viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17538
I've been to the shops Birk is talking about, the two directly outside the Dripping Dagger, and the new newbie zone. I agree with Birk on the size of that weapon inventory, and the quality. However, I disagree on pulling things that let you customize your character. Character customization is HUGE even in the big MMORPGs they make most of their money off selling the novelty armor skins and appearance modifying items because its such an important aspect. I think for a beginner seeing these is a good sign. It shows them what they can work towards, they are just in the wrong spot.... The first thing you find outside the WD newbie temple is a weaponsmith with an inventory of some 300+ weapons, most of whom are expensive masterwork pieces in all the colours of the rainbow. Still, even with 320 weapons in stock, a masterwork rapier isn't one of them. Moving on to armour. In a similiar system, the city sports merchants that stock a staggering selection of psychedelic half plate pieces, but from all my scouring of WD, Westgate, TT, Shadowdale, Silverymoon, ++, I've still not been able to procure a full suit of basic light mail or brigandine. Now- this isn't an insurmountable issue. I can get by fine with a normal rapier, and swapping out the brigandine for heavy mail or studded leather. But it's symptomatic of an item system that really is very user-unfriendly. There are what, 50-60 distinct weapons in the game- scouring a list of 320 without finding what you need is disheartening. For armour, you're searching for seven distinct pieces, and you need to examine each one from LIST closely to find out what it is, which is often anything but apparent (major issue in itself). I've seen different "breastplate" items count as brigandine, half plate and fullplate, while "mail" is also a highly ambiguous keyword often employed in descriptions.
As long as shops aren't player-driven, I think outfitting will keep making newbies balk until imms make it more accessible. We already have glory-driven recolours, so there really shouldn't be a need to keep fifty shades of gem-studded greataxe in stock. At any rate, even if said greataxes are kept available, there should at least be other places where full sets of generic gear can be obtained. This is also an issue of scope- across the entire Sword Coast, Dalelands, Tethyr, Amn and so on, obtaining basic gear really shouldn't be as difficult as it currently is.
I looked at the list of weapons earlier and there's everything from enchanted masterwork exotics to standard fare on that list. There are some weapon types missing though. Most seem to be renamed masterworks, and about a third were enchanted. Having enchanted and unenchanted weapons on the same list is a real mess even for older players. Unless you are a cleric or mage its a bit of a roulette wheel buying from that list. 100 plat might get you a fancy rename, or an enchanted fancy rename, but you don't know till you can either drag it to a friend or drag the friend in.
I think perhaps some of Waterdeep's merchants have been in business long enough that their shops might consider expanding. Especially Saern and Riven. Instead of piling it all into one merchant, add a few more rooms to their shops. Saern can move to the back of their shop and sell the high-end magical weapons, an employee in another room can set a full set of basic weapons, and another can handle the fancier renames. The same can be done for rivens, separating out the basic from the renamed and enchanted. This will trim down the size of the lists, allowing for an easier browse of the items, make it easier for newbies to find what they want, and be able to see what they can aspire to without getting overwhelmed. It doesn't pull anything from the game and it organizes things for even the older players.
