Put the Merchant on the map

[Captain Gecko]

Quite self-explanatory, really. We have all of these sweet ghost-roles like the Solarian Ship, or the Space Bar that actually spawn in ship/structures that can be seen on the starmap, and even reached. recently I've played my first Merchant round ever and I was surprised to see that the Merchant doesn't... Exist on the map, sort of.

The Merchant's station cannot be seen on the Starmap, so I've been told, and the Merchant's ship cannot really be piloted, it just sort of Bluespace-teleports to the Horizon, just like most ships did in the time of the Aurora. It's fine, but I feel like it's lost potential. How about having an Intrepid or Mining Pod flying to the Merchant's base? How about having the Merchant pass by the Space Bar or even the Solarian ship to trade with these, only to bring their stuff to the Aurora? It's not just that it would make sense for the Merchant to be able to fly around and dock with whoever they want (or have whoever dock with their station), it's that it would be really fun!

[WickedCybs]

A visitable merchant station would be cool and I think that's a fine thing to aim for. It's something I would consider implementing or assisting on for sure.

[Myazaki]

Sounds good. Or just implant the Merchant stuff into the Orion ship.

[Alberyk]

This has a couple of issues I can think of right now:
-Would need to add support for a job check for the merchant
-There is no way to make sure that an away site spawns close to the station, if the merchant is far, it will be harder for them to interact with the crew

[Peppermint]

Could it be made to be similar to the old kataphract one, for the above? Where it has some background lore faction able to spawn in and interact with each other - not exactly riverting gameplay, but adds a little extra so you're not stuck doing nothing.

[Carver]

My only concern is this may limit crew access to the merchant by only a handful of people being able to then reach them (not mentioning the travel time and opportunity cost from such), if they operate from a base instead of flying to the Horizon. One of the nice things about merchant is that everyone can access the store and their wares.

[NerdyVampire]

How about alternatively; we open up a section of the Horizon for a business owner who has his own method of peddling? Like the commissary, except it contains the merchants buy/sell apparatus, limited to their ID and access code (ie, captains access isn't enough), but one that can be emagged to forego the access code?

[Alberyk]

On 09/05/2022 at 06:35, NerdyVampire said:

How about alternatively; we open up a section of the Horizon for a business owner who has his own method of peddling? Like the commissary, except it contains the merchants buy/sell apparatus, limited to their ID and access code (ie, captains access isn't enough), but one that can be emagged to forego the access code?

We have cargo already.

[NerdyVampire]

11 hours ago, Alberyk said:

We have cargo already.

But cargo and merchant are very very different. Cargo is a supplier mainly for departments. You just don't see people take time to browse through cargos lists for private purchases very often. Usually what they are buying have some relation to their work anyway, and should really be paid by the department funds.

The merchant on the other hand gives the option to preview a selection of wares before buying, and the merchant itself is less scrutinized than the digitally-controlled cargo department. It is just more reasonable and easier to actually obtain contraband through the merchant, cause cargo will in most cases demand command permission for anything 'out of the ordinary'. The merchant being private can ignore that, at least to a degree.

Having the merchant on the ship just means opening up an alternative and imo. more reasonable avenue for crew to spend their paychecks. The merchant as it works now is fine, a merchant station could work fine as well, but I don't really see any obstacles in having them just be on the Horizon either. For a merchant station to work, there should be multiple merchants and some other recreation facilities I think.

[Faye <3]

I do not like the idea of only whoever is on the Intrepid being allowed to visit the merchant. Why not give the merchant their main vessel, and a shuttle so they can do both?