Tailor Archive
Thread: Choosing your own color on clothing
Sargus,
As far as your example of not finding a well stocked BE vendor that carries tailor tissues, well, that is no surprise but that does not mean that there are not dedicated BE's that will be happy to supply tailors with tissues. You have to remember that BE's are not artisans, so many of them do not even have vendors. Secondly, in my experience, tailor tissues are low volume sales items, meaning that its often not worth building up a huge stock of them just to let them sit in the vendor gathering dust. Makes a lot more sense to make them on-demand. And thirdly, BE is a wierd profession in that there are many very dissimilar things that BE's can make, tailor tissues being only one of them. So complaining that you can't find a vendor carrying tailor tissues is like saying you can't find an armorsmith that carries padded armor. My advice is to try to search for a BE, not a BE vendor and set up a direct supply type of deal.
Ok, now back to your argument. It is a fact that tailors, at least in this forum, are very very strongly against any sort of customer-colorization of clothing. Our polls have shown this. So let me get this straight, you are saying that because of the lack of dedicated artisans (tailors in particular) they should implement something that would be almost universally hated by tailors and make them want to quit crafting. Well, you have a point there, perhaps killing off all the remaining tailors would fix the problem, lol.
Perhaps your frustration is not so much derived from the hassles of tailoring but your business method. As Karai said, part of Tailoring is knowing what to stock. If spending hours and hours jamming vendors full of inventory is bringing you no joy, then stop. Why do you need 400 items? So you don't have a huge color selection. So what? Don't feel the need to cater to every single customer whim as soon as they walk in the door. Stock what you feel is an attractive selection of clothing and no more. Don't pander to the lowest common denominator (*cough*blackmuscleshirt). Think of it as a "boutique" instead of Wal-mart.
Droid engineers have customization tools, vehicles have them, composite armor, which represents the majority of armor sales, can be colored by the customer, and every other crafting profession can use crated items for sale and still offer a complete variety of goods.
All the other professions you listed can craft items withqualities in addition tocolor. Droids have functionality and varying degrees of quality. The same goes for vehicles and armor. Clothing has only 1 variable quality - color. If you give people the ability to change color on clothing, then you have to give everyone the ability to experiment on the quality of their guns.
As for the issue of crafter burnout, all the galaxies are suffering through a player downturn right now, and I don't think recolorization will have any sort of positive effect on the Tailor or BE population. We'll just have to slog through that problem as we go.
This idea again? /sigh
Same answer as the last bazillion times: If they put in recoloring, this tailor is history. /waves bye
Uh Mystyrys,
I only have two comments to your well thought out reply. Nowhere do my suggestions mention recoloring, it only allows choosing at the time of purchase....and....... Try coming up with better suggestions if you've ever tailored in a game that has allowed recoloring. If you haven't played those games, then you're guessing at best.
Any child can simply say no, sigh and leave if they don't get their way.
My response is "don't let the door hit ya..." while the rest of us will work to improve a less than perfect system.
Thanks for your attention.
Heh. All my "well thought out replies" were used up in the plethora of previous threads on this very same issue. I'm just dreadfully tired of seeing this same idea pop up in this forum about once a month by people who want to do away with a major part of what makes being a tailor FUN formost tailors. Those of us who have been tailors since ... oh... beta, launch and every day since... well... some of us would rather point newcomers to the old thread (link to said thread provided in a previous post here: The one called "Clicky") where we've already talked this color or not to color and every variety of it under the sun issue to death and back again.
Now, if your playstyle is to put "blanks" on a vendor and be a self service shop - good. That's your playstyle. Not mine. I like to sit and chat with my customers. I do not want to role play a vending machine. The fun part for me is helpingcustomers choose styles. And colors. And interacting. I have vendors with a few thousand items on them. Yeppers. That's a service of convenience I provide for those in a hurry. My fun comes from custom orders and being there should acustomerdesire something more than a clothing vending machine.But if fun for you is to drop one of each thing in the dispenser, and go off to do something other than tailoring the rest of your play session... good. Enjoy.
What I do not appreciate is how often non-crafters, non-tailors, new tailors, come in here and attempt to force feed their playstyle onto everyone else. And then get huffy and abrupt when we balk.
We try to generally have a helpful, cheerful and polite tone around here... but on this subject... we always see heated debate. You might stop to wonder why that is. Eh? *holds the door open for you* My pleasure. Please visit again real soon.
Qitu - Master Tailor - Master Merchant - Serenity Valley, Tatooine - Intrepid
I wasn't aware that this topic was brought up before. As I can see in this reply session there is some mix in replies. I also want to point out that I would bet this is a very small sampling of the tailors in the game. So whatever the majority of replies are here,most likely, willnot accurately represent the entire tailor popuation as someone suggested. I feel if there are official polls or petitions, then SOE needs to put them on the main website and send out messages in the opening screen directing those concerned to go vote. Leaving it up to forum readers will never accurately sample voters. I also don't want to hear the bull that if you read these forums you are a more dedicated player. It just means you have more time to get involved.
I come from Ultima Online and in that game we had the ability to change clothing colors. It's not a unique idea. To also think that tailor sales would drop off has no evidence to support it. You can argue until you are blue in the face, but until some people can present some hardcore data on tailor sales I won't believe you. It has been my experience that my customers do not come for simply a different color of clothing. Most of mine come for a totally different look. I don't care how good you think you are at stocking color schemes there is always going to be customers that are not satisfied with the colors you have stocked. By empowering the customer to choose their own color schemes upon purchase, you can get 100% satisfaction from them. Offering a one-time coloring upon purchase would let us stock fewer items and let the customer find what they want everytime.
I would also like to address the poster on armor. There are several people that buy armor based upon the color scheme. For some it is as much a fashion statement as clothing. Clothing is not just for fashion either. The whole line of bio clothing is based upon utility.
The lack of crafters that stock their vendors regularly spreads across all professions. I challenge you to find vendors that stock more than one page of items.Even thenthose that do stock multiple pages of items most are junk that never sell and they just keep relisting. Once the holo grind is ended how many crafters are we going to have left in the game? Those who do perservere are going to end up burning out because their customer demands are going to be more than crafters can supply. I have already seen about 8 armorsmiths in our guild alone burnout. DEVs need to find ways to alleviate some of the work involved because a game is supposed to be fun--not work. Those who would argue with that are most likely people who do not have a real job supporting a real family. I consider myself a hardcore dedicated crafter. I have found myself thinking of leaving the crafting arena altogether. I am only in it because I enjoy merchandising. The reward to work ratio for crafters is alot lower than combat professions. The only reason for some to have a crafter is to stocktheir own combat characters on other accounts. I suspect alot of crafters out there are in this category. Most of the crafters I know in the various guilds I am involved in only have the skills to give themeselves and their friends items. They do not stock vendors for the general public. So someday in the future we may see this trend where if you don't know a crafter you better consider making one because there will be too few vendors to shop to find what you want.
I'll try this one more time and hope that you might understand.....
I read the "clicky" thread. If you read it, then you'd see that I also posted there when it was new.
I've been here since launch day and have been a tailor since day one. That doesn't matter as much as the fact that I tailored, in UO, for six years. I'veplayed a different system and can tell you it has functions that would improve the interface in SWG.
That thread suggested dye tubs as in UO. My suggestions are not the same thing. How would an ID styled interface change your encounters with customers? You could still rp but it would allow you to show your customers new items and colors they might not have considered. The item you sell them would be the same as now. When I buy a suit, in real life, the tailor shows me all the fabrics and colors that he has available.
As far as the vendors, the idea of allowing a one time color change at purchase may or may not work....but theres no harm in discussing possible changes.
This thread had an obvious heading. If you're tired of discussing this issue, then skip these threads. If you want to discuss them, then accept that there are people who have played other systems and they are certainly allowed their thoughts without getting a smug reply.....
Actually, I think it's the perfect solution!
Wait, hear me out
Tailors are complaining that prices are so close to cost to make, that it's almost not worth it. Add in this coloring tool, and nearly all the tailors will quit!!!! This means, the 2 tailors left on the server ( one of whom WON'T be me!)can charge whatever they want!