Architect Archive

This board is full of opinions about how much we should be charging for our wares.

There is also considerable talk about whether being an architect is currently viable or not.

Since there is no charge to use these boards, I thought I would weigh in with some opinions. As a little background, I am on Corbantis server. Currently I am almost to Installations IV (I should crack it tonight) and I have Houses II (Medium). I currently have about 175k in the bank. I currently run all medium harvestors and Solars for energy. I will crack planetary advertising tonight as a merchant. So far, my walk in merchant sales have been zero.

From where I am sitting, leveling up as an architect has been very viable with a go slow approach. As an artisan wannabe I started with the personals. I sold wind machines at 2k a piece. I would sell about 1 every other day. I sold enough minerals to easily make up the difference in my maintenance costs. I used the rest of my minerals to level up. Once I made novice architect, I basically followed the same strategy. Once I got mediums I upgraded. My costs went up but I was able to start selling them as well (at 15k). I sell 1 or 2 a day on average which about covers my costs. With the occasional good day or medium house sale (75k), I haven't had to sell minerals for a while. I get my sales both by people searching for me (I'm set as a novice architect), walk by sales noticing I'm a architect, or by hitting the pavement and advertising what I have. I usually have some mineral mining installations pre-made and part of my sell is no waiting. People like that. They also like the fact I am willing to take the time to answer their questions.

People have mentioned the slow down in business since the mission changes and I have seen this too. However, I AM still making sales.

On the other hand, if I wanted to make master architect quickly, my approach simply would not work. I would have to seriously reduce my prices and I would need to be running more lots than the 10 I get with my character. There really is no way around it. The number of resources you can mine with 10 lots puts a hard limit on advancement. And If I had access to more resources, I would HAVE to reduce my prices to get rid of my inventory.

I think the tension between these two approaches to the game are a large part of the friction in the community.

It is my belief that game mechanics are often directly responsible for player behavior. Bad game mechanics are often the cause of bad player behavior. I think that is the case here. Fix the bad mechanic, and the game behavior improves. Making it even worse for architects is the fact that the game has added a VERY strong incentive for people to level fast as an architect. Namely, you need to be a master to build PA halls and you need those halls to create a PA. The result was entirely predictable.

At any rate, it IS possible currently to take the slower approach like I am and not go bust. You may need to sell minerals at times but that is an option.

Also, if you have tried being a weapon smith or a armor crafter, you know there is FAR more clicking involved in leveling up. It is no wonder there are fewer of them. That drives supply down. On top of that, there is no real demand for the lower items so it makes it tough to make a go of leveling up unless you have another source of income. That also keeps the number of masters low (and supply low as a result). The inevitable result is that they ARE going to get more per resource than we are. Architect does have its problems as a profession, but there are still plenty of us (for the PA hall reason if nothing else).

And the truth is, it is WAY easier to level an architect than a WS or a AS. I know. I have dabbled in WS.

As an update, I sold a Equipment Factory (50K) last night. Thats another 3 days worth of maintenance costs in the bank.

I did get Planetary Advertising and Installations IV. It will be interesting to see what affect if any they have on my business.

Current unsold inventory include 4 small houses, and 2 mineral mining installations.

I also have a couple deeds that aren't really inventory since they are earmarked for my use (med. chemical and structure factory) that are currently not placed.

The go slow approach at least for me continues to be viable.

Yet another update. I was gone over a long (4 day) weekend so I decided to pull up all my extractors and redeed.

I setup my vendors with some deeds before I left. I also e-mailed back a potential customer who wanted some solars. I put the solars on the vendor for them.

Bottom line is when I came back, I had sold two solars and two mineral mining installations (70k total). After putting back up my extractors, I now have just under 250k in the bank.

I also have someone interested in a chem/food factory for 55k. I'm not sure if I'll get that sale or not. I didn't have enough resources last night to make it. I should today if they are still interested.

The go slow approach is still working for me. I am having no problems selling what I can pull out of my own lots at 4 to 5 credits a resource.

If I don't get the factory sale tonight, I'll probably make myself a fusion generator instead.

I got the sale of the Food Factory for 55k.

I also got another e-mail from someone inquiring about a factory since I didn't have what they wanted on my vendor. I e-mailed back. I don't know if anything will pan out from that or not.

I also made a bunch of furniture and put it on my vendors last night. It will be real interesting to see if that sells.

I got a tell from someone who wanted a small house and asked what I charge. I told them 10k. They said they had gotten a price of 7k from 4 other people. I told them to go get it from them then. They replied that the other people didn't have the resources or time to make it right away (or in one case a faction issue). They accused me of being mean for not building it at their price. Too bad bud. Get a clue. You want a cut rate, you put up with the being on the waiting list. You want it from me, you pay my price. I'll do my best to treat you right if you buy from me.

I keep writing this log, as an encouragement to other architects. It is possible to make a go right now at this profession selling at between 4 and 5 credits a resource. You do need to do some leg work, treat your customers right, etc.

Logged in last night and I had sold another two solars for 20k each from my vendor.

I then got an inquiry from a chap asking about medium houses. I told him my price was 75k. He wasn't sure. I went about tending my mines while he thought about it. I got back and started to build walls. My plan was to create either then medium house for him or a fusion for me. Finished building my walls and got back to him. His friends were telling him about someone who would make mediums for 65k (of course the person wasn't on). I told him to get in touch should he decide to get one in the future.

I then proceeded to bust out my factory and start making the parts for my fusion. It takes a while (but not a long while) when you aren't doing it over night. And since you need 3 different identicals, you kind of have to tend it anyway unless you make a bunch up in advance.

I get my identicals made and go for the final combine. Critical. Ouch. There went 100,000+ credits worth of goods.

Oh well, I still ended the day with 315k in the bank so I keep making money.

I like this thread

shows that man can achieve architect on thier own.

PLease continue to write

Keep posting MadHatter, you're giving me encouragement to grind the general crafting it takes to get to Novice Architect What server are you on, and what is your in game name?

Send him to me, I will sell him that med house for 60k

Thanks for the encouragement. I appreciate it. I play as Uriel Windjammer on the Corbantis server.

Another quick update. I have been going backwords in money lately. I am currently at a little over 273k. This is primarily because I have been looking to upgrade my own operation.The heavies that I can make now require a lot of ore and I simply can't produce all that much of it using my own lots using mediums. Therefore I need to upgrade to heavies myself.

As step one in that process I made myself a fusion plant and placed it today. No critical this time 8). I then created another med. mineral and placed that with the space I saved (I had been using two solars for power before).

Next on the agenda is to get a heavy mineral made and placed too gather low quality ore. Ramping up that ore production is obviously key at this point for me.

I did sell two small houses recently. I sold a generic for 10k (and the guy bought some furniture worth a 1k as well.) Then I sold a Naboo small today for 10k off my vendor.

Anyway, chances are I'll be eating into my cash a little bit. It will be interesting to see how this transition goes.I think this could be a rough period for those who have lowballed and don't have any money in the bank when they hit this.

Just wanted to say that I've been using the go slow approach as well, although from a different angle. I got to novice architect and merchant fairly soon after launch, but got discouraged by seeing all the PA supported masters that already existed. I ended up pulling up all my deeds but my small house and putting an On Vacation sign on the front of it while I went and played my smuggler on another server.

I would only play my architectlong enough to run a few deliverymissions and pay maintenance on my house and vendors. Afterartisan missions were introduced, and I realized that they were essentially better paying delivery missions,I decided to start playing my architect again and used some leftover resources to make a couple of harvester deeds and to grind up to furniture 1. I also loaded one of my vendors with furniture. In the meantime, during my "vacation",I'd been accumulating merchant xp and was able to buy enough levels in advertising to get placed on the world map. I only wanted to have to deal with enough maintenance that a couple of long range crafter missions would pay for it, so I started with just a couple of harvesters. Soon I was selling enough furniture to pay maintenance on a couple more.

I kept this pattern for another week or so: replacing the furniture I'd sold from the day before, and then running a few missions to pay for maintenance. Then I got Efficiency 4 in Merchant, and that combined with more furniture sales as I gained furniture 2 and 3 has allowed me to max out my lots with harvesters, and I only have to run missions once every 3 or 4 days now if sales are slow (or when I need something that my harvesters can't provide, like hide, or training).

My sales now include everything in the furniture line from novice to furniture 3, basic harvester deeds from the artisan tree, and custom made small houses. I sell most of my furniture at 5cpu, although any hide in the schematic goes for 10cpu, and any wooly hide for 20cpu. I used to put an apology in the description for the high price of wooly hide based items, and an offer to custom make those items for less if the customer wanted to supply his own hide, but I had no takers, and no complaints, despite several sales.

I want to mention that I have sold exactly one small house since returning from "vacation" and I sold it for 12k. That is higher than the going rate for small houses on my server, but it's about as low as I could let myself sell it for given that I could be making furniture instead at a higher profit margin, especially since I can generally find metal in higher concentrations than ore. I will say that my customer was very pleased with his purchase, becauseI was able to make it for him quickly and in the style that he wanted.

I have not gotten rich with this method, the most I've ever had at one time was around 110k, but I have been having fun, and my average balance has been slowly increasing. I am now 3 0 0 1 in architect, 3 4 3 2 in merchant, and a master artisan, and I expect to eventually master both architect and merchant using mostly casual play.

It is refeshing to read how some players are not into the power leveling, and "I want to be a master" overnight mentality. I have approached this nice and slow. I padded my bank account between missions and sales, and used only resources I mined. I sold resources as well. I often buy low and sell high on hot commodities. I have just recently made my fusion generater, and about to harvest loads of ore to start creating large minerals. I only do larger houses to order. I have a few smalls on my vender @ 10k. I

Mad, I'm loving your thread. I like your style...I just wish you were on Flurry. I wish I could have done it that way, but SOE decided there would be only one size of a guild hall, so my friends and I felt it necessary to have a master ASAP. If you ever get to Flurry, send me a PM here (so I know it's you) and I'll hook you up.

Viable ?

If you want to make any deed in the game at the drop of a hat (or 2) then its great.

But maybe you are more interested in getting the row of digits at the bottom ofyourinv to expand to the left.

In which case I wouldnt know.