<<Several weeks before the pre-scheduled shops, it would be interesting if established Traders (maybe 50th and above) could begin bidding on a shop location at the festival itself. Obviously it would be limited to only one or two locations.

50th is not established. 50th is an alt. 100th is an alt. Most primary character Traders are 135th and above because it takes real desire to train combat to that point on a Trader. 150th Traders should be the eligible parties for this.

<<Your position is that of a scripter that is hardcore, even by Dragonrealms standards.

I was speaking specifically to Traders.

My Trader alt is 122nd and needs, you guessed it, to sit in combat for 150th. 100th circle Traders are bought and sold almost weekly.

There have been discussions about this in the past. In an effort to seem more welcoming as a guild by placing key abilities at a lower circle they end up further relegating it to a joke guild that most people are content to alt rather than actually play.

Anything that seems reasonable by the standard of whatever guild your primary is in should be at least doubled when it comes to Traders.

Placing an ability higher than 100th will motivate some of us to actually play our Traders for a while instead of simply let their shop sit unattended for hours a day. Keep in mind mine has been seeing some play since Mechanical Lore caps were raised through new origami patterns, but I'm not hunting. I'm running routes, folding origami, and generally doing everything except what needs to be done to circle. Because circles don't mean jack for Traders. There's nothing to look forward to after 50th. This isn't even really an artifact of the 99 circle cap. While that was in effect Traders had no real reason to circle past 30th (for guild shop access).

This discussion is interesting, but I think it's very tough to generalize about "established Traders" are at least X level, or Traders below Y level tend to be alts. There aren't a whole lot of people who have played Traders as their long-time main character, but for the ones I know, their levels vary wildly from 50 to 150 with no apparent trend that I can see.

If anything, alts will tend to be HIGHER level than main character Traders. Trader circling requirements are basically 8 ranks per level of letting your script walk in a circle (which is by far the most boring and difficult single circling requirement of any guild in the game), and then a bunch of stuff that is so ridiculously easy that you should be ashamed if you ever need them. So those requirements are actually much easier for someone leveling their 2nd account alt that they don't care about, than for someone who actually intends to play the character and enjoy playing the game.

Also on top of the circling requirements basically being "8 ranks of being bored off your ass and not actually playing your character" per level - like you mentioned, there is very little motivation to achieve high levels. Profits from contracts and gemselling cap out at fairly low levels (<100 or so), and while profits from Shops do scale somewhat with level (due to staying open 1 hour per 10 levels, which is awesome design btw), even that can be overcome fairly easily if you actively play the character and sit in your shop periodically.

Not to sound like a broken record, but what this guild REALLY needs is a comprehensive set of Magic 3.0 abilities that you grow into as you level. The idea posted in this thread is cool, and I love it in an ideal world with infinite GM coding time, but it's a good example of what we DON'T need GMs using up all their time on, since it would presumably be quite challenging to implement but then it would only get used a couple weeks per year.

Apu
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http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/User:Apu

I dunno. Shops were huge. I'd really, really like to see Traders made a comprehensive, competitive guild without heavy combat development.

This is from someone with no vested interest in Traders, though, and my reasons are entirely philosophical. The more practical solution is probably just to admit that combat is more than half the game, and give them decent combat abilities.
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Malkien

>speculate development

I am still totally on board for creating Trader-only forging/engineering/alchemy templates that let them build arm-worn mangonels that use lore ranks like attack ranks!
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Malkien

1. Stock market.

2. Insurance policies, with all possible extortions inclusive.
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Malkien

>Our player made goods aren't good enough

Our player made armor and weapons are better than most (all?) of the armor and weapons sold at the last Fest.

- Felicini

>Besides what could they sell at the festival?

I'm not sure if you read my entire post, but the initial suggestion was that the shop winner would recieve access to a stock of customizable festival grade items to sell.

In addition, any sort of rare material items a Trader might have collected could be sold if they had the kind of crowds a festival brings.

I'll point out that I've never played a Trader seriously, so I bet you guys can come up with some good additions or modifications to my idea. Get to it!

---

Weapons for Sale:
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/User:Caraamon#Wares
Hunta Talna Kortok, built by Gor'Togs, for Gor'Togs
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/caraamon/home.html
Combat Balance List:
http://tinyurl.com/DRBalance

Maybe Traders could get first access to a couple shops or select goods for later resale based on a reputation system.
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Malkien

>>IMO it might just be fun for there to be a Trader pavilion at festivals. Traders could have a more captive audience and take the opportunity to sell festival items that weren't being sold this time around.

I like the idea of putting a little pavilion at the festival entrance where people naturally gather anyways, and then plop down some Trader tables just like the ones outside the Crossing Plaza. Traders get to sell some extra merchandise during a period where almost no one visits the permanent Trader shops, we get to make use out of a system that almost no one uses anymore, and the hangout spot at the front of the festival gets more interesting for everyone. Plus it presumably wouldn't be too hard to code since you just reuse the Trader table code that already exists

Apu
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http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/User:Apu

>>>I like the idea of putting a little pavilion at the festival entrance where people naturally gather anyways, and then plop down some Trader tables just like the ones outside the Crossing Plaza.

Definitely a decent idea, since people are in a buying mood anyways. If I were a Trader, though, I'd be a bit befuddled about what to put on the table, given up the ramp would be like fifty competing shops.
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Malkien

>>I like the idea of putting a little pavilion at the festival entrance where people naturally gather anyways, and then plop down some Trader tables just like the ones outside the Crossing Plaza.

Fantastic idea.

>>If I were a Trader, though, I'd be a bit befuddled about what to put on the table, given up the ramp would be like fifty competing shops.

Alteration base materials (e.g. planetary gems), recently won raffle items and game prizes, Uwresari (or other alterer) vouchers, and/or festival gear for those who can't get into the fest itself.


-- Player of Eyuve

>>If I were a Trader, though, I'd be a bit befuddled about what to put on the table, given up the ramp would be like fifty competing shops.

Others already mentioned alteration required materials and raffle/game prizes, but I'd also add forged weapons/armor if someone wants something altered, items from previous festivals that people might have hoped to see at the festival but couldn't find, and things that just might be interesting but just wouldn't be at a festival (quest prizes/treasure box finds/etc).