Artisan Archive

Korcid said:

"but grind and dump hurts the economy and thereby everyone in the game by introducing an externality (GCXP and UXP) into the balance the economy would otherwise seek. This, more than anything, ruins the immersion factor for me playing as a crafter."

Bingo, and thanks for the thoughtful response. I started playing on July 4, one week after release. After running around to get my bearings for the weekend, I was seeing people with skillsets I thought were way out of whack for only a week. After reading these boards and several other sites (I didn't participate in Beta) I learned the concept of PLing and grinding, and realized that the hardcore gamers were going to put in twice or three times as many hours playing as I was able to. Ugh. For the next couple days I put the grind on so that I wouldn't be left so far behind.

Then, as I started to head out to do some more interesting missions, and grouped up with people and became a little less isolated, I realized that this isn't a race. I've waited (like many of you) forever to be able to play this game, and live in this universe. I've relaxed with the chase of levels, and as a result I will be enjoying this for a very long time after the uber-geeks have made MasterBator by macroing and clicking their way to a title. To them, they look for the new capabilities, the new skills, the new buttons to click.When there aren't any more, they'll get bored and leave. Says something about how terribly short attention spans have become,I think.

As for the economy, I wouldn't worry about it. The galaxy is not even a month old. How long has it taken the former Soviet Union to stabilize itself? Has it really even done so yet?

Just wanted to say thanks and give my support to those that are posting about maintaining good quality! I am a novice weaponsmith but also cross trained in scout and marksman. So, I do a lot ofmissions on and off to support my crafting. It also helps to be fairly skilled in a weapons as you are traveling the countryside retrieving from harvestors. (Oh, and is it me or does it seem like they are spawning more reds around these days....)

It's easy to see that much of what is on the bazaar was the product of "grinding" and not "crafting". Those that are grinding out without attention to the best metals, petros, gasses, gems might be a little ahead of the curve, but as some of the previous posters have stated, they don't know JACK about making a good weapon. There are many subtleties built into the crafting lines. I am learning a ton about making a good weapon by taking my time and experimenting with different combinations of resources.

DEVELOPERS: One thing to consider is to give experimentation points based on the quality of products put out. I also think it's harsh to have to start out novice weaponsmith with one experimentation point. Why not allow experimentation points to accumulate based on their usage in the past and the cummulative difficulty points and quality of products produced over time. By throwing them in the separate branch of the weaponsmith tree you are encouraging "grinding". Not discouraging it.

Personally, I see two arguements.

First Grinding:

A lot of you people disparrage those who grind, but really grinding isn't a crime. The person who grind may grind for many reasons, and it's those reason that matter. If you grind to dump 100 sh** quality CDEF weapons on the market place, that's an issue. If you grind and burn your crap so you can make quality stuff, who get's hurt from that. I've been grinding my way to Master weaponsmith for about 2 weeks now, and will be done here in a week or two. That is when I plan to start making money. Why? Because I believe quality counts over everything else. And I may not have many loyal customers when I get to master, but I can assure you once people find out I'm a master weaponsmith and I make good stuff for reasonable prices, my reputation will spread.

Second Bazaar Pricing:

You guys complain about your weapons not selling for a good enough price. Well you gotta consider this fact: Any money even a 5 credits made at the bazaar is a profit until you master. Why? Because you're making stuff to level, not to get cash. Once you master then you can worry about making the cash. I've been a master artisan for a couple of weeks now, and I have no problem selling my wares at prices I set. I don't charge alot, but consider the effort. I can make a factory set of something, and it takes maybe 300 credits of factory production cost, maybe 1k of materials cost, and 10 minutes. I can sell those electronics for 200 a unit, and make 20k. Tell me what other profession can make 20k of credits with 20-30 minutes of effort? So you don't like the bazaar, talk to individuals. I sell about 2-3 components on the bazaar every 3-4 days. I sell about 100-200 components every 2-3 days from bulk orders. Do the people I sell bulk to think they're gonna get what they want in the bazaar? Heck no. Remember also that the bazaar has a max of 3,000 credits, which means you shouldn't expect to get more than 50-100 credits for even the best CDEF weapon.

Toddek Talor Master Artisan - Weaponsmith of the first rank (400k of materials to mine)

So, in your opinion, the game doesn't even start until you are a master weaponsmith? That's a stupid way to design a game, don't you think?

The intent of the developers was for the player economy to be viable for ALL levels of players from the start. Grinders and people who "craft for XP and not for money" not only destroy this, but they destroy the immersion that the developers were seeking in designing the game. Why? Because it's just not Star Wars to "craft for XP". We don't see scenes of Anakin making hundreds of suits of bone armor to destroy them, do we? We see him working on droids because it's his job (OK, actually he's a slave...). Watto is not trying to level up - he is trying to make a living.

People who are complaining about the grind and the absurdity of the current market are very correct in doing so - from this perspective. Not because it's too hard, but because grinding is too easy. People who have ground their way to elite professions have stopped me on the street in Theed to ask the simplest questions that anyone with ENG III ought to know the answer to. I have a strong complaint about this situation for four reasons:

1. It's not Star Wars
2. It's not good for casual players
3. It's not fun to grind and destroy
4. Success is based on mindless clicking rather than intelligent gameplay

All four of these fly in the face of the design goals for the game, so my hope is that they will be fixed. Without thoughtful discussion about these problems, there is no way they will be fixed, and SWG will become just another MMORPG.