Thoughts...

[Fyrs]

Well, really only one new one, but thoughts on some other's suggestions as well:

I think the best suggestions so far are the pet stable, tamable pet, hunting/mining dailies (although I like Toulan's hourly quests better), and texture BPs (would obviously need hides added/drop rate changed but works great with the crafting daily). All of these would work to entice more people here.

As a former shop owner on Monria, I think the addition of 2-4 new sales booths would be beneficial as well. While there are plenty of stores, only two are really in the 'high traffic' areas and sales is all about foot traffic due to people's laziness. I think putting sales booths near the main crater TP and/or the Main Hub TP would be excellent investment options for people and do a lot to increase sales tax profit for yourselves.

 

[sluggo]

Excellent suggestions Frys. It seems the main crater is the next high traffic crafting area besides the hub. As a suggestion though in the meantime, buy your stuff at the current shops, I believe all of them have a personal storage terminal right by them, put stuff in storage so you don't have to lug it, TP to the hub or wherever and do your crafting.

sluggo

 

[Fyrs]

Not sure what your comments on crafting have to do with my post but ok

My point was that sales are, and likely always will, be super low in the tower shops because people do not want to go out of their way to do shopping. Placing a few sales booths that players can buy in the two high traffic areas helps fix that to some extent, give players another option to invest in the moon, gives a small cash influx (if they sell them) to the moon owner, and also benefits the owner from sales tax since they will have sales more frequently (if managed properly). Much more than just crafting supplies can be sold :winged

 

[sluggo]

Fyrs:

Yes you do have a very valid point there, the tower shops are out of the way and for most people that translates to, out of sight, out of mind and they don't consider them. You said people are lazy, YES AGREE!!, I resemble one of them people often times Crafters do not want to run to a remote shop to do their crafting then have to come back breaking their back with a load of stuff for their crafting. I was intending to add on to your comment by saying the Main Crater is second to the HUB it appears, for crafting popularity, so with that a store front there would probably do very well. I was also trying to say that until that happens, if it does, that to get around the problem of lugging garbage half across the moon, go ahead and buy at the local / remote shops, store it, then goto your destination and craft then.

AbsoLUTELY more things can be sold than just crafting supplies. All the amps and stuff I see on the auction come to mind, along with the other stuff we crafted, weapons, you name it. If worked properly the Main Crater could very easily become the main hang out point because it's overall, closer to all the action, ie hunting, mining, crafting, sweating.. than the Hub is. It could become Monria's version of Celeste Quarry on Arkadia.

I apologize, sometimes I get ahead of myself, my thoughts are two sentences ahead of my arthritic hands and I don't type as fast as I used to. I hear all these great ideas and I get excited and well....

Thank you
sluggo

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Really great idea about shop booths at the Main Crater. I will add that to our working suggestions list.

With regard to a pet stable, and all things taming, we've had that one on our working suggestions list from the beginning. That is one of the key components, along with an event zone, that Anhithe is exploring, so we already have time invested. It's a matter of learning what our options are, and letting the community know when we have something to share.

Thanks for your suggestions Fyrs.

 

[Venture Bros]

As a owner of a shop in the hub, It would be disappointing if there were booths added, I purchased the shop BECAUSE it was in a premium location with high traffic and the other ones are not. I can't say for sure but it would likely not go well with the other owner, as well as lower the value of all of the HUB shops, making it harder for you to sell new ones at the same price, or making you sell them cheaper, as well as lowering the value of those already sold to me and the other user which wouldn't make me very happy due to the large investment cost for the shop.

Also, I had to work hard over the span of a year to get players out of the main crater and into the hub. It was not easy to make people rather use the HUB (which is the actual main area of Monria) rather then a crater in the middle that benefits no one. Putting booths there would undo all of that work and divide the small userbase to two trading locations, making the moon look even more empty.

I am however, completely aware of my bias.

 

[sluggo]

We have to look towards the greater good of the entire moon rusty. If you have good enough deals in your shop, the people may still go there, they need to essentially pass it to begin with to get the crafting mission. What if these good people did not buy Monria, what would your shop be doing then? I believe that more people on the planet is just plain good for ALL the shops overall, even the ones tucked into the corners like mine If putting a few shops in the crater makes people more likely to come here and STAY here due to easy of utilization, then I have to say go for it.

sluggo

 

[Venture Bros]

We have not even sold all of the shops yet... More shops when there are not all shops sold and used only causes more issues than it fixes. All the tower shops need use first, some are sitting unused. Then there are the hub shops which are almost entirely unsold still. Adding booths only lowers the value of the entire moon, or at least the value of every shop there at the moment. Ease of use is not an issue there, it is already extremely easy to find the hub shops, as well as the apartment shops.

If ease of use is your concern, and my shop does not stock enough ease of use products then simply rent some slots in my shop, just use me as a booth if you really want one.
Adding more shops will only hurt every current shop. Calypso is a prime example. Cyrene as well, they are not even releasing them at all yet due to this concern.

 

[DarkMoonEnigma]

Valid points are being made about the shops from each of you, and we certainly want to support all shop owners and their business efforts. I know that this community effort is a big one for us, and Anhithe may have further input with regard to this, but my take is, I'm for whatever is going to be efficient, and for the overall benefit of the community, while also supporting the efforts of current shop owners, and any others who eventually occupy the empty shops.

 

[sluggo]

Cyrene has not released any shops yet really. THAT has been an issue of contention for a while now. This isn't about cyrene though. It was earlier mentioned that 'tower' shops do relatively poorly. True or not I am not going to get into that debate but with that, if it was true, then why would one want to own one then? It seems ease of use is totally an issue. People who do not own shops, so have no vested interest in spinning things 'their way' have already said that ease of use is an issue for them. I have to agree with that, very rarely did I think of walking around seeing if there was a shop for what I needed, instead of just heading for the auction, or honestly, heading to Caly. Seriously... they were right under my face, yet I rarely thought of 'shopping'. I find it hard to believe I was the only one with this warped mindset. Part of that is the shopkeepers fault, for not 'informing' people that there ARE shops available. and oh by the way, 'informing' does not mean 'spamming' the chat channels every 5 minutes . Monria has been dormant for a while now, we can't expect 'the way things were' to continue to be 'the way things are'.

Why does one need to rent space in your shop when there are many others offering goods and essentially the same services? Not to mention just throw their 'stuff' into their storage?

The 'value' of a shop is what a potential purchaser wants to put on it. You have been trying to sell your shop for how long now? Given it has not sold, it appears that perhaps you have placed more value on it than it is really worth. Look when Celeste Quarry put those shops up, it was in a 'prime' area, people went crazy for them. I can't see how more player ineraction can devalue the planet / moon / whatever. If you make your shop deals enticing, people will come. If more people own shops, they by virtue, will have a vested interest in seeing the moon succeed, it's a win / win situation really.

I believe there are owners for the Hub shops, they are getting settled in so to say. How many hub shops are there, I seen I think 3. Yours, the one above yours and the one on the side.

I think Main Crater shops would be a definite benefit for Monria. I can easily see them being prime real estate, that in itself should bring much needed income to the place. That income can then be used to possibly fund some of the projects you have brought up recently.

sluggo

 

[Venture Bros]

One person suggested booths and that person said people don't go to towers. I have never heard of any problem with the towers before now, they are FAR easier to access then any other shops in the entire game spare the malls.

Why does one need to rent space in your shop when there are many others offering goods and essentially the same services? Not to mention just throw their 'stuff' into their storage?

The exact same reason why we 'need' booths. Literally. If we 'need' booths so bad and need people to have exposure to items, they can rent from me far cheaper then a booth and get that. Or tell em what these items that people would potentially buy in the booths area. The purpose of the hub shops is to be the easy to access already there shops, adding booths would make the hub shops FAR MORE out of the way then the tower shops. The shops are a lot farther from the TP then the apartment shops are, their only advantage is that they are near the quest npcs where people need to go, add booths and the 'premium' shops become large shops that are harder to visit then the apartments, it raises the issue of no one going to the apartments to no one going anywhere.

I have had a price for my shop, I have no been actively trying to sell it either. I already have a lot of people coming to my shop, that is not my concern. Adding more shops and devaluing all the other ones is my concern, especially when all the shops are not even sold yet. But you seem to be missing that point entirely, I mean my cyrene comment regarding the exact same point went right over your head it seems.


If you really can't see how more shops can't devalue all the other shops, think of this. If there was ONLY one mall on caly, wouldn't it be worth more? If there was only 10 shops, wouldn't they be worth a LOT more? Right now there are too many shops, so many that they are not all sold, on caly there are maybe a hundred extra shops, so many they wont even add more or finish selling the ones in all the locations. I don't want that to happen here.

There are 5 hub shops.

Also, once again we (or I) don't want people in the main crater, everyone should be in the hub. Having the 'afk' player base divided just looks bad. I have been doing my 'go to the hub' campaign for almost a year now and don't plan to stop.

 

[sluggo]

So keep doing your campaign to keep people coming to your shop, but that still does not justify why a hub shop is the only shop that must be. I have seen shoppping malls that are small, they are called strip malls. They jack their prices up, preying on people because they want people to believe that they are the only game in town. You will pay MY prices because I am the only one here. I have seen super shopping malls where there are hundreds of shops and you know what, they do MUCH better! There are so many places to shop that people just MUST go there to shop! You got people there by the very virtue of there being so many shops, and while they are there, they will look around, browse and shop. ALL the shops, unless they are crooks, benefit from that.

You talk distances from shops, distances are meaningless almost with the teleport system, especially if one is honest and fair in their pricing, people WILL go 'the extra mile' or 'meter' for you Canadians, for the deal.. Using your logic, a Crater shop would be SUPERIOR to yours because the 'distance' to hunting, mining, sweating, crafting, all the activities one does in MA is much shorter. You walk 50 meters from a crater shop and you are in shoggy country, can drop mining probes, all that fun stuff. From inside the hub, you have to walk across the entire place, down stairs, find the teleport and then zap out to where the action is. How is THAT more convenient? Are you against crater shops because they might cut into your profits, even if it is at the expense of Monria overall? If crater shops do become available, you can always buy one if you find them so much better than your current location or perceive it as such a superior threat. To be honest, I'd sure as heck look at one.

I honestly think that if they did become available it'd become like that auction in Celeste Quarry for the shop where people slit each others throats for over an hour for that shop hehe. THAT was genuinely entertaining watching that happen and I know it was a boon for the land owners.

If you run your shop with everyone's best interests in mind, it will succeed. If you are only looking to make a ped for yourself.. well maybe not so much then. Even with competition, one can get customers to keep coming back thru loyalty. Loyalty is much like respect, it has to be earned, it isn't automatically 'titled' nor can it be bought.

In closing, I think a crater shop is an awesome idea, even if it may cause competition for us folks who own shops elsewhere. It keeps us on our toes to do one better to keep our customers

sluggo

 

[Venture Bros]

I am talking distance from TP, that is all that matters to buyers now. Look at any sale thread for a shop. Also why do you keep mentioning high prices? All the hub shops sell below MU. The hub is less convenient to walk to, that is my entire point... It is on however on the way to the daily mission, or rather next to it.

I am against oversupplying shops, we should not have new shops until all the unsold ones are sold, and the current ones have enough demand that people offer the current owners before selling new ones. Having more supply then demand is never good, you can see it yourself at caly.

I do run my shop with the best of interests, and it is succeeding. That is not the issue here. I even have a loyalty program and many dedicated customers that would be here if there were more shops, that is NOT the issue. The issue is devaluing the shops. Devaluing the most expensive asset monria has (their deeds) and the most expensive of those deeds (the shop deeds) is not a good move.

This isn't about competition, that isn't the issue here, if you are going to keep making it about that we will never be able to continue this discussion as to why it is a bad (or potentially good) idea and be stuck on that point.

 

[WangXiang]

I find this discussion about shops really confusing. All shops on Monria are extremely easy to access and there are plenty of them available already.

 

[Fyrs]

Sorry, didn't mean to start a fight, merely expressing what I consider to be a good idea.

I see your points Rusty, agree with some, do not with others - it is a delicate balance. That said, to my knowledge, all of the shops except two that they actual put out for sale were sold. one a tower shop and one a hub shop they had on a shopkeeper in the center of the hub. They also had two hub shops saved as a reward for Monria reward points. All of the tower shops are owned (now that they made a deal with sluggo for one) and I have only seen one for sale recently (my former shop now being offered by Leland). The bigger issue, in my opinion, is people not actually playing any more and/or actually using their shops. Similar to the many shops all across Caly.

I do not see the addition of two sales booths devaluing anything but we are each entitled to our opinion.

And please note, I think this is a good idea even with me currently working a deal to rebuy a regular shop on the moon.

 

[Fyrs]

Think you and Wang are misunderstanding what I stated earlier - I too think the tower shops are very accessible. What I said was, they are out of the way so people do not go there. Yes they can TP right to them, but they really have no reason to, so don't.

The same is true for the hub shops. the only reason people even go into the hub is for the starter quests and the daily crafting quest. So here is a thought that ties in with other suggestions - lets give them a reason to go to the towers. There have been several suggestions that hunting and mining daily/hourly quests be implemented. So how about implement it and split the quest givers between each tower at the TP? Hunting in one, mining in the other. Then, players have an actual reason to go into the towers (get/turn in their quests) and will see that there are shops available and may be more inclined to go look through them.

 

[sluggo]

I agree with you Fyrs, also Wang, the shops are very accessible, but people often times don't want to take the few minutes to get a tower shop because it's not 'right there' in front of them and not where the stuff they want to do is. It's not that they can't get to them, or it's difficult to get to them, but they don't need / want to go to them.

I also agree that adding a few 'booths' or whatever you want to call them in the crater is not going to hurt anyone either

I do not think all the tower shops are claimed now. I have tried exploring just to see what all is out there and seen a few that were still owned by the system? I also seen many that while they may have an owner were empty.

I LOVE the idea of putting mission brokers in each tower to give people a good solid reason to go there. With that however I can also see some folks complaining about it as well like they did on Cyrene who did the same thing because they HAD to walk an extra few steps to get the missions, they weren't all stacked up right in front of them.

How about if we just fill in the main crater, get rid of it all together, that way it's not there causing us all this trouble and people will have no place to go B UT to our shops in the towers

Sluggo

 

[Eugenio Anhithe Wilde]

Hey guys,

Play nice

From my point of view, I don't think now is the right time to add additional shops, although I do take the point about some booths in a new location being something we might want down the line. I think this becomes an option when we get a large player base, I'm working on this but it takes time, probably months.

I agree shoppers are lazy in game and also agree that getting players to move around is good for everyone and I want to have players go to both the towers and the hub.

For the towers, I think it would help if we had more apartment owners, to this end I am releasing 10 apartments to DM to do with what she wants in the interest of Monria and the community. These can be prizes on the forum, in game, spot prizes or anything else she thinks is the best way to reward loyal Monria players going forward.

Outside of this I think as a group I would like you to focus on some common ground here on anything you think can help the shops collectively.

For our part, we want to build a place with great events, prizes and reasons to be here whilst trying to get regular sign ups. This could take a while but this is where we are trying to get to. If we succeed then I hope the shops can do well by providing whatever is needed for players to compete and have fun.

I also want the apartments to become owned by players who buy into what we are trying to achieve here which is why I am releasing apartments as part of DM's community funds.

Ant

 

[Fyrs]

Appreciate the response and thoughts Ant'. Great idea on the apartments, hopefully that will help. Looking forward to the future.

 

[sluggo]

That's great news there Ant on the apartments.
For all of you furniture / rug / bauble crafters, it's time to get busy! I smell some sales coming your way

slug