Merchant Archive
Thread: Stacking limits for resources
Cafa wrote:
Not a single profession you have listed actually uses a high volume of resources. Whereas, I have played the highest volume architect on Tempest
I'll be the first to admit that architect is the toughest profession to play under the existing stack size limits. Only shipwrights use more resources, but they are constrained by the lack of factory support. But even the one character architect crafter is not completely impoosible, based on this classic ZenDragonMLS thread.
Your business requires 8 characters simply because you have chosen to run at a much higher level of volume and a much larger product line than the devs ever wanted a single character to do. I don't think it's a bad that you run such a large business. You pay for the 8 characters, so as far as I am concerned, you should get the full benefit of 8 characters. But that doesn't mean that I am going to support any proposal that makes it easier for you to run such a large business. Lot constraints and inventory constraints are a good thing for the game.
Happymob wrote:
Cafa wrote:
Not a single profession you have listed actually uses a high volume of resources. Whereas, I have played the highest volume architect on Tempest
I'll be the first to admit that architect is the toughest profession to play under the existing stack size limits. Only shipwrights use more resources, but they are constrained by the lack of factory support. But even the one character architect crafter is not completely impoosible, based on this classic ZenDragonMLS thread.
Your business requires 8 characters simply because you have chosen to run at a much higher level of volume and a much larger product line than the devs ever wanted a single character to do. I don't think it's a bad that you run such a large business. You pay for the 8 characters, so as far as I am concerned, you should get the full benefit of 8 characters. But that doesn't mean that I am going to support any proposal that makes it easier for you to run such a large business. Lot constraints and inventory constraints are a good thing for the game.
Again you either miss or take the point where you want it, not any relevant answer to my assertions.
It doesn't matter whether you support me or not. I will pay (in RL dollars) what it takes for ME to enjoy the game. I only have 8 toons because my family enjoys this game, not because I need to have them. But I am not a teenager, I can afford to purchase whatever I want to enjoy this game.
I am mainly concerned about the casual gamer. ZenDragon's thread does not actually describe what happens when you get successful in this game, it describes how to start a business. The casual gamer that gets name recognition, becomes successful within a Architect market, is totally screwed because they hit the wall of production full on with 10 lots in less than a month. They cannot store enough parts to keep up and the requirements to play the Architect profession. This is not a market of comparisons that we play in. People come to me for city structures because it takes me 10 minutes to make an entire city, not the 2 weeks it would take someone starting from a baseline of 0.
And FYI, Shipwrights do not use more materials than Architect. Until some Shipwright shows me an order for the equivalent of 400 heavy harvestors (which I get about over 2 months) that profession doesn't even begin to touch the requirements for a successful, THRIVING, and profitable Architect market, IMO. I bought an extra character solely because I wanted to go Shipwright and not abandon my established customer base in Architect. My Architect market still makes 50 times the profit of Shipwright.
If resource stacks were changed to 1000K and crates went to 100 restackable items anyone could gear up to my production levels inside of 2 months. As it stands now, casual players don't stand a chance.
Fivo Asia
AudioOrgana wrote:
Cafa, you are totally missing the point.
The point is, the Devs don't want Industrial crafters like ourselves to be able to do the volume that we do as it is because we can dominate a market.
Increasing stack size would simply make it even easier to dominate the market.
You seem to have gone off on a rant to me because I didn't note that architect had high requirements as well, and you assumed that my experience is only in the professions of my main character below. What you fail to realize is that an order of 400 heavy harvesters is not intended to be possible. Yet as you prove, people do get around it by buying multiple accounts. That's how any MMO works - there is no shame in it, but their is no valor either. There is also nothing to be done about it anyway. A "causal" crafter is not meant to store a hundred million units of resources as they'd be able to if stack size were increased 10x.
As the Devs have proven with their implementation of Shipwright, the trend is away from Industrial crafting, as much as I enjoy it. You can argue the merits of it all you want, but there is a snowball's chance in hell it's ever going to convince the Devs.
Good luck though - it would be nice for those of us who have the finances to acquire that many resources.
AO
I got here 2 months after you, but I've been follow your posts since Sept 2003, so I do know and appreciate a lot of your experience, and insight, BTW.
He's the jist of my comments. A "casual" crafter can never compete with someone that has multiple accounts. Fundamentally the reason for this is resource and crate stacking not working for the functional requirements of the professions, Architect in large booming examples.
If they could develop a MMO culture that sustains upon the merit of gameplay, my issue would be moot in a lot of ways. But they cannot, and the largest coherent group of "community developers" in this game are the industrialist. That aspect has directly emulated RL. There's a reason for this. It's a basic fundamental difference in values and thought processes between a consumer and a developer. Developing personalitiesin RL make businesses that can thrive (they hope) and then further develop the community to move along their line of consumption to sustain that business' growth.
Increasing stack size would only make my time utilization more efficient, it would not allow me to dominate the markets in SWG any more or less than I am already doing. I think the fact that I continue to dominate architecture sales on Tempest is directly tied to the fact that I just put up with whatever bad decisions get passed down from the devs and continue on. Most people QUIT, Architect, if not the game. If they don't want the industrialist then they should make it more convenient for more people to operate a successful crafting profession in-game, not harder. Most dynamics of business don't change because this is a virtual world.
They (the devs) need to be more honest with us as consumers, IMO. Don't make professions, like Master Merchant, and have descriptors labelling them as "known throughout the galaxy" and such as that. Gaining Master Merchant didn't place me in my market position in this game, not one iota. Hard work, caring and building my guild community, my player city and the overall economy of my server did that.
I guess my "snowball" chance in hell of asserting my vision is that I want the mundane and overhead reduced to reasonable levels so that people will actually enjoy playing crafting professions, not see them as second jobs. So I point out where your logic is wrong in analysis of resource stacking as it affects Architect. In the end, it is just my opinion.
But I put it back to you. How would increasing resource stacks or crating rules change your gameplay on single bit? People that are already industrialist types just buy multiple accounts. They reach a level of value to enjoyment and stop there, from my observations. They're not suddenly going to do anything different than what they do now, including me.
Fivo Asia