I used to frequent these boards, but I took a break in 2005 after Desert of Flames came out. I got crafters to 60, and got burnt out Anyway, I picked the game back up a few days ago and apparently crafting has changed a lot since I left. I'm not as concerned about what was changed. That I can learn as I go. I am curious though how the changes have affected the crafting economy. Let me paint a picture of how I remember crafting: Needless to say, crafting was a huge moneymaker when I left the game. While there was still a ton of gold to be made selling strongboxes, tailored bags, etc, there was also a large profit to be made in just commissions from people. "I got the cobalt cluster, can you make an imbued cobalt cuirass for me for 30g?" That is just an example. But back then, I think most guilds didn't have level 60 crafters yet. They might have had one or two, but ultimately, players had to go outside the guild for crafters at some point. I'm assuming that really isn't the case anymore? What with crafting being easier and faster (I was told it was, is it?) there are probably more crafters than the server needs. So long story short: I've enjoyed crafting in the past. Some of it was the satisfaction of making my own stuff. Some of it was that it was a great way to make some plat. Is that a pipedream these days? Thanks
There is still $$ to be made you just have to know where your servers nich is and be prepared to change it. Examples are with the adepts some people at higher lvls are complaining they are making no money but the won't craft the lower tier while the people that will are making huga amounts because of capped players rolling and twinking alts.
I've played since launch and I have four master crafters. I stock the broker with the wares of all four crafters. I have one character in the top 100 wealthiest for my server, and two others are going to be showing up on that list soon unless I start spending their earnings more. I don't advertise heavily in the channels for custom orders, but I do once in a while. And there are people every night asking in the channels for stuff to be made. So I do plenty of custom orders. And yes, there are *tons* of crafters now cause it's so easy compared to what it used to be. I craft because I like it (even though I much preferred subs) and I make stuff for people because I like to. You can make just as much or more money exclusively adventuring. But I do what I like in the game. Hope that helps.
Crafting got so easy compared to '05. Easy leveling and a 'simplyfied' crafting system which allowed everyone to craft without much thinking, resulted in an abudance of crafters now and the market is flooded. Thier are niches which might be undersupplied but the general trend is that you can make more money with high lvl adventuring these days. :-(
That and the fact we only had 4 character slots back then and now everyone can cover most of the crafting trades on one account these days (or all with station access). So less need for interaction between people to get crafting work done.
There IS money to be made but you have to work for it. The "niches" will appear and disappear quite quickly and it is up to those that can adapt quickly to take advantage of them. For instance. Palladium bangles (always a favourite for the HQ etc) will fluctuate quite markedly and it is up to the aspiring tradeskill mogul NOT to flood the market and be greedy. Supply the demand and no more. As soon as the demand wanes STOP supplying. Just because YOU think an item should sell well doesn't mean it will. You have to walk the line of leading trends rather than following (by which time it will be too late) while still being led by what the market needs. Be the first to identify the niche, make your money and move on.
1) I would run through the in-game tradeskill tutorial again. It's been completely rewritten and rescripted. 2) When you get to tradeskill 65, regardless of your adventure level, I'd go to Kunark and start working on the tradeskill-specific quests which get you the sokokar (griffon) and faction necessary to complete tradeskilling.
