[crossfire] specialised shops

[Mark Wedel]

  If memory serves, garbled actually put in code that did sort of the supply and 
demand thing.  IIRC, prices to buy stuff were basically nothing.

  The most basic is that there is little stuff that players buy in stores.

  My personal experience:
Spellbooks (especially at low levels where spellbooks don't show up in maps)
healing potions
potions of life
Once in a while, a ring or other object - in the case of armour, the rare cases 
where the shop has something better than I found.

  The basic problem, if we go back to the cpu analogy, is that the shops sell 
1500 mhz cpus, where going through the dungeon, you regularly find 2500+ mhz 
cpus.  So why ever buy from the shop?  And the few times the shop has the 4000+ 
mhz cpu, it is incredibly expensive.

  Also, I think the crossfire approach goes back to a long line of RPG games, 
where you go back and sell your stuff in the shop.

  Looking over the patch, a few quick thoughts:
1) Why not put shop_greed as its own field to make it easier to pull that data out?

2) Another thought would be to add a shop_cap value or the like.  Right now, in 
the sell function, there is a point where objects higher than a value become 
worth quite a bit less (lines 155-160 in shop.c).  Having these adjustable based 
on shop could also be interesting (high level players wouldn't find scorn shops 
very useful, but places like lake county or brest could be more useful).

  Likewise, havinga shop_min_value which is the cheapest items shops will buy 
from players could be interesting (shops have a minimum standard to uphold) - 
selling junk at the brest shop is not likely to be welcomed.

  One could see having 'membership' shops - have to pay to be able to use it, 
but also get better prices.

3) From a player perspective, depending on the difference you get in the 
specialized shop, I think it will still be convenient to have general shops - 
maybe get .75 value or something - I just don't really want to have to wander to 
5 shops to sell my loot, and am willing to pay something for the convenience factor.