Armorsmith Archive
Thread: To Devs: Important Economic Observations of the current TC5 (CURB) Armorsmith crafting changes.
Ubese, Tantel, Marauder Recon, Mabari, Kashyyykian Ceremonial, Ithorian Guardian, Marine Rebel (Factional), Scout Trooper (Factional)
Certified to use it: Bio Engineer, Pistoleer, Rifleman, Smuggler
Battle Armor
Padded, Marauder Battle, Bone, Kashyyykian Black Mountain, Ithorian Defender, RIS (Quest), Rebel Battle (Factional), Stormtrooper (Factional)
Certified to use it: Carbineer, Creature Handler, Combat Medic, Fencer, Doctor, Swordsman, Pikeman, Ranger
AssaultArmor
Chitin, Composite, Marauder Assault, Kashyyykian Hunting, Ithorian Sentinel, Mandalorian (Quest), Rebel Assault (Factional), Shock Trooper (Factional)
Certified to use it: Bounty Hunter, Commando, Squad leader
I count 22 DIFFERENT armors here, and 2 Quest Armors. With factories taking up a lot each, 10 lots per account, how are MAS's going to be able to keep up with the demand for all of the class specific armors? Right now most of us are used to making 1 or 2 types of armor.
CONCLUSION: Due to the increased number of components and increased/forced demand to produce so many different armors, the required factory time to accomplish this will SEVERELY limit supply, increase consumer demand and produce massive inflation in respect to the price of armor.
Now onto Fact 3 (RESOURCES), the increase in organics for armor. Granted the devs have conceded a reduction in the amount of hides, but this is not enough. The amounts of hides needed, especially and most importantly the wide VARIETY of planet specific hides, will also influence and increase the cost to the armorsmith and our ability to produce/supply armor.
And I also understand that vital/IN-LIVE resources such a Kiirium Steel, Colat Iron used in segments and "Metals" like Kammris Irons used in layers are all being changed. Why ruin our investments into our resource stockpiles? Why make us start from scratch? This is what you're doing in respect to planet specific hides and changing many schematics to specific inorganic resource types that most of us don't even have a single unit of.
CONCLUSION: The time required via rangers to aquire all the planet specific organics combined with the time to aquire the new inorganics will create holes/inabilities of MAS's to produce certain types of armor for certain combat classes. The quality of the armor will also suffer greatly, for many, many, months, until MAS's can produce a product they can be proud of. This too will limit supply, increase demand and produce massive inflation in respect to price of armor.
QUESTION: The most important question is, why are you developing an armor crafting system that will do nothing other than increase the price of armors for the casual SWG player, the core base of your (SOE) product's subscribers?
HOW TO FIX IT:
1) Throw out ALL planet specific organics
2) Throw out ALL NEW specific inorganics
3) Significant reduction in the schematic complexity of layers, segments and final factory produced pieces of armor.
In respect to Fact 1, if you do this, you will REALLY help all existing MAS's who have resource collections. We will immediately be able to produce marketable armors yet the crafting "end-game" will still have a future and the hunt for better organics can continue.
In respect to Fact 2, if you do this, you will again not kill our resource stockpiles (A BIG WIN FOR YOU) and in respect to the statement above, allow MAS's to produce all the new armor with our existing resources which will make the challenge of crafting ALL the new armors FUN. Key word here is FUN.
In respect to Fact 3, this is the major limiting factor in our ability to supply the consumer. Factory time for synth cloth, reinforce combined panels, layers, segments and final peices are unacceptable. The current TC5 makes the Armorsmith profession like WORK, and playing MMORPG's is supposed to be FUN, not work. What you are asking us to do is this:
a) aquire tons of planet specific hides, which we must purchase or trade from rangers, which I understand, this class is being nerfed.
b) aquire tons of new inorganics which will takes months, maybe over a year, to get a decent OQ + Shock shift of.
c) turn our existing resource stockpiles (which are in most cases mininum 10 cpu to 200 cpu resources) into grind.
THE BIG PICTURE:
In respect to everything said, the most imporant thing to keep in mind here is supply and demand. Demand for armor will increase, a lot, due to the class restrictions, however, most MAS's will not be able to supply and keep up with this demand. This is because of all the new resources, the hit our existing resource stockpiles will take and the time needed to harvest/mine the new required resources.
I personally feel a lot of MAS's will not even try, they will quit being a MAS and thus, further impact all of the a servers potential to supply and meet demand. This only means one thing, inflation on all servers, which hurts the casual gamer.
FINAL QUESTION: To the development team, do you really want to do this to your customer base? There is no doubt that armor prices will increase, as I have thoroughly explained above. The current TC5 system SEVERELY limits supply, this will increase demand and there will be inflation.
MY PARTING RANT: CURB is on a time table. I understand it is to be made LIVE with the release of ROTW. It's still not too late to halt this impending disaster.
SOE now has a notorious habit of providing unnecessary changes/nerfs to SWG and ignoring the wishes of their customer base. Why not break this bad habit now?
Holocrons and Player Cities splintered the playing community. This what makes thisgame fun! Finding new players do things with! MAKING NEW FRIENDS.
Slow response to requested profession changes (or complete ignorance in such professionsi.e. Smuggler & Carbineer) drove even more players to cancel their subscriptions.
The Dream of Being a Jedi wasshattered by so many who simply got bored grinding outunwanted random holo professionsand then some who made italso quit from getting into so much xp debt. Some survived, but only themost of the hardcore, diligent and persistant gamers.
PVPis now reduced to gank squads, not the glory days of the REVENGE TEF system. The GCW was made even more boring with that publish, taking out bases just isn't that much fun, ya know?
Armorsmith is aKEY profession to the success of SWG's revival. Don't kid us, this is what you're attempting to accomplish with CURB.
However,unless you address the flaws the current TC5 AS changes will create in respect to supply and demand, the game will slowly continue to die even more. I know this isn't yourgoal.
Please consider these requested changes. It can't take very much coding time to change a formula variable like Lokian Leather into Leather Hide, Carbonate Ore into Low Grade Ore or Kinetic Layer Complexity from an experimented 30 down to 10...
For once, do the right thing the right way...