Tailor Archive

---

3. Decay.

We are currently discussing other ways to deal with clothing decay. It is a touchy issue though. We hear the tailors, and even though it's a minor sting, players donotlike it.

---

I will be surrendering Tailoring in the not-so-distant future. The reasons are: poor decay implementation, boredom, no tailoring experimentation, resource quality unimportant, and generally not having enough time to myself. Monetarily I have done very well without undercutting at all, but I attribute that to wise business practices and that many tailors on my server quit after a while. I realize that there’s a million threads on how people think decay should be done, and to be honest I don’t think the devs quite know who to listen to. I would like to offer them some perspective based on what I’ve seen along the way. This post is meant to be a constructive one, so please take it as such

I see lots of players being so cranky over the current decay system, some are screaming bloody murder and want it removed altogether without suggesting alternatives to keep crafting professions alive. My fear is that the developers might give in to the unfortunate mass of deconstructive complainers and hope that crafters will just put up with the aftermath. It also goes without saying that decay on clone, well, stinks. Not to rub salt into the wounds, but us tailors warned the developers the death-decay was a bad idea.

So where do we go from here? Well, first maybe look at WHY people don’t like the 1% clone decay is a good place to start:

From what I’ve seen most of the fervent anti-decay opinions are based on the following:

1) Armor already had decay, the 1% insured decay was unnecessary.

I tend to agree with this. If the 1% decay was to bring decay to things that didn’t already have it (clothing) then it should only apply to those particular items. Solution: remove 1% insured decay for armor.

2) Skill tapes, which are very rare and expensive, erode with the garments. This isn’t worth the loss. The tapes are irreplaceable.

Having death sting is one thing, but considering the rarity of skill tapes it makes the pain excessive. Solution: 1) make these skill tapes removable, 2) make skill tapes craftable by tailors. This would be a wonderful boost for tailors, but the quality of materials and complexity of components need to matter or else we have something totally invaluable, and what happened with vehicles will happen with tailor skill tapes. If it is to be implemented it should be implemented RIGHT.

3) Insurance should keep things brand new. 1% decay with insurance is unfair.

Players are accustomed to fantasy insurance where nothing is ever damaged, even materials that would depreciate over time in the real world. Unfortunately for us Tailors, this 1% is all that stands in they way of our items being indestructible. They don’t like it, but how much can you compromise 1% and keep demand for clothing up? You can’t! You need to leave it as-is or come up with another decay system altogether for clothing. We’ve been begging on our knees for some kind of decay-on-use system, so perhaps it’s time the developers thought about giving it to us.

4) Most people who are against death-decay, when asked for friendlier alternatives, suggest decay-on-use.

Hands down, the votes are for decay on use. This is no surprise if you've been paying attention to the boards.

5) With proper decay on use for clothing, the 1% insured death decay can be removed altogether.

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best one.

6) Decay sucks because I want free stuff that never decays, I don’t care about crafters because I’m happy shooting my gun… Until my holocron says otherwise.

People who share this opinion shouldn’t be taken seriously, as they seem to think the only professions allowed to prosper should be combat professions.

Not so long ago I got sick of all the complaints against decay, with the scores of brainless “I hate decay, get rid of it NOW!” posts, and challenged people to come up with better ideas. Of course I got flamed to no end for being unpopular (not that it bothers me, after all I’m not always the most polite person and my skin is a yard thick), but there were a few who stepped up and offered some alternatives. Although, I think I should note that the majority of people who responded proposed some kind of alternate decay-on-use as a solution. Here is a list of the only ideas posted that get rid of decay altogether and work to keep demand for products alive:

1. Have clothing insurance purchasable from the tailor against a limited number of deaths, after it runs out more insurance can be bought from the tailor.


2. Introduce new products that people want on a regular basis to keep demand alive.


3. Remove the 1% insured decay but hike up uninsured decay to 10%


4. Random item loss on death: NPC mobs can steal your gear and you have to hunt them down to get them back, sometimes your item gets destroyed in the process. In return for paying insurance, you get monetary compensation to buy new items to replace the lost ones.


5. Take 1% decay out for PVP but leave it in for PVE


6. 1% decay during log-in, but remove it for insurance


7. Loss of ALL uninsured items, period. No decay or item loss for insurance.

Some of these ideas might sound better to some than others, but I suppose it is a start if the developers resolute against giving us usage decay.

Additional problems with any kind of clothing decay, whether it be now or in the future, is the illusive clothing repair skill. Tailors don’t have it, yet there are skill tapes in the game for this particular skill (which won’t work anyway without having a base skill to add on to). It would help a great deal to fix this and allow tailors a better chance than the average non-tailor to repair items to their original condition.

So with the removal of 1% decay for armor, allow options to remove valuable skill tapes from decaying garments, and improve tailor’s repair abilities, this will ease a lot of the complaints about the current death decay.

If you want to please more people then that, then you have to go with usage decay- and do it right.

Another complaint I’ve seen occasionally is that clothing isn’t very durable in combat, and they go through clothing very quickly in some cases. It would be very nice indeed if Reinforced Fiber Panels actually added to the durability and life of a garment as the name would imply. That way “field wear” can function as such, rather than be torn to ribbons as a grand ball gown might when duking it out with a nightsister

I hope that I have been comprehensive enough to help nudge the developers in the right direction in their quest to perfect decay and enhance the tailoring profession. Thank you for your time.

I'm almost sure that most people complained about decay because of armor, not clothes. And I agree with them, decay upon cloning for armor was unnecessary. For skill tapes, well, the worst thing it will do is decreasing their value really, if people are willing to spend 1 million on a tape that will disappear it's their problem, not the developper's. The only outcome I can see from the skill tape thing is that people will rely on them less and will stop competing for spawns all the time, which I think is good.

Forthe proposals - I don't really like them, decay is still the best solution all things considered IMO, with new schematics of course but it doesn't seem to be happening. Because really, you can get an outfit for 3k that will last you a month or more...