A Storage proposal for Tradeskillers

[HaelonTT]

First the proposal, then my reasoning behind it.

Proposal:
When a person doing tradeskills gets any skill to 300 they should get an additional bank slot for doing so, plus 1 slot for the specific skill. They should get an additional slot for each additional skill raised to 300. Since there are 7 general tradeskills that any race/class can do, this would total 7 slots for the skills plus 1 extra for the first skill to 300, total of 8 extra bank slots.

My Reasoning:
As most of us tradeskillers know, doing tradeskills requires a huge amount of bank space, which leaves tradeskillers with far less available bank space for quests and stored gear than a non-tradeskiller has.

Previously it has been requested that SOE Devs make special tradeskill bags with more slots, to which the Devs replied that to do so would be near impossible with the way the software currently works. Which is why I suggest additional bank slots instead, which while still not easy to implement, would be much easier and safer to do than a bag change given the coding EQ uses.

Why more space? and why only for tradeskillers? For each tradeskill you do, you need a lot of specific tools for that skill. Smithing requires 5-8 different hammers, a file, a chisel etc. Tailoring requires a large number of needles. Baking requires special pots, pans, spits, skewers etc. Basically each skill requires enough tools special to that trade to fill a 10 slot bag, requiring 7 bags for the 7 skills, just of tools. Add to that the bags of patterns, molds etc for doing cultural and you can easily fill half your bank up. In addition you have all the parts needed for the various recipes. Cultural alone, if you include the symbols, requires a bag for the ores, loams, spinnerets, marrows, pelts and silks, plus 2 bags for all the various blessed waters, and the new weapons added 4 or more waters to that list.

I am a 2100 TSer, and my bank currently has 2.5 bags of waters, 1 bag of cult molds, 1 bag of cult patterns, 4 bags of cult symbol patterns, 1 bag of smith tools, 1 bag of tailor tools, 1 bag of mixed baking and JC tools, 1 bag of ores/loams, 1 bag of silk/fluids, 1 bag of pelts/marrows, 1 bag of baking ingredients, 1 bag of JC ingredients, and 2 bags of misc TS materials.

Thats 18.5 bank slots used up just for TS stuff. that leaves very little room for doing quests, storing extra gear/augs, or having room for anything else people aquire in this game, and its 18.5 slots that a non-TSer has available for whatever they want.

My proposal wouldnt completely balance the game for TSers and non-TSers, but it would be a huge step in the right direction and I for one would be very happy if this could be implemented. I believe as well that every other TSer in the game would be happy with a solution such as this.

Please add your comments in the form of support for this, or your reasons why you would be against this.

[Wanyen]

Bank slots tied to an individual character are quite unlikely to happen, like bags it would require significant recoding.

Extra persistent storage through a guild and/or fellowship based "warehouse manager" would be cool. One for tradeskills and one for tradeable quest items would be great. I am sure these would require significant coding, but probably not on the scale more individual bank and bag slots would.

[HaelonTT]

What I envision is everyones bank having 8 additional unusable slots, similar to what the potion bar has, or the spell gem bar has. Then as you hit 300 in a skill, a bank slot would become usable, like training the aa for an additional potion slot. Coding shouldnt be much different from what they did when they increased the bank from 16 to 24 slots with 2 account usable slots. The slots themselves wouldnt be tied to an individual, just the access of them.

Tho I wouldnt be opposed to your idea either. Nor would I be opposed to just giving everyone in the game 8 additional slots in their bank with no tie to TSing. I just know that at this time, my bank is full and so are 3 of the 8 bags i carry on my toon lol. We TSers need some bank relief.

[Aldier]

I think you need to get rid of junk in your bank.

I think that you shouldn't need more than 2 hammers (Smithy Hammer + Cultural Hammer). I think you should leave vendor sold items on vendors until you need them, things like the waters.

I think it is selfish to ask for more bank space for just 300 tradeskillers. So a 250 tradeskiller working up does not have to keep all these things as well? Granted they may not have all the symbol patterns, they still have the other parts. So now its a matter of when are you involved enough in tradeskills to warrant additional space, heck why not just make it easier and give everyone more space? Even more likely to get support for this outside the tradeskill community especially given all the quest pieces in SoD.

Why are you still carrying 4 bags full of symbols? Are people on your server still buying Elaborate and Sacred symbols? Only really need to keep Sublime and even that is going to get less use with SoD. Exalted may almost go with Elaborate on this setup. You still have the book so for the rare occurrence you need a pattern, you can still summon one. So 1 slot instead of 1 bag.

[MareeTP]

I suggest making every stackable item stack across the board to 200. That would free up a lot of bank space without any coding changes that would break EQ.

With the wide availability of 100% weight reduction bags, even the heavy ores can be carried with ease in stacks of 200. You'd just have to be smart enough to put them in the right bag. It would be no different really than making sure you had a 100% weight reduction bag if you wanted to carry 10 stacks of 20. Or multiple bags of 10 stacks of 5. But it would help solve the bank space and the personal inventory problem as far as taking the items with large numbers of components to a tradeskill container.

[thomenthechanter]

Ngreth has often said he won't allow many things to stack, and limiting stack quantities on others.

He's keeping a dose of reality in the game by making it possibly to only fit 5 blocks of metal in the space of 10 large bricks and 20 regular bricks. Plate molds don't stack, either. Chain templates do.

And you know what? I agree with him. I like a touch of reality in my fantasy game, otherwise it loses a bit of the immersion factor.

[Lemamas]

I think we should convert the user banks into the format of the guild bank. Get rid of the slots concept with bags in each. Just give us a bank with 240 (24 current slots with a 10 slot bag in each) slots. You can keep the shared bank shown as bags if you must but the redundant opening of bags from the bank is old and a needless annoyance. Honestly another set of bank slots would be nice but I would rather see a new interface for the banks. I can not stand sorting y bank any more. Ugh I doubt people could get more bags to even show up on the screen without overlapping other bags too much with common resolutions on a non-widescreen monitor.

(Note: I can do another 24 bags on my screen so if you want to go that route I suppose I ould live with it, but would rather see a GB style player bank)

[thomenthechanter]

And there are others who sort by bag (including myself) who would absolutely cringe at the Guild-Bank style interface as unwieldy for separation.

I like being able to put my adventuring gear in the bank and pull out my tradeskill gear for a given craft with four or so clicks. For organization, I have a tradeskill-specific bag as the first slot of where those components are located, and Huge Disenchanted Bags for the remaining slots of that component: So, for example:

BHHbHF
JHHPHR
HHSHHH
THtttt

Where B is the Baking trophy bag, b is Brewing trophy bag, etc.; H is an HDBs, and t is a Trader Satchel.

[HaelonTT]

I like the idea of the Guild Bank format for players banks, but we still need some bag storage ability. Not only do I also sort by bag, but what about those special bags like cultural tradeskill containers.

I wonder, from a coding standpoint, how hard it would be to use the GB format but make it so it would accept full bags. Maybe have 10-20 spots dedicated to full bags, and another 100-300 spots for single items only.

I agree with Thomenthechanter on the reality aspect, there should be some limit on what players can carry around.

As far as Aldier, well, your situation obviously isnt mine. You apparently only do the newest tradeskills or items that benefit only the highest levels. Im in a 1000+ member guild that has players ranging from just started playing EQ yesterday to just burned out on raiding. I keep so much junk in my bank because its in constant use. In cultural armor molds alone Im on my 4th book(thats 600+ complete armor set combines).
You state that additional bank space just for 300 TSers is selfish, that less skilled need space also. My response is, the game doesnt hand newbies Solteris gear at level 1 so they can compete with endgame raiders, they have to earn that gear. Why should this be any different? Someone who has raised each tradeskill to 300 has put as much time and effort into the aspect of the game they prefer as someone who has just raided the current endgame mob.

In the real world, if you need more storage space you either build another shed, or go rent storage space. How does keeping a players bank space small enhance the gameplay any? I can understand if its a coding issue that prevents banks from being larger, or if its a fiscal problem for SOE because of the additional server data storage capacity they would need. But if those arent the reasons, then I see no reason gameplay-wise why the banks couldnt or shouldnt be 2-3 times larger than they are now.

I originally proposed this as a reward based setup simply because I liked the idea of us TSers earning something extra for our effort. But I dont stand on it at all. If SOE decides to increase everyones bank space across the board I would be very happy.

Lets have more discussion on HOW they could do so. What would you like your bank to look like? GB style or slot and bag style or a combination or something completely different? Maybe the current bank look and style but with tabs across the top allowing access to 2 or more pages of bank slots.

[Aldier]

There is a 3rd option to build another shed or rent more space. Clean out some of the things you consider "junk" and make room for more important items. That is all I was saying.

You are on your 4th book of what? 4th Sacred book? 4th Elaborate book? 4 Sublime book?

I did not know anyone really needed much under Elaborate because of Defiant armor which yes is given to people for free. I keep a set of molds, a set of patterns for racial armor, and sublime. After reaching 300, I just recently cleared out my Sacred patterns because I had to make room for a bunch of quest pieces from SoF.

I keep a full 2 bags of meats for baking. I have I think every single baking tool in the game. I still have sentimental pieces of gear/quests I did going way back that mean things to me. I have random quest pieces from old things that I will probably never use but I won't throw away.

I do not think just adding another 8 slots is the solution the banking problem. I think that if they expanded another 8 slots it would just clutter the bank window. I do not remember, but I thought there was a discussion once about why the guild bank was unique in its interface and how it would not work for every individual toon, but I do not recall what about it was the problem.

I did not mean to imply that it is wrong to want to see some kind of tangible benefit to being a 300 tradeskiller. However, when you consider the idea from a gameplay standpoint for SOE, would you want to have your coders spending time adding bank slots for the 300 tradeskillers or working on something that would effect everyone? I would love more bank space, but just as you, if I was given more bank space, I would still have just as much space available in my bank as I do now, none.

[HaelonTT]

Armor mold, the same mold is used for Simple or Elegant or any in between. The point I was making there is that I make armor for guildies as well as other items for any level from 1 to 85, and I make a lot. When I was in a raid guild my bank typically wasnt as full as it is now. Being in a family type guild that sometimes raids and which allows anyone of good character, whatever their level, to join, especially as I said, with 1000+ members, I keep busy making a huge variety of stuff using all 7 skills on a regular basis.

I would rather have 2% empty bag slots out of say 500 total, rather than the 260 we currently have hehe. But aye, my bank would probably fill up fairly quickly even so. Would still be better than now tho.

[thomenthechanter]

If you really like the Guild Bank window, there's another option that I seriously hope *noone* does...

Roll an alt and petition to create a guild. Use the shared bank slots to transfer the gear to the alt, and let them store it in their otherwise empty guild bank.

And if you really feel the need to do this, I shall call you a packrat and be well justified. ;D

[Deviator]

what about a tabbed bank. one tab for general goods, one for only tradeskill tagged items + bags, one for quest tagged items + bags, one for nodrop items + bags etc... then we could have 24 slots like we have now, but on each tab.

this way you can still sort with your bags, and you get more space without all the screen clutter.

[Aldier]

How do you designate a quest item from a tradeskill item? What about quest items that are used in tradeskills? It is not a bad idea, but I think there are too many quest items and too many tradeskill items to designate on such broad terms.

The new quest NPC in guild lobby covers the issue of SoD collection quest items and the Timeshear fragments from SoD zones.

There was an idea once of a special set of slots or some other "file cabinet/folder" system for holding all the different symbol patterns or armor molds/patterns but I do not know what became of them.

I personally would rather see the cultural armor books change slightly. Instead of separating a different slot for each armor slot, have just 1 pattern used and let the template dictate the armor slot. This would reduce 2 bags of molds/patterns down to 2 stackable items. If a similar simplification could be implamented for symbol patterns as well to be by the level and then a 2nd pattern used for the slot (these patterns already exist on merchants and are cheap). Then you would have in 1 bag: armor mold, armor pattern, blessed, revered, sacred, eminent, exalted, sublime patterns. That is 8 slots and then you are covered for all levels of armor and symbols. I am not sure if charms would need to be separate as well so that could be a 9th. This currently would take up a bag (9 slots) for each of those items that is 8 containers reduced to 1 container. However, this change would also require Ngreth to go back in and change every symbol and every armor recipe which is a big undertaking just for the armor/symbols.

[HaelonTT]

Thats pretty much how the new weapons work, the level of the item is driven by the type of ore/loam/silk/pelt etc that it uses, not the pattern. I would be all for that as it would free up multiple bags for me.

I like the tab idea as well, tho it probably doesnt need to have each tab relegated to a particular item usage.