Player Shop Ideas

[Plight]

As topic states ^^

These are just my ideas about how the shops could be handled

1) There should be a limited number of spaces available for shops in each zone. Otherwise everyone and their pet drom would have a shop and it would get quite crowded imho. Of course you could look at it from the other side and say it would add to the atmosphere as plaza would never be empty.

2) There should be overhead when running a shop. The npc should be "payed". This can either be a wage or a percentage. Maybe even have them pay taxes. Maybe even taxes paid to the factions which the objects being sold are affiliated. Shops have the innate ability to possibly unbalance the economy in favor of those who buy shops, these extra sinks might help prevent this.

3) Different levels of shops. To have a higher level shop (which could possibly sell more items) would require a higher barter skill. IMHO not just anyone should be able to own a shop. Barter is the most logical skill stat to use and perhaps cause the barter profession to grow.

4) Player-shopkeeper interaction should be as follows: Player speaks to npc. Npc recognizes player as his boss and player gives npc item. Npc then asks for the purchase price. Item is now available for sale.

5) Shop employees should be killable. Of course the shop owners will not like this, however, it could add a darker side to the shop owning business. A little.... friendly competition perhaps? :D Of course faction symp and sl loss would remain the same. Mayebe be able to upgrade your shopkeepers armor/weapon. Or hire bodyguards to protect him. (Money sinks anyone? )

What yall think? I mean this post to be a brainstorming post to maybe nudge kk in the right direction.

[eprodigy]

I agree with most of these points, good ideas. If we ever see shops ...

Oh, I don't know how they would be killable since there apparently going to be in techhaven (ie: safe zone)

[Carinth]

I really like the idea of having Barter play a role in shops, as a Barterer myself I can say we definitly need some lovin. No implants to boost our skill and with how easy it is/will be to make money Barterer's will eventualy be useless.

What if it was advantageous for you to not run a shop yourself, but instead hire a barterer to do it. They could have access to better shops/features and get you a better return on your goods. For example a barterer could get reduced shop fee's (expenses for runnin a shop). Of course for this to work, we'd need two other things put in that we've wanted for a long time. Shared apartments and shared bank accounts. If you hire a barterer to sell your goods, you could use an apt to store the items in for the barterer to transfer to the store. The barterer would take the cash earned and put it into the shared bank account. You could be a professional Barterer, aka Merchant!

I don't think you need to worry about player shops unbalancing the economy too much, there are plenty of other ways to do that already.

[Jesterthegreat]

I don't think you need to worry about player shops unbalancing the economy too much, there are plenty of other ways to do that already.

hahaha

the NPC's should either be hirable for a certain amount of time (where the unsold items would go after that time i dont know though, FFXI has a delivery box system, but in NC they cant be sent to the gogu or a cab cos it could be full) or they should charge a %

if they charged a % you could make the higher level shops charg a higher %, but hold more. only allow one player shop per char and that lowers the amount of low level shop spam abuse :p

[Whitestuff]

I think anyone should be able to own a shop, not just barterers. I mean, w/o a CST'er or Resser, what's the barter going to sell in his shop?

Then lets say you make a deal with the barter to get you a bigger shop, whats to say he doesn't steal your cash earnings? Or, lets say he is honest, but he doesn't log in all the time....

Maybe you could involve barters like this: they can buy the shop KEYS that have the better returns on your money, and you have to have them buy the shop keys for you because the NPC is triggered by the barter skill lvl, like the Faction NPC's.

Example:

LVL 1: Anyone can buy, a barter can buy it cheaper. Gives you 100% of your asking price, but has the highest rent of all the shops (taken weekly I guess) and only has 1 NPC to sell 15 items for you.

LVL 2: Barter of lvl 75 required. 3 NPC's with 15 items each, a mid-priced rent, nicer area and 100% of your asking price plus 5k extra. You asked 100k for some item, the other person payed 100k, but the game gives you 105k because the NPC was an actual salesmen and talked the customer up to a higher price.

LVL 3: Barter 100 required to buy. It has 5 NPC's with 20 items each. Lower rent than a LVL 2 and it gives you 100% of your asking price plus 15k extra.

LVL 4: Barter 125+ required to purchase. 7 NPC's, 25 items each. Lowest rent of all four and you get 100% of your asking price plus 25k extra.

This forces you to set realistic asking prices for rare weapons and such and it forces you to restock and manage your inventory. It also give people incentive to be barterers and it gives tradeskillers an incentive to seek out barterers. Hey, the higher shop pays you more money, why not find a barter to buy you one. It should, however, be only one shop to one character at a time. This makes you have to buy a higher level shop if you want to sell more things and make more money.

How about that?

[Jesterthegreat]

i dont think anyone wants them to be barter exclusive...

as you say, barter req for higher level shops

[Plight]

I think anyone should be able to own a shop, not just barterers. I mean, w/o a CST'er or Resser, what's the barter going to sell in his shop?

It would be more realistic imo. The shop owner could buy some of their goods from elswhere, and then just simply sell them from one local. Its simply a rudimentary system compared with todays rl shops. The majority of the time shop owners dont make the goods they sell.... they get them from a wholesaler or warehouse. It would be the same thing except they would be getting them from consters/ressers. This would in turn make consting and ressing perhaps a more lucrative skill.

[Carinth]

I think anyone should be able to own a shop, not just barterers. I mean, w/o a CST'er or Resser, what's the barter going to sell in his shop?

Then lets say you make a deal with the barter to get you a bigger shop, whats to say he doesn't steal your cash earnings? Or, lets say he is honest, but he doesn't log in all the time....


And whats to stop a Researcher from stealing your gun and not giving it or bp's back. What's to stop a Repairer from stealing your gun. It's not like Barterer's would have any higher risk involved. You forget that part of the game is the inherint risk in trusting other people. Joining a team could get you killed and belt looted. Giving a tradeskiller your rare could get it stolen.

It's not that shops should be exclusive to barterers, it's that barterers should get better shops/better deals. The entire purpose of the profession is exchanging items and cash. They fit perfectly with player run shops. Sure you could start up your own shop, or you could do business with a barterer. You provide him the goods to sell, he maintains the shop, and brings back the income for you.

[Jesterthegreat]

And whats to stop a Researcher from stealing your gun and not giving it or bp's back. What's to stop a Repairer from stealing your gun. It's not like Barterer's would have any higher risk involved. You forget that part of the game is the inherint risk in trusting other people. Joining a team could get you killed and belt looted. Giving a tradeskiller your rare could get it stolen.

It's not that shops should be exclusive to barterers, it's that barterers should get better shops/better deals. The entire purpose of the profession is exchanging items and cash. They fit perfectly with player run shops. Sure you could start up your own shop, or you could do business with a barterer. You provide him the goods to sell, he maintains the shop, and brings back the income for you.


agree'd completely.

dont make it barter exclusive, but give the barterers some advantage (better / bigger shops is a good way)