Artisan Archive

I've seen a lot of artisans posting here, complaining that they don't think it's "fair" that other professions can mine, that it should require certs, the other players are in the way of them getting the best spots, etc.

Firstly, the law of supply and demand is still in force. If you think resources are expensive now, wait until only half as many people can mine. What do you suppose would happen if the only other people selling resources were other artisans who need the resources themselves? If you think 5 cr per is too much, try 20.

Now let's continue to think this through. If we take away the primary means to earn an income from 50% of the players, who would buy the incredibly expensive items you're selling? Remember, the cost of resources just went up, and so did your prices,because there are less on the market.

Hmmm, your costs just quadrupled,your prices just quadrupled andhalf of your customers have no means of earning an income other than 700cr destroy missions.

Still seem like a great idea?

It might balance out. If prices are too high, fewer people will buy. The sellers will have to lower their prices to make more sales.

Good point, too many people don't realize that the price of the final goods is determined by the price of the materials, it just won't work the other way around.

Alacrity, there is no balance. If the raw material, which is the basis for everything made goes up, so does the final product.

WHen crude oil futures go up, the price of gas follows. WHen a frost storm hit Georgia and whips out there peach crop, the price of peaches later that year are much higher than last years and the quality is what is was last year. No way around it, it is basic economics.

THey wont require certs, they can't. THat blows a massive hole in the basis of the economy. You can equate raising our taxes by 40%-70% in the US becasue the economy is doing poorly to requiring cert to operate harvestors.

Now, having said that, maybe a surveyor gets a better rate with their units then a laymen. This coorisponds with everything else in the game thus far. As a DE, I can havew 6 droids in my datapad at once. A non-DE, three. I can shoota pistol jsut fine. Odwaloog RoXorZ Rebels and NPC alike with the same exact pistol.

You know I sometimes thing people focus too much on revenue and not enough on margin.

I think the supply/demand economics posters are missing the point to the original posters argument. Sometimes prices going up and restricted supply is a very very bad thing for everyone except perhaps a select few barons or cartels.

What he is describing is essentially the oil crisis of the 70's SWG style.

Prices going up has another word for it, Inflation. Inflation is one of those things were a little helps and a lot is really bad.

Since the SWG economy is so tied to resources if the price of resources is too high you will get too much inflation. By squeezing the basic resources you actually can shrink your economy making everyone poorer despite "prices" going up. Essentially you could get a recession. On the whole everyone will get poorer because although prices are high margins are low. Remember what you take home is not the gross revenue but your net profit. You can have massive revenue and still go out of business.

This is one reason why rising oil and gas prices can really slow down the economy. Because oil and gas are integral parts of our energy based economy any small change in supply not only raises prices but also causes the economy as a whole to stall as that price is passed up the line but instead of just happily paying more for goods people just throw up their hands and not buy at all.

The same would happen in SWG, rather than making everyone rich restricting the supply of resources too much might actually stall the economy as gross margins are squeezed. Inflation would go through the roof and wealth would become concentrated in a few high volume players but most crafters would see shrinking margins and eventually losses.

Happens all the time when you get runaway inflation and why modern economies seek to keep inflation in the 2-4% range.

No having non-artisans being able to harvest is key to making sure that not only the uber resource barons get to participate in crafting or those with sufficient capital and high volume to deal with tight margins.

No nothing good would come of "harvester certifications", at least not for the vast majority of crafters.

Besides what gives, why does it matter? I mean if someone wants to be a miner/explorer/carbineer hybrid let them. Just means lower resource costs and higher margins.