Architect Archive
Thread: SKILLPOINTS UNBALANCED FOR CRAFTSMEN??
What this is about is the cost of skill points to be a good, well respected craftsperson cranking out quality product. There simply is not enough points left over to become much of anything else. Which is why I will be one of the many craftspeople dropping my trade for more skill points to enjoy playing other aspects of the game.
The point being, if the developers want craftspeople they are going to have to change something to keep the craftspeople from moving on to other classes. The idea tossed out for comment and opinions was this:
DO YOU THINK CRAFTING CLASSES SHOULD PAY AS MUCH IN SKILL POINTS AS OTHER CLASSES?
-Starsplatter
Yes I do.
Furthermore I do not think they should raise the skill cap either.
perhaps you should go play around with the character builder and see how much you can do with 158 left over skill points.
Well, I'm with you Star. I have a skill calculator and I do use it. As long as you are sticking w/ the same 1 or 2 base skill sets (like HappyDictates) you are ok. So yeah, you can be a master craftsman of one thing and also a master of one of the combat bases and have enuff to either train surveying up all the way and two lines from merchant or 3 lines from merchant and like one in survey.
It doesn't get weird until you start looking at one of the expensive profs that pull from multiple base skill sets. I know people say "well you wanted to be a crafter" smugly, but that's silly. If you could be a MBH and a MA who would that hurt? Raising the skill cap that way would just mean people who don't want to craft ever (and there are lots of them) could put those extra points towards other combat trees... which would mean being able to switch between more weapons and who would that not be fun for?
My real beef is w/ the high cost on Ent and Med profs though...
There wasn't much I liked about DAoC but that was one good thing about it. Crafting used a different experience level set than combat professions, so anyone could be both crafter and combat without sacrificing anything from either. Of course, since it was a level based game, you could onlymaster one profession (no masterweaponsmith/armorsmith on the same character for instance) but even so it was a good system.
You would think with only one character per server SOE would have done something similar. Most people like doing different things with their game time every day.
I think there are two limitations for good reasons:
You have got 250 skillpoints and
10 Lots
Make the best of it, if you only want to pay one account. Thats good! So you cant make anything by yourself. Thats helps to cooperate.
And Sony have to make profit. Buy more accounts, if you want more. Thats good too! So SWG will continue, if Sony dont make profit any more, they will stop SWG.
Greetings Belgor
StarSplatter wrote:What this is about is the cost of skill points to be a good, well respected craftsperson cranking out quality product. There simply is not enough points left over to become much of anything else. Which is why I will be one of the many craftspeople dropping my trade for more skill points to enjoy playing other aspects of the game.
The point being, if the developers want craftspeople they are going to have to change something to keep the craftspeople from moving on to other classes. The idea tossed out for comment and opinions was this:
DO YOU THINK CRAFTING CLASSES SHOULD PAY AS MUCH IN SKILL POINTS AS OTHER CLASSES?
-Starsplatter
ABSOLUTELY!!!!
Look the whole reason this game works as a player run economy is that not everyone can be a crafter and a combat person. If anything it is too easy. You can be an entirely effective CH (under current rules) and -insert elite weapon profession here- and do very well in PvE and even probably PvP since faction pets are not skill based.
Under your nightmare system we would not have crafters going combat, we would have combat going crafters. Who would we sell to? There is one char/account for a reason you know. Interdependency, it is the most important thing in this game for balance and it is what SWG did right.
If you want a one size fits all character go play one of those games where a balanced player economy is not required because we need these restrictions in SWG.
Oh and as for multiple accounts, my gf and I run 4 and we still do not touch most of the professions in this game and are heavy customers of other crafters. Interdependency rocks and I am very glad we have it, it is what makes the swg world go round.
Disagree, I specifically play a crafter in this game since I hate doing the group/combat grind. (pleasently, the game never forced me to grind crafting)
Being just a crafter is fun and doable because every yahoo powergamer isn't able/willing to pick up crafting as a hobbie. Therefore there is demand and interest in me.
It creates demand and competition. Which provide some challange.
Do I wish I had more skillpoints? Yes. I would love to Master Carbineer and a bit of scouting on the side. Do I think the current system is good and ballanced? Definitely. I don't think more skillpoints are the answer. If anything, I would say put less in, but make individual Professions more "branches" and more skills and more stuff. Not gonna happen though.
Overall I think the current system is acceptable and even "good" (but not great). Depending on what happens with elite-elite professions etc... more skill points might be a good idea, but under the current system I think thingsare just fine.
Well, once again the forums prove to be a very poor indicator of over all player opinion. I would be very interested in seeing how many master craftsmen have given up their title to take their character in a more combat direction. Maybe _-ArchAngel-_ could get those stats?
I play on Starsider and just in the past week I found out 3 of my favorite craftsmen had retired to go heavy combat and 2 more said they were planning to over the next couple of weeks. So, I know it is happening... and I'm guessing the numbers would show it's happening a lot.
It's annoying that hardly any stores show up on the maps b/c most people don't want to invest so much in Merchant. Doesn't it say something when only one out of 20 little shops in an area are advertised?
Multiple accounts are not the norm, most combat players would not dabble in crafts even if they could easily and even if they all did it's not like they could master _every_ crafter prof so how on earth would that be a nightmare situation?
Personally, I think that this discussion wouldn't be neccessary if only crafters could create at least some types of combat relatedstructures. I do wish that there were more we could do to be involved in combat.
However, I agree with the opinions here that the skill cap should NOT be raised for crafters by any means.
i do believe crafters have enough skillpoints available to be both crafter and some combat if they want to.
however, i also believe crafters need more content. how and in what form should that content be added? i have no idea. but crafters do need more content, and if thats ever the topic to some arguement or petition to devs, i will support it completely.
giving crafters both crafting skills and the ability to be as effective in combat as the player who devotes all his points to combat lines wouldseverely injurethe current player run economy (which is the best of any mmorpg ive played. i find it incredible).
The real problem that needs to be addressed here is content for crafting proffesions. New schematics monthly, quests for crafters (yes, i know about the armor quest). Easier ways to advertise, etc. I know too many master crafters that have left their proffesion to be combat not because they were upset that they couldn't kick ass, but because they just got bored making the same stuff over and over again and trying constantly to get people in to their shops to make a buck while I run a couple missions and make 40K in 20 minutes.