Artisan Archive
Thread: Devs Questsions from their Artisan Response
meant to say more......
This opens up a whole door of possiblities. Just in this one area alone. There are so many items and customization that could be added that the entertainer class would jump on to buy. Different cuts of dresses, types of suits, Tuxes, styles of shoes, all needing decay. So we can then craft more. Just something to think about.
Sorry at work - cannot elaborate to much,
Rasorow
Ok, a couple of suggestions:
1) I like the idea of harvesters alerting some how the player when they run in to problems, factories do, why not harvesters.
2) Why is maintenace paid in money? If it is someone coming by and performing maintenance for you, why do you have to go there? You should just be able to pay at a terminal and they go out and do it for you.
If you are supposed to be "repairing" the device, I think it would be better to use resources to pay for it rather than money. Either say 4000 points of overall quality from a mineral (allowing the artisan to pay with 100 40 OQ resources or 5 900 OQ resources), or have them actually make parts on occasion.
Droids going back and forth could be really good, but it is the least impressive because it doesn't fix the realism issues (Yes it's a fantasy game, but I like some internal logic thank you very much.)
Uklei-Yuma wrote:
In fact I wouldn't mind seeing some more effect on a critical fail...like destruction of that crafting tool or damage to the artisan. Considering we're wooking with metalworking, explosives, munitions, and other hazardous materials...an artisan would get hurt sometimes (at least lose the crafting tool).
This is one of the more entertaining things I've seen in a while. One of my frequent statements is, "I never wear armor because the crafting tools haven't attacked me yet." Well, hey, why not? My HS shop teacher only had three fingers left on one hand. Looked to me like the crafting tools got him. There needs to be a much more significant differentiation between higher and lower quality functionality on tools though. Something more in line with what we see with repair tools. Something with a -25 TE rating should be critically failing almost every time for anyone with less than three levels of either Engineering or Domestic Arts.
Other things, unrelated to the above comment:
I'd like to see some more high volume, low expense items which can't be produced in factories too. These could help out the lower level artisans by giving them an equal footing on at least a few products. Now that fishing gives survival xp, there will probably be more of a market for fishing poles. But the main thrust of the player economy is still in two areas: guns and armor. Repair tools are a bit hefty resource-wise for a low level artisan to make. They also cause more weapon and armor decay than just about anything else in the game, which is ironic. I'd like to see weapon and armor maintenance tools. Experimentation should be allowed for charges only. Success rate should be extremely high regardless of the level of the crafter. Somewhere in the 85% to 95% range. And manufacturing schematics should be impossible for them. As it stands, players who actively maintain their weapons will have them destroyed in less than half the time of someone who ignores them. The maintenance tool would alter this a bit. Right now, the best thing is to check the weapon and when it's about to fall apart, repair it. That's horrible maintenance.
I'll use a weapon to illustrate, since I don't wear armor. The weapon is damaged for 50 points or less. If you successfully use a repair tool, all you do is drop the maximum condition down to the damaged condition. So for 50 points of damage or less, the maintenance tool should be used. For 1 to 10 points, you'd lose 1 point of max condition. 11 to 20, 3 points from maximum condition. 21 to 30, 6 points off of max. 31 to 40, 10 points. 41 to 50, 15 points. If it's damaged for more than 50 points, you switch to the repair tool. This way, being obsessive about maintaining equipment would be rewarded, and result in higher product movement for maintenance tools.
As for the randomness of powerups, I guess it doesn't bother me. If someone wants to build and sell whatever shows up, they can do it more cheaply than I can when I take specific orders for a certain effect. I think more splitting of effects for melee weapon powerupswould be good, as per the multiple divisions of powerps in the ranged category.
As for the artisan profession itself, a master is no more proficient than someone who has Eng. 4/DA 4. They just have a few more schematics. And of those schematics, control units, energy distributors, power conditioners, and micro sensor suites are the only things that ever seem to get ordered, and those only about once per month. Oh, and Micro Sensor Suite schematics will always mess up before completing if they're produced in a factory. They're kind of a mess to produce. So the distinction isn't as pronounced as some people seem to believe it is. I've focused on master artisan rather than anything above that, and have continued to make between 10k and 30k per day from random sales and filling requests as I walk around town with my WEDTreadwell and its built-in crafting station (Thanks, Epav). It's been like that ever since engineering 2. I know it's more of an issue in the specialized professions, but that's an issue for the specialized profession boards.
Because of the above statement, I don't think much needs to be altered as far as the mechanics of the profession itself. But people having trouble should perhaps talk to more players. Creature handlers seem to need a lot of food and probot owners seem to go through copious amounts of droid batteries, for example. I saw someone say there was no market for these, but it's there. If there were a change to be made, I'd suggest allowing us to sacrifice a schematic in order to get a single schematic alteration point(SAP). Then when a crafter gets an amazing success in experimenation, and has a free SAP, pop up a window that asks "The experiment went better than you'd hoped. Do you wish to alter your schematic to take into account what you've learned? (Cost: 1 Schematic Alteration Point. Once allocated, this point cannot be recovered without sacrificing the entire schematic.)" So if someone was making a crafting tool andapplied a SAP to the effectiveness, they could then push the quality up by one more point. This could allow people to focus on specific products. Giving the effect of experimentation successes beyond what is possible without alteration.
Of course, this might be more of a coding headache than you want. Certainly more than you want before fixing many of the other issues in the game at the moment. And the effects of alteration points would need to cap out at some point. Maybe at 100% experimentation value, maybe slightly higher, if someone puts in a lot of alteration points. But not capping it would be a mess. I do think, however that if someone put many alteration points into a single schematic, it should be possible to reach the 95-100% experimenation range even when using less than ideal materials. It would just mean they sacrificed the knowledge of making one item in order to refine the techniques on another. This method could perhaps also be used in the specialized professions in order to more widely vary the crafters and allow a bit more niche marketing. But then one of the devs mentioned that schematics had to be altered individually, so it doesn't sound like the current system is geared to be friendly to this sort of change. I won't hold my breath, but I think it's a good idea for an eventuality once some other things are cleared up.
Crafting UI:
I like the idea of merging some of the final screens. But on the other hand, I wouldn't be at all upset if it were left as is. As has been mentioned, the incessant clicking is the art in the artisanry. A half-dozen clicks sure beats spending a week with a soldering iron and a PCB for example.
Harvester management:
No way this should go in the datapad. No way! Put it in a droid. Allow status checking. Power addition, hopper cleaning, and probably maintenance all need to be done manually. If you don't like doing this frequently, pay a lot up front and dump in a bunch of power. There should be a droid data module that allows you to see the status page of any harvester for which you have administration priviledges, or at least any which sits on your own lot. And in addition to this data, a single line: "Active:" and the appropriate word, yes or no, to indicate whether it's still harvesting. Checking the hopper and seeing how full it is is part of the physical part. But sticking everything in the datapad is just too easy. I mean, in the movies, this sort of thing is exactly what Owen Lars was out doing with Luke in the first place. He needed droids to help run his moisture vaporators. He wasn't out looking for a new datapad tab. The ability to see build zones probably belongs in a droid too. Storywise, they'd have an internal map and surveying computer they'd use to determine the build zone. But that's just my opinion. If you had the droid with the surveing module with you, it could cause a layer ofblack blocks to blot out the terrain graphic. With the percentage numbers being red, bluish-gray and white, they'd still be visible on both the terrain and no-build areas. So you'd have the droid nearby and use the survey tool the same as always. Sort of like a crafting station for surveyors. Perhaps it could allow a slightly wider survey range as well.
Hedron Baht, Mos Eisley, Lowca Galaxy.
Master Artisan/Master Shuttle Passenger
"A loading time ago...on a galaxy far far from stable..."
Devs, please, please, please think about this one! I would wholeheartedly support this and would definitely jump at the chance tobe one of the first people to place a vendor in town if I could do so. Thanks for listening!!
Waho wrote:
More hats.
Target practice droids, like Luke uses to learn the lightsaber...little round things that float about and shoot at you, but never DB...cos it's practice...maybe a small amount of XP for "beating" it...which doesn't destroy it.
Fishing lures.
Fake armor.. It looks just like real armor but is much easier to make and offers no protection.
Tracking device. Paste a target with it then you can call up a waypoint on their location until the device's "battery" runs out.
TUXEDOS!
Bionics. Offer small increases in stats based on the bionic appendage.. IE-bonus to burst run and terrain neg with bionic legs, the offset being a penalty to Stamina. These are permanent because your real appendage needs to be amputated to have a bionic installed....can only install in Med Center.
Nemoidian Dog House!
I just had to post in regards to Waho's excellent ideas!!!
YES! More head-gear is a definitemust!
Target Droids would be a great way for crafters, some of who don't get out much or don't like running destroy missions, to get combat and weapon experience!
Bionics would be very, very cool! Droid Engineers should be able to craft it and, frankly, several of the main characters from the movies had bionic hands and body parts, so why the heck shouldn't we? 
Maybe Doctors should be the ones that could or would have to "install" the parts? And I agree with Waho, they should only be allowed to be installed in the Med Center. Maybe turn the upstairs into the "Surgical Ward" or something? No one seems to use it for anything.
Nemodian Dog house, you say??? I want one! My pet gnort has no where to sleep. 
Poor, poor Ernie. /sniffle
Wow thanks for the direct reply Sithstress 
The dog house suggestion was tongue in cheek because so many people were complaining the Nemoidian birdcage had no use 
But yes, Artisans definately need more "cool" things to craft, not just useful stuff.
Waho wrote:Wow thanks for the direct reply Sithstress
The dog house suggestion was tongue in cheek because so many people were complaining the Nemoidian birdcage had no use
But yes, Artisans definately need more "cool" things to craft, not just useful stuff.
Hey no problem on replyin'.... You had such dynamic and way cool ideas, I just had to let you know! Way to use your head, Waho!
I agree about we Artisans needing more schematics and useful, by this I mean demanded by or used frequently by non-artisans. I also think that, perhaps, it would be nice for the schematics to tell us what each componant piece does for the unit. The reason I bring this up is that I've noticed that sometimes you can take an educated guess about some componants but others, it seems to me that it's just hit and miss if you put the right material. What I mean by this is the is say one of the schematics says you need 10 units of metal for "tools". How am I to figure out whether Copper, Aluminum or Steel is the best one for that slot other than making three of the same item, one with each of those metals? I know, I know, that's all part of making something, right? I agree that there should be some degree of unknown in crafting but I think that calling a componant item of a schematic a little more than the object being called "Tools" would be helpful. I don't think wasting my resources to figure out whether Copper is best for "Tools" of some schematic is really something I should be spending time figuring out. Does anyone else agree, or am I waaaay off base here?
Thanks fer listening!
On this point I believe everything that is used should decay.
This means crafting tools, survey devices and anything else that you click on.
Is there a market? Definitely, I sell 14.94 crafting tools to other crafters all the time, either because they are not master artisans, or they do not have access to the materials I do. In particular I sell a lot of food and chem stations to smugglers and doctors who often have little or no artisan skills.
Also as an additional suggestion, electronic items and their crates should reflect some sort of quality number similar to that of crafting stations and tools. This will open up a market in master artisan created components for other crafters (armorsmiths, DE etc).