Trazz's Merchant Improvement

[Trazz666]

Merchant is a great role. No lie, it's the most fun I've had with a role in years. That being said, I have a few (loving) complaints and improvement ideas. There's no real fancy way to explain it all, so I'll just list them.

Whitelist - Honestly I'm not so sure about this one upon rethinking it, but I feel it still may be relevant. It stands to reason, given the higher amount of lore knowledge and RP needed for the role, that the prerequisite of having at least 1 whitelist approval could be implemented. This could also help lower demand for the role, but it's honestly not that important of an improvement.

Suppliers - The big issue with the merchant role is the reliance on RNGesus, something most other roles do not have. You get 1 or 2 steady suppliers, and at any given time a handful of random suppliers. And it's completely random which ones you can and can't sell items to. I feel that having at least 1 of the 2 steady suppliers should be hardcoded to be able to be sold to, to ease up just a bit. The chance that any supplier will buy items should also be increased. I also feel that if you find a supplier you really like, instead of paying to have them stay a few minutes longer, you should be able to have them stay on the list for 500 credits.

Contacts - Sort of like the permanent suppliers, a contact list should be a list of anywhere between 2 and 5 people/organizations/whatever that instead of selling you things, will buy things from you. Each contact will only handle a category of goods (I.E. mining equipment, construction materials, weapons, ect) and cost 50-100 credits to hail, making it costly to spam hailing them to remember what they accept.

Station - This is just a list of things that would make good additions to the merchant station, listed from what I feel is most important to least: An additional airlock to space, an atmos locker with 2 or 3 Air canisters in it in case of venting and/or expanding, an APC charged by pre-wired solars/cyborg charging station for our IPCs, extra rooms such as a small kitchen, a garden, and a meeting/dining room to make the station feel livable and increase quality of RP by inviting characters there (which is super fun, even when not an antag).

If you have any questions or need clarifications, please feel free to ask. Even if my writing isn't the best, I'm pretty passionate about merchant expansion.

[Lohikar]

The merchant station can't really get an airlock to space without moving it off the centcomm Z, though that's probably perfectly doable.

[Arrow768]

I do not see the point in yet another whitelist.

The merchant slot is rare, and if you notice someone who is not following established lore, then ahelp them.

The merchant station is only meant as a dock for the merchant that is only used to load items onto their shuttle.

I do not support the idea of adding additional areas to it, as this might lead to (as you mentioned) players heading to the merchant station.

If you want to chair RP, then join as a visitor.

[Trazz666]

I do not see the point in yet another whitelist

 

Because of the wording of this sentence, I want to clarify for future viewers of the post, as to prevent misinformation being spread. I am not suggesting that merchant should require it's own whitelist. I'm just suggesting that already having an unrelated whitelist approval would ensure quality of RP for this unique job. Any other job that freely gives weapons as a non-antag generally has some kind of trust barrier in place (whitelist for heads, waiting period before security officer become unlocked), it would stand to reason this job could use something similar.

[Arrow768]

I could get behind a waiting period for the merchant, but not a whitelist.

The job doesnt have the ability to make or break a round such as command or requires a extensive knowledge of the lore such as the species.

Therefore a whitelist is overkill.

[Trazz666]

Another basic living thing we take for granted that the merchant station lacks: a garbage disposal. Last time I played merchant, some trash began to accumulate without a place to dispose of it (I ended up stacking it on the table). Easily remedied by a disposal out to space, trash bin, or incinerator.