Zam.com and Tradeskills

I'm sure by now most folks have seen this news: http://eq2.allakhazam.com/sdetail.h...ory=14688 Short version, we'll be getting all the EQII raw game data, which will allow our programmers to develop cool new tools for players.

I was talking to Illia (of Illia's Everquest Beastiary, and our VP of Technology) about the EQII site revamp and tradeskills. A lot of the ideas I had for tradeskill tools may no longer be as needed, since some of these ideas go back to interdependancy days. So I said I'd ask the crafting community:

Assume we have all the game data, and programmers with magic wands. What kind of (not in game) tools would you like to see for crafting? Be really specific!

Calthine wrote:

I hope that it will have the kind of information that was available on the EQ1 side. I have never felt that information about mob and spells was anywhere near as good as that on the EQ1 site. I love Ilia's Betiary - was a great thing and very, very useful.

Maroger wrote:

Done! LOL, it defaintely will How about not just the mob's spells, but how often they go off and in what order?

And tradeskill ideas?

Not sure what kind of tools you mean, tbh.
But my first thought regardless would be the ability to browse the various books, compare items and put together a "shoppinglist" that would specify the items you picked and what raws/rares/fuels you would need for it. Both as a customer and crafter that would be very handy. Sorry, probably not very original. /hides

I'd like to see the ability to be able to look up a crafted item, see the rare and the fuel needed, as well as the cost of the fuel. I do alot of crafting for my guildies and I find that in order to tell them what they need I look up the item in my crafting knowledge book, then I go to the crafter area to check fuel price. Of course this is harder when I'm on a different character and can't see my crafting knowledge book, or I'm in a zone I where I can't get back to the crafting NPC to check fuel prices.

To sum it up, it'd be nice if someone says "can you make a canopic jar", I can say, "head to zam.com and search out the item, and it should tell you what rare is needed and what fuels and how much they are." (Hmm, this makes me sound like a lazy crafter heh)

Hmmm, here's a few random things.
When viewing a recipe: allow us to click a hyperlinked raw that will point to a list of what zones this raw can be harvested in, including name of the node and what it looks like. (thinking of the harvestables chart on EQ2 Traders) This would be good for the instance dropped components as well.
Be able to see a list of all recipes in a book *and* click the recipe to view the recipe details rather than just a static list.
Be able to click a crafted item and be shown what volume its recipe is in as well as recipe details.
For the advanced books that can be mob drops, give the drop information. At least as far as what zones have critters of the appropriate level and what mob types have a chance to drop.

Excellent stuff, keep it coming!

What about a complete overview in table format of the crafted goods, e.g tailor sorted by tier and armor class, what is possible, what stats, how much ressources, in which book, etc. The same for all classes so ppl know what is being produced.

Basically something like http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.as...TopicID=3203336 or http://www.eq2alchemy.com/potions-poisons.html or http://de.share.geocities.com/eq2ov...e_schneider.htm or http://www.bakual.ch/eq2/adornments.htm

A pricing page that lets you input cost for each material used by the class for a given tier that will then display the price for all items within that tier for that crafting class.

Example -

Sage for t8 would input the price for roots/gems/soft metal/rare gem/rare soft metal and it would automatically price out each item (including fuel cost).


This might be more usefull for classes like carpenters that have a large varience of materials used for each recipe.

Another mysteriously duplicated post. This is something new that has been added to the boards. I hope Zam .com omits this feature.

Please see my note below.

Amitee wrote:

Not lazy, Amitee. Just worn out. Too many people expect the crafter to do all the research and tell them what they need. That's a responsibility I do not want. I'd love to be able to point buyers to a site where they can compare all the options of the equipment available for their level. The tailor can't decide if a mage customer should choose an item that is imbued with healing but has less int than another piece without the imbuement. Only the mage can make that decision.
Aside from a comparative analysis of all the stats for a given type of equipment, it would be nice to have the components listed too. Outfitting one mage with 5 to 7 pieces of equipment can take a lot of raw roots, leather, ore, or loam. I used to ask people to provide only the rare. Then I found myself out harvesting to fill crafting orders. which took far too much of my time and was not at all fun. I now request the raws as well as the rares be provided.

Silken@Butcherblock wrote:

Same, one of my lesser used tradeskillers happens to be my tailor, all of my toons big and small are chain & plate wearers so I'm not that familiar with the leather and cloth armor. I get a lot of people who tell me I should pick the best armor for their monk or wizard which means I have to look on the broker or in my recipe book and compare the diff types... etc. It doesn't come with a label for the crafter "monk armor" etc.

I'd like them to have a direct link to anything craftable so they can see what it requires, with fuel cost next to the fuel (like 4 walnut kindling @ 1c each) so they aren't like why the heck is this so expensive? Perhaps similar to the current broker search, but for only all crafted items, they could pop in all crafted legs usable by their class & level and then tell me what they want. Same for potions, food, everything.

Honestly most of this they can do on the broker now, but sometimes there is a lack of some crafteds on the broker. I tell a lot of people go look for "these things" on the broker & tell me what you like. I'm sure I will think of more ideas!!! I can't wait to do some brainstorming.

Zehl_Ice-Fire wrote:

Ohh .. how about making a shopping cart...

the person adds various crafted items to the cart then when done they can get a list of the total materials needed as well as a list of the requested items they can then copy and paste into the ingame mail/chat ?

Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:

Me likey!! Especially if you're going to have the option of real time broker access, but I'd take a "production cost calculator" even without that.

Mezzmyrelda@Unrest wrote:

Not sure real time broker access is needed or worth while. QTY is a big thing and just because someone is listing 10 ore for 1s does not mean you can get the 100 ore needed for xx items for 1s. Maybe that 10 min delay between figuring out what you need and actually getting to the broker is about to raise the price from 5s to 25s ? .. there are too many variables here. As a crafter you tend to know what the mats are worth on avg. (I tend to know what I can replace your stock for)


I am lazy when it comes to figuring cost. Coin splits/TS costs/../.. I just round everything. Most of the time I only charge fuel + a little (aside from guildies) because I dont want to look up the value of mats as well as figure out how many of each I need.

A full book/spell scroll list based on profession, printable in PDF format with checkboxes so I can go over my chars and make sure I have every book/spell scroll/bonus crafing ability available.

You've got all the raw data in real time?

I want /locs of all nodes in every zone on every server. And I want to filter this list by zone, by tier, by whats needed by which proffesion, by server, and by type. Also an advanced search so I can find which zone currently has the most nodes of the type I need at any exact moment.

Oh and ummm maybe /locs and lists of where each recpie/blueprint can be found/purchased.

I want something that could list the total of raws needed. Exemple : - I want to maxe 30 potions and 2 spells - I click on the potion name and say how many combos (6) - I click on the spells I want to make --> it lists exactly the number of roots/gems/soft metal/loam/candles I need to do it all and eventually calculate the price of candles. A list of existing recipe books also. I never knew if some of the low level tinkering books existed (the ones for adornment that exists in higher tier but not sure on low tiers). Eventually something that could list what books we are missing. (hope your magic wand is working well )

The OP specified NOT in-game tools. A lot of the stuff suggested would be a pain if you had to drop to desktop or bring up the web browser every time you needed to access it.
The only thing I would like to see would be the data included on EQ2Traders relating to recipes to be searchable or listed in such a way as to easily find where a particular item is included. What faction is required etc etc.
eg Altars....bought off the guy at BB docks, cloak recipes. Faction stuff that is sometimes well hidden in game and only stumbled upon by accident by many of us.
Maybe a link with the broker so that we can guage if MC stuff is worth making "on spec" or whether it would be more cost efficient just to sell the harvested items unrefined.

Cathline, I have an excel document that has all the costs and such in it. I could email it to you if you want and your programmers can pick it apart, I find that it has some very useful information about the costs and uses of certian things.