Artisan Archive

Hello all,

Our recent Dev question/answer has made it clear to me that any fixes/enhancements/changes to Artisan are going to come out of our Top 5 issues, not our Dev question. As the last Top 5 thread (here) got choked with the harvester cert debate, I decided to make a clean break of it and start over. No suggested top 5 issues, just a clean blank slate for you to offer your opinion on what should be on the list.

Please post with:

- What you think should be on the list

- Details about it. Is it a bug? How do we repeat it? What is the suggested remedy? Is it an enhancment? How will this improve 'fun' or playability? What, in some detail, do you suggest?

Or Post with:

An endorsement of someone elses idea. A /vote, if you will.

I'll comment and collect the feedback as it shows up and create a new Top 5 list as part of this post here (I'll edit it). Thank you for your help and understanding.

EDIT: I've included a draft for four of the top five as of 6/16/04. Please comment on the draft and continue to converge on the fifth issue.

Artisan Top 5 Issues

1. Resource harvesting Concerns: There is considerable debate on this issue, as such, any opinion here does not represent the whole community of Artisans[1]. We would like the Devs to have a good hard look at resource harvesting in general. Further, several areas need special attention:
   
   
   
   • Cross server lot trading: This allows an individual to control massive harvester farms, many in the mulitple hundreds, by utilizing 'paper' characters created on the server for the sole purpose of using their lots. Most feel that this practice is exploitive and should be curtailed. Some disagree with this position.
   
   
   • Artisans possess a unique skill tree in all of the professions of SWG: Surveying. This skill allows the artisan to look for resources on a planet and to 'hand-mine' or sample the resource for it's quality. Higher skill levels result in longer survey range and greater sample sizes. We would like to see some further benefit for this skill point expenditure. Given our unique knowledge of harvestable resources, we feel like some bonus to harvester yeilds should be added to the survey line. For example: Survey 1: +5%, Survey 2: +10%, Survey 3: +15%, Survey 4: +20%, Master Artisan: +25%


2. Vehicle Fixes and Enhancements: Vehicles represent a unique product for Master Artisans. While these have been a boon to the game, there are a number of fixes and enhancements we would like to see with vehicles.
   
   
   
   • Autostoring/Storage failure: Currently vehicles will store themselves randomly. We would like to see this fixed. Further, from time to time, a vehicle will fail to store leaving a 'zombie' copy of itself in the game world. As these two are likely related, we'd like to see both fixed.
   
   
   • Repairs not "sticking": On occasion, when one repairs a vehicle at a garage, the repairs fail to stick. Meaning that when the vehicle is called later, it generates in the pre-repaired state. We would like this fixed.
   
   
   • Vehicle crafting/experimentation changes: Currently vehicle crafting lacks any subtlety or difficulty. One merely combines a large lump of ferrous and a large lump of non-ferrous metals together. We would like to see vehicles, arguably our most complex schematic, use components and more varied resources. Further, we would like to see those components (and the final assembly) be experimentable on more attributes than Durability (hitpoints). For example: A Swoop Bike might require: A Repulsor-lift unit, a thruster module, a nagivation computer. The components and/or final assembly could be experimentable for Speed, Terrain Negotiation, Armor(Resists), and/or Durability. Engineer it such that one cannot maximize all the lines, allowing for, say, a fast vehicle that breaks easily, or a slow one that can climb hills well, etc. This would make vehicle crafting more interesting and inject much needed variety into vehicle crafting allowing Artisans to distiguish their wares from other Artisans.
   
   
   • Additional Vehicle schematics: While the AV-21 lootable vehicle was a nice addition to the system, we would like to see further vehicle additions, not just in single use lootable schematics, but also in permenant schematics. Perhaps quest based (like the RIS Armor) or just simply as additional content.
   
   
   • Vehicle customization: While the recent change to double the lifetime of a vehicle's customization has helped, the market for customization kits is still very flat. Most players do not bother to customize their vehicles due to the still too short lifespan. It is the belief of many that vehicles should be customizable during crafting and that any customizations (during assembly or after the fact) should last the lifetime of the vehicle.
   
   
   • Vehicle Deeds: Currently, vehicles use the 'generic' deed used by installations and other items. We would like to see the vehicle deed reflect the vehicle itself in appearance, like droid deeds do now, and reflect the vital statistics of the vehicle. This would allow the shopper to recognize a quality vehicle from a low quality one and allow Artisans to make a 'show room' and display their crafting customizations.


3. Weapon powerup crafting improvements: Currently there are one melee, one mine, six ranged, and two grenade powerups Artisans can craft. Looking at Ranged weapon powerups, the type of powerup (barrel, grip, etc) seems to have little to no effect on the resulting stats in the finished product. The quality of the resources and experimentation skill do factor into the number of stats and the value of those stats, however which stats are present is random. We would like to see a more deterministic system for powerup crafting. The type of powerup should factor into what stats it modifies on the weapon. For instance, barrels only effect range, damage, and recoil (speed), grips effect HAM costs, speed, and accuracy, etc. This would give us greater control over powerup crafting and allow us to more fully leverage what could be a much more lucrative market.


4. Artisan Mission fixes/enhancements: Artisan mission provide much needed income to crafters just getting started. We would like to see some changes/fixes in them. First, currently Artisan missions difficulty level scales with combat ability, not crafter ability. This requires the crafter to either be good at combat or to group with someone good at combat to increase their mission payout. Artisan missions should scale on crafting skill. Second, crafting missions should require the crafter to make a real item, not a 'fake' item with 'fake' parts given by the NPC. The crafter could be required to make a crafting tool, for example, of at least 50% quality (just as one idea). The mission would only assign items that the crafter has schematics for, of course.


5. ?

The [1] footnote in issue 1 is intended to be a pointer to a statement from the harvester cert proponents making their case in a paragraph which will be included with the Top 5 list as additional commentary.

Thanks,

Message Edited by Guruweaver on 06-16-2004 11:29 AM

Can't think of anymore right now...

Message Edited by Aradia1 on 06-13-2004 12:46 PM

1. Improve our experience making powerups. As an artisan, powerups are the frequently the biggest selling items we make. But they are tedious - too much time wasted experimenting. For example, I once spent over 3 hours experimenting muzzles and only ONCE got a useful combination. Make it so that we can select at least the primary attribute. Also make it so that more than 10 can fit into a crate. 25 and 50 are good numbers.
   
2. Improve our vehicle customization kits. Right now, very few people use these because (I think) they just don't last long enough. At least that's why *I* don't use 'em. Make them last some fixed period of time (5-7 days) or some number of "draws" from the datapad (double current), whichever is longer.
   
3. Improve our experience with harvesters. This one is twofold. First, if the harvester will not be destroyed on re-deed, don't make us enter the code number. Second, give us a way to switch the resource being drawn and loot the hopper with "slash" commands.
   
4. JUST SAY NO TO HARVESTER CERTIFICATIONS!!!
   
5. That said, please find an intelligent way to eliminate cross-server harvester lot trading. Note that the most intelligent way to do this might be eliminating the "holo-grind" (eliminate the demand, eliminate the practice). Whatever you do, please don't make harvesters more tedious for those of us who rent lots from on-server characters or have multiple accounts.

Message Edited by HalasterTheBlack on 06-15-2004 07:51 PM

---

Guruweaver wrote:

Harvester certifications will not be a artisan Top 5. We discussed it, we voted on it, it is done.

---

So harvester certification is dead because a few shrills who are afraid of a virtual depression (I still don't see the problem with inflation in an economy where you don't even have to eat) managed to create an overblown panic in the other boards, clearly influencing the vote?The majority of contributing members of our community havebeen pro harvester cert- or miner revival - for as long as I have read the boards.

Why don's we shake up the game a little bit. Why don't we campaign for a skill point seperation between artisan related skills and combat related skills?

Currently, an artisan is handicapped in combat by the skill points that must be investeed --- however when it comes to handicapping anyone economically to compensate for our combat handicap - they yell NERF, INFLATION, GREEDY CRAFTERS.

FINE, if the devs refuse to even discuss anything with us - just remove the wall that seperates us - seperate skill points into combat points available, and non-combat points available.

IF the devs want FULL TIME crafters, then we deserve the same dev time as the combat classes get.

Bianca Minola

1. Fix factories! Since release I think I've onlybeen able to successfully completeone full (1000) runof power ups. Generally experiencethe internal manufacturing error "7" at 200 to 600 power ups (500 is the most common). I run my power up factories 24/7 whenever I can. Usually there's a gap of several hours when they are not producing anything due to the above error. Very annoying and has been around for a LONG time. In fact I believe it only "appeared" to be fixed for 1 or 2 days.