Merchants, and Why I Hate them.

[Saellyn]

You branch when you branch. Just look at a skill and see if something looks odd. Like if you have "Ray of Death" and then suddenly you see "Rainbow of Death" in your skills list, you know you branched.

[SMuz]

IMO, merchants are great for those who love the crafting system. I really want to play a merchant, but I don't think I could go for 2 IG weeks without combat. They're still quite epic, and make money with a bit less effort than the other guilds especially later on, so they're a little less tedious to play.

[RogueGunslinger]

<3 SMuz.

[boog]

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

[FantasyWriter]

I've had good luck with merchant/archer before. He was VERY long lived though. And sparred regularly.

[Anaiah]

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

For people who would rather sew out of the box than work on trying to move X skill to Y level by Z hours played, that's actually a very good choice.

[Qzzrbl]

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

For people who would rather sew out of the box than work on trying to move X skill to Y level by Z hours played, that's actually a very good choice.

Truth.... Crafting subguilds are for the impatient merchant. x]

[Rhyden]

I fucking love merchants, yet, I've never played a merchant before. I should get on that.

[Jingo]

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

For people who would rather sew out of the box than work on trying to move X skill to Y level by Z hours played, that's actually a very good choice.

Truth.... Crafting subguilds are for the impatient merchant. x]

Southern merchants also. You aint gonna get no wood and no cheap gortok hides in the south.

Southern merchants really do need different skill trees. Say knife-making and stone crafting instead of fletchery and wood working.

[Fathi]

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

For people who would rather sew out of the box than work on trying to move X skill to Y level by Z hours played, that's actually a very good choice.

Truth.... Crafting subguilds are for the impatient merchant. x]

Southern merchants also. You aint gonna get no wood and no cheap gortok hides in the south.

Southern merchants really do need different skill trees. Say knife-making and stone crafting instead of fletchery and wood working.

Too lazy to dig up all my old posts on the subject, so YES PLZ andthankyou.

[Xeran Van Houten]

Fletchery can do just fine in the South... Not going to make any money at it, but you'll have no trouble training the skill...

[SMuz]

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

Wouldn't hunter be sort of a worthless subguild for a merchant? You'd be better at hunterlike stuff, but unless you bring some warrior buddy with you on a hunt, you'd sort of just.. die.

[Synthesis]

The problem with fletchery in the south is that the bone arrowshaft requires (or did, not long ago) more skill in fletchery than a newbie merchant starts with (at least, more skill than any of my newbie merchants ever had).  Thus, unless someone sells a straightening wrench in the city (because no NPCs ordinarily stock them), you have to branch toolmaking first, then make yourself a goddamn straightening wrench to give you +whatever in fletchery, before you can even start dicking around with the skill...unless you can get people to truck in branches for you.

It's pretty fucking annoying, and I've bitched about it numerous times, and it applies to several skills.  It took me fucking forever to figure out an axe-making recipe that a newbie merchant in the south could actually start out crafting (as far as I can tell, there are only two, both from the same materials).  Or club-making...ffs.  There's like one club you can craft as a newbie and it requires a PARTICULAR branch, and good gawd is it annoying trying to explain why you need a "knotty branch of fuckwood," not a "knotted branch of fuckwood."

I submitted about 10 crafts to the staff that represent basic shit that novices in the respective skills should be able to at least attempt to craft, using items you can find in or around Allanak, but I never got any word on whether they were implemented or not.

That being said, I branched (and would've mastered, if I hadn't stored) every merchant skill with someone who basically never left Allanak, so it's not impossible.  It's just pretty frustrating trying to get your hands on certain things...but if everything were simple, where would the fun be in that?

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

Wouldn't hunter be sort of a worthless subguild for a merchant? You'd be better at hunterlike stuff, but unless you bring some warrior buddy with you on a hunt, you'd sort of just.. die.

Dude, we already went over this on like, page 1 or 2 of this thread.  I know you just came back to the GDB or something, but please folks, let's not go over this again.

[FantasyWriter]

You could merchant and subguild like, hunter, couldn't you? Wouldn't that give you something to work with? Me, on the other hand, in my idiot newbness, took merchant/tailor. Adoy.

Wouldn't hunter be sort of a worthless subguild for a merchant? You'd be better at hunterlike stuff, but unless you bring some warrior buddy with you on a hunt, you'd sort of just.. die.

If you depend on melee for "hunting," you're doing it wrong... what do you think swords, axes, and warhammers are going to do to hide, chitin, and bone's that would be useful if not ICly smashed/broken to pieces (yes, I know the code doesn't seem to figure this damage in)?

Even at advanced subguild levels, archery is a -very- dangerous skill against foes.


Although I play them few and far in between, merchant is probably my favorite guild in the game.

[Xeran Van Houten]

There's another thing that one can craft in the south that's not an arrowshaft with plenty of resource around, though I'm not sure if I should say it if it's not that obvious, however now that I think about it, you may need a fletchery tool to make it straight out of the box... Whenever I had the skill, I had access to a shit-load of tools, but they're not that hard to get one's hands on...

[Synthesis]

There's another thing that one can craft in the south that's not an arrowshaft with plenty of resource around, though I'm not sure if I should say it if it's not that obvious, however now that I think about it, you may need a fletchery tool to make it straight out of the box... Whenever I had the skill, I had access to a shit-load of tools, but they're not that hard to get one's hands on...

Yeah, possibly.  I don't remember those being craftable the first time I picked up the raw material, but it's been quite a while.

[My 2 sids]

Truth.... Crafting subguilds are for the impatient merchant. x]

Truth:  subguilds are for rounding out characters -- thus, if the character background indicates specialization than it's not "being impatient" at all.   It'd be like hunter's taking archery  or Byners taking the drinking subguild.


Also,  I really, really wish they would divide merchant into Northern/Southern.   It's one thing to play someone who has lived around bone and stone all their lives finally being able to piece together an idea so they can make their own -- it's quite another to say "here, take this material you'd likely never really use on a daily basis because now, suddenly, you can use it"

[stark]

I've only played one merchant, and I loved it. Love with a big fat capital L. But then, I like doing repetitive things and with all the stuff around to make things with it makes my OCDs tingle because it's not like I actually hoarded the stuff  myself...but there it is all for me!

[FantasyWriter]

I would like to see two separate skill trees for merchants to be able to chose from regardless of location.
Perhaps I will write one up and submit it through the request tool instead of bickering about it on the GDB.... yes, yes I will.

[Reiteration]

What if merchants could choose one introductory crafting skill instead of the initial three. I hate going to clan interviews and saying I know how to fletch arrows, tan hides, and chop wood like every other merchant before me.

[Cindy42]

What if merchants could choose one introductory crafting skill instead of the initial three. I hate going to clan interviews and saying I know how to fletch arrows, tan hides, and chop wood like every other merchant before me.

I would love that.

synthesis made me laugh. sometimes, it does seem like all there's around to use is fuckwood and shitstone.

it's rather hard to come up with an excuse for a southern-born merchant why the hell they know logging. if i'm born down south, i have to use my subguild on something i can get in the south, if i want to survive, since i usually don't enter a clan which will feed me and provide my merchant's usual beginner materials.

[Anaiah]

What if merchants could choose one introductory crafting skill instead of the initial three. I hate going to clan interviews and saying I know how to fletch arrows, tan hides, and chop wood like every other merchant before me.

I would love that.

synthesis made me laugh. sometimes, it does seem like all there's around to use is fuckwood and shitstone.

it's rather hard to come up with an excuse for a southern-born merchant why the hell they know logging. if i'm born down south, i have to use my subguild on something i can get in the south, if i want to survive, since i usually don't enter a clan which will feed me and provide my merchant's usual beginner materials.

The problem with that is this: With the way guilds work, that's all decided before you ever get into the Hall of Kings. Languages too. The only thing decided on pointing is what accent you get. And even if this WERE done, all it would do would make the grind players feel like they had more skills to grind to collect them all.

[Kismetic]

... and good gawd is it annoying trying to explain why you need a "knotty branch of fuckwood," not a "knotted branch of fuckwood."

I thought you wanted a -naughty- branch of fuckwood.  Dammit!

Also, I find the assertion that guild merchants can hang with combatants amusing.  Or even that killing a carru is something special.   

[FantasyWriter]

I would like to see two separate skill trees for merchants to be able to chose from regardless of location.
Perhaps I will write one up and submit it through the request tool instead of bickering about it on the GDB.... yes, yes I will.

Done.


Although, I think a much easier fix would be to offer a cheap untanned rat and/or chalton hide for sale at the raw materials shop and make one have to craft an arrowhead from shards (using skill_fletchery) instead of using raw shards in arrow recipes.

[Synthesis]

I would like to see two separate skill trees for merchants to be able to chose from regardless of location.
Perhaps I will write one up and submit it through the request tool instead of bickering about it on the GDB.... yes, yes I will.

Done.


Although, I think a much easier fix would be to offer a cheap untanned rat and/or chalton hide for sale at the raw materials shop and make one have to craft an arrowhead from shards (using skill_fletchery) instead of using raw shards in arrow recipes.

There -is- a cheap, untanned hide, in infinite quantity, available in Allanak.  It's chalton, too.

Also, you used to have to make the arrowheads separately, but they removed that step several years ago.  Putting it back in would be a fix that would, over the long term, be more annoying than the problem.