Architect Archive
Thread: Architect Morale Poll
I'm down on this whole experimentation thing. Experimentationis good for items with decay, and items that don't take an hour to build each one...
My reasoning behind why experimentation is lowering my morale:
1) yes, I'm able to get more resources faster, now, but so is everyone else, and that means no one's ordering harvesters anymore. haven't gotten but one order since the patch, and it's hurting me badly financially.
2) architect stuff, particularly harvesters, are the most complex and time-consuming items to make. Now, we have to worry about not just having to use up 17k ore on a single harvester, but now it has to be GOOD ore... no longer can we concentrate on finding high concentrations to get quanity or ore, now we have to get quality, too, and frankly, with harvesters taking SO many resources to make, it makes it not worth it...
3) we STILL have no decay, which means that yeah, we were going great guns in the beginning, but now demand has dropped ridiculously. And even though we have so little demand these days, they make it worsre by making it so 1 harvester can do the work of two, makijng demand for harvesters even worse. And those harvesters will never disappear, so eventually, everyone will have every harvester they need, and we'll be screwed... it's already pretty much happened
All in all harvester experimentation has ruined the architect clas... Just holding on to see what urban planner will be like, but if it's not SUPER fantastic, i'm dropping architect and just running fields as a resource provider, like all the once0-architects are nowadays... way more money in doing nothing than there should be...
The biggest thing that bugs me about architecture is that the developers of this game have chosen to make OUR structures the basis of removing credits from the economy. Let's face it, money comes into the game through missions and loot and leaves the game through structure maintenance and decay (and insurance, but that hasn't been in the game since day one).
So, any change to maintenance rates or decay of structures will produce a howl from the playerbase (as it should). Just wait till a new death penalty is put in the game, these boards will explode from complaints.
As it is, the devs have placed the brunt of balancing the economy and the flow of money on one player class, us. We are also the class which makes the fewest credits per resource partly because once a player buys a structure, they have to keep dumping credits into it just to keep it. Imagine if people had to pay 1400 credits per day to keep their gun or their armor and you get the picture.
Floyd Wright, Bria
1. Too easy, little challenge. Architecture is primarily an exercise in logistics. There really isn't much decision making in the field. You harvest huge amounts of ore and metal, modest abounts of steel, chemical, aluminum, copper, and reactive gas. You make structure modules. You make walls. You build stuff. Tradeoffs? Nah. Decision making? Nah. Resource quality? Used to be non-existent, now up to very easy.
2. No product differentiation. Product differentiation has gone from 'none' to 'barely important'. Except for the few people who can make 75% experimented components, everyone makes exactly the same products.
3. Dying profession. We get the occasional spike in demand when the game changes, e.g. new harvesters and cities, but the overall direction is down, down, and down.
4. Fear of developers. In the last month we've dodged two bullets (schematic = 100, hopper nerfs). The third one (accidentally releasing bugged experimentation) hit us and put us in the hospital.
5. The Recent Patch. This was really traumatic. It put most of us out of business for a week and caused us unbelievable levels of stress.
6. No communication. GreenMarine did, thankfully, let us know (more or less) what was up with the experimentation problems, but we have no idea what our future is and little evidence that anyone in development intends to solve our problems.
What gets me down? The exhaustion of trying to keep up with orders, especially for guild halls. I feel like I now have a second full time job. And, for what? Credits? I can't eat credits. If only I wasn't addicted... I'm debating turning on my "gunfighter" flag and taking a holiday.
What makes me happy? The new politician class. It looks a lot like I hoped the Urban Planner class would be.
Hi,
I Love being a MasterArchitect. It is my role in this game at this point and I am very comfortable with my role. I have archieved most of my goals with this character and with the addition of Player Cities I now can complete another goal of mine to build a city.
I consider an Architect as a servant role in this game. We are here to server the public and the members of your Guild (If you belong to one). Do I give away my structures to guild members? No! I go out of my way to provided the needs of the people I serve. It is very rewarding to me.
I have been an Architect since the beginning of the game. I have made more money then I can spend. I try to help every inspiring Architect with resources and advice and training. All for Free. I have base fees and adjust accordingly based on the situation. I feel it is the responsibility ofthe Masters to help train and encourage the younger members of the Galaxies.
Are there things I would like to see changed? Sure. First I would like the Structure Factories fixed so they will pull from creates. I would also like to see Structure Factories only take 1 Lot instead of 2. I don't like that City structures are spread out in the construction tree. I think they should be reserved for Master Status only.
What do I really like? Most everyting about Architect.. except making crafting stations. 
They are a pain. It will be nice to have 10 experimentation points. Over time I think SOE is doing a great job and I see Architect as an improving profession that is great to start with.
So you will get no gripping or complaining here. My Morale is just fine and I am happy and proud to hold the Master Architect Status.
1) STILL *NO* reason to get master. Even after the changes. Too many of those that are MA's will sell the highly experimented harvesting units to non-masters so they can make the SAME high quality harvesters us masters can. Yeah, those MA's that sell them like that are to be at fault. However, I still stand by my statement that they should move PA halls down to installations/housing 4 and ALL heavy harvs up to master - after all, why let the novices have stuff that sells just the same as master level? Doesn't happen with weapons, armor, medicines, etc. FIX THIS and a lot of the architect economy will fix itself.
2) Yay for putting all but 3 useless gardens in the non-master level for player cities. Again - still no reason to become master to sell stuff that is as good as masters. FIX THIS TOO
3) WE STILL CANNOT MAKE WALLS IN FACTORIES AND HAVE THEM PULL MODULES FROM CRATES. Why this has been known about forever and not fixed...sheesh - FIX IT
4) With the stupid radial menu changes, we can no longer double click to pull an item from a crate - it defaults to splitting the crate. FIX IT - it makes whatever meager attempt we WOULD have tried to make walls in factories a moot point now.
5) Let us color furniture.
6) Have I mentioned make more of the more desirable stuff MASTER ARCHITECT LEVEL only? This single change will help us more than anything - not having to compete against fly-by-night novices...
7) Get more content in the game - using the holocrons to make people think they are advancing to open the FSCS is silly - yah, will keep them playing a bit longer while they master the new profession - but what you didn't tell them is that they will still not likely ever open up the slot. False hope is great, isn't it? Get us more content that REQUIRE groups of people to do...not the lame jokes of Tusken Raiders and Krayt Dragons, etc. Also, give us RAID CONTENT...this will drive people.
8) Come up with stuff architects can do for the GCW. Make sure to put the best/most desirable stuff at master level too.
9) Oh, yeah, give us a REASON TO WANT TO KEEP BEING MASTER ARCHITECTS.
"What I dislike", by Shylok Nol
Well, let me begin with this.........ALOT!
1. As previously mentioned, our product(s) are the one of the few continuous credit sinks in the game. This is also multiplied by the fact that all of our goods are buy once and never again. See #2.
2. An entire tree (Construction) that does little as our experimentation is pooched at the moment.Put the Urban planner's buildings there please or fix experimentation. We are 3/4 of a full crafting profession without this being addressed.
3. No decay on our products. We need a economy where architects have an ongoing role with current products, not just throwing in new content. City planner is nothing but a bandaid onweeping wound otherwise known as the architect profession.
4. The amount of resources it takes for our products. Yes, we can all be selling them for easy credits on the bazaar as opposed to making undervalued deeds and hope for no crit fails. Where is the impetus to become an architect when raw materials go for more than the finished product? Too bad SONY took out miner for not being "fun". It seems that is all architects are right now without the profession name. I know many would say that is the luck of the dice but no other profession needs an specific resource like architects do in mass quantities.
5. On the note of #4, ore veins that are almost always low and spread over 4 square kilometers making it difficult to have anything more than 3 to 4 fields of ore to choose from on any given planet if there is even ore there.
6. Lack of fun having to check your harvesters everyday to see if your resource has dried up. Can there not be a way for the harvesters to at least have a list of resources you would like to mine if the one your are presently mining disappears? Something like Ore, Steel, Copper, Aluminium?
7. Lack of fun in having to monitor your factory for certain components because they STILL won't draw from a factory crate.
These are my chief morale drainers. I have almost but given up on this profession. I can only hope the devs are willing toinvest some time into fixingoutstanding issuesas opposed to adding more content that addresses consequences and not the source.
I would also like to say that the majority of the above pointsgo directly against what SONY originally stated this game was made for, the casual players. Bull.
Shylok Nol
My morale issues with being a Master Architect, most of which are mentioned in previous posts...this is pretty much a compendium of all the concerns above that I agree with. There is also some emphasis on the ability of the caual player to have fun with this profession...I am not a casual player, but the game was supposed to be primarily for them, so I think the emphasis is warranted:
1. No decay. Because of "Maintainence," we get no return business once an individual fills out his housing/harvester farm to their satisfaction. The rare cases of people redecorating their homes are too rare to count. We get nothing from the maintenence, but WS/AS get to make new stuff (and money) when the stuff they make goes poof.
2. The cap on experimentation/assembly. This is being fixed....but it should have been put in the same time as making experimentation mean something.
3. The ungodly advantage that Architects from a big supportive PA have over casual players. How the hell can 7 lots compete with 200? The amount of resources needed to make our stuff exaggerates this. This should just be a volume difference, but because of price gouging, it can drive the little guys out of business. It also relates to #2, in that a big PA can gather tapes to bump up the experimetation a level, making the stuff the little folks make inferior. As for buying the tapes...when the oh-so-rare auction comes up, it would be very hard for the little guy to come up with the 20 million (or more) it would cost to get S.E. up to the level needed to make a +4 OMU.
5. The lack of furniture schematics for stuff that we see all over the place.
6. The inability to design colors for furniture.
7. The inability to customize house floorplans, walls colors.
8. The lack of landscaping.
9. The inability to place patio furniture.
10. Factories not being able to pull from a crate.
11. Having the highestpercentage of resourceslost due to crit failures, because not only is our assembly lower than the rest of the classes (other than DE), it is not feasible to make our final products in a factory.
12. The idea that it takes ground to be more level to place a mine (read...hole in ground) than it does to place a house. Ever see a real mine?...We have a bunch here in Wyoming....most are in the mountains...but not like in game, where you have to stay on flat ground. Or we also have strip mines (coal)....those turn hills into valleys. Actually, with the back-fill and reclamation the mining companies do, it turns hills into valleys, then back into hills...though lower ones, and with more plants than they started with.
13. The disparity between Architect and other crafters earning ability. A WS can make 800k/day on just the resources they pull using a sample macro. I can make 300k/day on resources I pull with all my lots filled with heavies...and macroing.
14. The low % of ore, as compared to an alloy like steel, or refined elements like aluminum and copper.
15. Structure Factory taking 2 lots...yes, it is huge, but we need that lot, because we have to have as many harvs down as we can to fill up the resource slots in our schems.
16. The ways lots are allocated for houses....a medium taking just as few as a small, one small being only 1, and larges being 6. I think it should be more like 2 for smalls, 4 for mediums, 6 for larges, and 8 for PAs.
17. The lack of communication when it comes to changes that affect the profession, both the ones on test, the ones even farther down the line, and those in the past (no warning that experimentation was going live...not even in the patch notes for that patch).
18. Currently is very little reason to keep master...and that gets worse with the experimentation levels now on test. PA Halls are a one-time build for a guild arch, a rare as heck sale, and not needed for those that just want to make there own harvesters/homes. The master furniture aint really worth it. With the new 100 Experiment on test, 90 of that comes at Const4, so no need to get past Housing1, or Furniture at all (unless you want more Assembly)...If all you want todo is crank out harvesters that is....and many alt char archs do just that.
19. Too many part-timers in the profession that can compete with the masters due to very little fundamental difference. I don't mean casual players, I mean secondary professions or characters.
Everything in this list detracts from the fun I could be having in game. I do not expect that every single item will be fixed, or even looked at, as the Devs are very busy. But it would be nice to get some feedback from them, and not just the Correspondent...no offense, but the ones getting paid to fix this stuff should pop in occassionally to say hi, yes we have read aboutthis issue, we are thinking about it, or have such-and-such a change planned...or this is not something we are going to be able to get to any time soon...doesn't really matter what the response is, as long as we get some real indication that we are being heard by the folks that matter. Good listening skills would be helpful in that regard.
Time to go to my other job...the one that pays in dollars, not credits. Being an Master Architect is WORK, not fun. Enjoy, and I hope this helps.
I have a lot of the same concerns as others.
1) Lack of decay. This will eventually kill our profession if nothing is done.
2) Lack of the ability to change colors/styles/floorplans with our houses and furniture. A tailor can change the color of a shirt, why can't we change the color of a couch?
3) Houses take up too many lots. I think all small houses should take up 1 lot. Mediums 2 lots and large 3 or 4. I am stuck in a tiny naboo house because I need all my precious lots. It would be nice to be able to have a large house without the painful bite into my free lots.
What I love about being an archatec is logging out for the day and coming back the next morning 50k richer because a smart buyer purchased a medium house off my vendor =)
What I hate about being an archatec is waiting forever to get enough resources, having to do COMBAT MISSIONS on advanced planets to support my harvesters, and resources shifting and power running out and the harvs just sit there doing nothing.
I would also like to see change in floor color. I have ALWAYS wanted BLUE naboo house carpet. I WANT BLUE BLUE BLUE CARPET!