Nerf of Blautein's merchant

[julienchab]

I went to sell in Blaustein today, and realized the merchant there just got a nerf compared to what it used to be. I didn't see anything about it in the changelog, so is this intended? It is a pretty huge nerf in my opinion, since the max gold he is offering is now about 50% and more for what it was offering before for some items.

[Bad_Bud]

A cap on the price the merchant buys goods at was added. I imagine for lower cost items he will still provide a better value, but for higher cost items you might want to sell elsewhere.

[julienchab]

A cap on the price the merchant buys goods at was added. I imagine for lower cost items he will still provide a better value, but for higher cost items you might want to sell elsewhere.

I'll have to check other merchants, but the Blaustein merchant was the one with the better prices around. Why was the price cap added though?

[Indigocell]

A cap on the price the merchant buys goods at was added. I imagine for lower cost items he will still provide a better value, but for higher cost items you might want to sell elsewhere.

I'll have to check other merchants, but the Blaustein merchant was the one with the better prices around. Why was the price cap added though?

That's disappointing, that merchant had the best prices I've noticed so far. I have no idea where to look for someone better, I imagine that was largely the point.

[EO]

I capped it in my last update to align it with other merchants that were capped. It's capped at 1000gp, which still makes it better than other merchants but not outrageously better.

[julienchab]

This makes appraise pretty much a useless skill now. Since you can get to the maximum gold for some items without even being close to a high appraise roll.

[Delete Me]

This seems largely frustrating due to the fact that you must spend at least six hundred hundred gp just to get there, and back to the MC. This merchants usefulness has been squandered, I think, resulting in requiring rogues to go to their 'special' merchants.   

But I suppose the gravy train had to come to an end at some point

[APorg]

Does Djordji have a gold limit too?

[Dumas]

Would there be any merit in having a cap go the other way, too? Placed on the selling price of merchants to players? Some of these price differences seem extreme. I've seen merchant NPCs offer only 200 coin for a suit of armour... but selling the same piece, they charge 3,000...

[DrXavierTColtrane]

This makes appraise pretty much a useless skill now. Since you can get to the maximum gold for some items without even being close to a high appraise roll.

Though perhaps not totally "useless," I agree that merchant caps make appraise worth little, and I already find it to be pretty underpowered.

[Ingwulf]

This might make for more player interaction with the high valued items. Although, there is alot of high priced items that are of no use, like the gold rings, diamonds.

They might offer RP value and such. But since sometimes regarding the "low value" high priced items they are better off being sold to the NPC merchants, there might be ideas to make them valuable to certain merchants and less valuable to others.

I imagine there is someone in port that is eager to get gems and gold and silver... a jeweller perhaps? And he might pay more for those things?

But that's just an idea.

Any one agree with me on this?

Anyways. It's a good thing I think to reduce a farmable resource, but like someone posted in some thread regardin items, even without META people always find out how to get the most for the least work. And that's just a fact

Wulfy

[LeviShultz]

I imagine there is someone in port that is eager to get gems and gold and silver... a jeweller perhaps? And he might pay more for those things?

I like this idea. A jeweller NPC that buys different kinds of gems much like how Petre buys pelts. Put your gems and ingot on the table and talk to the jeweller to cash them in.

[Syl]

I imagine there is someone in port that is eager to get gems and gold and silver... a jeweller perhaps? And he might pay more for those things?

I like this idea. A jeweller NPC that buys different kinds of gems much like how Petre buys pelts. Put your gems and ingot on the table and talk to the jeweller to cash them in.

One of these days We'll actually have jewel crafting lol

[Indigocell]

I definitely do not regret skipping those appraise ranks on subsequent rebuilds. I would like to know, do any merchants currently exist in game that will offer better prices than the Blaustein merchant (one that is preferably not class-locked)? I just want to know if I shouldn't bother wasting any time in game trying to find one.

[LeviShultz]

Sometimes there is a Vistani merchant that shows up at certain locations "randomly" or at certain times during the IG seasonal cycle. Its rumored that he offers "the best prices" but I've never done the hard math to determine if that's 100% accurate though.

[ladylena]

I do like the idea of having a good merchant that's not rogue only. Would be great for people, even if said merchant was only around seasonally or something.

There is a jeweler in port a lucine, not sure how well he pays for gems and necklaces though. Perhaps that could be tweaked to enable better prices for gems and the likes?

[Song of Danta]

Sometimes there is a Vistani merchant that shows up at certain locations "randomly" or at certain times during the IG seasonal cycle. Its rumored that he offers "the best prices" but I've never done the hard math to determine if that's 100% accurate though.

Have mucked around with the merchant in question in the past. The answer is 'not by a long-shot'.

As of yesterday, appraise ranks have been removed from all of my characters.

[julienchab]

Sometimes there is a Vistani merchant that shows up at certain locations "randomly" or at certain times during the IG seasonal cycle. Its rumored that he offers "the best prices" but I've never done the hard math to determine if that's 100% accurate though.

Have mucked around with the merchant in question in the past. The answer is 'not by a long-shot'.

As of yesterday, appraise ranks have been removed from all of my characters.

Think that sums it pretty well. With the nerf to the merchant, appraise is now a totally useless skill.

[MAB77]

Hi all. Rest assured your grievances about the appraise skill usefulness have been heard by the dev team. We are working on solutions to make it relevant again.

On a personal note though. I would not like the return of a single vendor that gives the best prices for all the module. But rather several merchants with the best prices for categories of items. A merchant that buys everything should not give better prices than one specializing in jewelry for instance. With the appraise skill especially useful at these specialist shops. They could also be disseminated across several domains.  The best mage shop in Hazlan, the best jeweler in Dementlieu. Perhaps even racial restrictions, shitty prices for every non-elves in Sithicus, but higher than the normal for elves.

[McNastea]

Hi all. Rest assured your grievances about the appraise skill usefulness have been heard by the dev team. We are working on solutions to make it relevant again.

On a personal note though. I would not like the return of a single vendor that gives the best prices for all the module. But rather several merchants with the best prices for categories of items. A merchant that buys everything should not give better prices than one specializing in jewelry for instance. With the appraise skill especially useful at these specialist shops. They could also be disseminated across several domains.  The best mage shop in Hazlan, the best jeweler in Dementlieu. Perhaps even racial restrictions, shitty prices for every non-elves in Sithicus, but higher than the normal for elves.

I like that idea

also, omg cussing

[Meridian]

Hi all. Rest assured your grievances about the appraise skill usefulness have been heard by the dev team. We are working on solutions to make it relevant again.

On a personal note though. I would not like the return of a single vendor that gives the best prices for all the module. But rather several merchants with the best prices for categories of items. A merchant that buys everything should not give better prices than one specializing in jewelry for instance. With the appraise skill especially useful at these specialist shops. They could also be disseminated across several domains.  The best mage shop in Hazlan, the best jeweler in Dementlieu. Perhaps even racial restrictions, shitty prices for every non-elves in Sithicus, but higher than the normal for elves.

Sounds like a really good idea!

[FinalHeaven]

Hi all. Rest assured your grievances about the appraise skill usefulness have been heard by the dev team. We are working on solutions to make it relevant again.

On a personal note though. I would not like the return of a single vendor that gives the best prices for all the module. But rather several merchants with the best prices for categories of items. A merchant that buys everything should not give better prices than one specializing in jewelry for instance. With the appraise skill especially useful at these specialist shops. They could also be disseminated across several domains.  The best mage shop in Hazlan, the best jeweler in Dementlieu. Perhaps even racial restrictions, shitty prices for every non-elves in Sithicus, but higher than the normal for elves.

This is an excellent idea and at one point we even had something like this where the bartender at the Blood of the Vine in VoB acted as a gem purchaser. I always wondered why that got removed.

[EO]

As per the last update, we have capped all merchants on the server; we've rebalanced it based on domain/area.

Appraise will now impact the maximum cap, positively if the difference between the PC's appraise and the NPC's appraise is above 0 and negatively if below 0. It will be based on the skill itself without any rolls so there won't be randomness involved (we also removed the randomness aspect out of the item prices as well).

[Hlot]

You need to make investing skill points in Appraise worth of it.

I would suggest double bonus at merchant for every skill point invested(compared to normal bonus coming from items/buffs), but this could break game economy. Also, I don't know if it's implemented now, but I wouldn't mind seeing certain NPC quests/jobs do checks for those invested Appraise points(not those from items). Like Vallaki Warehouse guy could give one some XP and better prices for those items he wants collected. Just examples.

And to add something more, I guess that unless it's already like that all those lore checks that give XP should probably work only with invested points and not those that come with items.

[MAB77]

You need to make investing skill points in Appraise worth of it.

My understanding of the new system is that the appraise skill is quite useful again. People investing massively in appraise will get much better prices than those who do not since it now raises or decreases the merchant cap directly. So each time you add a point the maximum amount you can get for selling items rises too even at the higher level. With the proper investment in points, all the stats boosting items and spells, and feats available, a character can make a lucrative profit well over the standard cap now. It is a significant skill again.