Six Slot Bags

Sometimes switching between a science fiction game like Eve Online and a fantasy MMO like RIFT produces a bit of culture shock.  Take, for instance, item space.  In my 18 months of experience playing Eve, I have never run out of space for my stuff.  Not so in any of the fantasy MMORPGs I've played, and RIFT is no exception.

Part of the attraction of purchasing the collector's edition was that it came with a 24 slot bag.  Was it worth $10 extra to get a 24 slot bag and a 60% speed travel mount for every character I create.  Hell yes!  But each character in RIFT can carry 5 bags, so upgrading those slots with the biggest bags I can find is a priority in every game I play.

Now, the NPC vendors I've found in RIFT sell players 6 slot bags for the low, low price of 23 gold pieces and some change.  Now that is an incentive to start up the manufacturing profession of Outfitting if I've ever seen one.  (Okay, I don't really need an excuse to craft, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

To create a six slot bag in RIFT requires an Outfitter skill of 30, 7 bolts of burlap and 5 coarse thread.  The thread is purchased from an NPC vendor for 20 silver pieces each.  The burlap?  Burlap drops from humanoid mobs.  That's right, no boring harvesting; just go out and kill stuff!  (Note to Eve players: harvesting in RIFT is a lot more exciting that mining, so it's boring to everyone but us).

Making bolts of burlap requires two pieces of burlap to make.  So not only does making bolts help level your Outfitting skills, it helps free up bag space until you can start making bigger bags.  And if you really want to create a basic crafter that produces something besides bags, just add the runescrafting and butchering professions.  That way, you can make the items required to get your Outfitting skills up to 30, then use the runesbreaking skill to break down the item you just made into components to level the Runescrafting skill.  And Butchering?  Some items for Outfitting require the Butchering skill on certain types of dead mobs to obtain.  Yes, more killing!

Last night I made 3 six slot bags and need to make 5 more for the two characters I currently have and another 4 bags for the last character I plan to create this weekend.  That's a lot of mobs I need to kill to get the burlap to drop, but given the quest system in RIFT, I don't really have to go out of my way to find them.