Chef Archive

First off let me say that as of right now I am neither a Master Artisan, nor a master eLite crafter. However, that will change very soon. Therefore on my daily scouring of the forums, I was shocked to see that in the Top 5 list for Artisans, they want harvestors to have certification. With novice artisan and no survey, they want you to use personal extractors only. As you progress up the survey skill tree, then you can use the medium ones. They want Heavy extractors for themselves, and no one else. Here are some links to the discussions:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=artisan&message.id=36994
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=artisan&message.id=37151

The artisans feel they are the welfare crafter, and this will help put money back in their pockets. This makes me laugh, because i believe artisan is a novice profession and not really supposed to be making as much money as the elite crafters that spend more skill points.

Currently the arguments for Certs for Harvestors are as follows:

1. "I need scout to skin animals, so why can a non artisan harvest
resources."
2. "This will help put money back in the pockets that need it, namely
artisan community." I laugh at this one, because artisans will
be in a position to price gouge all customers that want bulk
resources in a timely manner, for they alone can get the most
amount of resources , the quickest.

3. "You have to be certified to use the best weapons, so in all
fairness, you should be certified to use best harvestors."


IF we learned anything from this last image designer update, it's that the developers seem to have an affinity to take "Content" from the larger player base and give it to a small community, instead of developing new content for the profession in need of it. One would think that Space Expansion will yield some new schematics, and a new need for artisans to customize the ships.

If this is allowed to considered, and eventually implemented , i feel one or more of the following will happen.

1. Elite Crafters will now be stuck with medium harvestors, unless
the spend skillpoints on Master Artisan. Kiss your combat skill
bye.
2. For those elite crafters that stick to medium harvestors, they
will no longer be able to be self sufficient in getting resources
They will have to tighten their supply and make less items,
and thereby raise their prices. Or they may contract master
artisans to gather their resources, but again this will add to
cost of items.
3. Master artisans will rule the resource market, charging whatever
the market will bear, leading to resource shortages. New
crafters will not be able to compete because they are using their
slow personal harvestors.
4. People that are planning on doing Shipwright will now have to
spend more skill points to harvest materials. Leaving less points
for some sort of combat build. I can already forcee a shortage
ships if this happens.
5. Some elite crafters will in an uproar over this happening.
Less crafters = shorter supply = inflation in prices.

I understand that the most elite crafters don't usually bother with their own resource gathering. THey get guildmates and friends to drop harvestors and they pay them for what they gather. If this change is allowed to happen, using your combat buddies will be a thing of the past, in terms of resource harvesting. Moreover, many also use static lot swaps to get their needed resources. You should be warned that the artisan community wants they ability of static lots through lot trades elminated also.

If this is allowed to happen, then i call for some more changes in the name
of balancing. Feel free to add to this list.

1. Elite ,or best armor should only be worn by people with a master
combat profession.
2. Craftable items, such as harvestors should now be subject to decay
penalites on death. Heck, we have to worry about our armor, why
not let the artisans worry about losing value also. I know this
will not be a popular. IF crafters need protection, they they can
hire combat types to be bodyguards while they make their harvestor
runs.

In conclusion, after all my ranting and raving here I hope that the crafting and not-crafting community will let their voices be heard. DO NOT IMPLEMENT HARVESTOR CERTIFICATIONS. Harvestors are a tool, and i feel that novice artisan should be enough certification for the use of any of them.

-Ho'mer (FLurry)

p.s. sorry for the poor paragraph formatting. Its been awhile since i posted, and didn't try that hard to make it look neat.

I disagree with the Certification - and I am a Master Artisan . One primary thing that those who want this is they forget that many Artisans use others lots to place harvisters - so this will actually make the price of items raise - It will make the resource price as welll - but they will not make near as much money becuse they will not be able to pull as much resource. I concurre with you - this is not a good idea - it is already hard to keep your vendors stocked - If my resource supply were to be cut, and if this happens it will be, than it will be even harder. As for the money flow area - the fact that you must have scout to obtain animal resources provides this. The way artisans make money is by creating goods. I fell this move will harm the economy - it will increase demand, because supply will be dramatically harder to provide. It looks as if the people that propose this are wanting to be resource dealers - and we have plenty of those already - the bad part of this is if it become easier to just pull in resources no one will craft. I firmly believe this move will harm everyone, even the master artisans, in the future. We will see a temporary boost in resource price, and then the market will become stagnant. Besides the Master Artisans already have one monopoly - that is in Key componets. One thing I would propose to change - that might make both sides happy. 1 leave the Harvisters alone, and cause a degredation - of the vehicles. Just like weapons, and armor. You can repair your vehicle to 100% everytime. THerefor no one needs to buy new vehicles unless it gets attacked and destroyed. Eventually they should wear out too - just like weapons. I know I havent sold a vehilce in quite some time. Maybe this would passify those who want this. Just a thought.