Artisan Archive

Sorry for the n00b questions but after all, that is what I am to SWG

With surveying 3, what are my chances of finding metals with 900+ OQ?

Does sampling higher quality stuff increase my XP per sample? (because I've honestly never done anything so boring in all my MMOGs)

If I were to create a sampling macro and go AFK for a while, is there any risk of me getting into trouble? (see above question)

Thanks for any help. I wish there was a sticky FAQ on this forum so I wouldn't have to ask such questions, but alas, there is none.

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Galo wrote:

Sorry for the n00b questions but after all, that is what I am to SWG

With surveying 3, what are my chances of finding metals with 900+ OQ?

Does sampling higher quality stuff increase my XP per sample? (because I've honestly never done anything so boring in all my MMOGs)

If I were to create a sampling macro and go AFK for a while, is there any risk of me getting into trouble? (see above question)

Thanks for any help. I wish there was a sticky FAQ on this forum so I wouldn't have to ask such questions, but alas, there is none.

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Your chances of finding OQ+900 metal is the same as anyone else's. If the metal is on your planet, it will show in your tool. If you find it, you can sample it (except for right after it spawns, but that's a bug). If you can sample it, you will see the same qualities as anyone else who does so.

What surveying at higher levels allows is for you to survey at greater range, and to pull up more units per cycle.

No, the quality of what you sample does not matter for XP, but don't worry, surveying XP is the first thing you are likely to cap out anyway.

Sure, there's a risk. If you're AFK sampling in an area where monsters might spawn, you could certainly be aggroed and killed.

How come the items that I have a choice to survey in my mineral surveying device seem to change every day? Makes it kind of annoying when you set a waypoint for a sweet resourse spot, then come back the next day and you don't even have the option for that resourse in your device. Today I couldn't even survey ANY copper or aluminum. Is this a bug or what??

Resources only exist for between 5-8 days (randomly determined). So any waypoint has a limited 'life' and the resources listed in your tool will change regularly.

I believe swgcraft.com has an up to date list of all the resources on each planet on each server (the servers dont share the same resource patterns) but obviously no one know quite when a resource is going to vanish (but if you find a resource today that wasnt there yesterday you know your going to have at least 5 days use out of it)

OMG, that is so assinine!!!! No wonder resourses cost so much at the bazaar. I could go for having a resourse become depleted after taking so much out at a certain location but having it just disappear just doesn't make sence to me. Could someone explain why it is done that way?

Its done to promote equality among other things. It stops a player placing harvesters on all the best spots and dominating the market because no one else can extract that resource (in the same quantity)

It also promotes the economy. If you can store some really good matierials up and wait until there is a shortage (of good quality material) you can suddenly have a product that is very desirable and exclusively available from you (unless someone else had the same great idea). In addition theres the chance that a better material will appear in the future which will make your products even better (when combained with another resource you saved lots of when it was available)

This is also one way to simulate the depletion of resources. They could set up a dynamic method of keeping track of each location on the planet, track the average rate of extraction of nearby harvesters and dynamically change the amount of materials. Of course dont expect to do anything else since the computing and database resources would preclude anything else.

Or they can use a simpler model like making it time based. After so much time for a particular resource passes, recalculate resource patterns across the planet and changed them.

Ok, I understand what your saying, but let me explain my view on this. I didn't pick artisan as a profession to be a prospector. I want to build and sell things but the way it is it looks like I have 2 choices, I can either spend half my time every few days looking for a source of resourse with good quality or buy it on the market. Prospecting isn't very exciting to me so I don't want to do it all the time, but what I've found is that if you buy on the market, you can't sell the finished product at a profit. Someone else is usually already selling a lot lower because they either have a source of the resource themselves or have no understanding of the concept of selling at a profit.

Where do you go to get the resource list?

Well people selling at a loss is a problem regardless of other factors, but it is true to say that those who mine their own resources probably have lower overheads than those who buy their resources (because the guy selling the resources has already included that same overhead and some profit for his trouble in the cost)

Botton line is that if you want to sell your products you either need to minimise you costs (and running your own harvesters is one way to go) or make your products better than your competition (so yours will sell at a higher price simply because they are beter - and the shifting resources helps make this easier if you put the effort in)

Unfortunately you cant really have your cake and eat it, you cant 'opt out' of mining your own resources and then complain about the fact that you cant sell as cheap as those who do mine their own(notwithstanding those who just sell at a loss - these guys are usually grinders and thing that usage xp and a small amount of cash back are better than the 10% xp bonus that practice mode gives you)

The only thing I'll add is that I get the impression you are still gathering resources by sampling using your survey tool - if this is the case you are aware that you can buy (or make at Eng II & IV) resource harvesters that mine for you?