Instead of spending shitloads of time and effort trying to code pcity modules
and all that crap, why not look at a simpler solution? Make prots and fw's
last longer, make prots more effective than they are now. Make prots and fw's
cost less sp's and be effective at lower mastery %, so that nubu merchants can
do those and not have to have a full spr set just to be able to perform large
prot orders.
That said though, I'll point out this: for years I have been a merchant guild
'addict', I loved the way the guild worked and that it was possible to get
some reward from interacting with players (-> money!). There are two types of
merchants: there are merchants that make money through building ships, chests,
rings etc you name it, without really interacting much. And then there are (or
were) merchants who concentrated entirely on player services (like me). The
*GASP* continent tune (!) ruined my style of playing the merchant guild. It is
simply NOT a viable option for me to wait half an hour until either I or the
customer gets where we want to conduct business. In the old days it was
possible to just mem the location where i was mining, reloc to the customer,
do whatever had to be done, and then go back to doing other things. It was
-interesting- to be a merchant, because one never had to be idle. NOW,
however, I either have to concentrate wholly on making ships (shipquests are a
bitch) or chests (less players = less buyers, so no good). Or the third
option: just sit idly chaining wanted and sales last and hope for a customer
to come by.
The end result is that I completely quit the guild. There is one less merchant
offering his services. And I'm very sure there are others like me.
SOLUTION: Make instant travel (to at least a certain number of destinations)
possible. Without the stupid restrictions made for wanderers guild. Merchants
simply can't be bothered with all this waiting and twiddling their thumbs. We
have better things to do in real life than sit idly staring at the screen.