Business And Economy Archive

Well, I'm going to give you the secret to running a successful mining operation. And there is a lot of benefit to doing this as your MAIN income generator.

Mining doesn't occupy lots of skill boxes.. (you still need to get mining 4 in the artisan tree)

But, you do need high-end mining equipment eventually. So, in the beginning with "personal" mining equipment.. put your profits back into your business to get the higher end equipment. BER 13 "Double-Pumpers" are the way to go if you mine minerals.

I made my first 5 million creds by resource mining.. my weaponsmith business doesn't make even a 1/4 of what I make by selling resources.

Why? First of all, as a weaponsmith, I have to collect a variety of very specific resources in order to craft weapons. Other crafting professions require a LARGE amount of resources to craft. And people who are grinding their way to a crafting profession will require large amounts of grinding resources too.

I'm a weaponsmith and I sell resources.. and I still BUY lots of resources myself.. because of the variety of resources weaponsmithing requires, I can't mine it all myself. So, that brings us to our first rule.

1: Know your target demographic! Different crafters look for different things in resources. A weaponsmith will definately peak interest in Mythra Copper that has a high conductivity and overall quality rating, wheras a tailor wouldn't care at all.

So, you have to know WHO uses the resources you are mining.. or even better, have a customer type in mind before you start mining. Weaponsmith's blaster type weapons require high OC and CD ratings.. but they need a lot of SPECIFIC types of minerals.. like instead of just "carbonite ore".. they require Alantium carbonite ore (kind of a rare spawn and a required resource to make T21 rifles).. because it's a rare spawn, if you get good quality of it.. you can be sure a weaponsmith is going to pay 10-15CPU (credits per unit) as opposed to selling generic "steel" at 1-3 CPU to a grinder. However, a weaponsmith doesn't require as large of quantities as say an architect or shipwright will. Also, if there is a spawn of high quality "rare" resource a weaponsmith needs.. you can be sure if he's a decent WS, he'll know it too and mine the crap out of it.. if you mine it too, don't sell it right away.. Law of supply and demand goes into effect here. If you sell the resource while it's still spawned or freshly spawned, you wont get as much for it because the weaponsmith can go mine it for himself cheaper than buying it from you.. but if you keep onto it for a while and then sell it when it isn't or hasn't spawned in a while.. then you can name your price. After all, to make a T-21 (for example) you still need that alantium carbonite ore even if it isn't spawning.

Ok so we have that customer that maybe only buys 10-20K of resource if it's a rare spawn.. (like a weaponsmith).. but they may pay 10-15cpu for it. if you sell 20K of resource at 15CPU that's going to net you 300K credits..

Now we have the LARGE quantity customer like an architect or shipwright.. Now these guys have their OWN specifics on what to look for. I'd consult the profession forums to learn more about who needs what, but if I remember right, Architects desire high OQ (overall quality), SR (shock resistance), and UT (Unit toughness).. I could be wrong, but check it out on the profession forums. The main difference between these customers and someone like a weaponsmith is the QUANTITY in which they need.. these are your "bulk" customers who buy 100K resource chunks at a time. as such, bulk customers ususally buy at 2-5 CPU depending on quality. But if you do that math again, selling 200K of resource at 3cpu is going to get you 600K of credits.

The other customer type is your "grinding" customer.. these are the people who are grinding to reach master in whatever crafting profession they are doing.. they'll use the same resources as the master classes, but the difference is they aren't going to care about the quality as much because they aren't going to produce a product.. their crafting tools are set to practice mode so they just need the XP.. The upside is that they need LOTS of resources, downside is that they aren't going to pay out the nose for it because they dont' require the high quality. Typically these are your 1-2CPU customers who buy large quantities.

The main deal is just to research the profession forums and find out what your customers NEED. Some buy larger chunks of resources than others, but at a lower price.. you can have 2 different stacks of aluminum and they will sell differently depending on who's looking for what quality.

I keep referring to "weaponsmith" because that's what I am.. but know that other crafting professions are similar, just in different ways. All my blaster weapons require high OQ and CD ratings.. period.. But when I craft a blaster I may need 50 units of Kammris Iron 50 units of Ferrous metal, 50 untis of Mythra Copper and 50 units of Non-Ferrous metal. (I'm saying this as an example.. I know of no weapon that uses all of these resources at once..

But I know that high OQ & CD "Kammris" iron or "Mythra" copper is going to be more difficult to find. I can use a "filler" resource for when it calls for Ferrous metal or non-ferrous metal. Technically, the Kammris iron is a ferrous metal too, so it would work in the slot that calls for a generic ferrous metal.. but usualy if I'm looking at Kammris iron.. it's going to be harder to find and more expensive than some "steel" or "iron" that has high OQ & CD. That's what I mean by filler resources.. If I use a high OQ & CD steel that may be easier to find in the ferrous metal spot, I can save my "Kammris" iron (much more rare) for when I really need it.

So, mineral types.. ferrous metals = Iron, Steel.. non-ferrous metals= aluminum, copper.

2: So, how do we go about getting LOTS of resources? well, you have to have lots of LOTS! To start out, you can place your harvestors using your own lots (you have 10.. each harvestor uses 1).. unless you have a house or something, you can dedicate all your lots to mining. You might want to save at least 1 of your lots for placing some sort of energy collection harvestor. (those things don't power themselves)

the other ways to get more lots is to 1: get another toon on the same server.. you can do this by buying another copy of the game and paying another 15$ a month.. this is what I do.. I have a pure crafter toon, and a pure combat toon. I use my combat toon's lots for my crafter. and to place houses on so I can use my crafter's toon to mine resources.

2: get your guildmates to loan you thier unused lots.

3: rent lots from other Players. you tell them where you want your harvestor dropped, they drop it and add you as administrator.

The problem with #2 & #3 is that resources move or "shift" every few days.. when you mined for that aluminum and founda killer 95% spot, in a week, that spot may be gone.. it is going to be a pain to have your "landlord" or guildmates move your harvestors all the time.

you might have seen the FIELDS of 50-100 harvesors on tatooine? I seriously doubt they get moved every 7 days.. that would take almost 7 days just to move them.. lol.. what happens instead is that those harvestors get dropped somewhere they can be easily serviced and when the resources shift, the owner just picks a new resource that has a high concentration on his harvestor and mines that..The smart thing is to just drop your harvestors on a decent spot of resource, mine that resource, and when the resources shifts, go to your harvestor and pick whatever resource has the highest concentration.. repeat as necessary.

That is where rule #1 comes into play. Since you are not mining for SPECIFIC resources, you are going to end up with a lot of different resources. So, maybe this week you mine 500K of "architect" quality aluminum (high UT, SR, & OQ scores) next week in the same spot some decent copper comes up that a weaponsmith might like.. this is how it all works.

The next thing comes with "scalability".. that is, start small.. get a bunch of personal harvestors and pick a resource "type".. either Gas, chemical, mineral, flora, or water (some certain types of water is very profitable). I chose mineral because I use alot of it myself in my crafting.. as well as it's a pretty universal resource. Drop as many harvestors as you can (taking into consideration energy neeeds) and mine the crap out of whatever is good at the moment. When the resources shifts, change whatever you are mining.. as you sell and your profits increase, you should invest into getting better mining equipment. Bigger harvestors mean more resources mined in the same amount of time.. and thus more profits.

Energy costs are of concern too.. you can leave a couple lots open to have some wind power generators at first.. but eventually you'll want to move up to solar energy.. as you get better harvestors, those harvestors consume more energy, and thus you need bigger harvestors.. there is a slight tweak though.. harvestors can also run on radioactive material (a mineral.. and can be mined by mineral harvestors).. which is how a fusion reactor will gather energy.. radioactive can also be purchased off the bazaar too.. just one word of caution.. do NOT manualy sample for it or gather it by hand. you will die...lol. you need to extract it using a harvestor.

well, i know it's a book and I apologize as I'm not too good at structuring the post. I realize this is more a smattering of thoughts.. but perhaps it will help.

Also check out www.swgcraft.comit has good resources available and also has a section in which will tell you WHAT resources are currently available on which planet..

Good luck

Mucus' " tHe FiNe aNd gRiNd "
Specialty Resources - Premium Grade Resources - Grind Resources
South Coronet (SoCo) Ship Systems
Both located: 600m South of Coronet (JTL) Shop @ (-266 -5514), (Resources) Shop @ SoroSuub Mega-Mall (-235 -5560),
Uber Ships & Components for Uber Pilots (SoCo) Price List : -Clicky-