What to do about crafting cartel?

    • What to do about crafting cartel?

      During the last week, nearly every crafting station in the game has gotten bought out by the same few people.

      I was crafting at 8-15% cost, and the lowest one I can find now is 50%. Crafting was barely profitable before, even with fame, and now it's just throwing your money away. There should be some type of ingame system to prevent this from happening, but how it is now the rich just get richer by manipulating the rest of the 99%. If I wanted to experience this, I'd just go back to work in real life.

    • You must not craft.

      Using your own crafting station, or a public station, doesn't return mats. That's literally throwing money away.

      You'd need billion of silver to bid on a city station.

      Neither of those options are viable for the general crafting population. That's like saying, "you don't like the cost of cars, just build your own factory"

    • Well, I'd like to know some realistic ways to do that then.

      Using fame, it costs about 9 mats on average to craft an item. Most of the time, that's breaking even after food and low fee costs (10-20%). That means crafting books are 100% of your profit.

      Once you can't use fame to get those mats back, your cost nearly doubles. How do you avoid this with island crafting stations? Books don't even cover that cost unless you have fully maxed T8 houses, and even then the margins still have to be slim.

    • There are public hideouts with full bubble travel. If you don't want to support your city's cartel, take your business elsewhere. The current situation as far as city crafting goes is manageable though if you're too lazy to travel. The option of using an island station with a lower return rate is still an effective cap on what city plot owners can charge.

    • I'm definitely not too lazy to travel. I was hauling millions between Caerleon and other cities for the last few weeks, but as of a couple days ago every city is 50%+ when before it was just Caerleon.

      I don't really know how hideouts work, as I recently came back to the game and when I stopped playing before those didn't exist, but I'll look into it.

    • SteelReign wrote:

      You must not craft.

      Using your own crafting station, or a public station, doesn't return mats. That's literally throwing money away.

      You'd need billion of silver to bid on a city station.

      Neither of those options are viable for the general crafting population. That's like saying, "you don't like the cost of cars, just build your own factory"
      I'm confused by this. On my guild island when using any crafting station with focus I get 37% returned materials. Without focus I also get returned materials, don't know the % off the top of my head though. Was this part of the Queen update or has it always been this way?

    • Sock wrote:

      SteelReign wrote:

      You must not craft.

      Using your own crafting station, or a public station, doesn't return mats. That's literally throwing money away.

      You'd need billion of silver to bid on a city station.

      Neither of those options are viable for the general crafting population. That's like saying, "you don't like the cost of cars, just build your own factory"
      I'm confused by this. On my guild island when using any crafting station with focus I get 37% returned materials. Without focus I also get returned materials, don't know the % off the top of my head though. Was this part of the Queen update or has it always been this way?
      I believe hes talking about the 15% bonus you automatically get in town. On an island, its a flat 0%. So using your focus on your island will be 15% less better off than in town. But you then offset that with the tax rate in town. However you also have the construction costs, the food costs and well you get the point :)
      ItsNewbie
      ----------------------
      https://www.aoherald.com/

    • ItsNewbie wrote:

      Sock wrote:

      SteelReign wrote:

      You must not craft.

      Using your own crafting station, or a public station, doesn't return mats. That's literally throwing money away.

      You'd need billion of silver to bid on a city station.

      Neither of those options are viable for the general crafting population. That's like saying, "you don't like the cost of cars, just build your own factory"
      I'm confused by this. On my guild island when using any crafting station with focus I get 37% returned materials. Without focus I also get returned materials, don't know the % off the top of my head though. Was this part of the Queen update or has it always been this way?
      I believe hes talking about the 15% bonus you automatically get in town. On an island, its a flat 0%. So using your focus on your island will be 15% less better off than in town. But you then offset that with the tax rate in town. However you also have the construction costs, the food costs and well you get the point :)
      Thank you so much! I kept seeing that there was some bonus for using stations in town but never really looked into it. I just started doing crafting so thanks for the information.

    • SteelReign wrote:

      During the last week, nearly every crafting station in the game has gotten bought out by the same few people.

      I was crafting at 8-15% cost, and the lowest one I can find now is 50%. Crafting was barely profitable before, even with fame, and now it's just throwing your money away. There should be some type of ingame system to prevent this from happening, but how it is now the rich just get richer by manipulating the rest of the 99%. If I wanted to experience this, I'd just go back to work in real life.
      Some of the rates in Mattlock are over 350% and as you say, 50% seems about the lowest. I don't have any crafting over T6 yet but most of my refining is at T7. At this level this is what I find.:

      For T4 refining and most crafting the 15% materials return is worth less than the fees.
      For T5 about 70% of the time the fee is more than the value of them
      For T6 returned materials are worth more in about 80% of the time

      Also note that you do get returned materials on an Island for the items bonused in your biome. My Islamd is from Martlock and my island crafting station for leather returns over 28% materials without focus. The value returned in town is only 37% so for leather, it is almost never better to craft in town. Same applies for the other specials of each biome.
      Learn something new every day.

    • What to do about the crafting cartel?
      Nothing. I personally think this is their way to control prices of various resources in the lands of Albion.
      If you have been keeping track this crafting tax cycle has been in place for quite some time and goes up and down regularly.
      I have watched Martlock leather cycle from 10% to 65% and back to 10% and back to 65% since i started shaving those bears, boars and wolves.
      I just throw the piles of them in a chest until the price goes back down to something acceptable. You can always just sell your resources directly instead of refining them as well.

    • The way you fight against the cartels is to not use them. You could ask for associates, but that's really not much better.

      Ways that I personally fight the cartel:
      • I never craft or refine if the tax is above 20%. I'll sit on stacks of resources of all tiers for as long as it takes.
      • I build crafting stations in my guild/alliance hideouts. It's absolutely worth it especially for the bonus biome even if it means only constructing for a day and demolishing after. The caveat to this is it's dangerous to travel that heavy and it requires an upfront cost of stone if you cannot gather it yourself.
      • If I find a city plot owner's morgana crate or the like on their station that is public, I fill it with trash to let them know what I think of them.

    • Geofors wrote:

      SteelReign wrote:

      During the last week, nearly every crafting station in the game has gotten bought out by the same few people.

      I was crafting at 8-15% cost, and the lowest one I can find now is 50%. Crafting was barely profitable before, even with fame, and now it's just throwing your money away. There should be some type of ingame system to prevent this from happening, but how it is now the rich just get richer by manipulating the rest of the 99%. If I wanted to experience this, I'd just go back to work in real life.
      Some of the rates in Mattlock are over 350% and as you say, 50% seems about the lowest. I don't have any crafting over T6 yet but most of my refining is at T7. At this level this is what I find.:
      For T4 refining and most crafting the 15% materials return is worth less than the fees.
      For T5 about 70% of the time the fee is more than the value of them
      For T6 returned materials are worth more in about 80% of the time

      Also note that you do get returned materials on an Island for the items bonused in your biome. My Islamd is from Martlock and my island crafting station for leather returns over 28% materials without focus. The value returned in town is only 37% so for leather, it is almost never better to craft in town. Same applies for the other specials of each biome.
      What is this Biome Bonus? Does it apply in cities, and finished goods, as well?

      I do Robe crafting (nearly level 100 for all non-artifact) and it usually seems to be 45% return regardless of the town, but I haven't tried crafting in every town recently.