyway, I still think this is all kind of a fool's errand. I think it causes too many usability issues to create a static object as a direct alternative to a vendor, like I said create new problems for every one solves, and I just would have hoped they'd find a way to crunch the performance and allow more NPCs per scene, if that's what's necessary.

 

I like @redfish 's visuals - reminded me that from reading the forums and seeing some concept art of Denis Loubet's - and the Oracle design and kobolds - I believe there was some sort of steampunk clockpunk-esque / Victorian kind of aesthetic / art design that would be pervasive across the world? Perhaps more of this is coming with Episode 2+?

 

@Echondas Clockpunk, not steampunk ! Grrr.

 

Fixed.

 

Well I would guess the code wouldn’t have to be that new as the normal NPC traders have this ability already but yes some adjustments might be needed to make it work for the avatar vendors too.

 

I would like to hear why the team decided to create this with same functionality as vendors, and not something new (like some people mentioned here with great ideas), making the free gift affect directly the CF vendors market and prices.

 

I don't think it has been mentioned before, but this is something that really needs to be added to vendors in my
own humble opinion.

The ability to sell bags of things. I want to be able to list a bag with a full set of armor in it. I don't want to have to list
each piece separately.

You will also need to add the ability for a person to look inside said bag before buying.

As a crafter this would benefit me greatly.

You could sell sets of armour, reagent packs, recall / teleport scroll combos. Perhaps sell a recipe and all the ingredients to make said recipe at least
once etc.

Please make this happen.

 

UPDATE: We are going to be using patterns for visual variations so I've updated the post to reflect this. Using this system will keep the number of CF vendors exactly the same and provide the most visual options to every player. Also we have scrapped the "NEW" tab in favor of a "Date" column. I have updated the OP to reflect these changes.

 

Great!

 

I assumed this is how it would end up working, although that does raise a few other questions:

• Can the Cash Register have a pattern applied to it to turn it into an NPC?
  
• Does turning a deco item into an NPC (or vice versa) have any other side effects? Will this count as an NPC for deco placement, since it is interactive?
  
• Does this open up the ability to apply patterns to other NPCs/pets? When do you think this will come online?

 

I think I misread how it works.

It looks like these are still NPCs but don't look like NPCs.

Kinda like the Baron Mirror decoration that I can't place because it counts against NPC limits

 

I would hope that the cash register IS a pattern, and that they also figure out the NPC deco count problem.

And a squirrel or raven vendor (via pattern skinning) would be awesome... though you would have to deal getting people to notice it.