Chef Archive

Hey there,

My first post here, please bear with me, if I haven't used the search function properly, and I am regurgitating stuff already on this forum.

Today I had two ideas for what would do wonders for the chef profession; one simple, and one not-so-simple. Simple stuff first:

It would do WONDERS for our profession if the next guide on the main page for SWG was for foods and drinks. I think that people need to be shown the benefit of of our wares in order to increase sales. This requires no coding and only a little writing, but preferably from someone who can quantify the benefit of eating and drinking in relation to medics, entertainers and combat people.

Now, for the not-so-simple, I'd like to see a game mechanic chang in the business line. I believe it would greatly improve our sales if we were able to place our sales not just as premiums in some cases, but also automatically place them, where supply is low. There can be no doubt that people will travel to buy a house, a factory or a full set of armor... but you won't get anyone to travel to buy a snack... even if it is a stack of 10.

SO.. I think that by placing an addition to the business line we would be granted a benefit more than other classes. I haven't done much math on this but my initial suggestion would be to have planetary sales on Business III and galaxy sales on Business IV... Galaxy might be too powerful, I'm not sure. I don't mean that the item should be instantly available everywhere, just that as a business man we should have the option of choosing WHERE we want to place the item up for sale without having to go there.

As for pricing, I would suggest a percentage pricing on the sale, so that say a sale which is placed elsewhere on the same planet has a cost of maybe 10-20% of the total sale price and a sale placed on a whole other planet might be charged a 30-40% surcharge. This way the benefit is applied where it is mostly needed: At the low-price items of chefs. The architects and similar might want the same advantage, but the selling cost would probably make it less attractive (this would also be in line with how logistics work.. it's cheaper to transport a cookie, than the entire cookie factory)

I would like to hear comments on this idea.

/NetSapiens

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NetSapiens wrote:

you won't get anyone to travel to buy a snack... even if it is a stack of 10.

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Not sure what you're meaning here since I'm outside of town, and probably churn about a 20k a day profit on my food and drinks. I go addict them to the sunburn, and they do travel to get more, and in crates.

Not sure how your ACTUAL advertising skills are, but try standing in all the cantinas on your chosen planet for an hour per city, one night a week, passing out free samples. (Get that UXP, while yer doing it) I've managed to obtain probably a quarter of my business this way, the rest is friends, and those friends helping with word of mouth.

Don't rely on the Merchantskills to do your real work, which is to make people smile from the good good food you put in thier bellies, and to REMEMBER you and what you taught them about food. (Besides, the MerchantProfession is seriously in need of work)Tell them an Ewok Joke, name the drink you pass them whatever they ask for, and make sure to /shout /yell or my preference, /howl your shop's location, what you keep on hand there, etc.

I've done great for myself, and it will only get better...

Try it out and see if it works for you.

Since I am bored at work, I'll reply right away

What I meant was that people will generally travel farther for rarer goods than they will for regular goods. While I am sure that you are doing good with your sunburns (and I congratulate you on that), then my proposition was based on the notion that my idea would benefit the chef line (and the domestic line of the artisan) as a whole, making for a better experience as a chef. I am merely trying to suggest some simple ways which will increase the experience new players have of the journey towards the master chef goal, as a substitute to grinding.. which, I myself refuse to do... other than to clear out crappy stock which I may have lying around. The thing is... everyone seems to agree that you can earn money once you can make sunburns... I would just like to make enough money to make ends meet while I play the game moving up.

As for my ACTUAL marketing skills, well.. I haven't tried the bartending thing yet, quite simply because it didn't occur to me, but rest assured that there will be a roleplaying bartender in the Bria galaxy tonight

I do however always do the following: I hand type all sales placed on the bazaar with recommendations as to who might have the greatest use of each particular item. I respond to all system emails to inform people that I appreciate their business, and I offer them free samples of other goods in return for their feedback (market research). I experiment with renaming goods, to find out what works best.. both for instant sales and repeat business. I offer goods in return for services rendered to both medics and entertainers. I keep sales pitches on hand, in game that I can cut and paste into descriptions, names, macros and what ever else might come up. So as a rule, I'd say I do pretty well on that account.

Question then is... am I successful? I honestly don't know, because at my low level, I have nothing to compare to.. but I do sell my Ruby Bliels for around 200 creds a piece, which I feel is pretty decent.