One way Sony could make Trade-skilling viable

[Sneezer]

i first off, i want to say I love tradeskills and I know many friends who love it even more than me. However, the big problem I have is that you basically do skill ups just to raise your level and that the product of your skills are not really all that in demand. A friend of mine and I kinda thought of a cool way that maybe a particular item could be made "useful" and sellable long past a given expansion.

First off: Make Tradeskill items more rare but make the odds of success much higher and you get a skill up 100 percent that you do a combine. For example cut down the drop rate of Wryven hides in CS to one or two per hour instead of 10 or 15 but give me a 100 percent chance of getting a skill up. Most people prefer playing the game rather than sitting in SH doing 20 combines or so for one skill up(even though the new window has made it 10x better). My idea will cut down on sore fingers.

SECOND AND MOST IMPORTANT: Make Mobs drop augments that can only be used for TS items. For example one could smith a weapon that could have a 16 dmg 27 delay ratio. Which is pretty weak. However augments could drop that are specific to a certain weapon that would increase those stats to 16 dmg 16 delay. Maybe in the next expansion a new augment drops that makes it 16 dmg 14 delay etc. Basically you would make the augment unique to a specific TS recipe. That same augment would not work on a dropped hammer or a different TSed bow. No it would only work on that recipe. Therefore that recipe and any recipe that could use specifc augments would never become obsolete. You could do this same idea for apparrel,fletching, food, and brewing ( make these augs increase duration of food /booze or add an effect)...really any TS

Lastly: Raise the cap: Alot of EQ players have TS at 250. I would really like to see the skill cap raised. Make it progressively more difficult so that say getting to 500 is fairly rare.


Any responses would be great. I am really interested in helping EQ last and maybe even help in forming some cool stuff in EQ2

Thanks Sneezer

[vovinit]

One way they could make tradeskill items much more desireable would be to put 2 maybe 3 augment slots on items tradeskilled. This would set the items apart from droppped items with only one slot. Also they could make some tradeskill items have diffrent slots like slot 3 or 2.

I don't make much at all as a gm jeweler. I do make a little but not nearly enough to make the trouble worth it. Only time I can turn a decent profit is when a new expansion comes out. I can get the items and make the jewelry as soon as the expansion goes live I tend to turn a decent profit for a short while. Older items have just flooded the market tho. At times on my server you can buy a velium blue diamond ring for less than it costs to make. Alot of items are like this anymore.

[Arghargh]

I doubt that SOE will remove the time sink that is trade skills. SOE wants you to have to play more.

When smithing was change so fine steel plate couldn't take you to 250 anymore, there was a huge outcry because if you had (or could obtain) the leather paddings, you could get to 250. If you didn't, then smithing suddenly became a whole lot harder. If tailoring wyvern armor was changed as you suggest, then everyone who has wyvern skins stashed in the bank would be instant 250 tailors. That too disruptive a change.

I do like the idea of having more augments on crafted items. However, that would decrease the time sink that is LDoN.

Something I would like to see that would fit well with the Quest part of Everquest is a high end quest with a master craftsman NPC. You collect some rare items, give them to the craftsman NPC, and the NPC shows you how to improve your skill (i.e., a quest that rewards you with a skill-up).

Arghargh Grumble, Darkblood
65 Ogre Shaman of Rallos Zek

200 Alchemy
250 Baking
250 Blacksmithing
250 Brewing
200 Fishing
200 Fletching
250 Jewelry
204 Pottery
187 Tailoring

[Pootle]

Quote---------------
For example cut down the drop rate of Wryven hides in CS to one or two per hour instead of 10 or 15 but give me a 100 percent chance of getting a skill up.
---------------------

/Shout WTS Wyvern hide - 20,000pp each

Oh and i have about 450 in the bank. Bring on the change!

/sarcasm off

Nice idea but the point of tradeskills is that they are timeconsuming and hard. If i only had to get 50 drops from somewhere I hunted for exp at that level.... well that isnt exactly a big problem.

[kiztent]

However, the big problem I have is that you basically do skill ups just to raise your level and that the product of your skills are not really all that in demand. A friend of mine and I kinda thought of a cool way that maybe a particular item could be made "useful" and sellable long past a given expansion.

Interesting idea, but...

Older items have just flooded the market tho. At times on my server you can buy a velium blue diamond ring for less than it costs to make. Alot of items are like this anymore.

Short answer, anything you can make that's useful, someone that plays more that you can make faster and sell cheaper.

Acrylia studded cloaks is a perfect example of an item like this.

And the idea of augment slots doesn't really make an item more useful to me. The slot 7 augs drop so rarely now as it is, I don't have any need for any more augment slots (my shaman went on a WIS aug frenzy before gates came out, I've only seen one WIS aug on 50 LDoNs since, the rest were from the 50 before). And if you aug a piece of gear that's a piece of crap, it becomes a piece of crap you wasted a good augment on instead of a good item.

As for raising the cap.... same problem. It wouldn't make tradeskills "better". The same people that ground out all the skills to 250 would just grind them out to the new cap and flood the market with anything that could be sold for a profit. You'd be faced with spending a bunch of time skilling up only to discover the problem you were trying to solve didn't go away.

Crafted augments have some merit, since they are inherently consumable - and while I 'like' the aspect of LDoN that makes it more like the raid game with the no drop items and so forth, it's discouraging to have a lot of time invested in earning points that went into augments and items that I'll never get back - is a better idea.

[Fufinski]

I agree there is a problem with how useful your skills are once you have them. I have already made :-

Steel-laced Aged Snake Whip
MAGIC ITEM
Slot: PRIMARY,SECONDARY
Skill: 1H Slashing Atk Delay: 18
DMG: 12
AGI: +4
SV MAGIC: +5
WT: 1.0 Size: MEDIUM
Class: WAR PAL RNG SHD BRD
Race: ALL
Slot type 4:empty
Slot type 7:empty

Which is better then your suggested 16/27 and has 2 aug slots as requested. The problem is the whip will sell for less then the parts would cost you (I got my own).

One thing I was thinking of was high triv no-drop tradeskill made items. Maybe not of the level of the aid grimel quest, but very good anyhow. Who knows maybe even tradeskill made no-drop augs. Why no drop? Well if they are droppable you will get the problem of selling better player made stuff then mob drops and I do not think the designers want this. If however they are no-drop, then there is something valuable for tradeskillers to make even if it is just for themselvs. Some parts of the ingriedients could be rare, level applicable and no-drop. That way a tradeskiller inhigh end GoD could make some good things for themselves while a Tradeskiller in BoT could also make good things they would use.

[Burns]

I make a ton of money from tradeskills. At most times I am nearly at a million platinum, and I do not even have access to the elemental planes. I think one way you can make tradeskills more viable for you is to keep your price where you think it is fair. People will buy from you after someone else buys out the guy selling for too low of a price, and that guy will come here and say that tradeskills are not viable.

Wait. That's.....you.