Artisan Archive
Thread: Focused Discussion: Artisan Wishlist
I agree with Barnabas about a resource map. I don't think the Devs realize how hard it is to survey for andkeep track of the various resources, catalog them, place the harvesters and try to remember (two or three days after you surveyed them all) where the heck they all are! I am sick and tired of drawing little maps or taking long notes about where X petrochemical is so I can go back and put a harvester there if needed.I am also disgusted withfollowing a trail of Y non-ferrous metal only to have it bottom out at 45% and having run out to the middle of no-where for nothing. And why in the world am I not allowed to survey from my mount?! Hmm... let's think about this, I can shoot my DX2 pistol (but not do any "special" shots) while mounted but I can't hit my survey button which, realistically speaking, I think is much less complex than aiming and firing a blaster! *huff-puff* Okay, sorry about that. Here's what I'd like to see:
1. Either a resource map, a resource surveying probe droid or a long range survey tool. I love these ideas. I realize that surveying is supposed to be difficult but with as often as the things shift I can not keep track of them all! It is too time consuming! Please devs, give us a little break here, pretty please?! Even if we can't work this into the game, could you at least give us some kind of in-gamejournal tool or something? I'm getting carpal-tunnel disease from constantly writing notes, stats, locations and percentages of resources down.
2. Please give me more space! My hoppers on my crafting stations are full to the brim, my house is littered with resource containers, my factories are overflowing with resources, and my bank safety deposit box is gonna explode from too many resources. I liked the idea of being able to have a lot or two extra for industrial storage. This would not only benefit me as an artisan but Architects as well as they will have something new to build. I'm not just talking about a building do drop my resource containers in either. How about a building with say, six hoppers or storage devices in it that you access from a terminal and pop up like the harvester/factory hoppers so that I can organize my resources. One for each kind of resource type: Flora, Fauna (meats and hides), Mineral, Chemical, Gas, Energy, etc. That would really be useful... and it wouldn't clutter up my house. 
3. A secondary "backup" resource or command for our harvesters. How many times have I gone out to a harvester I've placed and the resources shifted anywhere from 10 mins to 5 hours after I placed it and the thing sat there idle.... eating up my hard earned credits and power. That annoys me to no end. I should be able to tell the thing okay if X resource runs out, collect the next highest percentage of Non-ferrous metal that pops up.
4. Resource shifts - To be frank, they shift too often. Let's be a little realistic for a moment, shall we? I know we're talking about a game in a fictional world but come on... resources that shift every seven days or so? That is rediculous. How often has copper or gold shifted on Earth? Certainly not every seven days. I'm tired of wasting money on picking up a harvester and moving it over 2 or sometimes 3 kilometers to get certain resource. It's a waste of not only my time but my money... and, frankly, I think it's kinda annoying. *shrug* Why not put the resources on a two or three week timer? Would that really screw things up?
5. Master Artisan - I don't feel that this is a skill worth working for or using up skill points. Of the limited number of schematics I received upon taking MA, two, if I'm not mistaken, were worth using. The rest are filler and a waste of space. Never once have I ever sold a Nemodian Bird Cage. Never. When Irushed to look at what I had gained uponachieving Master Artisan I sat back and said "This is it? This is what I've grinded out experience for?"Please either add more schematics that are worth while to make - whether they be to help other professions build larger items or items that could be considered luxury items like decorations for homes (someone noted statues, paintings, a larger variety of plants, trees, etc) and vehicles.
6. Please don't make any more professions! No miners or master surveyers or even mechanics are needed!The Artisan and Droid Engineertrees are sorely lacking in things worth while to create and sell as it is. Why give the schematics that could make having Artisan, Master Artisan and Droid Engineerworth while to a whole new profession when you could beef up the existing professions, make them more appealing / usefuland you'll avoid stretching our already limited number of skill points out even further. If you do decide to make these new elite professions, lower the skill point cost on the existing six starting professions so that we may create more well rounded, talented and valuable characters.
Okay so that's my schpiel. I hope my ideas aren't too far fetched and radical and are actually helpful ... And if it's not too much trouble, rate my post if you think my ideas are good please. Thanks!
I have a few things I'd like to see also:
1. I agree with stacked schematics in factories. I can easliy set up several runs, preload a fac and go Do something else.
2. I also agree with the power ups. There has to be Some control over the results. I have used the Exact same resources on the Exact same schematic and gotten different results. I think that as you get higher in Artisan Engineering you should get more control over the outcome of a crafting session.
3. I also agree with the item 'examine' option showing more info on an item.
4. High capacity crates. Many items are considered 'small'. Crates of small items should be higher counts than 25. Like foods a chef can make, the higher your skill, the more items per crate. In a chefs case, for a 25 item crate, he removes an item and gets a stack of the items. I have had this happen for droid batteries. Same resource cost, but 3 batteries per 'extraction'. This or a higher count than 25 per crate.
5. Better repairs. Using a repair tool ANYone is supposed to be able to perform repairs. I've ruined too many things with a high quality repair tool. How about advanced repair tools OR repair tools that USE raw material to perform repairs. The tools are 5 shot right now. But I have heard More horror stories about their use. *IF* they are NOT meant to be used by Anyone, then they need to be certed to keep people from trashing their items trying. Now that decay/insurance is turned on, we need a better repair system or options.
6. Yes, I agree with the survey while mounted. Also, another survey range for Master Artisan. At one time I saw another range choice on a mineral survey device. It went away shortly after that. but 320 is what you got for Survey IV. Also in this category, I agree that survey devices have addons or experimetation, Or both, that will give higher ranges than the defaut. And if a tool gets too damaged, reduced capability. Fair is fair. But this will give me a reward for trying to use better materials. And the range increments should work like certs. If I make a survey tool and hand it to someone with survey II, they can gain the benefit of increased range for the range increment given by survey II. This way there will be a demand for higher grade artisan tools from lower level artisans and from those who have Not mastered artisan but have gone on to the artisan based elites.
7. Resource crunching. There should not be an artisan in the game that doesn't have small counts of resources that are useless to them. An idea that I have seen proposed is an item that allows you to feed in a type of resource[mineral, chemical etc] and have, at a loss, the items turned into something else. One idea could be radioactives. Feed the items into a fusion generator, or converter,and have the output as fuel for harvesters etc. This will at least keep us from deleting at a loss the small counts and create another toy to play with. Make the item a Master Artisan schematic.
8. Although this idea is more along the architect range, the idea of remote access to harvester status is still an idea I would Love to see. The components for this should be artisan based. That way artisans can contribute Upstream to the other professions. Essentially, more add on modules for the elites to use.
More ideas as they gel.
Spryte - Master Artisan / Master Architect - [Haven] City of Haven - Corellia - Scylla
5 - Have you tried repairing next to a high quality crafting station? I have armor technique 4 and I usually seek out a quality 30 or higher station before repairing anything. This works very well for me. I nearly always get only "minor blemishes" when repairing armor this way, and even when repairing weapons I only get "minor blemishes" when I repair next to a weapon crafting station.
6 - At first I was pretty certain that surveying would be unbearable unless permitted when mounting. Having played on TC a bit I feel slightly better about it.
HOWEVER from a SOFTWARE QUALITY standpoint I believe it should be permitted. Why? Because players will make macros like "/dismount; /pause 0.5; /survey; /pause 0.5; /mount;" and simmilar macros for crafting and such...
How does this relate to software quality? Because it INCREASES the frequency of incidence of bugs that detereorate the play experience. In other words by allowing players to make more passive actions while mounted they take HIGH PROFILE /dismount & /mount bugs and make them much more bearable.
7 - I'm glad you like that
I think smelting / distilling (and your breeder reactor example) would be a great feature. It might have an appropriate place in a new "miner profession" but I would gladly take it as a skill exclusive to Master Artisans 
Zuplancer wrote:
As Master Weaponsmith i craft Powerups regular, and hate the random stats while crafting to create a schematic. Give the Master Artisan the chance to select the stats he wants, as from a master worth for.
i fully 120% agree.
Saitek wrote:
This is far fetched, but I really wished my survey device would tell me the quality of inorganic/organic it is surveying. Its able to tell me the name, so why not anything else? It would really take the "hunt" out of finding resources, but it would save a lot of time.
That's kinda the point of sample
I have a little wish list regarding crafting tools and stations:
1. Some prominent indication of whether you're standing/sitting close enough to the crafting station for it to work. There are ways to tell but it's too easy to be just out of range and not notice until too late. Maybe a different color border or background on the crafting tool window would be nice and obvious.
1a. A sweet way to do this would be to do some sort of crafting-like animation on the character and the station when it's working. I guess this would have to be done in a way that doesn't look too weird when multiple people are using the same station, though.
2. Some indication, during the crafting process,of theeffectiveness of your crafting tool & station combination. It's a bit ofa pain to carefully examine not only the resources but the tools each time. This might solve #1 above at the same time. I know this is the kind of knowledge that is sometimes guarded jealously by those of have it, but I don't think it would kill anyone to make it clearer.
3. I just thought of this, so don't shoot me if something like it has already been added to the game since I last tried this about 6 months ago =). Double-clicking (or at least right-clickingand choosingUse) on a crafting station in rangeshould automatically start a crafting session with the best compatible & available (i.e. not busy)tool in your inventory.
-Rim
Continued from my earlier post.
7: A way to add resources to a factory in bulk. Either having them accept a backpack full of resources of a way to add as a group of items. Ack. Trying to make a completed weapon with crates of Subs and raw materials takes a lonnnnnnng time. Especially if you have multiple factories and are dooing multiple runs.
As I browsed down the replies, I was formulating my wish list, the I saw MegaMako had created it exactly as I would of.
I'll have a double order of what he said
Lot rentle is a good idea but have the lots being sold by an Npc and not from other pc's. And the one thing that astisans as well as their elite feilds could use is storage space either in a utility building or some other space made ready for such.
And for surveying I'll let you guys sort it out.
How about factory droids? All it would take is a droid module. To keep the architects happy, make them work at oh, say 1/3 the speed of a regular factory and of course only while you have it out.
More clothes. Especially attractive women's clothing that isn't so slutty.
O-Jen
i am seeing alot of suggestions that want droids or something of the sort to run your harvesters, the things is if you could get droids to do your work you wouldnt play as much. we need to realize that Artisan is a low level profession, if we worked to say a miner profession then maybe remotes and messages could be implemented. we need to look at it from our own as well as the devs veiw. but anyways my suggestions: they sorta fall under a miner profession.
1 - a miner profession. lot increasesonly forharvesters. mods to harvesters. range increases.
2 - a message saying that the harvester isnt operating would be nice.
3 - a small increase to the max range of a survey tool to say 500m. (for artisan)
4 - a warehouse would be sweet. architects could craft shelves and we could put the crates on them. there could be an inventory control list on the warehouse menu.
5 - a mechanic profession would be kewl. branching off engineering. this would probably come out when more vehicles are available. vehicles more advanced than the ones we have now dont really fall into any profession we have now. this sorta ties in with SE a new profession should be made branching from engineering. to build spaceships, would require a great amount of skill, and could combine architect, DE, WS, and AS
architect would handle the interior or the ship from furniture to control consoles, DE's could make droid to repair stuff like R2 in lukes x-wing, WS's well for weapons, and AS's for you guessed it....armor.
it would be the first profession to combine the most professions. you would have to combine a few profession to make a ship.
im sorry i cant wait for SE, i dont know how far away it is, and i understand that there are other problems but i just cant wait. like a fat kid waiting for the candy store to open.