Bazaar 4 (Source)
Hiya. I should say I'm pretty new, but in my online life I've always gravitated towards the merchantile life. Normally though, that doesn't prevent me from being able to do other things when I'm not fiddling about with vendors. I love being a merchant. I also want to participate in the GCW as something more than cannonfodder.
The business and merchant paths have some extraordinary things that we are expected to pay skill points for. I don't need Master Merchant. What I want is a shop that shows up on the map. So lets go through the costs for that and the wonders I receive in return.
Business I, 2 skill points, total cost 2.
Access Fees. Might be great for some purposes, but I don't want to do anything to discourage anyone from entering my shop so I won't use it. Admittedly I'll miss out on the business xp from that.
Business II, 3 skill points, total cost 5.
I gain the ability to spend 100 credits to get a little star next to my sale on the bazaar. The shape of things to come. Does the star actually do much? For 3 skill points we shouldn't have to pay for it. It should just be there for all our sales. And even then it'd be feeble.
Business III, 4 skill points, total cost 9
Yay, a vendor! I'm not going to complain about this one. If I didn't want to be advertised on the map, I'd stop right here. The vendor machine we get is chunky, but suits me just fine.
Business IV, 5 skill points, total cost 14
Hiring +10. And here we get to the problem. We have to spend skillpoints to change the outward cosmetic appearance of vendors. Why? Will my customers walk in and say "Nay! I shall not buy from thine chunky vendor! I only buy from Twi'Lek females in purple dresses!". 5 points.
Onwards and upwards to:
Novice Merchant, 6 skill points, total cost 20
A second vendor, and more cosmetic options. I can see a second vendor being handy, but given they can hold as much as you like, I'll just be using the one. Well, I'll stick the second in my other room for the xp, but only one'll actually have anything on it.
Advertising I, 5 points, total cost 25
Now, I should admit I haven't quite got this one yet. 5 points for a vendor to recite some canned speech though. Hummm.
Advertising II, 4 points, total cost 29
Now we get to set the speech of our vendors. Somewhat useful I suppose.
Advertising III, 3 points, total cost 32
Finally. Advertisment on the map is ours. 32 points though. You can do a lot with 32 points. Hang about though. We don't actually get map advertisment for 32 points. We get the right to buy it. I don't know the costs involved.
While we're here, lets look at the other Merchant skills.
Advertisment IV, 2 points.
Half price advertisment. Harrumph.
The Hiring Path - Completley worthless for reasons given above.
Efficiency I, 5 points
We get 20 percent off bazaar costs. Thats a whole 4 credits off a regular sale, and presumable a mighty 20 credits off a premium one. And just 5 skill points!
Efficiency II, 4 points
20% off vendor costs. They're pretty cheap to run anyway. I suppose if you had 6 of them it might save you a bit of money.
Efficiency III, 3 points
Another 20% off bazaar fees!
Efficiency IV, 2 points
20% off all structure fees. Actually I quite respect that one, with the number of harvesters I have. And the right to place a merchant tent, whatever one of them is. I'll bet architects don't sell a lot of them. Not sure I've ever seen one.
The Management Path
Additional vendors. Great for those who want them. And the ability to change our shop sign. Changing the sign on your door ought not to be a question of skill points! Neither should adverting for that matter. Variety in house signs would be a good thing. Everyone should be able choose from a variety of signs, with additional ones if theres a vendor in the house.
Master Merchant - Those of you who have this, I have utter respect for your dedication. But unless the holocron was especially cruel to you, why?
Frankly, I think the biggest problem with Merchant is the insistance on having 4 paths to a profession. You could merge all four paths into two paths or even one without anyone calling for a nerf. Some things we're asked to pay points for should just be available to anyone who wants it, for the price. Premium auctions. Ebay doesn't require you to have a special skill to pay them extra cash to mark your auction premium. Neither does the yellow pages inisist you give up being a commando to advertise with them.
I want to be a merchant, I really do. But I also want to be able to makes things, and maybe still be able to shoot a gun. The skill point to benefit ratio for the merchant and businessman is feeble, and needs to be seriously looked at by the Devs.
