Tailor Archive
Thread: What I know about the Socketing problem: an update thread (which will be continually updated)
This is something I remember as a pet peeve while working my way up, that it was a really strange pattern of advancement, something like:
Novice Tailor: You never get a socket.
Tailoring 1: You never get a socket.
Tailoring 2: You might get one socket once in a blue moon, maybe like 10% of the time.
Tailoring 3: Suddenly, you're getting lots of sockets, like maybe 3 sockets 70% of the time, sometimes 4, sometimes 2.
Tailoring 4 and Master: Pretty much 4 sockets as a rule.
Seems like the general pattern is the same now, except that Tailoring 3, 4, and Master have been severely "downgraded" from what we're used to.
Ok.... Here's the experiment that I tried.
I have a friend that is a master artisan (not novice tailor) and he mentioned that he is getting 3-4 sockets pretty often. So I gave him some materials and one fo my crafting tools (both tools were 13.95 clothing and armor) and we stood in front of the same crafting station and made shorts we each made 15 pairs.
Master Tailor Master Artisan
0 -20 - 0
1 -31 - 0
2 -6 2 - 0
3 -23 - 3
4 -2 4 - 12
We were planning on testing a larger number of items but, I got frustrated pretty quickly. I figured that this is exactly what TH was saying. We thought that he meant that having artisan enhanced our skills. Really he meant that they didn't make any changes toartisan.
very sad that this is an intended fix 
SueDenim wrote:
On something of a tangent, didn't socketing always have weird "demarcations" with the Tailoring tree?
This is something I remember as a pet peeve while working my way up, that it was a really strange pattern of advancement, something like:
Novice Tailor: You never get a socket.
Tailoring 1: You never get a socket.
Tailoring 2: You might get one socket once in a blue moon, maybe like 10% of the time.
Tailoring 3: Suddenly, you're getting lots of sockets, like maybe 3 sockets 70% of the time, sometimes 4, sometimes 2.
Tailoring 4 and Master: Pretty much 4 sockets as a rule.
Seems like the general pattern is the same now, except that Tailoring 3, 4, and Master have been severely "downgraded" from what we're used to.
That was my experience as well.
I'm getting a little worried about how this will affect Tailoring. Before playing SWG, I was a Weaponsmith in DAoC. We could make weapons that were from 94 to 100% quality (well, not at first, but at the point I hit master). There was a 2% chance of getting a 100% item and an even chance of getting the rest. Because 100% items were made to be so rare, everyone wanted them very badly. The actual difference they made came to 1 or 2 HP more damage than the 99% items, but they were rare so that's all anyone wanted. If you didn't have a 100% item you were a fool.
That's what worries me. Are people only going to buy 4 socket items now, not because it affects their character in any way, but because they're more rare now? Am I going to have to destroy dozens of items just to make one, driving my prices extremely high, something I never wanted to ever do?
These types of problems made me grow to hate DAoC. I don't want to hate this game too...
I am 4/4/4/4 on Aritsan and Master Tailor - and I have been having about the same non-success as you got. I was making up some shorts last night as color swatches, and out of 5 got 3 1-sockets, 1-2 socket and 1-3 socket.
so.... what kind of a premium ARE we going to charge for 3 and 4 socket items?
Yet another post I made:
But mostly, the tailors feel that they have not been communicated with fairly, both now and in the past.
The socketing change came out of the blue. Tailors did not get an explanation for a week whether it was a bug or a feature. When that explanation did come, it was buried in an "in Live" thread rather than posted directly to the community that it most affected.
They feel that promises were made about 4 out of the 5 last "top 5" issues, while re-examining the old top 5 for the new top 5, they realize that only a few clipping issues have been fixed. In particular, tailors had asked for expanded palettes for limited-palette items and were ambiguously told that they were in for a big surprise "soon." Besides the chef apron and hats gaining colors, there have been no palette changes.
Tailors, for the first time, are talking about quitting the profession because of the lack of communication. What the tailoring community needs is straight, honest answers, and attention to their new top 5.
While I would really love the old system returned - or an experimentation/quality system substituted, I do agree that the big problem right now is that clothing does not really degrade. This simply means that there is no reason for anyone to replace their old 4-socket BE-enhanced items unless they are switching professions (and thus need new attachments). While I can handle, with annoyance, the socketting issue for regular clothing, it is just too expensive to keep redoing enhanced clothes.
Jeni
So exactly HOW are we supposed to improve our chances at getting four sockets in a piece? I've been a tailor since launchday and I must say this strikes a blow at what I thought was the "one" safe profession. I grinned and bared it when they removed experimentation, but this is too much. I'm a MT and a MBE and I make my own tissues and make my own enhanced clothing. I WILL NOT blow through a crate of tissues just to get an item with four sockets. Ridiculous.
What's worse is now the ENTIRE tailor comunity gets to explain this crap to the ENTIRE SWG community through tells and personal messages and blah, blah, blah. IF this is how it's gonna be, then by god, they better tell the community themselves. Frankly I'm sick of cleaning up SOE's messes. I have neither the time nor patience to tell everyone of my customers what's going on. The amount of verbal "noise" I have to deal with when playing this game is already out of control.
Message Edited by GarVa on 04-07-2004 07:49 AM
I've dealt with everything since july of last year in this profession. I'm disgusted! If you want a positive, warm, mushy post.. just skip past this one.
- We NEVER had decay.. but we got to play with experimentation. Gave us hope.. some day. ** Log on one day.. POOF it's gone.. NO experimentation NO explanation!!
- We BEG for USE based decay like armor or weapons.. it's in game.. can't be too hard. **Log on one day.. BAM Decay on death.. we take a beating from a community yelling.. you got what you wanted.. are you happy now?? and oh btw.. IT's STILL USABLE at 0/0 with all enhancements and attatchments in place. WHAT?
- Wether we want to be part of it or not.. we get WOOK PILLOWS. Not so bad.. kinda funny.. Oh yeah.. WE TOOK ALL OF YOUR SOCKETS WITH OUT TELLING YOU.. Have fun.. oh and Could YOU Explain to the Player Base? K? Thanks! We didn't feel it was important enough to talk to your Correspondant about so we just stuck it in a thread we figured would be picked up, eventually. Oh, and if she asks... you didn't see anything.. **edit**?
Let's see.. we are supposed to be Thankful??? NO thanks, I don't think so.. oh wait.. crap.. They did give us BE Clothing.. crap I do love that. Ok.. you get ONE positive statement.. OOPS.. my bad.. THEY SCREWED us on that too.. NO SOCKETS!!
You know what.. I completely understand that they need to focus on other professions as well. Yeah we've not had anything solid since around the THIRD publish and that's ok.. **IF** They'd just leave us out completely!!!
Focus on them and leave us alone UNLESS you're going to FIX something.. and how about some freakin communication??? This is worse than trying to get information out of children who are afraid they are in trouble for something. Children.
/rant closed.
**mongo hugs** N'jessi!! You do not deserve to be treated this way. Neither do we for that matter.
My latest behind-the-scenes on this issue. Remember, Kwee and Vandessa are back there with me!
I don't think the tailors are taking the position necessarily that they should get 4 sockets every time, but I think that the ratios right now are a little harsh.Getting 3 sockets 75% of the time and 4 sockets 25% of the timemight be more palatable.
Some tailors have suggested that they would like to experiment on sockets, but other tailors oppose this. They feel that it is already more time-consuming than other crafts becuase tailored items must each be hand-crafted, not crate-produced. Experimentation costs extra time, as would gathering resources of good quality. Equally, re-making the same item over and over would also take time, if the socketing system remains in its current form.
This is combined with no use-based decay. Pre-nerf FWG's are allowed to remain in the world, because eventually they will decay and be useless. Clothing only decays on death. Even at 0/0, the sockets are still functional, and the skill tape still work. Some tailors wish for there to be use-based decay, while others do not (simply because they don't want the complication of experimnentation.) I'm running a poll now on use-based decay.
Tailors have furthermore expressed frustration that Sony has stated that it would rather not "nerf" professions, but rather would try to balance professions while making them "fun." Tailors think that re-making items is not fun.
In addition, there is nothing that imbalancing about having 4 sockets be the norm. Very rarely do people have a plethora of skill tapes and not enough sockets for em. What is far more imbalancing is that someone can get a 4 socket outfit, whether it takes 100 tries, slap in the skill tapes, and never ever need to buy new clothes or find new skill tapes.
I think the situation would be vastly different if the current system had been working properly from the start. The market would not be flooded with 4 socket items, and customers would not be used to gaining 4-socket items without paying a premium. The sad truth is that it is late in the game to change the rules, when it will so adversely affect tailors' business, rendering 9 months worth of non-decaying clothing "pre-nerf", and tailors' current product inferior.
Don't lose faith, well except in getting four sockets like hot cakes again
Easier than typing out what I think all over again.- Lootable schematics were added (Most of us don't do combat, we have to pay an arm and a leg for the pieces if we can find them for sale, I'm not making these), but no Tailor schematics other than Chef goodies which werenot what Tailors were hoping for in the way of new clothing
- They were told Wookiee clothing was coming, instead Wookiee armor came, taking away their Wookiee business
- Experimentation was taken away months ago and now given back only on a Tailor component for armorsmith - and as a consequence ---->
- Four sockets, which were a way of life for Master Tailors, became arare occurence
- They asked for usage based decay and instead got death based decay, which does not affecttheir #1 customers (entertainers) and is not even working as intended (the clothes last forever).