I see that the bankers sell two types of employment contracts for house owners but only the non-commission type for rental contracts. Doe that mean co-owners and those that rent vendors cannot use the new commission vendors?
that is correct. That was discussed during testing.
The reason for this is the Commission Vendor (CV) counts toward house storage. It wouldn't be fair to the house owner should rental vendors take up all their house storage.
I like the trade-off, and kinda makes people have vendors in their own house(s) which encourages exploration. I've already found several new and interesting vendors through Tram and Fel on Pacific.
Vendor Search kinda eliminates the need for a central mall in any location (Luna, Yew, etc.). And with the CV added into the search, I really don't need the Auction Safe anymore either.
I like the new vendors, I can see where they would not be workable for a single acct and house that is tight on storage/lockdowns but I suspect single account holders at max storage are the vast minority now days.
Open acct.
Plop down house
put up contract vendors
let acct expire
60 days later renew it
and so on
We have been waiting a long time for the commission vendors, and I am really enjoying them.
I do wish they could be rented out; not everyone on my shard wants a public house. The owner of a shop has absolute say in how many of the new vendors they will allow, and who is granted the privilege to rent that storage space. Even so, vendor malls are not in danger, imo. Vendor Search is nice if you know exactly what you are looking for, but malls are great for window shopping and discovering new things or being reminded they exist.
I have already seen a nice increase in items - at both ends of the price spectrum - that would never have been put on vendors to rack up fees before now. I still use classic vendors, and I still use auction safes - all have a place. Variety is the spice of life.