An empty tent, in the bazaar, with an IC Board in it.

[John]

Unfortunately, the code doesn't allow you to build a "camping tent" in the city.

-- X

Any chance of this getting changed then? After all, a ton of people do it. And there's enough PCs that if you put it up in an unrealistic spot, they'll come and say something.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Maybe you should change that, or else, create a new item-type called selling tent, just for selling stuff? You could assume that such a tent is more guady and perhaps comes with display shelves or some other such. It could cost just a little more than common tents, and could be bought from a tent size to a pavilion size, something so heavy you'd require a HG to carry it. Perhaps tents should save when they are droipped, so that crashs will not oblitorate them.

[jmordetsky]

I could have sworn I saw a tent set up in the rinth once. It was during an RPT.

[Angela Christine]

I'd go with a rug, not a tent.  The problem with a tent, especially a tent that is there all the time, is that PCs have to walk right up to the tent and "look in tent" to see if there is anyone there.  PCs in the tent shouting something like "Travel cakes!  Getcher travel cakes here!" will only be heard by people standing directly outside the tent.  In the open you can be seen by people up to three rooms away, and heard by people one room away.

Buy yourself a cheap rug, drop it in the market near a well-traveled area, and then IMEDIATELY sit on it, or else a sticky fingered NPC might pick it up.  Most rugs can seat several people, so if someone comes along and wants to sit and discuss things with you they can.  If you are feeling particularly brave you can even put a few sample items on the rug with you, so people can look at the rug to see what you are selling, and "get <item> rug" to pick up and examine items.  I -think- the rug would keep you safe from the NPCs that pick up random items left laying on the ground.  PCs could still grab stuff off your rug and run away, but they can do that anyway when they ask to look at an item.


I once had a stonecrafter sitting on a virtual rug outside the Gaj (this was before the rug seller NPC in Allanak) carving and selling stone goods.  I figured working stone would be too noisy for a tavern, even the Gaj.  Drop desced around me were a pile of stones and a few stone items, including a stone lantern that I was using because it was night time.  Sure enough, one elf did walk by, pick up the lantern and run away . . . but just one.  I did get plenty of interaction and several paying customers.  

I probably got more "walk by" customers being outside the Gaj on Caravan Road than I would have gotten in the Bazaar.  But if you were near the bank or the most popular entrance you'd probably get some traffic, especially once people got used to PCs being there.  



Angela Christine

[Cegar]

I kinda like the idea. It can be extremely annoying not to find any traders because the PC's are scattered all over the damn place. Perhaps the templarate decided to tax all independent merchants in the bazaar and keep them in one area so that they can collect that tax (entrance fee) or something. Regardless, I think that something like this would have a more positive impact than negative. The bazaars all feel somewhat dead in a PC way... like I'm dealing with NPCs.

[Anonymous]

However, this does bring up a question...

How come the market can't be more compact?  Why not have 8 rooms with a stall, a stand, a tent, and a guy on a rug  in each instead of having 49 rooms in a rough block with an occasional wandering hawker?  Shouldn't it be crowded rather than sprawling? noisy rather than an occasional shout?

[Cale_Knight]

Shouldn't it be crowded rather than sprawling? noisy rather than an occasional shout?

Funny.

To me, the 'nakki bazaar is the most successful area in the game when it comes to generating the intended feel and atmosphere. I really do feel like it's a bustling, crowded place.

I love the bazaar.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I love the bazaar.

I concur. Nothing is wrong with the baazar. This is a market area for a city of 500, 000 people. That's a lot of people for a 8 room market.

[Anonymous]

I guess so.  I just wish more people used it.  I can't count the number of times I've gone through and it's been completely empty of PC life.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Be the change you want.

I do agree, to an extent. I supremely wish that more thought had been put into the construction of Allanak in the beginning. The Gaj is a great place, but I find it terribly odd that it is so far away from Byn Headquarters, considering that it is primarrily a Byn Tavern. The Trader's Inn is a noble's hangout, and yet it truely should be planted dead in the middle of the Baazar, not around some confusing circle. The Barrel is fine where it is, actually. It fits right in there.

That said, be the change you want to see. There is no reason a Tavern can't spring up in the Baazar. There's already permenant buildings there. Making that tavern more traderish than the Trader's Inn would highly encourage more PC trafffic in the Baazar.

[grog]

I do agree, to an extent. I supremely wish that more thought had been put into the construction of Allanak in the beginning. The Gaj is a great place, but I find it terribly odd that it is so far away from Byn Headquarters, considering that it is primarrily a Byn Tavern. The Trader's Inn is a noble's hangout, and yet it truely should be planted dead in the middle of the Baazar, not around some confusing circle. The Barrel is fine where it is, actually. It fits right in there.
.

Thus making it exactly like a real city.  Sometimes you get places that just don't make sense.  Esp. when building permits are at the whim of powerful Highlord and his servants.  

Allanak would likely have more taverns, but I'd like to see our playerbase grow before we do something like that.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I agree again with reality, but once again I only speak for playability's sake. It's not bad now, just somewhat dispersed.

[Anonymous]

I agree again with reality, but once again I only speak for playability's sake. It's not bad now, just somewhat dispersed.

[Aldiel]

Why do you need a tent?  Just go to the bazaar, pick a spot, and shout that you're selling something.

I'd like to see this more, actually.  I see people selling at taverns, but I've never seen a PC merchant trying to sell goods at the bazaar.  I would about soil myself with glee if I ran into a PC doing this.

[Aldiel]

Actually, I think the Gaj is in a good place considering it's right across from the stables.  There is a shady tavern in the rinth for that type.  As for the traders it's at the heart of the city, how perfect, and there are other places for nobles, anyway.

[Folker]

First of all, while the author is mentioning tents, and boards, and coders, and so on, all he really asks is a 'spot' preferrably in the Bazaar, that is reknown to 'all PCs and NPCs as the trading spot. It doesnt have to be segregated from the vnpcs, it just has to be a spot that PC's 'KNOW' as the location where the PC merchants tend to set up shops and sell off their wares.

Can vnpcs come to shop there? Absolutely, can vnpcs come to buy the wares? Absolutely! And if some PC merchant would rp out haggling with an vnpc and then junk that carefully crafted metal engraved helmet, kudos to him! Can the houses send employees there as hawkers to alarm the agents of PC characters tradin' their wares, singling them out from vnpcs for their exceptional low prices, good quality, etc? Absolutely. Can the houses send in vnpc there for the same purpose? Absolutely. Can PC merchants come there with obsidian, wood, dung, meat, etc ? Absolutely.

So basically, it allows merchants to sell things in a way that is 'not' (in my opinion), acceptable to sell in the tavern, atleast not en masse. I would understand a tinkerer going around the tavern once or twice a day, yelling out some things he's selling, and then either calming down or leaving. I would not understand a PC merchant arriving in the tavern and yelling out that if anyone's interested to buy wood, they should talk to him. The merchant 'would' leave an IC conversation of some two people discussing that merchant as the source of good wood as advertisement, but he wouldnt be using the taverns as ... well, a bazaar.

Setting up and discussing orders? Sure, absolutely. Haggling and tradin' in more unique or more complicated made things that are usually not sold in bulk in the tavern? Sure. Selling 5 kank's worth of bulk material without a pre order in the tavern? Suuure, if you know there's 'someone' there in dire need of it. But going there in hopes of getting dozens of different customers? To be honest, it's my personal opinion, that the taverns are not the right environment for that.

So in short, I'm all for a certain 'theme advertised' spot in each city that would hint people to swing by it every now and then in hopes of stumbling into a thing they want, pc or vnpc whatever. It can be done by a single character aswell, just not as easilly and not as permanently, afterall is it fair forcing a character to continiously spend time 'alone' waiting for the spot he chose to become popular and attract other merchants/customers, while being without all of that ... in the middle of a bazaar?

[Agent_137]

Why should the PC population have a place segregated from the NPC population?

-- X

PLAYABILITY.

[Cegar]

For me, the bazaar always seems kind of lifeless... it has nice echoes and NPC's with hawking calls... but without any PC's it just feels... like it is populated by robots. Personally I would love to see an area specifically known as an independant trader's outpost with weekly auctions or anything like that.

[jmordetsky]

I think I have found a soul mate in Folker.

I'm just going to PM you my posts from now on and have you flesh them out.

Sorry Sarah, you're out.

[John]

I supremely wish that more thought had been put into the construction of Allanak in the beginning. The Gaj is a great place, but I find it terribly odd that it is so far away from Byn Headquarters, considering that it is primarrily a Byn Tavern....

Also remember that Allanak and the different uses of different places have evolved over the years (just as a real life city would). I'm fairly certain that when it was first OOCly built, the Gaj wasn't the Byn's tavern.

And yeah. Completely agree with "be the change you want."

[cyberpatrol_735]

Code Select Expand


>Enter tent
You are taxed 20 coins and enter a large, carru-hide tent.

Inside a large, carru-hide tent
You are inside a large, carru-hide tent, there are many people here, mostly virtual NPCs who rule the world with an iron fist, watching you commit crimes and blame you for it immediately, but otherwise, there are a few PCs here.
A small desk sits here near the entrance.
BillyBob Thorton stands here, leaning up against a wall.
Joebob sits on a small rug here.
The fancypants templar is here, sitting at a small desk, collecting taxes.
>think Oh shit, I forgot all of my money.
You think Oh shit, I forgot all of my money.


Or even better, a harder thing to code, but when you Leave the tent, based on what you buy, you get taxed a certain percent, just an idea to negate the all goodness of a PC tent in the bazaar.

[ibusoe]

I like the original idea.  It's not perfect, but it certainly has merit.

[spawnloser]

I like the idea too, basically.

I think someone should do it IC, though.

[Folker]

I think I have found a soul mate in Folker.

I'm just going to PM you my posts from now on and have you flesh them out.

Sorry Sarah, you're out.

And just to screw with Jmordetsky some, I'll post a point that generally disaproves his idea.

Basically, an introduction of such a spot would considerably weaken the merchant's role. At the moment, from my observation, finding an individual whose trade is in such a sync with what you do and what you need is a stroke of luck. Especially if that trade is a production of something rare, or something you need extram quantities of. Such trading relationships are not frequent, very beneficial, and tend to put your character in sometimes 'severe' dependancy on the supplier.

Such relationships and conversations are better done in the tavern or in more private rooms, because once this connection is established, characters tend to find themselves in mercy of the merchant (a rough way of putting it admittedly), and it is so much easier to get blacklisted or just passed over in quiet subtle conversations like those. Because then, the merchant selling you his good stuff is not just a business transaciton, make it and forget it, but it's a personal favor extended to your character, and your favor extended right back.

All that would if not dissapear,  considerably deminish, for it will turn merchants from influencial suppliers, to wholesellers. And in wholesale, such trading is 'so' inpersonal, the whole merchant side loses it's oh so needed inner socium empire building abilities, for the cost of better income and a feeling of actually being a regular merchant, and not a mini, or a really large kingpin.

[RunningMountain]

I thought the major merchant houses were wholesellers. I mean salarr, kadius, kurac. They all have npc merchants who sell to anyone in both cities, in luirs and even in red storm.