Tailor Archive

Ok I've been making a little trouble on the SWG forum by going to bat for our lovely profession over the decay issue (and getting lots of one star ratings for telling it like it is). What I see frequently is people (who are not tailors) mindlessly repeating that tailor's sales are suffering because people don't buy garments because of the decay. How would they know? They aren't tailors.

In my case, sales are picking up a bit. I'm not suffering.

I think that is is safe to assume that since no one has started a tailor forum thread called "OMG my sales are gone! Please get rid of decay and SAVE ME!" (with a score of "ME TOO!!" posts following behind) is is evident that we are not suffering over decay like anti-decayadvocates from other professions would like to to beleive.

So for the record, how are things? Are they worse? Are they better? Are they the same? And of course, WHY?

Now please don't let this get into a discussion on how decay should be, it goes without saying we all want decay on use, we already voted on that topic long ago. All I want to do is dispell the rumor that decay is bad for our health.

Business is booming for me, but I don't think it has anything to do with decay one way or the other. As far as I can tell personally, decay as such has had little to no effect on my business. I've had a grand total of one customer mention decay to me, and he wanted to buy a duplicate of his decayed current outfit.

For the worst case scenario I'd expect sales to be the same until the developers make our clothes go poof when they hit zero condition, rather thansales geting worse as a lot of non-tailors love to tout as fact.

It beats me where they get their information.

Sales have been very very strong last week and the week before, but abysmal this week. Reason is simple, I have almost nothing left on myvendor due to the vendor bug and the fact that I have refused to restock until it's fixed. Now thatit has allegidly been fixed, I'll be restocking.

My observation about clothing sales from the prior two weeks is:

normal sales + some "I need backup/replacement clothes" sales + clothing repair kit sales + some "repair" jobs

Clothing repair kit sales are strong. At 1k each I think I can sell about 20/week once I'm properly stocked.Backup/replacement clothing sales are not huge, but a few big bio enhancement replacement orders here and there make this significant. I've only done a few repair jobs surprisingly enough. All I can conclude there is that people are either taking advantage of the 0/1000 bug, or tossing their outfits (which is what I assume).

As predicted, the "underwear wars" didn't happen, and never will.

My business is doing so well that I am about to raise my prices slightly, I think, so that I can keep up with it! So far decay has not been a big part of it. A few people have mentioned it, but not many. What seems to have happened, at least on Lowca is that a lot of tailors have retired. I have been told over and over again by customers that they can't find a tailor anywhere, or that their old tailor quit tailoring, or whatever. Its amazing when I go to a huge city like Coronet in the middle of prime playing time and I am the only one their with a tailor tag, not even novices are there! A lot of my tailor friends have gone off to chase holocrons, or became bored with it and left, or whatever. In fact, the only place I have found that seems to have a lot of tailors is my (now unofficial) home of Naboo. Even little Kaadara (where I live) has several master tailors logged on at most times.

Anyway, keep defending us about decay being all our fault and I will keep doing the same!

hehe oh it gets better. You know all those "petition to remove 1% decay" threads that are out with lots of brainless people crying "/sign... DECAY SUCKS TAKE IT OUT!!!"? Well I posted a challange for those people:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=911945

Surprisingly a few people have posted some ideas, usually suggesting an alternative decay system resembling decay on use. No surprise there at all. But so far those advocating decay removal entirely have failed to come up with a solution to prevent indestructable items from choking the player economy.

On the other hand, I get a lot of one stars for giving the naysayers a run for their money Also a lot of flamers who really don't like being put on the spot for answers when they are quick to criticize decay.

All this is, is a knee-jerk reaction by the kiddies, complaining that mommy took their pacifier away. There is no reasoning behind it, simply people sayin "me no like paying extra credits".

I have faith in Sony. They'll do something truly horrible (like the vendor bug) to the combat folks in the next week or so and this "problem" will be put back into its proper perspective. When you look at it objectively: having to replace clothing every 100 times you die is so minor in the overall scheme of things that it hardly deserves mention.

I posted about this before. I think the best thing about decay is that is has weeded out the cheapskates for me. My current clientele will buy more than one outfit, will pay for bio clothing and will take more than one outfit normally. Vendor sales are brisk too. My only problem is keeping up with medical enhanced clothing.. its insane

Hehehe look at all the one stars! Seems like some of the disgruntled naysayers from the SWG discussion topic have found their way here.

I gave y'all a 5's

Anyway, nothing new on that thread I made note of. It's funny since I asked for ideas on eliminating decay that were compatible with keeping crafters happy, and about 98% of the responses were ideas that involved an alternative form of decay rather than the elimination of it. However there were a few, and the emphasis is on few, who actually did come up with something that would get rid of decay and possibly work.

So is the verdict still the same for everyone? No plumeting sales?

If I had a 5cr for every post I saw that read "DECAY IS HURTING TAILOR's BUSINESSES" posted by people who aren't tailors themselves, I don't think I'd need to ever work to earn credits ever again.

Actually, sales seem to have been improving lately, and I have no idea why: in just the last week, I've had three requests for "this outfit, in every colour". Part of this, I think, is the new metal colours -- they've proven hugely popular with entertainers and wookiees.

Sales did drop for a good long while (at the height of which I wrote my disgruntled tailor Gamer Girl column)and have picked up recently. However I think many of our recent sales are coming from new characters. A good deal of my business is coming from people new to the server who are building their wardrobe from scratch, and an alarming percentage of my old clientele have left the game. People are now experimenting with new professions on new servers, or being lured onto the game by friends. We'll see another huge influx after Christmas with all the giftwrapped SWG boxes being opened, and with each expansion. Just another thing to consider...

Sales are good. This week has beenperhaps a bit below everage for "regular clothing" vendor sales,and a boom week for "BE clothing". As I said in another thread, I'm making quite a lot of "high end" stuff with bonuses this week, which is the opposite from what it was a few weeks ago (where everyone was buying up the most "basic" clothing that I can put bonuses into). Lots of clothing that take 4, 5, 6 cloths/fibers or so. Expensive stuff and eats up the tissues, but people dig it, and everyone seems to have lots and lots of money to spend. Most people don't even ask "how much" until they get the check, and then generally are pleasantly surprised that it's not a lot more. One guy came in and asked for a simple shirt with a bonus (bleed defense or something)in it and exclaimed "I don't care if it costs 100k, I want the best bonus you can put in it". He seemed almost dissappointed when I charged him a measly 10k, rofl.

One thing I have noticed is a definite drop-off in "random tells". I've had my master tailor tag on every night for the past week and I've gotten maybe a dozen tells total, and have done a grand total of maybe 3 or 4 "custom fitting sessions", which is very very low for me. Almost 100% of my business is referrals and repeat customers now, and probably 75% of the custom items I do now have tissues in them. So business has changed quite a lot in the past couple of weeks. It's actually really nice this way. Not overworked, nice customers who I know and who know me, and not hurting for credits at all.