Well Silk isn't the only comm that is in shortage...

As a new chef, I'm experimenting with all the recipes available to me.

One of which is the honeycomb cake. Of course to make one is to gain honeycomb.

Now even unenemied to Faethorn and Serenwilde, I have to get permission to get them and most of the time, no that's wrong - all the time - they say no. They treat the honeycomb like their first born.

Can we get some beehives or something so that people can get honeycomb not from Faethorn?

Oh just a slight hijack, since I don't want to remake another topic.

Moderators perhapsyou can change the topic to "Shortage of certain comms".

Mercury and Sugar is in high demand. I heard from Tatiana that she had to pay 500 for mercury and she was flogging sugar off for the same. Now this is insane.

To drop the prices of both significantly, I suggest increasing rate of getting both comms from concoctions and coal.

ZOMG NERF NERF NERF!!! Wont happen, same as the spiders wont happen. Spiders are the Glom thing, Honeycomb is going to say on Etherean Faethorn, once it gets through to Serenwilde they cant police the whole of Ethereal always, they'll go back to taking care of Ethereal Serenwilde an the honeycomb shall fall from the skies for all! Well we all wish.

And well technically honeycomb isn't a comm, it's an item, since it's not riftable and decays.

And yeah, it's Alchemy an well outa the whole time i've been a alchemist, i've made sugar 3 times, that might be why.

YEAH ZOMG NERF NERF NERF!

Honeycombs are needed for (if I'm not mistaken) a single QUEST confection.

Ok the quest for honeycomb on Ethereal is now stalled because of all the agreements between the cities and communes. Nobody does it.

But still it's protected.

You got any idea how expensive it is for the alchemist when a ton of herbs turn into sugar? I'd say that while 500 is a lot for mercury that comes from a piece of coal, it isn't all that much for sugar.

The quest is done all the time. I have no idea what you are talking about.

Serenwilders constantly use the honeycomb to make honeycakes so they can lead fae to moon. The only reason you can use it for a quest is by leading them to Raziela, wich will get you enemied to serenwilde. Seeing Faethorn is under moon's influence at this time Serenwilde has every right to police it. Just like celest tries to police the elemental plane of water. Serenwilde is just more effective at it.

I sell mercury for like... 50-100gp. So, if you're paying 500gp, you suck.

The underlying question is, do bad things happen when the same thing is part of both a trade and something else?

If the only thing a cook can make with honeycombs is honeycakes, that's not so bad if honeycakes are primarily used for the quest; but if they're going to be used to cook things because people want to eat them, then we're in a quandary. Make another source of honeycombs, and now the quest shifts, unless you can code a way to ensure that some honeycombs work for the quest and some don't, and that people have a way to tell them apart, and then what's the RP explanation? Now you end up with "fae-honeycombs" and "mundane-honeycombs" and essentially, you've come to where we started -- why have a quest item also part of a trade in the first place?

Ok let's see the most common elixir: Health.

It costs approximately 14 herbs. Now an average herb costs 8gp each.

Thus taking it to 112gp.

With lower requirement concoctions, this price can range from 75 - 120.

So why sell it at 500gp?

The average herb is closer to 10, I thought.

And you sell at 500 because you can. Geeze. If someone is willing to pay the price then I'm happy to supply it at that price.

Ok let's see the most coveted skill level in any trade: Transcendent.

It costs approximately 300 credits. Now an average credits costs 4,500gp each.

Thus taking 1,350,000 gold.

With every serious tradesman pursuing Transcendent eventually, even without any other sort of overhead (shop, advertising, cost of raw materials, time invested in gathering raw matrials, manufacturing goods, stocking shops, networking, etc.), he's going to be in the red until he turns a net profit of 1,350,000 gold.

1,350,000/500 = 2,700 potions before an alchemist has any excuse to be in business for anything but the love of it, even if every single coin that crosses his palm is pure profit.

How many alchemists will actually sell 2,700 potions total during their time in Lusternia?

Whining and wheedling in an effort to make people drop their prices can only help to sabotage the economy as a whole (per my post on the silk thread), so please: buy or don't buy, and let it go.

I'd say I'm 1/9th of the way to my alchemical goal

EDIT: Changed my numbers, I've sold quit a bit more than I thought

I think I've sold over 2000 potions.

Actually my argument is the produce of sugar and mercury. I look at many of the recipes and an amazing amount of it uses sugar. Only one concoction actually uses mercury (to my knowledge) and only one of it.

There needs to be more production of sugar somewhere and somehow, or just change all the recipes.

Besides, the tradeskills in Lusternia is meant to be dependant on one another. So if an alchemist sells sugar to a cook for 500gp, it means that the cook have to charge higher than that to make a profit on their cake or sweets. Who in their right minds would buy cake for over 600gp?

If I'm brewing a batch of 10 health, and it sugars, do I get 10 sugar? I've only had it happen once, so I forget.

You would get ten sugars then.

And Aebrin nobody is forcing you to use the recipes with Sugar, there quite some without. And if you don't like those you can always submit one. Also most people just trade sugar for mercury.

Oh. Was under the (probably mistaken) impression that it's 1 sugar per brewing attempt, even if it's 10 at once. *agrees 500 is expensive then* unless it's vitae herbs that got sugared. Hehe. Seems to happen often enough from the screams I keep hearing from my alchemist friends.

Anyway, 2700 potions isn't all that much. A serious trans alchemist can easily do that in a month or so. Most don't make 500 per potion though. Closer to 100 - 200 (for health). So that's 1.3 million (a small discount on cred prices due to bulk) and probably about 11k potions before they start making a profit.

The other trades aren't much better off. Mostly worse. For herbs, it's about 65k (assuming you don't sell anything except sparkles at 20 per) to 200k of the little plant bits before breaking even (prices get slashed a lot for frequent bulk purchases by alchemists). Approximately 260 hours of harvesting at normal balance, not including planting / selling / searching time.