I think that depending on his skill, he could negotiate better prices than standard for you. I wouldn''t recommend he know ALL the trade secrets, but maybe he could bring some that you don''t know, the amount dependent on his skill level.

Say, for example (not knowing the details of your system), that he was ABOVE_AVERAGE. He could negotiate an average of 20% cheaper on your purchases, and introduce you to 4 secret routes. In comparision, an AVERAGE may give you a 10% reduction, and show you 2 secrets. Their ability could be relative to their rarity, and wage.

quote:
Wavinator:

Sorry to keep bugging you about this (but in the interest of attracting more players)...

I think what it just comes down to is a little bit of the somatic nonsense I hat dealing with at work. Let''s say I wanna buy a widget. The seller is willing to settle for 50cr, but would start bartering at 100cr. I should be able to great the merchant one of two ways.

1) "Hi, what kind of deal can you give me on this widget?" In which case he starts haggling at 100cr.

2) "Hi, I have a headache and am in no mood to barter. How much for the widget?" In which case he charges me maybe 65-75cr depending on the day he''s had.

If I knew that was what was going on, I''d be happy.

quote:
Original post by morfe

Say you suck at/despise haggling. Why not be able to hire a crew member, say a Negotiator, to represent you and get the best possible price for you?

That way, if you like haggling you can, and if you don''t, you can get past it but not suffer financially because of it.

The only thing about this idea I have a problem with is that I''d like to know just how good a negotiator I''ve hired. Fallout gave you a barter skill and depending on how high it was, the better the deal you''d get. But you never knew what the results would have been if your skill was say 10% higher or lower. Should I know, maybe not. But then I''d wind up asking myself, why have the skill there at all?