Change to items Nickolas collects

I think that items available at NPC vendors should not be included in what Nickolas the traveller collects for the weekly gifts. My reasoning is this: That people who are in-game (awake) when his new location have an advantage over people in other time zones who may be at work, school, or alseep in bed.

By 8:00AM MST, the material traders were sold out of both linen & plant fibers & the "early birds" who bought up all of the linen & fibers were busy in LA making a profit from re-selling the stuff to everyone who missed the boat.

P.S. - No, this situation didn't affect me or my guildies/friends personally, so please get any idea that this is a QQ thread out of your head!

The price doesn't bother me, id rather items that require you to go out into an explorable and kill things, like grawl necklaces w/e, i know that he sometimes does ask for stuff liek that, but id rather it all be that way.

Agreed it should be things that you have to go out and kill things for and not able to be bought from traders.

Ask guildies if they have any linen left, maybe in the future they will need your help with others items?

Did you know that dolyaks will abandon a calf if they perceive it to be weak? Yup, it's true, and it's actually extremely common among their species. I know it seems cruel by our standards, but I imagine that they believe it keeps their bloodlines strong. And who would argue?
It's also the most likely explanation for why Yakkington was alone when I found him, here in this very place. He was as white as the snow itself, but that was hardly surprising, since all dolyak calves are born that way. The poor thing was huddled up against these rocks, but he wasn't actually the one in trouble; I was. I had been nearly blinded by a blizzard for hours and couldn't make heads or tails of where Yak's Bend was. Luckily I stumbled past him before succumbing to the elements!
I approached carefully, because I knew wild dolyaks were particularly dangerous. As I got closer, he helt my gaze with those warm blue eyes, and I felt completely safe. Though I couldn't explain it, I knew we had an instant connection. So to honor that night, I wish to craft us a nice, warm blanket, hah! Would you, by chance, have 3 Bolts of Linen that I could take off your hands?


Its part of the story. He wanted to make Yakkington a blanket. Cant do that with grawl necklaces, horns..or whatever. If they decided to use tanned hide of bolts of cloth material traders would have sold out of those. Just spend the 4.5k-5k and buy 15 linen from other players sell one gift for 7kish and make your money back. Join up a good guild/alliance that may give members free linen.

They are not items sold in merchants. They are items players get by killing monsters and salvaging (items acquired by killing monsters) that happen to be available to be traded THROUGH traders.
That means players trade them after getting them by killing monsters.

So going to a trader it's just a faster way to get items by trading. It's not really much different to go to spam for Iris Flowers if you are too lazy to get them yourself.

If you want linen to drop, you can ask Am Fah and Corsairs. They spit linen like if they were made out of it... and most 'robes' and 'garments' can be salvaged to get linen.

In pre, getting materials is quite slower, but it won't be a bad idea to ask for materials in there too. Salvage kits would have some real use for those that have /bonus items and don't need the crafted stuff or the weapon drops in there.
3..6 'Very salvageable' items, and you have 25 materials.

And this is a good way to raise the price of the lest used materials. Make Nicholas ask for the the material with the lowest price, and it gets a little raise.

so i've kinda been thinking about this, and i'm considering going to the rare material trader NOW and buying 30 or 40 of everything that i don't have, in anticipation of what he might ask for next week. that way i don't end up having to pay ridiculous sums of money for materials.

Um...Linen is not only found at traders. I have not bought or crafted one single shred of my multiple stacks of linen...it's called salvaging cloth armors. Jeez people.

the stuff being sold out mean u have to go farm it. if it isnt merchant stuff, u would still have to go farm it... i like that it had merch stuff because there is a chance u could already have the collector items that u need =)

I expect it won't usually be a rare material. I agree that things like this that cause radical economy shifts and windfalls to the lucky based on time of day should be discouraged. But at the same time, it's for one week, so I don't think it's that big a deal. Next week it could be something like Frosted Griffon Wings, and PETA will start rioting.

wiki is great:

http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Contains_linen

Just pick one thing, am fah for instance, and go on a killing spree...salvage a few drops that are in this list, and boom 15 linen. Not too complicated. You can do this for any of the materials Nicholas will ever need! I kind of look at it like a little challenge everyday.

Just like you would go on Wiki to see who drops Big Monster Horn for any other collector. Go on Wiki and see what has a chance to drop Linen. How hard is that?

Also anything that drops salvage items that salvage into cloth, usually that salvage item has a chance to salvage into linen.

Only certain materials like ectos, shards and gems shouldn't ever be something he collects. They are much more rare than something like Linen.

Linen and plant fibers drop directly from monsters and also salvage from monster drops. The only difference between materials and monster collector drops or iris flowers is there is no NPC for the latter. They can all still be obtained from regular drops. The trader is the only source for those who don't use the wiki. I still have linen in my storage after running 2 accounts to Nicholas, and I never bought or crafted any of it. I give the stuff away.

Ectos, shards, gems, monster fangs, claws, eyes, etc. should be excluded in my opinion.

Nothing wrong with this choice of collectable item imho. The fact they were sold by a trader npc shouldn't matter - just imagine there was a real Auction House or Xunlai Marketplace, with everything possible to be sold there - no matter what the item would be - it would be bought out quickly if it was the item of the week.

Repost from here:

Not a valid excuse imo.

Plant fibers can drop in many areas (a good spot can be right outside temple of the ages), And the artisan outside sardelac can craft it for 5 fibers and 200g and BESIDES that, you got an entire week to get the materials before nicholas changes place.

True, you can buy Linen, and any other material from the traders, but you can also go out and kill monsters to obtain it. Just because some people bought the Linen didn't mean it was the only way to obtain it. Am Fah drop Linen directly, and you can always craft it if you have plant fibers and dust. So instead of this being a 'go to trader and buy these for me' item, this was a go kill monsters and bring me what they drop of a different sort.

Unless it was asking for something that doesn't drop from monsters and can only be bought from a trader, I don't see a problem with it.

At the rate this is going Yakkington and cottontail mini's will be as common as white birthday mini's in no time. GW will be flooded with sweet and party items decreasing their value; and the traveler gifts wont be worth the cost of materials needed to craft them. The only thing worth getting are mysterious tonics. I predict 2 months tops.....and it will all blowover!