Architect Archive

So far, ive been having fun as an architect on Ahazi.

Selling small houses, harvesters, factories, and medium harvesters to happy customers was fulfilling.

Now, as i approach Medium and Larger houses, witht he demand being skewed towards those, im finding it more disheartening. They require ALOT of resources. And alot of time making those walls and generaters.

Houses are being competitively sold at 12k for small, and 60k for medium. Well, this is vastly underselling the worth, and it hurts me because i dont have an endless supply of resources. And if i bought the resources, i would end up losing money trying to sell for 12k and 60k.

Most importantly, i put up 2k of ore on the bazaar and made 12k easy.

Why in the heck would i hold on to that ore and make a house when i can make more money easier and faster by just selling the resources? Why waste the time crafting walls when i can sell the resources that make the walls for the same or even more money?

Am i just looking at it wrong? Should i not be trying to make money as an architect? Should i be going through the pain of making medium houses just to feel accomplishement even though it means id be losing time and money off the deal? Or am i right to just sell the resources, make money, and forget the product?

Just wondering.

It all really depends on what you want out of the game...

If you try to mass produce med/large houses, and fill every customer request on a daily basis without the resource pool to back it up... then ya, you're going bout it the wrong way... If you take your time with it, and put out a med/large house every few days for sale, and just do other stuff while you're harvesters are working (like exploring, working on another craft, making furniture, etc) you may find the profession much more rewarding.

On eclipse, I've been informed that 60k for mediums is on the way too low side by the way... dunno what the economy is like where you're at... but if you factor in costs of resources, 85k+ for mediums, 150k+ for larges isn't too unreasonable to ask, and you'll be able to have a better profit/loss margin (that covers resource costs, harvester costs, factory costs, crit failure costs, travel expense if you have to offworld harvest, etc).

Work on upping the price... it'll make it much more worth your time... sure it's a few extra missions for the combat types... but what else they got to do right? They make money, they spend it... a large house is a one time expenditure (not like armor / weapons that need upgrade/repair)... it's not too much to ask for a higher fee and cover your costs... people will pay (maybe less than would spend 60k for a medium, etc)... but... since you can't feasibly do volume sales on houses... all you need is sell one ever couple days or so to keep afloat and progress.

Hope that helps

Feyd / Eclipse
Master Architect and Businessman
Veteran Beta 1-3 tester

Thanks Feyd

Yea I realised i was trying to take on too much at once. Slowing down and taking an order every few days is probably the right idea.

The big delimma i have is still the resource problem. Sure, i can make a medium house every few days, and possibly sell them for 85k.

But the average price for resources is 5 credits per unit...usually more than that...which makes a medium house reallyworth 105k.

Honestly, i can make more money, and spend less time, just selling the resources rather than building the dam house

The market is still pretty screwed up. People aren't selling things for what they are worth. Many architects are dumping because it takes so many items to progress to master architect that have to dump or delete. My guess is that small houses will always be dumped, and therefor the price will always be deflated. But medium and large houses should go for a good profit.

I don't doubt that selling raw resources is a better way to make money. Try it out. One thing to keep in mind: when I sell a large house I generally also sell a lot of furniture. I also have a customer that often has me on friends list when their friends need a house, factory, PA Hall. I'm not rich, nor am I really trying to be, but I can sell a large house every other day atm.

Look for the prices on resources to come down, the price of large and med constructions to stay relatively high, and small houses to never be worth the price to make them

Dainn Valstead, Master Architect, Starsider

Don't be discouraged. Just sell the homes what they are worth to you. If it's worth 105K for you to make the home, and no less, than sell it for 105K. When people ask why your prices are high just tell them what you said here. If they don't understand someone else will. You'll do a lot better and frustrate yourself less if you go about it that way.

I think too many people get wrapped up in the 5 credit per resource thought mode.

Houses will never sell as fast as weapons or armor. Combat players want weapons/armor more than houses, and there are simply more combat types out there than crafters. And there's not a dime's difference between houses made by different architects (except for price), which isn't true for armor and weapons.

I suggest not thinking of structure prices in relation to other crafted item prices. Look at it purely from the basis of how much you pay to get those resources, then give yourself a profit margin.

Then there's the fact you can typicallysell resources for 5 credits on the bazaar, as opposed to getting maybe 3 credits per resource in a structure. Again, you're comparing apples and oranges. Small amounts of resources on the bazaar will always get more money than a finished product. It's just the way the game is and how people think. Put some of your resources on the bazaar to help pay harvester maintenance, then craft houses to get the XP and sell.

Well ComicsGuy the thing is once you hit Master Architect XP doesn't mean anything at all. So because of that, I'd rather sell for what I feel the product is worth to me then to lowball myself and sell it at a different rate. Homes are becoming more and more popular everyday. I'd rather stockpile them then give them away for less than I feel they're worth. I also suggest everyone else to do the same. If you treat the customer right and help them out, they'll be more than happy to pay a fair price especially if you explain to them how your prices are derived.

As a progressing Architect very close to building Medium houses, I'm finding that the best way to gain both credits and XP at the moment is a combination of things.

I try to sell Small Houses for whatever I can get for them, which usually ends up being 7500c-10000c, and I sell a little ore on the side for cash to keep my harvesters running. I'm doing this all on my own, and don't have any other players backing me up, so I can't use all my resources to build houses yet...hopefully when I reach Medium / Large homes, I'll be able to stop selling resources and start selling homes at an actual profit.

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Rath wrote:

Don't be discouraged. Just sell the homes what they are worth to you. If it's worth 105K for you to make the home, and no less, than sell it for 105K. When people ask why your prices are high just tell them what you said here. If they don't understand someone else will.

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Yep I tell em what he just said here they just laugh and say I'm ripping them off and go buy from the person selling for cost or less.

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ComicsGuy wrote:

I think too many people get wrapped up in the 5 credit per resource thought mode.

Then there's the fact you can typicallysell resources for 5 credits on the bazaar, as opposed to getting maybe 3 credits per resource in a structure. Again, you're comparing apples and oranges. Small amounts of resources on the bazaar will always get more money than a finished product. It's just the way the game is and how people think.

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Finished products should always cost more than the cost of the material that goes into them. You dont see construction company's buying 100,000 in bricks, concrete, etc. then turn around and sell the building they built for 50,000.

It's not so much about profit in the architect game... yes, houses sell for a large chunk of change, but with a much narrower profit margin than weapons and armor... you have to really love the profession to make a go of it...

I personally enjoy fulfilling peoples desire to make a mark on the world with a home of their own, and decorating it to suit their tastes. I probably make more money from furniture sales AFTER I sell a home, then a did on the home itself.

Your biggest asset is making good contacts with rangers / scouts early on... and setting up a consistant supply of "reasonably" priced hides (some of my contacts sell to me as low as 3 credits per hide, instead of the inflated 10c or 100c per)... I also do trades with them (they bring me a bulk shipment and I make them a bed, couch, or something).

The biggest rewards come from selling the more unique and difficult to make furnishings (those requiring wooly hides, or hides from different planets). Since these furnishings are quite rare, you can possibly corner the market on the furniture trade.

People may not buy a house for top dollar... but they're sure drop 5 grand on a bed in a heartbeat once they placed their house