Artisan Archive
Thread: Swoop crafters/sellers...looking for your advice
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Cyrrex
Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:57 am
#1
I am a new Master Artisan (on my alt), and I do not know a ton about crafting to be honest. I have, however, made much use of the great guides/input I have found on these forums. So I am learning, slowly but surely.
The advice I need from you is not so much crafting related...it is more business related. Namely, the business of making and selling Swoops. Having played this game for about a year, I have purchased many swoops. I've repaired many. I have had several get blown to bits whilst sitting on them or standing close by. I know they are not the most durable of vehicles, but they are the fastest (barring the AV21 and its terrain negotiation), so I never ride anything but a Swoop.
So, as a new Master Artisan, I have tentatively decided to go into the Swoop business. On my server (Starsider) most swoops are selling these days for around 20k a pop. You can a few find cheaper ones, and you can findones upwards of 25k as well. But a "decent" swoop (depending on your definition of decent) is around that 20k mark.
Anyway, I have decided to hit the low range of the market. In fact, I am trying to go lower than the low price range. I am currently not big into the resource harvesting side of things (still learning), so the resources I am using are all purchased from other players. In effect, I am looking to buy 1 cpu grind quality resources whenever possible and using those in my crafting process. I am not using a factory...crafting by hand only.
Each swoop costs me 8800 credits worth of resources to make. I am selling them for 12k each. With the grind quality resources, these things come out to about 58%, or about 1870 hitpoints. For now, while I test the market at least, I am only selling them on the bazaars in various hotspots. So far, these are selling like hotcakes...I log on once a day to whip out 24 swoops (the item limit on bazaars is 24), and the next day they are soldout. It might be important to note that I DO NOT label these Swoops as 58%. They get crafted with the generic "swoop" title only.
So far, so good. No complaints from anyone...except from a guildie, ironically. He basically told me that my 1870 hp swoop was crap, and that he deleted the one he bought in favor of one of the 20k jobs (one that probably has 2200 or 2300 HP). His feelings werethat they decay too fast and require too much repair to be useful. I do not believe this is the case.
Therefore, I would likeconfirm a few things with the Artisan community. Please correct me if I am mis-informed:
-All swoops decay at the exact same rate, regardless of quality.
-Decay occurs as a set number, not as a percent of the max HP. In other words, the swoop decays at (for example) 10 points per tick as opposed to 2% per tick...an important distinction.
-Repair costs are based solely on the amount of damage to be repaired, not on the original HP...so repairing 500 points on one of my 1870 swoops will cost the same as repairing 500 points on a 2500 swoop.
-All swoops will basically explode in one hit from a mob or a player anyway.
Now, I think most players are smart enough to realize that a 12k credit swoop will not be as good as a 20k swoop. But my guildie got me to thinking about this. Customer perception is important, and I don't want anyone feeling that I cheated them. I am deliberately targeting the lower end market, with low quality swoops. I honestly believe these swoops are fine and dandy, the only downside being that theyto be repaired a little bit more frequently (though not outrageously so).
Am I doing anything wrong?
Are my perceptions about HP, decay rate and repair rate correct?
Do I have an obligation to mark these suckers as 58%? Even though it would be more honest to do so, it would probably hurt my business. Customers would see a 98% swoop and think it is exponentially better, which I do not believe is the case.
Please give me your thoughts.
il_diavolo
Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:59 am
#2
no your doing nothing wrong, If a customer dosent have the brain cells to realize that by going cheaper he wont necisarily get T3H Ub3R 1337 S\/\/00PZ0Rz!!1!1one! then well his opinion dosent matter honestly theres good money to be had in the bottom end of the swoop game alot of PVPers and whatnot will buy em since they know it wont last long with there playing style.....
what server are you on by the way?
seshinn
Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:11 am
#3
I am aslo a MA, and I had the same quandry..
what to charge for a decent swoop?
well..it depends on the market you are selling too..
I sold them (and still do from time to time) from the 12k-20k pricing..
However, I always listed my exp durabilty on the deed, and yeah, people can and do lie about that..
Let people know what they are buying, then they can make the choice to buy the higher cost better "quality" swoops or the low cost budget swoops
I also had many, many requests for crates of swoops..
the people who goon NS runs and other such quests know they are gonna loose a swoop..they would rather have quantityover quality..and a crate of swoops is easier to carry then 10 deeds..
Message Edited by seshinn on 08-05-2005 07:12 AM
Saera
Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:06 am
#4
Cyrrex wrote:
So far, so good. No complaints from anyone...except from a guildie, ironically. He basically told me that my 1870 hp swoop was crap, and that he deleted the one he bought in favor of one of the 20k jobs (one that probably has 2200 or 2300 HP). His feelings werethat they decay too fast and require too much repair to be useful. I do not believe this is the case.
It's not that they decay faster, all vehicles decay at the same rate..but by having a lower HAM to begin with, they "appear" to decay faster because they start with less HP's than a higher quality one.
If you want to make surepeople know they are low quality.. call them Disposable Swoops or something similar. To be honest, I think most people are buying whatever they can find for the cheapest no matter the quality, because they are being disabled to quickly.
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