Petator
Glowing Redstone
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2011
I feel like the current setup for merchant is far too harsh with too little benefit.
Aside from Gift, all merchants get is chest shops. These already required a lot of research and trial and error to get a decent payoff, but there are a few issues:
-The Wiki list is often incorrect (i.e.as a level 35 Merchant I still cannot sell diamonds or chainmail.)
-Chest shops require 50c each, no refunds. If you accidentally type in the wrong ID, or if your neighbors undercut you soon after you post your shop, you're SoL. EDIT: Refund now works.
-Shops in dragon have a significant startup cost on top of the chest shops.
-You get your first economically viable item to sell (iron ingots) at 25, and you don't get most of the good stuff until the 40's.
-The skills sometimes seem disorganized and confusing, and they take up 6 skill pages.
-Many blocks simply fall through the gaps until Sell All at 50, like Snow Blocks.
Not all of these are necessarily bad ( I really like the market district, and the sign cost is there for good reason ) but all together they make the merchant profession way too hard to manage and way too much of a money sink, without any benefit whatsoever aside from gift.
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I have a few ideas for skills that could make the merchant class easier on the people who play it.
Rework of the current sell skills:
I'd like for the sell skillset to be condensed and organized based on simple rarity, not shop viability. This way useful shop items are obtained more gradually and a level 10 merchant has something to sell:
Level 10 - Sell Class 1 Items: Class 1 consists of all blocks and materials that are readily available from the surface, like Logs, Sandstone, Snow, Wood Tools, etc and passive mob drops.
Level 20 - Sell Class 2 Items: Class 2 consists of all items that can be easily obtained from a shallow mine, like Iron, Coal, Stone and Stone Tools. More complex/harder to craft class 1 goods (like cooked/farm foods, leather armor, glass) should be here as well.
Level 30 - Sell Class 3 Items: Class 3 consists of blocks and items from deep mining, like Obsidian, Diamonds, Lapis, and Iron Tools. Aggressive mob drops too.
Level 40 - Sell Class 4 Items: Class 4 consists of items generated by other professions (potions, chainmail) as well as diamond/gold tools and armor
Level 50 - Sell Class 5 Items: Class 5 is everything else, mostly Nether stuff. I suppose it could be Sell All to catch anything falling through the cracks of the previous levels, but I hope no items/blocks will need to be caught like that.
More skills that don't involve chest shops:
Merchants currently only function based on profitable chest shops. If you aren't able to get one, then you may as well have not even specced. Here are some skill ideas to make merchants more fun and more viable outside of the trade district, as well as improve their trade district experience:
Level 1 - Refund Shop: Under certain circumstances, this can be used on a newly made shop sign to break it and get your money back. EDIT: Refund now works.
Level 5 - Feeling Lucky: Merchant can buy twice as many lotto tickets.
Level 15 - Mercantile Contacts 1: Mobs have a higher chance of dropping coin, have a very small chance of dropping double coin, and bounties have a 10% bonus.
Level 25 - Money in the Bag: Each gold ingot in your inventory gives you 1% increased exp for both your prof and your combat class, maxing at +64% with a full stack.
Level 35 - Mercantile Contacts 2: Mobs always drop coin, have a slightly greater chance of double coin, and bounties have a 20% bonus.
Level 45 - Gift: As it currently is.
Level 55 - Haggle: 1 gold ingot, 300 seconds, once per day; items can be bought from chest shops at a 10% discount. This should definitely not apply to gold ingots.
EDIT: oh, and @Kainzo @Sleaker
Aside from Gift, all merchants get is chest shops. These already required a lot of research and trial and error to get a decent payoff, but there are a few issues:
-The Wiki list is often incorrect (i.e.as a level 35 Merchant I still cannot sell diamonds or chainmail.)
-Shops in dragon have a significant startup cost on top of the chest shops.
-You get your first economically viable item to sell (iron ingots) at 25, and you don't get most of the good stuff until the 40's.
-The skills sometimes seem disorganized and confusing, and they take up 6 skill pages.
-Many blocks simply fall through the gaps until Sell All at 50, like Snow Blocks.
Not all of these are necessarily bad ( I really like the market district, and the sign cost is there for good reason ) but all together they make the merchant profession way too hard to manage and way too much of a money sink, without any benefit whatsoever aside from gift.
------
I have a few ideas for skills that could make the merchant class easier on the people who play it.
Rework of the current sell skills:
I'd like for the sell skillset to be condensed and organized based on simple rarity, not shop viability. This way useful shop items are obtained more gradually and a level 10 merchant has something to sell:
Level 10 - Sell Class 1 Items: Class 1 consists of all blocks and materials that are readily available from the surface, like Logs, Sandstone, Snow, Wood Tools, etc and passive mob drops.
Level 20 - Sell Class 2 Items: Class 2 consists of all items that can be easily obtained from a shallow mine, like Iron, Coal, Stone and Stone Tools. More complex/harder to craft class 1 goods (like cooked/farm foods, leather armor, glass) should be here as well.
Level 30 - Sell Class 3 Items: Class 3 consists of blocks and items from deep mining, like Obsidian, Diamonds, Lapis, and Iron Tools. Aggressive mob drops too.
Level 40 - Sell Class 4 Items: Class 4 consists of items generated by other professions (potions, chainmail) as well as diamond/gold tools and armor
Level 50 - Sell Class 5 Items: Class 5 is everything else, mostly Nether stuff. I suppose it could be Sell All to catch anything falling through the cracks of the previous levels, but I hope no items/blocks will need to be caught like that.
More skills that don't involve chest shops:
Merchants currently only function based on profitable chest shops. If you aren't able to get one, then you may as well have not even specced. Here are some skill ideas to make merchants more fun and more viable outside of the trade district, as well as improve their trade district experience:
Level 5 - Feeling Lucky: Merchant can buy twice as many lotto tickets.
Level 15 - Mercantile Contacts 1: Mobs have a higher chance of dropping coin, have a very small chance of dropping double coin, and bounties have a 10% bonus.
Level 25 - Money in the Bag: Each gold ingot in your inventory gives you 1% increased exp for both your prof and your combat class, maxing at +64% with a full stack.
Level 35 - Mercantile Contacts 2: Mobs always drop coin, have a slightly greater chance of double coin, and bounties have a 20% bonus.
Level 45 - Gift: As it currently is.
Level 55 - Haggle: 1 gold ingot, 300 seconds, once per day; items can be bought from chest shops at a 10% discount. This should definitely not apply to gold ingots.
EDIT: oh, and @Kainzo @Sleaker
