Weaponsmith Archive
Thread: Thoughts on the limited schematics
I like the schematics when they are mine, when they are someone else's I have no interest. Some time back I stopped taking custom orders (specifically after making 2 scythes for a guy and both getting medium successes), the pain just isn't worth it. For the one guy who understands you have 100 who expect a perfect job and think that giving you a 5k tip more than covers the resources!
At the moment though what is making me reconsider my profession most of all is the increase in unique parts that take space on my storage vendor. I now have piles of cubes, schematics,barrels, vibro cores, stocks etc building up. I always build some for stock but I cant stop taking schematic/parts offers because if I do I know they will dry up at some point. After the theme park revamp my storage vendor jumped from 200 items to over 400, it has now climbed over 700, I may be forced out of the profession by unmanageable resources........
This is BS. I am the weaponsmith, if anyone should be making money for making a rare and powerful weapon, it should be me.
Limited run schematics aren't fun for the weaponsmith, though they may be fun for the person who found them as loot and gets the final weapon. There is very little difference between finding a complete weapon as loot and a limited run schematic to take to an "assembly monkey" who gets no benefit from it. Very limited run orsingle use looted schematics are an abomination!
Make looted schematics full 1000 use.Unlimited uselooted schematics are fun for the weaponsmtih. I did not enjoy making weapons from the low-run looted schematics. Customers would argue with me when I explained that I wished finished weapons as my payment. I enjoyed making and selling Modified Republic Blasters, etc.
Put the Weaponsmiths back in control, not the loot farmers.This isn't Everquest. Don't make dropped weaponsthat are better than crafted ones, and don't make short-run schematics that are better than normal crafted ones. I suppose that the devs think they are doing weaponsmiths a favor by getting them "involved" as an "assembly monkey"as part of getting the finished weapon to the person who found the schematic. We wish to be respected crafters, who design, create, and sell weapons, not "assembly monkies."
another thing they can do is fix these forums. Are we really in such danger from outside influences that every other time you submit you get a fan club message or blank page or site may be down for regular maintanance. So you could assume maybe it got posted, or say heck with it hit back and do it again and again. sorry for the tripple post.
The message board thought I was an enemy agent from who knows where. SOE fears the dark side message board invaders.
Just reread an interesting point krayt tissues or nym motors. Why is doing these not being a manufacture monkey. The answer is simple enough. After you make it if ever someone brings back that same loot you can do it again, and again, and again. They are enhancements, and they do not require you to go do a ton of extra work to make like these temp schems.
Example tenloss rifle ditanium steel and duralumin aluminum. How many of us had duralumin on hand. I had two k left from grinding artisan. So I was lucky. Sadly it was garbage. The ditanium well I got real good ditanium. Unfortunately that was for melee weapons.
In other words everytime you make a baseline weapon you are working to make a better enhanced weapon. Wtih these temp schems. You cannot do that. They force you to start from scratch, and with every day that goes by it gets harder and harder to get the schematic for them. One time gets they are.
Why do all the hard work for no reward. I do not want to haggle out long winded contracts. To get one build from a schematic for myself. I do not want to be like a machine someone goes to use. To be frank its demeaning, This is a trend and not for the good people are starting to demand these weapons, and expect them. The reward dropped weapons are not much better if I hear about the slug thrower one more time I will puke.
If these schems are really a way for the weaponsmiths to self improve and make them more comunity oriented fine. Make the schematics what we have to go get , and the super campers have to get the loot. If weaponsmiths had to go through crafting ordeals to get new schematics. Then we would atleast be on equal footing.
In my oppinion the one build schematics arent too bad, because no smith is going to have them for sale on a vendor, I can refuse to have anything to do with these, and it wont really hurt my business.
But for those other customers coming with it, well they have to find a second one of it to pay me. Or I advise them to start on working on master weaponsmith themselves.
Conclusion:
I can live with limited use schematics to a certain degree, but when they start to be 1 use this is insane.
Dodece, the problem with 1 use schematics is that most weaponsmith, I feel, will have the same mentality. I know I probably will. This will only continue to escalate as long as they continue to add these limited schematics until it hurts the sales of our "regular" weapons and we're inundated with limited schematic weapon requests. There has to be a change in the near future.
That said, how about providing a series of quests or adventures for weaponsmiths, similar to the RIS quest and the upcoming Mandalorin (sp?) dungeon for armorsmiths. Heard through the grapevine that this upcoming new dungeon will involve Armorsmiths, DEs, and maybe a tailor to make their way inside the dungeon and craft the armor there! Obviously this will require some sort of protective force to watch their backs while they're crafting (they have to use the crafting machines inside the dungeon). Now that's what I'm talking about. If you want limited manufacturing of the item, this is a better way to do it. Make it difficult to craft where it involves the use of several professions. The crafters are crafting and the fighters are fighting and all are having a good time doing it. To get rid camping, which is a stupid and mind-numbing activity, give each group a time limit like the instanced dungeon of the Corvette. Of course, this should only be done for the more unique and items that need to be rare, like Mandalorin armor but it'd be nice if WSs got the capability of making something of legendary status now that the ASs have (or will have) 2 such items.
The issue here is that the Devs want to provide the loot that motivates the fighters. That, in a nutshell, is the equipment they use. Once a fighter prof. has obtained master status and exp. pts no longer matter, what else is there to motivate the fighter (especially with no GCW whatsever). What can be done to change this motivation and give back weapon smithing back to the Weaponsmiths?
There are a couple of solutions to this problem.
1) Motivation = Winning GCW. The first one that comes to mind is to fix GCW and make it the motivating force for most if not all professions. I keep saying, in a lot of different forums, fix GCW and you fix many, many problems. If folks are waging a meaningful war, they'll be focused on winning it and not on what kind of LOOT drops they get. This is, after all Star WARS.
2) Motivation = Character advancement. Another option is to make another branch in the fighting professions so exp. pts matter again but this is limited as they'll soon reach the top of that one as well. The new Jedi and force sensitivity may also play a role in this as it might divert the fighter's focus to advancing their character using the force rather than loot hunting.
3) Motivation = Personal content. Content that engages players personally. I'm not a game designer but there has to be a clever way to automate getting more personal quests and adventures into the game to motivate people to do adventures. How about creating mini-dungeons or something that require players to register themselves and their friends. They would register themselves as a prisoner and their friends they register would all receive an email describing how you have been taken prisoner and where to go to start the quest of freeing you. The more spontaneous and more unknowns in this quest, the better. How floored would you be to get an email saying your so and so buddy has been taken prisoner and you're needed to help rescue them!?! Anyway, these like this should be the motivating factor for fighters, not loot.
Obviously, these things are things for the Devs to think about possibly but something will have to change soon with these limited schematics. I think they're fine with only a few of them being available (i.e., now) but the more of them out there, the more of a problem they'll pose (i.e., the near future). Well, the Gorath serverhas finally loaded so I'm off to play 
This dang thing is long enough...
a crafting monky is what we were BEFORE the limited use schematics. Yup yup, make el schematic, insert ell schematic into el factory, sit back and wait an hour or 2 and wallah instant profit!
omg we actually have to get involved in the crafting process again? *end sarcasm*.
Nice Point Nisi Daca getting involved again is a good outcome of this...I guess some weaponsmiths just want to factory run some weapons, throw them on the vendor and get rich while they run around with secondary characters/professions. When the game was 2 months old I still wasnt a master weaponsmith (I was taking the slow casual route ) but people came to my store because everything was personal, every weapon was hand made. My prices were good and my wares were pretty good even for a non-master because I mined the best resources. The game was personal and fun.
If you dont like people making such profits off your assembly skills ask to buy the schematic, or charge a higher price. If a guy says he'll give you 5k for the assembly laugh in his face and let some other MWS do it...there's plenty around now a days...
omg i lost out on 5k! whatever will I do!!!!!!!!!!!!!! let them go to a cheap smith who cant make enough money to support themselves then. Ill keep my 3-5mil a day off my vendors and charge my "high prices" for custom stuff then, leaves me with customers who know whatsup and know what they want and are willing to pay for it. Hell people pay more for doctoir buffs then they do weapons soemtimes, its rediculouse!
LordMaxx wrote:
If you dont like people making such profits off your assembly skills ask to buy the schematic, or charge a higher price. If a guy says he'll give you 5k for the assembly laugh in his face and let some other MWS do it...there's plenty around now a days...
I don't mind the limited schematics a la Themepark.
I don't like the Schematics a la Scythe/DXR6 because they REQUIRE a looted item ON TOP of being loots themselves.
Sure - make looted Schematics (but for God's sake make them common and spread out, to avoid macro campers) but - make all extra components OPTIONAL. If you want to add a yellow cube - sure - you can - but it shouldn't be REQUIRED. Just like Krayt. If you want to purchase the gun - the crafter should be able to massproduce it. If you want an enhanced gun - certain looted components may be added.
The great thing about SWG is that you DON'T HAVE TO BE A FIGHTER TO PLAY! I've been a WS from day one and I don't have to be a tank to play. I'm successful anyhow! All other MMORPGs I've played (AC/EQ/AO) you have to be a fighter/looter to play. If you are not - delete your char (or keep the crafter-char on a mule-account).
In SWG you don't have to. Players make the best items. Players that are not fighters!(and camp the dungeon and kill the dragon 500 times). In SWG - being a good crafter means YOU make the best items.
Please do not change this. If SWG turns into EQ-loot-camp the game is going to suffer.