A new way to play!

[Scorpious2k]

I've given a few teases about a way to play and level on the server without ever fighting and killing a single mob! It's ready and will begin running on the Scorpious2k Server this weekend. Here is what it's all about.

Basically, a player can choose to be a business person. They can start a business and level using platinum pieces as expirience points. The term for these people is "player merchant". To become a player merchant, they use the #becomemerchant command. There is no way to change back, so care should be taken in making this decision.

As a player merchant, you have access to the #merchant (or #m) command. This command gives you the ability to BUY AND MANAGE NPC MERCHANTS. The first one is free, after that the cost is based on the total cost of the NPC's inventory and your charisma. The more charming you are, the cheaper it is to get them to work for you. Once you own a merchant, you get half of the money they make in sales and one third of the money they pay out when they buy from a player.

A player merchant has the ability to adjust the prices his NPC merchants charge by a percentage, giving them the ability to lower them to compete with others or raise them to maximize income. The adjustment range is from 60% to 5000% of the going prices. Player merchants have no control over the price the merchant pays for items sold to it by players, can not lower prices below the buy back price, and can not sell anything to their own merchants. This avoids potential exploits and keeps things fair.

It is possible for a player merchant to transfer ownership of an NPC merchant to another player so they can make trades or sell them directly. Yes, this also means they can give one to a friend or to another of their characters.

A player merchant has to make his rounds, and collect this money from his merchants periodically. The collected money accumulates in the player's money, and using the #merchant exp command, they can convert that cash to exp or use it to buy more merchants. The amount of exp you get for each platinum is based on your charisma and intelligence (important for any business person) and on your level.

They can also make things using trade skills and sell them, using that cash as exp. A combination of the two might involve buying an NPC merchant that sells the things needed for the trade skill, allowing them to buy supplies at wholesale and increasing their profits. Or they could own NPC merchants and do trade skills making money from both.

Another option might be to set up shop. Wait on customers yourself, buying items for the customer from one or more of your NPC merchants and selling to the player directly.

One important thing to note about player merchants is that, while they CAN fight and kill mobs, they DO NOT receive any exp for a kill. They can loot items off the corpse and sell them. Any platinum the player merchant gets, no matter how they get it, can be converted to exp. This includes picking pockets when that is working. :o

The #merchant commands are:

#merchant buy - buy targetted NPC merchant
#merchant xfer - transfer ownership of targetted NPC merchant to another player or just get rid of it
#merchant sales - shows sales and other info about targetted NPC merchant
#merchant stats - shows detail list of your NPC merchants
#merchant price - adjusts prices by percentage on targetted NPC merchant
#merchant collect - collect sales revenue from targetted NPC merchant
#merchant exp - convert specified amount of platinum to expirience points


That's about it. In a way, we have added a variation of the game Monopoly to EQ. I hope it is a fun addition.

[smogo]

Great, Great , Great !

Gonna wear my tycoon hat, and run to StocK eKschange place (S2K i presume ?)

Must have been a big work to get the system up. Gratz !

[Melwin]

I think this is a terrific idea and I look forward to seeing how it'll pan out.

[KhaN]

Interesting Scorp, im working on a "non fighting" class for Alkora, and i have to admit some ideas you have are interesting, it can be the basis of a "non fighting" class. But for me, even if this is interesting, its not really valuable on a playing side, mainly because even if this class open a new "niche" (Merchant / Buiness class), it really doesnt fit in the way EQ is designed, aka, a fighting game oriented on Combats, Raids, making the use of a "non fighting" very difficult, well, almost impossible (As a main character).

We are speaking from long time now about adding "non fighting" class to our server Alkora, but without a major gamedesign revamp (Mainly economic), its really hard to make those new class valuable, well, its my point of view.

Like always, what you done is awesome, i cant wait to see your idea about a merchant class evoluate and see what it will become /bow.

[Scorpious2k]

As of this morning, it is running.

The competition is already getting vicious. Orcs have nothing on these player merchants.

[joshuaes]

Congratz on your new class Scorpious2k! /applaud Nice Work!

[Deimos]

This is awesome! I have never seen something like this done on any server before. If only you guys had more quests to do, that were actually more difficult, and had a plot behind them, as well as new zones for different levels. This would make Scorpius2k truly dominate over all until some of these new servers come out, such as that Planar Progression one, or the one I am working on, The Path of Chaos. But for now, your server truly dominates =), and by doing extravagent gesters like this, it will hold #1 for a very long time. Getting a patcher will be the next step to having a better server with more content and lore once u fill every zone and use everything to its fullest potential =). But, congragulations with this Scorpius2k =D.

[bluejam]

Personally I don't think that Scorp2k is the #1 server (no offense), because I've heard a lot of people complaining that it gets old VERY quickly after level 100.

But the new feature definatley rocks. Good work.

[Scorpious2k]

Originally Posted by bluejam

Personally I don't think that Scorp2k is the #1 server (no offense)

No offense taken. We never set out to be #1 or "dominate".

Our server was created because we ( I and my twins Myra and Tark - aka Dindoleki on the server) wanted a server to play on and couldn't find one that matched what we wanted. We made our own and were pleasently surprised when others began getting on. We used their suggestions and improved it. From the beginning, the server was a team effort. If anything made is unique, it was the fact that the team included the players.

We now have about 190 populated zones, some of which are based on the concept of or actually populated by a player. Many changes have been made at the suggestion of a player. This won't change. If we have a popular server, it's because the players made it that way. We thank them all.

But the new feature definatley rocks. Good work.

Thanks.

[rmanwop]

scorp is yur server a 5.8 server?

[animepimp]

No, 5.8 is way too unstable for us to run it yet. And with Omens of War coming out soon 5.8 won't even be compatible yet, so don't expect us to upgrade to 5.8 until after a release is made that is compatible with that.

[rmanwop]

so then what should i change my eqhost.txt to say so that i can play on that server because all i get right now is 5.8 servers

[sotonin]

you cant.

only 5.8 is compatible with the live client. So if you're able to play on 5.8 you are unable to play on any others

[rmanwop]

so there is no way at all that i can change it so that i can play on other servers. im stuck playing on 5.8 for ever? cant i reinstall eq in a different directory and then change eqhost there in order to play on other servers

[sotonin]

you can try the scorpious2k patcher, but i'm not sure when it was last updated or if it'll work. We arent allowed to give links to it. but if you search you should be able to find a link to S2k's main webpage.