Upcoming Cultural Changes

[dragonfire]

time frame?

ok 2 months have now gone by~~~~~~~~~~~

any update on time frame? looked back thru last few pages didnt see anything listed just curious been waiting patiently hopeing got a few smiths and tailor's waiting too skill up this path and alot of people are looking for gm armor on my server and i am a definite tradeskill addict and dont mind sinking plat and time into makeing 300 smith or tailor's just for a single race just wondering if house orge has a update on time for us? figured when this started few weeks month maybe now 2 months and nothing but name changes plz plz be soon

[Gaell Stormracer]

Without a AAAA-created aug, Cultural "GM" armour is still inferior to Praetorian - and that has focus effects also. Adding the cost of an AAAA, and the Mechanoinstructions (around 130k and 40k respectively on AB), and a Raid drop definitely makes the Cultural armour a niche market -- mostly those people that can get Bazu and Last Blood drops.

[Wyvernwill]

Metallic Drake Scales, Glossy Drake Hides and Coarse Spider Silks are easy to come by as well, if you hunt for them. Too many times I see people complain about "cost", "difficulty", "rarity" and in some cases, it's just the person's effort the lacks.

200 or so Orum, is really far off. For a full suit of Praetorian Gear, it costs 3175 Orux and Ally Faction (which takes ~2400 Orux to obtain). Even a Citizen's set runs 1800 Orux. That also does not account for the cost of 2 - 5 spells depending on class.

As for my "spending more" comment Astroshank... it's Implied Value. If an Orum is worth x amount, that's platinum you no longer have because you used the Orum for something else. Platinum happens to be the common denominator for the cost of both armors... it gives you a fairly easy way to balance cost.

[Astroshak]

Actually, considering Orux are generally worth about 100-200pp each, you are pretty much "spending more" on the praetorian gear.

One other thing to note about GM armor is the components are not that rare... people just aren't hunting them nearly as much anymore, especially not since the drops for GM armor are changing here soon... why farm something that's risk investment?

Orux are easy to come by with a group, and you get decent experience doing it to boot. Buying orux is a waste, imo, unless you need it for a power source.

[Gaell Stormracer]

There are only a handful of DoN augs that fit in type 12 slots on most pieces of Cultural - mostly resist augs. And they certainly don't fit the lower tiers of the armour.

So, my suggestion is to make a set of augs that will fit those "junior" armours, and can still be used as a "better than nothing" solution in the "GM level" armour for those that can't get Bazu or Last Blood augs.

[Wyvernwill]

my point is, the cost of the armor and the augs is no longer a viable option for most folks. They can grind faction and get ally with Katta and "vendor buy" gear and powersources that is almost as good.

And all the Katta stuff can be 1 grouped or multiboxed.

The tradeskill armor is expensive. 1 cause not everyone can make it, 2 cause the componets are rare and hard to come by. If the ts gear is to compete with the kata gear it either needs a stat upgrade or the rare items need to be uncommon at best.

Yes a bunch more of the armor will hit the market. Yes that will drive the price down. But if you look at it, you could spend 20k+ per item and them 50k+ and up for the augs; that is what we have now... or you can grind kata and spend 200 or so orum and get gear.

The prices and rarety of the cultrual armor has always been a good debate because people wanted the armor. Now that the Kata armor (TBS) is out there and way easier to get and cheeper.. the cultural armor has lost its luster.

Actually, considering Orux are generally worth about 100-200pp each, you are pretty much "spending more" on the praetorian gear.

One other thing to note about GM armor is the components are not that rare... people just aren't hunting them nearly as much anymore, especially not since the drops for GM armor are changing here soon... why farm something that's risk investment?

[melkorr]

Prices on Rathe must be crazy. I'm on Bertox, and it cost me 15k per aug for a set of Eminent Hate augs, except for the chest, and that cost me 24k. The armor is only like a +1 upgrade to stats, and I agree that drops for the armor are insane for some races, its not like GM armor has that much over Expert level. I've got a full set of expert armor, and all GM augs, then I went and spent 1 or 2 hundred radiant crystals for a +14 all stats aug, which more than balances for the loss without GM armor.

[shadyn]

my point is, the cost of the armor and the augs is no longer a viable option for most folks. They can grind faction and get ally with Katta and "vendor buy" gear and powersources that is almost as good.

And all the Katta stuff can be 1 grouped or multiboxed.

The tradeskill armor is expensive. 1 cause not everyone can make it, 2 cause the componets are rare and hard to come by. If the ts gear is to compete with the kata gear it either needs a stat upgrade or the rare items need to be uncommon at best.

Yes a bunch more of the armor will hit the market. Yes that will drive the price down. But if you look at it, you could spend 20k+ per item and them 50k+ and up for the augs; that is what we have now... or you can grind kata and spend 200 or so orum and get gear.

The prices and rarety of the cultrual armor has always been a good debate because people wanted the armor. Now that the Kata armor (TBS) is out there and way easier to get and cheeper.. the cultural armor has lost its luster.

[Kaaba]

There are type 12 augs on the DON vendors.

[Gaell Stormracer]

It would be nice if there were some other augs that could fit into the type 12 slot; even if they didn't come up to the Bazu/Lastblood standards, they'd be a decent way of making these more generally viable, as long as they didn't need an AAAA to create of course!

[Eggborn]

dunno, someone in my guild just bid on 6 last bloods in the past two days lol. We have been busy.

[Bara]

Yes I have sold a few pieces of GM/Elaborate armor over the past few weeks. I would suspect it is more a server and race issue than something everyone will see on all servers.

[Aetemius]

Dang, 0 sales? That bites the big one! Since the upcoming changes announcement, my sales on Human GM plate and chain armors have actually increased. I've sold 6 complete sets of plate and 3 sets of chain, on top of many misc pieces of elaborate and intricate.

[shadyn]

Are the stats on the cultural armor going to change? Since TBS came out and the "ally" armor, many of my friends are reporting almost 0 sales. The armor is just not as attractive anymore... ya ya, many expansions old, new expansions have better.

But if you are going to the pita to change the recipies to make them more even in farming status, how about making the final produt more attractive to the general population.

[Zinjin Azhura]

I have stated (maybe here, maybe artisan's way... I forget) the approximate drop rates of the skillup stuff... about 1 in 7. (may be 1 in 6... I am at home not work... but lets go with the "pessimistic" version since that is what people seem to believe)

If a person cannot farm a 1 in 7 drop then I don't know how that person can call themselves a farmer. Sure the stuff is not falling from trees... but it is farm-able.

I also stated that the drops for the cultural itself will be rare, yet in some cases more common than the current drops for ones that were overly rare. At this time I am not giving out those numbers.

In comparison to instanced only and ultra rare drops, some 1 in 6 or 7 global drops and some [more common than impossible/secret numbers] drops are going to be very sweet. Thank you, Ngreth, from a tradeskill addict.