Architect Archive

I couldn't have said it better myself. Everybody keeps quoting 3 creds/resource as "at cost." There is a significantsubtleties about the term "at cost" that many seem to be missing. "At cost" can mean several different things:

Market cost - the highest you can sell or the lowest you can buy those resources for. This runs anywhere between 1 to 5 creds/resource.

Production cost - the amount of credits (and only credits) you have to put into your harvester to keep it running. A good architect can keep this down to .5 to .75 creds/resource.

Economic cost - the difference between what you are doing (selling homes at 10K each when they take you hours to make) and what you could be doing (running destroy missions to get 10K an hour). This is what costs you quite a bit.

But then there's also the question of utility. Why do you do what you do if you're making less money at it? And here is the key point: because you enjoy being an architect. There is a cost associated with your choice of profession. Don't complain to me that houses are being sold at 1.5 creds/resource when you could be making 3 creds/resource for selling them on the open market. If you want to sell your resources on the open market, go right ahead. You have to understand - right now you build buildings at an economicloss because you enjoy building buildings. Those that complain that they're not getting a "fair price" for their homes - view it instead as the cost of your profession. You cannot validly compare the price of resources on the open market and your final good because you derive utility from the creation of a house, namely, either xp or the just the fun of crafting.

So, since 3 creds/resource is an argument derived solely from the open market on resources - and essentially, NOT the open market for houses, for which you've sapped the value of the resources that go into it for xp, I suggest that when people quote their "at cost" price they disregard labor, and simply quote the pure value of the amount of credits that go into your harvesters and the amount of ore/metal that you get out. That is an an objective value for which we can have a true discussion of price margins and market economics, rather than what people think is "fair" for the amount of resources that they mine and the time they put into the game.

By the logic flying around this forum in any case, math and science college graduates should never teach because they could make twice as much money programming or engineering. While we probably should pay our teachers twice as much, that does not mean that some people are not willing to take the pay cut for doing something they enjoy and only having to do it 8 months of the year.

A good post Thockler!

The only point I disagree with you on is it taking hours to makea house. If I have the resources, it takes minutes, not hours. Unless you meant including gathering resources, then you're dead on! =)