Tailor Archive
Thread: Tailoring FAQs the most common questions asked in this board
Okay, I know many of us who read this board every day see the same questions come up again and again. If you're like me, you've typed out answers to all of them multiple times. We all know the answers are there in previous pages of the board, but many people only scan the first page before posting. They either can't use the search effectively to find the answer to their question, or they just don't want to bother. So I was thinking we could start a huge FAQ thread, where we could post the questions we see most often, along with their answers. That would give people a place to start when they're looking for answers. People with questions can find answers much more quickly than starting a new thread and waiting to see if anyone replies. And those of us who use this board a lot will (hopefully) see less new threads on quick already-answered-somewhere questions. Everyone's happy. 
Here are a few I wrote out to get started. Please post the tailoring questions you hear a lot (either here or in game) and short responses to them. Or post links to other threads with detailed answers. It would be nice if we could keep the answers short, so this thread will be easy for people to skim through.
Tailoring FAQ
Q: Where are some tailoring websites with pictures of the clothes?
A: There's a list in this thread:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=tailor&message.id=12628
Q: How do I decide how much to sell my clothes for?
A: This is a hot topic and if you start a thread on this be prepared for lots of arguing over pricing. Some tailors choose prices based solely on resource costs, others add modifiers for things like the item's level and its popularity. I'm not going into a full explaination of pricing issues because that would just start another arguement. Many of the tailoring websites (the link to the thread about them is in the above answer) have prices, so it may be a good idea to browse them and see how those folks are pricing.
Here are some links to threads with tools in them to help you work out a pricing scheme:
info on Zhevek's online price calculator:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=tailor&message.id=4100
Ayane's tailoring spreadsheet:
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=tailor&message.id=11960
Q: What should I sell crates of synth cloth or reinforced panels for?
A: The prices vary per planet and server, but most people say they sell synth for between 2500 and 5000 credits. The average for reinforced seems to be between 3000 and 6000.
Q: Why can't I make black clothes?
A: Well, as I'm sure you've noticed, different schematics take color differently. The same palette choice will usually look a little different depending on the texture of the item you're making. However, there really is a black. And on most items it's acceptably black enough. If you can't make anything come out looking black, adjust your monitor settings. Many people like to adjust their gamma and brightness to make it easier to see at night. But the very dark night is how the game is intended to be seen, so adjusting the monitor to make things brighter will have the effect of making most everything else in game look wierd and washed out, including your black clothing. I've had several customers yell at me that the black items I gave them were actually grey, but in every case I reminded them to fix their gamma and brighness and they apologized. We might not be able to get things in a black-as-the-emperor's-soul shade, but making the clothing that dark would erase all detail and shading on the items and they'd look like crap.
Q: What's up with the whole clothing decay thing?
A: Right now clothing never decays. So that 345/1000 condition Robe of Honor that your customer looted of some blue-con thug will last them forever. Everything that you craft will stick around forever, until either it is destroyed or decay is implemented. Many of us think the lack of decay has already started hurting our sales. There is a large amount of used clothing being traded among players or sold on the bazaar. Most tailors want use-based clothing decay, which means that clothes will decay only when the character is online and wearing the item. The devs have promised that we will eventually get some kind of clothing decay, but we have no real word on when it's coming or exactly what form it will take.
Q: I'm a Master Tailor and I recently picked up a few levels of armorsmith. Now when I'm near a crafting station I still can't get to any of my high level schematics. What gives?
A: There is some kind of funky Tailor/Armorsmith bug. It happens because tailors and armorsmiths use the same crafting tool, and the crafting tools can only use a limited number of schematics. If you're trained high enough in both tailor and armorsmith to exceed that limit, you'll hit this bug. This bug has been reported to the devs as far back as beta. No word on when it will be fixed. It sounds like simply splitting the clothing and armor crafting stations into two different tools would work, but I'm not sure how easy that would be for them to do. There is a workaround involving the /selectdraftschematic command, but I don't know enough about it in order to give instructions on how to do it. Can someone who uses that workaround post the instructions below?
I'll add more questions and answers as I think of them. Join in!
I hope this helps.
I forgot an important one!
Q: How do sockets work?
A: Getting sockets in clothing is partly random but is based on the Tailoring skill of the person making the clothes. The higher their Tailoring level, the more likely they are to get sockets, and the higher number sockets they'll get when they make clothing. There are some items that seem to be bugged and can never be socketed. Master Tailors can make almost anything with 4 sockets each time. To see how many sockets an item has available, examine it.
Socketed clothing takes the tape-shaped skill enhancers. To use them, simply drag them over the clothes. The enhancer will fuse into the socket. Enhancers can't be removed from clothing, so before you use a good one make sure you're happy with your outfit! Currently (9/26) the enhancers seem to be bugged. They may appear to boost your stats but many of us think they don't work correctly. And if you log or take ashuttle while wearing the enhanced item, it may even bug your stats out for awhile. So be careful. You may want to avoid using enhancers (especially really good ones) until you hear that they've been fixed. If anyone has any evidence that the enhancers are working now, please correct me below! 
Songe wrote:
Oh could add something about the best schematics to grind with. Good job in any case.
Well, I didn't do that because I actually don't grind (which is why months in I'm just now approaching master), so I only know what I've read on the boards about grinding. But here's a try, if I miss anything, please jump in and correct me!
Q: What are the best items to grind to reach Master Tailor quickly?
A: Well, the system most tailors seem to choose involves lots of ribbed shirts. They are the most efficient thing to grind in the Novice Tailor box. The main route seems to be grinding ribbed shirts up to Field Wear II, then switching to Link Steel Reinforced Gloves (which take more clicks but give better xp). Make those until Field Wear IV and then craft cartridge belts until reaching master. As you're raising skill levels, make sure you craft one of everything from each new skill box you get. That way you'll learn what items come in what color ranges, what looks good together, and things like that.
Anyone care to add anything else?
to use the /selectdraftschematic -you must find out which number the schematic is. The number is based on what order you got your skills in. There are many posts out there on how to figure out what the number is, but i have found the best why to figure it out is to go thru all the numbers and write everything down.
Yes i know i think i just heard a few groans there. But i find its the only way around it.
hope this helps
Aburn
Aburn wrote:to use the /selectdraftschematic -you must find out which number the schematic is. The number is based on what order you got your skills in. There are many posts out there on how to figure out what the number is, but i have found the best why to figure it out is to go thru all the numbers and write everything down.
Yes i know i think i just heard a few groans there. But i find its the only way around it.
hope this helps
Aburn
The thing that makes it hard, is they're listed in the order learned, which means it's different for every person. And you also end up with 3 sets of numbers, especialy for the last few skillboxes of items. There's "no station", "public station", and "private station", because the items you can select are based off what's currently avaliable. Items that require a private station won't be counted when you're at a public station. It's quite confusing at first, but once you have found the first few items, you have some reference points to start with and it starts to go faster.
You should also know, when you select a number higher than any schematic you have avaliable, you get the last avaliable item. So if you keep choosing different numbers, and keep getting the same thing, try dropping down quite a bit.