Shipwright Archive
Thread: What do you dislike about Shipwright?
HiroBlack
Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:38 am
#14
Overall I adore the shipwright profession, but in the name of contributing to the community I'll try to come up with a few items that are less than perfect.
1 - Inability to craft capacitors, boosters and other items on par with the base average of loot drops. Having extraordinary parts looted from especially tough missions and quests is good, and we get to interact with the customer in RE'ing those parts. If we can not be on par with a base line loot item for a given level, though, it is very discouraging as a shipwright. Why should I take the time/resources to stock capacitors if you get better ones through loot? Please make us useful across the board as providers of quality components.
2 - I would like to see the use of consumables (i.e. missiles and CM) rise, and be much more ecconomical to produce and more functional for pilots so that they are a "must have" item for going on missions. I realize there is a delicate balancing act, but I think it would be a great service to Shipwrights if we were able to have something to sell and stock on a regular basis that sold briskly, as low cost/high volume items (like powerups are forArtisans).
3 - This is not a Shipwright issue per se, however it affects us greatly. Ace Pilots need something to do besides PvP. There should be more out there that requires them to be working with those Master level ships, buying missiles, replacing armor, purchasing repair kits, etc. There is a whole community of Ace Pilots actively flying, but I know from my experience as a guild leader that most of the Aces in my guild stop flying once they master. These folks were great customers and could be again if there was more of an end game to Pilot.
4 - I would like to be able to craft parts using the alternate art for components that have them available. Not a big issue, but I would like to be able to provide "that special look" to players that ask for it and craft up exactly what they are looking for.
Message Edited by HiroBlack on 04-04-2005 12:42 PM
Pallida
Mon Apr 04, 2005 1:53 pm
#15
Unless things have changed a great deal...
The lack of major component decay (i.e.: using Deep Space as a universal "get out of jail free card") means little to no repeat business for items that would normally be our "bread and butter."
ssssssssssssssSSS(:-<
1st_Viduus
Mon Apr 04, 2005 5:12 pm
#16
I should say my #1 beef about shipwright...
Imbalanced resource requirements.
Seriously folks, to make a decent chassis (that if I am lucky, can sell for more than 5cpu!) I require 70k steel... that's not even 3 ships on two full stacks... that require 5 statistics to average out to 75% or better, for very little gain.
Steel which would meet half that requirement can be sold for 10cpu+ to armorsmiths or weaponsmiths, and steel that matches ALL the requirements can go for as much as 30cpu.
Massive imbalance.
I've been sitting on a 6 use KSE schem for 5 weeks now, because I refuse to build them unless I can hit 74% MA at least.
Nice huh?
I've practically put down MSW, due to resource requirements -- (i should not be forced to be msw/vendor/resourcerat because I want to have a shipwright.
Most other professions require on average 2 or 3 statistics on material, not 5.
No other crafting prof requires 150k units for a single item afaik.
Balance this out please.
Strudle
Mon Apr 04, 2005 6:16 pm
#17
1. Limited factory support: it boggles down shipwrights who have to recraft items intended to have identical stats and creates rampant carpal tunnel in order to meat the demand.
2. Looted items: a balance should be met with looted vs crafted components
Ricven
Mon Apr 04, 2005 8:41 pm
#18
1. Well I have to agree with most the peopel here about the looted versus crafted parts. I know that the WS and other crafters do not have to bother with this issue.
2. I have no big deal about the factory support I honestly kind of like it. I use factories with my armorsmith, and like the fact that I craft ALL SW stuff by hand.
3. My main problem with the SW ordal is that the ships once you have them u do not need another one for a long, long time. I understand they cost alot and that is due to the amount of resources required by them, but they should have some sort of returning customer rate for us just like the swoops do with artisans. Unsure how this would be accomplished, but it seems again like once we give ALL people the ships they want they only need parts so we become a surplus part center.
4. No Clothig attachments to give us bonuses in crafting or experimentation like other professions get to obtain!
Thats really about all I can think of at the moment.
2. I have no big deal about the factory support I honestly kind of like it. I use factories with my armorsmith, and like the fact that I craft ALL SW stuff by hand.
3. My main problem with the SW ordal is that the ships once you have them u do not need another one for a long, long time. I understand they cost alot and that is due to the amount of resources required by them, but they should have some sort of returning customer rate for us just like the swoops do with artisans. Unsure how this would be accomplished, but it seems again like once we give ALL people the ships they want they only need parts so we become a surplus part center.
4. No Clothig attachments to give us bonuses in crafting or experimentation like other professions get to obtain!
Thats really about all I can think of at the moment.
coranimus
Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:39 pm
#19
Missles for their cost are not worth it. They cannot one hit ships like i feel they should. For the resource cost to fire a MK2 space bomb it really should destroy what it hits. I am both MSW and Master Pilot and if I do the math for what I charge for them its about 1000 credits to Launch a missle at something to not destory it when on average I may recoup half that with the kill itself. I think they should really either pump them up to a one hit killing machine or dramitcally lower their resource cost.
Chaff Packs? Why? Most ships that need these dont have the mass to hold them and the ones that do can hold more armor and shields and dont really require them except maybe in PVP which on my server is pretty much not goin on. Although they sell better then my components which amazes me.
Once again crafter versus looted on everything except reactors is out of whack but everyone can tell you that
No factory support. With all the time I spend in space getting money and loot to reverse engineer I dont really want to hand craft things as much aswe have too.Besides Vendors are good at making you a little cash while offline why not allow us to craft more things offline as well
Chassis Chassis Chassis. They are not worth it to craft. I will do special orders but I get laughed at when asking 3CPU because the massive amount of resources required and the lack of experimentations impact on the total stats doesnt make a grinding chassis better then a master chassis.
Once Again FS conversion. Why isnt their any?
Skill tapes another why not?
Wow I really sound bad I love being my own SW but i hate to say it but doing it as a business kinda hurts for me personally with the shortfalls
IllandroKIlek
Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:13 am
#20
1) We need limited Factory Support
2) We should have the ability to trade in SW xp for FS Crafting XP
3) Starship texture kits should be combined into 1 kit with 6 possble textures to choose from, and Paint and Texture kits should allow you to preview the changes before you apply them.
4) Would really be nice to see more than just Firespray disks drop from RE loot.
MrHawat
Tue Apr 05, 2005 6:57 am
#21
My biggest complaint is the lack of factory support and the number and different types of resources required to craft quality products. This coupled with the method and numbers for RE make storage a nightmare. We need some help here. I need one type of steel for one component and another type for another component and so on. How many people are holding 9 out of 10 level 10 parts? You get the idea. I had to go Merchant just for the storage.
My second biggest complaint is the loot drops. I am a Master Pilot and Master Shipwright and the ships that I use HAVE NO CRAFTED COMPONENTS. Why is that? Between the quality of the loot/crafted combined with RE. I can not even come close even with Uber Resources. The reactor I use dropped with decent mass and other requirements and 35k of energy output and it was Mark III. I have nothing against an occasional Uber loot drop but we are the only crafting profession that has to compete with NPC's. Hell, you even instituted a chassis NPC that buys loot drops. Where is the NPC that I can sell Krayt tissues too?
The resource cost for consumables is way too high. As a pilot, I seldom use missiles. With good guns, I can usually disable a target before the missiles even lock. When I do use them, the damage they do when and if they actually hit, is not worth the trouble or the mass. This is one of the only professions where the quality of a part made by a Masteris not much better than the same part made by a novice. It is also one of the only professions that I know of where 5 different stats matter on resources. I have been MSW since JTL came out and I still have to look at my notes to figure out what to use to make what.
mokai
Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:05 pm
#22
Shipwright dislikes
1. chassis broker purchases by level of item, so players can sell 5 level 5 items to it and get 25k. OR, they list it on bazaar for a little more, or offer it at a vendor for a little more. So, assume I buy 5 level 5 droid interfaces at 5k each, and of course, it comes out junk after RE. so i sell it at chassis dealer for a nice 20k loss.
2. chassis stats from novice to master have very little difference. I have seen chassis on bazaar for 600cr.. cant compete with the grinders on items that stats dont matter.
3. I dont like spending 16 hours over a weekend reverse engineering nonstop and getting zero firespray discs.
4. At release, i made a run of missiles in crates.. and they still have not sold, even priced at 1cpu.
5. The best money to be made in shipwright is at novice, when reverse engineering is allowed.
6. The ONLY reason to be master shipwright is to assemble the Firespray Discs into a schematic.. IF you ever get a full set.
IMHO, shipwright is a credit sink, materials cost way too much, and the market is basically dead. I for one will be respecing out of it at Combat Upgrade release
Mokrisha-bria
Subcriminal
Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:53 pm
#23
1) Resource quality needs to have a bigger impact for mass and HP experimentation lines for chassis. The fact that resource quality is so important for other parts, but not chassis, is inconsistent at best and leaves chassis open to price wars.
2) I have mixed feelings about lack factory support. I like not having it, because it filters out a good deal of the riff-raff and those with a pure love of the craft are the ones who persevere. On the other hand, I have spent as long as an entire week crafting to restock my shop. I must admit that this is getting to be very annoying but I don't really know what kind of happy medium can be found.
3) I dislike that there are too many experimentation lines in some products, and an inconsistent number of experimentation points between products. Some experimentation lines are completely useless or should be grouped together.
4) PYR needs to be merged into a single experimentation line if we are to compete with looted engines. Our experimentation points are spread WAY too thin for engines as it is.
5) Reactors should have a bigger difference in power output on the higher-level ones. Considering all the power a multi-gun ship with several missile launcher and countermeasure launchers equipped, I thinkwe should be able to craft a more powerful reactorfor these ships.
6) Some looted items are consistantly WAY better than crafted ones, even when getting into 90% experimentation results. Consequentlythere are some parts that I refuse to produce (capacitors)- which is a shame because I would otherwise enjoy making a variety of capacitors for my customers who have VERY different capacitor configuration needs. While I am not calling for a loot nerf, I would like to see experimentation tweaked so that we can compete and get more punch for our experimentation points.
7) Considering how rare the firespray disk drop is, I would like to see the final schematic offer more reproductions than 6, maybe 8-10?
8) Shipwrights need to have their XP count for force grinding, or have the skill point requirement removed alltogether. The developer's excuse with our profession being too JTL related to qualify is a load of BS so long as our profession requires skill point expenditure while the Pilot professions do not. We are the only JTL profession that is 99% dependent the ground game to function. I cannot mine in space, I cannot craft in space, I cannot set up my shop in space, I cannot survey in space, I cannot train my SW skills in space,and I cannot agin SW xp in space... As far as I am concerned, while SW may have been invented for JTL, it is just as much dependant on the ground game as any other crafting profession, and I feel it should be treatedaccordingly and with fairness.
Lotifo
Tue Apr 05, 2005 6:14 pm
#24
We need ship decay. I hate using realismto make a point in a video game, but It's completely unrealistic to have half your components be blown to bits but...wait, what's that? A space station can take my engine that's in 147 separate pieces and fix it good as new?? And for only 3000 credits!? What a deal! It is just like Architect but it doesn't need to be. Obviously, furniture doesn't really decay, and I feel for the Architects there, but ship parts should. It's silly that they don't.
The mark/level naming convention is awkward and difficult for both consumers and shipwrights to understand. I'd rather see the mark stuff discarded, make the levels 1-5 instead of 1-10, and allow shipwrights to craft all of it. The odd/even level stuff is just weird. And if it's the odd level numbers that are bugged and making the stats garbage, just kill all the odd level stuff, and rename the even numbered components 1-5. Blammo - a more streamlined profession and a bug removed.
Space loot was a good idea but it missed the mark some. There's not much point in buying top of the line stuff when you can use a free looted piece that (in our best-case scenario) is almost as good. I have an alt on my wife's server and I basically grind credits for her in space. I just do destroy duty missions until my inventory is full then I sell it all and start over. I can make a few hundred thousand credits in a single morning of flying. I've never visited a shipwright on that server and I probably never will. (no, I'm not saying which server. 
) Space is enormously profitable because of looted components and that damn chassis dealer so it stands to reason that pilots would shell out the credits for good stuff. There's two reasons they don't though -one, they get instant credits from the chassis broker and it just slows them down to sell to us; and two, with the number of loot parts they can get, they don't really need to buy anything from us. The solution? Change looting full components to looting subcomponents. Make it basically the same exact thing as now (same volume, still able to sell them to chassis brokers, etc) but subcomponens used in crafting rather than the finished product. Reverse engineering can still apply but there's no need to worry about space loot hurting shipwright - the best looted stuff would only be valuable in a shipwrights hands.
Beyond that, the usual - not enoughfactory support, no force xp conversion, can't put different appearances on components, good resource stats don't really mean much, etc.
Message Edited by Lotifo on 04-05-2005 09:16 PM
Kaiyn
Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:50 am
#25
I agree with the other problems as stated here, and would like to propose something radical, that I have yet to see mentioned. I would like to see an overhaul of the components/ship issue. Just having better components weigh more, and using this as the limit on what can be put in a ship seems somewhat unrealistic to me, and goes against information I have gleaned from Star Wars source books. An example, incredible cross-sections states on the Firespray, that Boba Fett has installed 4 capacitiors to drive the heavy weaponry that is installed. If we could limit what size part could go in each size ship, but have the ability for higher level pilots to install more than one of the item, we could really open up the ships, allowing pilots to 'hot-rod' smaller ships and make them viable to use. How about ships requiring 2 engines installed that have the graphic display for it? Pilots needing to find similar stat engines or have to fight with control issues? How about multiple guns? Right now we install one gun, but it puts two on our ships, how realistic is that? These are the visible issues, what about the components that do not show, such as the capacitor, reactors, or shields? Having a maximum possible, allowed by having higher piloting skill, of 2 for light ships? 3 for mediums? 4 for heavies? 5 for master? Something a bit more realistic with armor also...right now, 2 pieces of armor covers any ship, irregardless of the size of the ship. 2 pieces of armor for a light fighter is fine, but how about 4 needed for medium fighters? 6 for a heavy? 8 or more needed for a master ship? Don't get me wrong, I love piloting/shipwright, but the current system seems overly simplisitic; it has a lot more room for realistic improvement. I understand that this would introduce a whole new balance issue...and may be way too much for SOE to invest in time and resources...I'm just opening up the topic for ideas...
Thanks for ships....keep them coming
Thanks for ships....keep them coming
Kaiyn
Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:16 am
#26
I also dislike the fact that as a shipwright, I cannot work on other's ships. It is SUCH a hassle to ask a million questions about what you can fit, what you need, blah blah blah. If SOE gave architects the ability to make STARSHIP HANGERS, shipwrights could place them on the ground and be able to work on other's ships. This would allow JTL owners to be able to 'see' their ships and walk around it, while limiting acess to non-JTL owners. The whole thing could be set up like an extended trade window, maybe with removed compoennts going to a 'pool' that goes back to the owner upon completion. Shipwrights could then add/remove compoents, testing how things fit together, alleviating the need of the pilot in shipwright science, and giving it to the shipwright where it belongs. Shipwrights could also store looted components in the hanger, giving us the space we need to have all the un-reverse engineered loot we have stuffed in our backpacks, bank, and extra houses. Hey, maybe Sony would allow registered hangers like vendors, so we could have an extra option from space to land at a repair facility if the shipwright approves...etc etc etc...million possibilities here....