Let's talk fair crafting and gathering pricing...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Tahru, Oct 9, 2017.

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  1. Tahru

    Tahru Avatar

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    I am both a gatherer and a crafter, which means I never sell gathered items.

    I have always found pricing crafted items difficult and have always cursed the price of gathered items as if I priced my crafted goods based on the gathered prices, I would have to take a 50% loss to have a chance to sell my crafted goods.

    I don't think it is fair to me to price down the value of the items I gathered either, just because I did it.

    I have made numerous spread sheets and I even have a side-coding-project I am working on to price out crafted goods based on a percentage markup from the raw materials (When ready, I will share that).

    What do other people do? Do we need to assassinate the greedy gatherers?

    Pricing is important. Selling cheap to give people a deal is fine, but it is far more likely to be scalped be a re-seller if priced too low than the intended person. When I price out everything based on actual cost to make, I am taking a major loss.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2017
  2. Lazlo

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    The prices for raw materials are much more set by buyers than by sellers. If a seller prices raw materials below whatever the current market value is, it will usually just get flipped by someone else. The only thing that brings the price down is when people stop buying.

    When I price a crafted item, I usually use the market value of the items plus a fee for each combine. Plain items are fairly easy to price, but enchanted and masterworked items are much more complex. In the OP of the thread linked in my signature there is a pricing formula that I used for jewelry that can be used as an example.

    Quite a lot of items simply can't be crafted for a profit due to surplus enchantment failure stuff flooding the market.
     
  3. Turk Key

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    I have come to the conclusion that the crafting situation is really not understood by the devs. With all the work being done in the mad dash for release, I doubt that any of them will be able to take the time to actually play a gatherer, crafter in real world mode to understand the system. Crafting as it is now is still a placeholder and has been overlooked. I doubt that crafting will be fixed economically before release. All we can do is hope that there will be a pass eventually. I still am saving all my stuff, thousands of items that would be a godsend for beginners sitting in chests waiting for a salvage redo. Everyone is worried about the quest system, but I think in the long run crafting will be the game downfall unless someone listens and wonders if we have a point.
     
  4. Max Bennis

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    As a adventurer myself, I seldom do crafting. I do gather though, only for selling and earning gold.
    That makes me a buyer, and probably a main customer to crafters like you.
    and as you mentioned, no crafter should loss from their hard work. I always appreciate craftsmanship.

    Since the game is at pre-launch state, and current situation of economy is still at its infant stage.
    I believe when the game goes commercially live and more people flood in, price may settle.
    Nobody can't FIX the price when it comes to 'player-based economy', literally players should set the price of each crafted items and take management of it.

    Major sellers or POT markets like Novia Market or New Britannia Market would want to take that role.
    Although devs and players have to beware of economic tyranny that might occur when major sellers can actually control cash flow.

    Anyhow, watching economy run by players will be very interesting.
    Who knows there'll be a SotA Black Friday in the future?!
     
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  5. Jezebel Caerndow

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    I know, you don't really get back what you put into crafted items. Hopefully this changes with more population.
     
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  6. Lazlo

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    I don't think more people will really do anything to cure the current crafting problems by itself. In addition to all the things people point out frequently, the utility of raw materials is simply massive compared to the utility of items crafted with those materials. For example, iron ore can be used in hundreds of different pieces of gear and deco items and virtually everyone that plays will use it at some point. If a person takes some of that iron ore and makes it into an item such as an iron bucket helm, now they've gone from having something that everyone wants to having something that almost no one wants. Some items are obviously more popular than others, but no specific item is anywhere near as in demand as the raw materials used to make it. The only way that can really work out is if you can do something pretty special to that item that other people can't, but that's pretty hard to achieve given how small the gains are for specialization in any particular ench/mw.
     
  7. Max Bennis

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    I think this happened because of low population of new players.

    Relatively not many new players are coming into the game, and many of the players are already at their mid-high level(I say around 50 ~ 80) where not many of crafted items such as iron bucket helm are needed to play. Maybe Bone armor set or high level of enchanted weapons are popular.

    Hopefully your concern is solved when SotA is commercially released.

    And I DO hope so, sincerely.
     
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  8. Jezebel Caerndow

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    More and more players are just giving up on crafting, this should cause more scarcity of good crafted items.
     
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  9. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Why is that ya' reckon ?
     
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  10. Jezebel Caerndow

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    LOL, prolly the lack of profit and the crafting grind to get good at it.
     
  11. Max Bennis

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    How much do you craft, @Mac2 , I heard you're one of those top-tier level player, so I wonder. Do you craft your gear all by yourself, enchanting and such?
     
  12. Jezebel Caerndow

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    I do, all production, mw and enchant skills are 101 or higher.
     
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  13. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Doesn't say much for the current state of crafting.....
    But, I'd say it's pretty accurate.
     
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  14. Jezebel Caerndow

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    The fact tiggs for a scary picture post, posted the picture of crafting tables says it all :) .
     
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  15. Elay

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    I craft weapons and armour and find that I cannot sell the higher end stuff for anywhere near a profit, probably less than 40% of actual cost, so much so that I just fill my vendor with lower end stuff at sensible prices and don't bother doing high MW and Enchanted stuff other than for myself.

    I'm finding items with patterns applied rarely sell and again, only at a loss.

    I'm sure once the population increases, the demand will also increase and therefore, so will prices.

    I'm also hoping that footfall will increase - my vendor is in Harvest and you rarely see anyone.

    incidentally, I find it more cost effective to buy ore or ingots from others rather than gather them myself.
     
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  16. Tahru

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    I think there may be more crafters than people not crafting. That is the only reason I can think of that would sustain gathering profits at this level and reduce demand for crafted items at the same time. For me, crafting is a part of the game I enjoy, but it leaves me very consistently poor.

    Since most of us are older folks that are seasoned at playing games, we are all mostly self sufficient by choice. That is my guess.
     
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  17. idaniod

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    Wonderful topic!

    I am a tailor/crafter first... hunter/gatherer second... adventurer third...
    When it comes to pricing the items I sell... I think the fairest way is to price them based on cost of materials + some love for me (COST = MATERIAL + LOVE)... basic items don't require much love so they aren't that expensive :)
    I often see people with the price higher (and sometimes lower) - and I re-evaluate my price and adjust accordingly.

    I don't feel that people should ever feel bad for selling items based on cost of materials (because they feel it is priced to high) .... you just have to be patient or reevaluate.

    I also don't feel that people trying to get the most they can for the resources are bad either... When people sell resources @ prices that I can't craft a reasonably priced item with, I go harvest it myself.
     
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  18. maverick77

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    The reason crafted gear sells for a loss is the fact that this game has no population (i.e., no one to buy your gear). /thread
     
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  19. Tahru

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    I disagree because adding more people means adding more crafters and gatherers in potentially the same proportion. Hence the problem would persist to a billion active players. /openthread :)
     
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  20. Jezebel Caerndow

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    I think there are a few different factors, one of them being the demand for the mats to level crafting skills drives that price up. Next, people in guild have someone to craft for them, or can craft themselves, why buy when you can get it made. Then there was the crafting exploit where certain people were rerolling if they did not like the options they got.
     
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