Polls: Shopping/Style/Crafting Habits

Areka

I've been mulling and fussing a bit over shop keeping and crafting, and was wondering how all of you go about shopping for things for your characters. If you're up to taking a few minutes, I've made several polls, and I'd love it if you'd go vote your input on how and what you look for when picking equipment for your characters. Forums doesn't really facilitate multiple polls in one thread, and I didn't want to bombard with multiple threads, so please bear with. 

If any others would like polls made to add to this, please send me a PM and I'll add one!

How you shop for your character: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=52e6baf1e4b0aa0bc59ef360

[spoiler]Of 27 votes, 17 shop by a character's individual flavour, 2 seek thematic sets, 4 go pantsless.[/spoiler]

What themes you shop for: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=52e6c03fe4b0aa0bc59ef372

[spoiler]Of 79 votes and 25 voters, 8 look for guild/class specific, 5 dark/savage themes, 3 dark/elegant themes, 5 earthy/vibrant themes, 7 earthy/savage themes, 4 each of Knight, Noble and Rogue archetypes, 3 middle eastern, 2 medieval europe, 2 asiatic, and 7 ornate/elegant/refined vs 13 simple/basic/mundane. [/spoiler]

What outfits you shop for: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=52e6c162e4b0aa0bc59ef374

[spoiler]Of 67 votes and 22 voters, 13 buy an outfit that will work for anything/everything, 13 buy every day clothing, 9 buy hunting-specific outfits, 10 buy formalwear, 8 purchase specialized-rp clothing, 4 buy outfits for ritual purposes, 10 buy utility/roleplay pieces.[/spoiler]

What clothing items do you frequently purchase?: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=52e6c6ede4b0aa0bc59ef37e

[spoiler]Of 179 votes and 22 voters: 
1 voted hood, kimono, cravat/tie/collar, jerkin/doublet
2 voted -
3 voted bracers, bodice/corset, hipscarf, scarf, robes, heeled shoes, gloves/gauntlet, hat
4 voted vest
5 voted sandals, skirt
6 voted kitbag, veil, ribbons, bra, dress formal, tunic, pouch, undies, satchel
7 voted loincloth
8 voted dress casual
9 voted coat, cloak
10 voted weaponbelt, pack
11 voted shirt/top/blouse
12 voted -
13 voted boots
[/spoiler]

What forged goods do you frequently purchase?: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=52e6cadbe4b0aa0bc59ef38b

[spoiler]Of 95 votes and 19 voters: 6  use a weapon for specified use (like shatter), 9 buy equally balanced armour, 4 buy specifically-tempered armour.
1 voted battleaxe (split), cavalry, dagger, helmet, pauldron, ringmail, shortsword (speed), spear
2 voted bastard (damage), bardiche combat, bardiche hunting, chainmail, flail (damage), javelin, mace (split), scimitar (speed), warhammer (damage), warhammer (split), whip (speed)
3 voted fullplate, halberd combat, halberd hunting, tower shield, whip (split)
4 voted buckler, leather armour
5 voted dirk (speed), whip (damage)
6 voted 
7 voted scalemail

[/spoiler]

When shopping for food, what do you look for?: http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=52e6cbfce4b0aa0bc59ef391

[spoiler]Of 45 votes and 20 voters, 4 prefer both fully-described meals as well as meals of components, 3 prefer what is cheapest, 7 focus on nourishment, 15 prefer thematic/roleplay-oriented dishes while it varies by situation for 12. [/spoiler] 

Piper

Alright, I'll post more here when I get home but I figured you'd like my opinion. When I shop/craft, I always have a future 'I'd like to RP this out' in mind OR I've got something going on. Recently these have been looked for the most:

Unique crafting items that fit my character are pretty much all I really look for- Overalls/glittering nonsense a la glam rock/ no-nonsense clothing that has an everyday worker in Russia feel/ painting cans... breakfast foods.

Nice polls!

Jensen

For the first one I look for things that fit my character clothing wise.  Armour and weapons I only care about stats.  Rings I want them to be all the same style and enchanted (IE I don't really care what they look like so long as in my inv they just show up as wearing x number of <simple type> ring instead of many different unique rings)

For forged goods, I do look for shields but I don't have a specific preference to type

Slyphe

Awesome concept Areka!

When I was playing, I absolutely hated going for clothing because I liked to have an outfit that goes together with all the pieces to match what look I wanted for my character, which was admittedly hard to find. It was so much of a pain that I actually ended up just buying tailoring and making a design for each, then just sewing new things as they decayed.

Before that though, finding people willing to make custom pieces was the go-to. I remember a particular encounter where the person would have a flat rate to have a customized outfit made that they wouldn't sell anywhere else, otherwise they would do it for free and you give them the right to sell it in all of their shops. This made for some awesome merchant RP that I loved.

Regarding forging... well, that depended. When I was trying to learn PK, I didn't really care what weapons looked like, but when focusing primarily on bashing and RP, customized weapons were absolutely fantastic. Same with armor, though that was almost always customized.

Food is something that, of course after level 80, was something done specifically for RP. A big thing that's fun is having odd snacks that players can claim they're absolutely fond of, and always carry some with them. The key there though was finding something that only one specific person made, and it'd turn into advertisement for them. Like: "Hey, Areka's the only person I know that makes anvil-shaped gummies and I just can't get enough of them. Go try them." etc.

Also with food, big items that you'd expect to see on something like the show Man versus Food were fantastic. If I remember correctly, Isaac I think made huge towering Spirean sandwiches that everybody fell in love with for pretty much that reason.

Rashar

You guys are doing it all wrong.

All you need is a pair of pants and some whiskey.

Pants are obviously very optional.

Phoenecia

As a crafter, I'd like to hear a lot of people's responses as they could be really useful for those of us who own shops. >_>

Anyway, before I got a bunch of craft skills, I always tried to find stuff that matched the image I had in mind for my character, but that was usually really tough since most of the stuff I wanted wasn't the right color or didn't fit the style I wanted. Being very picky and hyper-specific about Phoe's outfits didn't help either, so I ended up getting tailoring so making her look exactly how I wanted wouldn't be as much of a hassle.

As a crafter, I'm, uh...probably one of the more descriptive ones, as some of the people who buy my stuff can attest to. I also tend to be heavily inspired by fantasy costume design, and I try to make unique things that I don't usually see other crafters make. Lord of the Rings, the Tales of game series, Fire Emblem, Game of Thrones, Assassin's Creed - if I see something somewhere that I think looks cool, I'll try to recreate it.

I also really like making decorative/RP items that other people don't usually sell, or I'll find creative ways to use item types. As far as I'm aware, I'm one of the few people that actually sells luthier and ventier instruments in their shop. I also make vases full of flowers in jewelcrafting and potted flowers using the pot design in woodcraft. Little things that serve no other purpose than to be decorative. And people still buy them.

In terms of food, that's probably my favorite prop after level 80. Despite not needing to eat, Phoe loves food, especially sweets. It's really funny having them on hand and just randomly having her nibble on something in the middle of a conversation.

Moirean

You forgot choices from the forging poll. Most of the forged stuff I buy (speed mace, speed hammer, blunt scale, speed dagger) are missing. 

Areka

Didn't even know speed mace or hammer were a thing - I did notate armour for a specific/focused temper as opposed to balanced, and daggers are always speed from what I've been told, so I didn't specify. I'll adjust it though!

Moirean

Yeah speed mace is for shatter. Speed hammer has its uses for Carnis. Carni weapons are pretty specialized in stats they want in general, though.

Areka

Updated it

Amberlea

Phoenecia said:

...
I also really like making decorative/RP items that other people don't usually sell, or I'll find creative ways to use item types. As far as I'm aware, I'm one of the few people that actually sells luthier and ventier instruments in their shop. I also make vases full of flowers in jewelcrafting and potted flowers using the pot design in woodcraft. Little things that serve no other purpose than to be decorative. And people still buy them....

Pretty sure I bought a miniature ship in a bottle from your shop. Probably meant for decorating, but I loved drinking out of it.

Irruel

Regarding food: it's been RL years since I had to bother with food, but I recently did when I spent a bit of time alting.

I have to say, I am surprised how broken and expensive the food system is. Last time I had to worry about food on a character, cooking didn't exist. 100g of food, combined with satiation, was enough to fill. There was also tsol'aa waybread which lasted 30 days.

Now, 150g a meal and nothing seemed to fill me up. I had to eat four entire dinner plates. I tried different things, plates full of steaming mashed potatoes with meat. Nope.

I've since found out that casseroles are the most filling. I'll give them a go next time.

It's relevant to this thread because if full sized meals were all of equal value, then I'd care about it more, but as it is - whatever casserole is cheapest, thanks.

Aishia

Not enough foresty clothing anymore! Someone could really corner a market on that one if they had some good designs. I usually only buy fruit and raw-meat based foods as an RP thematic choice, if anything is cooked it's a NO SALE.

Aishia

Seriously though Elorin is pretty well the only choice for anything remotely in that category, and his stuff while nice, is more on the floral/pretty side than the practical and or rugged side. I want torn up messes of leather and leaves and wrapped up with vines and teeth and held together with decapitated ant pincers. Ok Aymah has a few good designs for sale. Sibatti USED to have great ones. >_>

Moirean

A decent chunk of Sibatti's were mine that I passed on to her when I went inactive. I remade some of them when I came back, but obviously I'm not as motivated these days since I'm not forestal anymore, but there are a few in my shop. I can see if I can dig up any of my older stuff.

Aishia

Cool!

Teani

I tend to get tailoring on all my alts for one simple reason: I can never find something that suits my character as well as what I write up myself.

Sure, tailoring has changed a lot over the years and there are actually people out there who make simple garments now, but there are times when all you can find in shops are thongs, slinky dresses, or skirts that cover next to nothing (I know how to make slinky clothes too, don't get me wrong!) And then there's the category of writers that over-work things, using as many big words as possible to impress the reader, when something simpler might have done just as well and made it look more elegant. When descriptions are too long for me to enjoy reading from start to finish to give me a good sense of what I'm looking at, I just tend to leave the shop and look elsewhere.

Yes, I'm a bit of a snob. I prefer my own style. Sue me!

When it comes to food, I like those who put a little extra effort into the taste and smell attributes, since it's all for the RP most of the time.

Haven

All I need is a superman cape.

Areka

First post updated with some of the numbers so far!