Architect Archive

Hi folks,

For some strange reason I feel like Im gated. I like the idea of resources and experimentaion finaly effecting our products but now I suddenly feel that unless Im building stuff with the best possible resources then I shouldnt bother.

Even if a product has 4 components and I have great resources for 3 of them I find myself refusing to make factory runs because Ithink in a few days I will run out of my resources and thats probably when the fourth resource I was needing will pop up.

So in the end all I do each day is log on to see whats poped up and qualities it has and if its good I put harvesters down if notI log off and thats the end ofmy architectfor the day.

I know weapon smiths have been dealing with this for a while and that along with decay is probably why they make the kind of cash they do but for architects who dont have decay this can be a real problem in the end.

Imagine if for whatever reason you miss out on a particular good resource. Some other architect dumps 10 heavies on it and picks up 400k of it for a week.

Suddenly your stuck because nobody wants your stuff because the other guy can make better stuff.

Thats where decay comes in. Because we dont have decay we live in an industry where the first sellers make all the cash all the time. Even if that resource came back 2 weeks later it would be to late because everyone who wanted that item now has it so your still gated.

Im lucky in the sence that I have 2 accounts so I can just log in the second account but for those who only have an architect and casual gamers who dont have time to run to every planet to see what resources are available this situation will eventually shut them out of this profession if it hasnt already.

I dont realy have any answers to it. I thought maybe they could spawn good quality stuff each day of a different type but that would effect all professions and suddenly everyone would have the best of everything in a week or two and crafting would come to a halt. ( apart from those with decay )

In the end I guess the only answer is real decay for architects but we have beaten that horse to death and Im not even sure what the end result of that debate was but I know we dont have real decay at the moment so I guess those pro decay lost the debate.

I see where you are coming from. However, in my case I feel blessed if I have the TIME to make my experimented harvesters. What I mean is between keeping my furniture vendor stocked, and stocking enough houses, factoriesand personal harvesters on my deed vendor, and filling those "Oh dear lord I don't care if its the best just build it" harvester orders, I'm lucky to be able to experiment a couple good harvests a day and I have good enough resources to do it.

I guess my point is that if you think of yourself as a builder of med and heavy harvesters, and you are also having trouble getting good resources then yes I can see where you might feel gated. But if like me you are a builder of whatever people want to buy, its not really the case. How many weapon smiths can build 2/3 of their saleable product without worrying about resource stats?

Again I do understand your dilema. Perhaps a solution for you would be either diversifying more in what you sell.Or if you would rather stick to the installations you might look into purchasing more resources from dedicated miners. It makes your stuff cost more but its an option.

As for decay, I doubt we'll see it. Imagine the uproar of people paying maintenance AND having their stuff decay on top of it. You could say get rid of maintenance but that's a money sink the devs will most likely not want to remove. I think the idea someone brought up of having harvester "power-ups" rather than experimenting the harvesters themselves is the best idea I've heard on this topic. Archs that do not want to mess with resources can still build the basic structures. Archs that can and do want to exp can make the power-ups. The power ups would decay but not the structures themselves. Good all around. Doubt we'll see it though.

I see it similarly to RoadieRik. I'm not really in the harvester business. I'll leave that to the folks who have been screaming for experimentation and can afford to take the time to hunt down the best materials. I'll continue to make my living selling furniture and houses, and the occaisional factory. The only harvesters I'll make will be for my own personal use. Now, if I just happend to stumble on a bunch of really good resources, then I might just make some harvesters for sale, but I'm not going to go out of my way to do so.

i find the dependence upon ore, even carbonate ore, is a bit much. i find most of my time is spent waiting for the acumulation of more ore. i mean maybe its a deliberate parralel to the use of oil in real life, but still, i joke to people that as an architecht in this game, my main job is as consumer of ore.

People get it stuck in thier heads that it has to be carbonate ore, I can tell you right now I hardly ever build walls with carbonate ore, I can often find higher concentrations of other ores that build walls just as well.

I just keep a small stockpile of Carbonate on the side for schematics that specifically call for it and build walls with whatever high concentration ore I can find.

It's not a matter of people getting anything stuck in their heads about anything. It's a matter of keeping things down to a minimum. Why have Sil Ore AND carbonate ore when all have to have is carbonate? It's the same way with Iron, why have Iron when I have to have alum/copper and it works in the spot iron does? Whay collect more resources than you need? I mean I haveto have alum/copper anyway so just use it in places iron works. Same with carbonate ore. Why not just put all my harvs down on the same spot of ore.

It's about efficiency, not getting something stuck in your head.

I mostly agree with the problems the original post makes. Specifically, the one "saving grace" that Architects had was the fact that our material quality did not matter very much. I don't think that any amount of possible experimentation will ever get the sales price on our large facilities to the level of armorsmiths or weaponsmiths (ie 20credits/unit of material). With that said, we still take the biggest risks in the crafting game for the return. Weapons, droid, armor, clothing, etc take very small fractions of material, so a failure is a minor setback in most cases.I know people will say "charge more then"... But in a diluted market such as Architect, this isnt a very feasible resolution.

I am all for the idea of making some form of power-up for a harvester. Possibly allowing for optional components. For example: A deed for a heavy mineral harvester requires 2 ore mining units. Howabout allowing a third mining unit as an option to increase effectiveness, and leave the experimentation for storage, or something along those lines.

Also, I would love to see the money sink of harvesters changed to something a little more beneficial to the Architects. Perhaps cut the mainteneance in half or more, andinstead, require it to berepaired. This repair would have to be performed by an Architect, and would require a certain amount of materials. the number one thing this would resolve, would be to give all architects some repeat business, kinda like a service call on your air conditioning unit. Seeing how most people only purchase a set of harvesters one time, the exisiting architects will still be faced with a shrinking market, but we would now serve purpose "after the sale"

Yes it does get stick in some peoples heads. ( I didnt say yours )

If my carbonate ore site is at 50% and an Intrusive or Silastic site is at 69% ( I find this a lot ) I would do a whole lot better to set one on carbonate and the rest on a different kind of ore. In fact after a few shiftswith one on carbonate I can forget carbonate all together for several shifts if I want too.

Realise howeverI sell a LOT of stuff, not just a few at a high price but a whole lot at a farily low price. The difference in cost of pulling ore at 50% and 69% is pretty large to me, not to mention the speed at which I collect ore.

Do what works for you, but I have found that not getting my head stuck on carbonate ore has imporved my business quite a bit.

---

Dayln wrote:

Yes it does get stick in some peoples heads. ( I didnt say yours )

If my carbonate ore site is at 50% and an Intrusive or Silastic site is at 69% ( I find this a lot ) I would do a whole lot better to set one on carbonate and the rest on a different kind of ore. In fact after a few shiftswith one on carbonate I can forget carbonate all together for several shifts if I want too.

Realise howeverI sell a LOT of stuff, not just a few at a high price but a whole lot at a farily low price. The difference in cost of pulling ore at 50% and 69% is pretty large to me, not to mention the speed at which I collect ore.

Do what works for you, but I have found that not getting my head stuck on carbonate ore has imporved my business quite a bit.

---

Dayln's right. I think there are only one or two schematics that specifiy Carbonate as the ore type. Siliclastic ore is usually at higher concentrations and works fine for structures.

i make everything in factories.. i dont make anything by hand except for the final combine and maybe some light power cores for small houses i sometime stock.

I dont have to spend time to experiment on my harvesters components.. i did it once and now i got the schematic and i just pop it in if im out of the component and make a few more.

I dont do turbines, small structure models, small struc mods or anything by hand if i can help it.. I also dont run any harvesters that I use specifically for my architect business.. i buy ore/metal at 2.5/2cpu from some miners dedicated to mining for me.

I remmeber when I first started out and trying to get 2 turbines from a factory was a lot of resources to be using, but now i run them off 100 at a time. Save your money, keep your prices above your costs as much as the market will bear and after a time its affordable and easy to run your business this way

I think my current stock of resources is worth way more than my bank account, but its an investment that I can cash in at any time

Yep.

That is why I am making my City's Structures then stockpile myself with every type of house and harvesters then surrender it all. I am going to get Master CM and Doc. The rest of you can continue on with this abuse. A little over three months as an Arcitect with little improvement from the Devs and too much abuse from our "customers" so that I dont even wear my title anymore.

ok, the point about carbonate ore is made. any ore will do when it comes to walls. but still, i maintain, that the problem is with ore. we need so much of it, and so much of our lives is spent consuming it. instead of architects they should call us "handlers of ore" or something silly. one solution i could see would be to have some high concentrations all over the place. let the ore be plentiful!

I personally think its great because now I can actually charge a lot more for my products and make more money. Besides its only some parts of the schematic that make the extraction higher and people only care about the extraction being high so I never really worry about the hopper experimentation.

Maller Malice