Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: I guess faction aligned crafters are SOL in a few weeks.
Currently most crafting professions require considerably more SP investment than most combat professions. For example, the actual cost of being a bio-engineer is 135 SP with no vendor. Wanting a machine-type vendor takes 24 more SP. (While a character builder may show BE as requiring 121 SP, it is impossible at present to be a fully practicing MBE without at least Exploration IV). By comparison, a master pistoleer requires 92 SP.
In current practice, combat-stacked professions are far, far more powerful than a typical crafter. Since the occupation forces are geared to take on the combat-stacked players, typical crafters get killed on a regular basis. While sliced armor and weapons may help a crafter survive such an attack, they also increase the probability of being scanned in the first place. Up until now, it has been only rebel crafters. Now it looks as if it will be both factions.
Honestly, I like the changes that are coming about. However, at some point it will be necessary to look at crafters' roles in the game, as they are steadily being squeezed out of more and more content. The real result of this will be more and more crafters turning to combat professions instead.
This affects all of us. If there are no weaponsmiths, then there will be only looted weapons. If there are no merchants, then there will be only the bazaar.
I'm sure there are many viable solutions to this issue. I just don't believe "if you want to be a crafter, don't join the war" is one of them, especially in light of Mr. Walton's statement.
Jeez people, we are not eliminating a Civilian/Neutral/Crafting lifestyle. But the GCW will affect the environment.
When we add things to one aspect of the game or another, we are not "squeezing" out everyone else. Opting-out to me means notengaging in the GCW combat. I sincerely doubt everyone will leave the crafts because combat and the GCW gets more interesting.
Well, guess the devs are basicly saying all faction aligned crafters should go civilian because so what if we are forced to do so to make the game better for combatants and the CGW. The original author is 100% correct that crafters, notably BE's just don't have the skill points to become powerful enough combatants to take down every stormtrooper or rebel trooper to walk within 64m of them. For poeple like me, who have been rebel since beta and support the cause even though I don't much participate in PVE all that much, we are being forced to go neutral. Unless I dont understand something, and I hear the 'on leave' thing is just something you can only do temporarily, I cant understand how the devs could NOT think they are squeezing faction aligned non-combatants. Especially after they told us all that non-combatants would have a part to play in the CGW. :/
Guess I'll have to leave the rebel guild I founded 4 years ago because it's one most enforced law is all members must be rebel, and as a founder I am not about to consider myself above the guilds laws. That or drop my favorite profession in the game, BE, just so I can stay alive when I go to 8/10ths the cities in the game, not to mention all the wild area spawns that heavily populate naboo, tatooine, endor, dath, yavin and dantooine.
seriously, I'm not a sycophant. when teh tyrant sez "Jeez people so and so", he's at stage: flustered.
removing unintentional PvP from the game is good. base destruction may change, or may not. if a BioE WANTS to be part of base demo, then they'll need to commit to a faction... or to a baby-sitting squad. removing the nBioE/2000BH/0100smug/nSL/0200commando template from viable gameplay doesn't hurt the game in the least.
the devs that push the devs that code the game are fixing more things faster than any time in the game's non-beta history. the devs that code the game are pushing more elegant code and more complete game-play than ever before. the publish schedule has moved from month-and-a-half-plus-ish to two-weeks-ish (no offense, but we'll see how this works... these people need to sleep at some point). the 'direction' of the game, whether it be the mysterious CURB, the GCW, the TEF-removal, the loot revamp part X, or profession-specific content, is fully set to FORWARD.
do I want to see quests like kaadara's "Huff Zinga" fixed and balanced? yes. do I care if that is overlooked in the face of overwhelmingly positive change? no.
with a few exceptions, we're seeing great development. we're seeing devs of all sorts pushed to their limits (and I DO hope y'all are seeing an occasional "thanks" or are otherwise compensated) and the game is getting more direct attention than we've seen since launch. I think we need to at least pull a 'wait-and-see' attitude with the proposed changes until they're coded and implemented, rather than knee-jerk with every post we see.
You are either in the war or not and if you have picked a side, the other side is going to shoot at you!
Makes sense to me.
I war people bomb factories and supply lines. The people that get killed there are not combatants. Does it make it right or good? Who knows, but it is a good strategy, and one that has been used since people started fighting each other.
That said, the way I understand it, you can go on leave indefinitely. They way they put it, you go on leave till you do something that takes you off leave (attack or visit a recruiter). It amounts to the same thing.
LloydPickering wrote:
...And there was me thinking that BE was necessary for Base Destruction...
Well, if you are suggesting that one should be able to be an active part in a base raid, and not subject to enemy fire, I guess I just really don't understand that point of view, regardless of your faction standing or your combat template.
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
LloydPickering wrote:
...And there was me thinking that BE was necessary for Base Destruction...
Well, if you are suggesting that one should be able to be an active part in a base raid, and not subject to enemy fire, I guess I just really don't understand that point of view, regardless of your faction standing or your combat template.
No. I meant that the original poster believes that crafters will become less numerous, and therefore that BEs may become more rare because of the hassle involved in getting killed all the time. I was saying that some crafters, like ourselveshave an important role to play in the GCW other than as lambs to the slaughter (Lambs to the slaughter iswhen SOE decides to drop a few high end mobs in the middle of the spammers in Corolag 
)
I didn't make myself very clear in my original post...my bad.
Fion13 wrote:
Exactly. I do have combat skill but it's barely enough to keep me alive from agressive NPC's such as thugs and desertdemons, unless I go around buffed.
I had a PvP rating of over 1600 when I was BE/Rifleman, what's your excuse? 
Get yourself some composite armour (roughly 25-50k a piece and you only need 4 parts) and synthsteak. You only need one line in an elite fighting profession (TKA 0040, Pistoleer 0040 etc) to deal with thugs and desert demons and the SP investment is not that high.
As for the GCW: if you've chosen either rebel or imperial then you are taking part in the GCW. If you don't want to be shot at by enemies then go see your recruiter and resign. It is unfair for you to receive faction perks and there not to be a risk factor.