Architect Archive
Thread: One architect goes away, reasons if you care. (Long.)
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=architect&message.id=18961
Drueric: Here's your wish granted. 
This is a post complaining about the general status of crafters in SWG. This post is in the Architects forum because that is my primary profession, but it runs the gamut of artisan, weaponsmith, and architect.
I am not a fighter. If I wanted to repeatedly kill the same creature over and over again using slightly different variations of gun, sword, or weapon in general then I would play DAoC with my wife. I began playing SWG with the idea that crafters had been central to the idea of the game since day one with a player run economy.
That idea is, frankly, a joke.
I am a Master Artisan, 4-1-3-3 Architect, 3-3-3-3 Merchant, and 2-1-1-1 Weaponsmith. I have no combat skills. I do not want to fight. I want to create, craft, and socialize. I'm probably one of the few (former) players in this game that doesn't care whether or not the force sensitive slot opens to him. It's not what I want to do.
First, as a Master Artisan/Merchant I ran several vendors in my home. My products weren't great -- they were mostly grind material -- but they were far from being expensive. I did a decent business in sales despite having to place my home and vendors almost 3000m from a major city. Decent business did not keep up with what I was crafting in order to gain enough experience to join the other professions. At the end of my career I had four vendors with a few more than 600 items on them. My decision to quit was influenced by having to repeatedly deal with said vendors.
Click "Retrieve Item." Wait. Wait. Wait. Whoops, 30 seconds have passed and nothing has occurred, I hope that's long enough for the CSR response of "Just give it time." Cancel, click "Retrieve Item" again. Repeat ad nauseum until the item is actually placed in your inventory. I understand the game is UDP based and that the Internet could swallow my request to retrieve my items from the vendor but this is ridiculous. The first question I ask is why do I have to repost every item I sell for sale every week? Why can't I simply pay the maintenance on the item and leave it for sale on my vendor indefinitely? I'm only allowed one character per server due to the "massive storage requirements" of a character. Bazaar listings expiring I can handle fine because the bazaar would be overloaded. Personal vendors should be allowed to retain listings for as long as the person wants to pay maintenance. End of story. This isn't helped by the fact that the entire "Sell Item" system is buggy as all get out. Click "Sell Item", wait for the item to pop up in a separate window, type in the amount you want to sell for -- couldn't we set this to the amount the item was previously priced at? -- click "Sell Item" again and then once you've gotten the confirmation -- IF YOU GET THE CONFIRMATION and don't have to cancel -- then manually close the window you were just using to sell the item because no, no it doesn't move automatically down to the next item in the list. Quite contrarily if you type in an amount and hit Sell Item again you're simply modifying the same item you had just sold.. despite there being no indication of that.
Why is the Bazaar capped at 3000 credits? Is that to force people to rely on Merchants? The only groups of Merchants I've seen have been PA based, ala the Wandertech mall on Corellia, Kettemoor. Those associations would remain because they are, by their very nature, much cheaper than the Bazaar. It's like going to a specialty outfitter instead of Wal Mart. You'll pay more at the specialty outfitter but their product is going to be much higher in quality.
Make the fee paid to the Bazaar a percentage, remove the artificial cap, and you might see some life in some of the professions who are currently dying. In an economy that's player run you shouldn't have artificial limitations like that. It's bull crap and only causes frustration for the low level architect or weaponsmith who simply wants to list an item and get off the game.
Why is it that I can sell the resources I harvest for more than I can sell buildings that I create? Even with dealing with folks who are aware of the amount of resources that it takes to create a harvester, for instance, I'm offered 5k to build it. THANKS! How about, not? 5k for me to run around 10000m of the countryside, collecting resources which may or may not have been harvested last night, hoping I don't get jumped by a spawning bunch of aggressive cats who will of course immediately set on me, so that you can turn a profit but I can't? I can get 5 credits a unit on the Bazaar for my stuff, it sells almost immediately, and it only costs me 16 credits a sale to post it there. I'm lucky to get 2 credits a unit for a building or harvester that I create!
"Well the player economy sets the pricing! If you're not getting the prices you want don't sell!" No, the player economy isn't functioning 100%. If it was then theprices would be fine and would fluctuate based on demand and supply cost. Instead we have huge chasms between supply cost and what people are reasonably willing to pay. Add in recent drops in mission payments and people have become even stingier with their money -- yet the prices for supplies have not changed a bit.
Yea, that whole spawn on top of someone who's running full speed because someone selected a mission and oh, lookie, let's just put their target right HERE and oh, too bad, that's a dead architect. I guess he'll need to run that 6000m out to find a 48% ore spot that isn't entirely covered by harvesters all over again. Tsk, tsk, he should have been a fighter. Then he could handily dispatch those dire cats. Or perhaps we could actually institute the content that was supposed to be here before we opened the game and give him a vehicle or mount to ride instead of having to run slowly out to where he wants to go. As a crafter I have no scout skills. That means I move at the default speed. (For those who'd say "So take it and stop whining." I don't want to take it. I can barely reach my character goals as it is, why do I have to make sacrifices for my character in order for me to be able to play this game?)
We could always address the large Imperial base that was spawned on top of my medium mineral harvester. "You are too far away to do that." Despite standing as close as I could get with the base in the way. Thanks!
Have we hit harvesters already? Resource shifts absolutely blow. I understand why they're necessary and I'm not advocating their removal. Modification of the behavior of harvesters or of the resource shifts is absolutely required. WIthout shifts we'd have every planet mapped and every concentration located within two days and available on public web sites -- as I said, I understand why they are there. However, I placed ten small harvesters last night on top of an 82% Ivu vein in an attempt to come back to playing the game -- I had decided to quit two nights ago and had pulled down all of my equipment and passed it to friends. This morning I logged in and had a grand total of 421 units of Ivu. The resource had shifted soon after I started them.
15000 credits to pull these harvesters back up if I wanted to keep them. I can buy ore and steel at Wandertech for 2.5 credits average a unit. It's cheaper to rebuild them. Why is that? Not to mention the 10000u of power I had dumped into them that was now useless, the night of inactivity I had and no resources in the morning. Could the harvester have a failover mode? Perhaps automatically switch to the next highest concentration of the same type of resource it was mining? Oh, no more Ivu but look, there's 43% Copper, let's hit that so that my owner doesn't get completely ticked off when he logs in. I'd rather have extraenous minerals than none -- the maintenance is ticked off anyway as far as I can tell! At the very least stop telling us it's "complex" to institute withdrawal of maintenance and power and GET IT DONE so we don't lose our entire butt every time resources shift.
Another point -- and I freely admit to wearing my tin foil hat on this one -- is that I swear to God that large concentrations of harvesters attract aggressive creatures. From Kor Vella to an 53% ore spot I could run 2000m and not run into a single creature. Within 1500m of the harvester locations however, there were no fewer than 50 aggressive creatures ringing the location in question. Huh?
So I decided to leave my crafting skills behind. This was obviously a game dedicated to combat and as such I should not fight the system but instead embrace it. I ran out and began to attack Swoopers, Meatlumps, and other gang members in order to try and grab some disks and participate in the "Great Story Arc." I killed 272 gang members after I started keeping count. I retrieved one disk. One in a hundred? Yea. Right. On a bonus note I did earn a few levels of carbine experience. How is an architect supposed to participate in this?
This game is not made for crafters. It may be acceptable for crafters who are also a combat profession but as I have stated that is not what I came here for. There is a great deal of work to be done on the crafting side of things and frankly, I don't see that work being a priority for anyone at SOE. It's not exciting, granted, and instead of fixing the current trees they are busy adding new trees or continue to concentrate on the combat issues (see thread here: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=366138). In defense of the prior example Holo is attempting to do what's necessary - bring the player into balance rather than making the game balance around the players - but.. at what point do you sit back and re-evaluate from scratch? I'm not saying reimplement, but with a greater knowledge base of what players will do or try reconsider every decision made, at least in terms of game balance. Don't have the time? Come on, you've got 274,999players every month -- hire some folks to take over the jobs of some of you guys and take the experienced folks and sit them on it!
Every crafting class is having major issues. If you want to play SWG and enjoy it you need to be a combat class. Those classes' issues are taken care of quickly. Droid engineers, architects, bio engineers, chefs. All have problems. Weapon smiths and armor smiths seem to be relatively bug free but consider how closely related they are to the combat classes and I think it becomes clear as to why they are.
You can view this as complaining, as whining, as whatever you want. You can celebrate my passing because it opens more doors for you. You can tell me "but you should be THAT class!" all day long. In the end all of the above are valid criticisms for me, they don't attempt to justify themselves by comparing to other classes, and they stand, in my eyes, alone.
You can also see this post: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=452523&view=by_date_ascending&page=1 -- it's a more eloquent thought out version of this, albeit a bit shorter.
You have a game with a tremendous potential. I just hope that you take advantage of it. Unfortunately I believe that the number of people who will play this game solely because it's Star Wars will always be here to convince you that repairs can be done at your leisure, and that this game will never reach its potential.
To those of you I have met, grouped with, fought with or against, good game.
Talonius De'Sun
/agree
This game has a LOT of potential but, instead of making decisions that make things better for the player, they are making decisions that are making it worst for players. They are going in reverse.
Agree with some a lot of it is just plain wrong. Things I agree on - Retrieving items/reselling items can be a hassle, there should be no 7 day limit for items on a vendor, but there should be on the bazaar, buildings spawning on placed harvesters needs to be fixed,
Why is the Bazaar capped at 3000 credits? It's capped yes to force players to go to vendors. Otherwise vendors and most of the merchant profession would be totally useless. Bazaar is meant for small items or quick get items. Houses, good guns and armor, harvesters, and other items that are more expensive than 3000 credits are meant for vendors and to be worked for, not bought on the get go. If there was no cap, vendors would cease to be important. The cap maybe should be rasied a little, but in no way should be infinite.
Why is it that I can sell the resources I harvest for more than I can sell buildings that I create? It is due to the player economy. It has nothing to do with missions payouts being nerf. It was just as low before. The reason it is there is because of Power Grinders in the guilds that set the prices so long ago, and it continues today because people going for master architect has nothing to sell besides houses and they need the money badly. You don't notice the PA Halls or furniture going for so low do u? You know why? because all the novice architects get instal. and housing first.. and sell thoughs for cheap, by the time they get to furniture or PA Halls they are either smarter and the prices are better because they were never set so low by the Power Grinders like the houses/harvesters. Nothing the devs can really do about it except somehow make it so people going for master architect have a better way to grind up and still pay off their harvesters with out selling for so cheap.
Yea, that whole spawn on top of someone who's running full speed because someone selected a mission and oh, lookie, let's just put their target right HERE and oh, too bad, that's a dead architect. I only die when I'm not paying attention. Stop holding the nums lock. Most of my harvesters are way out there so spawns dont happen all to much. I agree though sometimes it happens and it sucks. They should just have it so spawned creatures dont argo for 5-10 seconds
Have we hit harvesters already? Resource shifts absolutely blow.Power is no longer eaten up when u screw up. It stays when redeeded. Harvester redeeding costs are fine except for the personal miner, but thats just due to the powergrinders, deal with it. It's still better to just pay it then walk all the way to the bazar and lose your power u left in.
As a succesful architect you shouldn't be putting harvesters on stuff 5 days after the last shift. It's your own fault if you put a bunch of money/power in it and a resources happens the next day. Now its not your fault if it wasnt supposed to shift obviously, lately the shifting has been much better, and gradulaly shifting for a 3-4 day period after no shifting of 5 days. Keep track of the resources, or just read your server boards. Shifting is pretty good now, just needs to be longer I think. Should happen every 10 -16 days instead of 5-8.
Another point -- and I freely admit to wearing my tin foil hat on this one -- is that I swear to God that large concentrations of harvesters attract aggressive creatures. It happens, its a dangerous world out there. It doesnt attract aggressive creatures. I mean do u want it so no creatures are out there? that would ruin the game. If there are argos next to your harvesters, either kill them, hire someone to kill them (player economy remember, we need eachother to do certain things), or just go to other harvesters and come back.
If your truly a crafter/merchant then you would hire combat characters to protect you. Look at any like drug lord or someone who is just the king of an empire, they hire protection.
So I decided to leave my crafting skills behind. This was obviously a game dedicated to combat and as such I should not fight the system but instead embrace it. I ran out and began to attack Swoopers, Meatlumps, and other gang members in order to try and grab some disks and participate in the "Great Story Arc." I killed 272 gang members after I started keeping count. I retrieved one disk. One in a hundred? Yea. Right. On a bonus note I did earn a few levels of carbine experience. How is an architect supposed to participate in this?
Well yes the looting system has been broken knowingly... It has been fixed somewhat, but still needs imporving. Architect is supposed to participate by selling harvesters that mine resources that in turn make the weapons that kill the mobs that get the discs. And also sell houses for characters to heal and store items.
How are they supposed to participate directly? well since the goal of a crafter is to sell their goods, they can also buy goods. They could even buy disks they dont need and resell them. Im assuming that later "arc stories" will not just be looted items, but if you go pure combat or pure crafter, either way your going to miss out part of the game.
This game is not made for crafters. It may be acceptable for crafters who are also a combat profession but as I have stated that is not what I came here for. Kind of what I was just talking about. I don't know what u mean its not made for crafters. If it wasn't for crafters we wouldnt have houses for storage and decorating, weapons, armor, food, clothes, and harvesters. If it wasnt for crafters all the other professions wouldnt be ruined and still be running around with CDEF guns and basic clothing getting their ass whoped.
If you want to experience the whole game, you have to be jack of all trades. Thats just the game and how it should be. Skill points shouldnt be infinite so I can literly master everything. If you want to be a crafter then you should enjoy socializing and creating things fore real people. If your a combat then u enjoy just hunting and killing stuff. I dable in both, so I can enjoy the most out of the game.
For thoughs who want to be pure crafters then there will be elite elite professions like the Urban Planner which wont allow for much time for combat.
It's ying and yang, everything needs everything else.
Oh and as a note, medics, entertainers, and crafters are all SUPORT professions. It is this way in just about every RPG. RPGs have always been centereed around combat. If you want to be pure crafter and live in the world of economy there is plenty to do with 275,000 real people playing this game.
Every crafting class is having major issues. EVERY CLASS HAS ISSUES. Each one is being fixed with and the devs decide which are higher prioity. The class to get the most attention was Creature Handlers, because they were being abused and being stronger than every other class. Crafting professions aren't that out of wack. They have major issues, but we can still go out about are business with out unbalancing the game to much. Every class has had fixes and every class still has issues... that the game.
In the end yes I agree there needs to be lots of fixing, but a lot of it is if you just paid more attention you would have more fun. Pay attention to resource shifts, pay attention when your running to harvesters so u dont die, pay attention to your customers and become friends. The most rewarding part of this game is socializing. If it wasnt, I would just go play a single player game.
Also, most of your issues have been fixed, will be fixed soon, or dont need fixing because thats the way it supposed to be (IE having creatures roam the world outside of towns)
Why not try a diffrent strategy if things havnt worked out the way you planned.
Others are making it work so you cant say its not possible.
With the experience you have gained, a fresh start would give you an advantage.
If not, then why not, just leave gracefully.
Dontjustify yourself by blaming our game, just go and find something better.
ShaneMcMahon0 this is the best post I've seen in a long time. Very intelligent. I commend you.
Heh, yep, I'm glad I canceled.
Have fun folks, those of you who aren't **edit**ing idiots.
Talonius
Yeah, and just think, alot of us are paying to take this abuse!
Some of the things you listed could be avoided by being part of an active guild with crafters.
My guild shares resource waypoints, helps each other out when someone needs an escort, checks each others harvesters when on a planet etc...
This helps alot of the pain you have endured.
I'm a master merchant, don't even GET me on the vendor issues. I keep telling myself, it will be better, it will be better someday.....someday....
I'm a novice arch, after huge criticals and taking it up the tail pipe, I backed off and just make furniture for now, I have no desire to make the big things anymore, I'm a woman I cannot 'grow some'.
Time sinks in everything, just wait till they add the retrieve corpse back, THAT will be just wonderful, you will have to be nekked cause you couldn't afford insurance on all your resources and tools you carry around.
Well, this game needs work and your not the first to leave and more and more will leave if it doesn't become worth it anymore. Don't beat yourself up over a game, you gave it your best shot. Good luck to you.
Zakker/Zak'kitty Ahazi
ShaneMcMahon0 wrote:
Why is it that I can sell the resources I harvest for more than I can sell buildings that I create? It is due to the player economy. It has nothing to do with missions payouts being nerf. It was just as low before. The reason it is there is because of Power Grinders in the guilds that set the prices so long ago, and it continues today because people going for master architect has nothing to sell besides houses and they need the money badly. You don't notice the PA Halls or furniture going for so low do u?
Yes, PA Halls are barely made on Starsider because they aren't worth making. I get laughed and insulted regularly about my PA Hall prices. Even if the low prices are due to the player economy and guild architects, which they are, the players know that, it's just that they don't care. I think Telonius knows everything you wrote, he appears to have been in this profession for awhile.
ShaneMcMahon0 wrote:
As a succesful architect you shouldn't be putting harvesters on stuff 5 days after the last shift. It's your own fault if you put a bunch of money/power in it and a resources happens the next day. Now its not your fault if it wasnt supposed to shift obviously, lately the shifting has been much better, and gradulaly shifting for a 3-4 day period after no shifting of 5 days. Keep track of the resources, or just read your server boards. Shifting is pretty good now, just needs to be longer I think. Should happen every 10 -16 days instead of 5-8.
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I agree, shifts need to be really based on mined resource, not a random time. BUT, where exactly do you get off saying he should have been there the minute the shift happened? Casual players get the shaft, even players like me that play alot get the shaft because of the horrible ore concentrations if we happen to have a life and not play one day out of the week. No one knows what the shifts are going to be now. I put a heavy and a medium on a newly shifted 91% steel spot, was the only person harving it yet, logged off for the night. Came back the next morning, the steel had already shifted, I had 271 steel in my harvs. Successful architects are still losers if the dice roll bad, and it sucks. I know I'm sick of surveying entire planets every couple of days now.
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ShaneMcMahon0 wrote:
Another point -- and I freely admit to wearing my tin foil hat on this one -- is that I swear to God that large concentrations of harvesters attract aggressive creatures. It happens, its a dangerous world out there. It doesnt attract aggressive creatures. I mean do u want it so no creatures are out there? that would ruin the game. If there are argos next to your harvesters, either kill them, hire someone to kill them (player economy remember, we need eachother to do certain things), or just go to other harvesters and come back.
If your truly a crafter/merchant then you would hire combat characters to protect you. Look at any like drug lord or someone who is just the king of an empire, they hire protection.
You've got to be kidding me. So you go up to this Novice Marksman hanging around the starport, ask him to run with you to an ore spot that's 4-5k away. You pay this guy 5k? He gets killed by the tusk cats that own your harvs. So you want to kill them instead of feed them, right? So you hire a Expert Carbineer, his price, 20k. He clears the spawn out for you. He runs off. They respawn and eat you. It's a good idea towards the economy, sure, but not well thought out. All the protection I can get is the Advanced Probot I bought, and it gets owned while I run away. I do wonder if there is some sort of creature code where aggressives hang near structures, it's very possible, there are brain types in UO that act in relation to needs and wants. Don't handily discard a thought because it's not something you haven't encountered before.
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ShaneMcMahon0 wrote:
If you want to experience the whole game, you have to be jack of all trades. Thats just the game and how it should be. Skill points shouldnt be infinite so I can literly master everything. If you want to be a crafter then you should enjoy socializing and creating things fore real people. If your a combat then u enjoy just hunting and killing stuff. I dable in both, so I can enjoy the most out of the game.
I'm having a hard time trying to find where Tal said he wants to be every profession.....or wanted infinite skill points, or needed a lecture on what the game was about. He seems to have a good grasp on the architect profession....and it's frustrations.
Architect has some problems, but what Tal is quitting for is frustrations involved in it and the fact that the devs aren't looking at them when they sure as hell should have the staff to do it with 275,000 paying customers. That's 4.1 million PER MONTH. I'm sure one month of subscriptions is enough to pay the entire salary of every person working on this game for the entire year. Skills should have been done half a year ago in beta and they should be adding content. Architects don't affect the world around them except to cover it with structures. Urban Planner will allow us to construct cities, but we need to be included in the GCW with faction structures, and the GCW itself needs to be defined. Zones of Control or just the cities need to be re-introduced(can you tell I was in beta?) Get ridof the useless battlefields,both PvP and PvE, take the fighting back to where it's supposed to be.
We accrue credits, that's all we do. With Urban Planner, we're going to be even more at the mercy of combat professions, all we get to do is stand on the sidelines as the game goes by us. In the end, we'll all click Surrender Skill and go combat to contribute to the history of our server. It's inevitable.
TaloniusDeSun wrote:
Why is the Bazaar capped at 3000 credits? Is that to force people to rely on Merchants?
The long and the short of this one is yes. It's capped to prevent a flood of goods being remarketed for much-much-much lower worth. It also prevents people from being dishonest in what they do. In Beta, there was a lot of problems with people filling the bazaar with single resouce containers, and back then there wasn't a count label. There are also problems with people rennaming items and putting up bogus items. It'd be nice if a merchant could something to increase their cap, but that's another matter.
Why is it that I can sell the resources I harvest for more than I can sell buildings that I create?
Because that's just how it works. People want a finished good, but people also want to provide it. When you use resources, you gain XP and skills. There's another thread on this later, but this will always probably work this way. Resources are harder to get in bulk than finding someone to sell that harvester.
Yea, that whole spawn on top of someone who's running full speed because someone selected a mission and oh, lookie, let's just put their target right HERE and oh, too bad, that's a dead architect.
I haven't really run into problems with this one myself. Yes, random spawns can hurt, but not as much as those Wrix's, Carrion Spats and everything else that enjoys a good Architect snack now and again. It's dangerous outside, it says that in the help files. If you don't want to deal with it, don't leave town. It's just a risk you take.
Have we hit harvesters already? Resource shifts absolutely blow.
Going to have to call you on this one. Not true in the slightest. Resource shifts are the one thing that make it possible for everyone to have a chance to be successful. Without them, the first on to a concentration wins. I drop 4 heavies on that 68% Ore spot (which I did, earlier today), and now it's mine. Within a few hours, several others will fill up everything out to the 45% you can find a lot of places. No shifts, and now I will always have more than anyone else.
Resource shifts are a great equilizer to this. Besides, quality numbers change with each shift, which is nice. Otherwise it'd be Anib all day long, forever.
Another point -- and I freely admit to wearing my tin foil hat on this one -- is that I swear to God that large concentrations of harvesters attract aggressive creatures.
No, not so much. You're out there farther, which means there is increased risk. If anything, higher concentrations attract more artisans, whihc makes land harder to find. That's much more annoying.
So I decided to leave my crafting skills behind. This was obviously a game dedicated to combat and as such I should not fight the system but instead embrace it. I ran out and began to attack Swoopers, Meatlumps, and other gang members in order to try and grab some disks and participate in the "Great Story Arc." I killed 272 gang members after I started keeping count. I retrieved one disk. One in a hundred? Yea. Right. On a bonus note I did earn a few levels of carbine experience. How is an architect supposed to participate in this?
You know, I don't say this often, but I think you're not cut out for this type of game. a 1 in 100 chance does not equal you get one every 100 kills. You have a 1% chance of getting one on every kill. That's it. Killing 272 does not increase that chance.
This game is not made for crafters. It may be acceptable for crafters who are also a combat profession but as I have stated that is not what I came here for. There is a great deal of work to be done on the crafting side of things and frankly, I don't see that work being a priority for anyone at SOE.
You must be reading different boards than I am. They ask a lot of questions, respond to a lot of things, and address what they can. I give the Devs their props, they have so much on their plate it's not even funny.
if you can't have fun playing the game maybe it's not the right game for you and quitting might be a wiser decision...
To me, the flaws, limitations in this game are challenges that I as a player should endure or beat. I enjoy crafting too and I want to be master of all professions but what fun would that be if the game conforms to whatever I want, therewould not be muchof a challenge to achieve anything thus will make the game boring. To exagerrate, what's thefun of being a master marksman if you can get it by killing one little newbie creature? be a master architect just by creating a couch? I play an Architect, I die many times during harvester runs, I sample lots of resources, do many combines to get the skillboxes, that's the challenge the game offersand would give me a much betterfeeling of satisfaction when I get my Master Architect skillbox.
One other thing I thought of is that the reason resources sell for more than finished products is that they are worth more to people. A deed is a deed and its never even ever gonna be another deed, while a pile of resources can be almost anything craftable, and will give xp as a bonus too.
Wow, I disagree with almost every single point he made.
I wouldnt even know where to start with a reply.
I guess ones mans wine is another mans poison.
I love the resource shifts, Crit faliures are a part of business, Business is great if you are not afraid to compete, it is one of the few profesions that can make money while grinding for xp.
It isnt perfect, not by a long shot, but it is one of the best profesions.