Artisan Archive
Thread: A Casual Gamer Tries to be an Artisan
Thanks for the comments, Plier and the rest. They're well thought out and good brain food.
I totally agree that it's more fun to play a character with multiple professions. I played my other character for the first time: a Scout/Marksman/Artisan/Medic. It was ten times more fun than playing my Artisan character. Gaining xp was not only easy, it felt natural. There was certainly no feeling of a grind - very different from going straight up the Artisan tree.
However, many players want purely Artisan characters. For roleplaying purposes, Nautilo wants to be a pure artisan and, at some point, make droids. So the question remains, is there any way to makesingle-profession charactersas fun as mixed-profession characters? Because you're absolutely right - playing multi-prof characters is WAY more fun. So when Holo says that pure Artisans are choosing to play suboptimally, he's not slamming those characters... he's recognizing that players want to have characters that just "make stuff" and have no interest in going out and killing things. He wants to meet that demand. That's what entertainment is all about, eh? Fun for everybody.
So Nautilo's going on the shelf for awhile until the Devs come up with a way to make that kind of character more fun, especially to the casual gamer. If they don't, then Nautilo's going to be sitting for a long time, and that's a shame, because I think he adds richness and character to the galaxy. Right now, the galaxy is diverse in scenery and avatar appearance (and, of course, player personality), but skill diversity is less than I'd expected because it's not as fun (oreffective) to play a specialized non-combat character, particularly for the casual gamer.
Good thread, great ideas.
I'm one of Nautilo's friends trying to role-play a pacifist crafter with a "casual" amount of time, and my frustration is exactly the same. At this point, I see this style of play rather broken since I'm not "playing" I'm doing the game equivalent of data-entry. I grinded hard to get to Engineering IV only to find that my dream prof (DE) is so far away that the obstacle (28,000 XP) seems insurmountable. I'd like to see more things like power ups, short-term items that need to be replaced frequently.
I'm sure things are going to be worked out to make this style of play accessable, and I look forward to the change. I just hope it's sooner than later, cause Loligo is rather dead in the water right now...
I don't understand why the roleplayers are so unhappy. Isn't it logical that it would take a while to become an elite artisan, which droid engineer obviously is? Roleplay and enjoy your character. The XP barrier helps to limit the number of elite professions out there. If everyone is elite, it ceases to be elite.
Argent D'Azure, Artisan Extraordinaire, Theed, Naboo, Flurry
Yes, there are ways around it. Multiclassing is the solution right now. It also breaks a serious amount of potential role-playing variety. Having characters that don't like fighting in the SW universe is interesting and makes the game experience more robust. I know that I can solve all my problems by adding a few more skill trees and going out into the wild. I'm going to do that, and have fun doing it,but the point is that there's potential here that could be (and most likely WILL be)tapped with some minor changes...
Loligo wrote:
But it seems that the only way to advanceAT ALLas an artisan-only character is to grind grind grind...
Are you saying "AT ALL" or "AT BREAKNECK SPEEDS"? I agree with the sentiment that if everyone was elite, there'd be no more elite.
Sure, I want to be a very skilled artisan (right now I'm working towards WeaponSmith) and I realize it's going to take me a while to get there.
I just hope my girlfriend realizes that too :-)
If you want to only develop artisan, then you're going to be dependant on other peoplewhile still at a "low level." Heavily dependant.
The weak link here is not the game. It's this dependancy on other people. Face it, you can't rely on people to do what you want, when you want, and how you want. That's just plain not realistic. It seems to me that Sony has tried to make the game so that you don't really have to rely on people when you're starting out if you don't want to. However, people will start needing each other once you get in to the higher skill sets. The best thing you can do is to control as much as possible how dependant you are on other people, identify the ones that you need to work with, and develop a mutually benificial relationship with them.
Wow, cooperation. What a concept. I seem to have no trouble getting what I need. I earn my money. I pay for services. I build stuff. I gather resources. In short, I'm doing everything any reasonable conception of an artisan can do using the tools that the game system provides. More importantly, I'm having fun.
I've been slowly loosing my temper in reading these forums over the last week. People, it's not rocket science, it's a game. Too many people are crying out to be spoon fed instead of just simply looking at the system and figuring out how they can work within it. I'm not just talking about this thread now. If the level of crying that I'm seeing now while everyone is still in the early stages, I shudder to think of the level that will happen once people move in to the higher skill sets. Boy, some people are gonna be mighty sore when they find out they can't go off and do things without being in a well rounded team.
It's your choice how you play the game. If you're not happy, then you're probably doing something wrong. Don't blame, punish, or otherwise try to make your problems my problems. That is neither fair nor socially acceptable.
Plier wrote:
Frankly, if anyone is having trouble it's simply because they've chosen to limit themselves. If you want to only be a crafter, that's fine. Just realize that you're not self sufficent and have freely chosen not to be. You'll never be able to undercut the prices that a more rounded crafter will be able to deliver. I can garuntee that I'll be able to sell anything I make for less than everyone else for two very simple reasons.
1. I don't *need* the money
2. I don't care if I ever sell anything ever.
That's because you are not an Artisan. You don't enjoy making things to sell! You do it for exp. Eventually though you will have to surrender some skills and choose your ultimate path I guess. I don't expect it will be as an artisan because you don't *need* the money. The whole profession revolves around money! And not money that comes from destroy/delivery missions; money that comes from what they craft.
I don't feel the Artisans Profession is well balanced (game mechanics wise). The lower level artisans have now become less useful where as all the other professions still have use for their low level skill sets. For example, a medic can sit around healing people in a medical center without a bio-engineer stepping on their toes. For artisans, an engineer struggles to make quality gear while Weaponsmiths and Armorsmiths undercut the prices of the engineers piddly CDEF's and Bone Armor items with their advanced wares.
That said, the bazaar is still broke...
A PA gets around that through an organizational approach. Thanks for the idea!
I do realize its difficult for more casual players to make friends, and complete deals. Dont forget your friends list, ask other professions what the need, and what they want. If you sell, say 500 high quality wheat on the bazaar, ask the player who bought it if they want more! I have found the bazaar to be great for selling minerals and chemicals, and can easily make enough money to keep the harvesters running, with a bit of change left over, but remember: crafters look at the quality of the resource, so find the highest quality stuff and it will sell.
Plier, I understand the frustration with crying on these boards. I don't mean to come off that way, because really,I'm having a great time playing this game. I'm just playing with other characters when I'm having fun. My problem is not that I don't understand how to "optimally" play the game. It's that I think the rift between optimal, and sub-optimal is too large.
It's very clear to me that where it's breaking down is a combination of 2 things. One is that Artisan-only is, as many have pointed out, VERY dependant on other players who are doing other things. Thanks so much Steus and others for the suggestions on how a casual gamer can solve that problem. The second restriction is the role-playing of a pacifist character. Much of what you can make is centered around combat. The game doesn't appear to support that type of character.
I really appreciate all of the thoughtful feedback on the issue. It seems that most are saying "things are as they should be." This may be true and I just can'tplay the character I was hoping to when I first starting reading the boards 2 years ago. My feeling though, is that things will be very different 6 months from now, and getting issues out now is important...
No no, my fault. Lost my temper and really shouldn't have.
I'd think the the best thing a person can do if they want to role play a pacifist crafter is to get in to find a really good guild and get in to it. The interdependance among the professions is minimal right now, because everyone is low skill enough to where they can feasably train everything they need to in order to get along. In another month or two, I suspect it'll be greater.
Best thing to do as a non-combantant I would think is to establish some solid business relationships in the game with people that can supply you with stuff you can't get yourself. Probably mostly just meat, hide, and bone. You should be okay then. Hardest part though is going to be making up the capital. The reality is that as a starting crafter, no one will want to buy most of the things you make. The exception to that will be the crafting kits, which other new players will buy . . . but you're looking at a pretty slim profit margin. Other than that, delivery missions will probably be your bread and butter for a long time.
But I'm just guessing, as I'm still pretty much self reliant and combat orientated.