NPC shopkeepers not buying stuff...

[slvrmoontiger]

I'd like to see NPC merchants just tell you when they can't afford to buy something.

Something like:

> offer stone 44
The rotund, boyish merchant says, 'I don't have that many coins. Make me a better offer'.
> offer stone 20
The rotund, boyish merchant says, 'I don't have that many coins. Make me a better offer'.
> offer stone 16
The rotund, boyish merchant says, 'We have a deal.'
>

Instead of haggling furiously and raising what he's willing to pay, then:
> offer ...
> offer ...
> offer ...

  etc. etc. etc.

finally:
> barter
The rotund, boyish merchant says, 'I cant afford that.'
The rotund, boyish merchant says, grabbing his crotch, 'In. Your. Face. Boooyaaaahhh!'
> cast 'mon un spell of doom' merchant

This has already been discussed as noted in one of my posts above. Everyone would like to see this.

[Eyeball]

This has already been discussed as noted in one of my posts above. Everyone would like to see this.

Well, now you have someone backing you up and adding weight to your idea. And not as a footnote in some long post many here probably won't even read to the end. Isn't that nice?

[slvrmoontiger]

This has already been discussed as noted in one of my posts above. Everyone would like to see this.

Well, now you have someone backing you up and adding weight to your idea. And not as a footnote in some long post many here probably won't even read to the end. Isn't that nice?

I don't know why I bother to waste my time anymore.

[Eyeball]

This has already been discussed as noted in one of my posts above. Everyone would like to see this.

Well, now you have someone backing you up and adding weight to your idea. And not as a footnote in some long post many here probably won't even read to the end. Isn't that nice?

I don't know why I bother to waste my time anymore.

[Saellyn]

It'd be good if they told you up front that they were out of cash.

Zalanthas isn't supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be hard to survive. Having all the cash you want is not hard to survive.

[Fujikoma]

Time for a counterfeiter's guild.

[Culinary Critic]

Here's something to put things in perspective:
Lets say, someone someday decides, that mages are power casting, and need to be deterred, and implements a system like this:
The total mana available in the world, suddenly gets quantified. Perhaps to 500 spells x 50 mana.
Now, what happens is, after a reboot, everyone can start casting freely, but as soon as 500 spells have been cast, the mana available in the world reduces, now there's only 150 mana left in each zone of the world, and that too regens over mud timers.
So, if you're in Allanak, and you cast 3 spells, the other mages will not be able to cast any spells, until the mud timer elapses further.

I think you get the picture.....

A merchant or a grebber having goods he's unable to sell, is just like a mage with mana, but unable to cast (just to give a rough comparison, based on Guild selection).

Sorry, this is absolutely not the same thing.  One is using a skill (casting in this case) the other is taking the end product of using a skill (crafting or grebbing) and trying to sell it to a merchant.

IF you were to say that the mage is casting a spell to create a pair of boots, THEN goes to sell them only to find that the cobbler has too many already, I may agree with you.

OR, IF you were to say that grebbers in the known have already grabbed 25 blocky chunks of yellow sandstone and now nobody gets to greb stones for 24 hours, I may agree with you.

But not with this comparison.

[Vettrock]

finally:
> barter
The rotund, boyish merchant says, 'I cant afford that.'
The rotund, boyish merchant says, grabbing his crotch, 'In. Your. Face. Boooyaaaahhh!'
> cast 'mon un spell of doom' merchant

Cool...What does spell of doom branch from?  or is that IC info?

[Barsook]

It'd be good if they told you up front that they were out of cash.

+1

Time for a counterfeiter's guild.

+1 , also.

[Riev]

Time for a counterfeiter's guild.

No need for a guild! Just roll up a woodcarving elf, send in 6 months of character reports about how hard you're trying to find the right weight for wood to make counterfeit coins, continue to slough on despite no coded support from on-high, and then when you're done, counterfeit 500 wooden coins, which actually do nothing to the economy in the long run, store, and then everyone can forget about the successful counterfeit attempt!


Realistically, I have to agree with TLH. It sucks. It sucks BAD, when you can't play often, and you're trying to afford the occasional social drink AND stable fees AND this AND that... but really... Zalanthas has people sleeping in the streets. Beggars, emaciated children, and only the tough or clever survive into adulthood. Where I see the problem, is in clanned situations where you're TRYING to make some coin for your crafters and hunters, because (no offense) most leaders don't know how to reward underlings with anything besides coin. And most underlings (again, no offense) want nothing but what they think or know to be the codedly-best armor/weapons, and will accept nothing else, even as a gift.

[The Warshaper]

Take my post with a grain of salt.

I won't talk about the actual mechanics of the selling and barter system since well, I am very new here. What I can comment on is the desire to want a balanced game experience for folks who play a half hour a day and folks who play 5+ with everyone involved still having as much fun as possible. I've seen timers/delays put in place before to some good effect to prevent skill spamming on other muds. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to discourage a player from actually staying logged in because well, after 2 hours of play there just isn't anything left to do besides idle in the local tavern.

I would propose that VNPC sales slowly generate throughout the 24hr RL day. This allows players who do have large stocks of goods to sell to continue making their profits since after a time the merchant will have generated enough to buy several items.

However this also allows joe solo that just wants to make 40-50 sids on his selling trip to whatever market the chance to catch the merchant with some currency still left after other players from other time zones have had their chance to sell their stockpile off too.

Again just an idea from someone who understands very little about the mechanics behind it all.

[Barsook]

I think the VPNC sales do slowly generate or at least in one of the shops it seems to be happen.

[Cutthroat]

It does happen. Most shops have the chance to sell to a "passerby" every hour.

[rodic]

As newb myself I haven't had too much trouble.  Although I find out the hard way why so much stuff gets left out in the sand.  Here I thought I hit the jack pot of somebodies left overs only to find there ain't much a market for smelly equipment, even after you clean it.


Grebbing though, really has saved my hide and quiet proud of myself on how far I've gotten my character just knee deep in the shit and sand.

Although sometimes searching for a particular item after every body has unloaded their loot can be a pain when 40+ items scroll on the screen every time I type "list".
I wish there was just a junk buyer, just absorbed bulk junk in  a bag based on weight.  Like a bag of smelly gith equipment or the like much like the salt/dung guys.  Might off set some of the frustration some of us scavengers have with a mount packed two dwarfs high in smelly blood stained boots.


I feel like a Zalanthian janitor some days.