Artisan Archive

I'm not a master Artisan, but I have used the Artisan terminals extensively for gaining crafting experience as well as coin. It's just another grind, but one that pays out in the end. Those funds are what have allowed me to purchase harvesters and such from more experienced artisansto gain the resources to practice the skills and experiment. Good harvesting equipment doesn't come cheap, and it shouldn't. But for the young and new without a real product line to sell on the bazaar (after all you don't get a nonworking vendor until Bus 3), it's a viable alternative for making the coin necessary to even begin to progress in the field.

I hear the argument now "buy your resources." Yep...great idea, using what for coin? Do missions from the mission terminal. I am a crafter, not a fighter. Deliveries are a very poor pay off and destroy missions require some combat skills to avoid paying cloning and insurance costs all the time. Neither one provides any crafting experience. I'll put my vote on the Artisan missions. Surveying missions are a very slow way to earn surveying experience.

I use a survey macro for a number of reasons when surveying, mostly because I have carpal tunnel and it allows me to perform a number of actions with one key selection; it allows me to survey for an extended amount of time without the pc collapsing over AM costs. It allows for the collection of those little items that are needed to practice with, good materials that you are experiementing with, but aren't really sure are worth setting up a harvester for 2 days and chase around.

Now to address a bug/feature that I've heard about and experienced personally. I mentioned a nonworking vendor at Bus 3, well they don't work at Bus 4 either. There is an initializingproblem in the terminal and bartender vendors. They create, they drop, they do not initialize. I've heard of some people managing to work around the issue by pressing initialize on the radial twice, and a couple who placed them multiple times and finally gotten one to initialize and work. Those people were working with higher level vendors. My experience is nil, I have tried everything suggested attempting to start up to 10 of them in a row without one initializing. Are these a chance of success item? Is it tied to that +1 Hiring modifier? If so, do that mean that a new merchant has a 1/100 chance of success?

That out of the way, I spoken to a number of combat types over repairing weapons and discovered they usually don't bother. They just put theold ones in the bank or houseto give to new people and buy new ones. I was the recipient of several of those cast offs when I first started, so I experimented with a few and repairing them. I stopped when I saw the cost. I had a better weapon unrepaired then I had left after the effort. I understood why they just bought new ones.

I'm discovering experimentation is a bit of a joke. It's capped by level and there is very little risk involved in it. Therefore, it's not true experimentation, a newer non-master will never have the chance to create that spectactular item that drives on in their efforts, they will only be able to reach the cap and stop. What's the value, again, the artisan is presented with a non-marketable item that can't compete with the masters. If there is to be risk, there should be gain. There should be the opportunity to go all the way, if you are willing to run the risk, to be able to take experimentation as far as you're allowed points will let you. You should never have to walk away with points still left to spend because you hit a level cap. Why waste the effort after that to experiment, nothing to gain, you've reached all the system is going to let you have.

This brings up another issue....Apprenticeship. I'm laughing my tush off lately, people are paying outrageous sums to teach, upwards of 5k for a chance to do so. Or watching players selling their abilities to learn for thousands of credits. The only market out there is teaching/learning right now. Rather sad that something meant to accent the game play has turned into a blue light special. Perhaps we need Apprentice missions too.

As for a vision of the Artisan in the game. Personally, I'd like to see the caps lifted and the really good be able to rise to the top. Those that work the numbers, use the best materials, and experiment despite the risks. I'd like to see the value cap lifted off the bazaar and better advertising and marketing for those with malls and vendors. Right now the only word out there is an ad on the bazaar and some poor person having to stand in the middle of town hawking his shop. They should develop an easy accessible Vendor listing for those with shops, not some little corner of the planet map, but a true yellow pages for the region/planet/galaxy, perhaps attaching to it the ability to browse some of the wares before you go there. Just ideas.

Thanks for your time and comments.

How about fixing the Artisan vendors? From what I understand the not initialized problem has been around for some time now. It's been reported and tickets opened, but nothing gets done. Unfortunately I don't have the skill points to get novice merchant for a work around.

- Travin

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Like many other merchants I had been having a problem with terminal and droid vendors. I dont know if it was a fluke, but I was able to place 3 terminal vendors in a row by doing a simple step. Previously I had tried about 20 or 30 robot and termials that after being intialized wouldnt let me use them, saying they werent intialized. Heres what I did

Dropped vendor

Rotated to desired position

Intialized vendor

Went to vendor control to see intialize option was STILL THERE (it should be). held menu open a second then just dragged mouse away to close the menu.

Openned vendor control menu a 2nd time to see intialize option is GONE

Clicked to USE VENDOR and it was ready to go and accept items

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I'd like an in game text program that I can cut and past from the game directly into without alt tabbing.

Text format please !!

mainly for survey, resource stats etc.

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CethanDakota wrote:

do you mean that when we are in practice mode we are not suppose to lose our resources still?

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do you mean that when we are in practice mode we are not suppose to lose our resources still? I always thought it was just a way to keep from filling our inventory up with junk..

*shrug*

I am a master arstisan, and I think that the first issueis most definitely the most important right now. Repair tools need to be customer-friendly!

A second issue that should be on the top five is showing actual hitpoints when examining vehicles (also included in the crafting process). I think this may be on the hotfix list, but if it isn't it should be.

I consider numer 4 to be number 6 and this to be number 4:

2. 0% Fail chanse bug. A fail should not occur on experimentation when it shows a 0% chanse of failure.

1. Harvestors should email when they are out of power or resource shift.

2. Vehicles need to show hit points on deeds

3. 0% chance of failure in Experimentation should = 0% chance of Failure.

4. Critical failed assemby's should result in much lower quality product instead of no product at all

5. Some sort of Droid should be created that can handle the operation of Harvestors.

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jexra wrote:

I'd like an in game text program that I can cut and past from the game directly into without alt tabbing.

Text format please !!

mainly for survey, resource stats etc.

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You can use the /notepad command in chat. This brings up a simple cross-character edit window. You can use Copy-Cut-Paste commands in it if you assign those under Options-Controls-Keymap (not assigned by default I believe). Hope it helps.