Architect Archive

Hello everyone. First time to this profession board. I have given up my evil bounty hunter ways (because well its just impossible) and I am going into Architect for the time being.

Let me first say, yes I am doing this because a Holocron told me to. Let me apologize in advance for those of you who truly enjoy the profession and I understand you would not want to give a dabbler like me any advice since all I want is to rifle through as fast as possible to get to the next ridiculous holocron message.

However consider this: If not for the Holocrons I would have quit the game completely last night. I was so frustrated with my broken and endless profession I was not even going to wait until December 26th to cancel, but since I had accumulated 4 Holocrons I figured let me at least take a shot at a Jedi character.

I cant wait for my 4th holo to say "Master Bounty Hunter" which I was 2-4-4-4 in, and then I will laugh and uninstall at the same time.

Anyway that being said, I only have now like 650,000 credits, which is not nearly enough to simply buy all the materials I need... in fact I dont think it will be enough to harvest all the materials I would need, in order to attain Mastery.

Any helpful hints? Things that work, dont work, sell well?

Some master told me yesterday that I should build walls and sell them to OTHER architects because no one likes building them. I guess it is a multi-step process? I will find out in 20k more gen crafting xp (ran out of materials last night lol).

Again any advice would be appreciated. I admit that I had more fun last night sitting and pumping out harvester deeds than I had in the recent weeks grinding out meaningless BH experience. I never thought I would see the day lol...

One last thing: I am on Lowca server and my character name is, well, Broog. If you have any low quality old metals laying around that no one wants to buy, I would love to take it off your hands at a good discount 8). Also if this thing about walls is correct and you are on Lowca, contact me and we can work something out. I am not looking to make a profit... heck I will work for free if you give me the materials, or sell things at or just over cost.

Oh yea again for Lowca architects, if you have a hot item that sells well, maybe I can build it for you and sell it to you at half of what it sells for. What's the harm of that? I need the xp and break-even cash, you can turn a fast profit and not have to sit around doing all this stuff.

Anyway any advice is appreciated in this thread or via email on this site. Thanks!

-Broog

Lowca Server

You can sell walls for as much as resources cost or a little more. On Shadowfire the average cost of resources is 3.0 cr/u and walls sell for 9-10k (which is 3.0-3.3 cr/u).

If you can't find a good steady supplier of ore for a good price, I'd suggest buying some medium mineral harvesters with a BER of 9 or 10 and a fusion gen (well they are kinda bugged right now, so may have to get a couple of solar gens) and get yourself setup on some ore. Metals are usually readily available, but ore I have a harder time finding for sale.

You can easily grind your way through to master architectby selling walls to masters. If you decide to sell end products, the main thing is please don't undercut prices too terribly in order to sell your products. If you're hurting for sales, sell walls! I wish all novices knew they had this option

I'm only a Novice, but Architect does seem more about resource and sales, than actual grinding, per se. The materials are expensive due to quantity, but then the end product is also high value.

Subcontracting Structral Modules (200 Ore, 50 Metal each), and Wall Modules (10 Structural Modules + more Ore and Metal) could be a good way to do it, if you can find a willing mentor. For pure XP, look below for PvT's thread, which although somewhat contraversial, does explain how to power up. I think that assumes unlimited funds to start with though.

For cash, I'm not advanced enough to say a lot, but Furniture seems to sell well on Bazaars (Low enough in resource and 'value' to generate a fair income from averagely affluent home-owners, and easy to feed, harvester-wise. Not much XP in it though.)

The various houses seem trickier to shift, needing either a well publicised vendor, or much Starport Shout Spamming, as they seem to start at 10k for a small one, and there is generally a lot of competition in them.

Later on, Medium/Heavy Harvesters and Factories might be a good way to go, and ultimately City/PA Structures, but a wiser veteran than I would have to confirm that, I think.

Thank you. Exactly what I was told last night... sell walls.

Let me ask you this then since I am not a novice even yet - what type and quantity of materials will I need?

Currently I have 3 small personal mining harvesters all mining steel (set up last night) and 2 wind generators near them (also last night). This is all I had from a long time ago when i dabbled in crafting.

Even if I mined all my own stuff I would run out of cash long before mastery.

As I posted on my server board, I do not want to cut prices to the point where I will kill the economy and hurt the players that really enjoy the profession. SOE is foolish to have put the system this way because obviously it will destroy the economy and really make a lot of people upset.

I would much rather sell discounted stuff to other architects that they can then resell at normal price, turning an easy profit, or use like these wall modules.

Again I know a lot of people hate us FSCS chasers and I understand. I really am not here to wreck the profession and I think I can learn a little more about the game since all I have done for months is basically kill stuff (dabbled in crafting and medical crafting but not enough to really understand it).

Thanks for the info!

Thanks Vrischika!

Any idea what I should sell this furniture for? I am not going for my own vendor so the bazaar is it for me I guess.

I know prices differ on all servers but a general guideline? Like total materials used * 3cr? 2cr?

Dont want to undercut the true architects I just want to get by.

you can grind Architect alot faster using only one resource type, any metal. With enough metal, you can grind out crafting stations without ever using a piece of ore to master Architect. I've only used 150-160k of steel to get to Installations IV Furn/Cons I. Its only two slots in the component screen, so two duoble clicks and your done.

WIth walls, you have to use 2000 ore, 500 metal to make the 10 wall blocks that go in a wall. So you end up clicking three parts for the blocks, ten times. Then you have to fill the 10 blocks into the hopper along with 200 more ore and 300 more steel.

And you end up with 5k xp for all of it. A crafting station is 945xp, make five of those and you get 5k+. With alot less clicking. Its alot less work but not as much bang for the buck.. now if you wanna grind out ten wall blocks, to throw them into a wall and critical.. its up to you

If you have ever walls crafted before, you will know your going to lose alot of xp making walls from going critical on the final build.

As a person who has mastered Architect on one character, and is now mastering it on another... try it.

Wow Vid thanks for the advice there I forgot all about criticals.

My thinking here is though that with 650k I do not have enough cash to finance the materials I would require to master architect. If I build something I can resell, even at cost (or slightly above to account for criticals), sure it will take me longer but I can afford it.

Lets say I find cheap steel at what 3cr per. The 160k of steel you used would cost me 480k! And that is enough to max out one branch but not all 4 and I would be almost broke.

The time it would then take me to run destroy missions with my few remaining BH skills to accumulate another 480k of credits is much longer prolly than to make these walls.

If I had unlimited resources I could master architect in a day I think because they build such huge stuff the xp will probably roll in. I just dont have the luxury of unlimited resources.

I can start harvesting big time but that takes time as well. I want to harvest maybe 1/3 of my materials and buy the other 2/3, selling "some" products along the way to keep me going.

I really need to make some good contacts on my server. =/

You know what? I just got to say I am actually looking forward to playing again. I had some fun doing the reb themepark over the weekend, and a little fun doing Garm missions and the Imp base looking for holocrons (which I may just have to sell one and hope i can get one back down the road I need the cash that badly), but the grind of BH, while moderately fun at times, was just so boring and monotonous.

I think this switch was just what I needed!

Oh, what you could do then, is power up to Installations IV, and start making them. They sell great, and you can make your 6-8 harvs to dig your resources needed for the other trees... you will need 160-176k units (352k xp) to get to Inst IV

I know making walls is a good way to make some money while you grind.. But you can find a copper or aluminum, or even a steel over 90%. You can't find ore over that for sure.. To me, it's alot harder getting 400k ore (x2 xp = 800k xp) than any metal. That in itself is worth at least starting with Installations IV. To make yourself some large diggers. You are going to need around 700,000 resources to master architect (1.4m xp) and digging a resource thats widely available like metals, is a good idea to get that much. You can do it in 650,000 if you build very complex items, I think. I think they add xp for the complexity or something, cause a crafting station is 450 resources, but you get 945xp for making it.

Other than that, if you happen to be on Sunrunner, there is an architect providing the resources if build the walls for him. Sorry, didn't catch their name..

Oh and about Furniture, I stick to:

2.5-3.0cpu for the first tier and novice items
3.5-4.0cpu for the second tier
5.0cpu for the third and fourth
7.5cpu for the master marble look

(cpu - credits per unit) I usually sell items for the higher range if they require hides, and the 7.5 for master items is because they require named resources, albeit only one is considered rare.

Wow... you are just so close to being able to do this in a little over an hour.

70 minutes.

No lie - do a search for "uber grinding macro," andyou should find the same macro I used to grind the last 3/4 of WS (didn't think to try macros until after I'd already done architect to 2/4/4/4 the hard way, and one entire branch of WS). Set up 8-12 crafting kits in slots 12-23 (the second row), copy and paste the macro from the post into a text file, load it and run it, and aside from breaks to train (you can reduce the time by grinding in the actual guild hall), you can hit master in 70 minutes.

I, too, am holocron hunting (woo hoo! I get to bea master dancer), and if I get to where my primary character has to do Master Architect (my secondary is the MA now), I'll test this theory- I've got a little over 1 million units of material saved up right now for just that purpose.

Anyway... some advice: if you can, see what you can do about getting 700k worth of steel. If you don't want to be an architect, jeez... I'd hate to have to grind it out myself, knowing that every hour I spent building stuff, making contacts to sell things to other people, harvesting material, etc., is yet another hour I spend on a class I don't want to play (can you tell I'm not enjoying Dancer?).

Second, you might want to expand your mining capabilities. Go up the installations branch first; thatwill enable you to build medium and heavy harvesters. Medium harvesters are the best "bang for the buck," as it were, as heavies are generally a pain in the neck for any part-time architects (I should know- that's what I am); however, heavies will seriously pay off in the long run.

Third, if you need more funds, mining is a verycheap way to make money, time-wise, in that you spend significantly less game time selling materials than you do selling weapons, structures, or other components, for example. Being a master weaponsmith, master architect, and master artisan, I have some serious earning potential. However, I've ignored all of it because the crafting usually bores me to tears and I prefer to spend my time killing stuff, completing missions, and getting faction points. Those times when I've gotten into a financial bind, I grab whatever materials I'm mining, drop 'em on the bazaar, and send tells or emails to anyone who buys multiple lots, offering to sell larger amounts for quicker cash. Oh, and your thought about not undercutting others is a good one for more reasons than you think; if you sell at the same price as everyone else, your materials will still sell, and you'll get more money for them. If you undercut, you start a price war and everyone loses. Remember, though, that your goal isn't to raise money, but only to gain more materials. However, you'll need money for maintenance, and you'll need money to buy materials to build harvesters, if you go that route, so this is only something to keep in mind- not necessarily the "be all and end all."

Fourth, as alluded to above, you'll have to strike a balance on how much time you spend building components to sell as opposed to selling materials. The grinding part, if you're JUST grinding (i.e., only making crafting stations), will wiped out your entire stock in minutes; very very FEW minutes. 100,000 units should be gone in 10 minutes, if you've got the macro set up correctly. As a result, you'll have an overabundance of time sitting around doing nothing, if that's all you do, so you may want to consider the earlier posts on finding components you can sell to other architects.

Either way, good luck to you! Wish you were on Corbantis... I'd love to help you out.

I went the miner route, but may be able to help you.

Architects always need ore. On Ahazi it sells for 2.5 usually. Also, now they need steel with UT, SR, and HR over 900. This is your steady business as a miner.

Now you need harvesters.. Architects now have mid-rate medium and heavy harvesters that probably wont sell.

Put those 2 together and approach a friendly architect saying you will supply them ore or (if available) good steel. I got my first heavy harvesters free from just negotiating a deal with a architect. 10 free harvesters AND him buying ore at 2.25. ANYway, approach a architect and see what kind of deal you can work out. Off the bat, I'd suggest at least a few if not all mediums. Heavies if you can afford the maint and power.

OK you have some med harvesters, and some potential cash flow. Now you're gonna need energy. Upfront costs of mining are pretty steep. But, even buying energy from a energy miner at 1 cpu, you will still make about 1.5 cred per unit of ore. So buy a bunch of energy, and frontload that maintenance. If you want to go hog wild, ask your friends if you can use their building lots, or just ask random person and give them 1k or 3 for their lots. Use personal harvesters for your subcontracted lots.

Watch for a new ore to pop up, (getting ore right when it spawns is important so it doesnt poof the next day and you have to move all those harvs)

Find a ore site at 50% or more and slam it with all your harvesters, but save a couple for your grinding steel too. Make sure your harvesters are fed and collect it when it poofs.

At this point you should have a fleet of harvesters, about 75k creds in your pocket, (50k ore +2.5 cpu ore -1 cpu power) and 20k or so steel and/or metal. If you want more ginding metal, switch some harvs to metal. Just keep your architect happy with ore, though.

Ore shifts, move harvs. Resource shifts between 5-10 days. Average is a week I'd say. You've got a lil more money in your pocket so you can upgrade some of your personals to mediums or mediums to heavies. Ask for some old mediums from the architect. He should be happy since you just gave him more ore he can turn around and make money off of.

So in summary.

1. Find architect

2. Make deal, get harvesters

3. Find power miner, get energy for 1cpu

4. You're all set!

p.s. some people find this more difficult than others. The beginning is kinda tuff, especially when your bank account reads like 5000 after all your harvesters are fed and powered. Stay in your means tho, if you estimate you won't be making money at the end of your projected mining shift, cut back on a harvester or 2. It will take a week or 2 for you to get a "feel" and build some cusion for maintenance and power.

p.s.s 90% of your success will be you people skills in landing your initial deal with an architect, and energy guy. You can try to mine your own energy, but to maximize production, buy it at 1 cpu.

Broog,

I cant offer you much more help than the previous posters, but you are the first FS hunter that came in and was honest about it and knew that our profession means something to us. I havent seen this much help for one person, even brand new characters!

I see a couple of different ways you can do this:

Grind walls, but you need the ore and metal and someone to buy them.

Go up the furniture tree and sell those in the bazaar.

Get in Inst. IV and sell the high extraction heavy harvesters or Crafting stations.

I would say, you buy/harvest ore and metal to get to the crafting stations and sell those at 3/cpu. They take 450 metal, and a lot of optional components, but dont worry about those, sitck with the 450 metal. One other thing I would suggest is the construction tree with the new city components in there, they are more marketable. I did furniture first, cause everyone was selling houses, but not furniture. The other thing is to make a moisture vaporizer to harvest water and sell that on the bazaar for 3 /cpu. The new fountains take 1k of water and I sold 30k of it in a heartbeat. And if you feel like taking trips out to Talus, drop the water harvester out there and sell it to the Docs. Find a resources that is in great demand (Tat Fiberplast, Talusian water, Lok Wild wheat) and sell that...

Just my 2 cr...if you were on Eclipse, id put you to work making walls for me

I'm placing at about 4cpu for Novice and 'Modest', although I tend to add more if it needs Hide, as this more hastle to find in the quantities Sofas and Ottomans need.

Fourmight seem steep but the actual price of the items ends up quite cheap by comparrison to the empty Medium House the customer is trying to fill. And anyway, I like to think my time is worth at least 1cpu.

For popularity and sales, I'd recommend the Potted Tree (Style 1), the Bonsai-looking one. They look very nice, and I always sell at least 20 a day of those. (Even ended up with a commission for 40 for a new PA Hall the other night.) It's worth running a Flora Farm on Wood purely for houseplants, as Wood seems quite rare on the bazaar.

And yes...although I'm not one, it is nice to see Holocron Archs aren't as hated here as they seem to be on the other profession boards