Artisan Archive

So I understand the whole make something and the person that uses it gives you XP. But what about the Merchant players? The Smuggler profession only requires that you move up the Merchant tree of the Artisan profession. But from what I have seen there is no way to move up that tree unless you also move up the Engineering tree so that you can make stuff to sell. This is rediculous. Merchants are forced to put points and experience into a tree branch that they do not want because the game does not take consideration for players that just want to sell things. This is what many players did in EQ. They would buy items low, sell high. It is the personification of the consumer model. But SWG does not seem to give experience in this area. Please tell me I am wrong. And don't say that you can just sell all the garbage that you get at Novice Artisan because people aren't going to want to buy your dice and there are 1,000 CDEF firearms already on the market.

Also, I find it absolutely reciculous that the first skill you get as a merchant is to charge for people to access your buildings. What player at that level is going to even own a building?! And if they did manage to scroungr up the credits to buy a small house or something who would pay to access it? This skill very much needs to be moved to a higher level of the skill tree.

First off, the merchant prereq for the smuggler has been removed, you just need expertise in the pistol line and unarmed combat now.

But thats beside the point.

The SWGeconomic modeldoes not favor a secondary market like the EQ economy did. With the ease of mass producing standardised items by advanced artisans, coupled with the quality penalty of used items ( decay rate on weapons and such ), it is very hard to buy and sell for a profit. You also have to remember that, unlike EQ, the item that youre trying to merchant isnt uber rare, it didnt take 8 hours to camp, there isnt only one for sale. Likely the case is more like, it is being sold in every city on the planet, and it took 8 hours for one person to produce 250 of them.

The elasticity for goods in SWG is also nothing like it was in EQ.

The EQ market had a very very small supply when compared to the supply of goods in the SWG economy.

People will also craft just for exp, not worrying if there is a demand for their good.

The natural surplus that all of these factors create will be fixed by what is called price-fixing. On some servers there will be unnatural price-fixing, either overt ( cartels formed by associations of large artisan PAs or covert ( collusion ). However more likely natural price-fixing will occur. The sellers gradually go from being in a perpetual mode of undercutting each other to a fixed price, because it benefits both of them, a symbiotic relationship through competition. Most people arent economic scholars and wont even know that this has happened, but it will, and they will know that they are getting more money selling less items for a higher price.

So price standardization is what will ultimately become of SWG's economy. Whether pushed by PAs on a server or naturally occuring, it is the way this economy will thrive. It isn't bad, it just means that if you want to be a buy/sell merchant like EQ, you're going to have a pretty rough time. Sorry, gnomer.

And to all the people saying that the SWG economy is broken, it is far from it.

Oh and the Merchant profession is far from useless.

The Merchant has quite alot of power in the economical side of SWG.

For example,

Quite many entertainers are unsatisfied with the tipping system. Especially male dancers because the female ones always get better tips. But all of them want more money and don't like customers that dont tip.

A merchant could open up a premium cantina, and HIRE entertainers. These entertainers would be paid on a fixed rate ( better than the rocky road of tipping ) and would also be paid more money. Using the Access fee's skill the merchant would have a cover charge for entering the Cantina. The funds generated would more than pay the wages of the entertainers and the management costs of the Cantina, the merchant would pocket a nice salary.

Now the customers will not come to your Cantina by themselves ( it costs more than a public one ), so we have to take the entertainers there. You must show the entertainers the greener grass and then the customers will follow when there arent entertainers back at their local cantina.

With the advertising skill tree you could attract even more customers andmanage a HUGE cantina, with more and more people walking in and paying that cover charge.

This is just an example, and it will take alot of capitol to get started. But it isone of the many waysthat the merchant class can have a huge influence on the game.

"The natural surplus that all of these factors create will be fixed by what is called price-fixing. On some servers there will be unnatural price-fixing, either overt ( cartels formed by associations of large artisan PAs or covert ( collusion ). However more likely natural price-fixing will occur. The sellers gradually go from being in a perpetual mode of undercutting each other to a fixed price, because it benefits both of them, a symbiotic relationship through competition. Most people arent economic scholars and wont even know that this has happened, but it will, and they will know that they are getting more money selling less items for a higher price."

Only during the "mid-period" of a server - that is, when the first generation of Elite Crafters finds their stride and starts producing items. The problem is, there will eventually be a point where there are TOO MANY elite crafters producing the same items. Why? Because they can. After all, what is a crafter to do in this game BESIDES create items? With raw materials being so easy to come by, there's no real reason NOT to craft. So, what you'll have is something like 100 crafters each producing 10 blasters a day (1000 blasters total), when the market only consumes 200 or so - leaving a surplus of 800 blasters. That surplus will grow, and eventually no one will be making any money. To an extent, we already see this - the huge amount of CDEF pistols and other simple items being sold in the market for no profit or a loss. It is only a matter of time before this spreads to the bigger items.

What SWG needs is for artificial demand to be created. Crafters should be able to sell their items / raw materials to an NPC source for credits/faction/special items (especially those that are consumed in some way). The Empire should BUY large quantities of metal at a set price, thus creating base values for the entire economy. Of course, the mechanism is not just limited to the Empire, but it is a place to start.

As to the cantina idea: it is interesting. The problem is, it only takes 1 dancer in a free cantina to ruin the concept - there just isn't that much difference between two dancers if you have time or are willing to go AFK for a bit.


So price standardization is what will ultimately become of SWG's economy. Whether pushed by PAs on a server or naturally occuring, it is the way this economy will thrive. It isn't bad, it just means that if you want to be a buy/sell merchant like EQ, you're going to have a pretty rough time. Sorry, gnomer.

And to all the people saying that the SWG economy is broken, it is far from it.

I really like the idea of the "artificial demand" for wares. I have seen a LOT of artisans in the Radiant Galaxy. When we all get to the point of producing high level goods there will be a surplus of supply. Especially when every organized group has an artisan or two of their own. I am the artisan for my group and the phrase "don't BUY it, I'll MAKE it!" gets used a lot. I have a hard time imagining where the demand for my products is going to come from in the future; especially after reading what it costs to run a harvester! In a message elsewhere on this board I read that a harvester can cost upwards of 800-2000cr/day in maintenance cost alone. Is there enough of a stable economy to support such expenses?