How do you organize your BOD books?
I started working BODs about a week ago. My scribe can make BOD books easily enough, but I am wondering how experienced BODders organize their books. I'll tell you my strategy so that you can critique it and offer alternatives.
Thus far they are broken down by profession, then, in the majority of cases, I further break them down by quantity. Inscription, Alchemy, and Cooking do not need different sets of ingredients (such as colored ore or wood), and very few if any Inscription and Alchemy items can be made exceptionally. Thus they currently have one book each. Bowcraft includes alternative materials of both normal and exceptional quality but compared to other professions has a relatively low item count. Thus I am currently only using one book for it too. It won't surprise me if I eventually need multiple book classes for Bowcraft, though.
Blacksmithing, Carpentry, Tailoring, and Tinkering all have four books each. One for Large BODs of any quantity, then separate books for 20-, 15-, and 10-count deeds. My plan (which I am already behind on) is to make the BODs as I go, keeping track of which small BODs may eventually end up as part of a large BOD. If not, it gets turned in and a new BOD takes its place.
Please critique my approach and offer your strategy if different than mine. Thank you.
Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)
Comments
The only thing I have to say is do what is easiest for you to keep track of your BODs.
Smithing I keeps the ones that make armor larges and drop weapons. Also bribe those up to make as I need. I use shields for PoF.
Tailor I only keep the leather that make larges and bribe them up as I get the large.
I only need one book for each. No need to collect BODS for eternity.
Its best for me to sort after other things. Smith after reward type . I use 1 vendor for pof bods and one book for each colour on it. 1 vendor for hammer rewards but no armor bods that go into larges that i want to fill. ..The keepers for large armor bods are sorthed after armor type. One book for bods i want to bribe if i need them. All others are easier.
Tailor larges after rewards, and different material types for all small. All others i have after reward type, no matter if small or large.
Filled bods not claimed yet ..saves space.. i dont keep on vendors as it happened I didnt get the security settings right and there are people checking bod storage vendors that gladly pick up such book..House being set private doesnt help there.
I manage on 47 vendors . All dress coded in clothes with material colours or just the colour of the bod for newer skills.
Tailor for example has 1) cloth/shoes, 2) leather/female, and 3) bone/studded. There are no ''junk'' bods for tailor, as every single possible small BOD can be paired with a large.
Blacksmithing has 1) Weapons (strictly for Artisan Festival bank points, as any reward that can be claimed by these larges can be done easier and cheaper with a colored small), 2) Chain/Ring/Plate 3) Junk and smalls that I can bribe up for fort powder and low end runics.
Alchemy has 1) Lesser/Regular/Greater, 2) Explosion/Poison, and 3) Junk.
Tinker has 1) Jewelry, 2) Dining/Tools/Key, 3) Junk and certain colored smalls that can be bribed up for the fort keg.
Etc.
For me, I don't put unfilled larges in books. I set them next to the book with their matching smalls, and when a few larges have accumulated, then I start digging thru the BOD books to fill at least one or two of them. If larges start to pile up without enough smalls to fill them, then I spend an afternoon filling junk smalls to trade in. (In the case of tailor, this means cloth smalls that cannot reward CBD.) I also start filling non-junk small BODs like lesser heal that have way more smalls than I will ever have enough larges for.
For storage reasons, I keep filled large bods in a book rather than claiming the item. When I need a certain reward, I flip through the BODs that are ready for redemption first by using the book's filters for skill, then look in the unfilled books.
I am a casual crafter with just one char on Siege collecting BODs (when I remember), and I do not sell rewards. So, this is what works for me.
Tailoring gets sorted by Large BODs, 10,15,20 count Cloth, leather, Spined, Horned, Barbed smalls...(yes that's a lot of BOD books) and then one for just footwear...I don't know HOW many larges I have that the only small I need is the footwear and I never get it
Smith is sorted only by Large and Small, 10,15 and 20 Normal and Exp as there are WAY too many different ores to sort them that way...ALL of my iron BOD's are separate, everything else gets thrown together and I use the books sort feature.
I don't do much of the others...I do have one book each for the other crafts though.
I have no idea why people save so many BODs for eternity.
That method, while effective, sacrifices efficiency. You are spending less gold because you are not bribing, but you are making less gold because you are selling a 110 PS claimed with a normal 10ct 6pt plain leather LBOD that could have been used to claim a barbed kit. The value of the BOD reward outweighs the overhead expense of bribing (if you do it right).
On Siege, bribing costs the same as other shards, but gold is much more valuable. The profit margin can be very slim, so the best method is a mixture of old school and bribing. As for trading in junk BODs for a roll of the RNG, that has to be done wisely as well.
A spreadsheet would not be needed if they just made the BOD book sortable. My preferred sort order is item name, quality, material, and amount.
Never be afraid to challenge the status quo
Naw, Bribing them up and getting the good rewards is fun. No spreadsheet required. That's why all the rune libraries have Runes to all the Shops around the world. You never wondered why players needed runes to all the shops?
dont tell anyone. Cheap and the dyes sell fast.
How can you test this?
Also I have done diff ones on same guy. The fresher one is low or zero after an expensive one.
I grab a large leather or metal and the smalls then go out and use an NPC until they quit bribing it up. Then go to the next one and bribe the same one up until he stops.
I should split the BODs between NPCs to save gold. Corect?
Never be afraid to challenge the status quo
if you have any chars that isn't maxed out on skill, have them get just .1 skill in tailoring & get BODs from New Haven, I always use the same tailor in the first room. You will get lot of boots, sandals, shoes, & thigh boots that way (depending on how many chars you can do this with)