Weaponsmith Archive

Yeah do not become a guild slave. Also avoid opening a shop in a player city. As it stands cities are rarely an ideal place to make a profit. Just park your shop near a busy npc city. Most players are just too lazy to commute any distance to a shop.

Best advice try to keep a full vendor. Try to provide good quality and reasonable prices. Once you get real good at it. Then you might want to get a few other smiths to join in with you on a location. All you need is someone that obviously has the intention of succeeding, and produces decent goods.

I will answer you question with a question. What about being a weapon smith is it that you find fun, and what is it you find less fun?

If you like the crafting, and resource hunting, but do not like to deal with customs, then finding a guild the that would take care of that for you would increase your fun. That is what it eventually boils down to, FUN.

Personally I like being a "guild slave" as you all seams call it. I have the most fun when I am in a supporting role. So making cheap weapon available for sale in my local PC town (with pays for all my expenses), and doing free custom jobs for guild members are what I find fun.

Some points for thought:

1) Guilded, you have an instant market.

2) Guilded your guildies will fill your house with loot (like Geonosian, rancor,Nym etc) that as a crafter you absolutely have little chance of winning youself in combat because you can't build a combat character.

You guys are sadly ignoreing the worst drawback of a guild, and that is debt. As a novice smith it will be months before you can produce anything worth while. That requires that you either sell garbage, or get reduced to building common items. Which the guild members will buy. Then give away destroy or sell on the bizarre. In other words you are farmed, and from that point on it will always be in your face. In other words we made you. You owe us.

Oh the life of a guild slave. To get items to only make for guild members. To have no responsibility for how good or bad you are, because it is merely about the fertilizer people drop on you. Take my advice do it the hard way and go it alone. You will find that is a far more rewarding experience. Then being farmed like a cash crop.

Also the hunting thing really dosent hold water either. Are you really contributeing in any meaningful way, or are they just babysitting you. Nothing is more pathetic then a master weaponsmith sitting in a pack of uber combats. Trying to talk trash about how bad theymessed somebody up or how fast they took down that first krayt. Have never seen someone being told nope cant hunt with us. In this game that is just bad mannors anyway. You could go to any of these dungeons and hook up with any group that shows up at the door.

In other words you do not need a guild to hunt, and if you pick the right people to go hunt with say to a dungeon at your level. You will have fun.

Solo all the way

It sounds like you already have enough going for you that you don't REALLY need guild support at the moment (though old WS resources will suck that 4 mil up in 10 minutes if you find the right supplier/auction/vendor).

It's probably a bad idea to join a guild if you base your decision soley off of what they can offer you, especially since you'll most likely end up dealing with a bunch of obnoxious 14 year old l33t d00ds whom you now 'owe' because you use their loot. When it comes down to it, this is a game, not a job, so you defiantly need to like the people in your guild or you'll get burned out quick.

I'm pretty lucky though, I know most of my guildies from outside of the game, and we're all adults. The rest of the people we let in the guild also understand it's just a game, so respect me when I can't make something or don't have time at that moment. In return, they get their stuff for free, even if it's some uber loot weapon (especially if they bring me the components). It's just not really hard to still make good money and keep well stocked vendors while also giving away weapons to guildies, especially when they provide the lots for my factories and harvesters Even then, most of the more established members are cool and pay me something anyway (even when I protest), and the new members that don't have much money really appreciate my help (which pays off in the long run, let me tell you).

I think the real mistake would be looking at them as a just another market for your weapons. Especially since they'll be the ones getting loot schematics and components for you (which you have no way of getting yourself without lots of money and/or luck), and that's something you want to promote.

What it comes down to is: if you find the right people, being in a guild can be a good thing. If 'free' is a four letter word for either you or them, then it's probably a bad idea.

I'm in a small guild, but I do most of my own resource harvesting. Occasionally my guildies will lend me some of their lots when a really good spawn comes along. I've also gotten a good deal of weapon enhancement loot from them, but I reserve that stuff for the weapons I make them (I don't feel right making money off of their loot).

I gladly give my guildies free weapons and slices (I'm also a master smuggler). I figure it's a fair exchange because everyone in the guild helps out everyone else some way or another.

However, if I were in a large guild, I would probably take a different approach. It's one thing to give free weapons to a handful of people, but free weapons for 50 people would break me in no time (not to mention monopolize most of my time). In this case I'd probably offer a % discount instead, so at least the other guild members would place some value on my services.

Slim Vargo, Corbantis

LOL @ Tortilla

Bud, it's competition like yours that makes me scared of going solo!

You have a great shop and do some great stuff, especially love that scout blaster on the table!!

Thanks for the help everyone, i'm still stuck but at least I know what to look out for (14 yearolds seem to be top of your list). Hopefully either the right guild comes along or I can get lucky on a few good spawns as at the minute the dross that's coming through my harvesters is killing me both financially and asa Smithy.

Meridian

Master Weaponsmith

and

The most important thing to remember is that guilds are transatory, and paranoia can explode without warning. With that being the case haveing your trust in that. Can come back to bite you. Even if your honest forthright generous. You can take the fall. That is why at a minimum you want to be in a position to fend for yourself if worse comes to worse.

Nothing is set in stone. I have been in player cities that have failed. So a good bit of advice is to restrain yourself on spending, and so forth, and not being dependent on a market such as a guild or player community that can go to hell in a handbasket just like that.