Artisan Archive
Thread: Why a miner class?
What would be the prerequisites?
What skill trees would be included? Especially, I am wondering what would make a miner attractive to play?
What sorts of abilities would these trees have, in general?
How would adding a miner class help with the economy?
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I imagine that the miner would be based on the surveying artisan tree. I can think of a couple of possible skill tress that for a miner, such as refining minerals, but not enough to make an entire class out of. I absolutly don't like the idea that only miners can get access to harvesters, because I think that it would really hurt the economy. This opinion is based on the fact that if you decrease the supply of resources on the market by restricting who can get them, the price will increase. Likewise, if you make it cost skill points to be able to harvest things, players will feel as if they are justified in charging even higher prices.
I wouldn't mind seeing harvester certifications, but I think that they should all be available in an artisan skill tree, not in Master Artisan and definitly not in a class above artisan.
Again, I hope I am not bringing up something that has already been discussed to death, but I would like to hear everyones opinions on this, especially since it looks like this is the first priority on our correspondent letter.
about the biggest advantage I could see a miner class adding is the refinement of resources. and I know alot of crafters who'd love to have access to the ablity to consitantly get resources with their desired qualities in the 900's, despite what might be availiable at the current time on the planet.
Discounts on havester manintenance and power cost are also obvious things, but beyond that, I can't see what else to give them myself...
But then, there was a reason it wasn't put into the game yet... and who knows if it will be.
Some of us aren't looking for a specific Miner class so much as a general resource gathering class. In beta it was broken out into Miners, Farmers, and one or two others. I don't see a need for all of that. I think that if a general resource gathering class (which I usually refer to as a Prospector) existed, folks would specialize on their own.
As far as the exact skill tree. There are a few threads with suggestions. In the end it would be up to the devs. I'm guessing that between the various resource gathering classes from beta they could pull enough stuff to make one full-featured class.
My own idea for the skill tree would be something similar to...
Refinement: As others have discussed, the primary effect of this discipline would be to refine raw materials into stronger ones. This would create an additional market of resources, as the exact stats on refined materials would probably depend on the experimentation process (much like other crafted items). Later the devs could add schematics (like for space craft) that specifically call for refined resources.
Harvester Management: Artisans are concerned that if they don't have access to harvesters, resource prices will go sky high. My proposal is that everyone still have access to run "personal" harvesters, but that only the Prospector has the ability to run larger harvesters. The certs to run these harvesters would be placed within this discipline. This discipline could also (or alternatively) allow harvesters that the Prospector is running produce at a higher rate. It is the fact that the Prospector would be able to produce a higher percentage of resources that would keep the price of resources from going up. Essentially there would be the same amount of resources on the market (likely more), but just coming from fewer people. And of course the Artisans would still have access to smaller harvesters to gather small amounts of resources for themselves.
Advanced Surveying: This discipline would likely increase range (not to a global scale. I think that is a bad idea.) of surveying. Other ideas that have been floating around is the ability for this discipline to reduce the Prospector's harvesters effect on the resource turnover (so that resources stay around a little longer) or that this skill allows the Prospector to estimate how much longer a resource will be available before turnover.
Harvester Maintenance: This discipline would allow the Prospector to reduce the energy and maintenance costs of harvesters. Some folks like the idea of being able to monitor and/or perform upkeep remotely. That would be covered by this discipline as well.
Of course... these are just my ideas. I'm sure other users, and most importantly the devs, can think of stuff that would benefit the profession that I haven't even imagined.
full-time artisans, or part-time miners, aren't going to like the idea of a Miner/Prospector class. The part-time miners don't want to spend the extra skill points to do what they do, and the artisans don't want to rely on another class or deal with smaller profit margines.
The fact is... There are a lot of miners. A bunch of us do it full time. Our advancement in our chosen profession pretty much stops at Surveying 4 (and sometimes a smattering of Scout skills to compliment our skillset). Sony will have to decide if there are enough of us dedicated to the role of resource collection to justify an advanced class. If there are, then we will see one in the game in one form or another. Part-time miners will have to come along for the ride, or find another line of work. Artisans will have to learn to deal with the fact that resource collectors are ajustifiable and legitimate part of the game economy...
The problem with limiting a non-miners' ability to use harvesters is that it will really make it a nightmare for low level smiths.
Everyone talks about how weaponsmiths make a fortune. Well, in reality it is only the master weaponsmiths that make the big bucks. Being a novice you cant sell barely ANY of your weapons. This forces you to grind out items that you end up just throwing away just to gain skill so you can move up a box to get closer to master.
This grind takes forever and uses up a TON of resources. I mean hundreds of thousands of steel.
I sure as heck cant afford to buy these materials from miners.
What you might want to do is allow smiths to use mediums, artisans can use personals, and only miners can use heavies.
Even this I cant see happening because it means taking away heavies from players.
So if they did implement miners, I would expect that they would probably get NEW mining equipment.
Range - Just keep slapping on 64m like normal Surveying does, you would get a massive sweep range, but not overpowering still. The estimated time left would be a great special ability too, if reasonably implemented.
Costs - With 6 boxes (Novice, I-IV, Master) make it 5% less power, then maintenance, then redeed cost, then 10% (total) power, maintenance, and redeed cost by master.
Equipment - Have a survey droid that will scan 1/6 of the planet per level, and mark a waypoint to the nearest concentration (determined by skill) of a resource. Make it top out at 50% at master, starting with 25% at Novice. Click, bam--it runs to a certain radius to find the first 20%. By master it will find a sweet spot for you, in say 5x your scan range. I don't think there should be more harvesters, resources flood in already, but seriously, mediums and heavies should be used by Miners/Prospectors. This makes the class more desireable, personals meet the needs of everyone but Architects, and architects build the heavies and mediums anyway so there's a working relationship. Or else you take that skill tree from the other to do it yourself. Making either class standalone makes them less fun. Seriously, I have Installations IV (for Prospecting) and I never need to look at anyone for my resource needs. I could make one hell of an architect, because I don't NEED anyone. Architects can get LOTS of their own resources. If mediums and heavies stay... then (this is the easiest adustment) lower their production rates (lowering maintenance or power is up the devs), and make new prospector specific ones that have better rates at proportional costs.
PreRequisites:
Engineering IV & Surveying IV
Make Engineering a requirement as well, so that giving prospectors their own schematic line of harvesters isn't far fetched. They will still need an architect to meet their power needs.
In no way are these ideas imbalancing, and Refinement will make a LOT of people happy, while draining the excess resources out of the economy. Have a crapload of excess junk aluminum? Well with a very costly smelting process (in resources) you can turn that into much less link-steel aluminum, or raise the stats to something that doesn't suck. Drain resources, please players. It's 5km from Coronet City to Kor Vella, I don't think having a 640m-ish survey range is going to hurt anything.
It's a long way off, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this profession.
Until then:
57 Artisan (Engineering IV, Business IV, Surveying IV)
38 Marksman (Pistol IV, Support III)
29 Scout (Exploration IV)
29 Architect (Installations IV, Buildings II)
34 Merchant (Advertising IV, Efficiency IV)
63 Pistoleer (Master)
I'll drop Architect & Merchant both in a heartbeat for Miner. And call the survey range discipline "Prospecting Technique" so the title can be Prospector!
You will have a very happy person then.
