Architect Archive
Thread: Suggestions for Added features list. Updated often.
This is a list of every suggestion/wish I can think of or have come across. Most is in condensed form but I will be glad to elaborate on anything I write here that you are unclear on. Please also feel free to add any of your own ideas to this thread. I personally didn't think up all these ideas. Credit goes to the board for showing me things I didn't even think to improve upon until it was pointed out.
These are in no particular order. I have bugs listed in another post please post those in that thread.
If you like these lists please float them for your reference and rate them to attract more people to read them.
I. Lots
A. Ability to Buy sell lots.
B. Limit Starting lots to 2.
C. Ignore lot requirements for house. Limit each player to 1 house.
D. Improve max number of lots as charactor improves through advanced skills.
E. Restrict lot types to those in the proper profession.
F. Tie Available Lots to Acct/Server to prevent create delete syndrome to obtain extra lots.
G. Player who sells his lots then deletes the charactor will have no lots when he/she makes a new charactor. However charactor can buy back lots.
II. House Design.
A. Allow house interiors to be designed by the architect instead of the cookie cutter design. Require an entry hall to allow the game time to render the interior before the player can see it.
B. Create a seperate building type for businesses. Building range from small like a pub to large like a night club or department store.
C. More variety on the exterior. (I'm sure this is already in the works.)
D. Allow use of named deeds on similar planets. IE Corellia on Talus, Naboo on Rori etc...
III. Automation.
A. Automatic Debit from bank acct 1 days worth maintenance into Structures each day. It is up to the player to keep his bank acct full. Allow the ability to split maintenance costs when owned by multiple people.
B. Automatic Power distribution from power generator structures to other structures that require power. (Can setup this up so it only works on structures within a certain radius of the power source.)
C. Automatic Email on Structure status changes. IE Resource Depletion, Maintenance Depletion etc...
D. Ability to remote operate structures such as harvestors through the data pad.
E. Allow specific line of droids to manage all structures including removing resources from full structures.
F. Allow scheduled or automated shutdown at set times or on certain conditions. IE to save maintenance/decay I might run my harvestors only 16 hours a day as opposed to always on.
IV. Administration.
A. Allow various levels of administration within a structure from general access to drop/pickup to redeed access.
B. Ability to set access levels to various levels/rooms.
C. Automatically refund credits to person who for whatever reason are banned from your structure who have made a purchase but not yet retrieved it. Provide a warning message to the person doing the banning that the target has an outstanding purchase.
V. Maintenance.
A. Allow the removal of power/credits from structures.
B. Allow droid engineers to create a module or line of maintenance droids that can be used to reduce maintenance costs of structures they are assigned to maintain.
C. Do not charge maintenance during server downtime, lockup or extended loading periods.
D. Do not charge maintenance on extractors that are not running. (However place a time limit that extractors may be left not operating before they are removed from game. IE 3 days.)
E. Do not charge maintenance to redeed. (However everytime a structure is redeeded, reduce the maximum efficiency of the structure. Eventually they will have to replace this structure due to wear and tear.)
F. Re-add the ability for extractors to function under 100% maintenance. (However not only reduce efficiency, but also allow for a chance of critical failures that increases in severity the more decayed the extractors become. Some examples of critical failures include. Permanent Breakdown, Minor breakdown requiring repairs, Destruction of the extractor with loss of all material contained within. Security failures resulting in loss to theft of material within. etc...)
VI. Payment Plan
A. Allow part of the maintenance fees paid by the owner(s) into a structure to be paid back to the creator. (This would be daily payments for a set period of time.) UCP
B. Lower the maintenance costs of creators using thier own stuctures. (However they do not recieve payments from the maintenance pool.)
C. Payment plans are automaticly determined by the type/quality of the item (See experimentation) for a set period of time after which UCP will stop.
VII. Decay
A. Structures (excluding extractors) do not decay for a set period of time. (Same length as UCP to encourage architects to make high quality structures.) once this time has elapsed the structure begins decaying at a rate determined by the quality numbers of its materials. (See experimentation.)
B. Graphics for exteriors change to match the decay of the structure.
C. Maintenance costs for decaying structures increase steadily until the house becomes to expensive to maintain.
D. Structures that have begun to decay cannot be redeeded. Only destroyed.
VIII. Trading/selling.
A. Show the bloody floorplans in the details window.
B. Include time left till Post UCP decay.
IX. Experimentation.
A. Overall Quality determines UCP amount.
B. Unit Toughness determines UCP time frame.
C. Decay Resistance determines Post UCP decay rate.
X. Critical Failures.
A. During resource allocation = loss of resources for failed component only.
B. During Experimentation = minimum stats on finished item.
C. During Creation = Loss of One component and ability to go back and recreate lost component.
XI. Landscaping.
A. Either create a profession or allow advanced architects to modify slightly terrain to allow more placement of buildings. (I've found several great sites for building placement but because of soem tiny ditch with water in it i couldn't place the stupid thing.)
B. Either add to this new profession or create an Architect skill line that allows creation of outdoor structures such as streets, parks, ponds, lightposts, fountains etc...
XII. Skills/Professions.
A. Remove Construction 1-4 and replace with Business Buildings 1-4. Also actually create the buildings to go with this line. 
B.Move Furniture intoa new profession.(Design Engineer)Replace line in Architect with heavy structures. (Military structures, City structres etc.. will be produced from this line.)
C.Move Surveying toa newprofession.(Mining Engineer)and replace the line in artisan with sampling. ( A toned down version of surveying.) Restrict the use of Harvestors (Other than Personal) to this profession.
D. Create Personal Factories. Restrict use of all other factories to a new profession. (Industrial Engineer.)
E. Rename Architect to Structural Engineer.
(I will create another post stating my ideas for the revamped professions.)
XIII. Furniture
A. Fix the many many many bugs in this line. (See my bug list post.)
B. Balance the hide requirements.
C. Allow more controlled item placement. IE Desk Lamps On Desks and such.
D. Create more Business oriented furniture equipment. IE Cantina Furnishing. Restaraunt furnishings etc...
E. Add functionality to exisiting items. IE Droid detectors detect droids., Containers store items. etc...
XIV. Identical Components.
A. Keep the factory xp nerfed. The fact that you remove critical failure chances is good enough reason alone to use these factories.
B. Remove the need to use identical components.
Please add any suggestions/ideas that I may have forgotten to include.
Again please post bugs to my Bug List.
XV. Harvesting
A. Lengthen the time between resource shifts to 1 month.
B. Remove unatural Alloys/composites (Steel, Aluminum etc...)from the ground and increase the base resources such as Iron, Copper, Ore etc..
C. Create a process for creating Steel, Aluminum etc... and make it part of a profession (I suggest mining.) (See my save architect from itself post for how this would work.)
D. Generalize the stats on mined resources. Allow *miners* to experiment on resources during the refining/processing of saidresource to improve purity(stats)(Refining = improving quality)(processing = making alloys/composites)
E. Ensure schematics are adjusted to allow artisans to continue thier climb towards the advance professionswhile following the resource rules set above.
Cyberthugg wrote:
This is a list of every suggestion/wish I can think of or have come across. Most is in condensed form but I will be glad to elaborate on anything I write here that you are unclear on. Please also feel free to add any of your own ideas to this thread. I personally didn't think up all these ideas. Credit goes to the board for showing me things I didn't even think to improve upon until it was pointed out.
These are in no particular order. I have bugs listed in another post please post those in that thread.
If you like these lists please float them for your reference and rate them to attract more people to read them.
Okay, I'll annotate your list.
I. Lots
A. Ability to Buy sell lots.
Well...Actually that's not a bad idea, but I can see people with multiple accounts "selling" their lots to themselves, deleting the newbie account, rinsing, and repeating. I can also see this REALLY unbalancing the "everyone is equal" goal, where there are noreal "newbie" characters. I know, there ARE newbie characters,but still. It'd definately make a mature character very hard to catch up with on a mature server.
B. Limit Starting lots to 2.
But not without A.
C. Ignore lot requirements for house. Limit each player to 1 house.
No. MAYBE limit each player to one LOT FREE house, but let players have multiple OCCUPIABLE STRUCTURES. Don't MAKE merchants deal out of their homes.
D. Improve max number of lots as charactor improves through advanced skills.
Definately. At least for those professions that deal directly with crafting. Artisan classes, and class really, that uses a lot of resources. I've proposed 1/4th a lot for every box in an advanced artisan class. That way one column would get you one lot, and so would one row, if you decided to advance that way. It has the added advantage that it doesn't FORCE master crafter classes to live in the smallest dwellings so they can have enough harvesters to conduct business.
E. Restrict lot types to those in the proper profession.
Well...In theory, this would be good, but I don't know if I'm bothered by gunmen running mining. I WOULD like cheaper maintenance for those of us who actually know how to BUILD the structure, making mining cheaper for the artisan class.
F. Tie Available Lots to Acct/Server to prevent create delete syndrome to obtain extra lots.
Huh? Oh, so you mean each account would only have 20 lots or something? Why does this matter with a SCS system anyway?
G. Player who sells his lots then deletes the charactor will have no lots when he/she makes a new charactor. However charactor can buy back lots.
Well, that fixes my first problem with A, but not my second problem. Namely that a new player shouldn't have to struggle harder than the first players to get to the same point. It also developes a new problem in that RealWorld wealth would allow some players to discard whole accounts to get the lots to build with.
II. House Design.
A. Allow house interiors to be designed by the architect instead of the cookie cutter design. Require an entry hall to allow the game time to render the interior before the player can see it.
Not a bad idea. I assume you mean for the shell to be cookie cutter still. Do this and your point B below becomes far less necessary.
B. Create a seperate building type for businesses. Building range from small like a pub to large like a night club or department store.
I'd go for this.
C. More variety on the exterior. (I'm sure this is already in the works.)
Heck, just let us architects PAINT our structures.
D. Allow use of named deeds on similar planets. IE Corellia on Talus, Naboo on Rori etc...
Well...To a degree. I actually LIKE the "generic" deed restriction right now, as it gives me a market that would already be glutted otherwise.
III. Automation.
A. Automatic Debit from bank acct 1 days worth maintenance into Structures each day. It is up to the player to keep his bank acct full. Allow the ability to split maintenance costs when owned by multiple people.
Oh, Please. That last half would probably be a bit hard to implement though, and by preference the artisan should be able to Cut Off a harvester so they can earn enough credits to go destroy the thing rather than have 10 harvesters effectively tag-team mobbing you for money so you can never manage to earn enough to travel anywhere but by foot.
B. Automatic Power distribution from power generator structures to other structures that require power. (Can setup this up so it only works on structures within a certain radius of the power source.)
I'll do you one better. Go visit the droid engineer forum. If we could put a power droid on a patrol between a windmill and a few harvesters, it'd make for a decent set up.
As an alternate, since harvesters generate special waypoints, ones that the server can identify to destroy after you destroyed the harvester, give windmills, and similar structures, a second slot like a datapad to hold its "subscription list". Any structure in range, that has a copy of its waypoint in this "datapad" would get an equal share of the power.
C. Automatic Email on Structure status changes. IE Resource Depletion, Maintenance Depletion etc...
Absolutely.
D. Ability to remote operate structures such as harvestors through the data pad.
At least for some things. Checking maintenance and power, maybe paying maintenance, (maybe not,) and changing resources. Absolutely.
E. Allow specific line of droids to manage all structures including removing resources from full structures.
Oh, yes. Fix pathing first, however. You need to be able to plot a path from any point in the wilderness to any shuttleport or bank before this truly becomes possible. Otherwise, let the droid SIT THERE, and so long as you have a "pet" standing next to your harvester, your resources show up in your bank 30 minutes after they became available, that'd be good. Perhaps limit it to a planet you have either a bank account open on, or a house on.
For that matter. If one could leave a WED next to the harvester, and that divided maintenance costs in half, that'd be good too.
F. Allow scheduled or automated shutdown at set times or on certain conditions. IE to save maintenance/decay I might run my harvestors only 16 hours a day as opposed to always on.
I can see it being good. Harvest ore for the next 12 hours, then switch to steel, then on to copper. I can't see it being good for saving maintenance/decay, as I presume it'd still decay while being used anyway, and what's the difference between 48 hours all up front, (two days,) versus strung out over 3 days? You still pay the same maintenance, and you still pull the same resources out.
IV. Administration.
A. Allow various levels of administration within a structure from general access to drop/pickup to redeed access.
It'd be nice if we could open up a list of names, with the names down the side, and columns of checkboxes for permissions. Say, each row having the following. String, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, for character name, hopper access, resource selection, power supply, maintenance, rename, redeed, permissions setting. Even better. String, int, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, bool, and allow you to select how MUCH, percentage wise, the player should be able to access, or how much, in units the player should be able to access per hour.
B. Ability to set access levels to various levels/rooms.
Again, oh yes.
C. Automatically refund credits to person who for whatever reason are banned from your structure who have made a purchase but not yet retrieved it. Provide a warning message to the person doing the banning that the target has an outstanding purchase.
Or do the following. Make banning a 1 change per hour thing, then bounce any purchases in that structure to the players bank or the nearest public bazaar terminal.
V. Maintenance.
A. Allow the removal of power/credits from structures.
Please
B. Allow droid engineers to create a module or line of maintenance droids that can be used to reduce maintenance costs of structures they are assigned to maintain.
Please.
C. Do not charge maintenance during server downtime, lockup or extended loading periods.
That'd be nice. Or at LEAST don't charge maintenance past the point that the thing quits working. After all, presumably the player WOULD be there to maintain the thing if only he could.
D. Do not charge maintenance on extractors that are not running. (However place a time limit that extractors may be left not operating before they are removed from game. IE 3 days.)
This would be fair. However, there is the issue of resources still IN the harvester. Perhaps reduce maintenance costs drastically, to about par with a house, whenever the structure is not functioning.
E. Do not charge maintenance to redeed. (However everytime a structure is redeeded, reduce the maximum efficiency of the structure. Eventually they will have to replace this structure due to wear and tear.)
This would be good. I'm neutral on this.
F. Re-add the ability for extractors to function under 100% maintenance. (However not only reduce efficiency, but also allow for a chance of critical failures that increases in severity the more decayed the extractors become. Some examples of critical failures include. Permanent Breakdown, Minor breakdown requiring repairs, Destruction of the extractor with loss of all material contained within. Security failures resulting in loss to theft of material within. etc...)
Yes, this would be good. Another idea. Make a 100% harvester mob repellant, but a 50% harvester red-mob attactive. You don't maintain your harvester and suddenly it becomes a hangout for the rifraff, and crazed durnis take up residence nearby. But not unless they continue to function SOMEWHAT all the way to broken.
VI. Payment Plan
A. Allow part of the maintenance fees paid by the owner(s) into a structure to be paid back to the creator. (This would be daily payments for a set period of time.) UCP
Huh. Nah. Pay once and never again. We do get EXP after all. But if the crafter, and only the original crafter, had a bonus on repairing the structure, above and beyond what a fellow crafter could do for it. Goes for other crafteds as well.
However, allowing an artisan to sell something with that turned ON and listed as an INSTALLMENT system, would be nice. An optional choice, between the buyer and the seller.
B. Lower the maintenance costs of creators using thier own stuctures. (However they do not recieve payments from the maintenance pool.)
Fair. Actually, B with the way you stated A would be pretty much the same. Lower maintenance. The only differance is you wouldn't have to keep putting the same credits in to the maintenance pool.
C. Payment plans are automaticly determined by the type/quality of the item (See experimentation) for a set period of time after which UCP will stop.
Reasonable, but I still don't really care for A.
VII. Decay
A. Structures (excluding extractors) do not decay for a set period of time. (Same length as UCP to encourage architects to make high quality structures.) once this time has elapsed the structure begins decaying at a rate determined by the quality numbers of its materials. (See experimentation.)
B. Graphics for exteriors change to match the decay of the structure.
C. Maintenance costs for decaying structures increase steadily until the house becomes to expensive to maintain.
D. Structures that have begun to decay cannot be redeeded. Only destroyed.
Reasonable, but probably a bit much to ask for this much of a rewrite. A decent concept though.
VIII. Trading/selling.
A. Show the bloody floorplans in the details window.
Oh please.
B. Include time left till Post UCP decay.
If you have it.
IX. Experimentation.
A. Overall Quality determines UCP amount.
If you have it.
B. Unit Toughness determines UCP time frame.
If you have it.
C. Decay Resistance determines Post UCP decay rate.
Again, if you have it. That is, if you have "UCP" this would be good to have too.
X. Critical Failures.
A. During resource allocation = loss of resources for failed component only.
B. During Experimentation = minimum stats on finished item.
C. During Creation = Loss of One component and ability to go back and recreate lost component.
ARE there critical failures at this step?
XI. Landscaping.
A. Either create a profession or allow advanced architects to modify slightly terrain to allow more placement of buildings. (I've found several great sites for building placement but because of soem tiny ditch with water in it i couldn't place the stupid thing.)
I've suggested a gravel bed. Place one gravel bed, then place the structure. I've also suggested a pontoon structure that can support another structure. I've also suggested making it so that its lot cost is reimbursed when a structure is put on it.
B. Either add to this new profession or create an Architect skill line that allows creation of outdoor structures such as streets, parks, ponds, lightposts, fountains etc...
Maybe include such placables that an architect can make and a mayor can place. That would probably work.
XII. Skills/Professions.
A. Remove Construction 1-4 and replace with Business Buildings 1-4. Also actually create the buildings to go with this line.
If you get the option to design the floorplan, then you don't NEED this. Just build a shell of a house instead, and put a bar in the back, or a counter next to the door.
However, if you do this, PLEASE remember to redistribute the experimentation points.
B.Move Furniture intoa new profession.(Design Engineer)Replace line in Architect with heavy structures. (Military structures, City structres etc.. will be produced from this line.)
Not a BAD suggestion, but it'd make architect even MORE of a grind. Instead, how about making military structure schematics a faction perk, and either ignore city structures or make them a reward for something. (a quest for instance.)
C.Move Surveying toa newprofession.(Mining Engineer)and replace the line in artisan with sampling. ( A toned down version of surveying.) Restrict the use of Harvestors (Other than Personal) to this profession.
Bleah. You realise how much material goes into a house don't you? I'd prefer this not come to pass.
D. Create Personal Factories. Restrict use of all other factories to a new profession. (Industrial Engineer.)
I must say I don't care for this idea either. Letting people run factories that benefit themselves is too important. They already have to get the schematics from a class that can make the part, so it is already, in my opinion, balanced.
E. Rename Architect to Structural Engineer.
Apt. Architects DESIGN buildings, We're more carpenters than architects.
(I will create another post stating my ideas for the revamped professions.)
XIII. Furniture
A. Fix the many many many bugs in this line. (See my bug list post.)
For instance. Shouldn't a chest HOLD something?
B. Balance the hide requirements.
C. Allow more controlled item placement. IE Desk Lamps On Desks and such.
Oh, yes. Give us a truncated 2-d placement diagram first, then let us "float" objects, in wireframe form, to the top of each other. Don't even use the 3-d engine if it is too much trouble. Just make the effects EFFECT the 3-d engines placement.
D. Create more Business oriented furniture equipment. IE Cantina Furnishing. Restaraunt furnishings etc...
Yes. Cash register. Bar. Tap. Heck, medical bed. booth.
E. Add functionality to exisiting items. IE Droid detectors detect droids., Containers store items. etc...
Yes. Please.
XIV. Identical Components.
A. Keep the factory xp nerfed. The fact that you remove critical failure chances is good enough reason alone to use these factories.
Please, however, make an exception for components, or as others have suggested, give the crafting session the option to run LIKE a factory for the creation of components. Making cinderblocks for houses, or in the not TOO distant future, cinderblocks for walls for houses, is a real grind.
B. Remove the need to use identical components.
Yes. If you haven't already done so, PLEASE do so.
Please add any suggestions/ideas that I may have forgotten to include.
Again please post bugs to my Bug List.
Heh I get the feeling you wrote your responses to the first section before reading the whole thing.
Here goes.
Section I
If you link lots to an acct then a person cannot delete a charactor create a new one and keep selling the lots.... as for a person discarding accts. A. There are server caps to prevent too many players registering on a server most of these servers are already close to full and eventhough an acct may be discarded its not removed from the system for some time (usually 90 days)
Section II
When i referred to more variety in structures I was referring to designs though tinting would be kinda nice too.
Section III
Just because something may not be simple to implement doesnt mean it isnt worth looking into and to be honest I don't see how hard it is to take a 400 credit maintenance fee on a house with 2owners and directly deduct 200 credits from each persons bank acct. Here on earth we have the ability to direct debit from our banking accts, how come in a galaxy with interstellar travel we can't have automatic debit or even automatic split debit? As for saving maintenance. What If i have to be offline for a couple of days and I know I can't afford to pay the upkeep for while I'm gone without having to run soem missions or sell soem goods both of which take time I don't have... I turn off the harvestors and as long as im back before thier dormant time limit is up I don't lose the structures and I dont have to worry about them rotting away because my bank couldnt cover the fees.
Section IV
I do like the checkbox list thingy .. very groovy.
Section V
awesome Idea for the mob attracting/repelling bit.
Section VI
Actually there is no UXP on deeds so once they get a house we get nothing and since it doesnt decay its a double whammy.
Section X
You can critically fail at any step during the crafting process.... its very much bad.
Section XII
The reason for the seperation is because We Are Not Miners and should have never been. The economy will never ever stabilize if we allow one profession to run everything from ground to market. things were much better when there was a seperate mining profession. I wasn't around for the industrialist profession they had and which we still get useless xp for. The game is supposed to be based on everybody having to work together not small groups of people working alone.
Again, annotating the post with my own comments.
Cyberthugg wrote:
XV. Harvesting
A. Lengthen the time between resource shifts to 1 month.
I'd prefer giving harvesters a 1-week resource guarantee. That'd make harvesters truly necessary for any type of mass manufacture. Suddenly you can no longer SAMPLE x,but if your harvester was set to harvest x, it would keep pulling up the material for an extra week, or until it lost power, maintenance, or had its resource changed. That's what I'd like to see.
B. Remove unatural Alloys/composites (Steel, Aluminum etc...)from the ground and increase the base resources such as Iron, Copper, Ore etc..
C. Create a process for creating Steel, Aluminum etc... and make it part of a profession (I suggest mining.) (See my save architect from itself post for how this would work.)
Hmmm. Well... I WOULD like to see a formulator, or chemist as a subclass. MixX plastic withx stats withY plastic with y stats, and you'd get Z plastic with (x+y)/2 stats, before experimentation, (refining.)
D. Generalize the stats on mined resources. Allow *miners* to experiment on resources during the refining/processing of saidresource to improve purity(stats)(Refining = improving quality)(processing = making alloys/composites)
E. Ensure schematics are adjusted to allow artisans to continue thier climb towards the advance professionswhile following the resource rules set above.
Eliminate plastic too. Allow for multiple types of OIL, but make plastic something that requires a schematic. Heck, allow different type of iron too.
All this said, I still don't want to see resource harvesting taken away from the crafters that use the resources. It's bad enough I have to be a decent shot to avoid getting shot getting to my harvesters, or to afford to pay the maintenance on my harvesters so I can save the materials toward some Big Project. Perhaps a branch like businessman. You can conduct business, with a droid or a vending machine, and just be an artisan, but there are perks to being a businessman.
Perhaps the following.
One column for combining different materials. You get your steels, alloys, plastics, other petroleum products, and anything else inorganic here, with a really cheap example of each being available at some spot on the artisan tree, (perhaps, surveying, at this rate.) Synthetic gems to be about the top of the list. Perhaps 3 and 4, perhaps just 4.
One column for experimentation.
One column for maintenance fee management on harvesters.
One column for extra lots for more harvesters.
Novice to give you a few more alloys than survey 4 does, a couple more petroleum products, a new steel, and a fiberplast SUBSTITUTE.
Master to give you that iron that wookies need for bowcasters perhaps, orperhaps synthetic versions of various materials, at a noticably higher base quality, that are needed to make just about anything a master craftsman needs. Perhaps synthetic diamond film as an optional component for Electronics modules. Something either optional for a third of every craftsmans master level items, or a substitute for one of the existing materials that is noticably better.
Why would you need more than one house? Owning a mansion is a status symbol in itself (Mansions not in game but would be created under this idea) If you want to run a business there would be a whole line of buildings and as merchant youd be able to own as many of those as you had lots for. 1 house of any size and it doesn't count against your lots. I think that is plenty fair.
And to those worried about starting off with so few lots ... by the time most of you would need more than the starting lots youd have more under this system. You gain lots as you progress. Its meant as another deterrant to the create a new toon and sell the lots thing which goes hand in hand with the linking lots to acct. for those who don't delete thier charactors (there is almost no reason to since you can surrender skills) you won't even notice. An exception could be made for those who open up a force sensitive slot where they wouldn't be penalized on lots.
I vote a very loud no on the harvesters attracting mobs thing. For one thing, if my maintained harvester is next to someone's harvester that's burning merrily away, I'M the one that's going to get aggro when I visit the area. For another, that would be very exploitable by any combat class.
I also really hate the idea of structure decay, especially if it cannot be repaired.
Yes to droids having an active role in maintaining andpowering harvesters, andretrieving the resources from them. This idea is much better than any of the others for maintaining harvesters remotely, gives DE's something useful to sell, and fits right in to the interdependance model that SWG tries to promote.
I think the game NEEDS a miner profession. Removing miners has led to many of the problems with the game economy that are apparent now.
Very good pointI never even thought of that ... It was a nice idea though. Combat class could plant harvestor bait and basically farm creatures that way plus if your built next to soembody who doesn't take care of thiers it screws you .... lots of potential for grief.
However with mobs spawning near my harvestors anyway it would be nice to be able to ward them away simply by keeping my area in nice condition. Most mobs try to avoid areas where humanoids frequent and run down harvesters don't look like they are frequented. I was incapacitated twice jsut a few minutes ago trying to pay maintenance on my harvestors because a spawn of red mobs was within 50 meters of my harvestors.
Good point.
I was killed by some thugs that took a liking to the location that I had a harvester mining ore.
Perhaps if the ward was pretty absolute like houses, but only for a VERY limited radius, (incidentally, just slightly more than the radius of the placement footprint.) Then, so long as there is ONE maintained harvester on the outside of a cluster, and a line of such maintained harvesters to your own, you can avoid the other harvesters.
Perhaps also, if the ward only benefited people on the hopper list of the harvester. Not as realistic, but it'd keep people from using other peoples harvesters as safe haven.
The test case to be something like this.
Player is near a harvestor, Mob, is aggro to Player. Mob attacks...unless Player is on the hopper list of the harvestor.
Player is going to a harvester, Mob is aggro to Player. Mob persues...but looses interest at half the range if player walks into range of a harvester that that player has access to.
Player stands next to their own harvester and starts shooting Mob. All bets are off.
You're right, I annotated as I read.
I thought that was clear.
Actually, I think the way servers are working is, if it hits 80% load, it won't let anyone else log in, and if it hits 60% load, it won't let anyone else create a character. Numbers off the top of my head, of course. In other words, I think they said the limits are based on the number of people logged in, not the number of characters made on the server. SO, at 8:00 pm Saturday, Primetime, you may not be able to even log in, much less create a new character, but wait until 2:00 am Tuesday Morning, and you may be able to do both because fewer people are on the servers.
Painting the house would be the EASIEST way. A few extra models would be really nice however.
As to section 3, I'm not sure that we're talking about the same thing.
For instance. My comment about fixing pet pathing first? How do you have realistic transfer of resources on a droid, if the droid keeps getting lost trying to find its way to the shuttleport?
Now I understand your idea for maintenance and timers. I am on vacation now, (in another state, using a computer that probably doesn't have a video accelarator card, and it's not my computer, so no game,) and I'm having a friend watch 3 of my harvesters. If you ARE able to get back in time, however, there is little difference between getting all the resources up front, and stopping, and getting a third of the final output, pausing eight hours, getting the next third, pausing eight hours, and getting the final third.
I do think an idle harvester should decay at a much slower rate. regardless if it's because it stopped on a timer or because it stopped at 98%. Or maybe give the thing a corpse so you CAN get its output in the end.
oh I am not against reduced maintenance for off harvestors say at only 2% of normal but I still beleive we should have the ability to schedule offtimes and such.
1. The creation of money
2. The destruction of money
3. Money Supply
4. Resource Scarcity
5. Time value of money and labor
The creation of money:
Currently money is created in gane by:
1. new players arriving with 250 creds or so each
2. missions ranging from 200 creds to 6000 on Dantoine
3. Killing of NPC's and select creatures
If there are other ways please in game e-mail Ancus.
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Destruction of Money
The destruction of money occurs as follows:
1. purchasing items or training from NPC's
2. building and equipment maintenance and operating fees
3. loss through uninsured death if body never revisited
4. bizzar and vendor fees
If there is any missing items in game email to Ancus.
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The Money Supply
This is based on the above two items plus an ever increasing population base. It is obvious that the method of creation far out strips the method of destruction. The inevitable consequence is inflation and the eventual collapse of the economy. Currently there does not seem to be a properly functioning money supply regulatory mechanism. A currency has value precisely because it is limited and trusted as a median of exchange.
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Resource Scarcity
There has been a lot written on this subject already. Granted resources must exist in enough quantity to allow for a continuous fllow of products in game. Granted with an ever increasing population there is an ever increasing demand for resources. However there must be a limit to the amount of resources in game at anyone time. This very concept is what balances the number of architects to that of gun fighters. Scarce resources will dictate that there is room for x number of architects and x number of bio-engineers in the game at anyone time.
I agree the resource allocation algorithm applied in game is fundementally flawed. a sweeping resource shift is impracticle. With this form of resource management the economy will collapse for it is impossible to establish profitable and stable business.
Resources should be depleted over time causing the miners to mine for another non depleted resource on that same spot or pickup and move. In the real worl untapped resource dont move they remain until depleted.
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Time Value of Money and Labor
Jobs, jobs jobs...I thought this was supposed to be a game! We've managed to recreate an environment where we get home from work and goto work. Amazing - we dont even get paid! Enough digression - Of course each characters time spent on any task, be it mining, crafting or running a factory, is worth credits (money). This is a basic concept as we all have some sort of a real world job. The other probably less understood is the concept of time valued of money. This is essential for a successful in game economy. It ecco's through many of the threads on this site. If I cant make a profit for all this work then I am going to put my money somehwere else! The time spent in one proffession or on producing one item has a cost in time elsewhere. Since time is money, the time spent on one endevor costs you the amount in money you could have earned in another endevor. the trick is to find and maximize the most profit realization for your time. In order for this to self regulate the economic unverse of SWG the above five items must be functing properly.
This last concept will be what regulates the number of people in each profession. There must be a limit and a natural regulatory agent in the economic environment.
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Conclusion
This is not ment to solve any problems at this time. This article does not go indepth nor does it offer solutions. It is an economic analysis that reveals what I feel are the key areas to focus on in order to bring about a stable SWG economic environemnt. I will gather comments and suggestions and eventually formulate a few suggestions the devs can use if they wish.
Sincerely,
Ancus Marcius a hubble and struggling businessman.