Weaponsmith Archive

No, I'm not calling out for a nerf - but rather I would like to hear how you guys feel about this: Why are schematics just as good as hand-crafted weapons?

Wouldn't it make sense that a schematic would suffer a small degradation on account that a hand-crafted item always will be better made than a factory made one?

Not only is this true in the real world - but I think it would work very well in SWG. The best, factory made Laser Rifles would have a few percent lower damage and be a bit slower, but would still sell for 7500-12000 creds - while hard core PvP:er probably would not satisfy with anything but a exceptionally hand-crafted weapon for upwards 20K?

Bottom line: I want to be able to make one item at a time that has a chance to be better than anything I could ever hope to put out on a schematic (given the same resources).

What about you?


Disclaimer: Yes, I'm only a newb to crafting so far, I might have overlooked a lot of factors that weigh in on this.


Additional thought: Maybe some weapons/armour/etc. should _only_ be hand-craftable on account of complexity?

When you are selling 50+ guns a day you will serious re-think that opinion.

Only after they fix experimentation so it doesn't take twenty tries between all the subcomponents and final combines to get something that isn't crap.

Midge, I think you'd still sell 50 guns a day that were factory made, and that would be priced just as today - on top of that, if you chose to, you could take custom orders on handmade guns.

Jennai has a very good point though...

Right now, factories, like harvesters are best as a convenience item. At the expense of money and power (and a wait), you dont' have to do the work yourself. That's huge.

What's frustrating is that so many schematics require factory-made parts (and that so many of those take so long to build).

Don't nerf factory weapons, but instead add some random event when crafting a weapon that makes it a lot better. It could be adding some skill modifier, extra damage or DOT damage like poison.

You should only be able to create a prototype and not a schematic (if you the extra bonus should get lost).

This would make crafting weapons and not just grinding PRBs worth doing when you are not a master.

I am not yet a master and I make / sell weapons but I have abandoned my original plan to handcraft weapons to get some XP (even if grinding PRBs is much more efficient way to get XP than making real weapons). You only get a decent weapon in 1 out of 5 tries. Lot of wasted resources since most of the time I destroy bad weapons. Now most of the weapons are made in factory. It is also more convient to have a crate of weapons when you travel around and place weapons on bazaar.

If it aint broke don't fix it, did some one say krayt guns. very few people manufacture them.

worry about the 5 uber pistols insted. FIX the FWG5 SCATER and LAUNCHER pistols(they worked before make them whole again)

Or...

Reserve the expermentation points you get from Master for non-schematic weapons.

If you use those points, it simply doesn't give you the option of anything but a prototype.

Just a thought...

-pb

If you're going to argue immersion, I'll quote another forum poster,

"Try hand-crafting a cellphone."

Frankly, maybe whittling wood sculptures or even sharpening blades for a sword might end up in the quality being higher when hand-crafted. But with guns? Grenades? Mines? Flamethrowers? Not very realistic. Moreover, for most hand-crafted products in the real world, there isn't really anything that makes them of better quality. They just have more sentimental value attached to them, in that another human being dedicated more time and effort in the crafting process, thus skyrocketing the price.

I personally go with the Krayt argument. Most of the time, you're going to be hand-crafting Krayt guns over factory producing them and thus, hand-crafted items have a bonus over factory-produced.

OMG

I didnt need to look at your sig to know you were not a master WS yet.

Nerf Factories = Loose 90% of the WS population and increase weapon prices 500%.

Silva Dor'Dali
Master Weaponsmith
Resident Anchorhead Insurgent Democracy (RAID)
Mos Quito, Tatooine (soon to open)
Anchorhead, Tatooine (-200,-5100)

*laugh* Oh gods. You want to take the grinding experience we all endured, that is constantly complained about, moaned, criticised, yelled at, cursed - and make it into our profession? That's essentially what you'll asking for. I'm maintaining three stores on 2 planets with a combined inventory of over 800 items, and no way in hell I even want to think about having to have made them all by hand.

When you are trying to run multiple harvesters on varying planets and having to keep an eye out constantly for resource shifts and a million other things you have to do - you'll be glad for factories. I just had one run for 3 days straight making mines for an order.

Yes, you say just a small degradation in quality, but you'll see when you have conversations like :

Customer - Hi, my friend bought a gun from you but it's a little better than your vendor stock, why?

You - Oh it's hand made, and the ones on my vendor are factory made.

Customer - Well I don't want a factory made one, I want that extra 4 damage and 0.1 speed.

You - I'll have to hand make one for you.

Customer - Why don't you just hand make every gun? You waste time this way.

You - Mind waiting a bit, I have to come back from Dathomir so I can hand make your gun.

Customer - Forget it.

Do that oh, 40 times a day.

With all due respect (seriously!), a downright horrible idea. Not saying you are horrible mind you, the idea is a total stinker though Jennai's bang on the money too - it's bad enough having to go through a dozen attempts to make a flawless schematic you want a reward for it, that being mass producing the same quality you just busted a gut to get.

It's not as easily dismissed as that Kershakk, though I do agree this idea would probably not work well in SWG.