Architect Archive

What do Archs do?
Archs build all manner of buildings, furniture & facilities. Every house (Small, Medium, Large, PA Hall), Harvester (Personal, Medium, Heavy), Factory (Equipemtn, Food/Chem, Structures, Clothing), and Furniture is player Architect made.

How do I become an Architect?
You become an Arch by having Artisan, then getting Engineering IV. Then you have to collect 33k of General Crafting XP (Artisan Experience) and you can learn Novice Architect from the NPC trainer.

How hard is it to get to Master Arch?
Not very. Architect, while it requires a high amount of XP to master, gains XP very quickly. You get 2 XP for each resource used in the items you make. That means, if you had unlimited resources, you could literally master the profession in a very VERY heavy clicking days. While it's very resource intensive, my guess is that Weaponsmith, Armorsmith & Droid Eng have more clicking to reach master, but far fewer resources overall.

Getting to master Arch CAN be done casually, but it will take some time. If you have the time & dedication to run 30 lots, you can reach master relatively quickly. (As compared to other advanced crafters)

Will I be rich as a Master Architect?
Probably not. On the low/mid skill, there are many Archs, a real surplus. As masters, there's a slight shortage on Bria right now compared to the demand.

Making a profit will come down to how well you mine, and what you sell your structures for. If you mine well, & use over 20 lots, you have to the potential to eventually be rich.

What should I make to level up?
Anything you wish. Because you get 2 XP / resource on pretty much everything, it doesn't matter where you spend your resources. As a novice, you won't have access to much. Small houses, Equipment factory, a bunch of furniture, & subcomponents.

Here lies the difficulty. There's little to no market for small houses. It's been filled. Other novices are making them & trying to sell them off, and they're taking forever to sell, even at 8k. My advice is this: Apprentice to a Master Arch. Make bricks/walls/turbines & whatever other subcomponents they need, in exchange for cash, or resources. You save the master time, and you get XP. They train you, and as you level, they pass on the requests they get for smaller stuff to you. There IS a heavy demand for guild halls. Even as a novice, you can help make a guild hall.

What should I sell things for?
This is a personal decision. A while back, I made a decision not to sell structures for less than 4 credits/resource. That was based on the value of raw resources on the open market. As the value of resources goes down, I may lower my prices. I did the math on my harvester costs, the costs of a resource shift, the time I spent handling harvesters, then my failure rate, the costs of failures, and the time spent making structures. I decided that if the price was below 4 cred/res, I would simply sell resources instead & save the hassle. Since making that decision, I have constantly been selling out of resources through structures. I have yet to had to sell resources due to a lack of business.

Set your pricing as you wish, based on your costs, & what you feel your time is worth. I feel any price between 3 & 5 cred/res is reasonable. (For the high end structures, esp those that require extensive machining, I feel a resonable price is closer to 4-8.)

I oppose prices under 3 cred/resources for a few reasons. I believe every player's time should be respected & worth something. Regardless of the profession. If you're selling at 3 cred/res or less, you're working for free. Because it's easy to sell resources at 3, I feel structures should sell for more than that. If you sell at 3, with a 15% crit fail rate, you would have made the same money selling resources at 2.6 each. When you work for free, people tend to take advantage of that, & you lose respect. It also creates the impression that EVERY arch should also be working for free. (The situation medics & entertainers have: Always tip, & tip well. Their time is valuable, respect them.)

The second problem of selling low, is that you're running VERY close to going bankrupt. You'll be running a minimal bank balance, and running missions to pay for harvesters. If you get nailed by a bad shift, or harvester/factory bugs, or a nasty string of crit failures, you're literally screwed. Bankrupt with nothing to show for weeks of work. That equates to a useless profession, and I'd rather not see my choice of profession as useless.

Money is quite easy to make in SWG, and literally every player with novice marksman can afford to buy structures at 4+. Medium harvesters pay for themselves VERY quickly, so their inherent value is quite high.

I'm having a hard time selling stuff, what can I do?
Never make deeds. Make the subcomponents, and find a buyer first. If you have a Naboo house, & a buyer for a Correllia house, the Naboo deed isn't much good. Just keep the parts ready & build whatever people need. That eliminates you need to have to keep 200k of deed stock on hand. It also prevents you from getting worried the deed will never sell & having to dump it at no profit.

Hook up with a master. Help him out on subcomponents, & have him pass on the small business he gets to you. When building PA's, I don't have time to deal with small orders, I'm focused on the PA.

Treat customers well. Help them out with information, not everyone knows exactly what they need or how to run it. You WILL get business from your past customers, the friends of those customers, etc.

Relax. There's no rush to get to master, it's not all it's cracked up to be. If you can't make a good living as a novice, you won't as a master either. Just make sure that you're having fun, and not losing money as you level up. If business is dry, sell your extra resouces. If you have a solid cash slush, invest resouces into getting better harvesters. If you're using personals/wind, upgrade to solar/mediums, or Fusion/Heavies. Yes, Fusion & heavies ARE worth using, but their cost is steep. It takes some time before they pay for themselves, but they will. If you're going to mine for a month, fusions & heavies are FREE. Their lower maint rates/harvest rate will save your their purchase price in under 1 month.

Advertise. Make a shout macro & use it occasionally as you travel. Wear your Architect tag. Post on the boards if you're looking for business with your rates, & how to get a hold of you. Look for a PA that needs an architect. See if player run towns are looking for houses. Don't just sit at home & churn.

Good luck! If you have questions, feel free to contact me in game.