The Race to Home Ownership

Lol, a bunch of them. Occasionally a town crier is mysteriously hard to find.

Dara Brae is no joke one of the most intriguing names for any town in the game. Every time I run past your boat, with Vlad or Vic, I see it and wistfully think "I should go check it out." With Vlad I've been, but since I can rarely remember things well, it will be a totally new experience when I swing through with Vic.

 

15 Sales! From last night through me writing this right now.

Item of Unlearning went for 6,999!
Pewter is flying off the shelves, plus some teleport and recall scrolls.

First, to pick up some Tin. The Broken Pickaxe is sold out in Brittany Alleys, so Arradin's Tent Market is the next stop. Ten Tin for 1500g.

And pewter dishes go onto the BA PV thanks to that tin.

Decided it's time to do another run through the mines. I don't have enough mats to keep the main PV's stocked over the weekend, so back I go! Lost Silverhold Mines are now known and runnable without getting lost, plus they have rope which I need for my hanging plants.

I hit up trees on the way in, and got a beetle!

Sold off some silver, hides, suet at Bastions Point, 860g, thanks @Fiero Steele ! There's some armor on your vendor I'm eyeballing, but I think I'll wait a bit longer. The biggest challenge is SotA is not spending all your gold as soon as you earn it!

So in order to restock my pewter, I need to come up with metal scraps and wind up buying 2500g worth (1000 scraps) from Raistlen's Death Ship. Thankful for those, as I was having a very slow time of it making the from weapons.

Restocked Ardoris, Restocked Owl's Head. Trying a beetle at 649. Off to do things in the Outland!

I've got enough gold now I'm going to ignore my stockpile of mats, it's no longer worth the time it takes to total up it's value.

Also, Change Per Hour no longer has relevance due to a decent quantity of gold coming in from sales.

Started:
Total Time: 17:49
Gold: 38,387
Wealth Change: -513g
Change per Hour: +-342g/hr
Weight: 78.5/116.5
Str: 25, Dex: 36, Int: 10
Ranged: 75 Blacksmithing: 57 Carpentry: 50 Milling: 38 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 32/30

Today's Time: 1:40
Total Time: 18:29
Gold: 47,997
Wealth Change: +9,610
Weight: 46.5/117.5
Str: 26, Dex: 37, Int: 10
Ranged: 75 Blacksmithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling: 39 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 33/32

 

2 more sales, hanging plants, 249 each, in Kingsport.

The PV's are WAY more full nowadays than they have been in ages. There are 60 items in Aerie. Two months ago there were usually 0!

Spent way too much time trying to track down "Gray Marble Bench", considering I already bought recipes from that guy (in Aerie)!

Also got Gothic and Sturdy Table recipes. Basically everything else was me running to banks wasting time trying to find the bench recipe. About 2 minutes in a siege too.

Started:
Total Time: 18:29
Gold: 47,997
Wealth Change: +9,610
Weight: 46.5/117.5
Str: 26, Dex: 37, Int: 10
Ranged: 75 Blacksmithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling: 39 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 33/32

Today's Time: 0:30
Total Time: 18:59
Gold: 46,835
Wealth Change: -1,162
Weight: 31.5/117.5
Str: 26, Dex: 37, Int: 10
Ranged: 76 Blacksmithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling: 39 Smelting: 31 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 33/32

 

http://sotawiki.net/sota/Recipe:_Grey_Marble_Bench

As long something is listed in a vendor's items, sotawiki will reverse search it on the item's page. Though it would have been easier to find if you had spelled it "grey".

 

Facepalm again. I finally wound up using this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vWEixHbrSa3mwzDfUye128UbwGy6YaPoLs6ehsZp0eo/edit#gid=0

and facepalming myself when I saw that I had already been there and bought the cutlery there!

 

Total Time: 100+ hrs.

No coto drops. congrats on really having a good method to get experience and gold. It's definitely something I struggle with, so your blog is really fun to read.

 

Thanks for the kind words!

That was my first. With Vlad + Vic I've got no where near 100 hours of adventuring time though, so I'm not surprised. I do have a sneaky suspicion that we're going to see more COTO drops soon though, as supposedly their frequency will go up now that their price is over 3500g.

Today's sales, which delightfully kept happening as the night wore on:

Sold some teleport scrolls, recall scrolls, and venom sacks in Kingsport and Owl's Head. I think the venom sacks were probably a bit cheap at 20 for 99g, but I haven't been keeping abreast to their real sell value.
In Aerie, sold a Carpacian Elven Elite Mage Hood +1 (crafting cost about 5k) for 1,500g, I bought it yesterday for 500g. I wasn't sure if I could get more so put it at a safe level. That person will probably resell for more
Sold a complete Pewter set x4 for 2300g in Ardoris.

Did the new mine by Blood River. I really liked it, I didn't have to use Ugly Mode once, I could see enough with a light that I could function. It was pretty, the enemies hit harder than in the other mine. They had some issues with the smaller hallways though, as did my targeting. The melee guys can use ladders here too, which they couldn't in the other mine.

Came out in Storms Reach, a player town! What a perfect spot to have a vendor who buys lots of stuff, literally right outside of a mine!

There were instructions there on how to ferry hop to the Highvale landmass, so I did it.

Potatoes and carrots! Oh thank the Maker! Most Grocers don't actually carry them, they just put them out front to tease you. Here at Battle of Highvale they are free for the taking!

Started the Courage questline, and now I'm going to go to S Mart Factorium! It's like a homecoming, but different.

I'm going to do a bunch of crafting here and see if all my talking about making gold at the factory is actually true, from a new player POV. I feel it's a legitimate option even though Vlad runs the factory, because those buy orders are there for everyone.

So, lets get a pre-factory numbers.

Started:
Total Time: 18:59
Gold: 46,835
Wealth Change: -1,162
Weight: 31.5/117.5
Str: 26, Dex: 37, Int: 10
Ranged: 76 Blacksmithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling: 39 Smelting: 31 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 33/32

Today's Time: 1:40
Total Time: 19:39
Gold: 55,756
Wealth Change: +8,921
Weight: 78.1/128.5 (Courage Devotional Buff)
Str: 32, Dex: 38, Int: 10
Ranged: 76 Blacksmithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling: 39 Smelting: 31 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 34/33

I really wish I could track my Public Vendor items at the bank in the same way I can with my Player Vendor items!

 

Spent 8000 on Creosote and Coal.

Was about to buy 100 each of Iron and Copper (scary! I hope this Vlad guy knows what he's doing and isn't ripping me off!) but I see that he doesn't have large quantities of metal scrap. So I'm going with smaller buys to start with. There's 1000 wood scrap though, so I think that means I can make about 250 timber.

Someone come sell some metal scrap to Vlad so Vic and other can make more ingots.

Ok, bought 200 wood and 1000 wood scrap for 8,000g. I'm 16,000g down in moments. Super scary.

There are quantities of 30 available for the newest of the new, they can make 10 timber, with the corresponding scrap to go with it, and buy orders to go with it, but I don't want to wipe out those small quantities (and always appreciate it when others don't if they can go to higher volumes. The mail and buy order system are major biznatchs right now for large quantities of small amounts!)

PRO TIP! In the filter, always type "Scrap" instead of "Timber" or "Ingot", that way you never accidentally make a big batch of super expensive non-scrap timber/ingots.

Lulz! I needed to make 1 timber in order to level up enough to go open the next two skills. Off to Resolute I go!

Opened the 2 Milling skills + 3 Swift Gathering. -500g. Plus bought and relisted some 2 Suet, -140g.

Ok, back we go. I'm turning Milling to "Not Learning" and learning the two below it, Batching and Swift Refine. The goal is to get them to 40 and head back to Resolute.

At this point, if my math is correct, I'm breaking even. The river of gold comes when I get Efficient Refine going, as it gives extra Timber/Ingots for no extra effort, up to 20% if you take it high enough. That's 12g per timber, 22g per ingot, and 68g per White Iron ingot! S Mart is not buying White Iron ingots, but if I were, that would be bank for someone.

Done, back to Resolute. Didn't even burn through 1 tool. So far this has been about 20 minutes with run time.

-100 g for the skill, paid 1500g for 500 metal scrap from a player vendor. That's more than I like to, but it should get me started since S Mart seems to be running low on metal scrap.

There was a siege on every pass. Probably gained me 100 gold back, and hopefully more scrap than 1 per weapon.

Ok, back. Batching and Swift Refine set to "Not Learning." Efficient Refining turned on. Let the gold spigot flow!

Bought another Cubit Measure, 100 wood, 1000 scrap for 5080.

I'm already at 5% extra timber chance, which means I'm now making 3g per operation.

Sold 100 Timber for 6,000g. Getting 8.6% Extra Timber. Sold I think 3600g worth of timber. S Mart ran out of orders of 10 Pine, and the wood quantities for orders of 100. Someone come sell these guys some wood!


2460g I still have 41 timber x 60g each
42135g My gold
6000g coal because I jumped the gun, it's late I won't be doing ingots tonight
1592g 796 creosote, clearly I buy fuel in previous life quantities
1500g 500 metal scrap
1683g 843 wood scrap
-------
55373g

I started with 55,756, spent about 640 after siege gold, so paid for the skill learning and made a couple hundred gold on top, and got my skills way up in about 40 minutes.

Started:
Total Time: 19:39
Gold: 55,756
Wealth Change: +8,921
Weight: 78.1/128.5 (Courage Devotional Buff)
Str: 32, Dex: 38, Int: 10
Ranged: 76 Blacksmithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling: 39 Smelting: 31 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 34/33

Today's Time: 0:40
Total Time: 20:19
Gold: 55,373 with mats in hand
Wealth Change: -383
Weight: 217.3/128.5 (Courage Devotional Buff)
Str: 32, Dex: 38, Int: 10
Ranged: 76 Blacksmithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling/Batching/Swift: 40 Milling Efficient: 29 Smelting: 31 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 34/33

Overall a great experiment. I see that the system is working, although I (S Mart) needs to figure out exact quantities better.

Also, as a side note, the minimum to get in is 1140, 900 for wood x30, and 240 for scrap x120. I've got that one figured out correctly at least, that will get them 10 timber which there are buy orders (usually) for.

So basically, anyone should be able to start by the time they leave the starting scene, as there are several 250g quests, loot, plus the Oracle. Not even counting the Outskirts.

 

This one really deserves its own topic in feedback since it is such a huge thing for a starting player.

 

Made it so.

 

If you need experience (to spend to carry extra weight etc) please join me for a xp run.

 

Thanks Ferohir, but my self imposed rules say no XP runs with way higher characters. Grouping up for some fun boss fights will probably come at some point, but not until I'm realistically in that level range.

I do think it's great that Shroud lets you play with groups way higher or lower, but it also makes it really easy to skip right past the early content, and since I probably won't play the early game again for a while, I don't want to do that.

 

Oracle, plus sold 2x Hanging plants, 1 Wooden Storage Chest = + 1,347

Back to the factory. Crafted Wood for about 1 hr. 15 minutes. That was literally the grindiest thing I have ever done in the game. I know people say it's a grind, but I usually don't have that same experience.

But I so wanted to see if I'm making gold! And raise that gold making skill! And I am not sure, I may have, may not have, it's such a mess in my inventory. I think I made a couple of thousand... we'll see at the end of the night.

I started a bit of smelting. I won't be able to do much because they don't have many metal scrap here. And I know that the scrap I bought for extra yesterday is going to represent a 500g hit in my take home today.

So I leveled smelting to 40 (FINALLY! I've been wanting to do that for however long this experiment has been going. Thank S Mart for finally giving me the ability.) Now I can learn the Earthenware Berkurgergur and start selling it far and wide.

Decided to turn in quests and not be a total grinder. The way to do it? Do other parts of the million things that are available in the game!

Got a bit of cash and am headed back to Highvale. From a few minutes there, it's obvious to me the looting is MUCH better there than in the siege that's always at Resolute. Also, our population is increasing. Rando's running around in Highvale at this time of night? Unheard of! And yet there they are.

Got set up so I can quest my way back to Ardoris with a note from Resolute.

Did up some ingots, sold them to S Mart. They need metal scraps. Heading to Brittany area to hit up the Broken Pickaxe, time to make some Pewter!

Delivered mail to Elads. Picked up some for Brookside, wherever that is. Listed in Central Brit PV, some pots and pans I made.

Stopped in at a Grocer. Stopped in at a Cooking Supply merchant. There is literally no where in this game to buy potatoes, onions, carrots, etc. What the heck?

Hit up the Broken Pickaxe (Brittany Alleys FTW!) and got some granite and Tin. Made some marble benches, filled up PV's from Kingsport to Ardoris, and quit.

Now, how did the S Mart crafting go? Is it worthwhile?

I used Umuri's SotAHUD to export Vic's buy and sell transactions from Vlad's mailbox (which is horribly overrun. I had probably 150 buy/sells today, mostly very small transactions with new players, like 2 ore at a time.)

Anyway, here's what it appears to look like, with I hope correct calculations on tools and fuels.

Vic Sold: 75,150
Bought: 68,280
Tools Used: 680
Creosote: 4640
Coal: 300
Total gained: 1250

Now, he's just getting started with the bonus resource skill, so if I were to continue with this method, the "Sold" number should increase by 13% at this point.

Started:
Total Time: 20:19
Gold: 55,373 with mats in hand
Wealth Change: -383
Weight: 217.3/128.5 (Courage Devotional Buff)
Str: 32, Dex: 38, Int: 10
Ranged: 76 Smithing: 58 Carpentry: 50 Milling/Batching/Swift: 40 Milling Efficient: 29 Smelting: 31 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 34/33

Today's Time: 2:57
Total Time: 22:16
Gold: 50,661 + 5,586g worth of coal! Stupid! Why did I buy 1000 coal?
Wealth Change: +874
Weight: 96.5/119.5
Str: 27, Dex: 38, Int: 10
Ranged: 77 Smithing: 59 Carpentry: 50 All Milling 40/40/40/55 All Smelting: 43/31/32/0 Cooking: 42
AL/PL: 34/35

The lesson of the night? Come buy S Mart furniture, we have a huge throughput of materials and need the sales to sustain it! And, it looks like it works for the new players, although I will encourage them to take it slow.

So I'm going to have to do it again in order to make it worth todays big input of time. But I think I'll space it out with some adventuring too. I'm liking this whole adventuring thing, even though I never intended to do it much when I first started playing SotA.

 

Heh. Something I realized as well a few month ago and it puzzled me in the same way ;-) still waiting for the next R to finally press the quest reset button ^^

 

What a great source of learning! S Mart Factorium is great - I visited there the other day, read the tips on the billboard and immediately checked my crafting skill tree and lo and behold, I hadn't trained one of the refining skills that would give me better output. I'll be returning there soon.

If you ever get to Aerie again, there are crates of apples, tomatoes and potatoes free for the taking at the docks (not designated as private property) and there is another crate (apples or tomatoes, I forget which) outside the bank. There is also a sack in front of the huge monument thingy in the main square that usually has scrap or something that you can salvage in it.

 

Where is this?

 

Thank you! We've still got work to do, but it's coming along.

Between Resolute and Highvale Outskirts, on the world map.

 

I can't find S Mart Factorium on the map of Novia https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/map/

 

Still waiting. But it's easy, just go to Resolute and step outside!

 

Im starting to see trade routes appear...