Repairing Gear and Player Shops in general

[ltlukoziuz]

I have a martial character (blackguard), who goes through his items durability rather fast. Most people take up 18 forging (armor/shield/bracers)/18 tailoring (side gear) to fix their own gear, however, I am a herbalist/alchemist myself, so I am having to rely on people. However.... Today I was on a run to fix my tailored gear, as I already broke my belt by accident and my cloak/gloves/boots are all at 3 charges. So, I visited:

-23 shops in Cordor
-7 shops in Bendir
-12 shops in Darrowdeep/Arcane/Tungsten Stretch
-6 shops in Brog
-6 shops in Guld
-7 shops in Sibayad
-5 shops in Crows Nest/Halfbreeds

NOT A SINGLE EFFING TAILORING KIT

About 60% of the shops serve a legitimate different purpose than being a tailoring salon. Wands ((oddly, more arcane than divine)), Forging Kits, crafting materials (especially rarer ones), scrolls and so on.

However, the rest are just outright.... rubbish, not to offend anyone. Shops which only sell random loot (you would think they would at least try to only sell 2 stat equipment with worthy skills, but I've seen plenty of +concentration gloves); forge shops minus the above forging kits (they are good, but only as custom order places, not "trying" to cover for what is considered bases); shops with only like one/two items (but not kicked off because there's no settlement attached to said shop).

What do you think about:
a) More moderation over shops governance (people have tried Waukenaar inquisitors in past (I miss Qasi, even if my chars hate him)), including DMs?
b) Lower the time limits on unsupervised shops?
c) Providing some NPC way to repair in such desperate moments? Make it super overpriced or hard to get, of course.

[One Two Three Five]

Did you like talk to anyone and ask if they could repair stuff

[ltlukoziuz]

Did you like talk to anyone and ask if they could repair stuff

Oh I know of few tailors ICly and I could get repairs easily if I managed to meet them in game on times I'm online. My main point is more on the fairly poor state of shops, at least on surface.

[The GrumpyCat]

You could use the opportunity to talk to new random people in order to get your gear repaired? Treat it as an RP opportunity! Rather than depending on those you know, stretch your limits and talk to all and sundry!

Alternativly look for shops that adversise their tailoring services, and contact the tailor directly. See if the tailor has a shop and leave a note saying 'yo, can you make me some tailoring kits?'

[Nitro]

It's not that repair kits aren't sold, if you visit shops often over periods of time you'll notice that quite a few regularly stock repair kits only to have them bought out very quickly. That's the status of most desireable goods put in shops at fair prices, they get bought up so fast it looks like the store is empty or only selling other items.

But otherwise, it's absolutely in a settlements interest to have profitable stores as they generate taxes, so if you think the stores somewhere are garbage, approach the settlement leaders about it. All the tools are available in game to make sure stores are kept at a good standard. (Except for stores not attached to any settlement of course)

[msterswrdsmn]

I've found at least one shop in cordor that stocks tailoring repair kits on a semi regular basis. And I know of at least 2 or 3 that have forging repair kits. Also, the last time I saw IG regulations on shops, people lost their mind. The regulations included not selling stuff over 100,000 gold, not having allowing certain items, etc. I liked the idea, but uh, it didn't seem to go over well IG.

[Hinty]

Also you may not like shops with cheep sub optimal gear, but don't forget, new adventurers need to buy stuff too.

Doesn't help the lowbies if shops only have gear that costs 20 or 30 thousand a pop.

[Vrass]

Im told there is a non-player shop that sells up to +2 stuff like rings of protection and amulets of natural armor... anyone know where it is?

[BegoneThoth]

Lost caravan in the big desert I think.

[EnigmaticSpirit]

Ievos and I sell forging and tailoring repair kits in Myon.

I imagine this likely doesn't help you, though, unless you can get in.

[Atlantahammy]

There is also armor / gear repair tinkers in the underdark but uh... Their in the underdark.
(I've always sort of wondered why the surface doesn't have a equivalent to them)

[Fionn]

If you've got a big strong tanky-tank and can carry a bit of bronze about, I'm sure a lot of tailors would gladly trade for kits.

[sad_zav]

I want all my shops stocked with ironguts potions

[MissEvelyn]

Also you may not like shops with cheep sub optimal gear, but don't forget, new adventurers need to buy stuff too.

Doesn't help the lowbies if shops only have gear that costs 20 or 30 thousand a pop.

This. Frankly I'm a little surprised over the entitlement displayed in this post. Lowbies do need gear too.

But it is, at the end of the day, a multiplayer game. Not everything will always go your way.

That said, GrumpyCat gave some excellent suggestions to how to deal with your problem in-game.

[BegoneThoth]

There's low ie gear all over and you can easily enchant yourself to max a stat even w/o a single drop or any enchantment feats.

That's how I gear a lowbie. Just put +1 to your key stat on mundane gear.

[Vrass]

Best thing to do is put a few points into each crafting skill so you can do your own repairs. Not only is it easier but it costs nothing.

[Dirac]

Best thing to do is put a few points into each crafting skill so you can do your own repairs. Not only is it easier but it costs nothing.

Repair DC increases with severity DC of the item, so repairing your Masterly Damask weapon has a DC of 53 to repair 1 charge. So it's not a "few" points.

Still seeing Tailoring repair kits as a rarity. Please put a repair tinkerer topside or make it worthwhile for tailors to produce these kits.

[Baron Saturday]

Repair DC increases with severity DC of the item, so repairing your Masterly Damask weapon has a DC of 53 to repair 1 charge. So it's not a "few" points.

Still seeing Tailoring repair kits as a rarity. Please put a repair tinkerer topside or make it worthwhile for tailors to produce these kits.

I suspect that the issue is less that it isn't worthwhile, and more that the supply simply can't keep up. At a guess, the reason for this is the bronze ingot needed to make tailoring kits. In my experience, at least, tailors tend to be Dex-based characters. As such, even those with enough points in forging to reliably make bronze ingots can only gather enough ore to make a small handful of bronze at a time.

That said, if you can't find tailoring kits, it isn't that hard to find a tailor to make the repairs directly. Worst comes to worst, you can always attempt repairs with just 1 point in the relevant skill. You're basically fishing for 20s, so it's not super effective, but if you're not using your CP elsewhere, you might as well.

[ReverentBlade]

I sympathize with the OP. My main is a tailor, but the repair kits are simply too annoying to make. Having to be both a smith (bronze) and a tailor to make the repair kits is a poor design decision IMO.

[Baron Saturday]

It's clearly a deliberate design decision, however, as carpentry kits and forging kits also require crafting materials from other skills - forging needs oil flasks, DC 16 herbalism, and carpentry also needs bronze ingots. That said, I could see an argument being made for a less weight-intensive crafting material for tailoring & carpentry kits. Looking through existing products, however, I'm not sure what a sensible replacement would be...

[Fionn]

I sympathize with the OP. My main is a tailor, but the repair kits are simply too annoying to make. Having to be both a smith (bronze) and a tailor to make the repair kits is a poor design decision IMO.

I disagree on the poor design. If folk want repair kits - specifically folk that can make Bronze - then folk should be making sure that tailors have easy access to Bronze. I had a Tailor/smith for precisely this reason. Worked fine for him, but it did prevent him from making really nice top tier stuff before I sac'd him (21). If you want to make a toon that is dependent on tailors, then help out the tailors.

[Tryn Dralar]

I'm a master carpenter but have enough tailoring to make repair kits there as well. I have zero issues buying ingots as I have nothing in forging. Thing is, repair kits are just one of those items I make if I've come across ingots while shopping for other things. Rarely will I go shopping specifically for ingots. But I do make both carpentry and tailoring repair kits.

[Blood on my Lips]

Having components from different crafting skills involved in making a product is a great way to encourage to interaction amongst players and support the in game economy.

There is a number of ingots needed by alchemists, who are often played by mages, which as a rule lack in strength and therefore lack the ability to carry things like ingots and ore to make those ingots. Now tailors and art crafters face the same problem.

There was a time where dedicated ingot shops (run by players) existed. Sadly this isn't the case anymore. A few good player run shops offering a wider variety of ingots than just gold, silver, mithril, and adamantine would solve the problems of a lot of crafters and the players that need the products they produce.

If you have a smith, take a look through the Wiki for crafting and see what different ingots are needed in the various products that are in demand, open a shop and offer ingots for sale.

[ReverentBlade]

Let me phrase it another way. There is no incentive to make repair kits as a tailor. I can repair my own gear without them.

Since I have to source metal from another character (or run around looking through shops), they aren't quick to make. They take time and inconvenience. Time is money. By the time I've done all the boring RP of sourcing metal (and I find crafting RP to be the most boring kind of RP in existence), I could have done -several- laps of a mid-high level dungeon and made a few 10ks of gold.

To represent the value of my time, repair kits in my shop would be priced so high that no one would want to buy them. They are not an economically smart item to produce.

[WanderingPoet]

There is plenty of incentive to make repair kits as a tailor, they're not for repairing your own gear! In your case you could kill two birds with one stone and go do your 'several laps' of Glorag or other areas rich in ingots and get your ingots and lots of gold.

I've never really seen the need for repair kits as it is generally easy enough to find someone with that skillset (even if every once and a while you have to wait around for a bit to find someone) - baring people in quiet timezones.

Once you find a tailor/smith/carpenter that can repair your gear, you know who to pester for more repairs in the future. You can also ask them to make your repair kits so that you can personally repair your things and even supply the bronze to them. As a tailor/carpenter yourself, it isn't difficult to get bronze from shops/smiths/glorag and use those to make stacks of tailoring kits - they're easy money if there is demand. Find a smith and you can buy the ore/coal from the expanded warehouse - easy bronze.