Suggestion: Temporary Formula Vendors

[Dhalin]

Last I heard, they are doing revamps of all of the crafter quests, starting with those on New Trismus. Some of those, the last I checked, are still either incomplete or bugged.

Once you get past NT, the Crafters' quests get increasingly more difficult and more of a waste of time to do, due to the fact that only major cities have Crafter trainers, and there are no resources anywhere near a city, which makes trying to obtain Lore Tokens a nightmare for anyone but a mid-level dragon crafter.

I understand if VI needs *time* to work on these quests, but in the meantime, I propose we place a Temporary Vendor somewhere (one in each major city?) that sells all of the Beginner and Journeyman Formulas for -coin- instead of Lore Tokens.

Heck, if it were up to me, I'd remove the Lore Token system altogether. I leveled a dragon and I find Lore Tokens to be the most annoying aspect of trying to obtain formulas, I simply cannot imagine how bad it would be for a biped. I have a Saris who has Lv15ish Outfitter and Blacksmith and I counted some 400+ Tokens it would take to buy each Beginner Formula. And that is -just- two schools Lv15ish.

Every time new formulas are introduced, they are either placed on Mobs, or sold for Coin (Lairshaping, Flying Cargo Disk items, etc). This is clearly a clue that VI doesn't seem to wish to continue the Lore Token system anymore; why not just get rid of it entirely and make everyone happy?

Place them all for sale on various crafting trainers for Coin, obviously you'd have to increase their cost, but please don't make it too ridiculous like the Vielo were (2+g for one formula? That's ridiculous). I would say something like this:

Beginner Processed Resource: 50c (most trainers give you these for free anyways)
Beginner Intermediate Resource: 100c
Beginner Finished Product: 250c
Beginner High Quality Finished Product: 500c

Journeyman Processed Resource: 5s
Journeyman Intermediate Resource: 7.5s
Journeyman Finished Product: 10s
Journeyman High Quality Finished Product: 20s

Those prices are reasonable, I'd think.

Now, what to do with Lore Tokens instead?

Let us use them to buy *expert* formulas. Having them as Mob Drops Only are annoying, and it forces people to adventure (some people love crafting, but don't like adventuring, or don't have high enough level to adventure to kill the mobs that drop these) and many times, getting ahold of these formulas can be difficult at best (it took me several months to get the Expert Strength Scale line).

I figure, if we have to grind T5 mats for Lore Tokens, the Expert Forms can be quested by crafters, without the need to Adventure or beg others or pray you will someday see one up for sale on a consigner.

[Shian]

Such a system would be awesome.

[velveeta]

me, i would just love for the vielo to come back to brist..........

[GalemThawn]

Let us use them to buy *expert* formulas. Having them as Mob Drops Only are annoying, and it forces people to adventure (some people love crafting, but don't like adventuring, or don't have high enough level to adventure to kill the mobs that drop these) and many times, getting ahold of these formulas can be difficult at best (it took me several months to get the Expert Strength Scale line).

I figure, if we have to grind T5 mats for Lore Tokens, the Expert Forms can be quested by crafters, without the need to Adventure or beg others or pray you will someday see one up for sale on a consigner.

I checked about a week ago, and there were 80+ Expert form on the Brist connie. 90% of them were between 1s and 5s.

My old guild had about 300+ separate Expert forms with multiples of many. It got to the point that I couldn't give away Expert forms and started just deleting them as I looted.

Even if you don't adventure, I don't see it hard to get Expert forms.

[Shian]

Did ya miss the last week of three seperate players asking market for expert basic component formula? (orbs, bricks, stone)

[Favoran]

That sort of thing goes on a lot... I remember how frustrating it was for me to track those expert crafting forms down. :P I just feel bad I don't have any forms for them.

[Dhalin]

I checked about a week ago, and there were 80+ Expert form on the Brist connie. 90% of them were between 1s and 5s.

My old guild had about 300+ separate Expert forms with multiples of many. It got to the point that I couldn't give away Expert forms and started just deleting them as I looted.

Even if you don't adventure, I don't see it hard to get Expert forms.

Yes, but what's the chances of them having the exact one you want?

Kinda slim... like back when I needed 2 of the Strength Scale forms... I asked and asked and asked, checked all connies, I'd log on every stinkin day, check all the connies, Augh, Dralk, Chic, NT, etc, none up, a couple dragons who had libraries full of expert forms, not there, checked my guild's vaults, not there... it took me 3+ weeks to get ahold of one, and then finally nearly 2 and a half months later, I Finally got ahold of the last one.

Yes, there might be 80 Expert Forms on the Connie, but that barely scratches the surface of how many expert forms exist in the game. How many Expert Forms are there, 400? 500? That means you've roughly a 10-15% chance that one of those is the one you need... otherwise, you're going to be either begging Market, or trying to track someone down who has it.

And asking Market/Guildies/etc... I did that scene too. I'd ask.... no response. Wait 30min, ask.... no response. Give up, log off...

[velveeta]

still worth having a look, i am sure! look at it like this - with more than 80 forms, you are bound to find at least one you need!

[Shian]

Yeah.. those 80 forms? Of the scale forms there's dex and power scales of all sorts and colors! Wow what a bargan!

For the bipeds who have no idea, dex and power are the most common drops, making health, armor and strength highly sought after. The only 80 forms on the connie are probably the most common or least used. For those getting to fleshing out the last of thier forms, whatever's on the connie is the things already gotten.

Myself, I was down to something like 5 scale forms- took me four weeks of asking around, looking at connies. Guild found me three of them pretty quick, but when the vielo were rumored to be leaving I ran out and bought the last two I needed along with a few scalecraft recharge kit formula. Not because I was getting impatient, but I knew if I didn't, I'd have to find a needle in a haystack for my last two formula. Speaking of, has anyone seen an expert scalecraft recharge kit formula drop since the vielo left?

[Dhalin]

Shian makes a good point here.

Yes, it is worth checking the Connies, but the chances are low, very low, as you gain more Expert Forms, that 1 or more of those 80 could possibly be one you need, especially as a dragon. Of those 80, the last time I checked, _four_ were Dragon Formulas. The rest of the 80 were Biped ones (counting, of course, Biped Spell Forms that dragons -can- use, but don't benefit from unless they churn out spells for guildies)
.

With there being a ratio of at least 5:1 biped to dragon formulas out there, if there are 100 expert forms up on the connie, you can guess that 80%-90% of them are Biped formulas. This gives you maybe 10 dragon formulas, 10 chances to find 1 out of a few dozen formulas. And as Shian says, some are very dang very. Very. Dang. Rare.

[GalemThawn]

Don't look at it as Biped vs Dragon forms with the percentages.
I'm a Saris biped, but I can't use any of the Expert Enchanting, Mason, Spells, Tailoring, Weaving, Fletching, and many other forms.

There are 19 Crafting schools, some overlapping in skills. There are few bipeds that can use all Expert formulas.

[Grogo]

The last time I needed Lore Tokens I think I spent a couple of hours and got around 250 Journeyman Tokens. Just stick with it, sure it is a pain to drag resources to get tokens. I end up dragging a disk from the silk through the portal to Kion.

I have been trying for a long time to complete some of my expert form sets. I look at the connies when I get a chance and rarely find anything that I need. A token system for the expert forms would be nice to get the several that are harder to find or just haven't shown up on the cosigners in a while.

[Shian]

Don't look at it as Biped vs Dragon forms with the percentages.
I'm a Saris biped, but I can't use any of the Expert Enchanting, Mason, Spells, Tailoring, Weaving, Fletching, and many other forms.

There are 19 Crafting schools, some overlapping in skills. There are few bipeds that can use all Expert formulas.

You're right on the 'not dragon vs. biped' thing as we're both going through the same thing. Still though,

When you're down to your last 5-10, the odds of getting the ones you need are very very low as everyone else is looking for the same thing.

Lore tokens may be a pain to get, but at least you know at the end of the long road, you're getting what you are looking for instead of weeks and weeks of empty hunting. Speaking of, does anyone on order have an extra quarry 4 tech? (yet another rare think to add to your KB!) :P

[Dhalin]

The last time I needed Lore Tokens I think I spent a couple of hours and got around 250 Journeyman Tokens. Just stick with it, sure it is a pain to drag resources to get tokens. I end up dragging a disk from the silk through the portal to Kion.

I have been trying for a long time to complete some of my expert form sets. I look at the connies when I get a chance and rarely find anything that I need. A token system for the expert forms would be nice to get the several that are harder to find or just haven't shown up on the cosigners in a while.

My dragon is 56DRAG and 100DCRA.

The Dragon Crafter Trainer wants Mithril Bars, Marble Slabs, etc.

There is no unguarded Mithril, Marble, etc.

I can grab a few here and there and take wing as soon as something comes my way, but carrying a disk? Hell no. I'd die long before I'd get airborne at a safe distance.

Now, MAYBE if they'd allow me to grind the previous Tier for half reward, then MAYBE I could get Lore Tokens.

[Hoberton]

There is no unguarded Mithril, Marble, etc.

Mithril is totally unguarded inside the mine by Mithrils Anvil.

[Deth]

There is a mine out in the Mithril fields that is very easy to get in and out of for mith. Not to far from the edge of the field and normaly nothing right out side the door. Marble is harder.

[Dhalin]

It is? I think I went near Mithril's Anvil before, and the only Mithril I could find.... no wait, maybe that was Marble I couldn't find unguarded.....but even still, if I recall correctly (its been nearly a year), that is a long long long way from any portal....

[Deth]

It is on the west side. Yes it is as all T5 is. Even out on the guild Island it is a ways away. But not to far flying. But on order there are some shops near it for working. for gating use the Sar guild Island port and fly up to the mine by the Fire Opals and just fly back to the gate.