How do you generate income?

Lanae · May 2014

Threw this topic here since I have no idea where else to put this.

So I have hit veteran rank 10 last week and since then it seems my gold supply has decided it wanted a divorce and has slowly been moving out of my bank. Since there is not a lot to do yet (aside from the VR dungeons) I have been helping uit guildies and people in various zones. Being helpful means that I spend an average of 1500 gold per hour in costs. So how are you supposed to make money at this level?

PVE Questing (Regular); While questing does bring in some cash flow I have currently completed every zone (except for Bankorai) and no more quests are to be found.

PVE Questing (Cyrodill): Cyrodill is tuned to level 50 and while quests reset they do not really pay well. Have to do lots of quests to make spending a bit of time to pay for spending some time in the regular zones.

PVP Questing (Cyrodill): I am not a huge PVP-er. I do PVP with my guild but with the exception of the Kill Players quest the rest seems rather random as to whether they can be completed or not. It might not be an objective or it might already be taken.

Guild Stores: This is a joke really. I have tried selling various things in different guilds and usually it would come down to setting either extremely low prices or not selling stuff. Being one of a few people that has never found stuff like a motif I apparently do not have enough luck find expensive well selling items. The market economy in the game is just a failure.

Veteran Rank dungeons: Have been doing this but getting decent loot in here is again a wheel of fortune randomizer. We have gotten rather apt at doing them even getting past alot of bugs. Even with the odd loot bug producing lots of loot (which is exploiting and thus not used) I seem to barely break even. Yes I pick up everything and giving priority to Ornate pieces.

Also completing say Veteran Wayrest Sewers and then doing it again seems to hamper the loot drops a lot.

Farm goods X and try to sell: Farming goods isn't fun. I like to live by the concept that a game has to be fun to play or it might just as well be a job. Even if I considered doing this it would mean competing with a gazillion bots out there and I am not even remotely entertaining this option.

Helping people seems to cost tons of money. Levelling my horse costs money. Getting stuff I need to better myself costs money (I will chalk this up mostly due to not being luck). Getting a bigger bank costs money. Sinkholes a plenty... revenue? Next to nothing. I just have the option to slow down the sinkholes.

So I am stumped. I know repairs may get tweaked in future patches and that Craigslorn will arrive. But really at this point in time? How do you make money being a honest player?

Huckdabuck · May 2014

Mob farming for the loot drops. I'm not rich but I can afford my PvE repair bills.

michaelpatrickjonesnub18_ESO · May 2014

Lanae wrote: »

How do you make money being a honest player?

You can't. Because Guilds are a failure and there is no global buy and sell option.

Other than spamming chat with WTB, WTS with the rest of the crooks.

Unfortunately for you, the developers will continue to try and make Guilds work, rather than fix the problem. So you'll always be broke. Unless you sell your soul to the Chat-Auction Hall.

MasterSpatula · May 2014

I don't think an Auction House is the solution to the "can't make any money selling stuff" problem. The problem isn't that guilds aren't a big enough pool of potential customers. The problem is that every single other player in the game is facing the same "outrageous prices for inventory upgrades, absurd prices for horses, insane decay rate and huge repair costs, and ludicrously-low rewards for everything" issue.

Selling to 500 people or 500,000 people, you're not going to make much money because no one else can make any, either.

But don't worry. I'm sure another nerf to looting tables is on its way.

Gisgo · May 2014

I dont.

I run Cyrodiil quests for the 300g and the fun of hunting/being hunted but its not a great income, its just enough to feed my horse and buy armor traits.
VR10 at 7k gold because a couple of respecs broke my wallet.

ElSlayer · May 2014

1) Level up crafting
2) Create a guild
3) Invite non-crafter players into it
4) ...
5) PROFIT!

Krovax · May 2014

I use a couple of alts for storing crafting mats I collect while questing. I admit, I really enjoy harvesting materials, did that for hours over hours in EQ2 and just loved it. Anyway, being really low on cash myself quite often too, I realized just how much money is sitting on my alts in regards of stacks of 100s worth 400g each. Well, waste of money to just sell to NPC, but the point is, you could basically live off the land.

What I do nowadays anyway is to always sell ornate drops to NPC, instead of salvaging them, and by now also to always sell whites. But since you didn't mention crafting you already did that anyways. Pre provisioning nerf, cooking always paid for repair bills.

SexyVette07 · May 2014

Im a male giggalo.

Oh, you meant in game?

Lanae · May 2014

Well uh.. yes I meant in game. I guess I am going to have to just repeat the Cyrodil dailies since farming tons of materials just does not seem like fun. I really hoped there was going to be a better way to generate money.

Let's hope they shall fix the *** armor degradation. I am a full fledged blacksmith, woodworker and clothier so telling me that I need to throw away buckets of money to get my armor fixed makes absolutely no sense to me.

"I was an adventurer like you til a troll turned my armor into a piece of art and was too poor to get it fixed."

UnderKingRhun · May 2014

lol, just questing, exploring killing and looting keeps a steady income. armor degradation is not an issue for me.and i play the most broken class in game currently lol. I am leveling 3 crafting skills, sell only white trash to vendors and usually rolling in cash, the only thing thats really eaten into it is the constant respecs i do lol. income is not an issue.

Saltypretzels · May 2014

you could farm high end motifs and sell them for whatever the going rate is. Find a house with lots of desks and dressers, search them, log out, log in, and search them again.

Lanae · May 2014

utzpretzels wrote: »

you could farm high end motifs and sell them for whatever the going rate is. Find a house with lots of desks and dressers, search them, log out, log in, and search them again.

While I appreciate the suggestion; I missed the part where this is fun. Also I have ransacked every house back and forth from start of the game till the last house in the V10 zone and have yet to find ANY motif. Must be my accursed luck.

Lanae · May 2014

UnderKingRhun wrote: »

lol, just questing, exploring killing and looting keeps a steady income. armor degradation is not an issue for me.and i play the most broken class in game currently lol. I am leveling 3 crafting skills, sell only white trash to vendors and usually rolling in cash, the only thing thats really eaten into it is the constant respecs i do lol. income is not an issue.

I wonder what level you are. As noted I am currently VR10 and have completed all available quests in PVE content.

I have explored all locales as well and maxed out every crafting skill except for enchanting. At VR10 and epic gear the degradation is really expensive and even killing and looting cannot stand up to the amount I make selling lootpieces.
Let alone that I would have money for 'constant respecs' given I have so many skillpoints.

Abigail · May 2014

I'm not rich by any means, though two of my four alts have 42K-horses, all four inventories are at 80, and my bank is at 110. I've got over 50K in gold on hand, and perhaps another 100K in materials banked away. Given my alts are only at level 12, I'd classify myself as 'comfortable.' I could be a lot wealthier, but I burn through fiber, wood, and metal materials leveling up crafting skills.

I actually enjoy long, repetitive gathering/grinding sessions -- more so than doing quests. When I'm grinding for gold (gathering mats to later sell to NPCs) I can average 1000g per hour or better. This may not be the most lucrative or lazy method of achieving wealth, but it's an activity I enjoy and I can live with whatever reward it provides.

Now, if ZoS can stop the encroachment of bots into my grinding areas and unscrew their looting nerf, I'll be a happy camper on all counts.

Ezrith · May 2014

I'm not in the Veteran ranks with my current main character but I was crazy enough to buy the 42k horse and respecc my points for thousands of gold in fee. To get the gold back I found out that vendoring every loot and crafting materials I don't need (I keep the tempers) generally is good.

I like public caves with fast respawning mobs where I hang out 15 min more when it's completed just to fill up my bags with gear before heading back to town. AoE build here is very good. Enough right now to see my gold rising back at a good pace. I can only imagine in vet ranks, probably even better!

I'm not patient enough to farm for hours, I don't find it enjoyable (even if it's lucrative) but 15 min here and there during my playtime is not a pain. I get enough gold to actually don't give a darn about it, knowing it will come back quickly enough.

bloodenragedb14_ESO · May 2014

i go to public dungeons that are filled with creatures that drop leather types, farm for a stack or two, refine, craft crap, sell crap along with crap gotten from farming the mobs. best to do this with a group to mitigate your gear damage, otherwise youll end up paying a fortune in repair costs

Sananab · May 2014

I am in 4 different trade guilds. I look for items that are in Surplus on one store and has none on the other, Buy them, mark them up and sell them again on the store where non are listed. right now at V4 I am sitting about 200.000 gold

ConquerorDromtar · May 2014

I'm one of the (few?) people who doesn't like to mess with auction houses or trade guilds so I'm currently only making money from quests and vendoring stuff. I do enjoy a good old fashioned grinding session and have made (for me) decent money storming through public dungeons zerging down the mobs for fun, plunder, and Fighter's Guild XP. I was sitting on 18K gold a couple days after buying the 42K mount, just from questing in Eastmarch and The Rift. If you're looking to start playing the market to make the big bucks I highly recommend the public dungeon route to build up a stock of items to sell and some investment cash to buy items to sell elsewhere.

bullerwjb16_ESO · May 2014

OK. I'll bite. What is a motif? i.e. in ESO

Sakiri · May 2014

teaches you to craft in a different style. ie: You're a Nord and want to make Argonian armor, you read an Argonian motif book and you can craft it.

There's all playable races as well as four others that cost an arm and both legs.

That said, only thing you can do is farm. No repeatable content. Oh and staying out of group activities. Those are what's killing your repair bills.

I used to make my money in games by selling crafting materials to the lazy that didn't want to farm for themselves. Lack of an auction house coupled with 10+ years of taboo on selling things to guildmates(always free for guildies until I find out you're selling what you're given, then you're named, shamed, and gkicked is the normal rule) means I just don't participate in the economy. I would prefer to /ignore the idiots spamming WTS in chat too, but the list isn't long enough.

morchand23 · May 2014

I stopped crafting, buy all my gear or have it made!!!! I have on my level 27 main 76 k!!! I have 4 alts highest is lvl 5 for storage they were crafting alts but after i started using teso elites marketplace ah found 2 heavy buyers that pay as soon as they get there mail im talking 1200 for iron ore an half cod fee back 2 which i dont even care bout any more ty jake b!!!!!!! There out there an as u see im a slowwww lvler but i dont need to worry bout gold or repair bills any more! Made some new friends found some great crafters that i pay well. Ps. Use the 5 guilds dont be greedy an overcharge for your goods find what they need use the guild search addon an get paid an paid well!!my last check i had 5400 gold waiting for me in mail for junk i didnt need but others did just by researching prices an checking guild sales an 1 buyer got me my vamp bite for free when every1 was still paying all that gold for it!!! I hated eso not having a AH became a little social an now i could care less. I love to farm an theres a huge market dupes no dupes bots or no bots im having a blast an getting that gold an i hope all of you do 2!!!!!

padmortensenb16_ESO · May 2014

Guild Ah's sucks big time....give us that global/alliance AH..the sooner the better....

Pendrillion · May 2014

I would say give us folks who just enjoy the game, without the expectation to pamper their own purse up with ingame goldfarming or some other fraud. Or just some common sense in how to behave in the world. But yeah those pesky ethics and morale... Always someone there to exploit...

Laurelinde · May 2014

Would it be worth starting to level an alt to get a bit more gold? If you can face going through the quests again you'd have that income plus another potential crafter. Plus, if you are careful with your build (or aren't worried about getting it 'perfect') you can avoid respec costs. I have two characters levelling at once and I've decided to only get a horse for one of them, at least for the time being.

I am also assuming that the new Craglorn raids will provide another income stream for endgame when they are released. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.