Merchant House Products

[Pantoufle]

Many of the powers of karma guilds are [Edited by Morgenes for IC content - please refrain from describing powers of karma guilds here]

Why not expand abilities such as this to Merchant House merchants.  Think about it.  If I am a Kadius Merchant and you want an item from me that isn't in the shops -- I'm not talking a custom-made item here, mind you -- I have to burden my clan imm with an e-mail, wait for who knows when to have it loaded, then hope the customer is still alive by then!  Now imagine if they had an ability not unlike the ability for imms to "load" items.  Imagine if I, as a Kadius Merchant, had a command which somehow "loaded" Kadius items.  

>inventory kadius
House Kadius has the current wares available at your disposal:
item
item
item
item
item
item
etc.

>order item
You submit a request to the crafters who promptly return with your item.

Any number of variables could be put in place for this command to be more realistic.  It could include a delay so that the item doesn't seem to just magically appear in their hands.  The command could only be applicable in stores or in the Merchant House estate/barracks, rather than just "conjuring" the item out on the open street.  Etc.

Naturally, such a power should only be in the hands of the trusted (which applies to karma roles that have imm-like abilities too).  But in the right hands, it would make people truly flock to merchants, and it would make business booming.  Gone would be the days of NPC merchant shops.  The PC merchants would TRULY represent their House's wares.  Interaction would increase tenfold, people would stop going to shops and head straight for the first Kadius/Kurac/Salarr merchant they could find!

I don't think it's "too powerful", personally.  Certainly not any more powerful than having the ability to instantly kill someone with a fireball!

Thoughts?

[Marc]

It exists.  Not like you explained, but as quartermasters or what have you.  The trusted among the merchant house representatives have access to the stores of their house and can get things 'ordered' on a whim.

Not to say your idea doesn't have merit, but there are already workarounds in place.  Aint broke so why fix it.

[Pantoufle]

Ah, didn't know that.  Thanks Marc.

[Jherlen]

The very first line of your post had info on abilities of karma guilds that I really did not want to know - recommend you edit it, please.

As for the idea, I tend to like the current system, a little bit of staff oversight is always nice.

[Morgenes]

Edited the post to remove extraneous IC info that wasn't directly related to the post.

[Pantoufle]

I apologize if you feel my information was IC, I didn't include anything which -- in my opinion -- isn't already easily assumed in the help files for certain guilds (such as help guild_wind_elementalist, which gives a clear indication of their powers).  Furthermore, I apologize you don't feel my point was related to the topic.  Since this is my thread, I can assure you it was.  Allow me to expound, without delving into potentially IC realms.

It is my belief that the non-karma roles would be more inviting were they given a few added perks.  The ability to load objects is generally an immortal command on other MUDs (ergo, my point above), but granting an ability akin to "loading" for merchants might make them desirable for both the a) players interested in playing said role and b) those interested in purchasing from one.  I think it would allow for a more seamless environment, one which allows players more control over their clans.

That's all I was getting at.  A thousand pardons if I've offended or somehow deeply spoiled the game environment for you.  I would never dream of intentionally exposing anything even remotely IC sensitive (barring that which the help files don't already clearly indicate).

[Morgenes]

No need to be offended, if you would like my explanation on what I felt was too IC, feel free to mail me privately.  I'm not offended, just doing my job of trying to keep IC information that doesn't belong on the board off the board.

Your point is made just as well without the information.  And, as has been answered above, it is already possible in game through the merchant houses.

As the post has been answered and this has become a private conversation I'm locking this.  Feel free to mail me any questions/complaints/concerns about this action.