Architect Archive
Thread: Getting to know you and your profession
Page 8 of 8
Reegan
Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:12 pm
#92
Well since your topic is getting to know you and your profession, let me start with who I am.
I'm Reegan on the Chilastra Galaxy and I've been playing for over a year now. When I first started the game, I decided that architect was the calling that I wanted to follow. I played as a master architect for several months, during which time I saw many of the changes that affected the class, from harvestor experimentation, to the addition of player cities.
While I don't participate that much on these forums, I am active on several other forums dealing with Star Wars Galaxy. When experimenting on harvestors became possible, I was there trying to figure out how the changes would affect the game, and after a while I found some of the formulas I had come out with were being reposted on these forums, so I started to visit these forums to make sure my work wasn't misrepresented here.
On my route to master architect, I took my time and slowly worked my way up. Starting with just the initial survey tool and generic crafting tool, I sampled resources until I could build my own harvestors, and I ran delivery and artisan missions to pay for upkeep on them. I made every tool I used, and everything I made, I either used myself, or sold on the bazaar. Attaining master architect was one of my proudest achievements in the game, as everything I had done to reach that point was done strictly on my own. Nothing was bought, it was all sampled/harvested/crafted by me. In the end it took several months, but at the end there wasn't a single item in the architect or artisan trees that I hadn't tried.
With the start of the hologrind, I started to try and master as many professions as possible. Since I did not like the idea of 'grinding' professions, I adopted a slow system of exploring each class and slowly making my way to master in each one. While I didn't try and 'solo' everything as I had as an architect, I tried to make sure that I learned as much about the profession I was working on as possible. To date, I have mastered 23 of the professions and am continuing to work on the remaining professions, although I am planning to skip politician. In the process of this, I had to drop all of my architect skills, but I still consider myself a crafter at heart, and once I finish my personal quest to attain 32 professional mastery badges, I fully intend to return to crafting. While I would like to choose architect once again as my specialty in crafting, I am not sure that will be a workable choice. As things stand I do not see architect as being a long term viable profession.
This brings me to the second part of this thread, getting to know the profession of architect.
When I was first considering buying the game, there were many promises of what would be possible as an architect. One of those promises was that architects would have a role in the GCW with talks of things like placeable turrets that would be made and possible placed by architects. I bought the game with dreams of being an architect and supporting the rebellion. Sadly, this turned out to be a pipe dream, architects and tailors currently have absolutely no role in the GCW. All other classes have something to contribute, if not in combat abilities, then they have support abilities, from healing the combatants, to supplying equipment, and now that stat migrations requires an ID, even they have some role in the GCW, albiet a very minor role. The GCW has often been refered to as the end game and most important part of the game, and there are 2 professions that have absolutely no role in it.
As a profession, architects seem to have the most problems with sustainability. The pure crafting classes must rely on one thing to create a profession which will be viable over a long term basis, a sustainable market willing to purchase what they make. For classes such as weaponsmithing and armorsmithing, equipment decay has created a sustainable market. Chef products are all consumable and thus also have an inherintly sustainable market. Droid engineer have combat droids which over time require replacement as well as consumable droids needed by bounty hunters. That leaves Tailors and Architects without a clearly sustainable market.
In these two cases they must rely on artificially created 'needs' to which their products will cater. For Tailor, this takes the form of fashion lines, they are able to customize their products to meet the expectations of customers, and while their products are not necessary to the game, they require few resources with no quality concerns so tailors can offer pricing that will promote an environment where people will want to buy their products on a semi regular basis. In addition to this, there is decay on clothing, although decay has almost no signifcant effect except possibly in the case of skill mods from clothing.
Architect goods, on the other hand, are not customizable except for the name. In addition, the resource requirements on architect goods are high enough that pricing of the goods will not appeal to the 'impulse buyer'. This leads to a situation where players will buy one set of goods, and once they have established a comfortable level of furnishing, they are unlikely to ever look for new furnishing. This means that the only market for architects is in new players, there will be no significant levels of repeat business once the player base has established themselves. This lack of a sustainable market is the largest problem faced by architects, and the most critical.
As things stand, I feel that architect is a dying profession. Most of the architects have either gone on to other professions, or are used solely as secondary to their main role. There are very few people left who consider themselves an architect before anything else.
I'm Reegan on the Chilastra Galaxy and I've been playing for over a year now. When I first started the game, I decided that architect was the calling that I wanted to follow. I played as a master architect for several months, during which time I saw many of the changes that affected the class, from harvestor experimentation, to the addition of player cities.
While I don't participate that much on these forums, I am active on several other forums dealing with Star Wars Galaxy. When experimenting on harvestors became possible, I was there trying to figure out how the changes would affect the game, and after a while I found some of the formulas I had come out with were being reposted on these forums, so I started to visit these forums to make sure my work wasn't misrepresented here.
On my route to master architect, I took my time and slowly worked my way up. Starting with just the initial survey tool and generic crafting tool, I sampled resources until I could build my own harvestors, and I ran delivery and artisan missions to pay for upkeep on them. I made every tool I used, and everything I made, I either used myself, or sold on the bazaar. Attaining master architect was one of my proudest achievements in the game, as everything I had done to reach that point was done strictly on my own. Nothing was bought, it was all sampled/harvested/crafted by me. In the end it took several months, but at the end there wasn't a single item in the architect or artisan trees that I hadn't tried.
With the start of the hologrind, I started to try and master as many professions as possible. Since I did not like the idea of 'grinding' professions, I adopted a slow system of exploring each class and slowly making my way to master in each one. While I didn't try and 'solo' everything as I had as an architect, I tried to make sure that I learned as much about the profession I was working on as possible. To date, I have mastered 23 of the professions and am continuing to work on the remaining professions, although I am planning to skip politician. In the process of this, I had to drop all of my architect skills, but I still consider myself a crafter at heart, and once I finish my personal quest to attain 32 professional mastery badges, I fully intend to return to crafting. While I would like to choose architect once again as my specialty in crafting, I am not sure that will be a workable choice. As things stand I do not see architect as being a long term viable profession.
This brings me to the second part of this thread, getting to know the profession of architect.
When I was first considering buying the game, there were many promises of what would be possible as an architect. One of those promises was that architects would have a role in the GCW with talks of things like placeable turrets that would be made and possible placed by architects. I bought the game with dreams of being an architect and supporting the rebellion. Sadly, this turned out to be a pipe dream, architects and tailors currently have absolutely no role in the GCW. All other classes have something to contribute, if not in combat abilities, then they have support abilities, from healing the combatants, to supplying equipment, and now that stat migrations requires an ID, even they have some role in the GCW, albiet a very minor role. The GCW has often been refered to as the end game and most important part of the game, and there are 2 professions that have absolutely no role in it.
As a profession, architects seem to have the most problems with sustainability. The pure crafting classes must rely on one thing to create a profession which will be viable over a long term basis, a sustainable market willing to purchase what they make. For classes such as weaponsmithing and armorsmithing, equipment decay has created a sustainable market. Chef products are all consumable and thus also have an inherintly sustainable market. Droid engineer have combat droids which over time require replacement as well as consumable droids needed by bounty hunters. That leaves Tailors and Architects without a clearly sustainable market.
In these two cases they must rely on artificially created 'needs' to which their products will cater. For Tailor, this takes the form of fashion lines, they are able to customize their products to meet the expectations of customers, and while their products are not necessary to the game, they require few resources with no quality concerns so tailors can offer pricing that will promote an environment where people will want to buy their products on a semi regular basis. In addition to this, there is decay on clothing, although decay has almost no signifcant effect except possibly in the case of skill mods from clothing.
Architect goods, on the other hand, are not customizable except for the name. In addition, the resource requirements on architect goods are high enough that pricing of the goods will not appeal to the 'impulse buyer'. This leads to a situation where players will buy one set of goods, and once they have established a comfortable level of furnishing, they are unlikely to ever look for new furnishing. This means that the only market for architects is in new players, there will be no significant levels of repeat business once the player base has established themselves. This lack of a sustainable market is the largest problem faced by architects, and the most critical.
As things stand, I feel that architect is a dying profession. Most of the architects have either gone on to other professions, or are used solely as secondary to their main role. There are very few people left who consider themselves an architect before anything else.
EnFERn0
Mon Sep 20, 2004 1:26 am
#93
1) Harvester Decay
2) Experimenting on houses & factories.
3) Furniture colors
4) Coloring rooms inside houses.
Tiggs
Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:28 am
#94
I have added the additional posts that were made after my post to the information I am collecting.I hope that doesn't sound confusing. 
Astev_Aris
Wed Sep 22, 2004 1:24 pm
#97
RetuchMK3 wrote:
First of all .. if player housing deteriorates .. I will flat leave this game .. to have to change 250 items out ofa house and into another one because it decays is absurd, i have vendors and 200 pieces of furnture
Most of theproposed ideas regarding house and harvester decay have included mention of repair kits so you wouldn't have to do what you described above, or the concept of having to replace a component in the house (such as the generator turbine). I don't believe in forcing people to move to a new house every time their old one decays, but some type of repairable structure decay must be introduced.
And while I'm here I'll throw in my other comments:
- Please please PLEASEcrate Ore Mining Units.Making miners is enough of a chore without having to deal with individual OMUs. Merely the fact that the problem still remains (and that the devs only seemed to become aware of this problem at the fan fest) over one year after the game was released is simply unacceptable.
- Add to the furinture schematic selection, and add the ability to color furniture (during crafting, and after the fact using a kit)
- Add more housing floorplans, or implement the excellent modular housing suggestion presented earlier in this thread. And while you're at it, redesign the interior of the large Naboo. Impressive on the outside yes, but inside? Not so much.
- Increase storage on houses to a flat 75 or 100 per lot, the 250 item cap is absurd. And even though we've already gotten the equivalent of a big middle finger to this one, I will once again request larger resource stack sizes. If Jedi can get what they want by whining and crying, I don't see why it can't work for us.
- Reduce lot requirement on structure factory to one lot
- Good job on making furniture containers um... contain. Now they need to be nameable like backpacks are.
- Finally, turning the miner animation back on would also be a nice touch. It's a pain to have to pull up menus on each miner one-by-one in order to see if they're still running. Certainly, I will often check them all, but being able to tell at a glance whether or not miners are still operating is a convenience I miss a lot.
I could go on, but then I'm sure everyone on this board could...
Bloodfin_Architect
Wed Sep 22, 2004 3:03 pm
#98
Hello,
I, or one of my alts,has been an architect since August 2003. I realize many of my fellow architects see decay as the #1 issue. However, decay is a touchy subject with users of our products since SWG uses "structure maintenance" as a way to move credits out of the system. For that reason, I think the resistence to decay for current items is reasonable and unlikely to change. The answer could lie in introducing new products that have decay (that work) from the beginning.
I propose that customization and the introduction of new products is a way to ensure repeat business. New products could be introduced in a variety of ways and the profession has needed customization for a long, long time.
Some ideas:
1. Warehouses (fully experimental for both maintenace costs and capacity)
2. Looted and/or Quested furniture and city improvement schematics
3. Laser Drills (with decay or item limits) used by weaponsmiths to enhance their products by lowering HAM costs
4. Laser Polishers (with decay or item limits) used by armorsmiths to ehance armor by decreasing encumberance or increasing endurance
5. Factory and Harvestor Kits designed to increase output for a limited amount of time (24 hours for instance)
6. Brick Ovens (with decay or item limits) that add bonuses to factory crafted food
7. Wall Art (with decay) - the ability to add frescos to a house wall
8. Merchant stands (with decay - say 1 week) that can be placed inside non-player citites to sell wares. Locations and numbers can be controlled by a special NPC
9. Housing customization based on floor plans instead of static designs. This would bring a whole new meaning to the housing market.
10. Factory containers (1 use) of varying styles to get rid of the impossibly limited stack limits
Good luck in your new position Tiggs.
cripplestickmickII
Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:20 am
#99
Ok, not quite a master yet, but grooving my way there. What changes would I like to see in Architect?
Well, a role in the GCW for starters, but that is getting covered on another thread. For something new to say how about the following?
Extra lots for harvesters/buildings as we advance up the construction tree
cripplestickmickII
Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:26 am
#100
Ok, not quite a master yet, but grooving my way there. What changes would I like to see in Architect?
Well, a role in the GCW for starters, but that is getting covered on another thread. For something new to say how about the following?
- Extra lots for harvesters/buildings as we advance up the construction tree.
- More buildings, especially a storage unit ( a nice big (500 item) building that looks like a warehouse, smells like a warehouse, and is in fact a warehouse)
- Workshops - a new kind of building kinda like the merchants tent, but designed purely as a vendor with space for crafting stations that give an extra bonus to crafting, if you allow us to put the stations in as part of the schematic it would be brilliant, I mean rangers get camps with food/chemical crafting stations, why can't we build houses with them in?
- Obviously
cripplestickmickII
Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:29 am
#101
Ok, not quite a master yet, but grooving my way there. What changes would I like to see in Architect?
Well, a role in the GCW for starters, but that is getting covered on another thread. For something new to say how about the following?
- Extra lots for harvesters/buildings as we advance up the construction tree.
- More buildings, especially a storage unit ( a nice big (500 item) building that looks like a warehouse, smells like a warehouse, and is in fact a warehouse)
- Workshops - a new kind of building kinda like the merchants tent, but designed purely as a vendor with space for crafting stations that give an extra bonus to crafting, if you allow us to put the stations in as part of the schematic it would be brilliant, I mean rangers get camps with food/chemical crafting stations, why can't we build houses with them in?
I also agree with stuff like Harvester decay (or limited redeeds even?)
Experimenting on houses and factories (to decrease maintance, and increase productions speed), furniture colours (pallete when making, also colour kits to sell), and interior decoration (lasting 30 days or whatever).
Thanks for listening.
Edric Janus Architect (Scylla) 0323, (oh I also shoot things, so...)
FreebiEaway
Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:34 am
#102
At first, being the cynical person I am, I thought, merchant stand? That won't happen because you need rights, and I doubt cities (player or otherwise) would ever give anyone zoning rights of any kind. I did however think something workable might accomplished with pretty much what already exists. Instead of a structure, which gets complicated, how about a merchant "stand" that acts like a droid? Droids store, so can a stand, you have access to the droid's storage, what about viewing access to others? The droid may be able to perform transactions, but if not, a standard trade could be done. There could even be a merchant area in a city I think, in a similar way that vehicles can only be repaired at garages, merchant droids/stands could only be viewed in the merchant area.
I wonder if this has been said before already heh.
Freebi Eaway
"Last night I dreamt someone stole my account. What a nightmare."
cripplestickmickII
Tue Sep 28, 2004 11:59 pm
#103
Sorry about the multiple posts back there, I only noticed when I came back to check the board. The problem seemed to be my kitten deciding he wanted to dance on the keyboard.
Edric
Grudsy
Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:10 pm
#104
The one thing that hits me hardest as architect, and I think any archi that makes many items has the same problem, is the resource issue. Any other profession can drop 6-8 heavy harvestors on a good site and bring in enough resources in 1 haul to last them for months. Yet with our profession, it's all but impossible to even live hand to mouth on resources with only 1 account. I could notkeep up with just my ore needsusing the 19 lots available with my 2 accounts. Add in the fact that ore, the most needed item for our profession is also the lowest concentration of any resource, and we're burned all the way around. I mean how fair is it that a weaponsmith, who only uses at most, a few hundred units of metal per item, can find concentrations in the 90% range?
In general, we need a shop. That's at least 1 lot, but more likely 2. Our factory uses 2 lots where everyone elses only uses 1. With our crate size being 10 units per crate, while everyone elses is 25+, our factories can't hold enough items, forcing us to need more than 1 factory. If we also have Artisan, we need at least 1 more lot for that factory. There isn't enough lots left over to harvest resources with.
My suggestions:
Since our most pressing need is low quality ore for walls, how about introducing a class of "junk ore" that's useless as far as stats go, but found in abundance?
Perhaps a lot bonus for architects? We should get 10 extra lots that are only useable for harvestors.
How about a harvesting bonus? Perhaps give us a 50-100% increase on the BER rating of harvestors placed by architects. It would only need to effect mineral harvestors. That would prevent other classes from using the profession to mine their resources.
I'm only asking that our profession be balanced so that we can be self sufficient in our resource needs like all the other professions can. As it is, we either have to do lot swaps, get multiple accounts, or buy our resources. Our profession also earns the lowest CPU return on our items, making buying resources almost impossible, where the other professions make enough return on their investment to buy all of theirs if they choose.
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