Shipwright Archive
Thread: Should I become a Shipwright?
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Shadwe
Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:10 pm
#1
ValStryker wrote:Hi all,I am thinking of using my token respec to join your ranks. I am currently a Master BH and Master Rifleman. I have never done a crafting profession before. However, I really love flying spaceships. On my server (Tempest), it seems like nobody is making high quality RE loot to sell. So, the best equipment I can get is all crafted stuff that is REALLY heavy. I really wish I could make my own components.Is there anything I should think about, or do, before I make this change?V'al Stryker, Rebel Pilot 4-4-4-4, Citizen of River's Edge, Dantooine, Tempest
The chassis vendor pays 1k times level for space loot and he is in the spaceport. So most space loot is sold there giving less parts to be RE'd.
Shipwright is a resource intensive profession. It's also a time intensive profession as you can not make factory runs of ships or ship components there are all hand crafted. So to keep well stock vendors takes time. You will also spend 2-4 hours per customer trying to do a loadout for a ship, as they want the biggest gun, fastest engine and the highest damage missle in the smallest mass ships.
IIscandar
Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:26 pm
#2
Shipwright can be a lot of fun, or a lot of work, or both depending on your view of fun. If your just interested in crafting for yourself or re'ing for yourself, shipwright is easy and personally rewarding.
If you intend however to make shipwright your focus during gameplay it becomes a lot more work, but can also be a lot more rewarding as you ponder how many customers are out there flying in your ships, or shooting your blasters, or being protected by your armor.
When people come back to your shop or ask for advice, that's a good feeling. There are some known issues with the shipwright profession that offer a lot of insight to the dev's to change/resolve in the future, but overall shipwright is a well done profession with a bright future.
If you intend however to make shipwright your focus during gameplay it becomes a lot more work, but can also be a lot more rewarding as you ponder how many customers are out there flying in your ships, or shooting your blasters, or being protected by your armor.
When people come back to your shop or ask for advice, that's a good feeling. There are some known issues with the shipwright profession that offer a lot of insight to the dev's to change/resolve in the future, but overall shipwright is a well done profession with a bright future.
Kinshi
Thu Jul 21, 2005 5:19 pm
#3
I ground my way to Master and spent bout 6 million to get there but 2 things have made it all worthwhile
1. I have steady sales :-) My business plan is working and the shop os taking in more than I spend to maintain and stock it...PROFIT :-)
2. I have regular customers! People are making return visits to my shops and are coming back to me for full refits as they advance their pilot skills. It made me happy to see my choices in crafting my parts are acceptable to my customers.
and even better , the shop is slowly expanding. Im adding Droid Engineer stuff as well to the shop (astromechs, droid chips, and droid interfaces that I make as a SW)
its to the point now where I need to invest in more factories. My one small factory cant keep up anymore with the demand I have for paint and texture kits, not to mention the component upgrades and ordanance.
Im not a big operator by anymeans but the sheer fact that my customers come back and that I turn a profit makes me happy.
ValStryker
Fri Jul 22, 2005 12:47 am
#4
Hi all,
I am thinking of using my token respec to join your ranks. I am currently a Master BH and Master Rifleman. I have never done a crafting profession before. However, I really love flying spaceships. On my server (Tempest), it seems like nobody is making high quality RE loot to sell. So, the best equipment I can get is all crafted stuff that is REALLY heavy. I really wish I could make my own components.
Is there anything I should think about, or do, before I make this change?
V'al Stryker, Rebel Pilot 4-4-4-4, Citizen of River's Edge, Dantooine, Tempest
Tangle
Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:01 am
#5
Shipwright is a profession where you really get out of it what you put into it. It also depends on what you like to do with your time. I love space and have dedicated all my playing time to it. When I saw there was really no ship component shop on my server that puts out high quality parts while keeping stocked most of the time I decided I wanted to be the one to do it. I have found it to be satisfying but I can really see how it can turn other people off.
My time online basically goes like this every log in session. Log in. Email beep, yay more vendor sales. Go into email. Oh my god they sucked me dry ALREADY!? Take inventory & note what I need to craft. Check subcomponent crate inventory and note what new runs need to be set. Make new schematics and start sub runs. Start crafting new components to fill the holes in my stock. Hopefully finish in a couple hours. Pat myself on the back for finishing. Now I need to take inventory on my resources. Did I mention you need LOTS of resources? Well, steel the most. High quality steel. LOTS of high quality steel. In fact, different TYPES of high quality steel. Plain OQ steel for subs that are, for example, OQ/PE. OQ/CD steel (you go through this type in very very very high quantities and did I mention how rare this is?). OQ/UT/HR type stuff for mass crafting. This is good for armor or using instead of the OQ/CD stuff if your customer wants to trim some effectiveness for mass. If you find steel with high OQ/CD/UT/HR then you just hit the mother load and you should spend millions for lots of it. Anyway, after figuring out how my resources are looking, I always hit the bazaar terminal for a while looking for anything that might have hit the martket. Don't just expect stuff to hit the market that just spawned. Lots of times stuff goes up for sale that's been sitting around a while.
When that's all done and good I go up and fly. When factories are finished I land to start new sub runs.
It's really all about how you want to play SW. I am a business type person. Now, there are plenty SW that love to fly and like to be able to make their own parts for their friends and themselves. LOTs of SW are of this breed. I will tell you, that if you put the effort in to put out a well-stocked shop with good product, the money will flow very very well. Eventually you start getting emails and tells from customers who need custom jobs or have questions about what they can and cannot do with their gear. Now, there might be a market for lower quality gear for people just starting up but I didn't choose to go that route. When you walk into my shop you're going to pay up for things. I pay high prices for my resources and I put in a LOT of time running this business and I need to be compensated to keep doing it. Luckily, high level pilots are loaded so that's the focus of my shop.
As a last word, I have to say I don't know if I would pop your last respec to do this. This is one of those professions that people try and quit very quickly once they see how much work it is. And I would say that it requires quite a financial investment to start, otherwise you're doing 10 times the amount of work because youcouldn't afford to buy enough resource to make it easier to maintain. I started out with an investment of maybe 10 million and I so wish I would have had about 50 or so.
Whatever you choose, good luck to you. =)
Thunderbyte
Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:49 am
#6
I prefer the loot/RE aspect of shipwright the most, but still take the time to gather resources for high quality crafted items for myself and guildmates. I've been playing this game since it went live, and shipwright combined with pilot is one of the most worthwhile professions I've ever had, and I've tried a few.
If you wanna be a crafter without the overhead of having to find the absolute best of the best resources (even when some of those must be bought from other players), shipwright is a good choice.
If you want a crafting profession that maximizes the experimentation system (because every pilot likes his parts differently, unlike most ground crafted items) then shipwright is for you.
Even if you don't like crafting, but you want to feel like you've had a direct impact on how good your ship is because you collected the loot, cataloged it, RE'd it, and hand selected how to put it all together, then shipwright is a good choice.
In it's also one of the most constructive communities in the forums. There's still the occasional whine, but overall there's not much flaming to be had here.
Kinshi
Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:48 am
#7
SW is a great profession to play if you have always wanted to be a gearhead or greasemonkey :-) If you like Monster Garage then SW is for YOU!
Actually maybe that would be a cool segment to have here on the forums..call it MONSTER STARPORT or something, where everyone can show off their most souped up, hyper customized spaceships? WHatcha think?
Ofu
Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:30 pm
#8
Glad to see you considering joining us....
I would've loved to have /respecced to shipwright. Grinding Chassis was wicked expensive. Still have some in stock from the grind, been a Master Shipwright now for a while. Here are some lessons learned.
1. It's great to have the best component in your ship. Unlike the groundgame, you could create armor but probably can't wear it... you could create the beast T21 and you probably can't wield it. As a shipwright, you get to actually _USE_ what you create... I lovehaving the _best_ equipment on my ship. Then again, I'm all about "MORE POWER!!!" Yep. Strangely satisfying for the Tim Allen in you.
2. Do it for the love of the game. I went into shipwright not as a business plan but more to create better components for my ship. What can I say, I like to fly in the most tricked out Heavy Syckk out there... I really don't like the crafting side of the house and basically I trade components for asteroids, etc.... I mostly run a trading business (goods for services)... rather than a full fledged business per se.
3. What I do stock (especially if I'm inspired) do sell. I've jacked up my prices abit so that I don't have to restock everyday. I also started to create the ultimate low mass/high maneuverability ship loadout (B-22/JSF/Heavy Variants/TIE/etc...). This is very useful in configuring someone's flight loadout. I also use a loadout calculator posted in the stickies above. (Good calculator by the way)
4. Do it to have fun!
-For me running a business and filling your vendors with mindless mass production is well... profitable, but time consuming. Every shipwright component is handcrafted, soooo. Be prepared to get carpal tunnel syndrome if you're going to run a successful business.
I basically run at least in the black. My business plan is this. "Enjoy my time" My time is valuable...
So there are only two of three ways you can getwork off me:
1. Good
2. Fast
3. Cheap
Good work made fast isn't cheap.
Cheap fast work isn't any good.
Good cheap work isn't fast.
Still Interested? Inquire within.
-Ofu
Master Shipwright
Drakulos
Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:51 pm
#9
Pretty much all that Tangle Wrote..... No need to rewrite same thoughts.... I think he my lost Sibbling...
IIscandar
Fri Jul 22, 2005 4:26 pm
#10
"MONSTER STARPORT"
hee!!! =) I like that, or maybe "Pimp my Starship!"
hee!!! =) I like that, or maybe "Pimp my Starship!"
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