Should merchants be richer?

[oggotale]

Just curious here, in my experience it seems that I, and a lot of folk I seem to know, don't really earn that much.

Maybe it's just them ICly hiding their income though.

What does everyone else think? I'm disregarding the tailoring exploits.

[Jihelu]

I had 10k in the bank on an elf that all he did was greb.

If you are a merchant you should be able to make easy money, either selling or crafting.

[Synthesis]

If you're a noob, being a crafter will be hard, because you a) don't know what's valuable, b) don't know how to haggle properly, c) don't know what raw materials to ask people to greb for you.

The easiest way to become a good crafter is to play a few subclass crafters, first.  Say...you want to eventually be a rad Dune Trader.  If you roll a Laborer/Jeweler...you'll have practical experience with:  haggle, axe making, basketweaving, fletchery, lumberjacking, toolmaking, cooking, armor repair, bandagemaking, clothworking, jewelrymaking, knifemaking, stonecrafting, tanning, and woodworking...without being totally defenseless...so you can learn what's worth what, what  it's made from, and where to get it (p.s. master forage is very under-rated).

[Jihelu]

What Synthesis is good advice. You either have 2 choices for learning the crafting system as a noob.

1: Play a regular fighter/whatever, with a crafting subguild. Basically tease your self with it.

2: Join a merchant house or be someones apprentice, and learn from them.

There's also the third option that I basically did on my first merchant (like 24 characters in) where I just, threw my self in. But I would only recommend that if you know a lot of the games syntax and the code and what not.

[Heade]

Synthesis has a good point.

It depends on a lot of other factors, too. I've played "successful" merchants who had legitimate problems ever having more than 10k in the bank, because they spent a lot on bribes and such. And for a PC that isn't a member of a clan, and doesn't go outside alone, food and water is often a significant expense that chips away at earnings, as well.

On the other hand, being in a clan and getting free food/water can often make any PC wealthy over a long enough timeline, without ever really trying. Maybe the whole idea of free food and water for clanned PCs should be looked at, instead. Instead of increasing how much sid merchants can make, just decrease what everyone else can save up.

[Dar]

It's viable to make 1-4k in a single rl day without ever leaving allanak. Using materials strictly sold in npc shops. Provided someone else before you didnt already do that and every npc shop is already full of everything you can make. In which case, this is a matter of economy. Find out who's selling so much and have their legs broken? .

Ofcourse, once you do earn those 4k. Those shops 'are' all filled with produce and you cannot repeat it the next day. But they do get gradually sold off, so you 'can' rely on a steady half a large every rl income, or therebouts.

Add to this the other shops that are not so easily reached, produce made from materials that isnt sold in the cities, etc, etc, and merchants are okey. As Synthesis's character once said, he is the coin witch. He can make mountains of them.

But alas. This takes experience. This takes experimentation and knowledge of syntax and the world. For some, that experience will come as they play. I hope this will happen to your character. For Others, this experience has already happened on some 'other' character they played and they're relying at least in part on that meta knowledge. It's a fact of life. Point is ... world knowledge is needed.

At the same time. Many people need crafters. Coded Clans and indie clans both. So join 'some' group. Most of the time, those groups have someone experienced in the lead who will directly and indirectly teach you much.

[Cind]

Allanak feels like Tuluk right before it closed--- everyone wants you to come work for them, except its indie groups instead of the noble houses.

Also, working for House Kadius taught me crafting recipes I would have never figured out on my own, and once you know the game, you don't become a House crafter without a serious itch for crafting, which usually means knowledgeable people who are expecting newbies to teach.

[Eyeball]

I had 10k in the bank on an elf that all he did was greb.

What did your elf spend that 10k on?

[Miradus]

Correction:

What did NENYUK spend that 10k on?

[Jihelu]

I had 10k in the bank on an elf that all he did was greb.

What did your elf spend that 10k on?

I'd spend 2k on gear everynow and then, keeping armor maintained.

Other than that I just sat on it lmao.