Architect Archive
Thread: Crafters Workshop.. New Structure Idea # 2.. Open Discussion
I am a Master Doctor, and justdropped in to take a look at what is going on in your forum. So you might want to get out your rotten food and get ready to start throwing as you yell at me to go back to my own forum. But if you will permit me, This post really got a lot of thoughts running through my head.
First, it seems to be that half of this suggestion is about storage space. I really think the developers need to look at the storage space and lot usage for all buildings. A medium having 150 same as a small house is silly. Plus the large doesn't have much more storage for the extra lots it uses. How about going back to a basic formula for every building. storage = number of lots * 75 or something like that so the larger houses are proportionaly useful.
Second, the other half of the idea is a unique look to the builldings to make them stand out as special buildings in a city. Here I am not sure where to begin. I do like the basic thought. But then I have to ask will most of these buildings will be just buildings that are homes? Then why would any person want them to be noticable? It almost implies that there will be something for the public to do there, like use a vendor. But running a vendor is not part of a crafters profession, that is really a merchants job. I say that but there is certainly some argument on that front. In the Doc Forum many docs want a vendor avaiable to them at the master level so they can sell their stuff. To this point I have been opposed because I think that is the role of the merchant. However, the merchant is largely broken because it seems everyone just picks up artisian business 3, places a vendor and drops it and they have their vendor without being a merchant. However, if the building has a specific look for just one profession and has a master certification, I could see a comprimise where there could be a vendor for that master that is restricted to only products that the schematics are part of that crafters skill tree. Sorry this is a little off topic. But if it is to be a specific "master" of profession X then there really should be a reson to go there. So maybe the building could come with this vendor and it could only be placed in that building.
Overall though without the special purpose master vendor in a special master crafter building, I would have to say I that I would just perfer some addons for houses. We already have crafting stations that can be put in homes. And I do like the idea of a factory in a house VERY much. So why not just at a schematic somewhere in archt to build a factory station to be put in a house just like the crafting station works? In an effort to keep in line with lot counts, I can easily see that placing such a factory (even inside a house) would take up a lot as not to put things out of balance. The good news would be for the database in that it might be easier to keep track of a factory inside a house then outside. As things load only when entering the house. The acutal size on the DB would likely still be the same or maybe even slightly larger but it would get "hit" or requested from the DB much less frequently as people running past the building wouldn't call for it to be sent to their computers.
I don't understand why the factory would have to be smaller then standard factories (in terms of hopper) or slower. What harm would there be to replace the external factories. We can still have the external ones if people want to use them, but this would make the ones in the house a bit more handy.
I could also see a use for a multiplied factory. Say there is a 2x and 3x factory. Just think of it this way. A deed for a internal factory could use as part of it's schematic a requirement for one of the external factories. And then include optional slots so that you could use 2 or 3 factories as part of the schematic and then the run speed of the new internal factory would be 2 or 3x. Of course it would also use 2 and 3x as many lots as well. No corners to be cut, it will need to be balanced. The idea here would be to reduce the number of buildings on the servers and make it easier for crafters to use them. Of course some crafters will still want to have separate factories rather then combined ones so they can run different jobs overnight instead of one job that will go fast. But it would be their choice on how they want to setup.
I do think the idea of a unique look is important though. I know that aspect could cause some development issues. But I would really like to see if internal factories were made that they looked skill appropriate. For example as mentioned before the chef one should look like an oven of some type. Also a doctor one should look like some sort of medical equipment. Each profession should have it's own look to the factory internal or external, special building or addon inside a home.
A theme running through the idea is that crafters may have a need for more storage. And just decorating a house uses up many of the available item count. And as I see it, item counts should be more geared to decorating a house then using it as a warehouse. So here comes what might be a new idea not sure. READ THIS PART. if we want to use buildings for warehouse and factories then it would make sense to me to have additional storage modules that could go into houses. Think of it like adding a set of shelves, cabnets,or something. The archts could make such and item and the item if placed in a house would increase the lot usage of the owner of the house but would also increase the storage limit on the house. Maybe to keep it simple it would have to be a container inside the house that has it's own storage separate from the house storage but it would only be usable and placeable inside a house. This way, we crafters could use whatever size building we want to call a home. If we want a large building and lots of decorations we can do that. If we simply want a warehouse we can buy shelves or cabnets to put in to increase the limt so we don't have to have 4 small houses next to each other.
The end result would still be able to control the number of items in the game based on lot usage. just replace placing extra houses with storage modules inside a single house, the lots could equal out. This would clean up the servers DB and unnecessary structures which should help the server, and save me a lot of running around back and forth between my storage houses.
I'm going to stand firm on the point of the buildings being unique. All these ideas for modifying the houses now are well and dandy, but we need shops/stores/workshops to stand out in a city. In my city we have medium and large houses around the shuttle port for stores. That's dumb, I don't shop at people's homes. The only way I can tell it's a shop is by reading the sign. I want to get off the shuttle, look around, and imediatly know where the weapon shop is, the architech shop, and whatever. Just like how we can recognize the med center and cantina. It's not that far fetched to ask the art deparment to model new stuff. I've payed them 180 dollars so far after buying the game, I think they can spend sometime, after the expansion maybe, to create new buildings.
The item storage thing will always be a sticking point. Of course everyone wants more, we just need to convice the devs it's worth it.
I think crafters are crafters and merchants are merchants. If a crafter wants to sell their stuff, their going to have to be a merchant too. Of course running a vendor is part of the crafter's job. Of course having a unique shop that stood out from the rest of the buildings would imply that there is something for the public to do there. That's that crafters do, they sell stuff. No one builds things just for their personal collection. I don't quite understand GuardianHawk's idea that these are places where that shouldn't stand out because their just going to be people's homes. I suppose there's no garantee that there will something for the public to do inside, but that was the whole point of this thing when it started. A chef wanted a resturant, sounded like a good idea.
Maybe the end idea is too split up the workshop and the store. The workshop could be all the other stuff people wanted to do to people's home, and the store could be the unique place where crafter's could sell their wares. Though I like the original idea better, a workshop plus shop in one.
I don't think the buildings should come with a vendor. It's just common sense that a crafter needs some merchant skills to sell stuff.
The factory inside the workshop would be smaller so we could still sell the bigger factories. We want more products, not to remove the old ones at the same time.
There's no need for that fancy whatever you were talking about for factory speed. They just need to tie factory speed to experimentation. Which is obivous to everyone but the devs.
Don't really like that whole item storage idea either. We just need to get the limit raised, problem solved. Maybe have the max item limit related to experimentation too, sense it currently does nothing.
Don't agree with most of your ideas GuardianHawk, but at least you're thinking. I think we have to wait till after the expansion to see any results though.
And on top of all this you make a shop that looks like a store, you would be in heaven.