Author:
Darkstone News
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Date Posted: Sun, Jun 22 2003, 04:21am
In reply to:
Darkstone News
's message, "UOSC #8 Lots of tidbits of info within..." on Sun, Jun 22 2003, 04:01am
This document dramatically expands upon the previous
"Vendor Improvements" Update Center article, and as such supercedes that previous
documentation.]
There are a number of changes in the works for the player-vendor system, and
with these changes we hope to accomplish three primary goals:
- Improve vendor functionality and allow players better control over their vendors.
- Add new vendor features and potentially alter costs to lessen the impact of vendors now taking up house storage slots.
- Maintain the number of vended objects in the world at sustainable levels.
This Update Center documentation briefly describes certain changes that we feel
will help accomplish these goals, including some changes that affect housing
as much as the vendors themselves. But, remember, the In Concept section is
here to give you an idea of what we're looking to change, and because we're
still working on this project what you read here should not be considered to
be written in stone. We've paid close attention to your feedback, particularly
in this
thread, and we feel enthusiastic that the upcoming player-vendor improvements
will both allow for our game system needs and bring you notable improvements
with how you sell your wares.
Excessive items in small areas can slow
down passers-by, lag entire servers, slow down shard back-up times, and even
put characters into inescapable, unplayable "black hole" situations. UO can
certainly accommodate hundreds of thousands of stray items within the service,
but the service must also not become burdened with an overly excessive number
of virtual items, if possible. Player-vendors play a critical factor in all
this, and for these reasons vendor storage space must not continue to
be effectively unlimited. However, these considerations must also be balanced
against continuing to allow players to vend their collected & crafted items
off NPCs as well as improving the methods by which players can manage NPC vendors.
With all this and more in mind, listed below are some of the top level changes
that we are working on for player vendors.
More Storage:
Vendors will continue to take up house secure storage for their inventories. However, with these changes, secure storage will be increased by about 15% for all houses.
Additionally, vendors will no longer take up a minimum of 10 lockdowns (Barkeeps
also will not take up 10 lockdowns, although all house types will continue to
be limited to up to two barkeeps per house.).
The number of vendors your house will be able to have will depend on the size
of the house and whether or not it's classified as a "shop."
For example:
House Type
|
Vendor Limit
(Public House)
|
Vendor Limit
(Shop House)
|
Small Brick |
5
|
10
|
15x15 |
21
|
42
|
Castle |
39
|
50
|
New "Shop" Classification:
If you don't mind sacrificing some decorative lockdowns to gain extra vendor storage, then you might find the new "shop" classification for public houses to be useful. A shop will function very much like a public house--the only difference will be in the amount of storage it has committed to vendor space. Because of the specific purpose of these types of houses--that is, as a place where commerce is the focus--shops will have 50% more storage space than other house types.
House Type
|
Total Storage
(Public and Private)
|
Total Storage
(Shops)
|
Small Brick |
489
|
734
|
15x15 |
2437
|
3656
|
Castle |
4688
|
7032
|
Shops will also have available to them an in-house runestone marking system
that will allow players to Recall off a "vendor rune" without fear of ending
up in a dungeon.
Bulletin Boards:
A special message board will be available to all house owners that will allow
closer communication with friends, neighbors, guildmates, customers, and even
rivals. Any house type will be able to have a bulletin board, but each house
will only be able to have one. They'll be craftable by carpenters who have a
minimum skill of 85.0 and will require 50 logs to create.
Bulletin boards are a great way to communicate with visitors to your house.
Vendor Rental Contracts:
If you like to rent out space in your home to other merchants who are in need
of a place to sell their wares, but find that keeping track of such agreements
can be a bit overwhelming (especially if you rent out to a lot of vendors!),
then the new Vendor Rental Contracts will probably make your life a little easier.
These contracts will allow public and shop house owners to rent out vendor locations
for limited periods of time. The terms of the contract will be available for
reference at any time, to both renter and house owner, by choosing an option
on the vendor's context menu. Just like the old vendor contracts, you'll be
able to purchase these new contracts from NPC Innkeepers.
The vendor rental contract looks like a normal deed, but is pinkish in hue.
Terms of the contract:
Before a rental contract can be offered to another player, the house owner will
need to set the terms of the contract. First, they'll need to double-click on
the deed. Their mouse pointer will turn into a targeting cursor, and they'll
be asked to click on the location that they'd like to reserve for the vendor
rental. The rental contract will appear in that spot and temporarily take up
one lockdown slot. Once on the ground, the house owner will be able to access
the terms of the contract by selecting "Contract Options" from the deed's context
menu. Through this menu, the house owner will be able to set the:
- Duration of the contract period (1, 2, 3, or 4 weeks).
- The price per rental.
- The amount of storage space the landlord wishes to allocate to the vendor.
- The possibility of allowing automatic rental renewal at the end of the contract period (Both the tenant and the landlord must agree for auto-renewal for it to happen. If one or the other rejects this option, the auto-renewal will not occur.).
The vendor rental contract menu shows you which options you can set on the vendor contract.
Setting up a vendor:
Once the terms have been set, the house owner ("landlord") can then rent the spot
to another player. To setup a rental contract, the landlord and the vendor-renter
("tenant") will need to meet within the house. The landlord will need to bring
up the deed's Contract Options menu, select the "Offer Contract to Someone" option,
and then target the tenant.
The tenant will then get a menu detailing the terms of the contract (the price, the duration, and the amount of storage space allotted to the vendor). If the terms are acceptable, the tenant will need to choose "I accept!" to activate the vendor. If the tenant does not agree to the terms, then the contract will not go into effect and no vendor will be created.
Once both the landlord and tenant accept the contract terms, the vendor will appear in place of the contract. The single lockdown taken up by the contract will be credited back to the house.
The landlord may update the terms of the contract at any time through the vendor's Contract Options menu. Any changes made will take affect as of the next contract period.
Contract renewal:
If the landlord and tenant don't want to worry about having to meet each other
to renew the contract each time it expires, they can opt to have the rental contract
automatically renew. In order for this to happen, the "Renew on Expiration" option
must be set to "Yes" by both the landlord and tenant. This can be set through
the vendor's Contract Options menu.
When the renewal occurs, the fee will be taken from the vendor’s account and the landlord will be able to come by at anytime afterwards and collect the rent by selecting the "Collect Rent" option from the vendor's context menu. If the vendor has no gold stored, the contract will not be renewed.
If at anytime the renewal price is changed, the tenant’s renewal choice will automatically
be set to "No." Both the landlord and the tenant will need to accept this new
renewal cost in order for the renewal to occur.
Removing vendors:
There
may come a time when both parties of a rental agreement will choose to terminate
the rental contract. As such, there will be a couple methods available to end
a contract:
- Expiring contracts: One way to terminate a contract is to not renew it. Vendors will disappear at the end of a non-renewing contract period. If either party of the contract agreement has the "Renew on Expiration" option set to "No," then the contract will simply not renew.
Once a contract expires, the vendor will immediately vanish and its inventory and funds will move to a special "vendor crate" (This is more like a virtual container, rather than an actual object.). The tenant will be able to collect any funds remaining on the vendor, as well as any items remaining in the vendor’s inventory, by using a context-sensitive menu option on the house sign.
- Dismissing vendors: Another option, available only to the tenant, is to dismiss the vendor. If the tenant dismisses a vendor early (before the contract expires), the contract will be terminated with no refund of the rental fees. Tenants will be able to terminate a rental contract in this fashion at anytime.
- Refunding a contract: Both parties can also make a joint decision to terminate the contract before it expires, which would allow the tenant to receive a refund of the rental fees they have paid to the landlord. The landlord will be the one to determine the exact amount of the refund.
The tenant and landlord must both be within two tiles of the vendor in order to jointly terminate the contract. The landlord will be able to select an option from the vendor's context menu called "Terminate Contract." If the vendor is not empty, the tenant will be warned that the vendor’s inventory will be placed in the "vendor crate," and that they will have a 3-day grace period to collect the items. The landlord will be prompted to enter a refund amount. That amount will be displayed to the tenant, who may agree or disagree to the termination. If the tenant agrees, the refund amount will be subtracted from the landlord’s banked gold and deposited in the tenant's bank box, and then the vendor will be moved to the "vendor crate." If the tenant disagrees, the rental contract will continue on without change.
The tenant will see this menu when the landlord chooses the option to terminate the contract
Demolishing houses:
If there are any contract vendors still within a house, the house owner will
not be able to demolish that house (This does not apply to normal vendors or
barkeeps.). And a house that becomes condemned will not fully decay until all
vendor contracts have expired.
A condemned house that cannot decay due to existing contract vendors will convert
to being "Scheduled for Demolition" (but will still decay once all vendors are
gone). Once a house is condemned, none of the vendor contracts will be able
to be renewed.
Vendor Access:
You'll no longer have to trudge through a house packed wall-to-wall with vendors,
or get lost in someone's rooftop garden while looking for a vendor who's selling
what you need. Vendor owners, house tenants, and shoppers will be able to access
vendors located anywhere within a house through the house sign's context menu,
this includes anyone that may have been banned from the house.
Access vendors from outside the house!
Clicking on the "Vendor" option in the context menu will bring up a menu that
lists all the vendors in the house. Vendor owners will have the option of naming
their vendors, so that patrons will be able to easily distinguish their vendors
from others.
This is a great way to let people know what kind of wares they can expect to
find on your vendor. For example, if your vendor sells nothing but boots and
bandages, you could simply name it: "Boots and Bandages Galore."
Browse the list of vendors in a house without having to step a foot onto the property.
Vendor Upkeep:
Since vendors don't volunteer their time to sell your trinkets and doodads,
you'll need to pay them to keep them happy. As such, upkeep charges will continue
to be withdrawn on a daily basis from the vendor’s "bankroll." The bankroll
consists of gold collected by the vendor through sales, in addition to gold
given to the vendor from that vendor’s owner.
In addition, the vendor menu will only trace real-life days (and not "game days"
and "earth days"), and murderers will no longer be required to pay extra upkeep
charges. (The tripled cost for the Siege Perilous ruleset will still apply,
however.)
The vendor's control menu has a whole new look!
We also have some other possible ideas in mind, including improved access &
security features and better auto-pricing systems. As mentioned above, we’re
still working on these changes, but we’ll keep you updated as development progresses.
Vendor Customization:
Customizing your vendors will become a whole lot easier. Instead of having to
flip through a series of menu pages to change your vendor's outfit, you'll be
able to drag any wearable item off and on to your vendor's paperdoll by using your mouse
pointer.
Change your vendor's appearance by dragging items onto its paperdoll.
Anything you can equip yourself, you can equip on your vendor-that means clothing,
armor, jewelry, and weapons are all fair game!
Customizing your vendor's hair type, hair color and gender will be done through
a customization menu that you'll be able to access through the vendor control
menu.
Change your vendors hair style, hair color, and gender.
You'll also be able to customize and restock from outside the house, as long
as you are within 5 tiles of the house sign. Your vendor will be moved to where
you are standing and a placeholder will appear in its rented location. Once
you are finished customizing or stocking your vendor, you can select the option
to "Return Vendor" from its context menu and it will pop back to its previous
location.
Grandfathered Vendors:
Once the new vendor changes have been implemented, any vendors not attached
to a house (standing out in the open) will drop their funds and inventory to
the ground and vanish. Any passers-by will be able to pick these items up from
the ground.
All other legacy vendors will be deleted and moved into the "vendor crate,"
including the temporarily-grandfathered vendors. For the first 10 days after
being re-deeded, only the vendor's owner will be able to access its vendor crate.
They will be able to reclaim both the "funds held for you" and "gold in my account"
funds from their vendors.
After the 10 days are up, the contents of the vendor will be dumped into the
house's moving crate and the house owner will be able to take possession of
the items.
It's important to note that whenever a house has any rented vendors in it, the house cannot be customized or demolished. But, if the house owner sells the house, the buyer immediately becomes the landlord of all rental vendors in the house.
A house also cannot be demolished as long as it has any "vendor crates" that have yet to be claimed by their owners. If the vendor owner doesn't claim their items within the 3-day grace period, the owner of the house will be able to take possession of the items and then demolish the house.
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