Architect Archive

I started this profession about 3 weeks ago. Im a casual player, idontwant to play every single moment I have cause I have other gamesI like to play, and friends and family to hang out with. Ever since this game came out, I was planning on going thro the architecture profession, since its what I luv in RL. I recently got a degree in it.

3 weeks into it andmy hopes are still ify. Im finding the prices that architects on my server are selling way too low in my opinion. Frankly the only way I can see that they are surviving is that they have already made a lot of money from what the prices were near release. They must have loads of money sitting in there banks. Or the only other way is breaking even. Ive been trying to give this alot of thought and been watching the boards occasionally. My question is, why have we (as architects) given into the consumer and their whinning that prices are too high. I dont think 20k for a small house is too high at all. I dont think 103k for a medium house is too high. I dont think 60k for a factory is too high. Granted im running 8 harvesters and 1 wind generator. But I cant afford to buy resources in large quantities yet. I feel i may end up running missions just to survive and I dont want to do that. I dont think I need to list how many resources go into building our products. My other question is, if you continue to sell small houses for 5k andmed houses for 45k, do you really think your bank accounts are going to stay stable along with upkeeping your own house and factories? Sure all this may change when Player Cities become a reality, but what about the now? Do any of you have any real experience in architecture in RL? I would really to get alot of opinions on this and not just a few post. Pls dont rant or flame. Be constructive and share with me and the rest of how your succeeding. You dont need to give out ur secrets, but a hint would be nice.

Thanks,

Matrim

P.S. I was told my an other person on my server today that I was being snotty because I was trying to enlighten them on why I was charging so much. Then he threatened to start yelling in shouts how outrageous my prices are. Am I in the wrong? It was just text and in no way was I trying to put the guy down. I guess others dont want to learn what another profession is like.

sigh, this whole debate... again.

I am too tired of it to specifically call out numbers and blah blah blah, but do this. go to swgcraft.com. use the tools there to analyze your production costs. figure out how much it costs you to mine your minerals. figure out how you want to account for failures. figure out your profit. if you still come up with your numbers, then you must like ridiculous profit margins, or you have your harvesters all sitting on 10% concentrations.

for those that follow me, those of us that charge low don't care that weaponsmiths or armorsmiths can make things and sell for 10credits per. don't care. repeat that. even charging what i do, I make plenty of money. no, my guild does not support me. I pay all my own maintenance. I buy lots of frivolous things like clothes to support my dancing habit.

the argument about the housing market falling is theoretically valid imo. however, based on the sheer volume of orders I continue to receive daily, I don't see it being soon.

there, I think I covered my bases. Most likely not, but hey, whatever.

I can see where you are comming from. Iused to be able to sell small houses for 20k and mediums for 60k. I had a guy today think i was crazy for trying to sell him a medium for 60k.I didn't respondtohim, I just walked away. I have totally stopped selling small housescompletly. Selling a house for anythingunder 10k is selling at a loss. Most people want 5k for them. I just tell them sorry my at 5k my resourcesare better used for a fusiongeneratorand goodbye.

I'm almost to the point that I won't sell mediums.

I'd have to ask whether or not you have any "real experience" with real life marketing.

No giant flames or rants, but here it is short and sweet... there's a reason why gasoline costs different prices everywhere, even street to street. It's the same reason why a cheesburger is cheaper in Des Moines, Iowa than it is in New York, New York. Think about it.

I fail to see why so many people (I don't mean you specifically Matrim)keep coming here typing giant essaysabouteconomics without even thinking about or mentioning this. Quit looking at "the market" from your own point of view. Look at it from your (potential) customer's instead. That doesn't mean that you rip yourself off (I say no alot myself), but it does mean that if you're facing stiff competition in pricing in a given area, then you need to either move or keep up.

The key to winning the 5k small house (and similar unrealisticpricing) price wars is patience.

On my server one architect was all over the server board early on with small houses for 3k, med for 30k etc. He swore up and down that he could make a profit at those prices.

Now he is a master and is charging 10cr per resource. And he says that "crit fails are ruining us" and that heis "tired of being broke". Well golly gee, wonder why.

Set up a realistic price structure. Stick with it. The people selling for less than the resources are worth WILL either hit master and raise their rates or quit entirely. The only real problem is the unrealistic expectations those people raise in the community, which for the most part can be dealt with by mentioning the number of resources and the time involved to make the item.

Quite agree with the original poster. I only sell pa halls now, but am soon leaving the profession and once I have built my heavy harvs I'm just going to mine and sell resources and go back to playing a few hours a day hunting and doing fun stuff with my friends.

Just going to say something that I thought was funny. I am in no way castigating armoursmiths and I fully realise they need some name specific stuff etc. But a guild friend of mine asked to borrow 215k today (which I was happy to do) as he wanted to buy some composite armour. Armour that takes 2868 resources, granted some of that is name specific, but I was slightly taken aback at the mark up. Nearly 75c per resource for this stuff when even master architects sell most things at 5-8c. I realise weaponsmiths have to do alot more in the way of experimentation and seeking out named resources, however 215k for under 4000 resources would be like heaven to me

My plan is to plonk down 7 heavy minerals on some nice metal or ore and sell it every few days, allowing me to do whats fun and still have a decent income. With the state the architect profession is in don't think its such a bad idea.

KaptainKrude,

I never said I was a marketing major. I was just looking for advice.

KaptainKrude , every example you list is a consumable good. Durable goods are more valuable. Why? because they arent purchased with eh same frequency as a consumable. Architect product is durable and people are pricing like its a consumable. I think you are ignoring that fact?

Matrim, but you did ask ifanyone had any RL experience in architecture, so I thought it was fair to ask the same of you in regards to marketing.

AwaitingWoW, I quite agree that item decay is the real point to all of these discussions about pricing. In fact, I'd really rather see that being discussed instead of the bickering over pricing. I think that item decay goes more directly to the heart of the matter and is going to be the largest Architect problem as time goes on. Although, there's still a reason why an apartment in New York city is much more costly than a nice big house in Des Moines, Iowa. I think the analogy still holds up with items of far lesser consumability. Really, you could just use good 'ole dirt... real estate as the prime example. In NY you get a postage stamp for what you'll get in Iowa with the same amount of cash and it's not consumable at all. But anyway, I agree wholeheartedly about item decay.

The largest problem is that people are not willing to pay for our structures because they feel that they are not worth as much as armor or weapons. They do not realize that right now, armor and weapon smiths are charging far more then they should for their items because they are capable of getting it. Hopefully in time people will start realizing that the cost for some items currently are way to high and others are way to low. If our structures didn't last forever as long as you pay the maintenance, we would have a steady supply of customers but the prices would have to be less. On my server we have a group of architects who are attempting to get as many others to adjust their prices to something more reasonable for the amount of resources we use. While some say this is price fixing, others agree with us and those are some highly named weapon and armor crafters. Nothing we craft should ever sell for less then 6c/u if we are purchasing resources at 3c/u. Till SOE decides to make the Architect class a more viable trade class, we are always going to have people complaining about prices for our items because they are not needed (except in the case of harvesters). One fix that might make a small difference is when player cities are finally added in but I am not counting on it. The only way we are going to be able to survive in the long run is if the people who become architects or are architects, all work together to maintain a decent level of cost for the items we create. Of course there will be people who will complain and moan about this and I am sure that alot of people will not want to come together because they think they can make more profit by trying to undercut and run others out of business. All I am doing is letting things go as they are and make what I can, where I can, while I wait for more content to be added to our class.

Shadowfire,

I couldnt agree with you more. Its not that im bickering about our price KaptainKrude... well maybe alittle bit. But since this this is our economy made by the players, this is a valid discussion. Im glad I am going for pistoleer. In my down time, waiting on resources or for a customer to make enough money to purchase an order from me I have something else to do. I can wait for Master Architect. Im not in a rush and ur not going to see me grind for it. The thing that does bother me, the reason why I posted, was because the past few days Ive gotten tells from people asking how much for this or that, ill give them a price, and all i get is "Ok Ty". I even tell people that I will negotiate. After they give me that kind of answer, I give them a price thats marked down 30% or so. Most of the time they still dont want that.

As far as decay goes... we got the shaft on that. There was a post I read about decay of our houses or allow Architects to be required to repair houses. They should make so repairing a house cost resources, that way we can make a little more money that way.

KaptainKrude, do you think that if we sell all our small houses at 5k and our other house for really cheap, pretty soon everyone is going to have a house? Then what? Just out of curiousity, what are u selling your houses for?

Matrim