Doctor 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.

LOL. It kind of makes sense though. I've seen a many people become millionares because the could drop heavies and harvest resources....no skill required - no skill points wasted. Its kind of like this, go to your galaxy trade forum and you will see that everyone buying the rare loots, the fancy guns, the bh suits are the resource lords of your server. Expect to be outbid when you see something you really like.

Just my take, I see where your coming from since this is how you've been introduced to the game....it should have been like this from the beginning I guess.

For the record, I'm not an artisan either. TKM/Doc

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ImpWookie wrote:

LOL. It kind of makes sense though. I've seen a many people become millionares because the could drop heavies and harvest resources....no skill required - no skill points wasted. Its kind of like this, go to your galaxy trade forum and you will see that everyone buying the rare loots, the fancy guns, the bh suits are the resource lords of your server. Expect to be outbid when you see something you really like.

Just my take, I see where your coming from since this is how you've been introduced to the game....it should have been like this from the beginning I guess.

For the record, I'm not an artisan either. TKM/Doc

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It would make sense if running a harvester required any skills. Dropping a harvester requires no more skill than dropping a house. What? Are we only going to allow Master Architects to live in large houses or own PA Halls?

Besides, the "I can't harvest hides" argument does not fly. Last I checked, I cannot survey unless I have at least Novice Artisan. Without the ability to survey, I am reliant on an artisan to survey for me. Last I checked, I cannot place a vendor unless I have Business III. And, yes, I know that there is an exploit that allows people to place a vendor then drop the skills, but that will change.

This is nothing but a two-bit scam. If they have their way, I would have to come to them for the resources. I could then go craft my meds, but then I have to come back to them to put it up on a vendor. That is monopoly control over, not just the resource market, but over all crafted objects as well.

No. The fact that I have to rely on an artisan to give me a waypoint to be able to make use of my own lots and have to rely on an artisan to sell quanties with a price tag over 6k is enough control of the markets. This is a ridiculous idea. As has been stated, Artisan is a starter profession. It is not elite, and it should not have that kind of control over the marketplace.

Message Edited by Sotaudi on 05-21-2004 03:11 PM

Message Edited by Sotaudi on 05-21-2004 03:12 PM

wow.... this would only drive the bottom 80% of crafters out of business.the negative effects would be extreme. however, it would create a powerful wealth class which requires a paltry amount of skill points..... why would i want to be a master doctor and expend ALL those skillpoints when for half of them i could be a wealthy resourcer. additionally, it GREATLY rewards the other crafting profs which are required to use some Artisan anyway, whereas we are not.

absolutely ludicrous. let's go over and flame them! NERF ARTISANS! j/k

It would force people to use Artisan for what it's worth, and I can't say I disagree with it... but...

The biggest problem I have with this is the Doctor/BE and Smuggler professions... they require more skillpoints to become master [except BE] than the other crafting professions. Futhermore, the other professions have a base profession that is the same as the profession that would be required to drop harvesters. It's bad enough that Docs and Smugglers have to rely on a profession that they are not to find the resources, but now to harvest them? If they want to make this thing real, they need to put in those harvester certs at appropriate levels of both Doc, Smuggler and Bio-Engineer.

Agree 100% with Legende.

If anything a master artisan should only get a cert for a medium as with master medic and any other STARTER profession that has crafting in it, then the elite crafters would get a cert for a heavy. I think they are just mad cause the holo chasing is over and their resources aren't selling as fast or as much. Who knows, but i think this is really a bad idea.

I agree, I had a hard time with aquiring Master Medic, because resources where so expensive, I mean come on 6K for for 500 units of Lokian Wheat !. Harvesters should be usable by all or at least those that can craft anyting.

um hate to say it but I just use medium Harvs.
The rateing is BER 10
They cost less to run, use less power and cost to harvest ratio they are more efficent.

I really don't see what the big deal is, if only docs can place a medcenter, dancers and musicians a cantina, merchants a merchant tent, why not a cert for heavy harvestors?

The artisans are taking themselves too seriously. Do the Master marksmen complain because they can't compete with a master Rifleman? Artisans shouldn't think of themselves as crafters, they should think of themselves more as surveyors and resource dealors.

An as for being a welfare profession, artisan has the potential to make a lot of money. Not as a crafter though, but as a resource dealer. I know this for a fact, I was a master artisan for a while and I made MILLIONS by using survey 4 and a crappy biz 3 vendor in a good location. Sure, I could have still made money in the resource biz without the survey ability, but it would have been a lot harder.

Without other people mining the resources of the server, you'll see price increases because good resources will be in much shorter supply. Maybe they think it's good for them because they can charge more per unit of a good resource, but it will come back and bite them because EVERYTHING in the game will cost not only them, but everyone else much more to buy. For instance, lets say thay make 100k more then they did before because of supply/demand they can gouge crafters on prices for a good resource. However, when they need a new suit of armor, a buff, or anything else they will end up paying more then it did before.

I understand where they are coming from, but still they are sitting on inflated egos for a basic profession. They seem to be short sighted, ignoring the fact that any decrease in the availablility of resources will hurt them as much or more then it helps them.