Is there any reason for NPC weapon and armor vendors beyond the first few levels?
Most gear you get comes by the way of drops or crafters beyond level ten. Is there a need for vendors selling gear beyond that?
And what about race specific/city vendors?
It seems when there is a nice looking set of armor that a race specific/city vendor is selling that I really, really, really want. I've out leveled it when I finally get to the point that I can afford to purchase it. Either that, or other equipment comes available to purchase that far exceeds the quality of the race/city gear that I was interested in and I no longer desire to purchase it.
I think basic weapons and armor should be available at all level ranges. Even if you want it there just for roleplaying reasons. Plus, not everyone is going to get gear from NPC's. I've had characters where I was missing gear and wish I could buy at least something to put in the slot. Say at level 50, a appropriate level vendor armor slot may be better than a level 20 or 30 item that you can buy from a player if you haven't looted or saved enough money to buy an appropriate level item.
An interesting thought, I think, is that if there are NPC's that sell armour that look a certain way, then you could buy them and learn their appearance and craft them for the level you want with the relevant stats for that level range.
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I don't care for generic vendor armor available for sale. I do, however, think it would be cool to buy from vendors, any world obtained gear or items sold to them by other players. As long as their mark-up makes sense, I think this would be fun and keep you actively looking at vendors all the time.
I always encourage anything that allows for a dynamic environment. Never know what you are going to get mentality. This is perfect!
Pyye said:I don't care for generic vendor armor available for sale. I do, however, think it would be cool to buy from vendors, any world obtained gear or items sold to them by other players. As long as their mark-up makes sense, I think this would be fun and keep you actively looking at vendors all the time.
I always encourage anything that allows for a dynamic environment. Never know what you are going to get mentality. This is perfect!
I think this is the best idea if I remember it was like this in early EQ. Merchants had the basic bandage water flask spider eye. But the rest were player sold items.
Now this would make it interesting when a vendor attain3d his quota how would a player sell the wares they would be forced to travel to find one that I sent full... unless the vendor keeps buying but reducing the amount he would pay for the same item over and over and allow him to stack swords of the same value so it wouldn't take too much space in the vendors inventory type of thing.
But for the original poster I agree basic gear should be bought off from crafter or other players at a later stage as it doesn't make any sense to me on why someone would rather buy the plain leather armor at level 40 when he can get the basic leather from a crafter at a similar price and where the armor would be better in itself...
I have never understood the reason for weapon and armor NPC merchants in EQ and other games .
What they sell is crap and it costs millions . It was a deep mystery for me why they wasted time to code merchants selling bronze weapons or fine steel for 200 pp when it was dropping on mobs easily and even mid level characters were struggling to buy their spells let alone a crappy sword for 200 PP .
Food , drink , consumables makes sense . But basic, useless, overpriced armor and weapons ?
Deolus said: How about if a weapons merchant could sell your unwanted swords for you (taking a commission of course). Same could apply for other types of merchant's, but buyers would have to travel to that merchant to buy. Or would this be too much like a AH system / could be abused?
I really like this idea. It is not an AH. Perhaps you sell to a faction weapon/armor dealer and only those dealers sell your weapon/armor If you go to a different town/faction the same applies to them with a different set of gear. It would eliminate the auction house mentality while still allowing crafter to sell their stuff. It would be fun checking in with different sword vendors from around Terminus to find and item....a neat twist to immersion.
Lodgedogg said: Well in EQ you didn't have all this crazy stat gear like you have in modern mmo's so it wasn't surprising to see a mid to high lvl warrior in plain plate armor and you could get these from some of the vendors in the world, so not all the weapon and armor merchants were useless after lvl 10
HA!!! Played EQ lately? :P
Just jazzing you, dogg :)
EQ is now I'm guessing the WORST game in the industry for stats padding. That's all they do. Pad stats. Add levels. Make xp easier and faster. Easy, easy, easy...
I personally HOPE VR makes Crafted gear MUCH MORE important to every day gameplay. All the time they put into that NPC armor should be spent putting mechanism in the game to help ME make better armor and make it more available to the masses. Several of you touched on the economics of it all... again a huge peeve of mine. In EQ, the average player needed to hit a lottery ticked it seemed like most days. Hours spent playing and the armor available cost what was the equivelant of MILLIONS... I'll be lvl 50 before I have that much plat! Then it will be USELESS ... PFFT
This was a huge issue in EQ. Everything costs a FORTUNE and there's almost no way to make income for a "normal" player. Normal being an adult with a job and a life to LIVE.
If itemization at earlier levels was better, you really wouldn't need NPC vendors at all selling weapons and armour. It's much more rewarding to get your items off kills while leveling, than selling tons of trash to be able to buy gear off NPC's.
Or for an even more player driven economy, you could have crafted gear as the base gear for a given level range and make the crafting components common drops at those level ranges.
In my minds eye i see ....
1. NPC Smiths should sell 'crappy' (to players) armour etc for :
a 'decent' price (based on cost of ores, extras etc + a markup with which to feed the smith's family).
2. NPC Should stock stuff sold by PCs ... (aka 'Dumpster diving')
... at a hefty markup, and not forever (some 'mythic' NPC may buy it)
... better still merchant sells it to another merchant (add another markup) in another city.
3. Crafters should be able to 'deconstruct' gear (money/gear sink)
This lets them 'research' the style of the piece in order to create a 'pattern' (aka recipe)
This pattern can then be 'learned' by any crafter with enough skill.
Now they can make armour/weapons of that 'style' as a variant of a set piece.
4. VR need to pre-plan max gear stats for, say level 85 gear, even with current lev 50-60 max.
This ensures everything scales and is internally consistent, even after patches.
It also means it is more likely gear lasts 'longer' since 'gear stats' won't inflate as much!
5. Be nice if (local) merchants dropped their buy price if the (local) market is glutted.
You want me to buy more bat wings??? I don't have any more storage! Even if I did, I wouldn't buy them ... for one, it will take me months to shift the ones I already have, for another they SMELL!
You have already ruined your country's economy, so don't you come ruin mine!
Anyhow ... that's my 2 cp spent!