Because they reduced the profit margin
dramatically in the last patch, I've heard.
I haven't tried pottery since the patch, I
only used that money to re-equip after
losing everthing to a bug. It used to be
even more lucrative than brewing, I made
30pp an hour doing pottery.
I'd expect the margins on that to reduce
dramatically though. This game is not
about running from vendor to wheel to
kiln to vendor to rack up money.
In fact, if I hadn't lost everything, and
been denied a leg up kit, I'd never have
done it. There is a sense of accomplishment
in EQ that comes from earning your gear.
It's a common thing in single player games
for people to get cheat programs, make
themselves unbeatable, and tire very quickly
of the game. Verant wants people to keep
striving for a significant length of time, as
they depend on subscription monies to
continue the incremental development process.
Pottery, and to a lesser extent, Brewing
created money in the EQ economy. Looting
mobs does as well, but not as consistently
(at least not at the levels where these trade
skills do) as pottery and brewing.
What V wants from trade skills is players
creating goods for players, not players
creating goods for NPC's. Unfortunately,
only smithing and, to a lesser extent, jewelcraft
after the tweaks, act in this manner. Worse,
the changes people most want to smithing,
the ability to smith higher grade armors and
magic weapons (with the help of an enchanter)
are useless on an established server. There is
no window of opportunity to sell these items due
to the glut of magic weapons and armor on the
market at the level you'd expect these player
made items to occupy.
Two things are necessary (IMHO) to make a
player based economy work.
1. A money drain. At high levels platinum apparently
becomes useless.
There needs to be NPC provided services and goods
that high level players WANT and that cost a significant
amount of platinum.
2. A method to take magic weapons out of circulation
and keep them out of the hands of characters of lower
levels than they were intended for.
I think that, if you put in the ability to make magic weapons
tomorrow, smiths and enchanters would find very
little market, as the items would have to compete against
magic weapons like the Dragoon Dirk, RTS and others
that provide bonuses to stats, good performance and the
ability to hit magic creatures, all at prices that players
in their low teens can afford, simply from hunting. (I bought
my first magic weapon, a tentacle whip, at level 9, for 15pp.
Granted, I only had 20pp to my name, but I regained the
majority of the outlay in a 1 hr session that saw me pick up
a lightstone and two greater lightstones)
Sorry for the off-topic rant, I guess I'm just tired of
people over on the pottery list whining about V nerfing
trade skills. We were never meant to make steady
plats selling created goods to vendors. Clicking a mouse
for hours on end, with no player interaction, no exploring,
and no risk are not in Verant's vision for the game.
Tindayen
>From: "Sean Gifford" <giffords@...>
>
>why do you say that?, I found the brewing I did pretty profitable, but I
>had to give my eyes, and wrist a break after a solid half hour.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Sean Kennedy <orang@...>
>
>
>Not any more.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeremy & Tracy <jastns@...>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michal Hobson <given@...>
> To: EQBards <eqbards@onelist.com>
>
> So scratch the gripe unless it is an extreme case. I guess I'm
just
>bent because my bank account hovers between 5 and 20pp constantly so
there's
>no way I could buy plate or any other really cool items yet.
> Try "brewing". It's boring but you make really good money!
>
> Brangwen
> Little Bard of Kelathin
>