Architect Archive
Thread: Why Weaponsmiths make more money....
This was asked on my server board, so I thought I cross post my response to it here. Some good insightfor those architects that lack self respectand sell cheap or simply like to grief others by undercutting. Also explains why weaponsmiths rightfully make more cr/u than us.
The reason why architects don't make a good cr/u ratio is rather complicated, but I'll give a stab at it.
In June and early July when the first Architects came about there wasn't a lot of money in the game. However architects needed to move crafted items that took 1000s of resources to make. In order to make any sale, the architect had to go cheap. You could always find someone with 20-30k on them. People could play that amount for say a gun, or a house. They didn't have 80k on them, let alone willing to pay that much for a small house that did nothing for them. Those ore harvesters take money and someone has 10k on them. You had a choice to make, sell that small house deed for 10k, or just give up architect and let your harvesters die. Most choose to sell for 10k.
Fast-forward a couple months. Now people are soloing 30k missions with their pet ATSTs and making 1 million on any given weekend. They have a lot of money and not much to spend it on. With that much bank, 3k for a gun or 30k for gun doesn't make much of a difference. The only thing that matters is how much damage is does. 30k is still cheap and you won't miss it.
Now with the larger structures, say a heavy mineral, paying 300k is something people take acception too. They have gotten use to a certain price point and will not pay more than that. Add to that architects that have no clue how much combat professions can make, and you have a lot of people selling cheap because they are told, so and so is selling for cheap, so should you unless you aren't very good. What the architect isn't being told is that one heavy harvester will be pulling in 100k of minerals a week and pay for itself in the first week if priced at 300k. As it is 100k seems to be the market price so that harvester pays for itself in a couple of days. You can make back 3 times what was paid for it in a week. Architects really are clueless when it comes to this and those that aren't are helpless since all the stupid architects keep the market depressed. You sale cheap or get know as a greedy price gouger by those that make far more money than you for less work, go figure.
In short, it isn't why Weaponsmiths are so expensive, but why architects are stupid and sale way too cheap. Even if all the architects got a clue, they will never get the same cr/u that a weaponsmith makes. First I can move 27k of resources in a finished product with exactly one sale. Any idea how many guns a weaponsmith needs to peddle to do move that many resources?
Weaponsmithing does take a lot of work. I know this because I need to do the exact same thing with my crafting stations. You can't make low grade stuff, it won't sale. Only the best will sale. Chances are a FWG5 that does 180 damage priced at 15k will sale far more easially than a FWG5 doing 140 damage at 3k. What idiot would buy a FWG5 that only does 140 damage when you can get one that does 180 damage for only 12k more? That 40 difference after slicing and power ups can become the difference between completing a 12k mission or just getting cloned. One mission can make up for it with a gun that will last 100s of missions. When you take that into account, then weaponsmiths that sell that 180 FWG5 for 5k to get more sales seem as stupid as architects that don't realize how much money is being made off their super cheap harvesters. Like wise people that try to save a few bucks and get that 3k 140 FWG5 fall into the same idiot boat.
To make the best takes a lot more work than resources, and only the best will do. The actual resource cost isn't the issue, it is the skill of the craftsmanship and that final number that says uber weapon or worthless junk. To make that uber weapon, you need to have a great knowledge of all the resources on the server and what is best to use and where. Having the experimentation points of Master just doesn't cut it, you need to be a master at the craft in the game. That means a lot more work and knowledge than just grinding out barrels for a week to hit master.
WIth all that said, most of my harvesters are given at no cost to my PA or sold to friends and a very low cost. I rarely have one left over for a public sale and I am doing very well. Though I would be doing a hell of a lot better if I had an ATST. I won't want to be a weaponsmith, even if I made more money. I get to look around my small little town and think to myself, I built all of this. 
Something a weaponsmith would never know.
Here Here. There's also the problem that one harvestor made with crappy resources is no different from one made with exceptional resources. Being a master, I've done alright, been adament on my prices and the quality of resource I use in hopes of it paying off in the long run. Another thing, if you actually stick to what you believe and don't wavier on your prices, yeah you may get a lot of 'pfft, there's someone who can make em cheaper' but there IS someone out there that is willing buy it if you just stick to her. I feel sorry for those just starting the professon right now as there is pretty much no demmand for the lower-end architect things as pretty much most who want one have one or are in a guild who can provide them with one.
*Here's to hoping Urban Planner turn out all right*
Okay and factory running items to get, let's say 95 T21's, isn't easy. It isn't no worse and requires no more factory time than building a Fusion. People are willing to pay more for guns because a house or harvester is something that doesn't directly make credits. Killing missions does. That and, oh yeah, the first weaponsmiths sold their gear for murderous rates. This is unlike the first architects who sold cheap.
Yes guns can and should be factoried. However you can factory junk, or you can factory the best gun in the galaxy. The amount of work it takes to get that schematic is huge. Running to every planet to find the best resource that has the best stats for this or that. Working with suppliers to get the material. Architects love to trivalize the process. In the end, I can use generators and manufacting mechanism in my fusions that are pure junk and produce as good as deed as anyone. Getting quantity is far easier than quality. Try this, go build yourself a +40 crafting station. Spend all that time trying to figure out what is best. You'll begin to understand why being a weaponsmith is harder. The amount of resources that go into a weapon is just not relivent as much as it's power. I supper charge weapon with a component that was dropped by a mob goes foras much as two fusions. I have 5 fusions, yet no super gun. Why? Cause fusions are easier to come by. It really comes down to quality of product, which we just don't have in this profession.
And harvesters make money, a lot of money. Go sell your resources on the bazaar some time, you'll see what I mean. There are a lot of combat types that mine on the side for extra income. They tend to be very interested in buying heavy harvesters and have the money to get them.
Or maybe the problem is that experimentation and quality of material doesn't matter for an architect while decay is so easy to fix without any architect's help.
This results in an effect of therr being plenty of reason for any crafter to become an architect temporarily just to get a stockpile of heavyharvesters, factories and houses that they'll need or wantfor their intended future profession... and very little reason to remain an architect permamently.
Architects need to be given several things to prevent people from becoming an temporary architect so they can be a better *insert*-crafter and soundermining the fulltime architects business. These are what Architects need:
- experimentation, skill of the crafter, and quality of resourcesto matter in structure maintenance fees, structure storage capacity, structure effectiveness and structure power consumption.
- This would mean that aMaster Weaponsmith-Pistoleer-Artisan would no longe be able to make medium harvesters (assuming he bought storage modules from another architet) which function just as effectively as those which a Master Architect could craft.
- structure repair kits which
- have varying quality dependant upon the skill of the crafter, the degree ofexperimentation and the quality of the materials used
- cost 50-100 resources to make butcover 500-1500 credits worth of damage on a structure
- can* be used as an alternate to credits when it comes to paying "rent" on a structure (by the word "can" i mean that this would be a choice on the part of the structure owners, not a requirement)
- provide some temporary bonus to a structure's operation (harvesters would harvest 50% density resources as if they were 55% for the duration of the credit covered or the structure would consume power less rapidly, etc, etc)
- more furniture which has a use. For example, armoires should be able to hold clothing and clothing in the armoire should not count again the structure's item limit.
- more furniture customization and schematics
- we need the ability to actually tailor furniture to individuals' tastes. If you as an architect don't want to be bothered with requests for taupe versus mauve couches, then you as an individual should feel free to tell people you're not an interior decorator. In the meantime, furniture variety should be available as an option for those who are interested in exploring that venue more fully.
- more schematics.. pretty self explanatory.. I'm still puzzled in the extreme that there are so many more plant and furniturevarieties ingame than we architects can craft. This needs to be corrected.
- structures which can be used in factional warfare. (Yes, I saved the best for last.)
- fortresses: armorcrafters (for armoring of walls), weaponsmiths (for arming of walls), tailors (for banners and such), merchants (for creating distrubution centers/vendors within the fortress which can be used by medics/chefs supplying facility once it is up), droid engineer(forsupplyingautomation offortress repair process)and finally the architects which would be bringing all these product together in creating semi-static structures thatare effectively Star Wars fortresses which can be operated by Squad Leaders in large-scale battles against other players.
- portions of camps: rangers should have options which are provided by architects to truly upgrade their camps to the point that they function as cantinas in allowing even novice entertainers to heal battlefatique (droids should be able to allow elite entertainers to heal battlefatique in camps).
- turret-mounts and watch towers: architects should provide structures which can have guns (supplied by weaponsmiths) mounted on them and watch towers which allow people to view enemy actions from a distance without exposing themselves to danger
If we had all five of the above
- people would consider buying master architect crafted products over that of some newb architect who is onlygoing to be in the business till he makes 10 of each harvester for himself.
- architects would be free to sell their harvesters and houses for three credits per resource use because the more harvesters on the market being maintained, the more people who will want to buy repair kits which should be a significant source of income for an architect.
- architects would be a less simple profession and more valued by the fighting classes of the game
- etc etc
Dismissing the problems architects have as stupidity of former architects is just that... dismissal.
Delai - lowca, wanna-master-architect but currently an aquarium designer www.darktide.ac/swg
Guys, they're not going to change any of this stuff for at leastthe next six months.
Heck, they're still using almost all their time fixing database bugs and 'exploits'. 10 weeks in.
Weaponsmiths add a lot of value above the value of the resources. We don't. On the other hand, we can do a huge volume.
As an architect, I make plenty of money. Even doing most of my work within my PA for about 2.5 credits per resource, I'm doing just fine.
Neilla wrote:
Its actually very simple: Value Added.
Weaponsmiths add a lot of value above the value of the resources. We don't. On the other hand, we can do a huge volume.
As an architect, I make plenty of money. Even doing most of my work within my PA for about 2.5 credits per resource, I'm doing just fine.
The ability to mine a resource deposit 24/7 without needing to be ingame seems like adding value to me.. but maybe I'm just weird and think supplying the world with the ability to harvest resources while offline is a goodt thing.
Check this post if you have time.. it's an architect thread on the SWG discussion forum... sorta funny Holo says he doesn't want to have the discussion forum but effectively doesn't post anywhere else =(
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=537739