Armorsmith Archive

Before I get into the guts of what I want to say, this message is obviously directed towards the devs and also all of my fellow armorsmiths.

First of all I love galaxies. I have been playing since day 1 of release. I have played 4-5 characters and have 2 accounts. When I first started playing I wanted to be nothing less than a bounty hunter. I remember running (no mounts or swoops) from bestine to jabba's palace, anchorhead to bestine - all the time. I enjoyed every minute of it. I got to novice BH and quickly realized that it wasn't for me. About that time I got my first holocron and began the hologrind - I even enjoyed that. After the 3rd holo - i got combat medic - that was the end of the hologrinding for me. I then switched servers and started over to play with a group of real life friends (which have since quit). They wanted an armorsmith, so I decided to take up the trade. At first I did it just to give free armor to my friends. Soon after getting into the grind of armorsmith I quickly fell in love with the profession and vowed to become one of the armorsmith greats. It took me almost a year to get on par with some of the top armorsmiths, but I did after countless hours. I had a notepad that I would take to class with me and plan out my next armor runs and what I would need. I would skip class to get that prime colat spot. I have my homepage set to swgcraft.com. I even spent 3 weeks at work (boring job) writing a program that would alert me when a resource popped up that was better than the one's I had. I use that program to keep a huge spreadsheet of nearly all the resources that have spawned on my server since. As obsessive as it might sound, I sometimes schedule my real life around my factory runs. Even my 2nd toon is simply a support character for my armorsmith. Ieven have dreams about crafting armor, getting RIS components, and mastering the mando bunker. At one point I got a little bored of the game, picked up World of Warcrap. After 3 days I quit that because it had no depth, and promptly got back into SWG full swing. SWG is the 1st and only MMORPG that I think I will ever play, as I won't pick up another one after SWG.

I don't believe I am the only AS like this out there. I take immense pride in my 12pts and my RIS certification. This has been the only game to captivate my full attention for this long.

I am terrified of this upcoming "Combat Upgrade" I have been very optimistic about it. In fact, I didn't eventerribly mind the switch from OQ/SR to OQ/UT (Since the switch actually makes 75% of my resources better or about the same), although I was against it because I knew how much it would hurt other smiths. I definately like most of what I have heard about the whole thing, except obviously the armor system.

I will freely admit that I am in the dark on what is fact and a what is rumor (which is probably my#1 concern), however I will list my main concerns, and what I wish to see happen.

Concerns

1. "Dumbing down the armor crafting experience" - For the sake of all that is holy - NO- make it more complicated than it is now. Change the formula's around, make us relearn the profession.

2. Resources - They define my existance in the SWG world. Changing this is like chopping my head off and handing it to me. By all means - make us use more resources - don't take away what we have worked so hard to build.

3. My 12 point suit - The crowning experience of my whole SWG career was putting that suit on for the first time and knowing I had joined the ranks of the elite smiths. Please, please, please dont take that away.

Requests

1. Inform me of what is ACTUALLY happening, and the reason behind it. That way I can be more receptive to change.

2. I think you should actually double our experimentation points, and have 6 lines to experiment with

a. Durability

b. Appearance

c. Special Resistance

d. Base Resistance

e. Weight

f. Range of motion

or something like this list - How sweet would this be - talk about complicated. I would have to play for a year just to figure

thesystem out (Thats more money for you SOE - hint hint)

3. I'm not fond of the armor certs Idea - Makecertifications for wearing armorconfined toweight/range of motion/appearance... etc That way all species can wear some form of all armors - although ones can obviously wear better armor. Even have skill tapes maybe that people can get to increase what they can wear, or something similar(or not).

4. Don't nerf our resources, just add to them if you wish - I'm game for that and would welcome it.

5. Don't nerf my 12pt suit - PLEASE

Again, much of my concerns are just rumors, and thats the problem.

I know this is a long winded post, but It has become a great concern of mine. I will repeat the fact that I love this game. However I have cancelled my automatic billing and put both my toons on game cards. I eagerly await the CU and pray that it doesn't make me quit the game. Should what I *think* is happening, actually hits live, I will be done with SOE forever. Furthermore - I will go out of my way to never purchase another sony product as long as I live, because I will be extremely bitter because it would ruin my favorite game of all time.

Some of you may think that I need to get a life after reading this post (although you couldn't be further from the truth) but I actually am that passionate about my armorsmithing.

P.S. A post earlier talking about new AS not being able to get into the business. One word - Apprentice. I bet there are not many armorsmiths that would deny an apprentice and teach them. I am looking for an apprentice now to make some of the less popular armors for my vendors - in return he gets some resources, my know how, and to sell under my banner.

well said. i only just got to the point where i could hang with the big guys, was so proud to match some of the best armor being made on my server, i had been doing the combat thing for a very long time, and now, when i was just getting set up they are pulling the rug from under us. i will pay for all my accounts till may 5th, but after that, if this game looks in live what it looks like in test center, im selling my jedi account and my AS account will either be canceled or sold for maybe 10 bucks on ebay, since it is force sensitive.....

i dont think i could start another mmorpg after this one, at least not from SOE, would hate to get as far along as i have here and be nerfed back to noob two years into it.

lets hope this next week brings sweeping changes to the CU in beta

baube