Thinking of attempting a merchant mod - input appreciated

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:40 pm

If I did actually give her a shop, as opposed to just a stall, chances are that I'd put it into the basement of whatever fort I used, which would (hopefully) further reduce the chance for conflict. Though.... I'm really not sure on this. I will find it an "interesting" challenge to simply create a merchant NPC with a background story and unique dialogue.... actual building and construction is yet another matter... :speech:
Maybe I'll start her out with a stall in the fort courtyard and give her a shop in a later version.

My SO is going to be out of the country for a few days next week, which will give me a bit of extra time to work on personal projects, so perhaps I'll be able to start putting all of this into gear then.

*crosses fingers*

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:21 pm

Good luck DW....

I actually had some time to myself this weekend also, daughter and son-in-law gone for the weekend....got some quality game time. New character up to level five....also found an update for the Bob's armory mod, put in icons....but still a little bit much for me. Tried a couple of house mods, settled on the basic shack in Seyda Neen, kept Ice's Hideaway, for the point in the game where you always end up with more than you can use or need to sell, but still find that large a mansion a little bit over the top...LOL.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:09 pm

A couple of suggestions if I may.

Make her 'Class' Pawnbroker, it'll make it a lot easier to set her up.

Don't put her in any faction, unless you only want members of that faction to be able to use her services.

Be careful of what items you give her for her own protection, if a PC sells her something the AI considers 'better' than what she's wearing she'll put it on, and the item you gave her for her protection will go on sale. For example if you were to equip her with Glass Cuirass with a constant regeneration enchantment, and then the PC sells her Ebony Cuirass, there's a good chance she'll don the Ebony and the PC will think Christmas has come early.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:50 am

I very much like your idea, DW. I'm not sure about her name though. If she has 25.000, why not call her 'Walks With Bill Gates"?
I'm a total CS-lectic but I'd still like to help test it. Maybe the input of someone who is not a modder could be useful, or at least fresh.
Good luck!

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:08 pm

@Bluesky,
yes indeed, time to one's self is a very wonderful thing! In this case... I get five days of it. *does a dance*

@Galraen,
Thanks very much, those are extremely useful suggestions. Why is it easier to set a NPC up as a pawnbroker as opposed to a merchant? I can just imagine some bit of dialogue about getting a pawnbroker license involving far less bureaucracy or something...

I do have a couple of ideas regarding the protection issue. Emma's children of Morrowind apparently teleport away if attacked, so that is one option, the other I'll PM you with

@Coot,
I'm grateful to anyone who would like to test this, it doesn't matter whether you mod or not. Besides, at present, I'm no modder myself.

LMAO re: "Walks with Bill Gates." The thing is, by merchant mods standards, she's actually in the junior leagues because many of them have in excess of 500 K. In my view that is way over the top, especially if the merchant is a creature and therefore gives full value.

Since this idea has been fermenting for a few days, I have a few questions to ask of people.
I was rolling over the idea of just setting her up with a stall, but given the background story I have in mind that explains her money... it would not make much sense for Walks Aming Flowers to not have her own shop.
So, assuming I can actually do this.... (we'll see

), I was thinking of setting her up with a little place at Fort Buckmoth. It's possible that there might be conflicts, but at the very least it is not exactly a heavily used piece of real estate. Also, it is fairly central by virtue of its proximity to Ald R'uhn.
What I am wondering is whether to give her a shop in the Imperial or Redoran style... right now I am leaning toward the former, but I'd like to know what people think.
I'm also thinking of expanding her range of services so that her shop is something of an outpost... maybe there will be a little room with a bed for rent, and perhaps she'd also sell Chitin, Bonemold and steel armors and be able to do repairs and sell a few spells? Though, I don't know... that could sort of duplicate the function of Fort Buckmoth. Thoughts?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:44 pm

To be hoest I don't know how the class of the character affects what services he/she can offer. When I set up a merchant using the merchant class, the onle service she could offer was 'spells'. I then changed her class to Pawnbroker then she could buy and sell anything, but not provide any other sevices. So I tried Alchemy service (ala Ajiira) and could only sell potions and apperatus, and offr travel services. Next I copied Ajiira, (saved her with a new ID) and voila, sh could offer all services and buy and sell anything. So, ignore my previous advice if you want to offer services other than buying and selling.

Load an existing NPC, deselect 'Blocked', save, reload, change the ID and save again. You can then modify anything to suit the character you want to create.

OK, this is a 'dirty' fix, but it does work.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:22 pm

galraen wrote:
Load an existing NPC, deselect 'Blocked', save, reload, change the ID and save again. You can then modify anything to suit the character you want to create.

OK, this is a 'dirty' fix, but it does work.

Hmm.. OK, I don't mind a "dirty" fix

So if I loaded Hull (the Argonian mendicant who wanders Balmora) could I then modify her according to my specifications? I mention Hull because she is the only female Argonian NPC I can currently bring to mind.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:43 pm

Kipi wrote:How much would the merchant have those restore health and restore mana potions? Especially mana potions may bring some unbalanced effects if there are too many of those to be bought.

Good point, and it is something I am trying to figure out. My plan for now would be for her to stock 5 standard health potions (restocking) and 5 standard mana potions (restocking). I am also planning to put one quality restore health potion and one quality restore mana potions (also restocking) into her inventory.

Now considering that you can get constantly replenishing standard health and mana potions when you join the Fighter and Mage guilds, I don't think this is a problem. Indeed, it might be helpful to those players who do not wish to join those guilds.
I suppose the single Quality potions are potentially unbalancing, assuming a player wants to "wait" 24 hours to buy additional potions, but really anything can be exploited as a cheat if somebody really wants to do so.
Even when you are high level, better healing and mana potions are tough to find, and basically I'm just trying to do something that will be useful to players without being over the top. Also, I figure it's pretty straightforward, just exercise self-will and do not stockpile on those Quality potions

But, I'm open to more thoughts on this issue, I can easily enough just keep it to standard potions if people generally think that two different restocking quality potions are unbalanced

Okay, just trying to do some initial planning here, so some "screenshots" to look at.

[url="http://my.opera.com/DragonWench/albums/showpic.dml?album=37360&picture=3367391"]floor plan[/url]

legend to floor plan (witness my oh so "spectacular" [not] ability with Paint

) :

A = Armoire
C -- > = pointing to the counter
S = shelves
C = chest
T = table
B = bed
K - Kitchen (for realism's sake)
F = forge
M = merchant (where she'll stand)
D = trapdoor to merchant quarters (the unconnected box to the right)

The room at the bottom would be the rentable area.

[url="http://files.myopera.com/DragonWench/albums/37360/IMGT0RB4TKYEX.jpg"]Likely location[/url] (the red square and arrow to the left, abutting against the back of Fort Buckmoth, which would definitely mean Imperial architecture)

Ferrick · Post by **Ferrick** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:01 pm

Your point "anything can be exploited as a cheat" is right on. If someone knows how to do the console cheats then an actual merchant mod certainly isn't going to upset game balance.

I think as long as you are having fun, then go with it. People can make the decision to either install it or not install it.

There are always those players who, because of bad luck or poor RPG skills, become desperate for such potions. Without such quaffing goodness their life is forfeit time and again!

By the way, dragon wench, what is your NPC's name again?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:33 pm

Bear in mind any container not in view of your NPCs can be looted, such as the ones in the adjacent room and upstairs. I'd suggest hiring a couple of guards, big beefy ones with high magic resistance and the Morrowind eqivalent of true sight.:laugh:

I'd also suggest placing her tade goods container 'off stage', i.e. on its own platform in the void where no one can get to it, ala Oblivion.

PS I wouldn't worry about the magicka/health regnerating potions, the PC can make far better potions than the ones Walks-among-Flowers will be selling, and a lot lighter too. The real downside with the potions you pick up in the mages and fighter guilds is their weight.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:09 pm

galraen wrote:Bear in mind any container not in view of your NPCs can be looted, such as the ones in the adjacent room and upstairs. I'd suggest hiring a couple of guards, big beefy ones with high magic resistance and the Morrowind eqivalent of true sight.:laugh:

*snicker* Oh don't worry... I've considered that.... :devil:

I'd also suggest placing her tade goods container 'off stage', i.e. on its own platform in the void where no one can get to it, ala Oblivion.

That I very likely will try to do if it's manageable.

PS I wouldn't worry about the magicka/health regnerating potions, the PC can make far better potions than the ones Walks-among-Flowers will be selling, and a lot lighter too. The real downside with the potions you pick up in the mages and fighter guilds is their weight.

That is also my view. Personally, when I play, I only use the freebies from the guilds until my Alchemy is high enough to make my own potions, which are always *much* better.

Ferrick wrote:By the way, dragon wench, what is your NPC's name again?

Her name is Walks Among Flowers

I have no idea how I came up with that, it just sort of popped into my mind when I created my Argonian PC.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:22 pm

I doubt Hul will work, but Chanil_Lee, another female Argonian should. She's a Sorcerer (mages guild member) who hangs out in the Six Fishes in Ebonheart. Not that the character has to be an Argonian initially, you can always change the race, along with pretty much anything else.

Magelord648 · Post by **Magelord648** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:37 pm

I'm bored and I have nothing to do. Do you want help with interior? I like doing those and they can be a bit fiddly at some points.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 6:08 pm

Magelord648 wrote:I'm bored and I have nothing to do. Do you want help with interior? I like doing those and they can be a bit fiddly at some points.

lol! I wouldn't object

Thanks!
I'll likely start trying to mess with this sometime on the weekend, and I'll see how it goes. I'll PM you when I've began to tackle this thing, and let you know how I'm doing with it.

Now, I'm thinking I'll need to complete the building before creating the NPC, am I right?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:24 pm

dragon wench wrote:lol! I wouldn't object Thanks!
I'll likely start trying to mess with this sometime on the weekend, and I'll see how it goes. I'll PM you when I've began to tackle this thing, and let you know how I'm doing with it.

Now, I'm thinking I'll need to complete the building before creating the NPC, am I right?

No, you can create Walks Among Flowers anytime, in fact it's probably best that she's finished before she's placed in her final position. Less likelyhood of getting duplicates.