Rework the Random Merchants

[Nerkson]

Sometimes, if you're lucky, one of a few merchants will dock with the station or with the Space Diner. And, if you're extra lucky, they'll have items and gear that are amazing. Spare Captains IDs, Gold ID's to bling out on, Voice Changers, you name it. They're useful for selling stuff to as well because they buy stuff for rather high prices. As the QM, the merchants are practically free money and for anyone else, a quick deal with the QM's means you have credits you can actually use to buy stuff. Whats not to love?

Well, everything.

Security hates the merchants. It makes their lives hell. They have to take all the goodies from everyone, including the people who weren't making their lives hell and it then makes those people upset.

It gives people the tools to rampage or self-antag easily and makes people who aren't abusing the tools victims as well.

Its random nature means you may never see a merchant once in a round, or you'll see a merchant every twenty minutes selling more and more stuff. Or sometimes, they only sell absolute junk and its just a waste of time - no one has scrap metal laying around to sell to a merchant for 100 credits each.

Some proposed changes. Not all of them at once, but maybe one or two tweaked:

* Remove Syndicate Items from the Merchants entirely - this is the most drastic but effective measure to fix the issue. As much fun as buying a Captains ID is, it isn't worth the hassle that comes with it.

* Have the merchant go to some off-station, randomized location in the debris field and remove the station alert. At least people would have to go and wait out there to know when the merchant is coming and going.

* Replace Syndicate items with less effective, knock off versions. Its the "Craptains" ID, and its access is 100% randomized. Maybe its AA, maybe it only opens the doors to the Janitors closet - who knows! . This "E-Gun" sure seems like its made of junk and breaks easily, and burns my hand a lot. The basic ethos here is "Sign up for Antag if you want fun toys, otherwise here's stuff that'll hurt you half the time".

* Reduce the overall stock size of the merchants - Keep the item pool the same, but only offer 3 items from the entire list. Make the merchant more focused on buying rather than selling as well, to encourage the crew to actually use them for quick credits.

Thoughts, recommendations, your favorite type of pasta dish, all is welcomed.

[Lord_earthfire]

I think they are good and their loot brings welcomed variation to rounds and especially antags. If someone prepares to save the money and is lucky, i think they deserve the loot.

Sec got enough tools to deal with a traitor with more utility.

I would advocate for more often rotating traders and more varied inventories.

I am especially against locking them somewhere where only experienced players can find them. We got enough bullshit like that with the whole concept of secret chems and debris field traders.

[Glamurio]

Honestly, I wouldn't be upset if they were outright removed from the game. They don't add anything meaningful that couldn't be easily replaced, items you can buy from a trader might as well be stuff you could be using QMs for, if it were added.

Alternative suggestion: Have an antag item that acts as a "black market pass" which unlocks a secret menu of choices for people with it. That way antags can still buy Syndicate Items (and perhaps even worse in the future), and we could remove it from the regular loot pool.

[Kotlol]

I think the rotating merchants are fine as the idea.

Having items on there you have to work hard to obtain, are hard to obtain, azone only , risky to obtain and such is fine.

I am fine with some Syndicate items too as long as they are off the GOOFY variety. I mean Science can easily obtain katana's it just takes a lot of time.
But a few ones like a clown car or syndicate hat or other goofy stuff that don't do a lot of damage but will get Sec to smack you is fine.

Some of the weapons on the merchants though are game enders. Especially the pod weapons. Luckiyl they are UBER EXPENSIVE to obtain so they are fine.

As for stuff like captains ID? Remove it. If you lose two captain id's, you get to to wear the green ID of shame from the HoP.

[StaringGasMask]

I agree with Kotlol here, adding some antag gear that's not really harmful, and at a hefty price (boom boots, syndicate hat, maybe the SounDreamS...), as well as keeping in some specific items as rare and expensive as they are (namely the plutonium core).

Then I find the random access ID as a pretty funny concept, as well as the trick antag gear, like the "Predator Revolver" that fires a flag or a "cloaking device" that tags you with a holographic arrow over your head, maybe a "cloaking field" that's actually a portable lamp, stuff like that.

Also kotlol, as a sidenote, the Workshop katanas aren't the same as the traitor ones, their delimb rate is considerably lower, if they can even delimb.