Architect Archive
Thread: Some observations from one of your customers (a non-architect)
Quote:
Sorry Daker, you're completely wrong. Architects are already out of customers. The game is over for us. Nothing left to do, espicially now that UP has been scrapped. *unsubscribe*
Considering that I bought 25k worth of furniture for my house tonight, I fail to see how I am wrong. Especially considering that I have been waiting a week for my order because my architect has been busy doing orders for other people.
Go ahead and unsubscribe. I'm sure all the other architects would love to service all the customers you are missing by being an exaggerating smartazz. 
25k is only enough for a arch to run 1 heavy harvester for ~1 week. On Chilastra the Arch market is pretty much toast at this point. Basicly a small number of sales split between 20-30 archs on the server. People are dropping like flys or switching.
Szordin wrote:
Heavy harvesters? Who can really afford to completely replace their harvester fleet every couple of weeks as they decay into oblivion? Item decay on this grand of a scale would completely destroy the economy as more and more people would give up on harvesting resources and resource prices would skyrocket.
This is where the error most people have and whats driving their opposition. It would not be weeks it would be months at the very least and if its too much trouble for you to buy a new harvester every 3 or 4 months considering the millions you make off the resources you sell I would have to say your a greedy, cheap S.O.B. no offence..
Actually im not for decay myself but im starting to wonder if im on the wrong side of the fence.. I can see both arguments for and against.
Quote:
25k is only enough for a arch to run 1 heavy harvester for ~1 week.
Considering that it probably only took that architect one day's heavy harvester resources to make my furniture, don't you think paying for his harvester for a week is enough?
Besides that, did you miss the part where I said I was only one of his many customers? That means many people paying 25k...
Daker,
Arguing that Architects can just live off furniture sales is silly...
We have 4 skill lines, and you expect us to only have 1 that is any use?
Also... what happens when you have finished furnishing your house? Are you planning to throw away all your furniture each week and replace it? If not, then I'm sure you see that this market will also dry up not too far into the future.
And as for the often repeated (by non-architects) 'If they decay I wont buy them'.... so what? Exactly how would we be worse off with that than with no decay? With no dacay we are GUARANTEED to have no sales in the future.... with decay it is pretty certain that at least a percentage ofplayers would still buy stuff. I'm actualy pretty darn sure its a high percentage too. In a PA? Better replace that Hall.
How can anyone argue that entire skill lines of crafted items should never need to be replaced... do you even THINK about the implications?
My ideas
Housing does not decay. 24 hours after placing a house you can not redeed it.
People do move, When they do they will have to destroy their home and buy a new one.
This will curb the "What do I pay maintenance fees for" question. Houses in real life can last
for hundreds of years if maintained but how many do you see being moved?
(possibly add the ability to "transfer" ownership to someone else making players able to sell
the house instead of destroying it?)
Factories and Harvesters. Do decay over a period of time
Just like any piece of machinery, no matter how much you maintain it, it will eventually fall apart.
Whenever a factory or harvester is on, a decay number counts down. Just like weapons with use.
Harvesters going 24x7
Small lasts 1 month
Medium lasts 2 months
Large lasts 4 months
A factory going 24x7 would last 2 months
(not many run at 24x7)
Also, I am not against the "replacement parts" idea instead of having to replace the whole structure
Furniture. No decay just add variety
People won't appreciate furniture disappearing from their house at varied rates.
They will not want to keep up with that. I think the only way to deal with this is
by having the devs make new furniture available over time. There are scads
of models already out there that are used for NPC structures only. People will
want to remodel with the "new fad"
Quote:
Arguing that Architects can just live off furniture sales is silly...
We have 4 skill lines, and you expect us to only have 1 that is any use?
Also... what happens when you have finished furnishing your house? Are you planning to throw away all your furniture each week and replace it? If not, then I'm sure you see that this market will also dry up not too far into the future.
These comments are silly. Find the place I said architects should be able to live only off of furniture. While you are looking in vain for something I never said, I will explain what I did say. Someone was arguing that no one boughtarchitect goodsanymore. I was disagreeing. In fact was I was saying was that LOTS of people are still buying architect goods, using myself and my own purchases as an example.I never said that I, or others for that matter, were not buying harvesters and houses.Pairfurniture purchaseswith the fact that lots of peopleARE still buying harvesters and houses (a topic I did not even mention), and you have a good income stream for architects. If you REALLY want to be specific, I didn't mention that I did buy 6 water harvesters this weekend. If you really want to be picky add another 12k for those to the list.
By the way....FOUR skill trees? You aren't arguing that architect experimentation/complexity gives you any products to sell are you? Good example (lol).
Quote:
And as for the often repeated (by non-architects) 'If they decay I wont buy them'.... so what? Exactly how would we be worse off with that than with no decay? With no dacay we are GUARANTEED to have no sales in the future.... with decay it is pretty certain that at least a percentage ofplayers would still buy stuff. I'm actualy pretty darn sure its a high percentage too. In a PA? Better replace that Hall.
How can anyone argue that entire skill lines of crafted items should never need to be replaced... do you even THINK about the implications?
Think. Hmmm...how will architects be affected by decay on houses.....hmmmm.
Newbie: "Hey I think houses are cool, I want one."
Experienced player: "Don't bother. They don't do anything useful except for look pretty. Considering that they decay and everything you spend your hard earned money on will decay in a couple of months, it's just not worth it."
Newbie: "Everything I buy will fall apart? That's lame. Thanks for the help, I'm going to spend my money elsewhere!"
PosiTec, you are missing a HUGE point. People ARE buying houses and furniture right now. Those people who are currently doing do would STOP if you imposed decay on houses and furniture. You would be worse off because your market wouldn't need to dry up...it would simply cease to exist...no one would buy even a first house.
If you guys really want nothing to do, go ahead and push for house and furniture decay. I promise it will be MUCH worse than it is now. As I have often said, there is a lot of turnover in the player ranks. You guys are gambling that there won't be any new players to buy houses, and that current players will actually put up with house decay. You are wrong in both instances. Harvester decay, fine, whatever. But house and furniture decay is dumb.
Quote:
Housing does not decay. 24 hours after placing a house you can not redeed it.
I agree with this and could totally live with it. As long as you don't make me rebuy my house, or move or rebuy furniture, every couple of months, I am happy.
With my idea You will have to buy a new house if you move because you wont be able to redeed, just destroy. The good thing is you can place your new house then move your stuff from the old to the new (just like real life) Then sell/transfer or destroy the old one.
Daker-Naritus wrote:
Quote:
Housing does not decay. 24 hours after placing a house you can not redeed it.
I agree with this and could totally live with it. As long as you don't make me rebuy my house, or move or rebuy furniture, every couple of months, I am happy.
When talking about item decay think of it as every craftable item, not jsut harvestors.
Persaonlly I would jsut remove the ability to re-deed a house and then very slowly raise the pay mantenance on it so that after 6 months or so ( real time ) it would be a good idea to replace it.
Extractors should also wear out just like a car does even when you do mantenance on it. Slowly becoming more inefficient and higher pay mantenance until 3 to 6 months down the road it is a good idea to replace it.
We dont need fast decay, but slow decay over time would be good for every profesion.
Same with clothes, same with instruments, same with everything.
Daker,
You SPECIFICALLY used a furniture purchase of yours to say that Architects can make money that way.
You have REPEATEDLY said you dont want any structure dacay. No decay means inevitable market saturation... ie. ZERO sales.
If you cant see that those two together suggest that only the furniture line would be viable.. then Im afraid you are totally lost.
You also chose to completely ignore the fact that the architecture tree itself will also become unnecessary without decay.
So you bought your water harvesters this week... great... are you planning on buying more next week, or the week after? No.. of course not... so you are one more customer for those that has just been removed from the market.
Yes... FOUR skill trees is what it takes to get Master Architect, and as of the next patch there will be a minor (though not excatly worthwhile) use for the Construction tree. I'll make you a deal... you tell me what you are a Master of, and Ill select 3 of the four trees to become useless in the next month. Ill even throw in the added bonus of the fourth becoming useless 3 months out. Sound good to you?
You 'POINT' that im apparemtly missing appears to be that I should shut up because TODAY people are still buying houses etc. Well, Im afraid Im not as short sighted as you appear to be. I happen to want the class to still be playable 3 to 6 months from now... and for more than 6 people per galaxy.
Your contention that NO-ONE will buy houses that decay is frankly ludicrous. You said yourself they have no value. They already cost money to buy, and also money to run on a daily basis. Somehow this hasnt put 90,000 people off buying them. What makes you think a low decay rate will?
I have already stated in a number of threads that I dont think houses should just go *Poof*... but that doesnt mean thay can just stick around forever either.
I have a feelilng that you have absolutely NO interest in making this class viable long-term. All of your arguments for not having decay could just have easily been applied to ever other crafted item in the game... after all, who wants to have to replace their armoror weapons? Fortunately for me, SOE actualy had to spend a lot of time creating the crafting system....so I am 100% confident that they wont let several of theirclasses fade into obscurity.
Oh.. and for the record... Im not some struggling architect.. i sold 13 heavy harvesters last night. However, I happen to think this game should be worthwhile for anyone else thatwants to play the class in thefuture... and I am willing toaccept that I would have toreplace my own structures periodically in order for that to happen.
What a shame you dont seem to want to make any sacrifices yourself for the future of the game.
You know, if we DO move to a decay style model then I really like that idea, Dayln. Just make them cost more and more in maintenance costs on a curveuntil they are replaced/repaired. very good idea.
-Sz