A pair of merchant inventory questions

1) Is it possible for a merchant to have more than one inventory source?

Idea: A combo book seller\map merchant\schematic shop with just one merchant. Dialog:
PC - Shall we barter? NPC - What kind of goods are you in need of? And you choose from a menu, then the appropriate inventory comes up. Given the sheer number of hard-to-find schematics that he could sell, having just one inventory source doesn't seem practical.

2) With user-created schematics, is it possible to say, simply assign them a number in description.mes, add that number to the invensource.mes and have the schematic be recreated in the merchant's inventory the next day?

Yes, no, or otherwise - thanks in advance.

 

1. The barter instructions are handled by the game engine so I don't think this will be possible.
I haven't conclusively proved that it is impossible but I doubt it.

Simply having multiple store clerks would probably be the easiest way to go.

2.Unfortunately not. If you create a new schematic with a brand new description.mes number then the game will refuse to recognise it. You will end up with blank inventories.
There are 2 ways to get around this.
a, Use pre-existing description.mes numbers which are not actually being used in the game.
b, Attach a script to the merchant to "create item with basic prototype (num) inside (obj)" for each object you wish the merchant to sell. You will have to loop for containers in the vicinity and the merchant will create the item in his inventory source container.

 

Thanks for getting back so quickly on this.

This is no worse than I had suspected so I just switch to plans "B" and "C" and go again.