Surveying and NPC running out of cash.

[Eachna]

(And I don't think Sir Coth is a useless NPC to be friends with. He's 100% worth every favor item just for that unforgettable discussion about elves and snakes. In more practical terms, I still sell all my artwork and treasure-type items to him.)

Corth is *entertaining* as are Rita and Blanche. Rita and Blanche also have some quests as well as other entertaining dialogues. What Rita, Blanche and Sir Corth don't pay back on is the opportunity costs of giving them valuables very early in the game when a new player is desperate for vendors, storage, and trainers.

Here's another example that may make what I'm talking about clear.

There's two NPCs that buy weapons. NPC A also buys armor, and has storage. NPC B also teaches a combat skill and a trade skill. If you're not interested in that particular trade/combat skill pair, NPC B isn't as valuable to you as NPC A. Everyone will have both weapons and armor to sell, and everyone will want storage. Not everyone wants that trade skill or combat skill.

NPC B isn't "worthless" if you don't want his skills. But, rushing to buy favor with him is a bit of a waste early on, it slows down your favor gains with NPC B.

Invest in 10 NPCs like that (not useful to you for your first month) and you're broke, skill-less, recipe-less, and confused for a month . And then you turn a corner or you "catch up", and your character has relationships with all the NPCs in Serbule and things start looking good.

The game is about exploring and having fun. It shouldn't be an exercise in efficiency pathfinding (if you want that game it's not here). But experienced players asking how people could not have money (because they have everything in Serbule unlocked) are forgetting or overlooking how obfuscated the choices are when you first step into town.

To put the topic BACK ON SURVEYING and easy/hard starter skills ... surveying is a core skill for anyone who wants to craft. It's not complicated to use the skill (make a map, click the map, run to the dot, click the map again). But, stacks of paper and ink are expensive for a new player and it's a little complicated as far as figuring out how to budget for it and how to sell the metal and gems profitably.

Leatherworking is an easy skill . Kill the pig. Skin the pig. Rub the pig skin with extremely cheap tannin. Sell the leather roll to Therese. That's an "easy" skill for new players to get into.

[Tagamogi]

But experienced players asking how people could not have money (because they have everything in Serbule unlocked) are forgetting or overlooking how obfuscated the choices are when you first step into town.

Oh, I totally get not having money. I'm just confused at the concept of having enough to sell to an NPC to exhaust their money pool, when you could just be giving everything away for favor.

But right, back to surveying. I had a pretty easy time with surveying as a new player, which I think was due both to some luck and limited playtime. The luck came in when I picked up a couple work orders for blue spinels and fluorites at the Docks that promised to pay me some pretty staggering sums. So, I started gem surveying to collect on that cash. It felt quite natural to progress from there to other gem work orders in Eltibule and Sun Vale - camping the Sun Vale board for a couple days to collect more gem orders was definitely worth it. Leftover gems I mostly gave away as favor which gave me rewards with Yetta and Kleave that I wasn't even trying for at the time. I also repeated the gem work orders on an alt because they were that easy to do.

The limited playtime helps with pretty much everything - NPC money pools and work orders reset quite fast for me relative to the time I spend playing.

There is advice on one of the login screens to focus on a single crafting skill initially, which I think is actually wrong - it seems much easier to me to slowly level multiple skills at once as you find a market for their products. So, I'd only do surveying while there are work orders to fill, and then move on to another skill for a while to do those work orders, etc. (And then storage becomes a problem, but that's another thread.)

[Eachna]

Oh, I totally get not having money. I'm just confused at the concept of having enough to sell to an NPC to exhaust their money pool, when you could just be giving everything away for favor.

Heh. Oh, I see what you're saying now. Not all the vendors in Serbule start vending at no favor, right? So it's easy to exhaust the few who do while still giving away a lot of favor gifts.

[Crissa]

Heh. Oh, I see what you're saying now. Not all the vendors in Serbule start vending at no favor, right? So it's easy to exhaust the few who do while still giving away a lot of favor gifts.

Yeah, but you give less than a single session in gifts and they're vendoring. If you're selling gems, well, sure maybe you'll run the jeweler out, but he accepts all of those as gifts, too. And multiple vendors buy the low-level stuff and the mushroom vendor just doesn't care and...

The only vendor I've ever pushed out of coin was Marna, but you can put her out with a single item even at high favor.

[Trapsin]

What I've started doing now is selling until they run out of cash and then giving them stuff for favor after that, or once they are low on funds, selling what no one around me will take as favor and then giving the items they will take for favor.

[alleryn]

What I've started doing now is selling until they run out of cash and then giving them stuff for favor after that, or once they are low on funds, selling what no one around me will take as favor and then giving the items they will take for favor.

I think this is a good strategy. I tended to give most everything away as gifts, which left me with very little cash and the vendors all with full unutilized pools.

[Malice00]

So, let's update. I was 45ish when I posted the original post. Now I am 53ish and have become soul mates with 4 NPC's and most of the rest I am friends or better. Money is no longer an issue, I have over 40K and two skills in the 51 to 60 range. Thank you to all commenters, you had great ideas and tricks to making game play easier and more fun. While I like playing team sports, I like the possibility of solving the puzzle without some guild member pushing me to max out and holding my hand to accomplish the task.