Artisan Archive
Thread: How to Be an Artisan, for those who want to do it right.
wow. very very interesting read.
Thank you for the time you took to write this.
Thanks,
Mostly I'm here cause Kauri is dead at the moment. Long live Kauri.... 
Toddek Talor
I am a master artisan and have been on for well over 2 weeks now.
First off, if you want to be an artisan, you have understand 2 points. Being a Crafter isn't about making your own (x) cheap and easy. It's about making (x) because you want to help other people, or making (x)because you truly enjoy creating things over killing things. Which means for many of us, Crafting can be very very boring. At the same time it can be rewarding though.
First off, what I call the initial Grind. All crafting skills are going to have this. This is the nature of the beast, of having a system that rewards people willing to do what it takes. This is no different from any other class. Consider this analogy, A Marksman is going to have to kill 1,000 low level creatures before he's going to be a good marksman. Well a crafter get's to make 1,000 crappy items before he has the skill to make prefection. The nice thing is you can often make something that is somewhat useful to people.
I personally recommend that a crafter do the mind numbing grind to Engineering 4 and even maybe to master, it gives them a sense of accomplishment at the end. they can say "See I did it after 1,000 useless crafting stations I can now make (x) the uberator " Theother thing I recommend is managing your time. If you hate the grind, then split it up, I found one good way to get decent exp was to pick up scout and make stuff for scout skills and crafter exp. At this point, rushing to be the first isn't gonna do you any good as there are already Master (X)'s that have been there and done that. Take your time and think about how much time you're willing to invest into crafting and spend only that much.
Now, for those really want to make stuff, this next part is for you.
The reward in crafting isn't selling your first CDEF weapon. No, it's the point when you get Master X and make the best weapon you ever could. That's the reward. And it's a long journey before you get there. But it can be amazingly short.
First off, if you truly grind, and grind hard, materials are going to be what keep you down. It takes a lot of materials to get each level, but that's not as bad as it could be. I think Master artisan takes like 20k of materials tops, that's pretty easy to get. If you want to do it fast, spend a little time getting some money and put down harvester and then write yourself a macro to mine, and then mine, and mine, and mine till you have enough. The formula goes approximiately like this:
Hand mining (assuming survey 4) you can pull about 6k of materials in 24 hours (this is pretty rough) but only if you sit on at least 80% concentration. Pick your spots carefully
Each little harvester gets about 2k of materials for 24 hours, assuming about 60-70% concentration. The upkeep on these is 750 credits a day and about the same amount of power. I find 1 wind harvester can usually power 2 mineral harvesters okay, but solars do an even better job (4-6).
The nice thing about harvesters, if done right you can leave them for 5-6 days and reap the rewards of forthought. Plan ahead, watch materials. If you place a harvester the day a material comes to your planet, and have all the upkeep needed for 7 days, it is very very likely that you can come back in 7 days and have tons of materials. So spend a little time doing some misisons (kill task can be a nice change) and then place some harvesters if you have the time.
Now, if you figure the materials requirements to master artisan, you find you can do it in 1 day, if you have enough initial investment.
Once you have the materials, it's pretty easy to grind them out pretty quickly, but if you hate to grind, there is still hope for you. The factory.
It takes a little skill to run a factory, but once you have it, you can make a lot of exp pretty quick with it. A factory is like having an automated version of yourself that doesn't have to click the mouse. you put in a schematic (others have said how to make these), the specific materials need, some power, some upkeep and you fire it up, and watch the exp just come in.
I don't recommend Factories for the feint of hear though. They're 50k a piece on the current market. That's no toy you got there. Also upkeep for factories is horrendous 1.5k per day. So I don't recommend just buying one and dropping it right away. Also, they take power, I don't know what the cost is, I never run mine 24/7. I save up my factories (I have 2) until I have a lot of materials (20-50k). then I set them down and work away. To makea simple item, it takes about 25 seconds an item, to make a complex item it takes longer, much much longer. I think8 seconds for every point of complexity is the actaul figure, but I can't be certain. Ohh, and theirs a catch, You can't leave your factory, at least not the general vicinity (although I think you can log off, not completely certain). So plan to sit around for a couple of hours. Heck plan to hand grind while you're at it, things will go pretty quick.
Now for a little Math, and numbers:
Assuming you have decent qualities (70-80%)of materials Here's some estimates on time and income costs to do each thing:
to Get master Artisan takes 20k of materials, It can be done in 1 day at 22k + Make time, if you use a factory assume about 4k of upkeep for that, This does not include the initial 200k cost of getting the neccasary equipment.
To get Master Weaponsmith, it takes about 450k of materials, or about 8 days at 22k /day or about 200k, plus you can assume about 30k of factory upkeep.....there is a lot of grinding.
I find that costs double if you take your time, but that's not really too bad,(6-4)00,000 credits is pretty cheap really.
No Master artisan item is worth 22k of effort, No weapon is worth 450k of effort. the reward isn't the money you make, or the Money you save. It's the thankyous you get when you make someone that special gun they know is going to serve them well, or the fact that you can sit down for 20 minutes and make yourself a special gun.
Here's what I've found being a Master artisan has been good for:
First of all, the weapons that master artisans get are a joke, don't even bother, the best CDEF is quickly outmoded by a master weaponmiths' dl18's. Don't expect to be the clothier of choice, the selection is limited. Don't expect to make great food, whatyou make is adequate but not unique. Don't expect your armor to be worth much, bone armore even done well isn't that great. Do expect to be needed. Electronic Components are a must for the higher end stuff, and a swavy Master Artisan can make 10k of credits with a couple of crates of the most wanted stuff, but even the most expensive electronics won't be worth more than 500 credits in the near future. I sell electronics on the bazaar for pretty okay prices, but then I follow up on them. If I see someone buying from me regularly I send them a message, try to sell in bulk. I can chug 100 control units in 1 hour, with like 10 minutes of effort. That's 10-20k. But I don't make that every day, so it's not really self sustaining yet. Give it a couple of months, when people start dropping master artison for higher advanced crafting skills or combat skills, and you might get regular profiting business.
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If you've gotten this far, then you're probably willing to put in the work it takes to be an artison.It's not about saving yourself some money in the long run, it's about what you can do for other people once you've reached Master Status. Master artisan is the only long term artisan. And it can be one of the most rewarding, even if you don't get exp for it afterwards.
Toddek Talor.
Master Artisan, Weaponsmith of the First Rank. (soon to be Master in 2-3 weeks I hope)
Very informative post.
There is only one point I disagree with. I think medics who make medicine relateditems are a special exception to the rule about making (x) for yourself cheaper. Once I started making stim-b I found quickly that quality organic resources are expensive and difficult to find yourself (organic wheat is 10cr per unit). What I did was spend about 5-6k on a wind generator and a flora farm and now I have lots of high quality organics for only the cost of the upkeep. In fact I have more than I need and can actually make bonus credits by selling the extra.
I believe a medic can take up the advanced forms of resource extraction (auto harvesters) to save themselves money in the long run.
Very interesting post Rollic.
I have one question: How does an artisan get some credits to make a living? I'm not talking about making millions, just making a living. It seems anything I try to sell on bazaar never gets bought. I got some powerups at 30 credits not getting any buyers.
Any tips on that?
Xylano wrote:
I have one question: How does an artisan get some credits to make a living? I'm not talking about making millions, just making a living. It seems anything I try to sell on bazaar never gets bought. I got some powerups at 30 credits not getting any buyers.
Any tips on that?
I don't think "making a living" really applies in a world where you don't have any expenditures (unless you choose to, ie houses, havesters, etc...). At first I was trying to blaze my way up to weaponsmith but I quickly got very bored. So I decided that I would rather *enjoy* my time than become a human crafting macro. I make things that I think are interesting (weapon powerups mostly) and if I sell them, great, but if I don't what does it matter? I can sample all the resources I need, I can run delivery missions if I need cash to travel, and crafting doesn't cost anything besides my time.
As to you selling powerups for 30 credits... I don't even look at items priced this low. There are two reasons for this:
- A vast majority of this stuff is junk and I don't want to waste my time checking to see it's quality
- As a crafter I don't want to support people messing up the economy.
If you are really making good items (powerups, weapons, armor, whatever...) people WILL pay resonable amounts for it. Before I sell something I usually check the going costs on the bazaar and sell accordingly. I personally do pretty well on the bazaar, I sell 60-70% of the items I put on there, and I only sell powerups and CDEF weapons; I just only try and sell the best of what I make. These item are usually noticed because they are better than the vast majority of items out there.
I guess the point of all this rambling is to not worry about making money, make what you like, work towards getting to whatever elite profession you want, and only sell your best items to make a good name for yourself. Since I started doing this SWG has gotten MUCH more fun. I'll get to Weaponsmith eventually; but while I get there I'm going to have a good time as well.
Akmad
Ok then,
How do you define "good items" ?
and how do you price them (I read that 1-2 credits per ressource was a good price, is that true?)
thx
I just hate the idea of grinding and I'll never do it myself. I'll get there eventually and Im no hurry. As for good power ups.
I never have any problem selling my powerups. Powerups with +10% I sell for 50 credits, +20% I sell for 150, +29 I sell for 200 credits. Anything with 2 good stats over 20 I sell for 250. I've looked on the Bazzar and it freaks me out to see people pricing powerups with only +4% to a random stat for 500 credits. Are they crazy?
Anyway the easiest Powerups to sell are + Max Damage, + Minimum Damage, + Speed, and + Range. Those are the most useful.
If you see powerups at 30, or even +20 powerups for less than 500, someone is probably making a pricing mistake, and you should buy it yourself. The 30cr powerups are probably junk, and should be destroyed (hey, it's only 30cr), and the +20s should be relisted at a better price. I've gotten over 250 for every powerup I have sold in the past week because I took the time to find the places where they sell and I cleared the garbage powerups out of the bazaar for that city (which I am sure the buyers AND sellers appreciate, BTW).
I've pointed this out before, but it's very useful, so I will say it again. If you choose a specific item (say, melee powerups) and go into the bazaar in a town, you can clear the bazaar of underpriced items for about 1000cr max. I suggest destroying those items - relisting them probably won't help you much, and it will give the price cutters UXP. Making money at this point is simply a matter of monitoring the bazaar for underpriced items and putting your items up at, say, 250cr. You won't get rich, but you will sell 5-6 items a day and you will make money at it. If you pick the right item, you probably won't spend more than 200cr per day clearing the junk out of the bazaar, so you can turn a profit of 1000cr or so per item you are running. Be aware that it pays to focus, and this process is far easier on more obscure items that other crafters don't think to make.
BTW, it takes a LOT of money to do this for expensive stuff, but it can be done. The one exception is an item that everyone grinds for big GCXP and then wants to sell because the resources are so hard to get and expensive (ie bone armor). I still buy and destroy bone armor that's under 250cr, but I sell enough other stuff now that I can afford to.
If I left my harvesters for 5 or 6 days I would only have about 1-3k of resources in it because of the resource shifts.
Rollic wrote:
The nice thing about harvesters, if done right you can leave them for 5-6 days and reap the rewards of forthought. Plan ahead, watch materials. If you place a harvester the day a material comes to your planet, and have all the upkeep needed for 7 days, it is very very likely that you can come back in 7 days and have tons of materials. So spend a little time doing some misisons (kill task can be a nice change) and then place some harvesters if you have the time.
Timkatt wrote:
If I left my harvesters for 5 or 6 days I would only have about 1-3k of resources in it because of the resource shifts.
Rollic wrote:
The nice thing about harvesters, if done right you can leave them for 5-6 days and reap the rewards of forthought. Plan ahead, watch materials. If you place a harvester the day a material comes to your planet, and have all the upkeep needed for 7 days, it is very very likely that you can come back in 7 days and have tons of materials. So spend a little time doing some misisons (kill task can be a nice change) and then place some harvesters if you have the time.
I've bolded the part that you missed above.