Artisan Archive

in between all the harvester certification arguments there was a second subplot going..renting/sharing lots both within and across servers. so i thought i would try and separate it out for your debating fun

here's my take on it..

much of the harvester certification debate was driven by the idea that noncrafters are using harvesters to sell resources. i would suggest that this certainly does happen but in many cases this has more like friends loaning out lots, guild sharing etc. some have argued for ending this by limiting access to maintenance and hoppers to owners for example.

and then there's the renting of lots to crafters..which seems like free enterprise at its finest to me

cross server trades are a different thing entirely but i can't really think of a way to end that without hurting within server lot sharing which i believe should remain in the game

does anyone have any thoughts on this..separate from the harvester certification ones

I actually don't see lot renting for harvesters as "Free Enterprise At Its Finest." Because I think each person should only be able to run a limited number of harvesters. Lot renting effectively lets one player run a very large number of harvesters. Granted that these come from friends, associates, or guildmates. But it's still effectively one person controlling a large number of lots out of proportion to the accounts paid for by that person, however it came to be.

I've seen non-certification ideas which would require the lot owner to "operate machinery" and/or to "select resource." And these I wholeheartedly endorse. It would force those letting you use their lots not to be entirely passive about it. And if someone doesn't log in for a week after a resource shift...well...you're going to pay maintenence (which granted is a pittance for elite crafters) on harvesters that aren't bringing up anything. There may also be situations in which your friends and guildmates have things they would rather do than take two starport trips to another planet, then a shuttleport trip, then go change the resource some harvesters are on. So it would create additional managerial burdens for those using lots not belonging to their accounts while still letting friends help friends out.

I have no problem with doing away with cross-server lot exchanges and "lot sharing" both, and that is one of the major reasons for my support of certification (which this thread I realize isn't about). But there is an additional very simple way to limit cross-server lot exchanges very severely. Just place a more reasonable limit on total lots per account beyond the 10 per server currently in effect. My suggestion has been 24, but the hard number would really be up to the devs. This would permit at most one lot exchange. Combined with the notion that only the lot owner can select resources...much of the cross server lot exchange problem would be solved.

I guess one of the problems I have with "lot sharing" is that the number of lots you have is really something imposed artificially. And it seems a bit too much like "taking advantage of the system" to me to be able to mine, for instance, more effectively, because someone with no rational connection to mining loaned you their "lots." I understand that they are selling something. That is certainly free enterprise. But it's hard to quantify what it is that the character has (in a RP sense) that he or she is actually transferring to the resource extractor for value. And if there are to be lot limits per account (which it's obvious that to me there have to be), I would hope that there would not be any easy way to get around these limits.

Issadra 12-pt Master Armorsmith, Master Merchant
NERF Armory 5103, 2008 Lost Sanctum Dantooine
Specialty Shop and Outlet in Andromeda Corellia