Black market merchant

Aarkon Draco · Post by **Aarkon Draco** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:17 pm

similar suggestions have been made but hear this one out.

the black market merchant is a random spawn in towns and citys at night ( similar to the planar store he just appears randomly ) he will buy your goods for 20% lower than normal costs and he has a decent selection of store gear for 20% higher cost however its random what he has but most of it is store quality.

he also has a select number of random unique gear specific to the black market merchant ( a way to add new lowbie weapons and gear without adding new zones/mobs ) this gear he has a fiew pieces of no less than 3 no more than 7. these black market only items are highly priced equivalent of 2 gear levels above their actual level ( a lvl 5 item sells for the price of a lvl 13 item )

he can also have a chance of having a artifact or two 25% chance of 1 10% chance of 2. artifacts are extremely high priced being 4 gear levels ( or close to it ) over their base level.

this would not only give players a way to sell/purchase gear after hours but also be a way to add new low - mid level gear to the server easly. give him random tables for what he has for sale to aviod using barter with him he spawns with a chest containing the black market items he has for sale.

comments? suggestions?

MasterYoda · Post by **MasterYoda** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:28 pm

i actualy like it alot

Blystos Re · Post by **Blystos Re** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 7:49 pm

MasterYoda wrote:i actualy like it alot

Took the words right outa my mouth...

Queltor · Post by **Queltor** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:06 pm

I like it, but it creates a system of haves and have-nots.

Even if the equipment is low level, no low level toons are likely to afford it without help from a high level toon. Is that fair for the new players?

Imagine that two players have 9th level toons.
One is building their first toon and is scraping together money to afford the next level of equipment. The other is an established player with loads of disposable cash for their new toon. Which has the better equipment? The established player, obviously.

This already happens with mules and harvesting equipment for lower level toons, but adding in higher priced equipment adds in another way for this disparity to exist.

Does it matter that this would put new players at a disadvantage? They already are... but I think this would make it worse.

Aarkon Draco · Post by **Aarkon Draco** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 10:49 pm

a valid point queltor tho the "new" player can compromise with the store grade gear which is what the merchant will have the most of in his invintory after all this gear will only be 20% more than normal. the unique gear will proly have prices a lvl 9+ can afford even my most cost inefficient toons have a surplus at lvl 9 without having had money dropped for them.

the costs for the unique black market gear was a suggestion perhaps a cost of one gear level higher rather than 2 would work better this pricing is up to the devs to decide my post was an example of a setup for the black market merchant im shure his prices will be reasonable for the gear he has if they decide to add him.

Trogdorbob · Post by **Trogdorbob** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:16 am

just my two cents here.

Having remembered what it was like when i was a newby here, i find that there is no difference of prices for a new player for the regular stores or the black market ones. The new toon still has to scrimp and save for the gear he gets. Also the complications of not being in a guild so that he can mule stuff is a pain. Not having that chest to help out in muling and always having to ask for transfer help is a negative for new players as well. Either way the new players are still going to have trouble gathering the cash. Especially if they arent good builders. Then its just game over. So really all in all I like the black market idea. Thats exactly the point. Its a "Black Market". If you go into a city as a new visitor your not going to know where everything is all at once. It takes time to get to know the place and where things are and whats the buzz around the place. The Black Market should be the same. Really there is a market anyway if the peeps ask for whats being sold or if they can get their little mitts on a particular item. The really hard to find items would be great to find randomly at a place of purchase.

I like the idea.

Aarkon Draco · Post by **Aarkon Draco** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:52 am

"The really hard to find items would be great to find randomly at a place of purchase."

thats one of the reasons i said he should have a chance of some artifacts because some just dont like to drop. Belmont chain whip for example, golden kurki is another. this way at least its another way for players to get these items without having to hope and pray for the random drop of them. i had considered saying he should have +2 books as well but some things should be left to random chance and books while rare can be found somewhat regularly and i dont think the staff wants them to become even more common than they are. ( got to have something for event prizes and such )

diddy33 · Post by **diddy33** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 9:48 am

Queltor wrote:Imagine that two players have 9th level toons.
One is building their first toon and is scraping together money to afford the next level of equipment. The other is an established player with loads of disposable cash for their new toon. Which has the better equipment? The established player, obviously.

Hello all, i'm a new player all together, and i can say at level 9 my toon can afford to pay the extra for new equipment, i pick up everything i can sell

. right now at level 14 i have over 150k just burning a hole in my pocket. i think it's a nice idea, and especially if the black market will buy my findings i won't have to wait for morning at the stores.

de_slider · Post by **de_slider** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 1:33 pm

diddy33 wrote:i think it's a nice idea, and especially if the black market will buy my findings i won't have to wait for morning at the stores.

This quote, I believe, sums up the real reason for this idea. It is a bit frustrating to get back into town at 19:00 hours then run like mad to the shop, still 19:00 hours, open the door and hit the trans with it still 19:00 hours then appear inside the shop with everything locked up because now it's 20:00 hours.

That's the name of the game though. Now comes the stand around and wait 20 - 30 minutes r/t for the shops to open so one can sell stuff to buy those arrows, that next piece of armor or my fav.. POTIONS OF HEALING!!!

As far as random spawning of any merchant, that wouldn't help anyone, because a lot of fine folk just don't look around when they first find themselves in the city of their choice. It's "where's the spawn with the xp and kill, kill, kill". How many times have you heard in shout, "Where's the Angel of Death". Yet that is one NPC that never moves and is easy to spot "if" you look around.

As for being able to buy "Really Hard Items To Find", if that were possible then they wouldn't be "Really Hard Items To Find". Just because some have poor luck at finding these items doesn't mean they haven't been found.

In regard to new people. Each and every one of us at one time was "new". Most of us cursed like heck having to respawn 20 times before we had our first 500 xp in. But in the end we all made it to level 2. With that came experience, tactics, how to watch what you needed to watch for etc... How to collect the 'right stuff" to sell for gold.

Now most of us, have a few pc's under our belts now and can start in any faction, strip naked, buy 1 or 2 pieces from the newbie gear supplier, by level 15 have over 250 k in gold sitting in our packs. AND.. that is done without getting muled items, gifts or someone power-leveling us. However, without that rough start that made it very clear that this is not an easy server to start out on, by forcing us to learn how to time things to make sure we hit the shop hours, etc.. we would not be were we are today.

Aarkon Draco · Post by **Aarkon Draco** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:54 pm

actualy my main goal was a way to add new lowbie gear without having the devs make new zones and mobs just to get some new items in the black market merchant can have his lists updated with new gear whenever and its one NPC that gets modified not x new zones made with x number of new monsters. the selling after hours was a perk as was him having the occasional artifact.

lowbie zones are fairly well covered ( another alternate to FD would be nice tho ) so most new zones are for high level toons and not geared to adding the lower end items some want ( pre 16th lvl rapier with some elemental or other perk? some light hammers? shortbows? ect ect )

Trogdorbob · Post by **Trogdorbob** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 6:03 pm

sooooooooooooo your saying its a good idea?

wait or a bad idea?

or a good idea

my head hurts
im going to go eat some cake

ihuntudown · Post by **ihuntudown** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 2:52 pm

good idea, but for my thought, spawn him only in avendell, its the city of trade afterall, and it surely makes the scripting lil easier.
We in d&d game at home have one merchant like him and we call him boris the blade, he even sells items with charges, thou many of the charges are already used, thats where the prize is lower than new stuff