Architect Archive
Thread: LONG Major Profession Revamp(updated weekly)-09-01-03
Once a week I will post a list of my suggestions and ideas. If you have additional ideas post them. If i like them I will add them to my list. I have given serious thought to each of the ideas listed here so unless you come up with a very valid reason why something has no possibility of working (other than its too hard the devs wont do it and such) It will stay in the list. You may not like the idea or you may not think that it is feasable but unless the idea simply cannot possible work I will keep it.
Keep in mind these are not all my ideas. Just ideas I have come up with or picked up from other peoples posts. I credit the whole board with helping me create this idea list.
THIS IS NOT A BUG LIST I KEEP THOSE SEPARATE
Also all these ideas are interrelated please refrain from dismissing an idea until you have read the whole post as while there maybe an idea that sounds bad or wont work on its own, the following ideas will make it more agreeable.
DISCLAIMER:
First I am aware of how difficult these changes will be to make.
Second I am aware of how unlikely the devs are to make such sweeping changes.
Third I am aware of the importance of fixing the bugs. (I already have a large post about them.)
Fourth I am aware that this post is freakin long. Sorry I don't cater to the MTV generation with 8 second attention spans. My posts are IN-DEPTH and I intend to keep them that way. If that thins the herd a bit, fine by me.
So please no the devs wont, or thats to hard or you should focus on bugs, etc... replies.
I will only address comments that can prove that any or all of these suggestions will not work in any realm of possibility. (It does not mean I won't respond to negative replies but I won't address them.)
END DISCLAIMER:
I. Lots
A. Limit Starting lots to 0.
B. Players earn lot sizes as they use up thier skill points. Up to 10 lots total.(ADDED)
C. Houses improved to range from 1-10 in lot size. 1=cottage/hut, 2=small, 4=medium, 6=large, 8=mansion
D. Players who have used all thier skill points gain the ability to place a second Residential Structure of any size.
Found this unnecessary after readding lot requirements to residential structures.
E. Restrict lot types to those in the proper profession.
1. Extractors(other than disposable or portable) to Mining Engineers.
2. Factories to Artisan.(And advanced crafting professions.)
3. Commercial Structures to Merchants.
4. Military Structures limited to Factionally aligned persons. Covert can only place within PA boundries. Overt can use on battlefields. Structures can be damaged/destroyed by opposing faction and would require repair by a Maintenance Technician or replacement.
F. As you improve in these various professions you gain access to more and more lots of the appropriate type. There is a hard cap.
G. Limit the areas on the planet where you can place extractors. This can easily be accomplished by restricting resource deposits to certain areas. then let the players clutter them up. (there are alot of empty areas on the planet so this doesnt have to be too limited.
II. House Design.
A. Allow house interiors to be designed by the architect instead of the cookie cutter design. Require an entry hall to allow the game time to render the interior before the player can see it.
B. Create a seperate building type for businesses. Buildings range from small like a pub to large like a night club or department store.
C. More variety on the exterior. (I'm sure this is already in the works.)
D. Allow use of named deeds on similar planets. IE Corellia on Talus, Naboo on Rori etc...
III. Automation.
A. Allow Automatic Debit from bank acct OPTION. This would place 1 days worth maintenance into Structures each day. It is up to the player to keep his bank acct full. Allow the ability to split maintenance costs when owned by multiple people so the automatic payment would take the appropriate amount out of each person acct.. I can do a bank to bank transfer from my datapad to another player who atm may not even exist yet i cant have money automatically withdrawn from my bank acct to put into structures?
B. Automatic Power distribution from power generator structures to other structures that require power. (Can setup this up so it only works on structures within a certain radius of the power source.) Havn't the devs ever heard of extension cords?
C. Automatic Email on Structure status changes. IE Resource Depletion, Maintenance Depletion etc...
D. Ability to remote operate structures such as harvestors through the data pad.
E. Allow specific line of droids to manage all structures including removing resources from full structures. (I know about the whole "if you place a harvestor in the woods and nobody is there to see it does it actually exist" thing)(these droids could be made to work with the same system ... they are not really there unless somebody is there to see them.)
F. Allow scheduled or automated shutdown at set times or on certain conditions. IE to save maintenance/decay I might run my harvestors only 16 hours a day as opposed to always on. (some think this is not necessary. Hey I might be short on cash one day and due to RL obligations will be unable to make enough credits to pay the maintenance. with this system I would be able to slow/stop the fees while I attend to the RL and then return without being penalized for having RL problems.)
IV. Administration.
A. Allow various levels of administration within a structure from general access to drop/pickup to redeed access.
B. Ability to set access levels to various levels/rooms. (IE: being able to lock the lift so only certain people can use it to get to the basement however the general public can freely access the main area.)
C. Automatically refund credits to persons who for whatever reason are banned from your structure who have made a purchase but not yet retrieved it. Provide a warning message to the person doing the banning that the target has an outstanding purchase. Or if you ban them the item(s) gets sent to the nearest bazaar with an email notifying them of this.
V. Maintenance.
A. Allow the removal of power/credits from structures. currently it keeps them stored during redeed which is an improvement but I'd still like the ability to remove them.(UPDATED)
B. Allow droid engineers to create a module or line of maintenance droids that can be used to reduce maintenance costs of structures they are assigned to maintain.
C. Do not charge maintenance during server downtime, lockup or extended loading periods. (power is not charged so why is maintenance?)(I know technically why, I just think its stupid and lazy.)
D. Do not charge maintenance on extractors that are not running. (However place a time limit that extractors may be left not operating before they are removed from game. IE 3 days.) (I understand the need to prevent people abandoning extractors but with the current lot limit size how prevelant is this problem?)
E. Reduce the maintenance fees on general decay for extractors. However add fee multipliers to extractors that suffer critical failures as explained under section F.
F. Re-add the ability for extractors to function under 100% maintenance. (However not only reduce efficiency, but also allow for a chance of critical failures that increases in severity the more decayed the extractors become. Some examples of critical failures include. Permanent Breakdown, Minor breakdown requiring repairs, Destruction of the extractor with loss of all material contained within. Security failures resulting in loss to theft of material within. etc...)
VI. Payment Plan
A. Create a new trade system that allows payment systems to be setup and agreed to. The options include setting the amount of the payments, the number of payments and timetable for payment. Failure to make the proper payments at the proper time opens up an option for the seller to reclaim(foreclose) the deed from the buyer. Making this optional instead of automatic allows the players to try and work things out without uprooting a player for what may have been an honest mistake. Keep in mind the seller keeps what money was already collected. that would be too hard to try and return especially if they have none to remove. Payments can be setup for direct debit from the buyers bank acct. then all they have to do is make sur ethe payment is in there.
VII. Structure Decay/Fees/Functionality(Major changes)
A. Residential Structures.
1.Do not decay.(This is how it currently is.)
2. Maintenance fees changed to Property Tax. (Could also add system to where location determined the amount of tax the owner(s) must pay. This would give the devs a greater degree of control as it would allow them to determine what areas are considered good and what areas are considered bad. This can even be extended to mayors of player cities to allow them to influence where structures are built.)
3.Redeed cost as normal.(maybe balanced a bit better for the various sizes.)
4. Only 1 machine style vendor may be used and the house can never be advertised as a store.
B. Commercial Structures
1. Do not decayhowever they only function for a set period of time dependant on the quality of materials used. After the set time has elapsed the structure ceases to function and the player has 1 week to buy a new deed and feed the deed into the structure management terminal. Once this is done the player can choose to use the new structure setup or maintain the old setup. Warning to be given for changing setup as all items will be moved into a pile in the central area of thestructure and excess items over the item limit will return to the owners inv .... items over the inv limit will vanish. Vendors will remain though they will be moved to the center of the structure.
2. Maintenance fees changed to Rental fees. (Control can be give to mayors to set the rates so they can influence where business's will setup.)
3. Vending is unchanged from current.
4. Redeed costs as normal.
C. Industrial Structures
1. Onlydecay when redeeded. The amount can be affected by the presence of a maintenance droid or your particular repair skill or even the presence of a Maintenance Technicion. The amount can also be reduced by paying larger and larger amounts during the redeed process. Decay can never be eliminated but by using the techniques above you can severely reduce its impact and extend the life of your structure.
2. Functionality will decay each time it is redeeded until the owner has no choice but to replace the structure.
D. Military structures
1. Do not decay nor do they cost maintenance.
2. They canbe damaged and possibly destroyed by opposing factions requiring repair or replacement to become functional again.
3. Repaired items are gradually reduced in efficiency each time they are repaired. There is a standard redeed cost associated with these items.
E. Graphics for exteriors change to match the decay of the structure.
VIII. Trading/selling.
A. Show the bloody floorplans in the details window.
C. Include decay details to prevent people from selling structures that are decaying without the buyer knowing.
D. Allow advertisements of items that sell for greater than the cap on the bazaar but not able to actually purchase the Item on the bazaar. instead clicking on details gives you location of vendor selling said item. the best bet is to make this its own catagory. This allows merchants to advertise thier wares so I don't have to run out to thier place just to find out they don't have what I'm looking for. Advertising costs 500 credits per item advertised and they are limited to 20 items total.
IX. Experimentation.
A. Overall Quality determines time before functionality ceases.(UPDATED)
B. Unit Toughness determines maintenance costs to reduce decay or to repair.
C. Decay Resistance determines rate of decay once its begun or rate of decay on redeed.
X. Critical Failures.
A. During resource allocation = loss of resources for failed component only.
B. During Experimentation = minimum stats on finished item.
C. During Creation = Loss of resources only and ability to readd the lost resources. components should never be lost.
XI. Landscaping.
A. Allow buildings to modify slightly terrain to allow more placement of buildings. (I've found several great sites for building placement but because of some tiny ditch with water in it i couldn't place the stupid thing.) (Currenlty POI's can alter terrain as can our camps why not these larger structures?)
XII. Furniture
A. Fix the many many many bugs in this line. (See my bug list post.)
B. Balance the hide requirements.
C. Allow more controlled item placement. IE Desk Lamps On Desks and such.
D. Create more Business oriented furniture equipment. IE Cantina Furnishing. Restaraunt furnishings etc...
E. Add functionality to exisiting items. IE Droid detectors detect droids., Containers store items. etc...
XIII. Identical Components.
A. Keep the factory xp nerfed. The fact that you removed critical failure chances is good enough reason alone to use these factories. (yea yea i know it was like this in beta but i only count from day of release on ... otherwise just about every aspect of the game is considered nerfed.)
B. Remove the need to use identical components. I can see requiring similar components.
C. Speed up factory production rates. There should be no reason why an automated factory is slower than hand crafting an item. However manufactured items should be of a set quality dependant on materials used in the schematic. where as hand crafted items can be greatly improved. Schematics should be more limited the higher quality they are. (IE: Amazing success combines/experimentations should limit the item to a very small run where as plain success could have very large runs.)
XIV. Harvesting
A. Lengthen the time between resource shifts to 2 weeks. And have a set day too like every other monday or something. (could even stagger the shift by resource type.)(UPDATED)
B. Remove unnatural Alloys/composites (Steel, Aluminum etc...)from the ground and increase the base resources such as Iron, Copper, Ore etc..
C. Create a process for creating Steel, Aluminum etc... and make it part of a profession (I suggest mining.)
D. Generalize the stats on mined resources. (IE: low, medium high, super etc..)Allow *miners* to experiment on resources during the refining/processing of said resource to improve purity(grade)(Refining = improving quality)(processing = making alloys/composites)
E. Ability for well maintained structures to act as a ward for creature spawning allowing me if i keep my structures maintained at a certain level to be able to actually get to them without needing an army. Can be setup so that the amount of maintenance over the required amount improves the radius up to a maximum point. 50% over minimum = 64m 100% = 128m ... or something close to this.
Continued in reply. (20k charactor limit)
Continued from original post
XV. Skills/Professions.
I. Profession: Structural Engineer - Players pursuing this profession make various structures from houses to shops to factories and harvestors to large city/military buildings.
A. Requires: Engineering I-IV + 35k General Crafting XP.
B. Novice: Structural Engineer - Personal Extractor Deeds. Personal Factories Deeds. Huts/Cottages. Small vendor huts. Basic military support structures.(UPDATED)
Title - Novice Structural Engineer
C. Line 1: Residential Structures - Starting with Small houses, Medium houses, Large Houses, Mansions.
Title - Architect
D. Line 2: Commercial Structures - Starting with Small pubs and shops, then restraunts and taverns, then cantinas and medical centers, to department stores and arenas.
Title - Developer
E. Line 3: Industrial Structures - Starting with small extractors and factories, then medium extractors and factories, then large extractors and factories, and finally multiproduction extractors and factories.
Title - Industrialist
F. Line 4: Military- bunkers, turrets, and such.
Title - Combat Engineer
G. Master: Structural Engineer - Pa Halls, Starports and City based structures.
Title - Master Structural Engineer
H. Experimentation: Overall Quality - Maintenance Costs, Resistances - Decay Rate(natural climate of location determines which resist is needed. Generic use decay.), Unit Toughness - Storage Capacity, Conductivity - Power Consumption.
I. Skills Granted: Structural Assembly - gains bonuses to assembly attempts, Structural Experimentation - gains point to be used when experimenting with structures, Construction Times - Lessens time it takes to assemble and place a final structure.
II. Profession: Artisan - Same as before with a few minor changes.
A. Change 1 - Surveying changed to Sampling and is reduced in efficiency.
B. Change 2 - All currently available structures in this line are removed from this profession and replaced with lesser structures such as disposable extractors or portable extractors. They are not as efficient as personal extractors but they are cheaper and available to those outside the mining class. Disposables cost no maintenance however only work for a set amount of time before they must be discarded. Portables work with lesser efficiency each time they are redeeded however do not cost anything to redeed.
C. Change 3 - Reduce information provided when sampling to general densities. like low medium high.
D. Change 4 - Return action/mind costs and time delays to thier previous state(or reduce them) for sampling but also reduce the yield and the time it takes to actually perform the sampling.
E. Schematics requiring advanced resources such as steel, aluminum and other processed materials should be moved to more advanced professions or setup as supplemental to the line. Ensure there is a way to advance through the artisan trade using basic resources such as iron and ore being that the processing ability to make complex resources is being restricted to the mining profession.
III. Profession: Mining Engineer - Person pursuing this profession gains the ability to locate, extract and refine raw materials into usuable resources.
A. Requirements: Engineering I-IV, Sampling I-IV and Exploration I-IV + 10k General Crafting XP, 8k Sampling XP and 5k Scouting XP
B. Novice: Mining Engineer - Ability to use all extraction related structures.
Title - Novice Mining Engineer
C. Line 1: Surveying - As you improve you can see more exact concentration percentages, See material purity and locate resources from further away.
Title - Surveyor
D. Line 2: Extraction - As you improve you can increase yields and reduce the time it takes to extract a unit of raw material.
Title - Prosepector
E. Line 3: Refine - As you improve you can improve the quality of the material removed from the ground. (increase its grade from low to high)(UPDATED)
Title - Refiner
F. Line 4: Process - Gives you the ability to create new composites such as steel and aluminum from the raw materials extracted from the ground.
Title - Mineral Processor
G. Master: Mining Engineer - Produces the best quality resources and advanced composites such as titanium, duraplast, duracrete etc... Ability to tie all Extractor functions together into a single interface.(basically this allows the Mining Engineer to have all harvestors excecute the same commands without having to go through each one.
Title - Master Mining Engineer
H. Skills granted: All access commands related to extraction structures. A new tool (like crafting tools) to process materials into new alloys and such. improved survey devices.
I. Other changes: Resources should be more generalized with only the basic resources available for extraction. it will fall to the Mining Engineer to take those raw materials to make non naturally occuring alloys and composites.
IV. Profession: Design Engineer - Makes items for interior/exterior structural decoration. Also provides planning and items for cities and military bases.
A. Requirements: Engineering I-IV + Exploring I-IV + 10k General Crafting XP + 10K Scouting XP(UPDATED)
B. Novice: Design Engineer - Ability to incorporate PA structures into a City or Military Base. (Requires PA's to have several required structures to determine whether they become a city or a military base.)
Title - Novice Design Engineer
C. Line 1: Interior Design - Ability to make furnishings and equipment for use in habitable structures.
Title - Interior Decorator
D. Line 2: Terrain Design - Ability to smooth rougher and rougher terrain into buildable locations.
Title - Terraformer
E. Line 3: City Planning - Ability to create exterior objects relating to cities such as streets, parks ponds fountains etc..
Title - Urban Planner
F. Line 4: Military Planning - Ability to create support objects for military bases such as fences, barricades, spotlighting etc... (fences and barricades would be limited to the base ZOC and can be destroyed or removed by PA leaders.)
Title - Military Planner
G. Master: Design Engineer - Ability to move PA structures around creating a city/base layout and re-placing said structures. This does require a redeeding cost per structure but allows the design engineer to redesign a city/base from the ground up. Structures that are not placed after a certain period of time return to the owner. Design engineers can also set aside the amount of land = to the number of lots the PA has so that only that PA can build on it.
Title - Master Design Engineer
H. Experimentation: Objects can be experimented on to be more durable or provide more benefit or cost less to maintain.
I. Skills Granted: Terrain Tool and Planning Tools to alter terrain and peform city layout tasks.
J. Other Changes: Add the ability to lay down on beds.
V. Profession: Maintenance Technician - Repairs Structures, Vehicles, Weapons, Armor and Ships to extend thier durability.
A. Requirements: Engineering I-IV + 30K Repair XP.(new xp type gained when using Personal Repair Kits to repair items.)
B. Novice: Maintenance Technician - Ability to used Standard Repair Kits to fix items.
Title - Novice Maintenance Technician
C. Line 1: Armor/Droids/Equipment/Weapons - Ability to repair aforementioned items. As you progress you improve the amount repaired per attempt, lessen the chance of failing and lessen the amount of overall durability lost per attempt.
Title - Equipment Repair Technician
D. Line 2: Structures - Same as Line 1.
Title - Architectual Repair Contractor
E. Line 3: Vehicles/Ships - Same as Line 1.
Title - Mechanic
F. Line 4: Juryrigging - Ability to improve the over all abilities on armor, droids, equipment, ships, vehicles and weapons. As you improve this line you lessen the chance of failure and improve your successes. (This is what slicing currently is.)
Title - Juryrigger
G. Master: Maintenance Technician - Gains the ability to reduce maintenance costs for a set period of time on all items that require them.
Title - Master Maintenance Technician.
H. Skills Granted: New repair tool types.... Personal, Standard, Advanced and Professional. Each allows access to more advanced items to repair.
I. Other Changes: Complete change Slicing and move unneeded abilities to Juryrigging.
VI. Profession: Smuggler - Same with exception of slicing and spices.
A. Change 1: Slicing - Ability to slice Mission Terminals(for improved payout), Maintenance Terminals(for lessened maintenance.) PvP Structures(such as turrets to disable) and Bank Terminals(To steal money.) Slicing Mission Terminals, or Bank Terminals nets you a TEF to all Law Enforement NPC's and repeated infractions can net you TEF's with Bounty Hunters. PvP slicing will net you a TEF with members of opposing factions unless you are overt opposed to them already.
B. Change 2: Spices are moved to a different profession probably dealing with medicines and replaced with Illegal modifications. these types of smugglers gain the ability to change ships identity, add secret compartments to hide illegal merchandise, add illegal weapons to ships and bribe customs officials.(would require addition of customs officials and a radial menu option to bribe them for smugglers. Success would allow the ship reduced docking fees and no chance of TEF for illegal cargo, while failure would result in automatic TEF. Title for this line would be Spacer.
C. Change the underworld title from fixer to Shady Dealer.
VII. Profession: Agricultural Engineer - allows the ability to farm and harvest mass amounts of plant and animal resources. Gains the ability to use Flora Farms, Breeder Ranches and Moisture Vaporators.
A. Requires: Engineering I-IV + Hunting I-IV + 20k Scouting XP
B. Novice: Agricultural Engineer - Personal Farm, Ranch and Logging Machinery Deeds.
Title - Novice Agricultural Engineer
C. Line 1: Farming - Ability to grow and harvest vast quantities or organic plant resources such as corn, wheat, oats, etc... Also includes moisture farming.
Title - Farmer
D. Line 2: Ranching - Ability to use ranches to harvest large amounts of organic animal resources from creatures such as bones, hide, meat, eggs and milk.
Title - Rancher
E. Line 3: Logging - Ability to grow and harvest large areas of trees.
Title - Logger
F. Line 4: Open
Title - Open
G. Master: Agricultural Engineer - Greatly improved methods of harvesting and such.
Title - Master Agricultural Engineer
I. Skills Granted: Ability to use organic extraction deeds and the like.
I am aware that this post would have been better suited to beta but I didn't get into beta till beta 3 and by the time i had tested enough to make these suggestions the game was already released.
FYI: I will add replys to my post from time to time as I think of new things I want to keep track of.
Sure didn't take long for theanon-nonposter to rate my post poor... lol .... I think I am going to cry. heh
He shows up every week to not reply and yet rate the post badly... doesnt matter what time I post either within 4 hours hes struck again.... usually before anybody has a chance to reply... silly person hiding in the shadows. Id have to assume hes got some personal issue with me.... maybe I tore him down from his soapbox and this is his revenge...oh no my post was rated poorly, I am dying ooooooahahahh.
lol he rated my calling him out post low too .... classic......wonder if i wake up to find this post rated low too.... poor guy must have no life... i really must have traumatized him... poor thing.
I already know that some people don't like some of the ideas I'm proposing. I think its because my ideas do not give anybody an advantage. Alot of the ideas I see floated aroundare designed not to improve the profession but to make it easier. The problems still remain they are just sugarcoated to make them go down easier. Sure they may make the profession easier to play but they don't solve the problem they just delay the inevitable. Of course there have been some great ideas which i ripped off and put into this thread. 
...
If you don't like something written here thats fine give me a workable alternative ... im sure the guy that shadow rates my posts all low was one of those that stormed into the thread and said "FIRE BAD" which in turn caused me to give him third degree burns.
I don't mind people who disagree ... I don't like people who say "NO SIR..... I DON'T LIKE IT" but offer nothing at all beyond that.
Please disagree, but give me something to work with...
P.S. to the shadow rater ... I love you too
Yea I agree its very unlikely to every be implemented. I wish I had gotten into an earlier beta where this post might have made more of a difference ..... but hey even if they only implement 1 idea from this post then it is all worth it.
oh and about the rating things .....I don't really care that this person or those persons are rating my posts low with no posted reasons ... the way I look at it .... I read any post that somebody has rated no matter if its 1 or 5 ...... I usually skip those that are not rated at all. The fact that its been rated makes me curious to find out why it was rated what it was rated ...... I suspect alot of people are like me.....
I had one person last week rate it poorly simply because it was too long ... even though he liked the post .... MTV has reduced peoples attention spans to about 8 seconds...its sad really. These people would prefer to read 20 short posts with these ideas than 1 long post with these ideas. Even though theyd spend more time reading and formatting a reply to each of those 20.
anyways thanx for the support .... I'd really like to hear some alternatives ...... thats the only way I can improve this list. Currently what I have been doing is checking the board for ideas working them out in my head and then incorporating them into my post.
sheesh sorry for the repeated postings but if your wondering what happened to the second part of the post ... its there .... but since a couple of people have decided that you should notbe able to read it you'll need to change your filtering options to 1 to see it.
One note I would like to add to your list (very nice list too).
I disagree with starting people out with 0 lots, and have them increase with their professions and being capped at 10, and here's my reasons why:
Some people may never persue a crafting profession and may never gain any lots. This hurts our profession and lessens the game for others. If people do not have lots to use, then our craft cannot sell.
I think lots should be revamped at follows:
Break lots up in 4 areas (and more when the urban planner, etc comes into play):
Housing Lots
Factory Lots
Harvestor Lots
GCW Lots
Each person should start out with enough lots to purchase 2-3 houses, or alternatively, each person starts out with enough lots to purchase a small house on their starting planet. An extension to this second idea is to allow players to purchaseadditional or larger structures on their home planet and then eventually to other planets. There should still be a hard cap, but these things should be earned. Perhaps cities should have local housing authority stations where you can purchase additional lots, and also have these stations appear in player cities as well and run by the players themselves. It would certainly help the city coffers out quitea bit.
Each person starts out with 0 factory lots and gains them though their profession. If your profession needs factories, then you start to gain lots based on your skill level. This will also produce the need for small, medium, large, x-large factories. (again, more business)
Each person should start with 0 lots for harvestors.This should be increased as required by their profession.
GCW lots (for turrets, bunkers or other war-machine style buildings). These should be gained though factional experience. The higher your rank and xp's, the more GCW lots you can purchase.
Any thoughts or suggestions on this?
i think you misunderstood that section ... prolly my fault, I am kinda throwing this stuff together.
I have my structures broken up into catagories.
Residental
Commerical
Industrial
Military
Residential lots are gained simply by spending skill points... doesnt matter what class you spend them on.
Crafters get Factory lots as they improve through the advanced craftingprofession of thier choice.
Sellers get Commercial lots as they improve through the merchant class
Miners get extractor lots as they improve through the mining profession.
Military structures use residential lots. -- Im wondering if it would be viable to limit these to factionally aligned players. or maybe to advanced combat classes. Maybe even goign so far as to having different types for different advanced combat classes. Like rifleman would get sniper towers, Squad leaders would get command centers, etc... it would do alot for PvP variety I think.
as for being able to purchase extra lots... due to the game engine and database requirements I don't see the devs allowing that to happen. apparently when they were giving everybody 75 lots in beta it was screwing up the data base.
Starting the game with 0 is not a big deal when you use this system.