Shipwright Archive
Thread: Focus Thread: Factory Support
Kalano wrote:
pervel wrote:
I very much like the idea bout making a ship factory that can only be placed by a shipwright and that every shipwright can only place one. It should only cost 1 lot to place. Otherwise it would not benefit the small shipwrights much.
Although it is not the theme of this thread, I think this could be extended to all crafting professions. Architects can only place one structure factory. Tailors and armorsmith only one clothing factory. Doctors, CMs,Chefs and Smugglers only one food factory. Equipment factories should probably be placeable by all crafting professions.
you haven't done a lot of the crafting proffesions have you? Limiting to one will hurt many also. some items take several factory runs for the sub components and even they take a long time to make. Unless you cut down a large amount of factory time and sub components, one factory only will really hurt the unguilded and friend supported crafter. I know, because i am not part of a guild and not supported by others. I have used more that one factory at times because i didn't want to wait three days to get an end product as master artisan. it gets worse the higher you go.
I have been weaponsmith (still is), architect, artisan, and now shipwright. I have never used more than one of each type of factory and have done quite well. I would'nt mind extending it to 2 factories per person. But this thread is about trying to find compromises.
pervel wrote:
I very much like the idea bout making a ship factory that can only be placed by a shipwright and that every shipwright can only place one. It should only cost 1 lot to place. Otherwise it would not benefit the small shipwrights much.
Although it is not the theme of this thread, I think this could be extended to all crafting professions. Architects can only place one structure factory. Tailors and armorsmith only one clothing factory. Doctors, CMs,Chefs and Smugglers only one food factory. Equipment factories should probably be placeable by all crafting professions.
I quite like this idea myself. The only way to get an extra factory would be to take another profession that uses the same kind... i.e. a CM/Doctor could place two chem factories, same with a tailor/armoursmith and clothing factories. With the hits the SWG economy is taking it would probably actually help the industry anyway.
Message Edited by 4Bidden on 11-27-2004 12:39 PM
styx66 wrote:.
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.Also, I have a dev statement about why factories are the way they are. I will post when I get the OK.
Sorry to be off-topic, but...
Why do the devs do stuff like this? I can understand not releasing data about upcoming changes until stuff is more or less final, but what's the problem with explaining why something works the way it does/why a particular decision was made?
what way you voted (or would have voted) in the poll: I voted No
Why you voted this way: Many crafters (Myself Included) have become factory monkeys punching buttons and feeding the vendor. Success as a crafter shouldn't be exclusively bound to the volume and quality resources. Dedication was missing and the current factory support system makes it so only those who are truely dedicated to crafting will play a factor in the supply side.
If you believe factory support should not be increased, please provide (if any) proposals you would be willing to compromise on.
An acceptable compromise would be limited factory runs of Mark I - Mark III components leaving Mark IV and V components exclusively in the realm of hand crafting.
1. Keep support levels the same! No change needed.
2. _
3. Keep it the same so a player who wants to be a shipwright has to play a shipwright, not a schematic producer who then spends the majority of time hunting. The majority of your time if you are a Shipwright should be being a Shipwright. Keeping it the same will also prevent somebody's alt character from doing Shipwright, logging on to make schematics and check factories, then logging out onto their other character. I do not have an alt and do not plan on having an alt. I enjoy being a Shipwright but would lose interest if I became a schematic producer.
Reason: I feared people with higher output would remove me from the market and thought it great to craft all by hand and was joyful about doing custom orders.
But: Whenever I made a custom order I needed several hours to complete it and thereby was not able to fill up my vendor. I had to raise my prices (I charge now 20 cpu) to keep some items in stock and crafted like a madman to stock it up. But I had no chance, even stopping custom orders for a while did not help, people were buying what they could and left me with an empty vendor thereby producing unhappy other customers who had no chance to find their needed items at my shop (great for my purse shortly, but bad for long time business).
So: If we voted now again, I would vote FOR more factory support, even full support, to get the time to do my custom orders again AND have happy customers who will mostly find items in my vendor (which will then be cheaper because I no longer need to craft the butt out of me to get even minimal vendor filling before falling nearly dead and totally too tired in my bed).
styx66 wrote:
This thread is for the issue of factory support.
The poll showed a slight majority in favor of no change to factory support, but a significant number of you believe there should be some change.
So in this thread, please:
- (Optional) State what way you voted (or would have voted) in the poll. I voted No to more factory support.
- (Optional) Why you voted (or would have voted) this way. Because it was clear in beta that, for one, ship components need to be so highly customized that producing thousands of a single component was for the most part a waste of time and would at best lead only to a lot of cookie-cutter ships.
- I would also prefer to craft, not be a vendor monkey worried about restocking my vendor. I do custom orders only. Not having factories frees up my time because I do not have to worry about keeping a vendor stocked. My vendors are stocked with the components I make that don't quite work in whatever current job I'm working on.
- Finally, I would prefer to see 50 shipwrights on a server making a decent living than 5 making a killing with no chance for anyone else to break into the business. There are things called economies of scale--limited factory support make those impossible to work.
- If you believe factory support should be increased, please state how you think this would be best achieved with minimal reprocussions to those on the other side of the issue.
- If you believe factory support should not be increased, please provide (if any) proposals you would be willing to compromise on. It's fine the way it is--there's no reason to change. For those who can't take it, I suggest you get out now rather than moan and groan your way through month after month of hoping that things change in your favor.
What would I compromise on? Nothing--there's no reason to do so. There's more than enough factory support now in its limited form.
PLEASE do not start major arguments or flame wars here. This post will be deleted and/or restarted if it gets out of hand. This will be a post the devs eyes will see, so lets make it good.
Also, I have a dev statement about why factories are the way they are. I will post when I get the OK.
Message Edited by styx66 on 11-25-2004 01:34 AM
Ok, well I have posted on this topic a number of times in fierce opposition to increased factory support even though it would make life easier. The very thing I love about this profession is that it is a true crafting profession.
It requires daily commitments of time to be successful to any degree. Additionally it affords me constant intteraction with my customers as I am often by my vendor restocking it. This leads to less confusion as they always know that I am availabe if they have any questions. I was a WS and I dont think I ever saw any of my customers, I would spend maybe 10 mintues a day at my vendor loading what my factory had just produced.
A major downside of increased factory support would be the need for less Shipwrights, face it if two or three people can meet the demand, this will turn into Weaponsmithing, where a handful of people control the market. Right now with it being so difficult to stock vendors people will travel to out of the way places to get there components.
As for ideas of how to increase factory suport without compromising the profession as it is, that is impossible. There are only to ways currently to increas factory support, either on components or chassis. I can't imagine they would allow factory support on just armor, which by itself wouldn't be too bad as it sells more often than many other things.
Any increased factory support I imagine would include all components, this in my opinion would take away the very heart of the profession. Soon after, every ship will be the same, much like every T-21 is identical. Variety is the spice of life, leave this alone, please.
