Architect Archive

Clothing has to decay. There is no other solution to Tailor's problems that doesn't turn us into mere middlemen for bioengineers and tape drop collectors, and increasingly useless middlemen at that.

I don't want to deal with structure decay, but I recognize the need for that as well, even though it doesn't benefit me. I think it needs to be use-based, so that people with popular structures in well-trafficked areas feel the pinch more than us poor yokels in some gawdforsaken backwater, but it definitely needs to be there.

While having things become less and less efficient over time is certainly feasible, at some point they just fall apart. Unless things exit the world, eventuallythere'll be no space to make new things enter it.

Yukon Sam, Master Tailor, Novice Architect

Ropock,

While colorization of furniture would certainly be very welcome, and would extend the time until the market is saturated, it will not remove the long term problem.

Tailors face the same future of almost zero demand... it has been delayed significantly thanks to 50+ colors, but it is still going to happen eventualy.

Power up of existing structures is certainly a possibility, but the power ups have to expire... which is basically decay.

Involvement in the GCW (presumably with destructable structures like turrets) would be a great adition.... but again, this is just another form of structure decay.

The requirement for decay is unavoidable for very obvious reasons. It also needs to aply in some form to EVERY craftable item in the game. It can be faster on some and slower on others. It can be implimented as a no-redeed rule (forcing players to auto decay to make space). But without it in some form on an item the demand for that item will dry up, and it might as well be non-craftable.

SOE will have to impliment decay at some point for their own good. They simply dont have the resources to continualy add a stream of new craftable items to replace ones that are no-longer buildable thanks to zero demand.

I do agree that large items shouldn't go *Poof*

There needs to be a mechanism in place for these that makes the player WANT to destroy the item once it reaches a certain state of disrepair.

This is easy with harvesters.. simply make them less and less productive, so that eventualy you would be running them at a loss.

For houses it is a much bigger problem. Right now they provide too little benefit for alot of people to even bother with one in the first place. So you have no utility to reduce. They would need to add a nice big benefit to having a house (Maybe player city residence will be enough... i dont know), so that there is something to take away if you dont replace/repair it regularly.

They put alot of time and effort into crafting.... they have no choice but to ensure there is an ongoing need for the items people make.

Dayln,

Stop that! People will start to talk

Well,

They way I would do decay is easy.

When you first place a house the pay maintenance is about half what we pay now, every 2 weeks the pay maintenance increases by 10%. There will come a time when you want to replace the house. There should also be a status indicator that tells you how old the house is. I would also remove the ability to re-deed a house.

Forextractors it would be about the same thing, however along with pay maintenance going up, efficiency should start going down. There should be no power ups or anything that will make an old harvester like new again. As the pay maintenance increases and the efficiency decreases people will choose to replace it.

Either a house or a harvester that is not paid up in Pay maintenance will triple the rate of decay. Neither should ever go poof, they should just get so decrepit and expensive and inefficient that the user wants to replace them.

I forgot to add, I would move the control panel for a house outside, and if the pay mantenance is not paid up then no one can enter.

I like the idea of increasing maintenance costs.... it's how most business type games handle ageing capital assets (Expensive equipment for the non-business folks).

We all seem to agree that stuff shouldn't go *Poof* (A techinical architect word meaning 'To dissapear suddenly )

There is a problem thoug.... what do we do if the person lets the maintenance get realy high,still doesnt replace the structure... and fails to pay up?

What penalty is there to the character so that at some point he/she has no choice but to remove the structure from the game?

Do we first apply a direct charge against any money coming into that characters account? If so, what happens when that still isnt enough? Perhaps after a time the cyber-bailifs are sent round and start removing items of furniture etc (how do we value them?).

I can't think of any scheme that doesnt eventualy have the structure go *Poof*... the only question in my mind is how much time does the player have to either reverse the process of decay or voluntarily replace the structure.

Because house contents are such a pain to move I also think players need to be able to apply a new house deed to an existing structure to make it "Like New". This would maintain the market for replacement structures without massive work forthe players.

---

"I forgot to add, I would move the control panel for a house outside, and if the pay mantenance is not paid up then no one can enter".

---

I was thinking of something along those lines myself.

Perhaps the panel inside could be used until a certain critical point. After that the only way to make the structure habitable again would be to apply a new structure deed of the same type to the building?

Nicely has the penalty that you cant get at your house OR its contents until you pay... and still gives you some time to go shopping for a new deed befor the house actualy falls down (*Poof*)

hehe.. new graphics... boarded up windows and door.. and maybe a "Condemned" sign

Ok, I suppose there is a point when thingsshould go poof after all, Say 2 weeks or a month of no pay mantenance. A harvestor or house that has no mantenance and is unused rfor 2 weeks is basically abandond anyway. Call it 30 days if you like, the ammount of time doesnt really matter to me.

my 2 cents:

If clothing must decay, we must have the option to reclaim skill attachments from clothing. They are skill attachments, not skill ingredients. or give some class the ability to craft skill attachments, but i don't necessarily like that idea. and not Bio Eng. their stuff is understandable.

acer

DW-Acer,

I understand what you are saying about attachments, and my first inclination was to agree.... however...

All the other MMORPG's i have played havehad no decay on this sort of thing, and they all end up in an upward spiral of loot power. After a few months absolutely everone has that +1 sword, so now the only way to make the loot worth finding is to make it +2 etc.

So on reflection, I think it would be agood idea to have a limited life to loot drops as well as everything crafted.

In a way we already have this onsome types of loot. All those crazyKrayt Dragon tissues are an example. They are components for crafted items, and when the crafted item finally goes *Poof* (TM), so does the tissue it contained. A good mechanism for maintaining the demand for this type of loot.

yeah, i see your point. my problem is that i kill a ton of stuff (alt character on Starsider) and get very little from looting. am i just unlucky? no. see below.

my counteroffer:

kill my skill attachments, but fix the group/looting bug. I still to this day have random success looting in a group. often i will loot, maybe get some money, or a wooden staff, then I disband, loot again, and pick up a pistol, skill attachment, or data disk.

how's that?

acer