For the sake of SWG and my own fun, I am so afraid that some players are going to have the game ruined so that a few mass producers can make it rich at the expense of the majority of the player base. I know right now that some shipwrights are complaining about the quality of looted components and want to have them changed. Additionally they are complaining about players selling loot to the chassis vendors and about how much they get for the loot.
I think we should be very careful what we asked in terms of comparing crafted items with loot items. Much loot is not as good as crafted stuff, but there are drops that are a bit better at least in one category such as top speed, ypr, etc (for engines)
In my opinion every class of loot should have some drops in a single stat which is better than what a crafter could possibly make. If crafters can make everything better than loot, then we will essentially be nullifying the purpose of reverse engineering and loot will become relatively worthless.
I say this as someone who is almost master pilot and who is also shipwright. I am doing SW to make missiles and bombs for my guild, as well as the fun of RE-ING loot to make really specialized components.
For example, I have a level 8 engine with very Low mass. I have another level 8 engine with great speed but poor ypr. I still have another level 8 with great ypr but not as much speed as #2 and greater mass than #1. Now I am trying to see what I can find that has as little energy drain as I can get.
So, for me, being a shipwright will not be about mass-producing items, it will be about making bombs and missiles (ammunition) and chaff for the end game. I also want to create highly specialized components through RE.
I want to make an analogy to weaponssmith. What if every weaponssmith suddenly determined that kryat weapons were superior to what we could craft out of the box, that they petitioned to have "out of the box" weapons as powerful as kryat ones? That would destroy the game for the weaponsmiths who specialized in high end weapons. It would also ruin the fun for high end loot hunters and PVPers. Why? Just so that the mass producers could control the high end market niche, not via effort in game but through politics outside the game (in the forums).
Secondly, as a pilot/shipwright the loot prices that the chassis dealer pays makes the game much more fun for everyone who is not a shipwright. If they severely nerfed payouts for space loot it would take the game back to what it was for me before JTL. A boring, never-ending grind which is not worth playing. (hence I was gone for 6 months) I have am having allott of fun with many aspects of JTL the way it is now and this includes PVP. I am actually using my pilot to pay for my shipwright grind. I plan to be small time but highly specialized. My gameplay is designed to work within the system, not change it.
Unfortunately the people who are out playing the game and are enjoying it generally won't be here on the boards or more noteably in the shipwright forums to stand up for themselves. This leaves many people vulnerable to the more political minded who have the intelligence and persuasiveness to convince the developers to change the gameplay to favor them, at the expense of the great majority. So all I am asking is please be very careful what you ask for. Chances are you will get it because you are more vocal and in the process you could very well ruin the game for many people who are having a ton of fun.
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