Architect Archive
Thread: Over Reacting to the new patch?
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CoretDenvin
Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:37 am
#1
I'm just copying my reply from a previous post, but decided to make a fresh one to get more feedback on this.
I still don't think this new patch is going to affect our sales that much.
First, none of us really have accurate tools to tell us what percentage of our home sales are repeat buyers and whats new business. But from an educated guessing standpoint, definitely less then 1% of my home sales are from repeat buyers who accidentatly ran out of maintenance on their home and it went poof.
Most of my repeat business is from players who own one style of home and want to change to a different style (small to large, large to small, etc). Or players that switch planets and need a new style of house.
I think alot of the architects on this forum that are screaming about how this is going to kill our business are simply over reacting. I for one am for the changes - I've never lost a building due to maintenance issues but having it direct draw from the bank is definitely easier then having to worry about what houses have maintenance.
This game isn't just about 1 profession. Sometimes 1 profession has to give a little for the community to take. This is definitely one of those times in my opinion. If I lose a couple hundred K in sales over the long run but save money from not losing a house that might have ran out of maintenance - thats well worth it in my book. Heck, even if I lose 1 million in sales over the long run, its still worth it to me if I personally can avoid losing a house with a bunch of rare items in it.
Most of us are failing to see that even though it "hurts our sales" it also is for us since the effects help us as well. We all make mistakes and I can see where someone would accidentantly forget to stick maintenance into a house. Especially considering how messed up the email notifications are.
Thoughts?
I still don't think this new patch is going to affect our sales that much.
First, none of us really have accurate tools to tell us what percentage of our home sales are repeat buyers and whats new business. But from an educated guessing standpoint, definitely less then 1% of my home sales are from repeat buyers who accidentatly ran out of maintenance on their home and it went poof.
Most of my repeat business is from players who own one style of home and want to change to a different style (small to large, large to small, etc). Or players that switch planets and need a new style of house.
I think alot of the architects on this forum that are screaming about how this is going to kill our business are simply over reacting. I for one am for the changes - I've never lost a building due to maintenance issues but having it direct draw from the bank is definitely easier then having to worry about what houses have maintenance.
This game isn't just about 1 profession. Sometimes 1 profession has to give a little for the community to take. This is definitely one of those times in my opinion. If I lose a couple hundred K in sales over the long run but save money from not losing a house that might have ran out of maintenance - thats well worth it in my book. Heck, even if I lose 1 million in sales over the long run, its still worth it to me if I personally can avoid losing a house with a bunch of rare items in it.
Most of us are failing to see that even though it "hurts our sales" it also is for us since the effects help us as well. We all make mistakes and I can see where someone would accidentantly forget to stick maintenance into a house. Especially considering how messed up the email notifications are.
Thoughts?
Dvnce
Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:03 am
#2
Two points..
I know I am not the MOST organized when it comes to maintanence but I would say I am above average when it comes to remembering to pay. I deal with structures almost every day and I have lost 4 factories and about a dozen harvesters in the last year and a half. Did it hurt Yeah.. ( especially Since one factory had all the sub componants for 2 of my BER 14 Chem and Gas Schematics 
) ( should I have been using my factory for storage.. ( nope ) ) I know if I have lost that many structures and I deal with them almost every day there are others out there that have lost more and less. I really do believe you are not seeing the true impact of Replacement structures in our business. That was the ONLY source of Decay in our business.
) ( should I have been using my factory for storage.. ( nope ) ) I know if I have lost that many structures and I deal with them almost every day there are others out there that have lost more and less. I really do believe you are not seeing the true impact of Replacement structures in our business. That was the ONLY source of Decay in our business. Will this Kill our Profession ?? Probably not but you cant say it wont impact it. If we dont have any Decay then it is only a mater of time that the only people that will need our goods are the new people that start playing swg.. ( and I know that I alone can supply all the new people on my server ) so that is not a very large market. ( and when / if Lot swaps are dealt with that will limit our market even more ) Now if SOE will do a few things to go along with a NODecay crafting profession then we will be allright.Allow us to Improve our existing harvesters( but how far can we go there before that is unhealthy? ) or Continuelly introduce new structures.. ( new houses ./ about every profession has a profession specific type of structure, new city structures etc.. ) If either of these happen I do believe most architects will be happy..
CoretDenvin
Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:15 am
#3
Dvnce,
I'm very happy you responded. I was hoping you would.
I agree, and will even admit I was probably understating the issue, that the decay is definitely good for our return business, but I still have to ask the question:
Do you think that the losses you suffered by losing your dozen harvesters and 4 factories with schematics and components was equal to or greater then the losses you will take by this patch going into affect? I think I worded that right lol.
Do you think you sold enough products to make up the losses? Only a very small portion of those (at least in my case, I obviously can't and won't speak for your business) sales were from repeat buyers who actually lost their harvesters. And again - we just don't have the tools to track that info (would be cool if we could send out some type of automated customized survey heh). So because we dont have the tools I could be right on or way out in left field.
So yes, I do pull back on my statement of the quantity of how bad this will hurt us, but I certainly don't agree with many of the arcitects who are screaming bloody murder over this. I think the benefit to the community outweighs our professions loss in this matter.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
I'm very happy you responded. I was hoping you would.
I agree, and will even admit I was probably understating the issue, that the decay is definitely good for our return business, but I still have to ask the question:
Do you think that the losses you suffered by losing your dozen harvesters and 4 factories with schematics and components was equal to or greater then the losses you will take by this patch going into affect? I think I worded that right lol.
Do you think you sold enough products to make up the losses? Only a very small portion of those (at least in my case, I obviously can't and won't speak for your business) sales were from repeat buyers who actually lost their harvesters. And again - we just don't have the tools to track that info (would be cool if we could send out some type of automated customized survey heh). So because we dont have the tools I could be right on or way out in left field.
So yes, I do pull back on my statement of the quantity of how bad this will hurt us, but I certainly don't agree with many of the arcitects who are screaming bloody murder over this. I think the benefit to the community outweighs our professions loss in this matter.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
Pawlin
Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:17 am
#4
We don't know how big of a nerf it is to our profession.
But it is a nerf.
We don't need to be nerfed. Ya don't kick a man when he's down...
I do understand the point of trying to help the player base in general keep their structures. But it comes solely at the cost of our profession.
CoretDenvin
Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:28 am
#5
I'll check the Top Issues for our profession to see what our ideas are. I know our Correspondent is probably already all over it though. 
garrac8
Wed Jan 26, 2005 11:32 am
#6
I can understand the houses, because they are meant for storage and they are meant to keep and show off the items we collect throughout our time here. I don't understand factories and harvesters. How hard is it to check a harvester when you lay it down and make sure it has enough power and maitenence on it for the next week? How hard is it to check a factory when you do a factory run?
My point here is, the only time harvesters and factories are holding anything of value, or I should say, should be holding anything of value, is when they are in use, and if you are using it, check it and making sure it is up to par isn't that hard to do.
I say allow the bank payments to be done on houses, but if someones account goes inactive for over a month, poof, good bye.
Dvnce
Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:41 pm
#8
CoretDenvin wrote:
Dvnce,
Do you think that the losses you suffered by losing your dozen harvesters and 4 factories with schematics and components was equal to or greater then the losses you will take by this patch going into affect? I think I worded that right lol.
What makes a game good. Is consequences for your actions. If I am fighting a rancor I have choices to make. If I have not taken care of my armor, my weapon, or stocked up on the right foods I run the risk of suffering the consequence of Dying. Remove the risk of Dying then the game gets old VERY fast. We are given210 units of Free totally Protected ( actually more if you use droid strogage ) units of storage. If you want more it costs you.And you have to take care of it. If you dont take care of it you run the risk of loosing it.
So sure I lost more in my factories than I will probably sell to replacement structures. But I didnt make the right choices to take care of my structures. ( you can bet that I will never loose a structure again. ) To me the main issue is removal of responsibility. I have the capacity to put a billion credits in my bank.( plus or minus ) how long will my structures last withthat?? And I never have to actively do ANYTHING to maintain my possesions..
Already you were given. A direct Value and display of how much time you got from your maintanence deposit translated into length of time your house is paid up... You also get a length of time before your house blows up after running out of maint. Houses are roughly 27 days.. Harvesters about 10ish and Factories less than 2 ( ok factories dont give you enough time.. and could at least be balanced with Harvesters ) .. You get emails Warning you that your structure condition is being depleted. ( yes buggy )
So I guess if you need ONE more protection to help you not loose your possessions after negleacting to maintain them Why not add into the Game Structure Insurance.. You buy it if Maint. runs out It activates the Insurance you house lasts for 10 days before condition starts to deplete and you are given a mail every day saying you have 10-x days left on your insurance. At least this would be an Active choice that you would have to do to activate this feature. It would still be a money sink for the game because you would have to purchase it. You would still have a risk of loosing your structure if you didnt take advantage of it.. But in know way has SOE not given you every oportunity to protect your investments. ( sure would have to make sure all the Mail system would have to be made to work.
I would also make it so If your house starts Loose condition that the name change to Dvnce's House ( Condemned ) No one buy admined people could enter the house. Nothing could be moved from the house infact the only thing that could be accessed is the terminal with options Pay to restore or Destroy.
CoretDenvin
Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:50 pm
#9
Excellent points. Thank you Dvnce.
Do we have a top issues list? I was poking around and couldn't find it. Not sure if I'm just being blind.
Thanks!
Do we have a top issues list? I was poking around and couldn't find it. Not sure if I'm just being blind.
Thanks!
linusboarder
Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:53 pm
#10
CoretDenvin wrote:
I'm just copying my reply from a previous post, but decided to make a fresh one to get more feedback on this.
I still don't think this new patch is going to affect our sales that much.
First, none of us really have accurate tools to tell us what percentage of our home sales are repeat buyers and whats new business. But from an educated guessing standpoint, definitely less then 1% of my home sales are from repeat buyers who accidentatly ran out of maintenance on their home and it went poof.
Most of my repeat business is from players who own one style of home and want to change to a different style (small to large, large to small, etc). Or players that switch planets and need a new style of house.
Like you said you don't have any accurate tools, so how do you know most of your business is from repeat buyers ran out of maintnance.
It could be that the homes you sell are to people who lost thier homes and the arch they previuosly bought from is gone. They decide to upgrade since they are buying a new home anyways.
The point is that no one knows what % of their house/factory/harv sales are because someone let the maintnance run out, however the reason there is such a big reaction is because this has the POTENTIAL to be dangerous and crippling to Arch's. It's that uncertainty that causes fear, every sale of a house that i see i have to wonder "why are they buying this house? are they a new player? did they lose their old house? are they moving?" So while you're right, it could affect us very little (which i doubt) it could also change the Arch profession completely, and that change can't possibly be good. So now we have nothing to gain and everything to lose, i think that's why we arch's have such a, justifiably, strong reaction to this change
Circe' Pojia
Pawlin
Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:57 pm
#11
CoretDenvin wrote:
Excellent points. Thank you Dvnce.Do we have a top issues list? I was poking around and couldn't find it. Not sure if I'm just being blind.Thanks!
The 'Everything You need to know about the Architect Profession..." thread stickied at the top of the forum has a link to the Current top 5 issues as of 10.27.04. They haven't really changed since nothing has been fixed.
-Aorern-
Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:07 pm
#12
Don't give them any new ideas...you guys gave them ideas and solutions to assist this profession and they have done what for us?
the notorius thread on colored furniture? the color palletes are there for crafting (ie Tailor and Armorsmith color palates)
Newbies were able to get a swoop style bike for short term with actually playing the game and getting a sense of accomplishiment (for those that didn't know, through that POS Helper droid quests)
-Aorern-
Wed Jan 26, 2005 4:08 pm
#13
Don't give them any new ideas...you guys gave them ideas and solutions to assist this profession and they have done what for us?
the notorius thread on colored furniture? the color palletes are there for crafting (ie Tailor and Armorsmith color palates)
Newbies were able to get a swoop style bike for short term with actually playing the game and getting a sense of accomplishiment (for those that didn't know, through that POS Helper droid quests) Btw when are they gonna fix that droid... im tired of deleting it..
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