Tailor Archive
Thread: Need to change my way of playing: thoughts, comments, or advice?
Who I am: Married, one child, almost 40, full time job, about 10 hours a week to play, usually around 5 to 6 a.m EST.
Who I play: Wookie, 24,000 tailor eps, 150 apprentice eps. Domestic Arts 1-4, Business and Engineering 1, Survey 1-4, Novice Tailor, Pistol and Rifle 1, Novice healer, Exploration 1. Spend 99% of my time on Naboo, and there I mostly divide it between Theed and Moenia.
Current state: $2000. 20 auctions at various Naboo cities, mostly trench coats (renamed smocks) and sleeveless dresses. One friend who I can’t connect with. A couple of acquaintances. Lots of fiberplast panels in safe deposit box, lots of metal fashioners on person. 4k of fiberplast. Assorted other resources.
Goals: Master tailor. People to adventure/chat with majority of times I log on. Enough money to buy a vehicle when the expansion is released. Not to have to spend as much time travelling.
Problems: Not enough friends. Not enough money. Not enough apprentice points. Not enough space /too much clutter in my inventory. Too much time running from place to place.
Options: Hang out and wait for my current auctions to sell or end. Preempt them and try again with lower prices. Change what I craft/Go back to making Wookie clothes.
Change time I log on to the evenings. Around 8 to 9 pm three week nights a week. Join a Guild. Or an association. Or a faction.
Buy a house. Buy a harvester. Buy a crafting droid. Start a store.
Rambling exposition: Originally I thought I’d become a smuggler, but my first week in the game, all my interactions with the combat system went very badly, and all the time I spent hanging out in cantinas went very well. So I decided to be a tailor so I could hang out and craft costumes for dancers. Not the world’s grandest ambition, but you have to start somewhere.
With that on my mind, I have been avoiding settling down in a house with a store because I didn’t want to have to learn the ins and outs of houses, harvesters, stores, and vendors, plus I don’t see why anyone would come out to a novice tailor’s store. At the same time, my money is so low because I spent about $15000 over the weekend buying fiberplast so I could practice and earn tailor eps. I bought the fiberplast because I didn’t want to spend the time finding a place to sample for it.
All things being equal, I’d still rather make clothes for dancers than dusters for gun fighters, but the game has gotten to the point where it seems like every dancer already has a flesh wraps in five different colors. Also, my experience has been that making any sort of clothes for anyone has been fun. And I haven’t earned any apprentice points in over a week; I may never make master anyway.
Everything I’ve ever sold in bazaar, I’ve put my name on: XXXX by Beccamit. When someone buys, I e-mail them to thank them and solicit more business. In my weeks of playing, I’ve only gotten two jobs out of that sort of marketing.
So that is where I find myself. I like Naboo and I’m reluctant to try another planet because my one friend is most often there. My current plan is to spend less time on-line and hope that some of my auctions come through so I can buy a crafting droid and at least spend less time chained to a crafting station. I’m also thinking I should move my playing time to the evening so that even though I’ll be on less, I’ll be around more people.
Anyway, if you have thoughts, comments, or advice I would be grateful for it. Thanks.
You're a really casual player so a crafting profession isn't the best choice. You don't want to be chained to a crafting station, but if you ever want to get past novice tailor you're gonna have to do just that. Crafting is one big grind until Master. Once you reach master that's when you can start having fun. You don't have to craft for xp, you only craft when you want to.
Also, a crafter NEEDS a house. With all our resources, all our inventory, all our tools, carrying it all around is impossible. Get a small house, you can find them super cheap, 10k or less. Get a vendor, advertise, you might be surprised.
Actually, I'm going to take quite the opposite tack as the first reply. You're in a position to start having a lot of fun right now. The question you're going to have to decide for yourself is if you'd rather have fun or make master quickly. If you're after fun, then a few suggestions for you:
It sounds like money isa concern for you right now. Consider playing the resource market a bit. Make/buy a couple of personal mineral harvesters and a wind generator. Slap the wind down on anything 45+ and the minerals on some 45+ ore, which generally isn't too hard to find. Higher is better, of course, but for your purposes it's not a big deal. Be warned that you'll probably need to run the wind for a day or two to get enough power for the minerals, or you'll have to buy some power. (Contact sebastien, if he's on...he sells pretty cheap I hear.) In a perfect world, you'd set those harvesters up just as a new ore spawns and get a full week before you had to move them. Unfortunately, you don't live in that world. So take a moment each time you log on and check which ores are around. When the one you're mining goes poof, switch to the newest of the others, unless it's at 6-7 days, in which case wait a day or two. I realize that this requires a little bit of time to manange, but two personal harvesters will gather roughly 1500 ore per day each. That 3000 ore will sell quickly at 5/unit, giving you a rough income of around 15k per day successfully harvesting. That's a good bootstrap for moving yourself up financially. Also, remember that with the patch tomorrow comes mission terminals for crafting/surveying missions.
As for tailoring, don't believe for a moment that you have to be a master in order to sell items. Wander in to the cantina and see if there's not a dancer or two that could use a new outfit. If you're pretty secure financially, consider giving it away in exchange for promotions from the dancer. A good reputation and good advertising are worth more than credits any day.
Try to focus your training efforts as a tailor. I'm focused in formal wear, and am only now climbing the ever popular field wear tree. Consider forming referral partnerships with other novice tailors in the area who are climbing different trees. For instance, I don't even have casual I yet, but I know that Allyn lives not far off and she's been working on Casual and Tailoring, so she's likely to have what my customers want in that line. So I send them to her and she sends formal business my way. This only works if it's someone you trust and it's a two way deal, of course.
Finally, remember that the thing you're really selling as a tailor isn't actually the clothing; It's the experience of buying the clothes. It's having someone create a custom look just for you so that you can look your best. Play that role for your customers. If the character has a distintive skin tone, look for a shade to work well with it. If they've got piercing blue eyes, see about a blue outfit to highlight them. Fuss over them, make them feel like you're interested in making them look the very best you can. (This is easiest to do if you actually are interested in doing that, mind you...) Don't be afraid to make several items for one customer to try out. They all give xp, and it's a ton more fun than ribbed shirts ever will be.
You're not going to suddenly find yourself a Master Tailor this way, but you will build up a steady set of relationships, customers, and xp over time that will, I hope, prove quite enjoyable.... :-)
Hope that's helpful!
BalbanesBeoulve wrote:You're a really casual player so a crafting profession isn't the best choice. You don't want to be chained to a crafting station, but if you ever want to get past novice tailor you're gonna have to do just that. Crafting is one big grind until Master. Once you reach master that's when you can start having fun. You don't have to craft for xp, you only craft when you want to.
I'm figuring that out, but four weeks too late. Being able to macro the surveying made me think this was a profession I could advance in. Now I know.
FWIW, what do you think is a good profession for a causal player?
Also, a crafter NEEDS a house. With all our resources, all our inventory, all our tools, carrying it all around is impossible. Get a small house, you can find them super cheap, 10k or less. Get a vendor, advertise, you might be surprised.
Okay. I'll put "where to buy and where to place a house" into the search fields and see what I can learn.
Any thoughts on guilds and factions? Am I on too little to make them worth it?
Just a few thoughts. I think you can be a crafter and play casually. Unfortunately I also think this is easier once you make master, as you can sell more items and make more money on each one. I would try harvesting some materials, at least at first. Try to place harvester/generator shortly after a resource change. Set it up for a couple days at least, so you dont have to spend all your time babysitting it. Buying resources on the bazaar is very expensive unless you have some items that sell well enough to offset the costs.
I always liked the sleeveless dresses too. Unfortunately, I never sold many of them. I don't know why they aren't more popular. They would sit on the bazaar for days. Military packs sell fast though, as do the higher packs when you can make them. I'd prefer to make dresses, but I also needed to avoid starving, so I placed lots of packs on the bazaar. Selling some of these generic type items on the bazaar will help you be able to afford doing the things that are more interesting, like making custom outfits.
As someone mentioned above, people will often be more interested in buying if you can work with them one on one. I've had good luck with this in busy towns, even just displaying a Novice Tailor tag. Making the item several times in different colors (or making the simplest item possible to test color, then making the complicated one) is a great way to get someone just what they want. They generally don't mind paying a bit extra for this too. Also it's a lot more fun than just selling generic items.
Other than that, run an easymission or two here and there, get a couple that are on the way to your harvesters. I am happy to say it's been a while since I've done this, but it got me by when I had about nothing. It might take a small amount of practice, but just about anyone with a basic weapon skill can do an L5 destroy for around 1k credits.
Good luck and I hope you get yourself set up in a way that suits your play style and lets you have fun!
-- Izzienne Z'vih, Master Tailor (and sort of ok dancer)
Well, I haven't been able to play much more than 13 hours or so a week myself, yet I was able to reach master tailor last week. I grinded for it, of course, but I didn't neglect salesmanship and forming relationships with cutomers.
One thing I've found that will seriously help you is if you can find a dedicated supplier for resources. Now of course for that you'll need money to purchase the resources. I've found buisness loans to be excellent for that purpose.
As a tailor you have more one on one time with your cutomers than any other profession. Use this to your advantage. Talk to you cutomer about her skills and profession, and also about whatever she seems interested in. If they seem to have money and seem to be a fair or reasonable person, bring up casual the thought of a buisness loan. Offer to let them have the outfit you're currently working on comp, and suggest a working relatonship in the future.
Many crafters desire people who they can refer to, or can be referred from. Also, many of the higher level crafters have a ton of money just burning a hole in their pocket. I've found that a guarontee of future service and money will have excellent results for this purpose.
Ok, once you've used buisness relationships to purchase resources you'll be ready to grind. This is not a fun task, I warn you. It has the advantage though of being able to be done while watching tv, listening to the radio, or performing any task that doesn't require the hands.
For a novice tailor the best item to grind is the ribbed shirt. You're going to need fiberplast and metal for this. I suggest steel since it will be useful once you arrive at your next item of grinding. I also suggest that you get ready for the next item by aquiring some inert petrochemicals when you have the time.
Ok,a quick primer on grinding. First off, keep in mind that the crafting screens can be moved, and that they'll remember their position. Try to move them all to a position to minimize mouse movement. Secondly, the enter key will automatically move you to the next crafting screen, this speeds things up dramatically. Also, remember to turn off crafting confirmations in the options screen, turn on the practice button, and grind away from crafting stations. Lastly, remember that if you double click on something it will automatically select it, this will be useful for selecting resources and schematics.
Ok, once you get grinding down you'll be ready to work up your trees. I don't recommend devoting yourself strictly to grinding all the time. If you do you'll find yourself quite unprepaired for when you reach master tailor. Take some time off once in awhile to sell and talk, or whatever your chosen leisure activity is.
Now the tree that you'll want to work up is the field wear tree. Not only is it one of the best selling trees, but it also contains the best item to grind by far. *Note* You'll need a factory for most of the higher level items, so at some point you might want to discuss with another crafter how to use and work them. The item that is best for grinding is the cartridge belt. It requires 50 inert petrochem, 35 steel, and 25 metal per item.
I hope my advice will help you reach your desire of master tailor. Or even if you choose not to follow my plan I hope that someone will gain insight from it.
Take care everyone.
Farbo Median, Flurry Master Tailor
Avallach wrote:Actually, I'm going to take quite the opposite tack as the first reply. You're in a position to start having a lot of fun right now. The question you're going to have to decide for yourself is if you'd rather have fun or make master quickly. If you're after fun, then a few suggestions for you:
I�m after fun. Master is too **edit** far away to focus on it.
It sounds like money is a concern for you right now. In a perfect world, you'd set those harvesters up just as a new ore spawns and get a full week before you had to move them. Unfortunately, you don't live in that world. So take a moment each time you log on and check which ores are around. When the one you're mining goes poof, switch to the newest of the others, unless it's at 6-7 days, in which case wait a day or two. That's a good bootstrap for moving yourself up financially. Also, remember that with the patch tomorrow comes mission terminals for crafting/surveying missions.
I�m confused about checking on the Ores. Where do I do that at?
Money is a concern because I went through $20k amazingly fast. That is good news about crafting, surveying missions. I�ll check them out.
As for tailoring, don't believe for a moment that you have to be a master in order to sell items. Wander in to the cantina and see if there's not a dancer or two that could use a new outfit. If you're pretty secure financially, consider giving it away in exchange for promotions from the dancer. A good reputation and good advertising are worth more than credits any day.
I will give this a try. My experience is that dancers do not lack for people talking to them, so I suspect they aren�t really looking for one more thing to keep track of, but it can�t hurt to try.
Finally, remember that the thing you're really selling as a tailor isn't actually the clothing; It's the experience of buying the clothes. It's having someone create a custom look just for you so that you can look your best. Play that role for your customers. Don't be afraid to make several items for one customer to try out. They all give xp, and it's a ton more fun than ribbed shirts ever will be.
This sounds like very good advice. I�ll see what I can do. Sadly, my experience is that people stop me to ask for very specific things and don�t want anything else.
Hope that's helpful!
Very much so. Thank you!
Izzienne wrote:Just a few thoughts. I think you can be a crafter and play casually. Try to place harvester/generator shortly after a resource change. Set it up for a couple days at least, so you dont have to spend all your time babysitting it.
Where do I check for the resource change?
As someone mentioned above, people will often be more interested in buying if you can work with them one on one. I've had good luck with this in busy towns, even just displaying a Novice Tailor tag. Making the item several times in different colors (or making the simplest item possible to test color, then making the complicated one) is a great way to get someone just what they want. They generally don't mind paying a bit extra for this too. Also it's a lot more fun than just selling generic items.
This sounds like good advice. ‘Course being a Wookie, I have to give the sample to them so they can see it "on."
Other than that, run an easy mission or two here and there. It might take a small amount of practice, but just about anyone with a basic weapon skill can do an L5 destroy for around 1k credits.
It is embarrassing how many times I’ve been eaten by chupas in this game. Browsing around, I think it is because I’m using a rifle at the wrong range, so they swarm me before I can kill the nest. I keep passing the brawling trainer on the way out of the cloning facility. One of these days I’m going sign up.
Good luck and I hope you get yourself set up in a way that suits your play style and lets you have fun!
Thanks for the help!
Now, though, I just use Pistol for everything....
Asmartic wrote:Well, I haven't been able to play much more than 13 hours or so a week myself, yet I was able to reach master tailor last week. I grinded for it, of course, but I didn't neglect salesmanship and forming relationships with cutomers.
What time of day were you playing and in which cities?
One thing I've found that will seriously help you is if you can find a dedicated supplier for resources. Now of course for that you'll need money to purchase the resources. I've found buisness loans to be excellent for that purpose.
This had never occurred to me, but it might actually be what I need.
Ok, once you get grinding down you'll be ready to work up your trees. I don't recommend devoting yourself strictly to grinding all the time. If you do you'll find yourself quite unprepaired for when you reach master tailor. Take some time off once in awhile to sell and talk, or whatever your chosen leisure activity is.
In a 13 hour week, how much time did you devote to grinding?
Now the tree that you'll want to work up is the field wear tree. Not only is it one of the best selling trees, but it also contains the best item to grind by far. *Note* You'll need a factory for most of the higher level items, so at some point you might want to discuss with another crafter how to use and work them. The item that is best for grinding is the cartridge belt. It requires 50 inert petrochem, 35 steel, and 25 metal per item.
I was planning on climbing casual wear. How high up field wear is the cartridge belt?
Factories = I wish someone would do up a good guide on them. I’ve poked at that search buttons, but haven’t had much luck.
I hope my advice will help you reach your desire of master tailor. Or even if you choose not to follow my plan I hope that someone will gain insight from it.
It was very helpful. Thanks for taking the time!
One thing I found useful on my server is to get away from Theed, Kadaara, and to a lesser extent Moenia. The busiest cities are the easiest to get overlooked in. Depending on local conditions, Deeja Peaks, Keren or Lake Retreat may offer a better market for your wares.
If you feel like grinding (and most of us get impatient enough to do it at least occasionally), it's an activity well-suited to the cantina. If you're not a power-player who feels like he ought to squeeze every last experience point out of every second, you can advance at a comfortable pace and still have plenty of time to chat, train, and do custom orders. Wear the best outfit you can make and you double as your own walking billboard 
I do casual play and have found tailoring quite fun (And profitable). First of all, realize that grinding is seriously unfun. I avoid it for the most part. I'm in no hurry to get to master. Number 2, as much as I hate people who sell resources on the bazzar at 3 creds a unit, everyone is right: resources sell. An anonymous Joe can make a hell of a living selling to people who are willing to blow 3 creds a unit. (I end up buying things like metal frequently because I only run chem harvesters, despite the high cost.) Number 3, shops are not required. I move only a minimal amount of gear through my shops (I need to advertise better...) but the bazzar works great. Number 4, by 'focus your tailoring' he ment pick one of the trees (formal, casual, or field) and focus on it. There's a big unattended money maker are on the field line (Reinforced Fibreplast Panels) but they can only be capitalized by people who have a factory (50-70K a piece!!!) so this may not be the way for you, but all of the trees have something to offer. Number 5, I move more of my novice items than any of my other trees (With the exception of my klingon formal wear outfit 
, made out of stuff from the field line)
And lastly, for a casual gamer, master tailor is a long way away. (A very, very, very, very long way away... ) but if you enjoy talking to the entertainers in the cantina, and the ones on Naboo seem to be busy, try going to another planet, or better yet, pick up some entertainer skills, move to a town with a low density, and play/dance for the weary warriors there. My largest coustemer base (With the exception of armorsmiths buying RFPs and Synth Cloth) are actually fighters who want some nice formal clothing for when the go to town. In any case, feel free to dabble, who knows, maybe you'll commando more interesting, or have a blast as a combat medic. (I'm not recommending you change BTW... Just that if you can't make tailor fun, not to forget about other professions.)
It isn't strictly necessary to set up a shop before you reach master; I didn't, and I did fine. In my experience, it just adds to overhead. Do, though, start setting up harvesters as soon as you can. They aren't that expensive, and if you go up the engineering tree, you can just build them yourself. The advantage of having harvesters down is that you don't have to spend all your time surveying. You can go dolow level destroy missions to make extra cash (although that's not as lucrative with the new changes as it once was--but it's still a viable way to make money). Check your harvesters once a day and unload them, then use the resources you collect to make clothes for sale or to grind. I did some of both. With the cash you get from missions, buy a better gun to make the missions easier (it's amazing how much difference this makes), set up new harvesters until you use up all your lots, and buy extra resources on the market (shop for bargains) so you can grind even more. After you make novice tailor, pick a single line with some good cash making items in it (cloaks at casual 3, dusters and camos at field 3 and 4) and work your way up to that before starting another line. Then you can put a bunch of those items in the bazaar at a reasonable price and make some extra money with them. Consider running the experiment line all the way up at some point (i.e., don't save it for last), as you'll be able to make clothes in the colors people want, and also with lots of sockets. Once you've got a tailoring title, display it over your head and do your grinding and tailoring in or around town, in the cantinas or standing beside a popular bazaar terminal. You'll get a fair amount of walkby business that way. If you're an entertainer, wear your clothes when you dance or play. I'm a dancer, too, and I sold a lot of outfits just by wearing my own things and wiggling around in them in a bar.
You'll notice you build up a sort of gradual momentum with this sort of progression--the final trees will go much faster than your first couple. I've been off for most of the summer, so I was able to play more, but even at casual speeds this will get you there in a few months. It's also a fun routine that lets you do lots of different things all the time, so you don't get bored.
When you get to master, you'll probably have more business than you want. I sometimes feel trapped in my shop now, he he!