Artisan Archive

Listen up guys.

I see lots of posts, whining about how hard it is to craft. They don't have the time to put into it, the creds, or the people to buy the stuff. Please stop.

EVERYONE it seems wants to be an artisan. Which profession forum has the most posts? You guessed it, artisan. Which profession has too many people in it? You guessed it, artisan.

Until each server finds its balance, it will be like this for a while. The more people who go artisan, the worse it will be for all artisans. Only the very, very best in each specialty will be able to actually accrue lots of creds. The rest will suffer in one big Hobbesian nightmare, complete with children murdering one another for scraps found in a dumpster.

Okay...slight exaggeration...

But please quit the complaining. You should know what you are getting into ahead of time. I actually dropped from Bloodfin over a week ago because a) the server was so unstable and b) there were too many people who have summers off to powergame/use all the Beta exploits that weren't fixed @ release.

Your best bet is to a) supplement crafting with another skill or b) wait for another server to come online. That's what I did when Valcyn came online and I'm doing pretty well.

My $0.02.

Bloodfin is a wonderful server for crafting. Bone armor chestplates are still selling at up to 1.5k in Mos Eisley (good breastplates mind you, not grinding material). Heck, even fully experimented CDEFs are still moving, and up until this past few days, Tattooine has been great for resources (except for hides, but good hides could be found on Naboo).

I'm having a blast playing a crafter on bloodfin. Just set up my first factory last night and am churning out Mabari armor thats selling very well.

I think most of the people who are dissatisfied with the crafting classes are too dependant on instant gratification.

Every day, someone posts on here or on the other crafter boards about how there is NO WAY to sell ANYTHING other than master goods, but every night I login and find my email box full where I have sold Mabari pieces, Novice level tailored goods, or even Artisan level clothing. I am making money, I have a house and a factory, and I play about 2 or 3 hours a night. I have yet to run a delivery mission to fund anything I wanted to do, and I am not backed by a huge PA or leave my computer on macro sampling while I am at work.

I am the most short attention spanned, quick to give up person you will ever meet. If *I* am still having a blast and making money by crafting, then just about anyone who TRULY WANTS TO BE A CRAFTER should be able to do even better. People who are crafters because they like to craft are doing fine, crafters who's very first post is "I just started a crafter, how do I make $$$$" are not having much fun.

-=Hallie Starshine=-

There may be quite a plethora of Artisans out there, but I think not all of it's clueless noobs who wanted ta ride the fabled band-speeder to great riches. Artisan is in my opinion the very best of all professions, especially if you can keep yourself well rounded enough to not only be able to make many items you need and others do, but also are able to hold your own in a mild firefight, heal yourself a bit from time ta time, dance or play a few notes of music and peel the hide or shuck the bones off any beasties you happen ta kill. Sure if we find ourselves face-to-face with a Rancor were absolute toast, but it'd be asimilar situation if a female Trandoshan Bounty Hunter had to dance in front of Jabba for her life - she'd be dropped weaponless into the Rancor's cage along with a guard who got too close, and unless she was secretly a jedi she'd be toast.

Artisan can become makers of all types of desperately needed items. The only problem I see if how many of us will stick with it long enough to find it's a tough market when there are 25 decent Architects or Weaponsmiths on a particular planet?

People are artisians for money? Get out! Sure, I make sales now and then. I'm not in it for the money though. Someday, I want to be able to make the cool clothes. If someone wants to empty their bank account for them, that's a plus for me, not a necessity.

You want customers? Take the time to rename your items.

Which catches your eye? CDEF Pistol or TolTek Bugblaster 25-45?

Come up with an easily identifiable name, your "brand".

People will start to recognize it and look for it, if not comission work from you via /tell.

You know, speaking of servers I've been sitting on Kauri since day one and been rather happy with it. I pushed architect for a while, got bored with the rapid movement of ore and what not, so picked up Tailoring and smithing as a past time. In general, I haven't noticed too much going on that strikes me as extremely sick. IE - No CT rancors on Corellia...

Generally speaking it's been pretty easy sailing and life has been good. Met quite a few nice people, and sadly enough nearly all of them (20+) are Artisans (Elite mainly), Entertainers, or Medics in some form or another. Haven't been too friendly with any pistol happy folks, but maybe that's just a maturity difference. (I can sense things getting a little hot, so don't start with the flaming yet. I don't mean to say ALL Marksmen and Brawlers are immature, but the majority that I have been introduced to remind me of a lot of the guys who spent their lives in the weight room in High School..."Mongo like football...Mongo get ball...").

Needless to say, I've rambled a bit here. I think, generally speaking, it really depends on what server you are on. You want a good idea of how to check out what servers not to play on? Well recently I fell across a post of someone complaining about all the junk for sale on auction sites (for US $)...went to check it out. The servers that are listed in the sales are generally the servers you should veer away from I can imagine.

I'm on bloodfin in mos espa at the moment. I've found that people still pay high prices for JUNK, which I guess is the noob factor hitting the streets. This has created some problem for some higher end items that myself and others make. People assume bone armor = crap, yet they buy low end mar or chit when I can churn out bone armor plates with 35% energy protection. I guess it's the stigmata of good crafters, competing against items that are far lower in quality but have the same name.

Granted, bloodfin isn't the greatest place to be anymore. I see master CH's running around sporting an army of rancors and other goodies with only what, 2 weeks worth of game play? It's kinda sick in a way.

I may try a new "nerfed" server to try my luck among the slower pace of things heh.

OA