Trade skills not viable, suggestions inside (ranty)

[_____________Kitsume]

Ok, Funcom, take the people who were in charge of trade skills, walk them to the back room, bend'em over for a big butt kickin'.



I just spend 100kc to make 10 level 24 emergency kits. That's it. 10. That's 10kc a pop, right? Noone I know is going to pay 100kc for 10 kits that heal marginally better than what they could use otherwise (since 100kc isn't going to come from a newbie), that doesn't stack, that really isn't worth much of anything. I got, maybe, 5kxp in the process. That's not a nice ratio there.



Here's a very simple litmus test for trade skills items. If it does not pass these two, don't put the stupid things in the game and send the braniacs who created 'em back to the drawing board.



1: Would you USE such an item? (y/n)

2: Would you spend over an HOUR trying to find the parts to make such an item? (y/n)

3: Would you be able to sell such an item at a profit? (y/n)



There you go. If it doesn't meet those three requirements, scrap the idea.



Emergency kits will be used by noone, aren't worth the time to make them, cannot be sold for a profit. It fails on all three counts.



Same for the new injectors. Too costly, not enough benefit, cannot be sold because they are worthless. My trader friend who has been keeping track of all trade skills has much the same opinion of everything that is made through trade skills thus far except, maybe, smelting down metals since they can be sold for a profit.



Stop beating a dead horse. Either give us real trade skills that are viable and profitable or remove the skills/objects from the game, refund the IP and declare it over with.



You want some suggestions? Here's a few.



Revamp the store interface. This infinite scroll through 200+ items at 2-3 QL each is for the reets. It should not be that hard to find things. This goes for all the stores no matter what the contents. What should be there is a way to drill down to the item you want in 4 or less clicks and only then be concerned about the QL. This goes for nano "lines" as well as anything else. Examples:



MedStore: Healing (1) - MedKits (2) - We see what QLs are available.

DocStore: HPBuffs (1) - Team HP Buffs(2) - We see what QLs are available.

DocStore: HPBuffs (1) - Individual HP Buffs (2) - We see what QLs are available.

MAStore: AC Buffs (1) - We see what QLs are available.

TradeSkills: Medical (1) - MedKit Creation (2) - Jars (3) - We see what QLs are available.

WeaponStore: Ammo(1)

WeaponStore: Melee(1) - 1-handed (2) - Edge (3) - OT Sword (4) - We see what QLs are available.



No more scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll!



Second, but in a slider or an interface to be able to purchase multiples of items. I should not have to click 80 times to get 2k of bullets that I'm going to burn through in 3-4 missions! It should be click on ammo, click on dialog, 2000<enter>, accept. This goes for ALL items. It would help trade skills a lot where we can just purchase 20-30 at a pop. Oh, this also goes for splitting items up, to. If someone runs out of bullets I should be able to click on my stack of ammo, type in how much I want to split, split it off and hand him that portion instead of one-at-a-time.



All items that are stackable should be stackable! I buy 30 jars, I should be able to stack 30 jars. 30 blood plasma of the same time, same thing. We have weight limits for a reason, use them!



All trade skills operations should recognize stacking. I wasted a lot of money when I picked up a stack of 10 of something and clicked on a single jar. It put all 10 into the jar. No, wrong. It should recognize: 10 > 1, use only 1. The flipside is that if I've got 30 serum and 30 blank kits, I pick up one, click on the other, I get a stack of 30 kits. There simply is no need to force people through the clickmill 30 times for something they know they will succeed at. None.



Finally, and here's the pipe dream, create a trading mechanism that doesn't revolve around spamming the location or channel. And while you're at it, remove lower level channels when a person is viable for the higher level ones. There is no need for me, a 66 doc, to have the group channel other than the one I have now. And the 1-50 channel is overrun with munchkins that don't know how to spam the 50-100 where they should. Since it is clear they won't do it by choice do it by force and bring focus, and a little less spam, back to the trade channels.



My suggestion for a trade mechanism would be a store, or stores, that take pieces on consignment. The person can set the price on the item and walk away. The stock woulld sit there for some time (floating scale maybe, the busier the store(s) are, the faster the cycle time) at which time they are declared unsellable and the owner is given credits in the amount that he/she would have gotten had they sold to a store (or maybe slightly less based on some formula, this is a half formed idea). Oldest stock would rotate off first. Combine this in the form of the several stores we all know (nano stores, weapons, armor, clothing, etc) and the "drill-down" idea above you can have a plethora of items sitting in the shops (since there would be no insane scroll) and would let people sell things without having to spam channels and locations with the knowledge that they would not be getting as much as they might normally get.



If this comes off a bit ranty, I'm sorry, but I finally got around to dropping half a level of IP into my trade skill (Pharmatech, doc) and found this disorganized mess awaiting me. I was hoping for something to do other than try to find people to kill mobs for me in my missions or grouping to the point where I'd need several hundred thousand credits to upgrade my armor and nanos so I am viable again and then remembering that I can't mission on my own to get credits and have to mooch off friends. I was hoping for something viable.

[___________Vrischika]

I happen to be the Trader friend mentioned above, and I'd have to agree with most of that. (It's not just smelting down metal though, I have to process it, and add a cut gem for the effort to be worthwhile.)

[_____________Mistell]

I 100% agree with the original post. Tradde skills need improvement and a overhaul. Not my idea of fun spending days trying to build an item that nets me 1000xp, and an item no one wants to buy. Rings are fun and easy to make, too bad that gems are not more easily found. Nano making is a royal pain, so far only 1 chunk of ore is what I have been able to find. Do not know much about the new stim skills, but i hear they are just as bad. Who ever is developing the trade skill environment needs a lil talking to. While your at it tell whoever is in charge to reduce the cost of trade equipment, If my character had millions why would he want to be a trader to make money?

For a more constructive post take a look over at the trader forumn.

Mistell

[____________Doomzday]

I know some of these issues i brought up in the Trader column but they seem relevant here so ill reply.

WE WANT GROUND LOADING TRADESKILL ITEMS.

Ive actually given up playing until FC remove the completely unrealisitic *Kill leet, get ore* scenario. Ore is Ore. It comes from the ground. FC should pull its finger out.

Too bad when they do the ore will probably only load in Lev150 zones as to yet anoy more people.

As ive said, make ALL the weapons manuals available, not just the ones for the weapons nobody uses. (Jesus, anyone think that i *shouldnt* have to tell them this again?)

-Doomz

[______________Krneki]

Originally posted by Doomzday
As ive said, make ALL the weapons manuals available, not just the ones for the weapons nobody uses. (Jesus, anyone think that i *shouldnt* have to tell them this again?)

My thoughts exactly. WTH are they thinking?! There's only one weapon really worth making and there are a lot better weapons then Disaffiliation Rifle out there.

Wanna hear something funny when i asked the devs the exact question? then check out http://ao.stratics.com/content/commu..._04_2001.shtml