Architect Archive
Thread: Why do so many quit Architech?
This is the classic argument for play (aka Profession) balancing.
IMO this is the most important issue for the dev's to be working on since it gets at the "fun" of playing the game. There were actually several good ideas put forth in this thread that might help balance the architect profession. I especially like manuvering the skill tree to make the best stuff available only at the Master level. I like the thoughts on increasing (incorporating) decay also.
Again it gets down toreviewing what people are doing in the game and then tweeking the system to balance thelimitations of the system with the ingenuity of the player.
Giantfan 
Well, I'm new to theArchitect profession and to be honest, so far I've seen nothing but bad news going up this profession. I was selling my factories from planet to planet for way less then cost and had 8 people (YOU GOT THAT RIGHT 8 PEOPLE!!!) flame me for selling my stuff too low. Some were kind about it (saying that I was selling too low) others not too kind (calling me noob or whatever). I mean most people don't understand that we've probably tried and would really like to sell at the market price of 50k for a factory or something. The end result is that we end up wasting a whole day spamming with little or no response.All the while, our resources are dry and our harvestors are going up in flames. So it's not like we're doing it on purpose, but new Architects really HAVE NO CHOICE but to sell them below cost if necessary. Most of you 'Master' architect got it lucky and joined at the peak and have alreadyreaped the benefits so I don't even know why most of you are complaining. If you don't like it then quit it. Don't go around flaming someone for trying to survive in a profession. I pay for my usage of this game too.
But anyways, I'm having a blast so far as an Architect and hopefully that new expansion is coming soon.
Never worry about people that flame you for selling low, they are dinosaurs that cannot adapt to a buyers market. They are asking you to sink with them, dont do it.
As long as you are mining your own resources selling below cost would be pretty darn low, I doubt you are selling THAT low yet.
one to two large structures a day is awesome...the only trouble you run into is finding someone to buy those deeds each day 
sil
If you ever wanted an idea of how bad it is out there for architects, here you go. This was pulled for the Friday Feature by Q3P0, posted this morning:
"Across all of the galaxies we currently have over 90,000 player houses. Other structures easily double this number. This number grows every day."
Now, admittidly this number is skewed because you can have characters on every server if you want, but ideally, you're only going to have 2-3, and most will concentrate on 1 character. There are "around" 250,000 subscriptions according to their latest estimate. That means that roughly, there's 1 house for every 3 accounts. And double or more in harvesters and factories.
Or PA halls, which would probably make up less than 1/10% of the total number. Given that most characters aren't going to waste time on a house, the luxary market for things like that is more or less tapped out.
(Incidently, even though I'm tossing my skills, I still like contributing here. I'd love to see Architect get balanced and contribute a lot to the overall community)
Dayln has the strange idea that people that charge more than him are going broke... they arent.
The 'Old Dinosaurs' (and I dont consider myself one as it took me a while to make master all on my own) aren't in any more danger than the 'Young Bloods'.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the people leaving architectare mainly in the following twogroups...
a) People who only took architect so that they could make all their own (and their friends) structures cheap, andthen leave. I include PA powered MAs here that just needed it for the early PA halls.
b)People who realy just dont enjoy making the stuff as much as they thought they would, and who are easily put off by having to put much effort into selling.
In all of the character classes there is a large majority of players that will never be very good. They may gain the class skills, but they wont use them to the fullest. There are a small number that will do well no matter what happens, simply because they have the willingness to make it work.
Most of group B that leave could probably have been reasonably sucessful if they had worked with someone who actualy enjoyed the selling aspect. A good merchant (either in-game class, or simply RL ability) can make 1000% difference.
Dayln doesnt like to admit it, but when he first started posting he was charging alot less than he is now. He isnt actualy THAT low.. though he is probably in the lower half of pricing
Just like the real world, a business can only succeed if it has the right management.
If you truly LOVE building stuff and then selling it for less than the value of the materials on the market, then by all means go ahead and do that. Unless you are very unusual I doubt you will stay an architect long after reaching MA. If like me you like the social aspect of this class, the networking, and the business then you can be in it forever... no price can put you out of business. I think ive mentioned it befor... but I reached MA without selling a single structure. I could give it all away and still stay in business... there are lots of other ways to pay the maintenance of harvesters. Dayln and his Wal-mart theory all fall to pieces in an economy which can price at zero if it choses.
Wow... ive written more in this thread than all the others combined... i must be bored 
<Insert random business is PvP argument here>
<Insert random Wal-mart doesnt sell large houses argument here>
Its scarey... but I'm actualy starting to like Dayln, in a weird sort of way. Hes reliable you know.
Well, I worked HARD to get where I am and I don't plan on leavign anytime soon. I don't do it for the money (although I have done pretty well). I do it because even with the major frustrations, I still enjoy the class. I work hard keeping all my harvesters going and running sometimes 15km to upkeep them and I struggle to get enough ore (even with lots from 2 accounts and running heavies) to keep up with the demand from prior customers and referrals. That still doesn't discourage me. I am hoping they will soon fix the problems and all. In the meantime, I have a Hunter type that I also enjoy. I like playing both sides.
I am here for the long haul unless they royally mess things up orst.
I don’t think you are going broke yet, the build up at the beginning of the architect bubble was huge, really big. You can survive on that for a long long time. But that reality is not today’s ( or tomorrows ) reality.
No you are not going broke yet, but I expect you too soon, but very slowly. ( not you specifically, but those stating that they will never change their prices, in other words saying that they cannot adapt to a changing environment ). But it is just an opinion.
More and more people are selling for less and less because fewer and fewer people need the services. What do you think that means to someone that refuses to follow the market long term? More and more people are refusing to buy at yesterdays prices, that is not strange or unusual. Would you purposefully go to a place that was charging you half again as much for the same product? No you wouldn’t, and neither will our customers.
What we are doing ( and yes some of us are Master Architects now, we are not short timers ) are following the market, to make sure that a solid portion of the sales come to us.
Decay in structures will not help long term, it cant help. If it make architect more attractive then more people will become architects until market saturation occurs again. Forcing higher profits wont help, that makes architect more attractive and so more people become architects, market saturation occurs again. The only thing that will truly help architects is to make more classes, to diversify people more so that there are fewer architects.
Or I could jus go on my doom and gloom campaign. ( chuckle )
Seriously I am not trying to drive anyone out, they will do that themselves. Those that cannot bring themselves to adapt to a changing market will fail, that has always been true, it always will be.
By the way it is not true that I am charging more thanI used too.
I defended the people that charged 2 cr per unit, so people assumed that was my price, it never was.
Actually stockpiling resources and waiting fourban planner is exactly what I'm going to do now. And that's the only thing that's keeping me from dropping Architect entirely. This is a game and you're supposed to have fun playing it. You may babble about a buyer's economy all you want, I'm not going to have fun when I have to babysit my factory and risk critical failures on final combine only to sell the finished product for less than the resources that had been used to make it.I'm going to get a combat medic or some other useful profession and go hunting with my friends and let someone else sell large structures at 2 per unit and be proud of their business sense. Go ahead Dayln, if you have fun doing it, but my idea of fun is quite different.
Caz-Ninu wrote:
Earlier today I talked to someone who had surrendered his entire architech skill branch. Whaaaa? With urban planner comming up you think there'd at least be something to look forward to. But no, I don't hear of any master A's saving up structure xp or resources for when urban planner comes out. And then I check swgarchitech.com and find that the guy is selling his account.
Urban planner will be no kind of business at all.
Count all the planets, now multiply that times 6
That is how many total custumers there will be for ALL Urban Planners put together. Do you think each city will want mroe than one bank? nooooooooo
Think about it.
If you become an Urban planer, then do it because you love it, not because you expect to make money at it or that you think it will be a long term business, it wont.
I learned yesterday that fish are a critical component in pet stims. Problem is fishing is time intensive and as a result I had a collegue who was offered 50:1 for his 160 fish. A pet stim C (anyone can use pet stims) as a result retails for a good 6K-9K credits for a moderate number of uses.
So my question is where are our schematics for fishing traps we can place on shores, or milk farms, or chicken coops, or even meat farms? A lot of these resources are very time consuming to aquire and due to the way the resource game works often come in non-factory runable small stacks.
What we need is animal husbandry as a subgame (like the resource game).
You could have a "farm" building, like a factory, where you place CH trained (or BE made) kaddus. Over a short time they produce an amount of meat(or whatever you set it to) equal to their HAM for the type that comes from that creature for that resource set. One creature at a time, or maybe up to 3 or something.
You could also place high ham creatures in there for even more milk/eggs/meat/hides/bone/whatever.
That leaves tons of work for CH or BH to make/train (and grow) the animals. It also provides some use for old low vitality creatures.
Sorry I am thinking this will offend a great many people since the machinery of an automated animal processing facility is to some distasteful, but I mean really, what do most players do, run out and kill lots of animals and sometimes tame a few so that they can kill even more animals with their current animal. Talk about barbaric...anyway...
I think though that expanding farming to include animal husbandry is a natural extension floral farms and due to the effort involved a lot more engaging.
Plus it would make at least a couple more schematics for architects. This is a small thing, but at least it is something.