Merchant Nodes:
A quick note: The terms “vendor” and “merchant” are used interchangeably in this document.

Merchant nodes handle all speech events for npcs that interact regularly with players. bankers, stable masters, and all normal merchants are controlled under this system. These NPCs WILL NOT interact with players if they are not controlled by a merchant node.

Features:
Merchant nodes control all vendor restocking, and will queue restock cycles so they do not happen all at once. Thus distributing system load over a longer period of time.

Merchant nodes do all listening for their linked merchants.. the merchants themselves no longer handle speech events.. This results in lower overall CPU utilization and much more user-friendly interaction for the players in game.

   Only the closest NPC within line of sight (LOS) and no greater than 4 tiles away from the player will receive the speech event. So the player can always choose which NPC he wishes to interact with by positioning himself closest to the NPC.

   Vendors will keep items sold to them from players and will alter the buy/sell price of those items to reflect quality and condition. If a vendor does not sell the item after 2 restock cycles, he will liquidate the items back into gold currency to use for replenishing his stock and buying new goods..

   Vendors have a limited amount of gold to work with. As a vendor buys and sells goods, his pool of available gold will increase or decrease. Players that sell a lot of items to NPCs will find that the NPC cannot afford to purchase anymore items and may not be able to afford to restock his normal stock of items.

   Vendors spend their profit to restock their own regular inventory. Once a vendor runs out of money, he must sell some of his current stock before he can restock to normal levels..

   When a vendor sells out of a particular item in a given stock cycle, he will attempt to purchase an increased amount during his next restock. This amount may increase up to 20 X his base value.. if a vendor does not sell the elevated items, he will stop stocking them until he reaches his base inventory
and then continue from that base..