Architect Archive
Thread: Warning to devs and Architecture Correspondent: Possible game-breaker with cities
Fact 1: The next major release of the game will have cities.
Fact 2: The devs have said (somewhere) that rather than creating a new urban planner profession, they were going to make civic structures difficult to craft.
Fact 3: There are people out there with +25 structure experimentation (and, plausibly, structure assembly) skill tapes.
Conclusion: If the 'difficult crafting' is based on the assumption of +55 structure experimentation, the people with skill tapes will own their servers.
These +25 skill tapes severely unbalance even the little bit of experimentation that architects are currently allowed to do. If skill tapes (uber items) are the key to building civic structures, please let us know so those of us who don't have skill tapes can untrain master architect now and get it over with.
Seriously, if civic structures can, in practice, only be crafted by people who posess an ultra-rare uber-item, then the game is (in my opinion) busted. I have no desire to play an Everquest-style game in which uber-items are the only thing that matters.
Dayln,
Please leave more lines between your warning and the actual message content.
I accidentaly saw what you had to say befor I had chance to take a seat, and as a result I came very close to injuring myself.
Please be aware that you may have civil liability in case of personal injury brought about by reason of you negligent posting.
Thank you 
These problems you suggest will never happen. At the very worst there will be people that can charge a little less because of less critical fails.
Experimentation to my knowledge will never affect buildings like houses. Maybe storeage down the line, but how could a bank ever be affected?
Assembly might matter, but I highly doubt its effects will be seen much. This only helps on critical fails. They are not going to make it so a Master Arch can't build any of these and needs some skill tapes. This is just not going to happen. If it did, you would see so much of an uproar when it went live, it would be hotfixed the next day.
This is only a guess, but I would think harder crafting means more specific resources. Maybe like 15 different specific resources to make 1 structure or some large number like that. This will make it hard to craft because if you miss a certain resource you have to buy it or just wait. Too bad this really doesn't make it that hard to craft things. 
The fact that experimentation/structure assembly hasn't figured in the past has little bearing on the future, and the devs might do something that seems reasonable but which makes these tapes game-breakers for everyone else.
For example, it might be that you need some rare resource for an assembly and quality is critical such that, if you don't have OQ 975+, your chances of success are nil. But, as it happens, the only available supply of that resource has OQ 500. Nobody can build the city hall until we get a good spawn... except for the dude with +25 structure assembly who succeeds 40% of the time with OQ 500. He now owns the server - he is the only one who can build a city. Or, perhaps the critical fail probability for a shuttleport is 95% for everyone else... but 50% for the guy with the uber-item.
We don't know what the devs are going to do, but it is very easy to imagine game breakers of this sort.
Green Marine (I hope you're lurking) - we don't need an answer, but if you could chime in with "I've read this and I agree that would be a bad dynamic", that would be helpful.
"I really do hate the idea of uber items that effect things this profoundly, it is totally against the great idea of "no phat loot". It skews uber items over personal skill. "
I HATED HATED HATED HATED HATED "phat lewtz" in EQ. One of the main reasons I quit. I have also jumped on any thread here and downed the slightest metion of them. I did read Q saying that SWG was not going to be an "uber loot" game. I hope he keeps it so, but from what I read her, I am worried.
I do not like the way greed takes over and makes people behave. An example from the other day, and this is 3/4 retarded...
Some guy was buying locked briefcases. I had seen some around, and being a merchant buying and selling, look at things to purchase and resell at a higher price. Well, I politely asked the guy what the locked briefcase was for. I get "a quest" in response, and a "do you have one?" I tell the guy I have had chances to buy them, but since I did not know what they are for, was not going to waste my money. I then asked him what the reward was for completion of the quest...
Ignored
I asked again.
Ignored.
I found out the other day it is for a Krayt Dragon Skull, nothing more than a decoration, but unique I guess. Now, if someone was so willing to be rude over a phat lewt decorative item, then I shudder to think how nasty and elitist people will become when the items become a very high value... like the above mentioned skill tapes.
Mkappus wrote:
I took the Devs post on "harder to craft" to mean very specific resources needed for sub components and final assemblies. Right now an architect can make anything with anything. Power Generators require carb ore, but not a specific sub type. Some things require steel and aluminum but not a specific sub type.
I think you will see the new structures require x units of ABCium steel, and y units of DEFium aluminum, then 5 kinds of factory identical subcomponents. Things should be a little tougher.
I don't think they are going to use our experimentation points.
I agree, this is how I read it as well. While I agree with the origional post's concern, I don't think this is how it is going to play out. From my experience I have the same chances of crit failing on a small house as I do on a PA hall. (I have no hard eveidence of this, but I have not personaly noticed an unballance towrds sepcific items)
If this is indeed how it works then you are talking about making a drastic change to the underlying crafting code to give each item a % chance of success instead of a broad success % dpending on your skill. I personaly don't think they would go through the trouble of doing when they have a much simpler way of gating item creation. Talk to your local DE and ask them how easy it is to find the steel needed to make binary loadlifters. Architects have it REAL easy on this front, because of our huge quanity of resources needed imo, the only specifics we need is any carbonate in small quanitities, and specifics for master furniture oooo not too tough hehe.
The "skill tape" mods you site will have no bearing on player city structure crafting.
OMG.... don't take this the wrong way, but I think this is the first time I've ever seen a dev post on the architect boards!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just want to say thank you for responding!
IS IT REALLY HIM ?
W000T. MR I DESIGN ALL BROKEN CLASSES IST LIVE !!!!
Take it easy on Green Marine! It's not his fault SOE is cheap and have Green Marine working on:
Player Cities, Architect, Chef, DE, Scout, Ranger, Smuggler, Armorsmith, Player Mounts,Etc. No man can handle that kind of work load.
Bottomline,SOE cares only about Profit and they have overworked Green Marine. We have all these broken Professions and now they have Green Marine working on Player Cities and Mounts?
If I had his job, I would have quit or been on drugs right now.