Artisan Archive

Couple of comments on Resource Accumalation

(Note not depletion or vanishing resource -- the goal is to successfully harvest resources -- unfortunately we do not make the rules, so until they change -- adapt to them and make them work for you -- not against you)

I agree with most everybody that things are not quite right yet (please see the tons of other threads with people complaining about the problems).

IMHO the following can help:

DEVs please take these into consideration and possibly try on test server.

1) A gradual depletion of a particular resource on a planet based on time and current rate of harvest. This would allow players to check harvestors every couple days, without worry of idle time...As the percentage reduced on a resource, players could decide if and when to move expensive equipement. This also would allow the casual player time to survey a new resource without running dry.

2) Allow excess power and maintenance to be recovered upon structure removal. Charging the 1500 credits to move the harvestor is not enjoyable, but makes sense since some time and energy needs to be spent (if nothing else I consider it an envirornmental tax; if one needs to justify it), but having to eat any additional maintenance and extraunused poweryou applied to the harvestor is kinda painful...I guess better planning is in order...See my hopefully helpful comments at the end to help plan better.

3) Vehicle transportation will definetly help make Harvestors easier to use...( a little of topic, but way to much running...If I have 3 or 4 sites of 3 harvs/winds on 2 planets....your evening is shot running to maintain them vs crafting and selling wares...(I powered to Master Artisian, and have stagnated on Novice Tailor as the harsh reality of not understanding the basic's of harvesting by machine became all consuming. I am getting back on track now.)

Some quick thoughts on placing harvestors to help survive in today's envirornment on SWG:

1) How much maintenance do you need to put in?

I always plan for 25 hours of harvesting plus I pay the removal tax up front (in caseI cannot get to the harv in exactly 25 hours...idle harvs less painfull then damage). This equates to1500 plus 1500 credits for3000 at a maintenace rate of 15.

(note it will tell you 50 hours or 2 d 2 hr I am assuming 24 hour days I hope I am accurate or this post will make me look really stupid. I am at work currently, so if the correct total for 1d 1 hr is 750 I apologize and blame it on playing way to late last night, either way just do the math)

2) How much Power?

At a maintenance rate of 15 and power rate of 25 you will need 25/15 or 1.67 times more power then the number of credits applied towards harvest time. So for the above example 1500*1.67 = 2505 power units.

(Once again these are from my assumptions on the rules and gross experimentation..seem to be fairly accurate)

3) what does this mean?

So after 25 hours your harv would run out of power, but still have 1500 credits to pick it up and reclaim the deed. If you are late in servicing it, you just add a few hundred credits and pick up (60 per hour).

This formula also implies that you need to check your harvestors daily, which depending on location and distance between them can take 5 hours or more plus space travel. Ouch! (Hence why people opt to macro afk survey. In about an hour you can /sample over750 of a high percentage resource for free, and if you are spending more than that amount of time servicing expensives harvestors, just sample, though stay at your keyboard. Please do not take this thread down AFK Macro Surveying it has been overkilled in many other threads)

4) How to overcome the time sync and cost of current resource vanishing into thin air in today's SWG rules?

What I try to do is gang harvest one resource at a time (sometimes couple with wind depending on my reserves). Basically find a Hot resource and place 3-4 harvestors down for the above formula's. That way I do not have to waste precious time running across the galaxy for resources. Also mitigates risks, unlessI am unfortunate enough to place them minutes prior to depletition of the resource. (In which case lol and retry; it is a game remember!) At end of night Ileave my Avatar at the harvestors for a quick 10 min check prior to going to work in the morning.

If in the morning, the resource vanished, I cry a little, harvest the next best resource without moving the structure, go to work and pick-up after the 1d 1hr of power and credits have expired. Even in the worse case, you most likely will harvest something for your efforts.

By following the above, you do not get stung by the following:

a) wasting all of your time running from harvestor to harvestor

b) wasting precious wind and credits on overstocking of harvestor

c) unless extremely poor timing and bad luck, you should have resources to craft with the next day.

If at the end of the harv period, you still wish to harvest the resource, load up another day of power and credits and repeat... until resource vanishes then move the harvestor to the next location...

[This is of course an assembly line process if you need 5 different resources to craft an item, it will take 5 to 10 days to harvest them all (factoring in wind and more than one day per resource), but once you have the pipeline filled about 1 to 2 weeks you should be at a steady state of crafting and plenty of resources...in theory, I am at about day 6 of this process]

[Unless of course your grinding, but hey if your grinding you already have a plan and this thread should be pretty basic in all. (Not knocking grinders either...I have been known to grind over 20 hours straight at the launch, but gets old quick, so opt'd to setup a sound strategy to reach goals over time without a lot of time sync during the work week...I still plan to grind craft on weekends)]

An alternative to item 4) in placing all on same resource...if you are lucky enough to find a location with mulitple good resources clustered, spread the risk over mulitple resources..

Hope this helps,

Doupe on Tarq.

You can find me in game making the rounds to Tat's. cantinas, or my Home, North of Keeren on Naboo. A nice friendly Artisian community is forming there. Bring your house and call it home. Or stop by and buy some goods.