Miscellaneous: Silk armor was not tailorable before Sept 1999

[Dolalin]

Wu's armor is included in this, although I think it's already era keyed correctly. But the rest of the silk line (Raw silk, Cured silk) wasn't tailorable until September 1999 either.

Mentioned here in this Guide forums post crossposted to the eqbards mailing list:

Date: Tue Sep 14 17:24:25 BST 1999
Author: Rokenn Swiftsong
Subject: More changes in last Patch that were NOT listed **Spoiler**

-New tailoring items have been added. Tailors can now make the silk series
of armor. The books on how to manufacture these
are also in the game, but are spawn drops and not vendor sales.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi...html/6479.html

And again in the eqbards list a bit later on:

Tuesday, October 05, 1999 2:26 PM

I have recently begun working on my trade skills (tailoring, brewing,
and smithing...I'm a bard, I should trade like one!) and have a
question about the new cured silk.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi...html/8007.html

EQ-Monks mailing list also talks about this in October 1999 that implies it's clearly a new set of armor added recently:

Date: Sat Oct 9 05:28:50 BST 1999
Author: Steve Danuser
Subject: cured silk and other delights

I've found the debate about pulling interesting, as I just reached 17th
level and can start appreciating the feign death skill. It already saved me
once today, so I'm very grateful for it.

Cured silk armor has been mentioned a bit here, but not too much. I was
curious about people's opinions on it. I for one think it's a wonderful
thing. Finally monks have a look that is unique, even at lower levels (for
those who don't know, cured silk and shiverback look the same). Cured silk
has the same AC as mesh, although it isn't magic in its native form (so
keep your mesh gloves for fighting). If you're out to buy silk armor, make
sure you're getting cured, not raw silk.

It's true that cured silk doesn't provide the stats that some of the game's
unique mob-obtainable items do (silver plated bracers, Lockjaw vest, etc.),
but when Enchanters gain the ability to enchant this armor, I think it will
become one of the best armor sets in the game. Monks need stat boosts with
their equipment, since our choice in armor is so limited. Even moderate
boosts to our abilities via enchanted cured silk will be wonderful.

It's a little unfortunate that we don't have the ability to change the
pants to a different color, but there is room for customization. I have
cured silk on my upper body but kept mesh pants and fur-lined boots. This
gives me a black colored lower half, which I think looks better than the
yellow-tan look of all cured armor.

Something I haven't seen mentioned on the monk web sites is Gauntlets of
Wu, another item exclusive to our class. This is a tailor-made item, which
results in magic gloves that give off the light of a greater lightstone (a
GL is required for their creation). They have the same AC as mesh. What's
the big deal, you say, I can just wear mesh gloves and carry a GL for the
same effect. True, but these gauntlets are a must for several reasons: 1)
Any monk-only item is cool to have. 2) They have a neat graphic in your
inventory. 3) Awesome name! Finally, equipment named to make sense for a
monk to have.

After running around looking like a low-level fighter for most of the game
(even though I was supposed to be wearing magical armor), it's nice to have
a look all our own. These days I'm loving being a monk.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi.../html/829.html

Finally, Raw Silk is also mentioned as new in the EQ-Monks list:

Date: Fri Sep 17 16:48:57 BST 1999
Author: ablair@xxxxxx.xxx
Subject: raw silk armor

There is new armor in the game... it's Raw Silk Armor.
Here's how you make it:

Take 2 spider silks, put them in your sewing kit, hit
combine.

Then take the silk swatch you just made, load up a
pattern, and hit combine.

Viola... silk armor. The tunic is actually a brown robe
that we monks can wear. It's AC6.

Swatch was trivial for me to make at my tailoring skill
of 28... dunno where trivial starts. The robe I made
was NOT trivial yet. As silk is a lot easier to get
ahold of than studs, this is great news for us budding
tailors.

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi.../html/654.html

[Dolalin]

Here's a tailoring guide from eq-online, captured in October 1999 that seems to have tailoring as it existed before the silk additions.

It went patchwork, studded, reinforced.

https://web.archive.org/web/19991009...ring_guide.htm

And more detail of tradeskills in general, including tailoring but also others:

https://web.archive.org/web/19991012...ade_skills.htm

[Buellen]

Earliest date cured silk is discussed on old evelore site.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000303...show&IID=27694


--Submited by: Digenlos On: 10/11/1999 9:36:24 AM

"This is the best armor for the "True" monks out there. Light and looks good. Monks can learn tailoring while making these for them selves and when whereing them. They look the way they should.
You don't look like a warrior with out a weapon. You can show off your mucsles like your always wanted without getting beat-up on because of low ac."

[Dolalin]

Found another post about the new raw silk armor from eqbards. I am pretty sure the silk swatch recipe was new as well, which would make sense. So that will need to be era ruled too.

Date: Fri Sep 17 23:37:39 BST 1999
Author: TommyC
Subject: OFF-TOPIC also SPOILERnew silk armor


Around 8:00 pm est I was told by a Cleric named Archurian how to make raw-silk armor. This is the first person I have heard of to make the armor so I give credit to him =). Here is how to do it. You will need a large sewing kit and a skill lvl of 20 (hehe this is real easy stuff to make) and some spider silk. First you take spider silk (not spiderling silk you need to get this silk from there full grown brothers). Now you take 2 spider silks and put it in your large sewing kit. Hit combine you will get a silk swatch (this was trivial to me at skill lvl 25) now that you have the silk swatch you take that and put it the large sewing kit with the pattern of your choice. Hit combine and whalla. You get a raw-silk item =) easy right? Tunic/Robes and pants take 2 swatches to make all others take 1. The items can be worn by the pure magic classes and monks. due to there low wt. they are good for both groups. They have one ac over cloth so they are really only good for low to mid lvl. The robe that you make looks like a light brown (like the thurm robe). None of the garments have any magic stats on them. I have been charging about a plat for each garment and 2pp for robe and pants.. I have been selling everything I make to hehe. Due to the low lvl of skill needed to make the armor I don't think you can charge much more then that. I would encourage each of you to tell as many people as you can on how to make silk. I think that if we have a free flow of information we will quickly be able to figure out what Verant made with this patch =).

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi...html/6763.html

I see references to spider silk and spiderling silk pretty much from EQ Launch so those drops are ok and do not need era rules:

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi.../html/234.html

[Dolalin]

Lots of corroboration in the newsgroups around this time too. No results for "silk swatch" before this patch.

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.game...e%3A1999-10-01

[Dolalin]

Minor correction: seems only the Wu's gauntlets were added in this patch. All the other Wu's was added later, in March-ish 2001 if I'm not mistaken.

I'm looking for the recipe books for these which would also need era rules.

[Dolalin]

The book that needs era rules is "Volume 3 of the Chronicles of Wu":

https://web.archive.org/web/20020901...est/books.html

[Dolalin]

Not sure if that book drops here. But it should be a semi-rare drop off at least the Orc Chief in lesser fay. Reference in comment in this thread:

https://web.archive.org/web/20020216....shtml?id=2009

Everlore confirms this:

https://web.archive.org/web/19960901...2&sortby=2

[Dolalin]

Oops, fixed everlore link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20020625...&pg=2&sortby=2

And as a point of interest, here's a silk tailoring guide from late October 1999 that describes the new silk armors:

https://web.archive.org/web/20001213...lk_guide.phtml

[nilbog]

For the raw/cured silk, the list would look like this:

silk swatch
cured silk mask
raw silk sandals
raw silk headband
raw silk collar
raw silk mask
raw silk cloak
raw silk gloves
raw silk leggings
raw silk mantle
raw silk robe
raw silk sash
raw silk sleeves
raw silk wristbands
cured silk cloak
cured silk collar
cured silk gi
cured silk handwraps
cured silk headband
cured silk leggings
cured silk mantle
cured silk sandals
cured silk sash
cured silk sleeves
cured silk wristbands

Wu's Gauntlets already has a rule, but it is currently October 1999. Should this be September?

-Added Wu's book to orc chief/legionnaire (rare)