Really obscure question about trade skill skill-ups

[Tobius]

Real autism hours up in here.
So I have a bow as a warrior, started fletching because wth.

At one point using this:

https://wiki.project1999.com/Skill_Fletching#Raising_Fletching_Skill

I did what others have done and bought some expensive components that were named similar to the ones I actually wanted.

They were ceramic vanes. I bought 3 damn stacks of the things.

I started to use arrows spuriosly so I could make more sooner, and eventually skill up to the point where I could use those parts and get them out the way. Even though it's really not cost effecient for my broke casual-ass to do a tradeskill that gets pricey towards the end.

The other day in thurg I literally did the same thing again and bought another stack!

I really need the inventory space!

Then It hit me,

TL;DR As long as I don't care about yeilds, will I get just as many skill ups trying (and probably failing to make the tough combines as I would the intmedary ones, can I just make the hardest arrows and not lose out overall?

[d3r14k]

I'm leveling up Fletching on my Paladin for funsies, but I don't have as much experience with TS's as a lot of other people do, so take this with a grain of salt.

You'll get more skill ups on successful combines. So if you're just making the hardest arrows all the time -- using Silver Tips and Steel Shafts, et cetera -- you will make it eventually, but you're sinking a lot of plat and extra clicks rather than making something closer to your trivial level.

My advice would be: Look at what your skill is currently at and make the next up in line on the table for trivials. Anything else is slower.

[loramin]

This is actually something that (as a big tradeskiller myself during the live era) I strongly believe Project 1999 has wrong.

If you read EQ Traders and similar forums back in the day you would have gotten one consistent answer: tradeskill skill-ups were a completely random roll independent of anything else. Now granted, people misunderstood a lot about EQ back then, but the tradeskill community was different: they actually did experiments to test their theories, because it was easy to do so at low skill levels, and high skill levels were so painful that people really wanted all the info they could get (and thus were willing to take the time to experiment to get it).

So in classic EQ, the established wisdom was that what you were combining didn't matter: anything above your trivial level had the exact same chance of skill-up ... but unfortunately EQ Traders blocked the Wayback Machine from their forums, and I'm only an amateur classhole, so I haven't been able to find evidence which supports that. As a result, things will likely stay the current P99 way, and the answer here is that something else does affect your skill-ups: your combine success rate.

TL;DR Since using lower-cost/lower-trivial ingredients which are closer to your skill level increases your chance of successfully combining them, you'll get a better chance of increasing your skill by using them vs. using the expensive stuff.

[Wonkie]

why'd they block wayback?

[loramin]

why'd they block wayback?

https://i.imgur.com/bv7W2x3.gif?noredirect

[d3r14k]

anything above your trivial level had the exact same chance of skill-up

I really wish this were true here. Maybe I'd get around to maxxing Tuluven's tailoring if this were the case. Every time I spend money or time to get tailoring materials I can't help but feel like those resources could have been spent elsewhere. I might not get that feeling if I knew a failure would at least result in the same chance of a skill up.

[Goodest]

p99 trade skilling it very odd.. you can get skill ups on failed combos trailor from 186-200 is the shitties thing in the game even more so than KC on a Friday night.. for arrows its Dex just keep dex gear around when you're sitting around doing combines. And step up process is needed so wood-bone-hooked-etc. all the way to what Naethyn said Fletching is super worth leveling to silver arrows they combine 10 a piece.

[Tobius]

Okay so I wont skill up off the likely-to-be-failiures guess I'm stuck with 4 bullshit inventory slots lost till I skill that high...

[radda]

Sell them back, also keep a set of wis gear, oh int, what ever is higher. I max my fletch and I’m proud

[Raavak]

https://wiki.project1999.com/Enlightenment

[Erati]

Don't you have a bank or an alt to hold those until you're ready to use them?

this is why Tobius, owner of the server's first Reaver, is one of a kind :)

[Tobius]

this is why Tobius, owner of the server's first Reaver, is one of a kind :)

haha I guess I never considered it because almost everything in the bank is a no trade quest item. I guess I could move the 4 arrow parts to an alt, that's a decent idea...

[Tnair]

haha I guess I never considered it because almost everything in the bank is a no trade quest item. I guess I could move the 4 arrow parts to an alt, that's a decent idea...

You can also just sell em back, most trade-skill items the vendor will pay at least 90% of the cost you spent to get them in the first place. Arrow parts definitely conform to this. Also the money is the other reason to stick close to succeed-able combines, as you can cut the cost of skilling up by 80% if you can *mostly* succeed and then sell back your results.

Then use your new skill on the cheapest arrows that fit your needs, because good lord you might as well be shooting platinum coins if you use the best arrows.