Okay guys, got permision to post this thing, so  I will now do so. I hope it has done this profession as much justice as I think it does.

The State of the Tailor
A compilation of the commentary and observations of the tailoring community

Well the tailor has had a rather fortunate career in this game, they have not suffered the mass gating that some professions have dealt with, they have generally earned a tidy profit in the realms on an above average sampling, and we’ve gotten many of our major bug issues dealt with.

However, there seems to be some question as to weather the profession itself is ‘fun’. Too often I have read posts of tailors getting bored, overworked, frustrated and quitting after the first couple of months.  For them, discovery was long over (usually happens a month after hitting master) and now its just an up-hill battle to keep vendors stocked with enough variety to ensure continuous sale, take risks in customer service by trading un-bought items with clientele only to have them stolen. Or to have their creativity stifled because everyone just wants ‘not fruity’ things in black. Add to that the current TEF issues of being tossed out of your own shop, sockets are near useless now that skill tapes almost never drop, belts and bandoliers look like crap with a jacket or vest and the fact that you can’t see the necklaces to make them -- you get a very cranky tailor.

The other side is all the interdependencies between professions we enjoy. The Architect will now need our components to make tents that only the rare efficiency 4 merchant can use. We provide oodles of cloth to our Armorsmith friends. The Tissues we need from Bio-Engineer’s to make clothing is very nice, although there is distinct complaint that we do not have enough reinforced fiberplast panel items to use the most desired tissues from that area effectively-- especially where wookiees are concerned.

So here are the more nitty gritty details:

Outstanding Issues:

1. TEF Trading bug – This is making most of our tailors unable to do business as they are used to doing.  You trade with an overt and suddenly you are ejected from your home.
   
2. The inability to see Necklaces when crafting and within inventory window – This has got to be looked at by the client team soon, please! It’s a nightmare trying to sell what you can’t even see to make and color correctly.
   
3. Decay – The current death by decay is an issue for us tailors when it comes to clothing. It means that Joe NoCombat can use his clothes indefinitely as long as he doesn’t die. There seems to be preference to some sort of usage decay perhaps based on time on-line.
   
4. Expanded colors for Wookiee Clothing and General Boots/Shoes/Belts – Please increase the color ranges for these items, for wookiees I would suggest opening up the dress robe pallet.  For boots and shoes at least give one of the colors assignments all 255 colors (not the shoe sole!). It’s insulting that the only boot that enjoys this flexibility is a bulky piece of padded armor that an Armorsmith can make.
   
5. Items need to fit right – This is a huge annoyance and embarrassment for many tailors and their clients alike. Belts look more like hula-hoops. Bandoliers never touch the body. Wookiee clothing intersects all over the place and clips out. Jackets make you look like you are wearing a corset for a preemie. Breasts protrude through shirts. Butts hang out of robes and pullovers.
   
6. Colors need to be correctly assigned to clothing- While much of this is fixed there are still the white/white color pallets that exist for some items. Certain clothes that have a leather color choices don’t seem right, since well they don’t use any leather. Certain items of clothes that have a limited color in the game but do not in the movies… etc.
   
7. More Items Need to Use Reinforced Fiberplast Panels – As it stands, only 4 slots of clothing can hold ONE Reinforced Fiberplast Panel. I know there is concern with game balance, but that is what the +25 cap and the 6 mods max cap is for.  Every item made that uses RFP only needs one slot of the stuff, thus limiting what a person can use severely.  Wookiees have it even worse, they only have two items of the field wear line that uses RFP… one is a bandolier and the other is a shoulder pad. For some reason the battle padding and the crested battle padding do not even use a single RFP. Please either alter schematic ingredients to include more items that use RFP (Heavy gloves for one would be ideal as would the tougher field wear boots like the heavy boots we see on Luke’s likeness on Yavin). Also it would be better to add an additional RFP slot to the Ops Duster or the other items that have ‘Reinforced’ in the name. Even the 2 slot usage jumpsuit only uses one RFP slot for stats. This really needs to be increased.
   
8. Controlled Content Release over Time – Arguably, the tailor is probably one of the most creative outlets of the game when it comes to art and personal individuality. But, like fashion, people get bored with the latest styles and want new ever few months. The boredom tailors get from day in and day out creation of the same outfits and styles is one of the main reason for giving up the profession and going on to something new or another game. Yes we know there are oodles of schematics in the works and it will be grand to suddenly get a huge load of them all at once. But, to see that occur we are going to be waiting weeks if not months to see anything new. What would be ideal is if every patch release you let out maybe a couple or three schematics for the tailors to enjoy and play with. Keep doing this and the tailor profession will continue to remain interesting a lot longer. Also, applying this plan will allow for quicker release of schematics rather than waiting for a long time for a whole new wardrobe. (As a side note, this would be applicable to furniture as well)

(Continued....)

Message Edited by Vandessa on 11-18-2003 01:18 PM

List of Bugs:

Follow this link

Gameplay Issues:

Is tailoring fun? Initially yes, it is very fun to explore and discover the new looks, to mix and match the colors and styles to get that perfect look.  But then you hit creative stagnation after a while. You discover limitations that in real life are not there. The idea you can’t wear long, flared gloves over jackets, the fact you can’t wear anything over a dress, or a body suit that can only be worn with a vest.  Then there are the color irritations. We are in the realm of future technologies and you can get richer colors on leathers in the current tech level of 2003 textiles. It doesn’t make very much sense that the only shoe that can sport a full pallet is a high-heel shoe. 

Then there is the current clothing and layering issues that detract from the enjoyment of the wearer. From clip problems where embarrassing bodyparts show through to intersection issues where clothes don’t fit just right - to the female form trying to even attempt to wear a belt, apparently armorsmith belts can wear fine, but tailor belts look like the rings of Saturn and most female avatars won’t go near them.

So after a couple months of this frustration and the inevitable continual top sale of all things black and ‘un-fruity’ the average tailor seems to get very cranky, frustrated, and all around bored.

This however, is occasionally alleviated by the addition of cool new creative enhancements to the class, such as the recent changes already made to colors have given tailors more to play with and do. Which is a good thing.

Exploits Hurting the Profession:

There are no real tailoring exploits. Most complaints from this general direction is the grumbling tension between those who power-grind and those who advance on a leisurely pace.

Balance Issues:

Since this isn’t a combat class balance is a little different.  I think one of the main problems is the items we create need tweaks to their schematics in regards to Reinforced Fiberplast Pannel Bio-Tissue usage. There are no schematics in existence that use RFP in more than one slot, and even then there are only 4 slots that can be used with them attached. Given the limit to melee defense you can only at maximum get a +20 to the defense.. not even nearing the cap using all slots available.  We should be allowed a RFP vest, a RFP hat and even RFP gloves. Body suits like the flight suits should use 2 RFP slots to make up for the loss of pants as well as shirt slot.. heck really it should use 3 slots since you can’t wear a jacket with them and there are no RFP vests. Wookiees especially need RFP love, they have one wookiee item that uses it. Only one and then the bandolier if the wookiee can give up their backpack storage.

But as for tailoring itself being easy or hard, I would say the crafting process seems to be just right.

The Big Wishlist:

Link to that section is here

*FIN*

Very well organized and I think you are have accurately described the key issues. 

As for me personally ,, I vote for new schematics,,as the number one on my wish list,,and hope that all new ones will have a box for one rfp and one syn panel plus what other resources  they decide is required,,,lets kill two birds with one big stone,,,there really isnt a very good reason not to .

I avoid the tef issue by being neutral ,,plus I have lots of items on display in various colors so  I dont have as much need for personal trading.

Decay needs to not be percentage-based. If it stays at percentage-based, that means no matter how well we make our clothing once experimentation is re-implemented, it will still disappear at the same rate.

Decay needs to be points-based. If clothing decays by a certain number of points in whatever circumstances end up being decided upon, tailors with experimentation can make items with more points, and thus there will be a reason to shop from Master Tailors other than just color selection.

I want to be able to make items better with my experimentation stat again. I think making clothes with more points, which thus can take more decay before needing major repair, are a selling point that we need as a profession. Almost every other crafting profession has variable quality goods, and if we're to be creating a good competitive market for clothes we need it too.

Thank you for all your hard work in putting this together! This is a very nice summary of my issues, especially my disappointment at some of the limited color choices, and the stagnation I've started to feel after reaching master and exploring all the current schematics.

If they'd just commit to giving us a couple of new schematics each month, it would go a long way toward helping tailoring feel more fun long-term and giving us things to look forward to. I also hope we get some clothing quests or similar tailor-related content, to give us something to do other than hang out in our shops.

Wow!  Very well stated I agree with everything you say.  As usual you have gone above and beyond the call. Thank you!   I can't imagine how much time you've devoted to all of us but it is realy apprecaited.  I hope all this gets a response!

Just wanted to give a heads up for anyone who hasn't been crafting wookiee gear since the patch...

On certain limited items (wookiee battle padding and most of the weighted gear I think) a new palatte has been opened up.  So there's an expanded color range that includes...

drumroll

RED

It's not super bright or anything but it's there.  So wookiees at least have a few more options in some of the available gear.  I know some wookiees who are very happy already.

Oh, and I agree with Magdalene.... decay needs to be point based, and master items should have alot more points than domestic arts items. 

And for the love of all that's good, pleeeeeease........ the white/white clothing palettes need to be fixed!

Otresra Ebi
Master Tailor, Master Image Designer - Tempest Server
Naboo, Northeast of Keren, type /way 3132 3488
Online Catalog: www.kimiland.com

Ktresra Ebi
Novice CH, Novice BE, Novice Pistoleer
Same loc as above
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It looks very good. Everything is thought of. My compliments for the hard work.

There is only one thing i really dont like. And that is color range depending on quality of resources...Or rather anything based on quality. This is the only profession in artisan (beside making furniture) where quality doent matter and its a blessing.  For 3 reasons:

- Lower costs. Quality resources means more tearing down harveys and more travelling to find resources. I cant make a living out of tailoring grinding up slowly as it is now already. 

- Less time to spend on getting resources. i make a run to my harveys each day ..that costs me an hour. Every now i then i search for new spots. But i mostly just take what new resources i can get at the spot my harvey stands on. That reduces the time i have to search for new locations. So even with limiting the time used on harveys ..its taking me an hour a day. I think that is already far too long on something thats so boring (at least for me)

- girinding on techniques has a purpose now. It gives new colors and they are directly useable. The chance on getting a extra socket now and then is not enough for having to grind that boxes.

f qualitybased tailoring is introduced, i would give up tailoring. Maybe even give up the account too