Armorsmith Archive
Thread: Getting to know you and your profession.
DocSavag
Fri Sep 10, 2004 1:51 pm
#27
For my money the best thing for Artisan would be more options for vehicles. There aren't enough variations for really making custom looks for the vehicles. The color kits are nice but they aren't enough. More body styles, optional components, etc would make the vehicle crafting business much more exciting.
Cafa
Fri Sep 10, 2004 1:57 pm
#28
The problem I have with Artisan is that a majority, and I do mean a MAJORITY of our product line is along the line of "Wow, neat, okay I never have to see that again" that it's depressing.
Vehicles changed that and gave people access to a number of money making devices (although I never had a problem with money as an Artisan due to repair kits and electronics sales).
In a real sense, though, we have no defining objectives, and that may be a good thing. But it also means that everything we do is so bland that until vehicles there was little to NO incentive for being/staying Master Artisan.
Although I'm pretty darn happy with survey, you should come up with items in ALL THREE of our other trees that augment SOMETHING in the Elite Profession that branch from them.
Specifically in Business you should install the ability to MAKE BILLBOARDS or SIGNS that people can actually instill with a certain amount of text as there is literally no efficient means to relate intelligent information to a customer without making them tool over bone segments and/or backpacks. The complexity and eye catching nature of these signs should rise through Merchant into the top of the Advertising tree, culminating with Master being able to make billboards as placeable 1 lot structures. What is currently called a sign in the Management tree is little more than a marker, not a sign.
I like the vehicle comments, the vehicle powerup comments and pretty much the rest of the ideas I see so far but I wanted to make sure this one got a read. Contracts between players enforceable by CSRs would be nice too for the Business line.
The ONE FIX Artisan needs is drag and drop loading of fireworks packages.
Fivo Asia
Message Edited by Cafa on 09-10-2004 01:59 PM
nolan007
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:04 pm
#29
Tiggs,
Instead ofenquiring how Artisans are feeling about their profession,maybe considercommunicating what the current developer priorities are in fairly specific terms.
All professions submittedtheir top 5 issues many months.... many ofthe top 5 are were ignored months ago and there still being ignored today (ie. very low on the development plan priorities).
Why submit another list to be ignored? You even say "No promises folks, just post away!"
I believe the entire community (all professions)feel a bitin the dark as to what the developers are actually working on from week to week (top bugs, priorities)and they feel a bit betrayed by the SOE SWG team due to lots oftalkwith no walk.
JustG and Thunderheart never seemto correctly set and manage expectations.
Generally speaking, they tend to set the expectations VERY HIGH and then the community believes X will happen; however Y happens about 6 months later than expected.... Y means that either the features were not incorporated (as everyone expected) orY has an in-your-face bug that persists for months and months... hurting the gameplay.... as a result,the elder players(the folks that have been around long enough to see trends) become verybitter and disappointed.
Additionally, many players have expected (once again, setting and managing expectations) that their suggestions and ideasmight be incorporatedat some point.
However, not only many of the core issues areignored, the player suggestions never make it into the game. I'm talking suggestions that require more than 10 lines of code.
If you want to make a difference, please consider the following...?
- Post a spread on the combat balance... what was discussed... open specific threads.
- Allow the correspondents to submit the top 5 and then track the status of those top 5 with updates and clarificationson what is being considered (or let them know it won't be considered).
- Communicate what's going on and when... if something changes, let us know.
- Start tracking the Bounty Hunters issues workwith Tanks... give very routine updates (every other day), get all those mission bugs worked.. request additional info if needed. Bounty Hunters are paying for a broken game due to mission bugs.
- Allow us to know what is being fixed and added to SWG(what are the high priorities) as soon as appropriate.
- Give us an update on mini-publish features, what will be in them and when.
- Get Imperial armor as a craftable item in a mini-publish (another schematic shouldn't be too hard to get into the armorsmith's skills -- the graphics are already in there)... maybe a few Star Warsy things into the game(see my SWG vs. SW link in my signature)
Communicateoften as appropriate on the important gameplay issues.
Of course, I could be wrong about all of the abovethings(setting expectations, feeling a bit jerked around, communicating priorities).
speardancer
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:05 pm
#30
Every crafter has their own gripes, but you can see alot of common themes in our posts here..
Here's my opinion:
#1) Storage. A full service armorsmith has to keep many resources on hand, creating a huge storage issue with the current housing limits. This has driven issues such as using vendors for storage, lot trading between servers, among many other things. We have to grab the good resources while we can, and stock up as much as we can, because we never know when we'll be able to restock. Besides a few good iron's this week, the Corbantis server has been dry on good resources for armorsmiths.
#2) Viablity of any armor that's not composite. Mabari is good for starting players, ubese is a decent choice for PvE, and composite is a must for PvP. Chitin is mainly used by people who are just desperate for something different, padded is used for looks, because an effective suit is way too heavy. Tantel might be viable, with advanced segments and a full suit, but is currently an oddity. There's no reason to make alot of the armors, this needs to change.
#3) appearances. Know it's alot of work from the art department, but we need armor that looks different, even at equivilant levels of proteciton. Seeing 500 people all in the same composite gets old after a while. And PLEASE no bizzare requirements... we have enough with the epic RIS and Malorian...
#4) no reason to join into the GCW
*note* will edit later and finish... out of time.
Here's my opinion:
#1) Storage. A full service armorsmith has to keep many resources on hand, creating a huge storage issue with the current housing limits. This has driven issues such as using vendors for storage, lot trading between servers, among many other things. We have to grab the good resources while we can, and stock up as much as we can, because we never know when we'll be able to restock. Besides a few good iron's this week, the Corbantis server has been dry on good resources for armorsmiths.
#2) Viablity of any armor that's not composite. Mabari is good for starting players, ubese is a decent choice for PvE, and composite is a must for PvP. Chitin is mainly used by people who are just desperate for something different, padded is used for looks, because an effective suit is way too heavy. Tantel might be viable, with advanced segments and a full suit, but is currently an oddity. There's no reason to make alot of the armors, this needs to change.
#3) appearances. Know it's alot of work from the art department, but we need armor that looks different, even at equivilant levels of proteciton. Seeing 500 people all in the same composite gets old after a while. And PLEASE no bizzare requirements... we have enough with the epic RIS and Malorian...
#4) no reason to join into the GCW
*note* will edit later and finish... out of time.
Boooozark
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:11 pm
#31
A very big concern I have for Armorsmiths, and pretty much crafters in general after the combat fix, is how experimenting will be implimented. What I mean by this, is that a while ago a hard cap was placed on composite to where you could not excede 80% resists before slicing. What would be damamging to the armorsmith profession is that if the devs, simply hard cap armors again.
What this does is remove any skill from the crafting process, along with removing any benefits older smiths have achieved (skill tapes being a big one). For example if you set the hard cap to composite to 60% now, every master armorsmith would be hitting the cap. This would be devestating to the current smiths who are at the top of their game currently.
Therefore, experimentation itself needs to be dropped down to where full experimentation in the effectiveness of say a kinetic layer would yield at most 3% to base. With this set up, current smiths keep thier level of high standards in addition to the armor being taken down to a more realistic level.
In addition, it would be nice to get the same weighting for durability as their is currently in effectivenes and special protections. For example if I put 5 points into effectiveness on composite armor, I'll get roughly a 15% increase in my effectiveness resists. If I put the same 5 points into durability you get roughly a 7% decrease in the HAM costs. I'm hoping with the revamp that HAM costs will be considerably more important, so it is imperitive that this issue be addressed.
Brutus_Krylop
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:13 pm
#32
The armor system, as I have long said, is remarkably consistent. Moreover, it works.
I don't think there are any truly pressing issues, to be honest. My biggest complaint is the lack of variety in viable products. As others have suggested, factional armor that is basically composite with a different graphic skin would go a long way.
Things I'd like to see, in no particular order:
- Armor slicing changed so that it affects the special protection, not effectiveness. Give some value to high special protections and creative layering, while keeping a penalty for the higher encumberance that results.
- Padded Armor's encumberance dramatically slashed. This should be the lightweight alternative to composite in most cases.
- Full suits for Tantel, and its funky resistances restored to a proper set.
- Looted components drop in factory crates. More useful looted components and enhancers, fewer garbage items. (Kimogila Scale Segments, anyone?)
- More ways to get the Imperial PSG schematic rather than the single quest for Imperials on Dantooine. Make it a rare loot drop, or allow the quest to be repeated periodically.
Ryche_Mykola
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:13 pm
#33
Tiggs wrote:
Don't post just yet, seriously think about this for a moment and then post what "you" feel is important, not what you think the overall class feels is important. (Flamers, trolls need not reply).
For us to work properly and have a roll in the GCW:
1.) Craftable Faction Armor
2.) RIS components with no serials fixed
3.) Shifting resists on PSG's
CradTheWarlord
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:14 pm
#35
Guruweaver wrote:
Okay, more detail...
1) Vehicles:
A) More vehicle types
B) Multipassenger vehicles
C) Armed vehicles, or vehicular combat
D) Crafting enhancements to vehicles:
i) More experimentation options : Speed, Terrain Neg, Armor, Weapons(if any), HP
ii) Components and such, not just big lumps of metal.
(okay, I'll conform. Reduced to one issue.)
Guru
Message Edited by Guruweaver on 09-10-2004 05:04 PM
/agree
AltharXXX
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:15 pm
#36
Hi Triggs,
1. Armor coloration. From the ground up most of the color palattes for armors have some problem. Armorweave boots and helms set the limits of coloration. Same for Ubese. Chitin should have a black and white colors at master level. Ubese needs more primary color choices at master. RIS has what 18 colors? Padded armor is just about perfect for colors... Composite armor - user coloration - it's a good idea. How about move it to a tool made by armorsmiths where experimentation and the armorsmiths customization skill get set into the tool and it can be used on any armor??
2. The best overall armor in the game does not require difficult to obtain loot drops. Add acid resistance to RIS. Make kinetic a base % on RIS and give RIS lightsaber resistance in the special catagory. ((no comment on mando armor.))
3.. Armor repairs. It's broken. Why would I want to repair anyones armor? As a merchant I'd like to be able to have a customer drop the armor on the vendor and have a 'directed' sale to return the armor to them. if I repair armor and put it on my vendorthere is no way to be sure the correct person getsthe armor back. [stun on RIS would be nice too.]
4. Armor decay. Armor decays on attacks which are blocked. (could be the same for counter, dodge etc...) [It just doesn't make sense to me as a swordsman that I block an attack and the effect goes to my armor.]
5. FS xp conversion. this isn't just armorsmith. The devs seem to have forgotten that resources must be collected to grind crafting xp. Okay, given that - why did they create the smuggler FOTM for grinding crafting xp?? (smugglers get 1 fs xp per unit of resource for booster blue.) One of my MAS can drop master merchant and get smuggler for that grind - but it's the bad part of grinding that everyone was complaining about before. And before you flame me, even gettingtwice as much xp means about 1 week of resource collection per column (on 95% spots.) in this case it's a factor of 5. So in 2-3 days I can grind smuggler and save all time collecting garbage for the xp grind. I don't really want to drop master architect and master artisan to grind up to smuggler (on a character who should have gotten free unlocks but didn't at that!) [it's just not fun to jump through these types of flaming hoops.]
[faction armor. Personally I think the faction should sell crafting items needed for the armor for faction points. (for example the RIS equivelant of a faction gdk scale.) I'm sure that any way it's done will make just about everyone happy.]
Message Edited by AltharXXX on 09-10-2004 07:49 PM
Sammeria
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:15 pm
#37
Anyways she need to get her post count higher.
Tiggs wrote:
I am well aware of the sticky issues threads and the excel sheets that ThunderHeart has. The reason(s) I am doing this is 1. to get to know you, 2. get a better feel about your posting styles and 3. Gather fresh feedback from the community. If you feel like you are repeating yourself then please feel free to opt out of posting in this thread.
Meplorium
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:17 pm
#38
I recently dropped architect and took up armorsmith until I can do ship wright. Armorsmith is a fun profession but does require a lot of effort to do well.
My number one issue would be the R.I.S. Helmet. My Mon Cal character can wear all the other pieces of this epic armor but the helmet. The reason was some 'art issues'. I would like those issues to go away so more than 3 races out of 5 can wear this helmet. It is very limiting.
As to other armor issue. There is too much composite in the game. Composite is the best armor, even better than the epic RIS armor and is the easiest to make as its resource lists can almost all be harvested by harvesters, i.e. not much hide or bone. Many of the others require good good percentage of their resources from animals. This makes them difficult to produce while their usefulness is less than composite.
I wouldn't 'nerf' composite but make the other armors useful. Changing their requires would help, but wouldn't take away from them not being as protective as composite. I would level the playing field and make all armors equally useful but different. Have each advanced segment take 3 layers for all armors. Have each type of armor have 2 vulns each. Have each type of armor as good in base as all the others. You can then make suit of type A as good as suit of type B, but they would be a little different in resists types while looking different as well.
Kiom
Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:21 pm
#39
Tiggs wrote:
Since I am the new kid on the block I would like to take a little survey to see what "you" feel is the most pressing issue with your profession right now. Wait! Don't post just yet, seriously think about this for a moment and then post what "you" feel is important, not what you think the overall class feels is important. (Flamers, trolls need not reply).
There are no promises being made that you will see immediate changes implemented. This is simply to gauge what you feel is important so that I can discuss this further with the team. I am going through a few professions at a time so if you don't see this post in another forum you participate in, do not worry. I will get to the other forums in time
Factional Armor crafting. Should be PvP worthy and not the dress armor it is now. Perhaps a limited use (one-time) schem purchased with FP. But if it can't be as good as comp, don't bother.
More good armor. As it is now everyone wears comp. Make is so the other armor type "can" be made as good as comp perhaps with some differences. The only way people will wear other types of armor is if it as good as comp.
Not sure why I even bother with this one but increase the GDK scale drop rate some. If you want people to wear RIS (and why not) then it has to be attainable. No one is going to be doing any fighting in a 60 million credit suit of armor.
One other thing... wizards and dragons are EQ, not SWG 
(just pokin' fun) Welcome aboard.