Architect Archive
Thread: Renewable Revenue
I forgot to mention where the renewable revenue comes from:
1 - Building Placement. You charge them to place the building, and for the risks involved for placing harvesters on say, Dantooine.
2 - Constant sale of new deeds. Since deeds are no longer re-usable.
3 - Salvage/Recycling - All Engineering based artisans can benefit by extracitng some of the resources out of old unused structures (with a low quality level, 100ish for example, labelled as 'recycled steel, aluminum, ore, whatever)
Edan Foxx
Bria Server
I keep hearing a couple themes in between the details of technical schemes for decay/maintenance/tax/whatever:
1) We want fun stuff to build. Fun. Got it? That's why we're paying $14.95 per month.
2) Repair kits aren't fun, so who cares if they make us money?
3) If existing structures never need to be replaced, then you need to give us new structures to make.
If the new structures were useful in SWG economic terms so much the better. (By useful, I mean, for example, a Heavy Mineral Installation (very useful)as opposed to a Large House (almost a complete waste and a massive economic loss at 6 lots).
It's pretty simple. Just make more stuff for us to make, Devs. Someone will want the new stuff, if it has any purpose. Maybe Player Cities will be just that. We can only hope.
-- Kyer Amon, Lowca
in 1 - For the question of whose lots are used, the architect must be able to get authorization from the lot owner to place on their behalf. Uses the lots of anyone the architect has targeted, with a small pop-up confirmation checkbox for both parties, saying who is placing and who is owning the structure. The lot owner is the one who gets all the admin rights.
You can even put a price box on it, like the price option that slicers and repairman are asking for in trade window. so that the price can be settled right there, right then formally by the game system.
Better yet, can it just automatically send holo a pager alert everytime someone wants to place a structure?That would be far more gratifying than renewable income.
This would create diversity: No one architect could keep all the power-ups in stock. The market would be immense - basically, everyone involved in crafting would need 6-8 per week.
And, as long as they IMPROVED the effectiveness of harvesting, nobody would be getting 'nerfed'.
Make architects able to build defensive structures such as turrets but those then have to be placed within a certain range of an allied building.
Or make buildings targetable by members of the opposite faction (but extremely hard to kill) this would force people into PA cities so they have some defense from roving bands.
Yes, these are simplistic, but so is dropping credits into a machine to keep it running.
1. Increase the maintenance fee as a building gets older. At some point it pays to get a new one.
2. Decay furniture, but allow it to be repaired. Wear and tear on items, even valuable antiques, requires repair or replacement.
yes. first time i saw how archi/non-archis use deeds to magically plant furniture, i was suddenly reminded of Capsule Co. from Dragonball. throw a wooden square on the ground and poof, there's a house! (also reminded of how i can carry a mini ship around in my pocket UO-style)
i just posted a big bit in the sticky thread about more furniture. about how to turn furnishing into it's own class, as well as some other stuff. it's sorta my idea for balancing the needs for having architects around(for decor) which will be comparable in required material and failure costs to weapon and armor smiths, and would not clash with the upcoming City Planner profession. please take a look there.
From my post: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=architect&message.id=16136
....
What would naturally be an often replaceable item that would generate a continued stream of business in the architectural market that fits with the current environment of the game? War related items: turrets, bases, outposts, guard towers, bridges. Most of these items are currently purchased via faction points and some may eventually be a part of the urban planner profession.
....
Sorry to cross post slightly but I have copied one paragraph from a post I mader earlier and left you the link to read furthur.
Not sure I care for structure decay, but I don't like the idea of having to run out to everyone's structures to repair them either. Until a viable solution is reached that everyone can live with, a full color palette ala the Master Tailor's palatte, for furniture, would go a long way toward keeping architech's alive. I'm already seeing the stagnation in my area. Sales are down greatly on furniture, and about non-existant on houses. The new fauna's will tide us over for a few weeks, but then that will peter out as well.
Tedra
Alright, a couple of addendums.
1) I'm getting pretty tired of everyone saying that we're the most prevalent profession in the game. At any give time, I can usually find more Bounty Hunters, Creature Handlers, Pistoleers, Carbiners, and Rifleman. Basically ANY combat based profession. Why? Cause if you can kill stuff, you can always make money, right? right. While I'm sure the numbers are inaccurate, someone stated something about the problem is that there are 2000 archi's on every server. So? There are room for that many Marksman Professionals out there, but not us? Every profession should have it's own balance in the economy that will let anyone choose any profession they like, regardless if some other people got the game first and filled up the "quota" of a profession. Speaking of that...government jobs....cities "hire" an architect, or a few, or whatever, and they are paid a salary during their tenure, but can only work on "city" projects....well, that needs to be worked with, but thought i'd toss it out there.
The more specialized they make our line, like adding the Urban Planner profession, the worse it will be. Right now, I can maintain a decent skill level in other professions, allowing me to not only be an architect, but to be able to make some money in a pinchto feed my ever-hungry harvesters. I can go run a few missions, make some $$. I'm sure the Artisan terminals will help this a little bit, but they are essentially delivery missions with an extra task, which you're hardly being paid for. I don't even bother with them anymore.
2) Sorry, but the maintenance kickbacks for archi's is a bad idea. Too many would be rich, and the market would bottom out. you know why? cause i'd give every **edit** thing i built away, just waiting for the kickbacks to make me rich. I can't hardly sell a harvester for more than about 500 credits anyways, might as well GIVE it away to make sure it gets out there and used so I can make my money.
3) New items: while nice and providing variety, i'm sure the broadminded will see this as a grand stalling tactic, not truly fixing anything. i can make a lot of stuff already. the problem is that nobody wants a lot of it. there is a pretty entrenched market on what people want. they want nice chairs, not crappy wooden ones. they want a nice couch, not one that looks like they picked it up from a garage sale. So I don't build the other stuff. Giving me more items to build, with few items anyone wants won't solve anything, because eventually, like everything else, people will have as many of those as they want too, and not buy any more.
4) You can't take away harvesters' ability to be redeeded. it's simply not feasible. if the resources move, which is already so ludicrous i can't TRULY fathom it yet, then I, and everyone who mines, needs to be able to move their mining equipment. decay is a much better option on these type of items, but is really already present with the maint and power. Maybe borrow from the house idea. Now that they don't lose their money in the harvesters when they relocate, they have to pay us to do it. If the creator of the object still has a valid account, then viola! you opt to move the harvester and the creator gets the moving fee. If not, then either they need to find someone to move it (i don't like this idea...i can't move cause the archi won't move me? this would be a great way for us to bargain with the miners!), or a better solution? credit black hole, just like it used to. they wouldn't lose ALL money in the unit, just there should be a set moving cost.
I'm obviously just working this all out as i go, so i apologize if it's extremely disjointed.
Acer
CN=acer.moenia.naboo.kettemoor
Come to Acer's store, "Crap I Took From Dudes I Killed!"All loot is1 credit. Also selling Houses, Harvesters, and Furniture.
This thread was too long for me to find if this has been posted yet, but what about changing the construction line to a interior/exterior decorator line? This would allow architects to change wall colors, house colors, carpet colors, add wall lamps (that putoff light), add windows, change wallpaper, etc. This would give us a renewable source of income, basically the architect version of an image designer. I also agree that we should get new house schematics once and a while. Military structures would be nice, but if added, should have resource needs higher than their corrosponding house counterparts, i.e. small house compared to small base, imperial HQ compared to a PA Hall, havestors compared to turrets, etc.
Your Fishy Architect --- Novola Vshbaa