Crafters should have a way of advertising their services in-game

Azurephoenix999

Right now, there are two ways to make money from actually crafting gear for other players:

1. Put it in the guild store and pray that someone sees it.
2. Ask people in zone chat if they need something crafted for them.

The former will only result in people buying it for research purposes, as the chances of it matching the build they're going for are slim at best.

The latter only works if there's someone in the zone who actually needs something crafted for them, and that isn't always the case.

Neither of these are reliable sources of income, and while alternative methods of getting gold as a crafter do exist (writs, selling mats, etc.), I believe that crafters should be able to make gold by actually crafting stuff for other players.

For this reason, I believe there should be a globally accessible series of notice boards, but it's a place where people go to advertise their crafting services.

Bespoke Crafters Board

Crafters will use this by going to the board, entering their settings to show what they can craft, how much they charge, etc. and then paying a fee to have themselves put on the board for a week.

This board will be accessible from all major settlements. Players will go there, select the crafting line of the stuff they want, and all the crafters who do that stuff will come up. By default, only the ones who are currently online will show up in the search, though this setting can be changes. Once they've chosen who they want to hire, there is an option to either send them mail, whisper to them, or bring up their profile on whatever platform is being used (Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, etc.).

This way, people who want something VERY specific can easily make contact with someone who can provide them with that very specific something, and crafters can find customers more easily.

Constructive feedback is greatly appreciated, let me know what you think

Eocosa

This is a neat idea to get more business for crafters as I agree it can be a pain either shooting at random on a guild vender that the item is the right trait, motif style, etc that a person might want instead of being tailored to the customer.

What may be a tad smoother implemented would be a board, as you suggested, but with "work orders" placed on them that functioned like a writ board. (Perhaps one near each type of crafting station).

As a customer you'd go to it, request the item via the crafting screen you want built, and set a price you want to pay for it (and you deposit the gold held in escrow).As a crafter you'd go to these boards and look at the listing and you can choose to fulfill particular ones you are able to/want to, and it would mail the item upon completion and you'd receive the gold.

This may be a bit more streamlined for both parties as you don't have to hunt down a crafter, then discuss what you want.

I don't see this harming guild vendors too much either as you can't put an order for a dropped item, materials, etc. so the guild vendors would still have a VERY nice market and role in the game economy.

HegemonIQ

I like the work order option. However, it should give an option to deposit mats as well as gold. As a rule, I don't build with my own mats (not big on farming), this way I can craft for tips. Sure some don't tip, but others are quite generous...compared to crafters that charge flat rates I find it all evens out. Plus I don't have to farm

moonio

It will just end up being a race to the bottom, with people charging the lowest price possible in order to get the work...

RoyalPink06

moonio wrote: »

It will just end up being a race to the bottom, with people charging the lowest price possible in order to get the work...

I like the notice board concept, but as above, I would wonder if displaying crafter fees would encourage undercutting and thus driving down the market, as is common in guild traders.

It would also be awesome if there was a way to have a "reputation" rating, like a star rating maybe, to help people avoid scammers. So if you hire someone to craft for you and they didn't scam you, they get a star. Something like that? There's too many scammers out there and it would be easy for them to take advantage without having some way to get a negative feedback.

White wabbit

Or a Town crier in each factions city ! Hear ye Hear ye Gamertag is available for crafting hire

Azurephoenix999

White wabbit wrote: »

Or a Town crier in each factions city ! Hear ye Hear ye Gamertag is available for crafting hire

That'd be cool.

Stopnaggin

None of these really would work as crafting is so far behind. Alchemy is the way to go, triots or just reagents sell fast. Provisioning sells as well but anything gear wise is too niche at this point.

CapnPhoton

I like the idea of a writ type board. A player can post what they need with a payment they are willing to pay. Someone can pick it up and they have a limited amount of time to do it before its returned to the board (as to not abuse the system).

emily3989

EQ2 had a LFG and LFW(looking for work) interface that was awesome. You could write in a few lines of text so someone opening it up would see name and what they cann craft and $$$ for services.

Azurephoenix999

Stopnaggin wrote: »

None of these really would work as crafting is so far behind. Alchemy is the way to go, triots or just reagents sell fast. Provisioning sells as well but anything gear wise is too niche at this point.

That's precisely why gear needs to be custom-made, and hence why people who haven't invested in crafting will need the services of another player.

Azurephoenix999

RoyalPink06 wrote: »

moonio wrote: »

It will just end up being a race to the bottom, with people charging the lowest price possible in order to get the work...

I like the notice board concept, but as above, I would wonder if displaying crafter fees would encourage undercutting and thus driving down the market, as is common in guild traders.

It would also be awesome if there was a way to have a "reputation" rating, like a star rating maybe, to help people avoid scammers. So if you hire someone to craft for you and they didn't scam you, they get a star. Something like that? There's too many scammers out there and it would be easy for them to take advantage without having some way to get a negative feedback.

Firstly, I agree that showing prices might be counterproductive in this way, maybe just show what the crafter can and can't craft, as well as providing potential customers the means to contact them?

Secondly, I don't think a rating system would be good for something like this. What if your customer decides to be a jerk and give you a negative rating for no reason? If a rating system were implemented, then something would need to be put in place to prevent this from happening.

RoyalPink06

Azurephoenix999 wrote: »

RoyalPink06 wrote: »

moonio wrote: »

It will just end up being a race to the bottom, with people charging the lowest price possible in order to get the work...

I like the notice board concept, but as above, I would wonder if displaying crafter fees would encourage undercutting and thus driving down the market, as is common in guild traders.

It would also be awesome if there was a way to have a "reputation" rating, like a star rating maybe, to help people avoid scammers. So if you hire someone to craft for you and they didn't scam you, they get a star. Something like that? There's too many scammers out there and it would be easy for them to take advantage without having some way to get a negative feedback.

Firstly, I agree that showing prices might be counterproductive in this way, maybe just show what the crafter can and can't craft, as well as providing potential customers the means to contact them?

Secondly, I don't think a rating system would be good for something like this. What if your customer decides to be a jerk and give you a negative rating for no reason? If a rating system were implemented, then something would need to be put in place to prevent this from happening.

True for your second point. Trolls gon' troll, I guess!

WhitePawPrints

I like the idea, I like it a lot! This would create a way more open and interactive feel to the game, and give it a bit a lot more freedom and use of the crafting skill trees.

However, there are some flaws with the suggested plan that I can foresee.

1. Crafters would list themselves, and the best way would be to sort it by the prices that they would charge for their services. That would leave very few crafters to monopolize the market.
2. Equipment crafting has a massive amount of choices, and we'll just look at one: styles. For a crafter to list all of the style's he's capable of doing would be an insane amount of information for a buyer to look through. Maybe there would be a way to enter credentials and a search engine finds crafters capable, but then it still sorts by price.
3. What if the crafter is currently offline? Buyers don't want to wait up to a week for their set.
4. Now the biggest flaw I see is how would a crafter determine an accurate fee before knowing what the buyer wants to commission? There is a massive amount of information for crafters to display, and each style, trait, set, quality, and level vary a lot in price.

Now #2 may be a way to balance out #3 but it'd still leave a few crafters monopolizing the market in their own category. Any possible monopolization should be deterred.

@Eocosa had another suggestion that I think would not have the same flaws and would be much preferred:

Eocosa wrote: »

This is a neat idea to get more business for crafters as I agree it can be a pain either shooting at random on a guild vender that the item is the right trait, motif style, etc that a person might want instead of being tailored to the customer.

What may be a tad smoother implemented would be a board, as you suggested, but with "work orders" placed on them that functioned like a writ board. (Perhaps one near each type of crafting station).

As a customer you'd go to it, request the item via the crafting screen you want built, and set a price you want to pay for it (and you deposit the gold held in escrow).As a crafter you'd go to these boards and look at the listing and you can choose to fulfill particular ones you are able to/want to, and it would mail the item upon completion and you'd receive the gold.

This may be a bit more streamlined for both parties as you don't have to hunt down a crafter, then discuss what you want.

I don't see this harming guild vendors too much either as you can't put an order for a dropped item, materials, etc. so the guild vendors would still have a VERY nice market and role in the game economy.

Now the biggest benefit of this would be that the crafter is online right then and there, and will know what the buyer wants and is willing to pay. If that is agreeable the crafter accepts the job and creates the gear and sends it on its way. I would suggest a timer on job completion so that if a crafter sits on an accepted job (for more than an hour or so), that it can go back on the board for another crafter to accept and get the gear to the buyer as soon as possible.

The game can do a system check to see if the crafter is capable of creating that set, the same system that makes us incapable of crafting things we're not qualified for, and if not then the crafter cannot accept that job - maybe not even bring up that job as a result. This would allow for new crafters to come in and make the more simple jobs that higher-level crafters would normally pass up.

A minimum fee can be placed on jobs so buyers aren't spamming with rip off offers. The gold is deposited until it is either paid to the crafter or returned after a set period of time of no acceptance (a week or so). A quality multiplication factor can assist reducing spam of gold quality requests.

Faster returns and fairer market.

Azurephoenix999

WhitePawPrints wrote: »

I like the idea, I like it a lot! This would create a way more open and interactive feel to the game, and give it a bit a lot more freedom and use of the crafting skill trees.

However, there are some flaws with the suggested plan that I can foresee.

1. Crafters would list themselves, and the best way would be to sort it by the prices that they would charge for their services. That would leave very few crafters to monopolize the market.
2. Equipment crafting has a massive amount of choices, and we'll just look at one: styles. For a crafter to list all of the style's he's capable of doing would be an insane amount of information for a buyer to look through. Maybe there would be a way to enter credentials and a search engine finds crafters capable, but then it still sorts by price.
3. What if the crafter is currently offline? Buyers don't want to wait up to a week for their set.
4. Now the biggest flaw I see is how would a crafter determine an accurate fee before knowing what the buyer wants to commission? There is a massive amount of information for crafters to display, and each style, trait, set, quality, and level vary a lot in price.

Now #2 may be a way to balance out #3 but it'd still leave a few crafters monopolizing the market in their own category. Any possible monopolization should be deterred.

@Eocosa had another suggestion that I think would not have the same flaws and would be much preferred:

Eocosa wrote: »

This is a neat idea to get more business for crafters as I agree it can be a pain either shooting at random on a guild vender that the item is the right trait, motif style, etc that a person might want instead of being tailored to the customer.

What may be a tad smoother implemented would be a board, as you suggested, but with "work orders" placed on them that functioned like a writ board. (Perhaps one near each type of crafting station).

As a customer you'd go to it, request the item via the crafting screen you want built, and set a price you want to pay for it (and you deposit the gold held in escrow).As a crafter you'd go to these boards and look at the listing and you can choose to fulfill particular ones you are able to/want to, and it would mail the item upon completion and you'd receive the gold.

This may be a bit more streamlined for both parties as you don't have to hunt down a crafter, then discuss what you want.

I don't see this harming guild vendors too much either as you can't put an order for a dropped item, materials, etc. so the guild vendors would still have a VERY nice market and role in the game economy.

Now the biggest benefit of this would be that the crafter is online right then and there, and will know what the buyer wants and is willing to pay. If that is agreeable the crafter accepts the job and creates the gear and sends it on its way. I would suggest a timer on job completion so that if a crafter sits on an accepted job (for more than an hour or so), that it can go back on the board for another crafter to accept and get the gear to the buyer as soon as possible.

The game can do a system check to see if the crafter is capable of creating that set, the same system that makes us incapable of crafting things we're not qualified for, and if not then the crafter cannot accept that job - maybe not even bring up that job as a result. This would allow for new crafters to come in and make the more simple jobs that higher-level crafters would normally pass up.

A minimum fee can be placed on jobs so buyers aren't spamming with rip off offers. The gold is deposited until it is either paid to the crafter or returned after a set period of time of no acceptance (a week or so). A quality multiplication factor can assist reducing spam of gold quality requests.

Faster returns and fairer market.

I like this, and it's something I'd very much like to see in the game.

White wabbit

Personally I don't advertise that I can craft everything as I want to enjoy my game time , but I do see that this is some thing that needs to be implemented now before it gets to late into the game

Kushh

GT:presedent kushh
Xbox one NA
Need a crafter, hmu