Appraise skill target seems to be picked arbitrarily.

[Gerhazo]

Description of Bug Experienced:
When selling at an NPC, a party member with high appraise's rolls are used to determine the selling price.
It would be assumed that the party member picked would be the one with the highest roll/sale price, or the highest appraise skill.
However, instead, the way it is determined feels arbitrary and random, yet somewhat still deterministic, with someone with lower appraise overriding a higher skill/sell value and the system continuing to pick them.

Tricky to reproduce, but occurs often in large groups when selling with very high appraise, particularly after finished sails. The appraise roll will be overriden by a much lower one and refuse to switch back.

Steps to reproduce the Bug:

1. Talk to a peddler, have it use your prices.
2. At some point, another party member with decent, but overall lower appraise, is in range (them talking to the NPC might be required?)
3. The price switches to them, refuses to switch back, in spite of being much lower.

Expected Result:
The highest appraise roll/the highest skill value is picked.

Actual Result:
Seemingly random, someone with much higher appraise will be randomly overriden by someone with a lower one. And the lower appraise target will always be picked, regardless of what is done.

Additional Information/Notes
Presumably this involves the algorithm that picks the person whose appraise should be used. Investigating its logic should probably explain why such an occurence happens.
My best guess would be that maybe the logic checks only hard appraise and ignores soft bonuses? Or something of similar sort.

[Drogo Gyslain]

I believe it's the party leader who is picked and appraise on a party is party leaders appraise that is rolled against the merchant.

[Sincra]

It is the highest in the party and it rolls semi-randomly.
There also may still be the issue where if someone else interacts with the merchant while you have the store open the price goes to theirs.
I am however unsure if that was fixed or not.

[Irongron]

Likely unrelated but also worth noting you get an appraise bonus when dealing with a merchant of the same race, and again if you are a citizen of their native area, thus the person with the most ranks isn't always the one with the highest score.

[Gerhazo]

There is indeed a randomness involved in how much gold value is rolled from appraise as well as some other described factors.

However, the situation I describe refers to significant appraise skill differences, where for instance my lowest lows outweigh the person who gets picked's values.

i.e. the picked appraise target and selling value going from ~ 830-840 to someone else's ~ 600

My appraise is boosted by the bard song, which I assume applies a soft buff that directly correlates to one's int modifier. Perhaps there is some oddity involved that causes it to not be accounted for correctly?

It is the highest in the party and it rolls semi-randomly.

Rolls in terms of who to pick? Or in terms of whoever gets the highest value (as the actual sell price fluctuates)?
When this situation occurs, despite having superior appraise, no matter how many times I'd attempt to talk with the NPC again, or even try lowering my appraise and raising it again, talking with the NPC again on each change of the skill, it would never switch targets back to myself.

[Definately Not A Mimic]

-A party goes to the merchant.
-The person in party with the highest appraise skill is picked. But keep in mind this person has to be one that is close to the merchant, they can't be standing off to the side somewhere or in another area.
-Then the roll happens, it is a random roll and uses that highest appraise that was selected previously. You do not get automatically the highest result.
-Keep in mind if someone, in your party or not even with your group talks to the merchant while you are currently dealing with the merchant, suddenly the prices shift to match the NEW persons rolls. You have to close your chat with him and re-open it to get your High results back. This (I think) will also apply your numbers to the NEW person that came by if they still have their chat open.

Hope that helped. There is a bug of it swapping to someone else's numbers but as far as I've ever seen there isn't a bug of it not selecting the person with the highest skill in group.

[Gerhazo]

-A party goes to the merchant.
-The person in party with the highest appraise skill is picked. But keep in mind this person has to be one that is close to the merchant, they can't be standing off to the side somewhere or in another area.
-Then the roll happens, it is a random roll and uses that highest appraise that was selected previously. You do not get automatically the highest result.
-Keep in mind if someone, in your party or not even with your group talks to the merchant while you are currently dealing with the merchant, suddenly the prices shift to match the NEW persons rolls. You have to close your chat with him and re-open it to get your High results back. This (I think) will also apply your numbers to the NEW person that came by if they still have their chat open.

Hope that helped. There is a bug of it swapping to someone else's numbers but as far as I've ever seen there isn't a bug of it not selecting the person with the highest skill in group.

I don't feel that's correct.

After I talk with a peddler, I keep the shop window open, any subsequent party members that talk to it will get my prices and I also receive an explicit combat log notification about my appraise and prices being used. There is no need to talk with the merchant again in this described scenario. If it was true, I'd have to wait for my entire party to open the shop window and then talk to the peddler again myself, which is definitely not the case in my experience.

Of course, with the exception when someone's roll will override me, that is. This only seems to happen if they themselves have decent (but nowhere near as high) appraise (which is also why I'm wondering if there's something wrong with the algorithm and that maybe it doesn't take the bard song/something else into account).
At that point, when I open the window or any other party member, that one new prioritised appraiser's skill is being used, even for my own window.
And when that happens, no matter what is attempted, the system will keep picking them despite myself having much higher appraise. If they leave the party or go away a far enough distance, priority will return to me, until they return within range. While they're nearby, it seems impossible to direct priority back to myself, despite having significantly higher appraise.

Also, I'm fairly confident people not within the party never receive the party's appraise, nor influence it. These things only apply within the party. If I'm selling at a peddler, a random person outside of the party that then talks to them will only use his own/their party's appraise unless invited to my party.
I don't believe it is possible to benefit from a stranger's appraise or affect them.

[BattleDrake]

I have also experienced this problem before. Returning from a sailing trip with two high appraisers, with mine being higher but the other person constantly being chosen regardless of who talked the merchant last. Leadership didn't matter. Swapping gear didn't fix it. My prices were definitely higher than the others. This results in having to kick that person from the party to get it to function correctly.

This has happened a few times and not entirely sure what causes it.

[Gerhazo]

This is still an issue, as described in the first post.

A link to a video, selling on Sencliff.
https://streamable.com/nrew3e
My character has 98 appraise, a party member has 65.

I talk to the merchant numerous times, the party member's appraise keeps getting picked for a sell price of 670.
I leave the party, the price immediately goes to 831 as it takes my roll. I change my appraise values slightly, the price goes to 840.
As soon as I rejoin the party, the party member's appraise gets picked again, going back down to 670.

I assume this isn't intentional behaviour?

[Iceborn]

I'll be taking a look at this one.
Tomorrow.