LE Reliable merchant inventories

[stebbinsd]

Shopping in Skyrim is a pain in the butt. Shopping is supposed to be an easier way to obtain items without having to go plundering, if you've got the coin. This purpose, however, is defeated by the fact that merchant inventories are just as random as loot chests in dungeons.

 

Is it immersive? I suppose it is, considering the technological limitations of the time significantly hamper a merchant's ability to obtain goods for re-sell, but any immersion stemming from this matter is outweighed by the sheer tedium. I mean... imagine if you had to know how to actually use the forge and anvil to put new weapons and armor together, instead of just navigating a menu? THAT would be immersive too, but sometimes immersion really does just need to take a hit for the sake of gameplay.

 

In the real world, if I go to a store that typically sells the items I need, I know that they'll have the items I need. Furthermore, if it's something I buy frequently (such as a grocery item), I know from memory exactly what isle it's going to be on, and even in what spot on said isle it can be found. If I know exactly what I'm getting and there isn't a line at the check-out counter, I can be in, out, and on with my day in a few minutes.

 

Skyrim's lack of merchant realibility is the most glaring when we're dealing with ingredients and supplies. I mean... sure, maybe the weapons and armor have to be manufactured on-sight, so perhaps it makes a little sense there, but aren't the ingots supposed to be mass-produced? Warmaidens has a smelter, but not a nearby mine, so where do they get the ores to smelt with? They simply HAVE to buy the ores from a different mine! At which point, why can't they be reliable in their stock?

 

I propose a mod where merchants will always have the item you need, and if it's a common item (such as iron ingots or common alchemy ingredients), they will even stock multiple copies of the item.

 

Blacksmith merchants stock anywhere from 10-100 ingots (100 iron ingots all the way up to ebony, with 10 ingots) and 100 of each ore type for transmuting or smelting. 100 leathers and 100 leather strips, as well as anywhere from 100-1000 arrows of each material type.

 

Apothecary merchants will always stock 10 of each common ingredient, 5 of each uncommon ingredient, and 1 of each rare ingrediant, as well as five of each pre-made potion.

 

Food and Drink vendors will stock one of each cooked food and 5 of each raw food (those who operate by market stall, such as Anoriath or Marise Aravel, will simply have 5 of each food that they stock.

 

Mage merchants will always carry ten of each soul gem, filled and empty alike (for a grand total of 100 soul gems). Enthor and Falion will carry 10 black soul gems in addition to standard ones.

 

This may be a hit on immersion, but I think a lot of gamers would take it anyway, because of the convenience it offers.

 

Any takers?

Edited January 26, 2014 by stebbinsd

[Xander9009]

The comparison to a modern day store is a terrible analogy because modern day stores are deliberately designed that way with modern day means of maintaining it. A much better analogy is a store near me called Turquoise and Treasures. It's a thrift store, rather than a general store, but it looks like the stores int he game. And while the items are sorted, they aren't always in the same place, and they aren't always in stock (many items might be unique, or only in stock very rarely). It's not just immersion-breaking to suggest they're all on aisles and in particular spots that we might be able to memorize, it's completely changing how the stores work.

 

That being said, I don't actually care that you want to completely change how the stores work. That's fine, I just didn't like the comparison. It would certainly be much more convenient, but might I suggest altering it slightly? Instead of having 100 of each arrow, how about we simply assume that a well stocked store is likely to have a good stock of arrows. So each type of arrow would be much more common. Anywhere from 0 (very, very unlikely) to 500 (also very, very unlikely), with the amount likely being around 100 to 250 (depending on the arrow). Basically, have the cake and eat it, too. Instead of making the numbers static, simply make everything much more common in stores. For things like rare ingredients, you might still have to visit two or three shops to get a particularly rare ingredient, but you're likely to find it at the first shop. And have common ingredients be very common. There's even an easy way to support that: the main reason the common ingredients wouldn't be available in such large numbers is because they'd go bad. But this is a world of magic and food that never rots. Why couldn't they preserve those common ingredients for times when a particularly wealthy adventurer visits and needs a LOT of wheat and blisterwort? Makes sense to me. Just some thoughts on how it might be what you're wanting without completely sacrificing immersion.

[stebbinsd]

The comparison to a modern day store is a terrible analogy because modern day stores are deliberately designed that way with modern day means of maintaining it. A much better analogy is a store near me called Turquoise and Treasures. It's a thrift store, rather than a general store, but it looks like the stores int he game. And while the items are sorted, they aren't always in the same place, and they aren't always in stock (many items might be unique, or only in stock very rarely). It's not just immersion-breaking to suggest they're all on aisles and in particular spots that we might be able to memorize, it's completely changing how the stores work.

 

That being said, I don't actually care that you want to completely change how the stores work. That's fine, I just didn't like the comparison. It would certainly be much more convenient, but might I suggest altering it slightly? Instead of having 100 of each arrow, how about we simply assume that a well stocked store is likely to have a good stock of arrows. So each type of arrow would be much more common. Anywhere from 0 (very, very unlikely) to 500 (also very, very unlikely), with the amount likely being around 100 to 250 (depending on the arrow). Basically, have the cake and eat it, too. Instead of making the numbers static, simply make everything much more common in stores. For things like rare ingredients, you might still have to visit two or three shops to get a particularly rare ingredient, but you're likely to find it at the first shop. And have common ingredients be very common. There's even an easy way to support that: the main reason the common ingredients wouldn't be available in such large numbers is because they'd go bad. But this is a world of magic and food that never rots. Why couldn't they preserve those common ingredients for times when a particularly wealthy adventurer visits and needs a LOT of wheat and blisterwort? Makes sense to me. Just some thoughts on how it might be what you're wanting without completely sacrificing immersion.

To be honest, if you're JUST looking for immerison, the vanilla stores are, for the most part, the way to go.

 

My purpose for making this request is sacrifice immersion for the sake of convenience.

[Xander9009]

But that's what I was saying, I'm not just looking for immersion. I'm looking for an effective combination of immersion and convenience. You can easily have both just by varying the numbers, but at much higher rates than what's available in vanilla. Also, I originally suggested 0-500, but it would be better with 100-200. You definitely have at least 100 arrows, but the numbers would vary. It wouldn't break immersion, but you'd have all the same convenience. Anyway, it was just a suggestion.

[acidzebra]

In the time you fellows spent talking about immersion, you could have already fired up the CK and adjusted the relevant leveled lists. Open CK, load skyrim and any DLCs you want to adjust, look for "chest" under all, look at the merchant chests, open the leveled lists & adjust to your heart's desire (but note some leveled lists may be used elsewhere, too) or just add a ton of stuff to the chest itself without bothering with leveled lists. Repeat for all vendors you wish to change. Save mod, load game, profit. Publish on nexus for extra points.

[Xander9009]

Yeah, we could have, and it's an easy change. But it can be tedious, so why start it before discussing exactly what the result should look like when that might end up hanging half way through?