Architect Archive

Hello Dev and Architects,

I'm not an architect myself, so maybe I don't have a right to answer this question, but seeing that I use a lot of harvesters myself (i'm a surveyor) I'd like to give my oppinion.

Many architects raised the need for decay to be a part of the deeds they sell. As the only profession producing items that don't decay, i understand they are put at a disadvantage. However since there are plenty of surveyors out there paying other people for their lots; raising the costs for harvesters by additional fees would result in us being less able to pay our employees and/or us charging more for resources.

However the solution to this would be much simpler and more practical then letting harvesters decay or using repair tools on them. If we would instead of paying maintenance fees to the harvester, credits that just dissapear, make the maintenance costs go the creator of the deed, we would not be raising any costs for the surveyors and the architects would have a steady flow of credits.

I do understand that means there will be deeds of which the creator doesn't exist anymore (due to the char being deleted), in whichcase the credits for maintenance would just be deleted as it has been done in the past. If the Dev could give her oppinion about this? And the other Architects too ofcourse.

Sincerely,

Kaisha,

Caravan Shipping.

number 1 issue would have to be repeat business. you can fix this a number of ways, mentioned all before, like decay, customization, new schematics, GCW craftable things, etc.

number 2 problem is the lack of good ore spawns. I only have limited play time a week, but it seems finding ore is a task and a half right now. Other resources spawn in much better numbers. This is particularly frustrating given our need for extreme levels of ore for all our buildings and structures.

What I'd Like to see:

I'd like to see more houses and buildings (i.e. a post office would be awesome, as would buidlings designed to be shops and not houses (not those tents mind you)). I'd like more paintings and furnature, not by having to loot or go on missions for them, but built right into the profession. I'd like to be able to put furniture on the roofs of houses like patio furniture. I'd like things like desks and warehouses, and the abilities to change the carpet and wall colors (ala your prior profession, The Sims

Well, that sums it up for now. Oh, and it would be awesome if there was a better system for communicating features in the works and when we can expect to see them. The current website is horribly out of date. The test page shows publish 9.2, which is over a month old, and dev shows publish 10, which is live, etc.

__________________________STARSIDER_____________________________

Richelieu - Master Doctor/Master Medic/Master TKA
Amelia - Tailor/Merchant/Architect
Vacationing in Azeroth

I've been an architect since pre-launch beta when the profession has been introduced, and still maintain an active architect well over a year after release. That being said, here's a few things I feel could help the architect profession.

Resource stack size increases - Architect is one of the most resource intensive profession and storing enough resources to be competitive is a herculean task, increasing stack sizes will help allow us to do our jobs more efficiently since lot space is in such limited supply

Factory crates - increased factory crate sizes for a lot of our items would help greatly (see storage issues above). Also, Ore Mining Units used in heavy mineral harvesters have never been crated from a factory. Having these items in a factory crate would help immensely.

More diverse housing styles - I know it's alot to ask, but more housing floor plans and styles would go a long way, not just for architects, but would make everyone happy.

Housing storage limits - right now, it's more efficient to have 5 small (2 lot) houses to store items in than it is to have 1 large house (6 lots) or guild hall (7 to 9 lots). It would be nice to see housing storage limits re-visited for larger structures.

Better residual income - As it stands now, once you've sold a house, that's it.... that customer will most likely never return to our vendor... why? because the house never decays as long as maintenance is paid into it... there's nothing new for them to buy (aside from some cheap cheap cheap candles to light the place). Furniture sales don't help offset the fact that once you've sold a house, people rarely if ever upgrade (due to lack of variety, and lack of decay or any other means with which to make more income).

Armor and weapons and vehicles decay eventually where they have to be repaired or replaced... I'm not saying houses should suffer the same fate, because losing a house is a painful ordeal (moreso than armor since all your hard earned loot is usually stored within the house).

Perhaps over time a house item limit can decay to a certain point and an architect must make a "structure repair kit" that would require a decent amount of materials to produce, and give architects the ability to sell something that could make them additional income from the homes they sell. They could sell these kits for 10 or 20k (or however much based on market demand and resource cost etc), and the kit would restore the house to it's full capacity again. Houses that aren't repaired lose the ability to have new items placed in them etc. I think this would be a good source of residual income (moreso than a 250 credit candle that has to be replaced every 30 days ((but only if you move it after it burns out)).

Customization of products - It would be nice if architects could customize interior colors of homes and the colors of furnishings, much like tailors and armorsmiths customize colors of clothing and armor. Not only would it give architects more variety to sell, consumers would be thrilled to have different color home interiors and furnishings. This custom coloring can be done via the crafting process or even via "furniture customization kits" (much like droid engineer).

Allow customers to purchase the kits to color their own furniture, or allow them to hire an architect who could use the "kits" on the customer furniture... and having an architect do it would unlock a better color pallete (this way home decorators would still be in high demand for them to come out and color furnishings, etc.)

Hope those ideas help you out, and thanks for dropping by to get our input

change the colors on furniture (as an option for crafters)

-Soal-Farous Maccama, Gorath- -Master Pistoleer, Master Bounty Hunter, Carbineer 0440-"Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam."
I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head. - Latin Proverb.

Go ransack TH's desk, he supposedly has a gargantuan excel file where he complied much of this data a long time ago

Although it's probably all changed now....

Tiggs,

The longtime viability of our profession is the main problem. We do not have any income streams from items that decay.

Houses and harvestors last forever as long as you pay your maintenance. Furniture, crafting stations last forever. Candles and lights are somewhat bugged, they are supposed to last a limited time. However, they give off light forever, if never picked up and moved. If you pick one up that has "expired" it will not give off light if replaced.

There have been many discussions on adding decay or consummable items to architect items. My favorite is a limited number of redeeds for structures, and allowing people to buy re-deed kits. For instance, an extractor once placed can only be redeed 5 times. After that you need to buy a redeed kit from an architect everytime you want to redeed it. Other folks would say, after 5 times it loses 20% of its condition, then after 10 redeeds it would be destroyed.

Goliath
Master Shipwright, Master Architect, Master Artisan
-=V=- Shipworks 3 Locations Theed, Coronet and
Tatooine by Krayt Graveyard 5909, 4373

3 vendors at GF6 11/11 - Shipwright, Architect, Resources

A Final desperate plea from a True Crafter

Let me start off by saying this isn’t about being a Jedi. I came to SWG from UO strictly for the thought of a great Crafting System. I tried Everquest and DAOC but a game that promised a True Crafting system was what I was looking for. A Player Crafted Game with a vast resource system and a Usage based System was more then I could take. I was accepted into Beta and had my Account the first day it went live. I spent a short time as an Architect to make our PA Hall and then started in on Armor. On Bloodfin I’m currently one of the Top Armorsmith around. No one can make higher and only a few can make as good. I never wanted to be Jedi and at the time of the Hologrind there was never any talk of a FS Crafting tree. And the thought of Gimping my Armorsmith by Hologrinding never appelead to me. I had a huge Guild and Customer base that counted on me for Armor.

When you announced a FS Crafting tree it was too late to consider the Hologrind. But in my Goal to be the best Crafter possible in the game, I really want to get the FS Crafting tree. It was also stated back in the early part of the game that even a Casual player would have a chance of getting FS. I believe there was also a time Stamp generated with your Holo Professions and if you reached that time before you still got the FS. But with the current system in place it’s not even Realistic to Stay a True Crafter and get the FS Crafting tree. The Current figures for me to get just the 4 FS Crafting Blocks would be 6000 Full sets of Composite and at my Current price that would be 2.5 Billion Credits worth of Armor I would have to Hand Craft to get. I have probably made as much if not more Armor then anyone on Bloodfin and I don’t believe I have even made that much in the year I been in the game. Much less doing this all by hand and not in my Factory.

I do understand the problems with this. If the usage System was put back in people would simply dump huge amounts of items and this would hurt the economy. If the Crafting System FS conversion was lowered a lot of people would simply grind their way to Jedi. Even if I was to try and grind my way up I’m still looking at well over a year to do this. So much for a Casual gamer having a chance.

There has to be some answers that would work for the True Crafter and the Casual gamer.

1 Have a time based System that would Lower the required FS points needed with time. Currently it takes 7,350,000 FS Exp to get all 6 Boxes. If this was reduced 10% Every Month down to a 10% Bottom line. If this started 2 Months after they started a person at one year would only need 73,500,000 to get FS. This would at Least make it so Casual gamers would have a chance.

2 Make items at Master level give a lot more Exp. People couldn’t simply Grind Ubese Shirts to get FS. Armorsmith would be able to get more Exp for Composite. If someone wanted to Craft Grind their way to Jedi they would at least have to get Master Armorsmith and grind Composite to get anywhere.

I do feel for with Fighters with the huge amount of Exp they need to get but I would
Rather get out and Fight then to stand in my House Grinding one Item for Months on end.

Al'anis
Jaxom

Ability to have Warehouse (More storage)

Furniture Colours

With Regards,

The Late Colonel Kahpnar Balsys
Died in a horrific crash

As a lot of other Archis, the things I would like to have improved:

1. Decay. I can't stress this enough. This has been talked about over and over, so I'm not going to divulge to much about this.

2. Lots. It's insane that our resource amounts are the highest of all crafters (right?) and that at the same time we need 2 lots for structure factories. Any non-starter Arch probably has 4-5 factories, which effectively cancels out any option to use leftover lots for storage. Oh and did I say we need lots for harvesters too, cause we need an insane amount of resources?

3. A preview for deeds. Why is it that I have to refer my clients to a website to see what a particular house, structure or garden looks like? In addition, I would like more information displayed. Weapons have stats like damage, wound percentage, etc, so why can't we have amount of lots, maintenance, power usage, etc. displayed in the Info part of the auction window?

4. Furniture colorization. I would like this to be added as well, although personally I'd prefer the paint kits like the ones you can use for vehicles. This way customers can paint there own furniture and you can give crafters the option to pre-paint some furniture. If only I have the option to paint furniture, this would cost me a massive amount of time to have everything stocked in all colours,not to mention all the custom ordersI'll probably get.

5. Crated ore mining units. Ohh how I hate this dreaded component...

That's about it, I think.

Hi Tiggs,

Assuming you are still reading this thread, I have a question from a while back...I probably just missed it, but was there ever an official response to the lack of harvester animation?