Artisan Archive

Grind been set.

Grind is a problem in some areas of SWG, but not all. I didn't have to grind Artisan. I was able to sell everything I made, though it took time.

The problem really starts when you hit the elite professions. There are items you literally can't sell, and thus you have to grind up to certain skill boxes in order to make your first sale.

I haven't had to grind yet, but its a slow process. If you want fast results you have to grind.

Speaking for two of my Artisan characters, The only reason we grind is there is no viable economy for Artisan level items. I have tried the bazaars, even using others' vendors, to no avail. The only people that seem to buy from Artisans are the elite classes needing parts. The game would make more sense if items that were useful were craftable by Novice to Master Artisan. Maybe then I would have to practice on 10,000 soft undershirts!

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BiancaMinola wrote:

How do you define 'grind'?

Is grinding a problem in SWG? Why?

Do you grind? If so, is it the way you like to play, or an efficent means to an end?

Bianca Minola

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Grinding: IMO this is doing a repetetive, tedious action for no reason other than to gain XP to level up.

Is it a problem in SWG, in some professions yes, other professions no. I've been working on both Scout and Artisan for weeks. I was finished with Scout in 2 weeks just by running missions and using the skills. The only "grinding" I did was to use more traps for a few days to finish off Trapping 3 & 4 while running missions. What also helped was I could use my scout skills while surveying for resources to complete my artisan XP by harvesting off of aggros that had attacked me, sample resources while healing in camps (I bet that ability gets taken away eventually) and hitting nests I happen to pass by for hides/bone for my artisan schematics.

The main problem (also touched on earlier in this thread) is that the artisan schematics have been rendered mostly worthless on the Bazaar. Crafters grinding out crap products with crap resources then lowballing the rest of us on the bazaar is a huge problem. For instance I found some REALLY nice Copper on Naboo (900+ conductivity 900+ OQ) that lets me pump out CDEF weapons with 30+/60+ experimented damage equipped with powerups giving them 40+/70+ damage. Because there are artisans out there selling CDEFs with the unexperimented damage of 18/38 for 50cr the new players won't buy mine even at 100 credits. HOWEVER I've taken to giving my CDEFs some creative names and can sell them for 200-300cr regularly but not in any decent quantity to pay for the harvesters I used.

Additionally I've crafted some personal harvesters with a base rate of 5 or 6 units while some turd on Bloodfin is selling outright garbage (2 unit rate) in Keren for 300 credits; which is less than a cost of 3cr/u of resources used in making them. Its an outrage.

Starting a vendor for artisan gear is just not viable as a business model. Its expensive and there isn't a high demand for our products outside the Master schematics.

Because of all this there is no way to "play your way up" thru the skills like you can with combat professions and Scouting -- you simply must grind XP then move on to an elite profession. In other professions just by playing you gain XP. With Artisan you can't craft and sell to make a living on your way up the XP ladder. Grinding is the only option.

I think it can be fixed by moving some higher level schematics down to the 3 & 4 levels of Artisan. The DH17 Carbine, DL44 pistol and a similar rifle (I'm not a rifle user...I don't know what the "equivalent" is) could be given to the Engy tree as well as making bone armor a little more useful, more color options for closthing and a few more "stylish" clothing options for the DA tree (food buffs would be great if food actually worked properly).

Also I mentioned in another thread (http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=Development&message.id=764708) that some changes need to be made on the Bazaar and Vendor waypoints on the map in order to really make the biggest difference to the artisan profession. I'd recommend we get some of those ideas heard by our correspondent and whispered in the ears of the devs.