>>Is removal of haggling part of the goal of removing most of the catalog shops, or is there some other reason that you you guys are getting rid of most of them?
Bear with me a moment here, because the answer to this is really complex.
So, we have three major shop types: Old catalog, new catalog, and easy shop. Most new shops make use of easy shop, which enables you to walk into a place and use SHOP. This is the preferred method, because these shops are way easier to update, create, manage, fix issues with, and we don't need someone to be super technical to do any of those.
New catalog shops are ones like you see in the crafting halls. These are useful for being able to put a bunch of complex items on "one surface" and allowing someone to use ORDER to buy them. They're slightly more difficult to update and require some more technical skill to set up and maintain/update.
Old catalog shops are highly complex. They allow things like different colors, fabrics, price changes, haggling, and pages of items all in one object.. however.. they are incredibly difficult to adjust, they take up a lot of resources to create because not only do you need the 1 catalog, but you also need to make sure it's a special protected item (and we try not to use these types for various reasons that are unimportant right now). Outside of this, you also need tables of information set up that has to be JUST SO (for prices and item creation), AND you need another two more special protected items (for setup and something to hold the catalog), and did I mention the script that has to control the merchant so he can tell you about stuff in the catalog?
In general, they are ten times the amount of work if you want to create one, add something to it, or take something away from it. They're highly technical and not easy to teach someone about. If one piece to their setup is wrong or goes missing, the whole thing breaks.
Now is that a reason to get rid of them? It depends on the shop. If the shop's catalog is not making full use of the benefits we get from old catalogs, is there REALLY a reason to keep it? I personally feel like this answer is no. Now for things like.. the Stitchery in Crossing.. that catalog is only going to get some updates. You won't see anything major happening there, because it's making a good use of the system.
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NaOH+HI
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