Architect Archive

So you are the one!!!

No I am kidding, I know many people sell for less than I do ( I have seen it ), and I will defend your right to sell at whatever price pleases you. For me I find selling at just a few thousand ( or tens of thousands ) under the big operations suits me.

I was selling a small house for 8.5k the other day and a guy come up and said he would sell one for 6k. I told my customer he would do better to buy that one for 6k instead of mine.

I could easily afford to golower, I am not ready to yet, but I have seen several people that do. When the market starts to fall ( as I expect it too ) thenI will be in direct competition with you.

Ok, let's take a different angle on this whole situation then. Let's first go ahead and make some assumptions. First and foremost, yes I do have 10 more lots because of another character to make a total of 20. But, pretty much anyone can do this. If you have a friend on another server, he could help ya. Or even if you have a friend on the same server who is not using a single lot, you could probably borrow from him. And, if you're back by a PA, then, whether or not you actually use them, you have access to probably twice as many lots as I do. Let's also do something CRAZY here and assume that I have zero crits on building this structure (hey...it could happen). Now, let's assume I'm building a Naboo PA Hall.

Also, please don't thing I'm trying to come across as an ass. I actually hope to gain the respect of many people on my server. I'm just doing this because I enjoy it...not becuase I want to make a bad name for archs.

Now, down to business.

I mine all my own ore, and I've done some calculations. Come to find out that I can mine ore at around 0.76 credits per unit. Also, I can buy metal bulk at 2CPU from my supplier. And, I'm going to guess that the rest of the materials needed will run me an average of 3CPU if bought in bulk. Also, it would take me about 43 or so hours of real in life time to get enough ore to build a PA Hall. Also, all of my resources (power and ore) are all mined in the city I live in, so no travel overhead cost.

That said, I can make a Naboo PA Hall at an average cost of 1.28 credits per unit. So, I can make a 55,368 unit structure for 70,863.3 credits total cost to me.

Now, if I'm fairly laid back, I can make about 13 wall units per hour...if I pushed myself, I could probably get the full 17. Having never built a PA Hall before, I'm going to guess that making the rest of it will take at max another 1 hour 45 mins (probably a lot less, but let's just use 3 hours as a base for total build time here). So, let's say I charge 300K for my PA Hall that I just built. That's 75,000 credits per hour in profit that I made from building this PA Hall. For a total of about 229,000 credits in total profit...and my PA Hall went for only 300K.

75K an hour profit to build a PA seems like VERY VERY good money for my time. And, actually it's probably over what could be consider "fair market price" for my time and my resources.

I could probably sell for less. But, do you all see my point here? Not only do I love this game. But, I am also able to build for very low prices.

Anian

Also, that 229,000 credits would be enough to power and pay maint on all of my extractors and power plants for almost 2 full weeks.

One more thing, the power plants are actually on the way to my extractors, so while it's probably a 10 to 15 min run out to my extractors, I can get everything I need to power them and pay for them on the way there.

Anian

That is indeed what I love about SWG.

No Phat loot was the key! That and an open economy, no NPC's selling stuff, No NPC's buying stuff. An open economy.

I would rather play SWG than any game I have seen yet.

Let's also do something CRAZY here and assume that I have zero crits on building this structure (hey...it could happen).

That IS crazy because crits DOhappen, and if you don't account for that, you are nuts.

And not just on sub-components but on final structure construction as well.

It's one thing to crit on a wall or two, or a generator, etc. But when you crit on a medium to large structure, it's a lot of resources that go down the drain.

-Wimo

I knew that that particular comment about crits was coming...that's why I said it was a crazy assumption. Just let me make that assumption for sake of this argument.

Anian

These are all very interesting posts. I subscribe to the Adune School of Business and Hardknocks. Basicaly, Adune, a Master Architect on Bria and my mentor has stated from day one that he will not sell cheap. He keeps supplies and componenets in stock and handy and uses his ability to deliver quickly to outweigh the cost.

I have seen people get more upset that they have to wait a day or so for product rather than pay 2-4 more cpu's. Whenever i run into someone who complains about the price i try to educate them on why i charge what i do and encourage them to bring the resources to me and pay me a small combine fee and i will be more than happy to go that route. What many architects do not understand is that it is the artisians who control the economy. I read a great post yesterday about vehicles and the concern that vehicles are going to go the same route as structures. Basically, the people who will make the most money will be the first Vehicle Engineers and then 2 months later you will be able to buy a swoop bike for 1/4 of what you paid for one when vehicles first came out.

If all the architects stuck to a price range that was reasonable we would make money and at the same time stabilize the economy. Remember it us that controls the economy. You control how much you sell something for, not the buyer.

If youlike surveying for resources, installing harvestors, surveying/buying power, installing power structures, performing daily maintenance on all said structures, emptying hoppers, dealing with factories, negotiating prices, playing with vendors, and dealing with the bugs and exploits involved in all of these? More power to you....seriousley. I keep it simple for myself. I keep 4-6 miners on hand who sale to me at a reasonbale price and i then take that price and along with various other conditions are price my items from there.

Anyway, i am getting a little long winded, but good luck and i hope it all works out for you. Just try and think of the economy a year from now and how much a house will cost then.

Emperorkaotic,

My favorite word you used was "reasonable". That is the problem! I think reasonable is a lot lower than most archetects. There are those that think reasonable is lower than my price. What is a reasonable margin?

100%, 600%, 1000%?

I see people post on these boards that absoultly insist on 600% to 1000% profit, while I am happy with 400% to 500%, others are happy with 100% to 200%.

I do not bleieve you will ever get an OPEC of SWG archetects going that will set a final price on things, and I think it would be bad if you did. What is excieitng about SWG is that it is an open economy, it is competition. It is PVP business, that is what makes it fun.

At least for me anyway, I would be bored if prices were fixed.

I believe in the free market and think that every architect should charge what he/she thinks is reasonable.

But seriously, when one fails a couple of times on the bigger structures, it makes it very hard to justify not having a sell-point where you can protect yourself from such losses.

It's just common sense, and once one moves up on the skilltree, it'easier to realize that.

-Wimo

Actually I think you are right. A master that is selling PA halls doesnt care about selling a small or med house. His prices can be as high as he wants becuase he has bigger fish to fry.

That is fine with me, as it leaves it wide open for us smaller guys that want to compete in the space they left.

But at 600%-1000% profit margins you could be faiing 4 times out of 5 and still be making a killing.

Unless you are buying your resoruces on the open market, it is hard to compete with the low price guys doing that. Right now there is room for buying resources and making stuff and selling for a profit, I am not sure that will always be true.

What I think will really happen, is the price of raw resrouces will start to drop, but we will see. I was wrong once back in 1977 when I got married the first time. When I am wrong, I am wrong big time!

---

Dayln wrote:

That is fine with me, as it leaves it wide open for us smaller guys that want to compete in the space they left.

---

That is where the fun will begin

Demand will almost dry up, Archetects will have one of 2 options, either compete for the few customers that there are at MUCH lower prices, or they will get out of building sales and reduce supply. if supply falls below demand then prices will rise again, but that is doubtful. I expect to see profits drop to 100% margins or less. And by that I mean 100% over base resource cost + overhead, not 100% over 3cr per unit which is a meaningless number. My base resource cost is just over .5cr per unit, my overhead is less than $1000 on $30000 of products sold.

Unless SOE does someing to increase demand, like decay, or remove the ability to re-deed.

It will be interesting times.

No offense intended....nevermind that...because if you are guilty of the following transgression...offense intended.

Can someone please explain to me:

How in the name of all that is Holy and Imperial in the universe did you manage to be in "Practice" mode when assembling a house? I've only been Master Arch for a couple of weeks, but on my whole "trip" ( i hesitate to call it a grind, because i was producing consumables) up the skill tree, I only "practiced" two (2) items. Ever. Ever. Two. What in the world were you making that you apparently thought you couldn't sell/use afterwards?

Structural Modules? God I hope not. Those DO come in sort of handy in our line of work.

Furniture? Sell it. Put in in your house. Anything...just don't "Practice" it and throw it away.

Harvesters? Houses? Why am I inclined to think that everyone who has said that they accidentally "Practiced" on a house really crit failed it? If you were "Practicing" so hard, how did you get the needed components to assemble the finished product in the first place? Personally, I don't believe it, now that I've spent a couple of minutes thinking about it. There is nothing the Architect can produce that is so useless that it should be forsaken for 5% more points. It's that simple.

In case you were curious....the 2 things I DID practice on? I was creating (at different times, two separate occasions) Private Crafting machines. The one thing where experimentation matters. Had a couple of terrible experimentations, and the machine became worthless to me, and I didn't want to stick it on my vendor and become known for producing bad products.

And if you WERE actually practicing on all of the components, then went and bought ACTUAL components so that you could assemble the house.....well, then you'll retire soon and we won't have to worry quite so much about overpopulation in the Architect Sector.

acer.moenia.naboo.kettemoor <Raven>