Artisan Archive

It seperates the serious crafters from the dabblers. I like it just the way it is. I almost always get3-4 stats per powerup. Use 950+ OQ resources, and use 1 experiment point at a time.

Most WS/AS that take up MA just so they can make their own control units would be classified as dabblers. DE's to a certain extent are too, because all they need are the GPs and EMMs in bulk (plus most of the other components, but to a far lesser degree). Earlier, I was refering to the dabbler powerup makers. You see a lot of them about - vendors with max stats at 20% or so and completely useless selections.

FWIW I run a big powerups vendor. Never less than 500 crates on there at any one time, all at a minimum of 32/16% stats etc. I don't try to get a third stat. If I do get one, great, but there's really no point in it most of the time. 8% is barely a scratch for most stats - particularly the HAM costs. It translates into a +0 or +1 modifier to them. I've run Max dmg/min dmg/health combo on my krayt republic blaster and the health stat is pointless there, and just as pointless on the krayt FWG5 too. Makes no difference at all. So if your only wanting to take schematics with 3 stats, you're really wasting your own time on making something that has zero effect in the end. I would highly encourage you to grab one of these powerups and grab a weapon and put it on there to see the effect. You'll see that third stat is almost alway negligable - maybe an increase of a point or two in the appropriate stat, but never anything huge. Think of a power hammer or other high-damage weapon. 5% on a min dmg stat of about 130 or so means +5 extra damage. In the end, that translates to almost nothing when it comes to hitting an object with the weapon.

When I make power-ups, I always use as many points at a time as possible, but routinely get the third stat with the final points. So I don't see why using 1 point at a time would make a difference. I see it as just more risky, as well as taking longer.

I like it the way it is right now too. With time and effort comes reward. Sure it's frustrating at times when you don't get the stats you want when you want them, but that is what makes getting what you want more rewarding. Power-ups are a good, specializedmarket imho. I believe that being able to choose the stats we want would diminish the market some, maybe alot. Providing power-ups won't be nearly as rewarding if everyone can easily make the most popular ones.

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Sunakk wrote:

When I make power-ups, I always use as many points at a time as possible, but routinely get the third stat with the final points. So I don't see why using 1 point at a time would make a difference. I see it as just more risky, as well as taking longer.

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I just tried it using the 1 point method, it works. Like the above poster said its riskier but when you make a good one you make a good one

I wont try to make powerups unless they have 4 modifiers now.

/agree

It would be nice to have some influence on the type of powerup you create, rather than the actual modifiers being random in nature. High quality powerups should still be rare, but a bit more control over the process would be a good thing.

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Animi wrote:

Accordingly, I try to keep them stocked. When they are in stock, a 1000 unit run sells out in about 2-3 days.

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Your prices are probably too low to support the effort required to make them. Don't beg for a nerf, just raise your prices 20% a weekuntil you are happy with the return. You will probably find that your gross sales (in credits) actually go up for a while, and your profits per hour invested will soar. When you firstfind that you are not having to research a new schematic quite asoften as you would like, then you have reached your ideal price point.

I like the current system, it means that really good powerups will usually be scarce enough to command a good price. Sure, there will be newbies selling them for a couple hundred credits every once in a while. But they will get bought up soon enough, and mine will sell for serious cash again.

I rarely see a dry spell of more than a couple of days. The newbies who got a lucky draw don't seem to come back once they sell out their first batch, and I don't begrudge them their quickharvester money.

What does irritate me are the fools that sell completely worthless powerups (2% on one stat). I am sure there are players out there that were completely turned off on powerups because their first experience was with one that did nothing for them. I am much happier to see good ones going cheap and generating new customers for me next week when the bargains are no longer available.

I actually will not make special-order powerups for this reason anymore. When I first made MA, I thought it'd be a great way to make a little extra money and get my name out there. The problem with special orders is that it takes SO much time and SO many resources, that in the end: you're lucky to make any money at all. Unless, of course, you managed to mine the materials yourself. Every time I've made powerups though, I've had to buy the materials at around 5cpu and it's way to expensive to burn through 1000 units of resource to get the stats you want, if you ever get them at all. I can always get great random stuff, but it's the specific things like a speed/max damage combo that will have you tearing your hair out. **edit** powerups.

I rarely get special orders for powerups anymore, simply because I've been doing it long enough that I know what the most common requests are and always make sure to keep them in stock. Here's my rough list (doing it from memory, not in-game right now)

Ranged:

Max dmg/Min dmg
Mind/Min dmg
Action/Min dmg
Action/Speed
Speed/Min dmg

Melee:

Action/Speed
Action/Max dmg
HealthSpeed
Health/Max dmg
Mind/Speed
Mind/Max dmg

If you have that always in stock, you'll barely get a request of custom orders as it caters to every know weapon weakness out there.

I sell mine at 2500 per crate across the board, and make at least 500k per night this way, and up to 1mil on the weekends. I havent made anything below 33.16% / 16.33% since I stockpile 990OQ or better mineral and chem whenever the resource spawns. The difference is small, but I am always stocking hundreds on my vendors, and the smallest percentage matters to alot of customers. If minute stat changes didnt matter to customers, why would they spend at least 100k more for a Krayt weapon has has only slighty better stats? I only wish that master artisans could maybe make the decay less on their powerups, that would give a good benefit to MA's products besides vehicles.

This Isn't exactly about the Challange.... but I used to make 33%/16% powerups in the past with lesser matierials but now with OQ 990 CHem and OQ 989 Metal highest i can get is 32.83% / 16.17%. Anyone have an idea as to why i can't seem to break the 33% mark anymore?

If I make a powerup and nobody buys it, I'll usually end up being the one who uses it. I go through a lot of powerups this way...

so who are the 10-12 Master Artisan Powerup dealers that you know of with a name? just wondering. im sure it's not me because i've kept my business kinda limited to people who try to find it.

There is also something i found to be very interesting. I have come to the hypothesis that chances for a certain combination of mods are related to both the type of resources, as well as the other stats (not just OQ). I've noticed that if i use a lot of oil, i get lots of ideal ranged secondary mods with grips. and if i use a lot of fiberplast, i get more speed mods when in conjunction with copper. I have wanted to do some research into this, but have yet to get the urge to do so.