UESP Forums
http://en.uesp.net/forums/

The Failure of Merchanting
http://en.uesp.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37450
Page 1 of 1

Author:  Venger [ Fri Feb 07, 2014 12:58 am ]
Post subject:  The Failure of Merchanting

If you've been following my posts here like a love drunk Beiber fan, you'll piece together my frustrations at a lack of carry weight and always being overweighted too son. I have tried to approach the problem from the enchantment front, both with spells and transcendent sigil stones, and with potions. And while both are in active use, I came upon a third path. Enter Merchanting. Or rather the failure of it.

Top end merchants at most carry 1200 septims, meaning they can only transact that much wealth per sale. This is common knowledge to any experienced player. Baring this in mind, and with the eventual frustration of wasted gold, I decided to stop selling, and furthermore stop looting, any item no greater in wealth than 2400 gold, considering its weight vs. value ratio. The reasoning being that, with a Mercantile skill as mine (and I don't know what it is right now, though I suspect it is in the 30s or so), I can only get a maximum of half its value, even if the merchants Disposition towards me is maxed. If I am lucky, I may get a 51% of the items value, but no more than.
That being said, and with the understanding that a Master (or is it Expert?) in the skill of Mercantilism can invest in a store, (with a max additional wealth of 1K gold, I think), why are there items in the game that are so expensive? If merchants can only receive 1200 to 1300 gp per transaction, why can they sell 5K worth of gold in items in an enchanted shirt, ring or weapon? Not only is it hypocritical, but a little stupid. Why are there items, like daedric armor, that cost 3-5 thousand gold per piece of armor, if I can never get half, never mind full value for it?

Okay so you are a pack rat and just want to sit on millions worth of loots. That's fine, but not practical. The better the wealth, the greater the weight. With enchantments to imitate a character with Strength of level 100 (i.e.: 500 pounds carry capacity), I can at most carry about 3-5 daedric suits of armor, a few weapons (usually 1 daedric weapon or ebony, a few bows and arrow, etc). And I usually and leaving several suits and cool weapons behind that I would have liked to get. The desire to horde, taking into account of trying to get loot to sell with a decent weight vs value ratio to sell for the purpose of keeping up over head costs (arrows, potions, scrolls, etc), becomes almost immediately impossible.

In the end I am left more frustrated at 3 things:
1: Why in God's name does a daedric battle axe weigh 90 fuggin pounds!? Are you serious! Do the game developers know what 90 pounds feels like?!I don't get the reasoning here. (One of you pointed out in another of my threads trying to explain the reason why comparative weight increases with quality, but it (the reasoning) still seems incredibly stupid.
2: As a sort of side branch of the above: carry weight and trying to improve it/reduce the weight of items thru Feather spells/potions. But this isn't the thread for it.
3: Why include items in the game worth so much if it can't be sold?

In my eyes Oblivion bares more of a 'realistic' sense of gameplay to it over Morrowind. Morrowind by contrast allowed the player to make a traditionally over power, typical RPG-esque God character (remember enchanting?). So to state my stance real quickly on the Morrowind vs. Oblivion battle, i prefer Oblivion. But with the preference of Oblivion for its 'realism', having so that merchants can't buy anything from you worth more than 1200 gold is just down right dumb. And, sadly, the problem gets worse the greater your Mercantile skill gets, as you get a better, fair market value for your items.

Any thoughts? I understand of course that there are mods that increase merchant bartering wealth, and believe you me it is on the growing list of mods to get. But it still chaps my hide that such a deficiency would appear in the first place.

Author:  Imbalance [ Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Failure of Merchanting

The problem is the leveling. By the time you can find more valuable loot, you're already able to negotiate better prices, or vice-versa. The balance is in the fact that the buyer has infinite gold, so you adapt your style to abandoning the high end generic loot for as many mid-range value trinkets as you can stuff under your mail. Generic enchanted clothing makes the best sale.

Author:  baratron [ Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The Failure of Merchanting


Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/