The Laws Of Crafting, Post your own!

Disclaimer: This is purely intended to be a joke. By no means are these "laws" meant to be serious (as much as some of them may appear to be true).If you have any of your own "laws" of crafting, feel free to post them.

I. The Laws of HQing:
Law 1: Your HQ rate on any given synth is increased when the HQ is either non-existant, or undesirable (i.e. rainbow cloth, Triton ring, merman's hairpin)

Law 2 : Your HQ rate on any given synth for your own personal profit is decreased when the HQ is desirable (i.e. noble's tunic). When trying to sign said item, your HQ rate is decreased even further.

Law 3: When synthing big ticket items for other players on a commission basis, your HQ rate is increased where the HQ is desirable. This increase is inversely related to how good of friends you are with said customer. If this is a complete stranger and you don't exactly want to HQ for them, there is a great increase in your HQ rate. On the other hand, if the customer is a very close friend and you want to HQ for them, this increase is very marginal at best, and in some cases can actually end up being a decrease in HQ chance.
Paradox 1: your HQ rate for strangers is increased again if using a normal crystal. If using an HQ crystal, HQ rate is decreased.
Corollary to Paradox 1: unless it's a rare HQ and the customer is just going to sell it on the AH.

Law 4: This law takes effect only after having obtained a desirable HQ of an item. This law dictates that if desirable HQ is for profit, the market will be flooded resulting in smaller profit. If desirable HQ is for self-use, there will be a new item for the same slot which will be better then the desirable HQ.


II. The Laws of Skilling Up:
Law 1: When you are very close to the level cap of an item (i.e. .1 or .2 away) and run out of materials and need to purchase more, buying synthesis materials in singles on the AH and synthing 1 at a time until you get your .1 will result in many extra attempts needed to get that last .1 skillup. Afterwards you will feel stupid buying the 8-10+ singles for your .1 and in many cases they end up costing more than buying the full stack would have.

Law 2: When you are very close to the level cap of an item (i.e. .1 or .2 away) and run out of materials and need to purchase more, buying synthesis materials in stacks will result in getting that last .1 very quickly (within 1-3 synths), leaving you with plenty of excess materials leftover which you probably have no use for. Afterwards you will feel stupid buying the full stack when 1-3 singles would have been sufficient.

Law 3: When stockpiling materials or purchasing materials in bulk for future skillups, the following outcomes generally happen:
-If you purchase/stockpile more materials than you feel you will need, it turns out you really end up needing all of it, and then some. The more rare/expensive said materials are, the more likely this will end up being the case as opposed to the next rule.
-If you purchase/stockpile what you feel is enough or more than enough, it turns out you end up hitting a lucky streak and skillup fast while ending up with a significant amount of leftovers. The cheaper/more common the synthesis materials are, the more likely this will happen as opposed to the above outcome.

Law 4: When very close to reaching a level (especially when close to 100), and you are willing to pay seemingly any amount to purchase more of the synthesis materials to finish it off and get it over with, you will generally suffer a low skillup rate while driving the price of the materials up by 25-100%+ in the process.
Example: I have seen a couple of other goldsmithers pay seemingly any price for orichalcum ingots when they are 99.9 in a desperate attempt to reach 100. In these cases, this usually ends up taking 10+ synths for their last .1, and they have bumped the price of orichalcum ingots by 50% or more in the process, resulting in a major loss and making other crafters angry at you.

Law 5: Once you have completed skilling up your craft with the skillup paths you used, Square-Enix will release new recipes that are much cheaper and easier to obtain materials for.
Examples: Hunter's Cotton, Puk Fletchings, Shrimp Lantern

III. The Laws of Gil

Law 1: when you are low on gil and have overextended your float to purchase a big-ticket ingredient, you will inevitably break the synth.
Law 1, Claim 1: usually, instead of a critical break, you will lose everything except 1 of the most trivial ingredient, necessitating the storage of a single item that has no chance of ever selling again on the AH. In the case of unstackable trivial materials, none of them will be lost.
Law 1, Corollary 1: after the break, you will spend a week clawing your way back by making vet cloth or shihei or something. During that week, all manner of super-cheap items will be available on bazaars and the AH, and you won't have the funds to take advantage of said opportunities.

Law 2: when you are buying materials for a synth that requires n expensive ingredients (Vermillion Cloak, Cursed Slacks), you will be able to buy n - 1 of those ingredients.
Law 2, Lemma 1: the last one will either be overpriced, sold out, or ninjaed by some other crafter also camping the AH.
Law 2, Lemma 2: sometimes all 3.

Law 3: the longer you wait to sell an item, the lower its price will drop.
Law 3, Corollary 1: after you have sold said item, its price will zoom back up.
Law 3, Corollary 2: probably because S-E changed something in a patch directly affecting that item. Also see the Law of Skilling up that states that S-E will patch in a new, much cheaper recipe for a skillpath that you've just completed the hard way (see Hunter's Cotton).

IV. Unified Law of HQing while Skilling Up:

Law: the only skillup items you will ever HQ from under the cap are items that have no HQ. At best, you will get a slightly improved yield of fletchings perhaps.
Corollary 1: this usually happens immediately prior to or following a long session of NQing a valuable tier 0 HQ synth.

V. The Law of Averages When Applied to Crafting:

Law 1: After a good streak of HQing any particular item, or items of significant value, you will suffer a long term decrease in HQ rate to balance it out as per the law of averages... and then some.

Law 2: The inverse of Law 1 does not apply. After a longterm streak of bad luck while trying to HQ any synth of significant value, at best your HQ rate on any synths of significant value will eventually return to a slightly below average rate, or maybe a close to normal HQ rate on items of significant value.

Law 3: Contrary to what you may think, the Law of Averages is indeed working out in the end. See Laws 1, 2, and 3 of the Laws of HQing then add up the sum of all those HQs (including the nonexistant and/or undesirable HQs) on the same tier, and divide it by the number of total synths and you will find that your long term results are relatively close to the expected average.

VI. The Laws of Guild Points

Law 1: When you are within 5000 of obtaining enough guild points to purchase an item from the guild, the maximum value for two days will not exceed 4500 total. On the third day, the item will be worth no less than 5000.
Law 1, Corollary 1: On the third day, the item will be above your comfortable synthing level range (including synth support).
Law 1, Corollary 2: On the third day, the item will be much more expensive than your usual price/GP ratio.
Law 1, Corollary 3: On the third day, there will be no materials available to synth the item, and none of the item will be up for sale.
Law 1, Corrolary 4: On the third day, the synthesis will require a key item which you do not own. (Cross-reference to Corollary 3.)

Law 2: When trying to use up Guild Points in one guild so that you may sign up for guild points in another guild, you will always end up with almost enough points to buy an extra HQ crystal, but not quite.

Law 3: If you try to rush and turn in guild point items just before Midnight JST, you will not make it in time.

Law 4: HQ rate of Guild Point Items increases:
- as usefulness of the item decreases.
- if the HQ is worth the same amount of GP as the NQ.
- if the same number of HQ and NQ will still yield the maximum number of Guild Points.



Credits:

I. The Laws of HQing
Law 1,2: Corwen
Law 3: Corwen, with additions by Odango
Law 4: Dragonhope

II. The Laws of Skilling Up
Law 1,2,3,4: Corwen
Law 5: Odango

III. The Laws of Gil
Law 1,2: Odango
Law 3: Odango, with minor correction by Dragonhope

IV. The Unified law of HQing while Skilling Up:
Law: Odango

V. The Law of Averages When Applied to Crafting:
Law 1,2,3: Corwen

VI. The Laws of Guild Points
Law 1,2,3,4: Shalababala


Edits to existing laws are displayed in blue.

This post has been edited by Corwen on Feb 23 2007, 08:13 AM

edit: added to main list already!

This post has been edited by Odango on Feb 20 2007, 06:47 AM

Small correction needed here. It should be stated as thus:

After you have sold said item, its price will zoom back up.






Law of HQ 4: This law takes effect only after having obtained a desirable HQ of an item. This law dictates that if desirable HQ is for profit, the market will be flooded resulting in smaller profit. If desirable HQ is for self-use, there will be a new item for the same slot which will be better then the desirable HQ.

Entirely true.

Made some revisions, added the laws mentioned by Odango and Dragonhope.

Made a credits section to give credit where it is due.

Keep them coming!

Those laws are sure mighty!

Another possible "Law" that I will propose, but leave open for discussion before I add it to the list.

V. The Law of Averages when applied to crafting

Law 1: After a good streak of HQing any particular item, or items of significant value, you will suffer a long term decrease in HQ rate to balance it out as per the law of averages... and then some.
Example: a 100+6 woodworker went an impressive 7/12 on HQ elemental staves (tier 2 synth), reaping a large amount of profit. For his next several batches of staves, he will likely HQ only 0-2 out of each set of 12 to offset this.

Law 2: The inverse of Law 1 does not apply. After a longterm streak of bad luck while trying to HQ any synth of significant value, at best your HQ rate on any synths of significant value will eventually return to a slightly below average rate, or maybe a close to normal HQ rate on items of significant value.
Example: a 100+6 woodworker has synthed 5 sets of 12 elemental staves. His results were 1/12, 2/12, 1/12, 0/12, 3/12. The next set of staves he synths will most likely not exceed a 3/12 HQ rate. There will be no magical 7/12 HQ run to offset these previous horrible runs. This could be considered an example of "Gamblers' Fallacy"

Law 3: Contrary to what you may think, the Law of Averages is indeed working out in the end. See Laws 1, 2, and 3 of the Laws of HQing then add up the sum of all those HQs (including the nonexistant and/or undesirable HQs) on the same tier, and divide it by the number of total synths and you will find that your long term results are relatively close to the expected average.

Example: A clothcrafter wants to synth 12 rainbow capes for his own personal profit, but there is no rainbow cloth on the AH, therefore he will have to make 24 rainbow cloth himself. The Clothcrafter will end up HQing 3 out of the 24 rainbow cloths, then proceed to NQ all the rainbow capes. The end result: 3/36 on tier 1 synths, which is still considered "good" by most crafters standards on a tier 1 synth, however he failed to HQ where it mattered (where he would have profited). Now a prospective customer wishes to have a prism cape made by said crafter and brings 1 stack of rainbow cloths + 6 silk threads for 6 attempts. The crafter who went 0/12 on prism capes earlier for his own profit will go 2/6 for the customer to make up for the 0/12 from earlier, and the customer pays the crafter a small tip and walks away with 2 prism capes for pennies on the dollar. In the end, the crafter did go 2/18 on prism capes, and 5/42 overall on tier 1s, but 0 of those HQs were where it truly mattered.

(Anticipates Odango grumbling about me talking about law of averages, when im really meaning to poke at the idea a bit )

nah actually I don't really have a problem with it. As stated though the law is a little...verbose. Not that I have any suggestions for that sort of thing :P

This is great you folks! Ahahahahah ROFL! So true, so very true tho!

Best example that confirms these laws to be true. I squirreled away a STACK of galateas, buying them when I thought they were cheap at 900k (well they were going for a mil each at that time) trying to get to L100. So following the Laws of Skilling Up, section 3...I bought a bunch when prices were "low". Naturally I hit that last 0.1 after I had saved up a whole stack. >< Welllll, a galatea is now down to 100k (that's right, from a mil each) so my stack is now worth 10% of what it cost.

The same for damascene cloths. They were 1.1-1.2 mil so got 6 at 900k. Was saving them for a favorable day to synth on. Naturally they've fallen to 650k and the price of a VC is barely break even instead of profitable. Even the Royal cloak I scored the other day isn't worth THAT much more than a regular VC.

Don't you just LOVE being a crafter? ^ ^

As always, Happy Crafting AND HQ'ing! M

This post is great =) Here's my two cents:

VI: The Laws of Guild Points
(assuming VI if the other section goes in as V)

Law 1: When you are within 5000 of obtaining enough guild points to purchase an item from the guild, the maximum value for two days will not exceed 4500 total. On the third day, the item will be worth no less than 5000.
Law 1, Corollary 1: On the third day, the item will be above your comfortable synthing level range (including synth support).
Law 1, Corollary 2: On the third day, the item will be much more expensive than your usual price/GP ratio.
Law 1, Corollary 3: On the third day, there will be no materials available to synth the item, and none of the item will be up for sale.
Law 1, Corrolary 4: On the third day, the synthesis will require a key item which you do not own. (Cross-reference to Corollary 3.)

Law 2: When trying to use up Guild Points in one guild so that you may sign up for guild points in another guild, you will always end up with almost enough points to buy an extra HQ crystal, but not quite.

Law 3: If you try to rush and turn in guild point items just before Midnight JST, you will not make it in time.

Law 4: HQ rate of Guild Point Items increases:
- as usefulness of the item decreases.
- if the HQ is worth the same amount of GP as the NQ.
- if the same number of HQ and NQ will still yield the maximum number of Guild Points.

Heya Shala, haven't seen your signature lately so looked today annnnnnd.....whoa; you've gone a great job of skilling up your subcrafts! Congrats and kudos!

And I loved your additions...will have to do the GP items again for Drizt and know that your additions for GP items are right on the money! ^ ^

Happy Crafting and keep up the good work! M

actually GP items (in terms of ratio, how many points I got, and HQ rates) have always been really good to me o_O

I go something like 70% HQ on Noble's Ribbons for GP

How much GP do you have? How the hell do you sign EVERYTHING?!!!

it doesn't actually cost that much...assume a 5:1 ratio on GP...so each crystal is only 1k each...so on a t1 it costs ~20k to sign an HQ...big deal

it's easier for me to get GP because I only have the 1 craft, so I can do GP almost daily if I want

edit: and I rarely sign anything these days unless I get a request

This post has been edited by Odango on Feb 22 2007, 11:50 PM

see what I mean? Went 1/5 tier1ing today's GP item.