Tailor Archive
Thread: I Don't Want To Grind, but...
i love cloaks. . . . you have to spend mucho dinero, but its fast XP if you time it right and have fast fingers 
Only like 200k hide, lol
Howdy! I'm not a tailor, but I thought that my cooking experiences might help ya'll out....I don't enjoy grinding either. I'd rather be out hunting with my friends then sitting in front of a crafting station for hours on end making Jawa Beer and Air Cake. So, this is what I do....
I make a ton of stuff, pretty much a little of everything since all my recipes give different combinations of buffs. I fill my inventory and backpack right up, and then I go looking for classes that would gain the most from eating my foods...for instance, Caf and Spiced Tea are best for Entertainers and Artisans who're sampling, Ex-Protien Rations are best for Marksman, Crispic for Brawlers, etc, etc. When I find these people....I GIVE my stuff away for free. That's right. All that work, and I don't make a single credit.
So what?
When they eventually eat all of a stack of my food, I get the UXP for it. With clothing, and I'm probably wrong about this, I think that the UXP you get is dependent on how long the person is wearing your clothing. Now, higher level characters might not want to wear your off-white ribbed shirt...but what about new players, who've only got the clothes on their backs and not enough credits to buy anything nicer? How aboutcamping out near Starports in starting cites, and other locations heavy in new players, and offering to give them a new outfit, or make them one on the spot? I know cooking and tailoring are two different things, but perhaps my methods, properly modifyed, would help you gain skills quicker. I hope so.
Cody-Lee Sharpe, Jack-of-all-Trades
SueDenim wrote:
Well, there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it, and I'd be highly surprised if we ever get any relief from the devs. The XP system is exquisitely perverse, as the higher the level of the stuff you make, the *less* XP you get. It's really frustrating. They've always talked like they want the game to work for "casual" gamers (and, hell, I'm playing 3+ hours per day! This is "casual???") But everything they do seems aimed at supporting the powergrinder and punishing the working tailor for the crime of actually trying to make and sell clothes for a profit. Next, they'll probably reduce all factory XP to zero and say that crafting anything other than a ribbed shirt gives you Chef XP instead of Tailoring.
The thing that's really disheartening is that I'm afraid I'm starting to lose my hard-won customer base, as they get impatient with my lack of progress and drift off to buy stuff from the people who powergrinded to Master Tailor weeks ago.
I don't think anybody really understands just how excruciatingly slow they've made advancement in Tailoring these days. I think a lot of people assume it's on a level with other professions, and figure you're just slacking or something if you're not Master yet, since it's so relatively easy to do in other professions.
I know exactly what you mean! I have customers that I got out of their noob clothes suddenly start going other places because their clothing budgets have grown so much faster than my skill levels. Those of us who didn't grind while the grinding gave good xp (through factories and that "practice" bug) are having a hard time of it now. I started my character on the very first day (I got lucky and got through the account setup before it got slammed) , and have been working on Tailoring right from the start. I'm currently at 3-0-0-1 on skill levels right now. I still don't grind, because it's just mind-numbingly boring to me. I tried one afternoon, and I lasted for all of like 5 ribbed shirts.
I'm starting to think that those metrics they used to rebalance tailoring in the end of beta must have included the 100% factory xp. Because I wouldn't call myself a casual player either, my minimum playtime is 4-5 hours a day, and much higher on weekends. But I was lucky if I could level oncea week! Now that I finally got to Casual III, cloak xp and uxp seems to be helping because those sell very quickly,but it still seems very slow.
LeeWanderer wrote:
I make a ton of stuff, pretty much a little of everything since all my recipes give different combinations of buffs. I fill my inventory and backpack right up, and then I go looking for classes that would gain the most from eating my foods...for instance, Caf and Spiced Tea are best for Entertainers and Artisans who're sampling, Ex-Protien Rations are best for Marksman, Crispic for Brawlers, etc, etc. When I find these people....I GIVE my stuff away for free. That's right. All that work, and I don't make a single credit.
So what?
When they eventually eat all of a stack of my food, I get the UXP for it. With clothing, and I'm probably wrong about this, I think that the UXP you get is dependent on how long the person is wearing your clothing. Now, higher level characters might not want to wear your off-white ribbed shirt...but what about new players, who've only got the clothes on their backs and not enough credits to buy anything nicer? How aboutcamping out near Starports in starting cites, and other locations heavy in new players, and offering to give them a new outfit, or make them one on the spot? I know cooking and tailoring are two different things, but perhaps my methods, properly modifyed, would help you gain skills quicker. I hope so.
Sorry for the double, but PLEASE don't encourage tailors to start giving away clothing for the UXP. Giving away food is one thing (which I still don't really agree with for the sake of the economy, I know a chef who's able to sell his). But food gets used up, and then they need more. Clothing doesn't decay right now. Once someone gets an outfit they never need a new one.
Even when decay is implemented for clothing it will be much slower than eating food. People won't need new clothes that often. Our economy is already hurt by people selling Tailor level goods very cheaply, if new Tailors start giving away free clothing for the UXP it will make it nearly impossible for those of us who try to make a living selling our clothes. Oh the masters and very high level folks will still be able to sell, but those of us pushing through mid-level Tailoring will have our markets devestated if a lot of people start doing what you're suggesting.
And even the idea that clothes should be handed out free is kind of offensive. Would you be suggesting this over in the Architect forum? That they give out free small houses? Or should Armorsmiths and Weaponsmiths give away their wares? I guess I'm just tired of people seeing Tailoring as a less valuable skill than almost any other crafting profession.
I ground for experience but I also sold a lot of clothes as I was doing it; for one thing, my combat skills are so crummy that I had to sell items to get the money I needed to get more resources so I could grind a little farther (yes, I run harvesters but it just wasn't enough--I scratch built them all myself and they've never been really super efficient). Now that I've made master, I have the best of both worlds. I got there in what to me was a reasonable amount of time (never got bored or discouraged; always felt like I was progressing, even if it wasn't as fast as I wanted at that moment). And I also have a loyal client base that's keeping me busy, sometimes busier than I'd like to be, and who are providing me with a nice income.
People always assume that grinding and non-grinding are mutually exclusive ways of playing this class. That just isn't true in practice.