Architect Archive
Thread: New to Architect or considering it? This may be of use to you.
I blame the following ramblings on lack of sleep and too much alchohol....
Ok i've been blessed, with time to play the game - and a remarkable run of good luck, butmaking money as an Architect can be done and can be done BIG.
I started this profession as many do - to grind my way to master and move on, however like the majority of us could in no way hope to buy in the huge amount of resources required to reach master.
Well I won't tell you exactly whatI did, but hereshow to I started to consider the problem. You earn money fromselling things,these thingsrequire resources to be made,prices arebased onso manycredits per unit of resource. The more things you sell the more credits you make.... therefore the more resources you mine in a day, the more credits you earnin aday.
From there on its easy... but do remember some basic rules of business:
In any business you have to build it up, customers, assets, stock (pref in that order).
Always deliveryor goods ontime - always at the price agreed and always with a cheerful disposition.
Friendly and helpful people will always do more business and gain repeat custom.
Get to know otherplayers in your profession,talk to them, you'll gain valuable insight into your planets economy withinyour profession.
Like business anywhere its not what you know its who you know.
In the early stages (and throughout your career) of Architect walls sell, at approx. 2.66 cpu (i.e. 8k a wall) sell to other architects. Any resource of metal or ore is good pref 60% ore or higher and 70% metal or higher - its quantity forget quality completely.
This is how I did it....
I was lucky enough to enter this professionwith500k in the bank (from buying and selling pets from Creature Handler days) and thousands of huntsas Commando. I invested the lot immediately 9 Ber10's and 1 Fusion reactor - 7 miners straight onto ore and 2 onto metal. Ground walls till my brain considered suicide and my hand suffered from rsi.... well almost. Sold the walls in packs of 25 in a rucksack and travelled the galaxy delivering them to other architects at 200k a sack.
Sell your holo if you have to but you need a sizeable stake to enter this profession. 400k minimum to buy the 9 miners, fusion reactor and have enough left over for maintenance.
Use Ctrl Pto search for Master architects(there the ones who will be likely to buythese walls) wherever you go at any time of day or night search out your potential customers - without them your stuffed.
With one or tworegular customers life gets quitesimple,making money and getting to Master in roughly 7-8 days.All through grinding and selling walls.
You quickly realised that with only 10 lots life will beslow, so personally i fixed that problem immediately and am presently running at 34-37 harvesters, 3 fusions, 3 structure factories &1 equipment factory. Still miningore and metal - no flash resources just pump out those walls assuming you have regular orders. Within the first week you should start to see a healthy bank balance.
Onceyou've built up a large mining operation like thisthe skys the limit, in the 3 weeks Ive been doing this I have made literally millions - I have over 2.5 Mil in the bank, 5 holos,and1.2 Mil in mining structures, which I now am employing someone elsetocheck daily for me, the walls still sell but so do 3-4 guild halls a day plus numerous other items.
Forget expensive or difficult to make items until you have money and harvesters behind you.
When you reach master architect, with hopefully a Mil in the bank thats the time to start thinking about other structures, houses are easy enough to make and again dont require many special resources your ore andmetal make up a large majority of the required items, buy in the smallamounts of other materials. Forget small houses there not worth it - medium or large are far better.
Once you've mastered houses and have a couple in stock move onto something new - maybe something more complex - a miner or a guild hall. Carry on until you've mastered all items one at a time.Always try to keep a minimum balance of say - 500k incase orders slow up.
As for a vendor? nah carry your deeds - a vendor requires a house and a house takes up 2 lots required by more mineral miners! Go selling your wares whenits quiet - stand at the most populated spot in your galaxy and shout Medium/Large houses for sale. Someone will buy one or two. Always be thinking of new items to make and keep those harvesters going at all cost. Walls walls and more walls.
I work on a basis of 2.6 to 3.0 cpu for any sale, work out the number of units required to make the item, multiply the total by 3 and bingo a price structure to stick to. Works for all items, admittedly you can add a bit on for complex items that require the use of a factory etc... normal business practice. If you work out your sale price on this basis have it as a minimum amount - ask more than that initially say 10% ontop of your calculated price - allow the customer to knock you down to your minimum easily, but dont go below it.
When delivering make the customer feel special if they havent haggled over price,knock 10% off the cost just before you trade, customer walks away happy and will come back to you.
If you dont make an item and your asked for it dont be ashamed to say "Sorry I dont make those yet" and suggest to them someone who does, tell that architect you are sending the customer to them and would they help him. Favours work both ways dont forget.
A few notes worth remembering:
Dont start architect with nothing in the bank life will be unbearable
10 building lots allowed per player: Mining Installations , Fusions and most factories are1 lot each - Structure Factories and small housesare 2 lots each
Access can be granted to another player(s) to your structures, to collect hopper contents or to completely administer the structure.
When making schematics work out how many items you actually want in total and put the resources to one side. Buy in enough of the special resources to comfortably allow for that number - and dont use them for anything else.
Travel - see the world - orders wont come flocking to you straight away so dont sit on your backside waiting for them to, go out and sell sell sell.
Dont sit around waiting for your miners to come up with the goods - if you've sold all your walls that day - go work on another profession while your waiting - one that compliments your situation or end goal.
Reinvest into your business dont go blowing theprofit on luxury items straight away.
Good luck and cheer up its not all doom and gloom in this underplayed profession.
Olde Sarum
Europe-Chimaera
Master Marksman - Master Creature Handler - (H) Master Commando - Master Artisan - (H) Master Architect - (H) Novice Ranger
W O W.
thank you for your insight. i wish i read that before. i am nearing master and have now found out that people will buy walls (and not small houses).
thanks again this was great.
Actually, for grinding the gungan head statues are the best.
and i would have sold my walls for much more than that!
I would augment this a bit: Those wanting to stay with architect should NOT be buying harvs. Make your own. As you get more exp points, make new ones. Eventually you'll be making BER 10's, but those first few BER 6's are just fine. Also, when harvesting your own, try, if at all possible, to harvest Carbonate ore. You'll need that for gen turbines.
Selling walls is a great way to earn cash. But don't sell every one you make, or when you get master you'll kick yourself.
Making factories right now is proving quite profitable. I'm selling factories 2:1 to harvs right now, for some odd reason. Seems everyone wants a factory. Plus factories need gen turbines, and gen turbines give great xp.
I've never been offered to buy gen turbines, but I probably would buy them at the right price. Even from the factory they are a pain to make.
You will do better business if you have a vendor on the planetary map. Shout selling stuff outside a startport is free, but it takes time. And time is the most precious in-game commodity you have. I'd have to charge a heck of a lot to feel like it was profitable shout-selling. Plus, you need the storage space from your house, so you can squirrel away a million units of that uber ore/steel with 5 stats over 950 when it spawns!
Further things to be more successful as an architect:
- Join a player city. That's like a captive audience of customers. Folks like the convenience. And player city players typically have more credits to spend that do your average Joe/Jane.
- Join a guild. Yep, more customers. Your guild is rich, or probably something like rich. You'll either be trading harvs for weapons/amor, or you'll just have steady customers. Either way, guildmates will be your friends, if you let them.
My best tip I have if you're going into harvester production at all is to build working relationships with miners. They're both your customer and your supplier. Miners have constituted most of my sales and they also help get me the ore or metal that I need if I'm not mining enough myself. They also do pretty well financially if they're at it for long so they can afford to pay well for your product and they tend to appreciate what good harvesters are worth.
Manipulative wrote:
You will do better business if you have a vendor on the planetary map. Shout selling stuff outside a startport is free, but it takes time. And time is the most precious in-game commodity you have. I'd have to charge a heck of a lot to feel like it was profitable shout-selling.
Message Edited by Dharma812 on 02-03-2004 01:11 PM