Um.. i think i found an exploit

[mathforthesoul]

I have found a way to reliably kill the merchant which basically means free all the things. I don't want to post the method i used to kill him because it basically boils down to get super strong and or pay attention to his attacks and optimize your character accordingly.

Recommended possible solutions.
make cd on friends in high places super long and or have a minimum 5 day wait if you kill the merchant before he returns naturally
have merchant get stronger after a death.
Mix up the spells he uses to attack.
increase prices/reduce purchase price after each death (maybe add a way to gain reputation with him too like and item you give that improves prices making his death less desirable)

[Josh]

or he could simply make it so that his death is automatically sent out to all other merchants and they then become hostile on all future encounters. That would discourage anyone from trying to farm them unless they are strong enough to take them on.

[mathforthesoul]

The problem with that solution is it removes the economy aspect of the game. It would certainly be a huge discouragement for some player, but you can still summon them and kill them to stockpile unholy amounts of resources.

In the real world during the dark ages if you killed a merchant the only merchants that would deal with you were the ones who didn't know who you are, had nothing to lose, were terrified you would kill them if they didn't trade with you, or had a security force more frightening than your reputation.

[Wildeyn]

Most games deal with this by simply having the merchant not drop many items at death.

The problem with the merchant being as strong as he even already is, is if you ever aggro him by accident, your game ends instantly unless you are very strong. I've had that happen to me 4 times with solid characters, two two bug-ish thing that are now fixed.

Getting all of a merchant's items for free is nice, but not actually game-breaking, by the way. The only way to have it affect your score much is by buying soul essence potions, and you can do that anyway with the money you already get. And then otherwise, it would just give you more perma-stat potions (which you can also afford anyway). Getting stronger via better items won't be game-breaking, as that wouldn't really happen either. With the temporary worm sort-of-exploit, now fixed, I got a million bucks but all it meant was a few extra stat boost potions. Nice, but the game is winnable anyway without a few extra stat points either way.