Architect Archive
Thread: Architects: Light Possibilities
I really, really, don't like the idea of the indoor lights being dimmed/darkened unless we're given control over it (without purchasing lamps/candles). My house is FULL right now. I spent a long, long time decorating it (including placement of torches back when that was the only light source), and trying to figure out what I'd have to take out just because I had to have lamps and candles now for my home to be well lit would be terrible.
I understand the need some Archs have for a couple more "renewable income" items, and I believe that lamps and candles will sell QUITE well enough without making them mandatory for a well-lit house.
Give us the option to shut off the "house lights". Don't take them away completely.
-Jowarr
A few things from me:
Why in the HELL would you mess with the lighting systems?! The only thing needed is the other light sources(i.e. the lamps you have working on TC as i hear). Thats it. Nothing more on that subject! NOW, what is this talk about 'renewable income'. PLEASE people, if you make GOOD Harvester/house deeds and put them on the vendor, they will sell. If you're not making money its because you're not trying. And dont give me this 'but i'm not a master! what am i going to do?!' They are called walls. Even the novice archies can make them! I know a LOT of masters who would LOVE to have wall suppliers for a while, while the novice is leveling.
Oh and the person who suggested the storage rates go up, good idea! I mean ifthe devs are going to MAKE us use the lights,they really do need to give us the extra space. Also, the ability to make turrets idea was great!
Just a few thoughts, nothing too important...just think about it.
Message Edited by Odez on 03-03-2004 08:47 PM
Thunderheart wrote:
Some of your points:
- Interior Design is hugely popular. I've seen lots of really amazing shops and houses. GarVa's Galactic Home Show, Thursday February 26th The Carousel and Fireplace in last week's homeshow really blew me away. (remember - - that person had no vertical movement yet....
I have a medium tat house. It takes 2 x the slots my old small tat house has, and has the exact same storage (150 Items). So, Other than basic furniture, a little quest loot (a couple paintings), and crafting stuff in the basement, my house is EMPTY. I barely have room for my essential supplies. Stepping up to a large house is not an option because of the huge lot requirements.
I really like the ideas for lighting and such, but, I'm so limited in space I won't be able to:
a) make cool things like an aquarium, or fireplace
b) use lights
Thunderheart wrote:
GCW structures are Faction Point purchased and always will be...not from Architects.
Will the new lower light condition affect all existing homes as well? I mean I would love to have a few rooms that are a bit darker then they are now in a Corellian but I don't want to have to transfer all the items in my PA hall, replace the building, then have to redecorate (which is severely limited due to the paltry amount of storage these massive halls are given) just to make the candle on my desk seem all the more interesting.
And trust me, Garva's homeshow is not really a great way to base how expansive the idea of decorating is in the game. I'm a decorator and as such I am also a peeping tom. (so I steal inspiration from others, who doesn't? 
) And there aresome homes that are actually decorated, but many many moreare just storage sheds. While true this could be thanks to the fact that most people use small or medium homes which prevents a certain amount of interesting appearances (are you guys going to revamp Corellian architecture to be more in line with Coronet? Or at least introduce a new medium that has a basement and balcony?) or any vertical movement in some cases so that could be the main reason but much more likely I feel that people just don't want to bother. They would love to have their home look nice but it is either A) too hard or B) too pricey since they won't be able to have that extra backpack of copper. So basing the idea of renewable income primarilly on lights right now is somewhat a vain attempt.
There have been great ideas on this forum that I've seen. (andI primarilly just lurk every-so-often being a rifleman and politician first) Limited number of redeeds would cause a larger market of harvestors, GCW basesbeing requisitioned as single use schematics giving an architect a large new job every time there is a rebel strike. And that is just the few that I have seen. The correspondent has almost assuradly shown you all more interesting ones that would have a larger impact.
Oh...and since you are more likely to read this then some other threads I have to ask. When is the master politician box getting fixed? Sorry that it has nothing at all to do with the topic at hand but it is really demoralizing to know that you can aspire to reach nothing.
1. Most of the arguments for wanting lightbulbs involve folks saying they don't want the fuss of physically removing the burnt-out lamps from the table and /move-ing the new ones into place. It seems to me that this is a trivial reason to backtrack on all the dev work that has been done and race to design something new and rush it through test. I mean if you devs are bored silly and have nothing better to do, then by all means make some lightbulbs, but otherwise the decaying lamps are just fine. They last 30 days, from what I've seen, and that's quite enough. It's not like you're going to be forced to do a bunch of interior decorating every couple of days. Once a month -- that's it. By that time, you'll probably want a different arrangement in your house anyway.
2. Lowering the light level in the house seem to be a band-aid to mask the real problem that has been reported by the TCers -- the new lamps and candles cast too much light in some of the house styles that are very lighted already. Now, a house dimmer switch is a nice idea, but there's no reason why that has to be tied to the lamp/candle issue and rushed through as well. Again, if the devs have time, sure. But I think it's better at this point to go ahead and introduce the lamps and candles now, and a dimmer switch with the next publish. Lamp-hoarders will have to suffer through too-bright homes for a whole 5 or 6 weeks. Oh, the torture.... I don't know how I'll survive.
3. If, for some reason, the devs decide to eliminate the decay on the lamps/candles and make them permanent objects, then they need to increase the crafting resource requirements for them to make them match the other permanent lamps already in game. Our current (non-lighting) lamps on the live servers require EGPs. The consumable lamps on Test Center are made up of simply of a small amount of metal, or in the case of candles, a small amount of metal, hide and chemical. For a consumable, these ingredients are just about right. For a permanent object they are way too low, lower even then the current novice-box torch. If permanent, then some subcomponents need to be added or a specific requirement for Corellian bristly hide or something.
4. Right now, all the new lamps and candles are dumped into the Furniture2 skillbox. I think this is a bad idea. As much as I'd love to monopolize the interior lighting market with a minimum of skill point investment, I think it would be fairer to spread the schematics out along the furniture tree.
Message Edited by BlueOx on 03-04-2004 08:06 AM
My only issue is that my home is already packed to the max capacity as well as our guild's PA. Please up the amount of space a home/PA has by at least a bit if you are going to require the use of lighting.
Thunderheart wrote:
Architects!
I wanted to take a moment to pop in and talk about the persistence of Lamps and Candles. I know that everyone wants lamps and candles to be persistent and to have lightbulbs and wax as a "draggable" recharge, but there is some depth to the issue.
On one hand, one of the top correspondent items that I had forarchitects was, "Architects need more renewable income (product turnover or another source of income)". That renewable income is Lamps and Candles. If we make lamps and candles persistant, then its a one time rush to buy and then a small trickle of cash and that defeats the purpose.
We intend on adding the lightbulbs and wax as a renewable income, but thatwont happen for a bit because we need development and coding time to make that happen and architects really need a renewable income. I had spoken with the developer and I was just about to post an opinion poll when I spoke with Ood_Bnar. He has been working with the art team to dramatically lower the light level in houses so that the lamps have a stronger effect (in fact, you'd need lamps) and lamp light as it is, wouldnt blanch out the colors in houses.
If we can get that done, then we'll make lamps persistant (leaving candles with decay). Then, at a later date, we'll add the light bulbs and wax consumables. If there isn't enough time, then we will leave lamps and candles with decay until the low light feature is added. At some point after that, we'll add the light bulb and wax consumables.
-droid customisation: do you really think i repaint my droid every other day? its rediculous how fast this decays and laughable to have them pop un in random colors after the paint is gone in the weak attempt to annoy us enough to get them painted again. I have yet to see a player who has a painted droid who isnt a DE
-speeder customisation: do us a favor and look at your files how many players bothered to paint their speeders again after they saw the 1st paintjob dissappear in less than a day.
These were utter FAILURES and no one is making ANY profit with them. (well.. maybe the 2 or 3 who bother to still make them.)
If you do the same crap with lights, rest assured, no one will bother to buy these unless hes nuts for interior design and likes to show off, which is a very small minority. Youre not adding an income for architects, but you put yet another time effort into adding a feature a lot of ppl would love to have and implement it in such an annoying way that no one will like to use it.
Its SAD 
But I personally can't see this having that big a difference on income as a renewable source of income.
I don't stock torches on my vendor and have been asked about 4 times in about 3 months for torches.. so no not a good renewable source of income IMO.
Who knows with the greater variety of lamps etc that alot of ppl will ask for these.. wether they continue to buy them as they decay is another question to think about.
Odez wrote:
A few things from me:
NOW, what is this talk about 'renewable income'. PLEASE people, if you make GOOD Harvester/house deeds and put them on the vendor, they will sell. If you're not making money its because you're not trying.
I feel you have missed the point. We are not after making money just for now. Yes, if we make good harvesters we can sell them, but one day, and a lot of us are already seeing it now on some servers, there will be nobody who wants to buy them, no matter how good they are. In RL you cannot sell a TV to somebody who already has one unless a) it is BETTER than the 5 he already has, or b) he needs to replace it because it has broken down. As neither of these can be said for Harvesters, except for the rare cases where people forget and let them burn down, there will come a time when the only people who want to buy a Harvester will be the new players, this will in fact reduce the demand to around zero, as there will be no demand for the resources to make them and when that happens miners will sell off harvesters they don't need at giveaway prices.
Unlike weaponsmiths, armoursmiths and the other crafters, we are the ONLY crafting profession that does not have ANY items that decay. We need this kind of thing if the profession is to survive in the long term, otherwise we will be reduced to just one or two architects on each server satisfying the needs of the newer players for houses, or theexperienced player who decides he wants to change his furniture. Renewable income is a necessity, the alternative will eventually be NO income. You cannot sell somebody something he doesn't want, no matter how low the price is.
Thunderheart wrote:
He has been working with the art team to dramatically lower the light level in houses so that the lamps have a stronger effect (in fact, you'd need lamps) and lamp light as it is, wouldnt blanch out the colors in houses.