Artisan Archive
Thread: Question thread for Wendesday, May 19
Guruweaver wrote:
1) Can we get some enhancements to weapon powerups? We would like the enhancements to include: better control over the type of powerup (speed, HAM, damage, etc) either by type of powerup, resources used, or experimentation, and possibly Damage over Time(DoT) powerups (disease, poison, fire, etc).
I vote for #1. This is a useful and more likely mod to get sooner than later. I know that I would get a great deal of repeat business. And, if it makes the purists happy, I'd be willing to agree to this option being a Master Artisan advantage. The lower skill trees could still make them but not 'get it right' everytime.
Just my thoughts
Spryte [Haven] - Haven - Corellia - Scylla
Master Architect / Master Architect
Dabbler
Guruweaver,
I think the one you added, #7, should be number 1. That was the first thing I noticed as an artisan...that I would start off with these difficult survey missions and spend lots of time trying to locate a resource, then when I did I didn't get the reward because it was too close to where the mission terminal was. Maybe you can include in the proposal that when the resource can be found within that too-close range the mission isn't given out. I don't think that's too much to ask.
I think the search function thing isn't really an artisan issue...it's more like a general gameplay issue. Everyone would like a search feature. Buyers maybe more than sellers. Here's my artisan bazaar issue: Rank the items according to quality when you browse bazaar. Weapons based on damage and speed. Tools based on their quality and so on. Harvesters based on their quality so that folks don't have to scroll down through 100 BER 4 and 5 windmills selling for 6k to find the BER 9 one that I'm selling for 5k. Premium auctions at the top, though, regardless of quality. Folks pay for it, so it shouldn't get just an asterisk.
How about another request to make the whole of master artisan a pre-req for the spaceship building profession. After all, these are space vehicles...and it's the artisans who make the vehicles. Also, think about all that goes into a spaceship...complicated electronics. Tailored seats. Dining areas and probably food. The sorts of things artisans make. Let's ask the devs not to just use our engineering line for this exciting new profession.
Please don't make the vehicles question one of our top 5. Maybe it can be 6 so that harvester certs can make the top 5?
Why are vehicle repair tools needed? They have maintenence done at a garage. The mechanism for vehicle repair is already in the game. This seems like a red herring to avoid focus on our hottest topic: Harvester Certs.
What do you mean by inequity in elite crafting professions' dependence on master artisan components? Whatever elite crafting profession needs artisan components will just keep master artisan unless they're already rich. Get the resources...run some factories...no need to buy from the artisans as artisans at all. Of course I'm doing the same thing. I took novice tailor so I could make synthetic cloth in a wearables factory and not have to buy stacks of 25 for 3k each. Of course, I don't have that kind of money anyway....
I actually LIKE the way weapon powerups are now. I like the random nature. Because it means you have to be willing to sit down and experiment a while...be a real artisan...to make the schematics for the powerups. Folks who would rather be playing their combat characters and not spend time getting nice results won't be the ones selling the powerups at the bazaar or on a vendor. 
And that may be the reason the devs made it that way.
My one request of you Guruweaver is that you put harvester certs in the top 5 somewhere as a concern of an unascertainable percentage of the artisan community with reference the the recent thread "Master Artisan, the Welfare Profession?"
Guruweaver wrote:
7) (I added this myself, hey, I get a vote too, right?
joined42904 wrote:
What do you mean by inequity in elite crafting professions' dependence on master artisan components? Whatever elite crafting profession needs artisan components will just keep master artisan unless they're already rich. Get the resources...run some factories...no need to buy from the artisans as artisans at all. Of course I'm doing the same thing. I took novice tailor so I could make synthetic cloth in a wearables factory and not have to buy stacks of 25 for 3k each. Of course, I don't have that kind of money anyway....
I want to reitterate my position on this. I am not saying there is too much dependancy on Master Artisan, but the opposite. Too few professions have the dependancy on Master Artisan that Droid Engineer and Architect does. (Although, I'm willing to let Armorsmith slide because of the heavy dependancy on Tailor).
People that want Harvester certs are looking for a reason for others to spend the skill points for Master Artisan. In a way, this is the same goal however the result is the end product (master artisan parts) are being sold rather than the resources to make them.
Javelincatcher,
I hope they will consider changing artisan missions. Not to make them more desirable than crafting. But to make the novice artisan experience at least semi-decent.
Try starting a novice artisan on another server and stay on your starting planet. Watch what happens. Now pretend you don't have a clue about powerups and weapon repair tools as most new players don't.
My artisan didn't become fun to play until an experienced player took me under his wing and told me what would sell. I was also given 1500 units of 998 conductivity copper. Not everyone will have this experience from an older and wiser person helping him or her out.
The artisan missions do need to be tweaked so that you can at least get materials to grind with. And folks aren't going to buy crummy powerups when someone with good materials is competing with 33% powerups. Or that's my experience. You need high percentages. Because powerups aren't for the low-level person running missions. They're for the high-end player in PVP or soloing the toughest mobs in the game. Of course I'm still relatively new so I don't know.
Too many of the things artisans sell are "buy once and have forever" items like crafting tools, etc. And I have yet to see a vehicle decay, though I hear that one hit from the right mob can destroy one.
Regarding the missions...I would say that they should make the novice artisan experience not too terribly difficult if they stay on their starting planets. Just like everyone else's starting experience.
joined42904 wrote:
Try starting a novice artisan on another server and stay on your starting planet. Watch what happens. Now pretend you don't have a clue about powerups and weapon repair tools as most new players don't.
I've got a Master Droid Engineer on TestCenter, built him up from nothing in order to test the DE changes of the last two publishes. TestCenter,I would consider a bit more diffficult economy to work in than a "normal" server.
My artisan didn't become fun to play until an experienced player took me under his wing and told me what would sell. I was also given 1500 units of 998 conductivity copper. Not everyone will have this experience from an older and wiser person helping him or her out.
Yea, I know the feeling. Back in September, when I started out it took me a long time to realize that the schematics told you what was important in materials.
The artisan missions do need to be tweaked so that you can at least get materials to grind with. And folks aren't going to buy crummy powerups when someone with good materials is competing with 33% powerups. Or that's my experience. You need high percentages. Because powerups aren't for the low-level person running missions. They're for the high-end player in PVP or soloing the toughest mobs in the game. Of course I'm still relatively new so I don't know.
It's been a while since my business revolved around power-ups. When it did, I saw that the Ranged power-up market was saturated....but Melee wasn't. In fact, I was the sole provider of Melee power-ups for some time in the Theed area on Gorath (loooong time ago). My point is that if a market is saturated, change and see what is not provided. If everything is readily available in your immediate area, move on to another area and try there.
Too many of the things artisans sell are "buy once and have forever" items like crafting tools, etc. And I have yet to see a vehicle decay, though I hear that one hit from the right mob can destroy one.
Crafting tools decay. I would say that the majority of Artisan items are truly consumable (if decay for clothing worked). The only items I would say that are "buy once and have forever" are harvesters.
Regarding the missions...I would say that they should make the novice artisan experience not too terribly difficult if they stay on their starting planets. Just like everyone else's starting experience.
With the "new player experience" R2 Helper droids, it's changed dramatically. It gets credits into the hands of newbies as well as giving them the instruction needed to get started. Create a character on TestCenter this week and try it out. You'll be surprised.
Message Edited by JavelinCatcher on 05-19-2004 08:25 AM
The only item in the game that is buy once and have forever at no cost is a droid with crafting stations, storage and/or medical module.
They work without batteries.
They don't decay.
joined42904 wrote:
If crafting tools decay, it must be over a very long time. Because I have been using the heck out of some armor crafting tools and they're still around.
that's because you don't fight.
Each time you die, your not insured stuff decay(except droid, and maybe what's in them).
After something like 20 death, the tool is useless.
Decay is not involved at all with crafting.
And it's good the way it is.
I meant decay through normal use. The sort of decay that ordinary maintenence can forestall but not prevent.
And is it just me, or does anyone else think that the first week or so of use on new condition items shouldn't require any "maintenence"? The way the system is now, everything from harvesters to vehicles must be lemons because it's broken before it's used really. A brand new wind harvesting device or solar energy collecting device...immediately fails before it needs maintenence.
I actually see this as a newbie artisan issue because you need credits to get the resources you need to advance and with missions so crummy the credits are hard to come by. This would be another way to help starting artisans. And it might make new harvesters worth more since they won't require maintenence but would require power.
If the devs aren't going to give us new missions, perhaps they would at least give us this to make starting out a bit easier.
Regarding that poll going on in another thread regarding one (and curiously only one) of the artisan's issues...that of harvester certification...it should be apparent that (1) anyone can claim to be a master artisan and (2) there are vested interests in the status quo that have nothing to do with immersiveness or good game mechanics.
The current number of characters allowed and number of lots per character...along with current administrator rights on harvesters...make matters very easy for folks doing cross-server lot exchanges and run massive numbers of harvesters.
Also, I would imagine it's a lot easier to run an ebay business selling SWG things if you have say 60-80 lots on 6-8 different servers selling resources. There's no game mechanic to diffenentiate this person using 80 lots for harvesters from friends loaning their lots to craftsmen in their guilds.
There are also a lot of people who don't want to give up a "source of income" if you remember the posts of the BH and commando correspondents.
I still don't understand how anyone looking at the certification issue objectively and not in their own self-interest would come down against having certification required for at least some harvesters. Or is it right that every TKM/Master Commando should be a Master Miner too?
I learned something I didn't know previously in the discussion of certifications. That there had once been a miner profession and that when the miner profession was discontinued the devs just let everyone mine resources. I fully concede that a miner would probably be a boring profession to play. And I'm not sure I'd be a miner unless I had to be. But I don't think the absence of the miner is a "good enough" reason for a complete lack of certifications whatsoever on harvesters.
We see the result of no harvester certifications if we just roam around the countryside looking at all the harvesters in the landscape. Some of those harvesters are mine. So I'm contributing...I know. I would like to know statistics for each server as to 1. The number of people who have logged into that server in the last week on a per account basis and 2. The number of structures broken down by type that are on the server. Because it looks to me as if the harvester to person ratio is a bit high.
It's up to the devs what kind of game they would like to have. But the lack of harvester certification is a serious issue that I hope is at least formally brought to their attention. I don't think we can come up with five other real issues that are more important on average to the entire artisan community than this issue. I certainly hope that "vehicle repair kits" and whether vehicles will be taken out of the artisan profession don't make it into the top 5 questions/issues if harvester certifications don't.
Every profession that requires harvestor components are medics, scouts, doctors, combat medics, smugglers, jedi, bio-engineer, ranger, chef, tailor, armorsmith, weaponsmith, droid engineer, entertainer, musician, architect, and artisan. Thats roughly 1/2 of all professions in the game. So 50% chance anyone has a profession that requires harvestable resources.
Limiting harvestors limits resources. My analysis of professions requiring resources says there is a 50/50 chance any person in the game needs resources, so demand is enormous. When supply does not equal demand, prices go up. All this would accomplish is an insane price climb-spiral, that would put the price of most goods out of reach of any non-crafting profession, which in turn forces EVERYONE to be a crafter, which means everyone can harvest, and we're right back where we were but we had to suffer an across the board price hike. STUPID IDEA.
Jassi,
The solution to this is to allow some sort of limited certification for every profession that requires resources on at least personal harvesters with efficiency BER 1.
This would let any profession that needs resources acquire (at least) the resources that they need. But if you don't use chemical resources, then no chemical harvesters for you and so on.