Architect Archive
Thread: Week One Top 5 List
Here is the current list of top 5 issues that I will be sending out on Sunday.
Power Core and Harvesting Mechanism - There have been a number of reports from players encountering difficulties in the manufacturing of Power Cores in their factories. The correct resources and schematic are inserted into the factory, the factory starts making the module, but it either eats the resources or shuts down after producing one Power Core. Many playersrequire the assistance of a CSR to get their components or resources returned, the CSRs claim that this is aknown issue. If Testing is unable to locate the problem without devoting a large amount of time and effort into it, I would like to suggest making any schematics that require Identical Power Cores to be changed to Similar Power Cores. If Similar Power Cores are used, increasing the amount needed would be an acceptable to reflect the change.
As for Harvesting Mechanisms, you are unable to download the schematic from your datapad to your crafting tool. It attempts to search for it but ultimately getting no results. Inthe end the result leaves your crafting tool bugged with the"Unable to start crafting session" message. Perhaps this isthe result of a corruptreference number associated with the Harvesting Mechanism? I would suggest making an entirely new Harvesting Mechanism using a different reference number and leaving the old bugged one as it is, but remove it from player crafting tables.
Maintenance Status - There have been varying reports of Harvesters using maintainance at a higher rate then what is displayed in the information window. However there has been no general consensus as to what may be causing this. We would like to ask the Testing department to do thorough research into all Harvesters to ensure that they are using the proper amount that is displayed in the management window. This is not a request to lower maintainance fees. Weather or not it is misinformation being given to players by the Harvesters, or Harvesters eating maintainance or any other bizarre occurrence, this affects all players, not just Architects.
Reclaiming Maintenance and Power - Please add the options to remove maintenance and power from all buildings that require an upkeep. Many players will often find themselves moving harvesters or houses to more ideal locations, harvesters especially with the dynamic resources. It is not uncommon for players to lose a couple hundred power or credits per harvester, multiply this by the average number of harvesters a player would have, seven, and the total lost is in the thousands. There are also the cases of accidental depositing of excess power, if done incorrectly, or if the player is not familiar with the depositing tool, instead of 500 they may find themselves placing 5000. This can lead to much frustration.
Permissions - Currently the Permissions Access isn't working properly. Players that are added to the Admin List for houses are unable to pick up or drop items in the house. Players on Factory Admin list cannot access the input or output hoppers. This problem severely hampers the potential sales of Houses and Factories, two of the main products that Architects have to offer to other players. This problem widely affects all players, not just Architects.
Critical Failures - Critical Failures need to be reviewed and rebalanced so that the event is not crippling, differing degrees of failures should be added. For a Novice Architect, the amount of resources needed to build a small house are 10x greater then the amount needed for Master level schematics that Armorsmiths and Weaponsmiths make (with the exception of special resources required).
For an Armorsmith to make a Novice Item, Mabari Chestplate, they're required to collect 262 resources.
For an Architect to make a Novice Item, Small House, they're required to collect 3388.
If you were to give both Architect and Armorsmith 3388 resources, the Armorsmith attempts to make 12 chestplates, 4 of them are critical failures. The Armorsmith is not crippled because they still have 8 others to sell. However if the Architect were to fail their combine, they have nothing to show for their efforts, and fall drastically behind.
Regardless of what the player economy prices these items at, the Armorsmith or Weaponsmith will always be able to make more potential sales compared to the Architect. A critical failure on even a small house can leave a player feeling frustrated, cheated and angry. This will ultimately lead to a dissatisfied customer and possibly to an early cancellation of their account. EverQuest had a critical failure system similar to SWG, where you would lose everything if you failed. Only in the last year the system was changed to allow partial failures.
This issue is Critical Failing in general. This is a separate issue fromrumors ofStructure Assembly not giving the proper bonus. Critical Failures affect Architects the most.
I would also like to propose adding a "Salvage" skill to the Construction Tree. Change the "Construction" tree title to "Construction and Repair", and provide Architects with the Salvage ability at Tier 1 of C&R. Architects that fail on making a building will receive differing degrees of "piles of scrap", the Architect must attempt to "Salvage" what materials that can from the ruined item. The amount recoverable would be dependant on their Salvage bonus. Only one Salvage attempt can be made on the item, giving it a contents of 1 and adding a Radial option of Salvage would probably work best (much like filleting a fish).
Salvage progression could be -
Tier 1 - +10 Salvage
Tier 2 - +10 Salvage
Tier 3 - +10 Salvage
Tier 4 - +10 Salvage
Master Architect - +15 Salvage
Giving Salvage varing degrees of success, a Master Architect could expect a minimum of 10% with a maximum of 55% in returned resources from a failed combine. Perhaps giving Salvage a more specific target as to what you're attempting to Salvage, making it more like Harvesting, to focus one which resource they want the most return of. A General Salvage would return 10-55%, divided among the types of resources used to make it, so around 3-11% of each resource returned. Or, the player could focus all his Salvage into ore and get 10-55% of it returned.
The benefits of Salvage could be applied to the long-term game, such as Ship Building, or adding Salvagable materials to MoB drops.
Obviously some issues did not make the first cut. In the first chosing, I selection, I attempted to pinpoint issues and bugs that affected the entire community, not just Architects. I am willing to hearfeedback or suggestions, however I am fairly certain that these will be the first 5 to be sent.
Thanks,
Mitsudo - Ahazi
Takenoko - SWGCraft.com
I agree that the issues you propose are important, but I don't feel that they are the top 5. We should pick Architect issues, not issues that effect other classes.
1. Power Core and Harvester Mechanism - If you put extra resources in, it does work. This is a bug that we can just all report. I wouldn't want to waste our #1 spot on this item. (BTW I made 2 PA Halls just last night so this effects me as much as anyone). But if we have room it needs reported. Personally it does effect me, but it doesn't effect 80% of architect since they can't build PA halls yet anyhow.
2. Maintanence Status - Again a bug that we can just report in game. They already know this bug. This is not an architect issue specific issue. But if we have room it needs reported
3. Reclaiming Maintanence and Power - Q3PO already mentioned that they were looking into this issue. This effects all people using harvesters not Architect specific. I don't even believe that architect make most of the harvesters that are used. Heck 80% use personal harvesters which are an artisan item. Obviously this effects us though, so if we have room great.
4. Permission - I agree that this should be in the top 5, since we do make factories.
5. Critical Failure - I doubt that they care. They want it so that there is a risk. With critical failure in the game like it is, people have to sell house/harvesters fora profit or they could go out of business. I have critical failured2 large houses in the last week, I just deal with it
Now as you know I think the # 1 issue is that we need some form of decay for architect items! If we do not get decay and soon the market will dry up and this class will virtual die.
This one may not be an architect specific item, but I would love to get the following commands added
/addpower xxxx (add power with xxxx being the amount)
/emptyhopper (this would empty hopper into your inventory)
/selectresource (this would allow you to select the resource)
I believe they already have /status, /paymaintanence xxxx, and /turnharvesteron so we could make macros.
I agree construction line, experimentation and item selection should have an effect.
Right now I pick the resource that I can get the most of, if carbonated ore is close to silcastic then I take it since there are some schematics thatspecify it.
I do experiment before making a schematic, but I only do 1 or 2 max since I know that it doesn't effect anything.
AConstruction Tree "fix" would require more time to flesh out. So far all I've heard is "Construction Tree is useless", but no one has really suggested afix for it. Sure, the experimentation system is in place, but what are you going to experiment on?
To implement the Construction Tree properly, the Dev team would have to revamp all of the existing buildings to include decay, and they would also have to make an experimental results table. In short, there is no fast fix for this and could be several patches away before we see a result.
Also, in picking issues that affect all classes, the Dev team is more likely to respond to the problems faster if it would benefit all, and not just a minority. I have worded most of what I said to appeal to the company and it's managers, more happy customers basiclymeans more profit (sounds like something Quark would say).
Perhaps I'll include something about Construction in next weeks report, but right now more thought will need to go into it besides "fix it".
Mitsudo - Ahazi
Takenoko - SWGcraft.com
We need to let them know what we feel is important, not what we think they can fix quickly.
Another bug that is not on the list is items being dropped in houses that you can not pick up.
If item decay does not happen, I am afraid that the market will dry up within 2 months. If all I did was make small houses everyday, I could make 2400 in that time. That is probably enough for the entire server. Q3PO is looking for money sinks, lets give him one that will help us and the game.
Construction and experimentation would be very easy to implement they did it for every class. All they have to do is say toughness equals 100% of decay rate, overall quality equals 100% of maintanence fees. This would give us a reason to experiment and improve our product. Right now a novice architect with the cheapest resource makes the exact same house as an expert that uses the best resources, uses maxed out schematics in a factory.
I really can't emphasize how important this is. It needs to be number 1 on your list, because without a renewable demand for our products the rest of your list doesn't matter for anything because there will be no need for any more products! I know you are focused on bugs, but this is the single biggest issue that architects face.
Agreed - the need for building/installation decay needs to be on this initial list because it's going to cripple the profession in a relatively short timeframe.