Artisan Archive

Most of my suggestions have to do with harvesters, some have already been requested:

1) More visible build zones (something toggleable, maybe?). I hate finding that one perfect place where mineral concentration is fabulous, and then finding I can't build there.

2) Allow power and maintenance fees to be put in not just in units but also in time values. Ideally, a way to set power and maintenance both to the same value...if I want to run it for two days and walk away, it should be a one-step process. Now, I have to figure out how much I need and subtract what's in there, and add it separately for power and maintenance. And fix the base-60 power readout (I'm sure that hours are meant to have been minutes, since it IS base 60) -- I'd hate to think I was putting an hour's worth of power into my harvester and have it actually be 60.

3) Make it clearer what better-crafted harvesters DO. All I see for experimentation is the hopper size, yet no matter how good of a harvester I craft, I get a harvester with a 25000 unit hopper. Yet, it's clear that what I've read elsewhere -- that better crafted harvesters use energy and cost maintenance more efficiently -- is entirely invisible.

4) If 2) is instituted, you should be then able to accurately show how much time you REALLY have left in power and maintenance fees, not just the amount you have in there divided by the standard 15, 25, or whatever. You won't have to calculate fractions if you can put 24 hours of each into a harvester. If need be, make the readout more accurate as it calibrates itself.

5) As mentioned, combine the functions onto one bigger display instead of having all the submenus.

6) Someone else mentioned one-shot devices to add, why not just make powerups that you can apply to a deed before planting that last for x days? These can be crafted by a MA.

7) Bring back miner/smelter! It makes NO sense that I can harvest steel. Steel is not a naturally occuring substance. Am I finding the wreck of a spaceship? An ancient civilization? Likewise, how can I mine aluminum?

If even some of these are instituted, mining will be a much more pleasant and less confusing experience. And, it will encourage experimentation more in harvesting devices.

1.) Bring back installation certification. This would probably mean bringing back the mining proffesion. But it could possibly be accomplished with a mix of Survey skill and the architect Installations tree.

2.) Bring an end to macro sampling! The survey events were a good idea, but a macro shouldn't be able to work around them. Plus, survey events need to have a larger return as an incentive to be attentive. Say double what it typically is now? Or perhaps the return on a survey event increases geometrically according to where you are on the Survey skill tree?

3.) Flesh out the experimentation options on more items and increase the importance of various resource stats to makededicated resource collection amore significant in game activity.

*** With the combination of the changes above, I believe it is very possible to make mining (as an activity, if not a proffesion) a full and fun gaming experience.

Addendum:

4.) FIX "resource density too low" BUG on newly spawned resources when attempting to hand sample.

5.) Why are medium installations often larger in physical sizeand more energetic in visual action than heavy's?

Just a few words from one who really likes a good scavenger hunt and makes an in-game living doing just that.

~ Vaid (not Jescentia)

This might be a major change, but...

I'd like to see player-generated missions, player-controlled mission terminals (say, for a large player association), and want-ads on the bazaar.

I might want to hire a surveyor to find me a particularresource (such as power) within a certain radius of anoter certain resource (such as steel).

I might want to commission a white burka.

I might want to do a reverse-auction for the crafting or purchase of the cheapest droid of a particular type.

The list goes on and on. For player-created missions I might have to have a vendor in order to have a 24-hour presence, but I'd go for that.

Have customizable terminals I can pepper around settlements that are distinctive.

It seems the system relies on PCs to do some things and NPCs/system SWto do other things. I think the PCs should be able to do anything an NPC can do, including create missions and advertise them. Stretch goal: give the mission-takers faction points for my guild so I can keep track of the good workers for better rewards.

And, off-topic, why can't I craft a cable or pipe to connect my wind generator to my harvestor 75 yards away? And why can't I have my bank do Direct Deposit® to my facilities?

SB.

This one is slightly connected...

Somehow I got faction points for something I haven't ever heard of, and now I can't trade with many of the people in my city. This is a problem for artisans and maybe we should be able to remove ourselves from a faction using our character sheet. This may just be a bug, I don't know...