The Cost of Tailoring

Riley Orchid

Not a tailor player, but as the sponsor of two, they're absurdly expensive to level. It costs four separate crafts to get them out of novice assuming they're getting 3 levels per learning, which each one of their basic/abundant materials (tanglecloth/string) costing a luna each independently. This means, in the modern currency, a new player would be expected to scramble together nearly a drake in order to even start learning tailoring, let alone be good at it. This is a large amount of money, and takes Riley a week of 8 hours of daily play to even get the chance of acquiring, and they're a double-master with established resources and ready access to relevant buffs for their skills.

I am not bringing an empty issue on the table here. Rather, I have a suggestions for possible solutions to this:

1. Move the Tangleblossom > Tanglecloth recipe over to Tailoring from Forest Craft. It feels weird that tailors are incapable of weaving their own cloth in the first place.

2. Add a 1-item crafting recipe to Tailoring. A majority of other crafts have a "1 item required" craft that is relatively niche or something mass produced for other jobs. This could involve removing the string requirement from coinpouches or creating a new recipe for Tailors to use (String necklaces, perhaps? This could be used to hold herbs for decorative purposes, or maybe ironnuts or feathers. Maybe even an item called Cheesecloth; reusable piece of cloth used for creating cheese, made from 1 tanglecloth. Perhaps something involving the new bugs coming in 2025? No spoilers on that, but presumably you can guess what I'm hinting at.)

I would appreciate proper tailors chipping in with this issue! Riley is not a tailor, but from what math I've done, tailoring is more expensive to get into then smithing and has a considerably higher bar of entry as well. There's also the issue of no tailors sponsering other tailors, leaving it for other professions to have to sponser new players.

Feb 03, 2025 01:08 UTC*

Caesar

I think the tanglecloth being in forest craft and then subsequently not having any further use in forest craft itself is part of the production chain ideology and it's meant to give work to forest crafters who may not necessarily be tailors already. Forest craft has the position of being the most basic resource processing, in that way. Maybe 'stone chunk' into 'stone' could actually be added to forest craft, so that something that uses stones could give forest crafters work too.

That being said, I do think having a less expensive training item for tailoring would be a good idea. I always appreciate adding more options. Adding crystals to jewelry is an artificing thing, but I also want to meet an otter hippie selling fire crystal string necklaces spread out on a blanket. If something like that gets added, someone please make that character. I'll buy so many of them.

Feb 03, 2025 01:00 UTC

Faithil

I think string would probably be fine to stay as a foresr craft, as a lot of tailoring crafts that are common and cheap require string. Almosf all of the ones critters would want repeatedly other than blankets, but compared to tapestries, bags, rugs and maybe backpacks...? You'd probably still want forest craft, you just wouldn't be basically forced to put a ton of levels into it or repeatedly ask someone else to make it for you.

I agree that a cheesecloth, or even just something like a neckwarmer would be great. I get that these would need sprites, but I'm not sure what other tailor players think about this, but even with 20 craft (where once you reach 40 you can still level up your tailoring with a small amount of crafts) its still nearly half a drake in coin.

I think part of the problem is that there's currently no reason to not prioritize getting tailored goods. Why wouldn't you want to move faster, carry more stuff, recover faster, etc? The only reason you wouldn't would be if you need supplies like food, weapons, or crystals. Once you have enough coin, there's no real other option. If you want good armor, you need tailoring. Which for a helmet it's one padding, four of cloth and for a chest place it's three, or twelve pieces of cloth.

Tldr; I don't think it's that fun to play. It doesn't seem fun for the people who need armor either, or for people who want cloaks/bags. Failing crafts while you're learning sucks (I think I'm extra biased as I was stuck at 4 for a long time, but still)

Feb 03, 2025 01:35 UTC

Fennai

I have neither a tailor, or a forestcrafter. But I do have a decent idea of the cost, and what these professions can make.

Mainly, I'd just like to give general feedback that concerns tailoring where skills need to be meaningful and have a regular usecase to warrant the investment. The issue is bigger than it just being expensive to level, there's also a huge opportunity cost for becoming a tailor rather than any other profession. For a job that requires a scrounger, a forestcrafter, and finally a tailor, as well as the very lengthy and costly process of becoming good at it... Tailoring offers very little. Which is why I think we don't really see many tailors being played regularly. It's not rewarding, and even if you're self-supplying, it takes hours to either grow tangleblossom, and you'll barely find enough for a craft in a long scrounging run, if you're lucky enough to find tangleblossoms and cordweed.

- Difficult to obtain resources.
- Expensive crafts.
- Weak benefits. (Due to poor visibility, many scroungers won't get active in bad weather even when fully clothed. I think the effect is overrated. Bags are far more powerful)
- Single time purchases. (Other than padding, but it's scarcely needed.)
- Clothes can be inherited by new characters from old ones, reducing demand.

Forest crafting is almost entirely carried by the fact firestarters and string are cheap, regular crafts that are needed by many, in relatively small quantities. You need less string than cloth for tailor crafts, and string has many uses from woodworking to candles.

- I agree that cloth should be moved into tailoring. Forest craft crafts aren't all that plentiful, but this won't hurt the unique ones it does have and tailoring remains dependent on forest crafters for string, so it's okay to move one half of the equation without breaking the production chain. This would already cut the cost for leveling by more than half. It should not be cheaper to level a smith as it is currently, by a significant margin.
- A cheap item or simply the ability to allow tailors to customize items with descriptions could make the profession more exciting, and perhaps offer a cheaper craft. This also creates more jobs as critters might end up getting wardrobes if they can afford it, clothes for different seasons, etc, without requiring more clothing sprites.
- Should it be okay to add new items with sprites. Embroidered pads for drinks could cost one cloth for two.
- Please do not just make clothes/items degrade, it would only exacerbate the issues discussed and cause burnout imho. Maybe a repair action to restore full effectiveness of reduced, damaged clothing. But then clothing effects should also be buffed, like increasing visibility in snow/rain (but not fog) ever so slightly by protecting the face (hats/cloaks).

The main aim should be to make it so that a tailor can exist whilst their profession enhances roleplay, or frequently offers roleplay opportunity... Instead of being this job people need once or twice for their character before the profession can be shelved again. You could currently, feasibly have a tailor make 10 of each item after saving up for a long time, supply a dozen critters with clothes and bags, and not have to play them for months until multiple sets of platemail are needed with padding.

There's a couple of jobs like this that critters tend to avoid learning, or invest in, and subsequently get disillusioned with because of how scarcely they're needed.

Feb 03, 2025 06:39 UTC*