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THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - NPCs, Brokers, and Merchants

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* Use the brokers to see what people have for sale. There is a broker in each major city zone (for Qeynos, this is Elddar Grove, North Qeynos, South Qeynos, and Qeynos Harbor), and brokers in each of the wholesaler tradeskill instances (sometimes near the entrance, sometimes at the base of the stairs). Since many people set themselves up as merchants right before they go to bed, the best time to check the broker is later in the evening.

* Some merchants are greedier than others and will pay you less for things that you sell to them. Check with a few merchants and you will generally be able to tell which ones are greedy and which ones aren't. Merchants in "convenient" locations (such as out in the middle of popular hunting areas) are generally more greedy.

* If you are in another hamlet from the one you started in, and want to see what's for sale, you can enter anybody's inn room who has access set to "friend" and utilize their merchant board. Don't forget to rearrange their furniture as a way of saying thank you. 

* Brokers have a 20% commission for anything you buy through them. If you are buying something expensive, you might consider actually going to the inn room of the person selling the item and buying it directly from them. The downside of doing this is that someone may beat you to the item in the meantime.

* There is a black market merchant (called a "fence") that will allow you to access the market for the opposing city. The fence charges a 40% commission. The location of the fence is a closely guarded secret, though you can find it in various threads on the boards.

* If you are shopping at a NPC merchant and accidentally buy something, you can sell it back at the same price as long as you have not closed the merchant window.

* If you try to access your bank or a merchant and get the message "you are too busy", there are generally three possible reasons why. Either you have your attack mode on, you have a trade window up, or you are currently interacting with an NPC. Hit escape a bunch of times, make sure you are not in combat mode, and then try again.

* If an NPC speaks to you, or waves at you as you get near, they may have a quest that they want you to do. Note that they will continue to wave at you even if you already have their quest.

* If you need help finding a particular NPC (perhaps to finish off a quest) but have forgotten where they are, right click on a guard and choose "find NPC". Type in the name of the NPC and you will be given a waypoint to that NPC. Note: for some reason this does not always work, but it usually does. Also note that you often do not have to type in the full name. This is particularily helpful when you want to find and NPC with a crazy unpronouncable name.

* If an NPC speaks to you in gibberish (with a symbolic font), you do not understand the language this NPC is trying to speak. In the various starting hamlets, you can find language primers on the scribes for 12s. As soon as you purchase the primer, you automatically learn the language. In the hamlets, most (all?) of the NPCs who require you to know their native tongue give quests. There are quests to learn languages for some non-starting races (like Gnoll).

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