Tailor Archive
Thread: Clothing decay
I refuse to underestimate people's vanity.
I meticulously have tracked hundreds of sales since launch, and there has only ever been one constant; I only make sales when I work for them. I made as many sales when I was a novice as when I was a master.When I stopped marketing, I stopped selling. There is, absolutely, a direct correllation between my marketing campaigns and my sales. There has not yet been any change in my sales based on SOE changes.
Decay... not having decay's not going to hurt me very much, honestly. Because once a dancer has all 15 shades of a revealing fleshwrap, she realizes she looks like every other dancer, and she will come back to me for some more work. "Make me look different." And every player may already have an outfit or five, but they are still having weddings and parties and they still want uniforms for their guilds... and they will, over time, want to change their clothes. I could already keep another 2 tailors busy with my volume of requests. Decay would make me even busier making basic outfits, sure, and there is definite merit there - I could maybe hire out some novices to do that work and they could profit that way, who knows? New players are starting all the time and they need clothes. I mean, there are a billion reasons to buy clothes from a tailor even if what you have doesn't decay.
That is *certainly* not to say that I'm not irritated. But, to put it all in perspective... the developers are a thousand times more responsive in SWG than they were in EQ. Perfect? No. But more responsive, especially in such anoftentimeshighly charged environment.I have WAY more fun here, and I'm very grateful for their efforts. And yesterday... was I irritated about the decay thing? Yeah. But I had a heckuva lot of fun playing with new colors and, well, I had fun just being a tailor. When I get irritated, I think of EQ in the early years. I think of the dreadfully messy Shadows of Luclin launch. I remind myself about how frustrating that was. I remind myself that this is an insanely complex system that SOE is running. It'snot going to be without kinks, and in the end, I *DO* have fun. :-) I believe the developers are working hard, and that no plan survives the enemy - we break things in ways previously unimaginable. I'm also grateful for the cool heads that I believe will prevail here; the heads that are pounding out thoughtful, useful, productive posts that aid the developers in pinning down exactly what the issues *are*. Some issues are more complex than they appear on the surface. I'm happy to wait out appropriate, well-designed, and thoroughly tested fixes and enhancements, and continue to have loads of fun in my chosen profession.
I'm so sad to see Alichai go. I think she did such a great job, however this is a hobby. If it isn't fun, stop doing it. Alichai, I hope you come back when it is fun again, and I have nothing but respect for the work you've done for our community so far. Thank you. If you reconsider your choice, we will be so much the better, but if you don't, that's ok too, and I wish you all the best in whatever fun you pursue elsewhere.
Na'Dina Tobiath :: Fashion Designer to the Stars :: Master Tailor
Come See My All-New Shop North of Keren! :: Radiant
What about letting all equipped clothes decay a little bit if you use some kind of special move, be it a combat move or an entertainer flourish.
This could represent stress, dirt and sweat that you get while doing something unusual.
I dislike this idea quite a bit. All it will do is make people pay insurance. Plus, the big ticket items are worn by entertainers, and probably not when they're fighting. I would like to see ongoing decay WHILE YOU"RE WEARING THE CLOTHES. I don't see what's wrong with that. I understand people who have huge wardrobes don't want to see them decay while they're not being used, and I agree, plus those people are doing enough for the profession already. But, come on...
If you implement this change, you should still implement clothing decay separately. Or implement decay for DOING something in the clothes, such as dancing, playing music, surveying, etc. Otherwise nothing will change.
I dont think that anyone is claiming the market has reached a glut yet Ziah. The issue is though, what will happen in a few months. I see two problems the way things are:
1) There will be at least 10x as many master tailors as there are now, yet there wont be 10x as many new people in the game needing clothing.
2) With imposed storage limits, people will have to draw a line at how many "luxury" items they own. Once people reach the point that they are low on storage, they will focus on saving space for items they need for thier proffesions, not for seven different shades of striped pants.
I want two things: Something differentiate one tailors clothes from anothers other than just color. In other words, something to experiment on.
Secondly: a reason to believe there will always be a market for clothing. This could be decay, new designs, new things to experiment, whatever - all that matters is that there is some reason for people to buy clothing beyond thier first outfit.
Kaede of Bria - Novice Tailor
*nods* I definitely don't disagree at all with the logic behind your post, Kaede. I guess what I was saying was that I'm confident that I will be able to keep busy and have fun, even when there are a thousand master tailors on my server. Competition will be stiff, sure, and service will really matter, but I still think that if I work my profession I will have things to create.
I also think that while there will be those who have one perfect outfit and will wear it forever, there will always be the fashionista contingent that wants new clothes in new colors and whocontinually refresh their wardrobes. My other point was that, honestly, I *do* think we will get item decay overall from the developers, so I'm not stressed about market saturation. I'm confident they are aware that lack of decay does dampen the market, and not just for tailors. I'm confident that they are aware that eventually we will also need more skill progression in order to stay interested in their game. I'm also confident that, although they may not address my pet issues as fast as I would like, that those problems will get addressed, and with great communication from the community we can do a lot to help them more effectively get to the heart of the bugs and exploits and other unintended things and get things working in the best way possible. Money talks, and I KNOW the developers know that if they let things languish, entertainment dollars wil go someplace else. Sure, we've already got fairly significant time and financial investment in SWG, but we know and they know that we as a community will not continue to pay for a service that is more frustrating than it isfun.
The long and the short is... I'm patient, but my patience has a limit. I'm having fun now, but I expect that game issues will be addressed and fixed. When I stop having fun and stop having faith in the abilities of the developers to handle this game effectively, I'm absolutely not afraid to walk away. :-)
Thanks Kaede!
Na'Dina Tobiath :: Fashion Designer to the Stars :: Master Tailor
Come See My All-New Shop Just North of Keren! :: Radiant
