Lord of the Rings Online

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Asher

Vendor? Auction that ****.

Explorer is the best crafting class for your alts.

On my server, at least, to have any chance at a successful auction, you have to set the price at lower than vendor price

[Asher]

On mine, 50 Rowan wood is going for 100s...

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Asher
Vendor? Auction that ****.

I tried that and it doesn't sell, at least not for more than the vendor price. Auctioning is WAY too expensive and too short lasting. Plus, an auction house is only in Bree (aside from the newbie towns), I won't run there for every f'n stack of bars I made in the Northern Downs or Lone Lands. And I definitely won't spam endlessly the trade channel with "Selling 50 quality iron bars... selling 50 barren iron bars... selling 50 gold bars...", my time is too valuable for that.

I melt bars until I get mastery and after this I just vendor the raws. But slowly I get in a level range where the money I make from mining just isn't worth the time anymore. And yes, explorer is a good cash profession for a level 1-30. I chose that profession with exactly that in mind.

That said, I find making cash by selling raws pretty imbalancing. Harvested raws should have no value. In most games I played so far, raws had none or a very low vendor value, and that worked to prevent aggressive harvesting. This way people don't harvest more than they are able to sell to other players, inventory space is a scarce resource. In LotRO harvesting always pays off and in lower levels (say, 1-20) it is even more rewarding than killing mobs.

[Quillan]

Harvested raws should have plenty of value, just in convenience if nothing else. I have to spend an hour or more to collect 100 barrow iron ore. If I buy it, I've saved myself that hour of play time. If I need the practice at prospecting, then buying raw gives me the practice at smelting it into ingots. Even if I don't need the practice, criticals will give me a few more ingots than normal for the amount of ore I have.

I'm on Windfola, and 100 silver for a stack of untreated rowan wood seems about the norm. Some of the guys on the auction house are asking crazy prices. I've seen buyout prices of 500 silver for 1 stack of barrow iron ore. 50 silver each for iron crafting tools. It seems a bit excessive to me.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Quillan
Harvested raws should have plenty of value, just in convenience if nothing else. I have to spend an hour or more to collect 100 barrow iron ore. If I buy it, I've saved myself that hour of play time.

I'm talking of vendor value.

The price for player to player trade will still be as high as the market bears, but harvested raws should not sell to vendors for much. This way nobody will waste time to harvest more than he needs for skill and/or he is able to sell.

The influx of money from vendored harvests is enormous, no wonder why the money drains (repairs, skills, recipes) are so hefty.

[Quillan]

You think those costs were intended to get players to farm? That does work out to be the best way to play the game. You have to do some farming to get money. Me, I never sell raw materials, but then both my characters have production skills. I turn the raw into processed, then the processed into an item, then vendor the item.

[Harovan]

Yes that is pretty much what I'm talking about. Harvested raws should have the sole purpose to be used in tradeskills.

When I travelled solo and saw a node, I always mined it and thus, in many cases likely took it away from people, who could have made better use of it. But for me it was a 100% win situation because of the high vendor prices. Were the vendor price low, I would cease to harvest, if I wasn't yet able to sell the previous stack to a player due to low demand. But this way I can just vendor it for a nice profit, when the bag is full. and move on "stealing" (not literally) nodes from others.

[Jon Miller]

At least on my server, the price for raw materials on the AH is so high as to make crafting uneconomical.

JM