Artisan Archive

Not sure where to post this since it pertains to all crafting and since almost all crafting begins with artisan then I shall post it here. I would like to see comments about what people think about this.

I believe the crafting system is still somewhat broken in SWG. I think that with the crafting system being as advanced as it is, it is waaay to easy to craft most things in SWG. Case in point is the new schematics that came out in publish 6. I thought the limited use schematics was a clever way to try and fix SWG crafting. Obviously it didn't work as planned. Within 1 hour of the new schematics being out, crafters were advertising items produced using the new schematics for sale.

Let's start with experimentation since that is changing a little with Publish 7. I don't think there is anything wrong with experimentation as it stands. It is very unique in the MMORPG genre and works quite well. Hopefully some new proposals will keep them from tinkering with it too much until it is broken also.

Now for some proposals.

Inventory Fix:

No person should be able to have piles of resources or factory crates in there inventory. It's not very realistic and it makes it way to easy to make large amounts of any item. This is what factories are for. We should have to use some form of vehicle/droid system to move resource stacks and factory crates from factory to warehouse and back to factory or from harvester to warehouse/factory. Whether it be a new vehicle to be made or a Binary Load Lifter Droid to do that work. No one person should be able to move 100k stacks of any resource by just picking them up. And since there is no weight encumbrance on stacks of resources or any items then it is a feasable way to fix this. I will address the "Well then how would we craft" issue in this post also. No resources should stack in anyones inventory. This will prevent people fom sitting and grinding with 500k of resource in there inventory. If you are a scout and harvest from 10 animals and only have 10 slots in inventory then you need to go to your warehouse to drop off goods or load them into your vehicle/BLL droid to carry them for you. Backpacks should be limited to carrying items not including stacks of resources.

Warehouses:

We should be required warehouses for storing factory crates and resource piles. Everyone is using houses, droids, harvesters, merchants, and factories to store factory crates and resource piles. Architects should be able to make us a warehouse that is specifically for storing items. It should cost a large amount of resources to make and should sell for a good amount of credits. But it should also hold a good amount of resources/factory crates and not take up 10 lots. It could be very similar to Medium house but wide open with architecture so it is more of a warehouse. It should be a tall building so you wouldn't have a BLL Droid bumping his head while arranging items in the warehouse or loading them on to a shipping vehicle. You would need to be inside this warehouse to craft items so that you are near the resources that you need to craft. When you open up your crafting window, a list of available items within the warehouse are listed for you to use. This would be limited to those people with admin rights to the structure. This will also make it so in order for you to become a crafter of any sorts, you will need to befriend a crafter with a wharehouse. This will add apprenticeships to the game and make it more interesting for Master Artisans of all sorts. This will also put a serious damper on the grinding aspect of the game. It is too easy for anyone to run some newbie missions and acquire enough credits to get going and get themselves a harvester and start grinding any of the crafting professions. If you do survey/sample resources, they should not stack in your inventory. They will only stack into a pile in your warehouse. You would need a crafting station in your warehouse to be able to craft your schematics there.

Apprenticeships:

In order to become a crafter, you should have to be apprenticed under someone. This promotes interacting with others in game and a teaching/learning system. There are enough Masters in this game currently that SOE could remove all trainers and allow masters the right to grant Novice to someone who wants to be a crafter. This could go for all professions in game. If the Master chooses then they could charge for this. Currently in game anyone can completely solo there way to Master anything and never group with another person in game for any reason. Yes it would take a long time to do that, but it is very possible. That is not what MMORPG are about. This would would really help the RP part of the game also. As a crafter, I would sponsor a Novice and teach that person how to craft and allow use of my warehouse for them to craft. They could craft you some needed things from there part of the tree as payment.

All this would also promote there being new classes to the game.

Miners:

Miners would be those that gather resources. Many in the game have taken up this trade as an enhancement to there main class. It has flooded the market with resources of good, bad, and horrible qualities and made it so one has to essentially either pay an arm and a leg to get good resources or hope to find a spot on a good resource to place there harvesters. This has become a huge game inbalance. Surveying should be ripped from the artisan tree and harvesters should only be usuable by those that choose to be miners or farmers. Miners use Mineral/Chem/Gas harvesters and Farmers use Flora/Water harvesters. They should be the only ones allowed to place harvesters. The harvesters would require use of a vehicle/droid to empty them and replenish with power. They would be required a warehouse to store the stacks of resources or power. They could sell there resources to crafters or merchants by pickup or delivery to there warehouses. This also could open up a new class of cargo haulers. They use there vehicles to pick up and deliver resources and goods and deliver them to those that purchase them. They could also make use of the Space publish and have things delivered to other planets.

Farmers:

Farmers are those that harvest Flora resources and also should be able to raise creatures for harvesting. The creatures would be able to be released into a holding pen from there deed and there they would grow to adult size and be harvested for various things. A farmer could get animals from either a creature handler or a bio-engineer. There resources when harvested would be listed as Domesticated resources. If a farmer is a meat producer then he would want animals that produce better meats, like avian or herbivore. If he is a hides farmer he would want better hide type animals. A milk farmer would want some milking type animals. An animal holding pen would have to be made by an architect and would take up a certain amount of lots according to the size. it would work like a factory that you put flora resources into it to feed the animals and power in it to keep the ray beam* fence up. (*the artwork is already in the game when you initially place a structure). Each holding pen is limited to how many animals it could hold. A farmer would harvest from the animals according to the current resource shift. When domestic milk is good then he harvests milk, if that week the milk is low quality and that week he might get a good quality domestic meat from them then he harvests the herd for meats. This is the risk a farmer takes. This would make for some more interaction between BE and CH classes to another class. Farmers cannot handle creatures outside the holding pens. If they release a pet outside a holding pen then it is released to the wild. Harvesting of the animals could be done by a scout or by the farmer if he has enough into scouting to harvest/milk. Farmers should be the only class in game allowed to place Flora harvesters. They harvest from there flora farms using a vehicle/droid just like miners do with mineral/chem/gas.

How does this help the crafters you ask? Well, it will help the crafters by making good quality resources available to them without anyone having to spend every waken hour waiting on good resource shifts to happen so you can actually get room to place your harvester on it. You will get your resources from those that chose to gather them. If you chose to be completely independant you will not be able to maximize on gathering resources because that is what a Miner/Farmer/Ranger does You will also have more lots available for warehousing and factories and the ability to really craft items and not worry about how your gonna get the resources to make them. This will also bring some credit balance to the game. It is seriously unbalanced that a fighter class can harvest resources and make millions with very little into any crafting class while crafters struggle to get resources or spots on resources just to make the few items they can craft and have to sell them for tremendous amounts of credits to help make up for it. You would still be able to harvest power by using a wind/solar harvester as a crafter. Fusion harvesters should only be usuable by miners/farmers.

Please post any comments/concerns without flaming myself or anyone who posts here.

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Richie
Master Droid Engineer - Master Artisan
Eclipse - Bestine, Tatooine
Westside Mall, -1947 -3644