Artisan Archive

Was curious if anyone has thoughts on pricing vehicles. Architects, at least on my server, started selling at around 3-4cpu which makes their skill mostly meaningless from a money standpoint because you can sell raw resources for 3-4cpu. I don't want to see this happen with vehicles.

I sell my droids at 20cpu and while I don't do insane amounts of volume, droids also aren't on everyone's must have list.

Weapons can sell for 50-200cpu from a good weaponsmith because everyone wants weapons.

My theory is that everyone will want vehicles as well. Unfortunately, if folks low-ball the market, pricing can be ruined for everyone.

I'm not suggesting we can charge 50-200cpu mostly because I haven't seen final lists of the resources required or the degree to which quality can be affected by good materials. Does anyone have any data on this?

What do folks think we can charge? I think pricing can be high at first and then lower as the market becomes more saturated but should never drop below a certain level.

Also remember that these vehicles can only be crafted by those who don't need any more general crafting XP anyway. So we don't need to worry about grinders low balling things. The masters have the opportunity to control the pricing. This is a good thing and we should be smart about it.

Thoughts?

Ywi
Droid Builder
Master Artisan
Corbantis

TH stated in another thread that the resources would be similar to a small house, so:

18 chem

2460 low-grade ore

860 medal

50 steel

figure something around those lines, I'd like to see on the order of 8-10 cpu minimum, to cover the people who buy there resources. So that would work out to 3388 resources, or 27,104-33,880 per vehicle. Obviously it would change based on the exact resources and qualities used, but it sounds decent to me.

Now to counter the screams of luke sold his for 2000 credits, it was old and a P.O.S., one of the engine covers was missing ect. For the "17000...we could almost buy our own ship for that" agument...well look at the P.O.S. Luke was driving, do you think he was going to buy a brand new starship for 17000 credits, nope it would be another P.O.S.

I think you can get away with 10 credits per early on, say 40-50k for vehicles. Within 5 days that will be cut in half to 25k. I would think a market of 15-25k in the long run would be a good stable pricing point.

Since artisan is not an elite profession tons of people have a bit of it mastered already. So if vehicles are high priced, the architects, and weaponsmiths will master artisan to get in on the gold rush.

[quote]
I sell my droids at 20cpu and while I don't do insane amounts of volume, droids also aren't on everyone's must have list.

Weapons can sell for 50-200cpu from a good weaponsmith because everyone wants weapons.
[/quote]

One thing to consider..
Is there a decay on vehicles? I would guess vehicles don't get shot into pieces every day, so what will be when everyone has one?

One other point. You don't have to worry about people low balling because the crafting XP you are getting is worthless. You are already master artisans. Houses were low-balled because people were grinding to master architect. So why not sell a house for 5k so I can level more quickly. This will be a non-issue for you all and help keep the price inflated.

The other thing that will help, is people will want all the toys. I imagine everyone will want all 3 vehicles so they can try them out. I believe I read once you take the deed and turn it into a vehicle it can't be traded. So there is no used vehicle market. If I don't like my swoop I can't trade it in or give it to someone else. So the market should stay hot for some time.

Good points everyone. I agree that the "no grind" benefit is a big one. Some people in this game are just too nice though. They don't think like buisnessmen. 50k seems like a good fair price to me to start out assuming the resources are around 2500. I do think that vehicles decay and they can be damaged. Not sure how repair at garages work. Over time, I'd love the minimum price to be around 15cpu. Ranging between 35 and 50k sounds reasonable for the benefit provided to the customer. Of course, I'd love it if quality of materials mattered and good experimentation / optional components would make them faster / more durable. This way we could have a premium vehicle market as well. It also would make races more interesting.

Ywi

I hear what you're saying, but since this will be the first item I get to charge ludicrous amounts for right as I gain master, bet your bippy I'm gonna do it. Other professions had their day; tomorrow belongs to me.

Besides, the people scrambling for vehicles on drop-day will have the cash banked to burn for it anyway, who am I to disappoint them? What the market can support is what we can charge. And the prices will drop rapidly as was said. Can anyone really blame us?

PS - yes, vehicles decay while they run, it's been said. I think I heard also though, that they repair alot better than say, a gun or armor.

I read a thread were the author (from TC)stated that you just pull up to a garage and pay like 60 cr to fix 400 damage, and it repairs back to max, no vitality-type decay on repair, so your max condition never goes down.

Exactly.. but I am sure we'll get hit with a nerf adjustment to that some day down the pike. Doesn't everything fun and positive feel the nerf stick eventually?

I'm pretty sure the no decay thing can't be considered "fun and positive" from our perspective.

Talk to architects. Not one thing we make decays.

Grimjakk, oh, I hear ya man.. from a business perspective it's not fun. I was referring to fun ownership experience.

It's just my observation that the fun factor for anything becomes yet another nerf target. Some people around here without naming names Devs seem to believe that making something stupidly expensive to get or maintain, or taking it away from people who were once able to have it, is a good way to keep the game fun.I disagree.

Not that it is a good business decision, but I have no intention of charging a lot for a vehicle. I want everyone to have 1 or more, so if I have the resources, I'll be putting them out as inexpensively as I can. I think there will be an ongoingmarket need for new vehicles, so people will make money long term, but the idea of all of us having decent transportation is just too coolfor me to pass up.

Of course, if I ever get a second Holo, i'll lose MA and won't be able to make any anyway...