Architect Archive

One problem we face is that there is essentially no benefit from experimentation and high-quality resources. This makes it impossible to build a premium-grade product. My harvesters are no better than a noob's harvesters. The other problem is that there is no recurring revenue; no repeat business. Compare that to my friend who builds stim-packs - he's sold out weeks in advance (or would be, if his %*&#%) factory was working).

So here's a proposal:

1) There should be four dimensions to experimentation with harvesters: durability, yield/hour, maintenance, and power.

2) Building a better ore harvesting unit should improve yield - maybe a medium produces 5 or 6 per hour instead of 4. Experimentation vastly increases the effectiveness of weapons - why shouldn't the same be true of harvesters?

3) Building a better generator turbine should reduce power requirements; maybe down from 50 to 35.

4) High overall quality and durability should reduce maintenance.

5) Every time a harvester runs out of maintenance or is redeeded, it decays slightly - its yield goes down, its maintenance and power go up.

I don't think these are fundamentally difficult to implement - all it does is juggle the way certain numbers are determined. This would allow good architects to craft premium products and, because of decay-on-redeed, the we would have steady business from our fellow master crafters.

Great suggestions, Neilla. Experimentation should definitely count for SOMETHING. If anything, furniture should begin to decay so that durability makes a difference.

I agree with your ideas, in that they would be really cool, but it's not going to happen, and here's why:

The devs already say that the flow of wealth into the game is higher than they wanted. That means the only real sinks are maintenance costs. If efficiency is improved, or maintenance costs are lowered, it means more wealth, coming in faster. Sorry.

As much as it would be nice to have experimentation do something to our structures, the truth is it would just make architect's roles harder, not easier. you see not only do you have to worry about bulk in that situation, now you have to worry about quality. Architects would ignore the lesser lg ores in favor of the better oens and those ores would become packed and harder to get a good concentration over. People don't care about improved maintenance rates, they care about weapons that hit harder and armor that absorbs more. That is the base of the problem, people do not see architect items as valuable as other crafts. We are the profession that supplies the luxuries.

If you want to improve the architect economy, you have to make improvements to their items to make them more useful in utility and desire, even though I fear it is too late to save it already.

then what your saying is stupid, think of it if a master makes his **edit** so much better than a noob then the noob gets no business thus, no money, thus no levels. simple eh?

Unless the Master charges a premium that many customers can't afford, therefore poorer/noober customers still buy from the noob and accept a lower quality product ? If I can't afford the Porsche, do I just take the bus to work ? No - I buy a Mustang GT !!

well, hell....I can't believe someone would say:

"then what your saying is stupid, think of it if a master makes his **edit** so much better than a noob then the noob gets no business thus, no money, thus no levels. simple eh? "

While you're at it, why not make all other elite crafting professions' masters making their items that is NO better than their novice counterpart? Why not make a master weaponsmith's FGW5 the exact same quality as a novice weaponsmith? Oh, MY BAD! They're MASTERS for a good reason - they're BETTER at making the same stuff as a novice. Gawd....Master architects SHOULD make their products at a MUCH better quality because they are *gasp* Masters for a good reason!

Just in case you don't know what M-a-s-t-e-r means, here is the definition of master from www.dictionary.com:

Master: An artist or performer of great and exemplary skills

Which part of "great" and/or "exemplary" do you not get? geez....