Architect Archive
Thread: Architect Morale Poll
People complaining that my prices are too low (seriously, it gets old).
But more importantly - the prospect of all the old heavies I sold to people being rendered virtually worthless once 7/minute mediums are here to stay. I hate seeing people who trusted me get &%@#@%ed
i dont really feel like i am an architect....all i do is have a factory produce items while i hang out....then i combine them into a little chip looking icon........i dont design anything but just make a cookie cutter item...resouces dont amtter and everything i make is the same quality and identical looking to everything else
in beta, when we had more than 10 lots, i could build my own little towns and sell the houses creating a subdivision...or i could plop all the different models side by side so people could choose and get inside and look around....i sold so many LARGE houses just by placing them and putting a for sale sign up...now i never really see my product and selling them is really cold and impersonal..
i only keep my skills hoping that urban designer will spice things up or that customization will be added....i dont bother crafting to sell...i make more money just selling the resources...
Rheet wrote:
I for got to add to what brings be down about architecture:
Dayln
ROFL 
On a more somber note, here's my thoughts...
The un-fun part of it for me is more less the way the crafting system in general works....there's nothing whatso ever to discover. Look how many went wild experimenting when it was made important. Why can't things be made so we can actually discover something rather than suck resources from the ground and plug em into a a machine that says you can build this now, even though I already knew that from the skill tree.
I want to have true experimentation....What do I get if I add a generator turbine to a personal mineral miner? wow!! Hey what if I add 5 of em! Hrmmm staged or in parallel? Let's see.....
What happens if I mix in some petrochem fuel to this radioactive mineral? Hrmmm let's try adding these together: 875 OQ radioactive + 973 potential Energy + a grubber's eye withDR 143....
Drumroll....
FLUBBER!!!
I for one liked crafting in EQ...you weren't just given the recipes..you had to discover them.
There's just no guess work or human ingenuity involved...that is unfun
What gets me down:
1. Time it takes for some things to go through the factory.
2. Spending an hour or two (most of that waiting) to craft 3 Fusion Generators and then critical failing on two of them.
3. Having to search for resources. Ok- flame time right 
Listen up- I sell items at about 2.75c/unit of resource (add in for extra time or urgency on occasion). Purchase price for all resources on Starsider is >= 3c/unit of resource. To make a worthwhile profit buying my resources I would have to raise my prices to at least 3.5c/unit of resource. That is unacceptable because people do not want to pay 120000 for a Fusion Power Generator that they could buy from someone else for 85k. I'd really rather do business that way, but until people realize that you can make a 50% or greater profit on resources by selling them for only 1c/unit of resource (taken if you harvested on a 50% concentration or greater- and profit increases substantially when you have larger harvestors) I will have to harvest my own resources.
Solution to the harvesting issue- LET DROID ENGINEERS HELP. They could create survey bots. These bots could be sold in groupings of 5-10. You tell them what to look for in a given radius and send them on their merry way. When they return they report what they found. And they are vulnerable to predators, so sometimes they will get destroyed and guess what you have to buy more. Seems like a win-win situation for me and the Droid Engineers. And you could make this available only to people who have Survey 4. Give it a better reason to exist. Or better yetfor those who actually sacrifice to be Master Artisans. As far as AI path finding algorithm problems- Best fix- go back to school, UT Knoxville is where I learned my AI path finding algorithms. But for a quick fix- just make them warp back to whoever sent them out if they get stuck for any length of time. I mean mobs warp all the time- why can't it benefit us too
This would make my life so much happier. One of my biggest time sinks right now is my weekly hunt for new resources, sampling for quality, and then running out to move harvestors.
4. Furniture- more items and ability to change colors.
5. Furniture that works- lights light and things you should be able to store things in can. I would also love it if you could have at least one of these act like an equipped backpack that slightly increases the house capacity. Like letting a Master Armoire be house equipable so that items stored in it take up less volume than ones stored directly in the house.
6. A better solution for advertising. I really do not like the fact that I have to be a Master Artisan to be a Master Architect (unless you want to buy all your electrical sub components from someone else). This means I can only master in one other profession. Well.. I like being able to defend myself as I run around the landscape searching for resources- plus going on hunts with friends is the funnest part of this game for me. So I have to have some combat skills. I choose to go the pistoleer route to novice. But that leaves very little for anything else, and to get advertising I would need advertising 2 or 3 on the Merchant track. I really wish there was a way Master Architects or Master Crafters could advertise on the planet maps without having to waste their skill points on Merchant. (Now you want to talk about a worthless class- Merchant- know anyone who is a master merchant who doesn't have a second account so they can do fun things like hunt (Note- I love being an architect- it is very rewarding to me and I have a lot of fun with it, I just want to be able to kick back and have fun playing with my friends who go on hunts all the time too.)
6. Not being able to make a unique PA Hall for each planet. I absolutely love the layout of the Tatooine PA Hall. If you haven't seen it- go check it out. Way cool. I would love to have something nice to build on Naboo. The PA Hall we have there- UGH. People. Enough said.
7. Not being able to design your own houses. How could SWG implement this feature? Hmm... I don't know what the deal is with their databases- how big or whatnot- but It would be nice to create a house, submit it to SWG, have them add it to the next patch and keep the model local to the client machine. That way SWG wouldn't have to store it and take up valuable memory space. Of course a better, but in my mind harder solution would be to create modular house designs. In other words all houses of a specific type are created from different combinations of the same modules. This would at least allow for different layouts. And would not take up very little extra memory to store the module combination for a players house. Of course that could be stored with the deed info and I don't think that would be a great deal.
That's it for now. I know some are strictly wish list items, but they would really improve my moral.
Thank you ArchAngel,
Denier Whist
Master Architect, Naboo, Starsider
Well, I think that what I dislike about this profession has been covered pretty well by others, particularly Tweaky and Gnomepunter. Now, being the contrarian that I am, and since few others have done so, here's my list of what I like about Architect:
1) I still have plenty of schematics that don't require experimentation. I like experimentation, I also like just being able to churn out items without worrying about it. I get the best of both worlds now in Architect.
2) I have a wide variety of schematics to choose from. I think the only profession that has more is Tailor. This allowsme to specialize my business. While many architects are focusing on producing items from the Installations branch, I'm able to make a decent profit off the Furniture branch. (Of course, this doesn't mean that the devs shouldn't give us even more schematics. After all, without decay we need a lot)
3) I'm almost self sufficient. Most of the stuff I need I can make, and the stuff I can't make is usually optional. There's just enough interdependency with other professions to keep me honest. (Of course, more lots would be nice, but that just slows me down, it doesn't stop me)
4) I didn't have to grind my way to master. I ground my way to Novice and to the first boxes on the Small Houses and Furniture trees, after that I went the rest of the way just from xp earned by making furniture and houses that I sold. That route might not be for everyone, but it was possible, and that can't be said for all the crafting professions.
FulminataXII wrote:4) I didn't have to grind my way to master. I ground my way to Novice and to the first boxes on the Small Houses and Furniture trees, after that I went the rest of the way just from xp earned by making furniture and houses that I sold. That route might not be for everyone, but it was possible, and that can't be said for all the crafting professions.
Good point. It is what has taken me so long. I hate grinding, and is what really kept me from DE (asides from the prof being utterly broke). I only ground the Construction I when experimention patch came out, out of neceissity, plus I had some gawd awfull aluminum just sitting there. Currently working my way up the furniture three by building an installation here another one there. Heck it took me a week to get Construction IV :/.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention one other thing that I like about Architect:
5) Dayln isn't on my server
benefit: fun and pleasure to make structures, live inside own houses
bad side and bring morale down:
most bad economy
ppl sell finished structures under for what they could sell pure resources
no blueprints for buildings in craft tool
no color options
to less plants and furnitures varities
player cities! yes thought that would bring nice new wind into architect, but now they wanna let every wannabe architect make this structures which were first planned as elite/elite profession. ruins the fun totally. i expected such buildings masters only
oh forgot to mention:
full time job running to harvesters every day, since u never know when resource shifts
shifts are WAY to fast, come on seriously every some days resources run out on an entire planet? should be like at least 2 to 4 weeks and not every some days :/ ruins the fun since u cant even go to vacation for some days and let harvs run.
Here's what I LIKE about Architect:
1. I can craft houses to live in and harvesters to mine things for me.
.... um, that's it. Everything else pretty much sucks, like people have been saying.
Likes:
- Being able to make my own "stuff"
- Being able to customize the names of my "stuff"
- Learning new and interesting ways to use my "stuff"
Dislikes
- People who sell their goods for less than they are worth because they "feel people won't want to buy their stuff if they charge as much as it's worth"
To go on to a side tangent for just a moment here: the only people you're hurting by doing this is yourselves. Every day, more and more people will join the profession and craft for less than what it's worth for you to make something--sure. But in the long run, there are less architects actually working than there are people who want to buy things. The less money you charge for your items (and not taking into account that you're going to critical fail at least 10% of that), the more you're only cheapening the profession and yourself. I'm charging 5 cpu for everything I make that I don't make for my PA. Why? Because I believe that my stuff is worth that much. Period. I spend my time in this game doing things for other people as a service instead of going out and doing the latest, greatest quest to hit the server. And I don't have all day to play this game. In fact, I usually only have the evenings, and even that is subject to RL issues.
When I first started out as an architect, I sold my stuff for 3 cpu. I soon realized that I was losing more money than I was making that way, and the ONLY reason I've been able to stay in business is because I have other people supporting me. If I didn't have that, I'd be out of an archtecturing career with my character. So why is this not fun? Let me get to that in my next point. The point I wanted to make here is, if you're selling for as much as the resources are selling for, you might as well just be a resource salesman. At least you won't critical fail 10% of the time there.
- Architecture is the only profession where if you -don't- have a combat profession, you're going to have to ask other people to collect resources for you OR help you with money, since going "solo" as an architect is virtually impossible. And even if you -do- have a combat profession, that will take away time from your ability to craft while you maintain the fifty bazillion harvestors you need to have just to be an architect in the first place.
- Critical Failures on LARGE projects -- can we say a profit of 200,000 credits down the drain?
I'll write more later as one of those RL things has come up at the moment, but to me, these are some of the more important issues that need to be addressed. I don't know how to fix them, but something certainly needs to be done.
-- Jenni aka Rosette (Master Architect --Sunrunner) and Alaine (Med Student and Dancer --Starsider)
"The only reason I'm still an architect? Oh, because I role-play. At least I can pretend that I'm making a viable profit and that people really want to buy my stuff even when experimenting rates and competitive pricing have about as much use to this profession as a pair of wings on a bantha, since in one case it doesn't matter and in the other you have to be have ungodly amounts of 'great' resources in order to even be remotely successful at getting people useful extraction rates for their damned harvestors."