Weaponsmith Archive

First off let me say that as of right now I am neither a Master Artisan, nor a master eLite crafter. However, that will change very soon. Therefore on my daily scouring of the forums, I was shocked to see that in the Top 5 list for Artisans, they want harvestors to have certification. With novice artisan and no survey, they want you to use personal extractors only. As you progress up the survey skill tree, then you can use the medium ones. They want Heavy extractors for themselves, and no one else. Here are some links to the discussions:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=artisan&message.id=36994
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=artisan&message.id=37151

The artisans feel they are the welfare crafter, and this will help put money back in their pockets. This makes me laugh, because i believe artisan is a novice profession and not really supposed to be making as much money as the elite crafters that spend more skill points.

Currently the arguments for Certs for Harvestors are as follows:

1. "I need scout to skin animals, so why can a non artisan harvest
resources."
2. "This will help put money back in the pockets that need it, namely
artisan community." I laugh at this one, because artisans will
be in a position to price gouge all customers that want bulk
resources in a timely manner, for they alone can get the most
amount of resources , the quickest.

3. "You have to be certified to use the best weapons, so in all
fairness, you should be certified to use best harvestors."


IF we learned anything from this last image designer update, it's that the developers seem to have an affinity to take "Content" from the larger player base and give it to a small community, instead of developing new content for the profession in need of it. One would think that Space Expansion will yield some new schematics, and a new need for artisans to customize the ships.

If this is allowed to considered, and eventually implemented , i feel one or more of the following will happen.

1. Elite Crafters will now be stuck with medium harvestors, unless
the spend skillpoints on Master Artisan. Kiss your combat skill
bye.
2. For those elite crafters that stick to medium harvestors, they
will no longer be able to be self sufficient in getting resources
They will have to tighten their supply and make less items,
and thereby raise their prices. Or they may contract master
artisans to gather their resources, but again this will add to
cost of items.
3. Master artisans will rule the resource market, charging whatever
the market will bear, leading to resource shortages. New
crafters will not be able to compete because they are using their
slow personal harvestors.
4. People that are planning on doing Shipwright will now have to
spend more skill points to harvest materials. Leaving less points
for some sort of combat build. I can already forcee a shortage
ships if this happens.
5. Some elite crafters will in an uproar over this happening.
Less crafters = shorter supply = inflation in prices.

I understand that the most elite crafters don't usually bother with their own resource gathering. THey get guildmates and friends to drop harvestors and they pay them for what they gather. If this change is allowed to happen, using your combat buddies will be a thing of the past, in terms of resource harvesting. Moreover, many also use static lot swaps to get their needed resources. You should be warned that the artisan community wants they ability of static lots through lot trades elminated also.

If this is allowed to happen, then i call for some more changes in the name
of balancing. Feel free to add to this list.

1. Elite ,or best armor should only be worn by people with a master
combat profession.
2. Craftable items, such as harvestors should now be subject to decay
penalites on death. Heck, we have to worry about our armor, why
not let the artisans worry about losing value also. I know this
will not be a popular. IF crafters need protection, they they can
hire combat types to be bodyguards while they make their harvestor
runs.

In conclusion, after all my ranting and raving here I hope that the crafting and not-crafting community will let their voices be heard. DO NOT IMPLEMENT HARVESTOR CERTIFICATIONS. Harvestors are a tool, and i feel that novice artisan should be enough certification for the use of any of them.

-Ho'mer (FLurry)

p.s. sorry for the poor paragraph formatting. Its been awhile since i posted, and didn't try that hard to make it look neat.

I can see why Master Artisans want something like this, though - it's another profession with not much in the 'Master' box (though still better off than many others), though your point that this is a novice, not elite, profession stands.

Perhaps an alternative would be some form of 'Optimise Harvester' skill in the Survey tree that would tweak the AER (actual extraction rate) of harvesters when they are constructed. Players would still have access to all harvesters, but M.Arts would have a tangible bonus.

It does not sound to bad to me.
And cross server lot trade Is something I would call borderline exploit. It as a use of a game mechanic (the ability to have a character on more then one server, and the admin ability) to get something you was not mend to have.

I actually am all for either a harvester certification or bring back the Miner profession.

Everyone should know how to use the Personal Harvesters, but Medium and Heavy should require special certifications to use.

WO2 D'Maro Feldar - Bria - Master Artisan, Merchant, Teras Kasi

It would definatley make being a Master Artisan worth something.

only thing i'd say to that arguement is.... is which starter class is useful or profitable on it's own.

marksman? no... all you get is three dinky weapon types and enough specials to be just weak enough not to do much.

scout? mighty fine camp ya got there.

brawler? ...what good is warcry two ...if all you have are the base skills, in polearm, axe, swords, and punching???

so i don't see why artisans think they should be entitled to anything ultra special for completing their starting class. the devs gave the greatest boon to artisans in the fact that most elite classes only require the engineering line.

and while i'm not apposed to master artistans, or higher level crafters being the only ones to have access to higher order harvestors. ...i don't think the entitlement arguement holds much water.

but you figure it'd be simple. ...anyone can place a personal harvestor. master artisan or novice elite crafting class get the cert for med harvestors. ...and mastery of an elite class provides cert for placing heavy harvestors. ...maybe also give the master politician similiar abilities. i dunno. throw them a bone while we're in make believe land.

Vas

Redguard I'm with you!

Have you noticed that only Master Artisans make vehicles? Have you noticed all the componet parts thjat come with master artisan? I agree the rest is pretty useless, making bone armor is not that good.. but I ahve yet to see an artisan selling wp for good mineral spots. I'd buy them! Survey and sell me the wp! I'd love it! I don't want the best spot, the very best on the whole galaxy I want a good spot. out of an 80% best if I get into the 65% catregory I'm happy, damm harvesters don't fit very well...

As to harvester certification, a person has 10 slots. if you're a crafter I'd say you need 2 houses and a factory at the very least so that's 5/6 slots gone you have 4 to place harvesters. not nice... If you are a resource gatherer you need a lot more harvesters than that, I sell resources with a friend. We do not server slot swaps, we ask outr friends if we can use their slots and in return I try to get them what they need. And we will have problems with slots, we have no storage room it's hard... If you put certifications on harvester things will not get better, maybe maybe survey 4 for heavy but medium has to open for everyone. I mean really has too! So sell wp, survey sell vehicles... come on you do lots of stuff, power-ups.... Beeing master on a basic profession isn't usually very atractive...

If you're on Kauri and wish to sell nice spots for harvesting send me a tell/mail,

Arianrhod,

High Kicking Fencing on Kauri

Give me break. If you're ONLY a master artisan and not a specialized crafter, I've got to ask WHY? It's a worthless, stepping-stone profession.

The entire discussion of making Master Artisan - or heck anything Artisan - more worthwhile should be a non-issue.

Good idea, bad implementation.

Something has to be done to curb the harvesting free for all that's been going on since experimenation was changed. I mean, who here doesn't have insane stockpiles of resources? I don't have to harvest a damn thing for weapons. I have enough to produce what I want indefinitely. Maybe in 4 months I might be concerned about my stock of Ostrine, or Iroluun, but its doubtful.

This would be better done as a Miner class, though.

The problem is, if they give certs for the heavy harvesters they will nerf the mediums. Most of us use mediums because heavies are not cost efficient. So, to get us to rely on artisans they will have to nerf the mediums down to rate 6 or 7. Then the artisans will increase the price of resources. Don't be shocked when you see grinding metal for 10cpu, and all resources with any 900+ stats will start at 25cpu. I could be wrong but that is the way it looks to me.