Chef Archive

I agree with the majority of feedback posted here.

You need to stop charging based on the base resources used in the combine, and instead charge on the quantity of the stack. If your prices are based on a completed food/drink regardless of how large the stack is, then I would say for the most part your prices are very low. If those are your prices per individual bite/drink of a stack, then they are a bit high...

YET after seeing Jonsun's post, that might not be the case. I only charge 150cr per service of veghas.

Well, while I agree there are people out there perfectly able to buy at Jonzum's prices, I would feel very guilty charging that much. I just don't see our buffs being worth that price. And not everyone is raking in the money like that on missions.. I like that I can offer some food that just about anyone who stops by my shop can afford to try out. I'm reasonably profitable,and I'm having fun interacting with customers, so it's all good.

It's also about supply and demand. There's a reasonable number of chefs on Starsider. I check the bazaar and other shops and adjust my prices accordingly. Even if I could find a few suckers to pay 700 a use for Ormachek, I'd have to deal with the guilt when someone said they wouldn't buy from me because they found it for 150 a use somewhere else.

Well ROFL I dunno then.

I mean, if I charge by the serving amount, then prices go through the roof and no one will buy my food.

Why would anyone purchase my Ormachek with 6 charges for 1200cr??? They can get better from spice!

I mean, if I charge by the serving amount, then prices go through the roof and no one will buy my food.

Just adjust your per-use cost to where it seems fair to you and your customers for a reasonable sized stack. Then they pay more if they get a big stack, and get a break if they get a small one. If you tend to make 3 per stack of ormachek, and you think that stack should be 300, then charge 100 a use. Then if you happen to make a stack of 6 they pay 600.

Also, give a discount to bulk orders and repeat customers.

I charge 150 a use for Ormachek btw, and it sells OK.

Think about it... The devs have pretty much come out and said that the money supply is getting out of control and they need more money sinks. Thus, the whole vendor maintenance issue. Where is all this money coming from? Certainly not the artisans and craftsmen. It's coming from the people that use our products in doing missions.

If the rate of credits coming into the economy is so high as to warrant developer attention and the people bringing that money in to the economy rely on our product to earn that money, it just makes sense that our product has tremendous monetary value.

Also, creating some kind of formulaic strategy for pricing won't work in a highly inflationary economy as it becomes outdated within days. It's not a matter of trying to gouge people. It's a matter of getting your "fair share" for the income you are helping people earn. As long as people are buying my products as fast as I can churn them out, I know that the price I am asking is within my "fair share". When my price goes above that level, they'll stop buying.

Pricing is not simple...

You really have to know your customer base. A stack of 3 gwouch may only have a market value 10% of that of a stack of 10 gwouch even though the buff stats are the same (or the stack of 3 gwouch could even be superior). Inventory space has a tremendously high value which is why I recommend maxing out experimentation points first and buying the best ingredients to maximize number of servings.

Secondly, take the focus off the product and put it on the service you provide. You are your customer's food consultant and are able to provide tremendous value to the relationship by understanding how they play and their needs and being able to match those up with the perfect diet. You get to charge a premium for that service over the person that just dumps food on a vendor and says "come and get it".

And, seriously, if you're using 900+ 900+ 800+ ingredients in food, please please please don't charge 3 to 5 credits per resource. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't use them at all until you can put them in recipes where you'll be able to see a tremendous return. They may be coming out of everywhere today but be gone tomorrow.

Chef is an amazingly complicated profession and probably one of the most versatile in terms of play styles. Developing a successful pricing strategy depends entirely on what your goals are. There is no wrong answer as long as you have fun with it. Nothing says that you have to maximize profit or roleplay or keep a vendor or build a factory or anything. Conduct your business the way you most feel comfortable running it and commit as much time to it as you want in order to have fun playing SWG (the point of the game).

I was just pointing out that we are not gimped in terms of market demand and that there is great money to be made in the chef profession if you want to go that route.

Cheers,

Kaizen

There are several factors to consider, I think:

1) How do you obtain your inputs -- buying them, or harvesting yourself. This is a multiplier on both your costs and your volume of production.

2) What kind of volume can you produce? This is based on your playtime, mainly, and also by the use of factories.

3) What kind of playstyle do you favor? Are you selling food in the context of RP (or is it your pretty much sole in-game activity), are you just doing it merely asa revenue stream to fund other activity, or somewhere in between?

I suspect the answers to those questions lump people almost entirely into two camps, which could be described as the 5-star-chefs and the short-order-cooks.

If you want a personal, ongoing relationship with most of your customers, and/or can't spend a lot of time producing your product, you probably find yourself undercharging, and selling out all the time. If you can't be online most of the time (as in, you only play a few hours a day or a few days a week), you may want to be careful -- if you keep your prices low and are always sold out, you may be missing potential customers who find you out of stock a few times and give up trying. Keeping your prices just high enough to keep things in stock during your off-line time might be worth considering. (The chefs)

If you make a LOT of food, and still find yourself able to sell it consistently, you probably charge more, but find some potential customers complaining that your prices are a lot higher. The cooks probably won't have the supply-shortage problems, because the maximum value return rarely if EVER occurs with all potential customers actually purchasing. (The cooks)

That's just basic economics, for those of you who remember that stuff. I'd advise the 5-star-chefs to be willing to charge more than they are, although you should also be willing to negotiate (or haggle, if you prefer) with customers. Encourage repeat business and volume orders by offering discounts for them, but charge more if you're always sold out or out of resources.

The short-order-cooks are pretty much set already -- you're operating more according to demand-side economics, and you'll find yourself adjusting prices as necessary due to fluctuations or supply changes (competition, game balance changes, etc.).

Ultimately, the way you should play, be it your pricing structure, the amount of time you commit to the chef class, etc., is and should be driven by what you enjoy and what you want to get out of it. Chefs, be sensitive to your customer's perceptions of price, value, etc., if you want to -- the cooks, with somewhat more anonymous customers, will probably keep those things boiled down to supply and demand. I think either approach is valid and potentially fun, you just have to decide what's fun for you.

Disclaimer: I am not a chef (or a cook).

Xentax
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I just find it ridiculous that there are fighers in the game who have enough expendable income to spend several thousand credits regularly for a small stack ofcompletely sub-par food. I mean, they should either not be making that much money, or using it for uber weapons or uber armor or paying their doctors and entertainers for services or insuranceor buying that uber house. (yes they do that now, but they should have barely enough money to do that, not a huge surplus). Or they should give those credits to chefs, but not strictly as cost for food but as sponsorship to help level up and start a business.

Yes, I understand there are artisans making 20 times resources or some insane amount off fighters.I agree that artisans should be a significant money drain for fighters. But I just think a game where that kind of pricing is common for items that aren't super rare or exceptionally high quality is a bit out of balance .

I have a friend who made one of the first master armorsmiths on the server. He got to where he was able to make something like a million creds a day in profit. He had a personal PA hall, lots of clothes, a droid, supported a second crafter mastering architect, etc. He got bored pretty quickly and left the game. That's the danger if that kind of pricing is possible.

I also want to say.. by inflating your prices to meet the wallets of the advanced fighters, you are pricing the new fighters out of the market. Now I don't think the new fighters should be buying huge volumes of food or the very best stuff, but I don't thinka few servings of ormachek should be out of their reach, especially when it doesn't really take all that much to make it. :/

More lamenting the state of the game's economy than flaming anyone btw.

I REALLY like your website, very well done... Love your names for your food too, I find that doing that sells my food twice as fast as calling them the default names...

I charge what I feel like, while also making sure I'm not undercutting the competition alot... I don't really care what the resources cost me, since I am taking the path of Combat Chef I can do several missions that net me a ton of money, then I go out to the local growers/harvestors and buy quality resources which I then have fun with crafting and experimenting with... this way I support the local "farmers" and I don't get wrapped up in what I'm gaining or losing money-wise since I'm not in it to make a huge profit, I'm doing it for fun!

Money I make with my other main profession, food is my passion and "fun" prof...

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Ida wrote:

I also want to say.. by inflating your prices to meet the wallets of the advanced fighters, you are pricing the new fighters out of the market. Now I don't think the new fighters should be buying huge volumes of food or the very best stuff, but I don't thinka few servings of ormachek should be out of their reach, especially when it doesn't really take all that much to make it. :/

More lamenting the state of the game's economy than flaming anyone btw.

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New fighters shouldn't be buying their food and drink from Master Chefs. Top tier recipes using the best ingredients in the galaxy fully experimented with only great+ successes should cost a ton and be unaffordable to new players.

New fighters shouldn't be buying their food and drink from Master Chefs. Top tier recipes using the best ingredients in the galaxy fully experimented with only great+ successes should cost a ton and be unaffordable to new players.

Well I do agree with you there. Just you were listing some stuff mid-level chefs can make, and the original post was for a menu of items that crosses the wholechef tree.I guess if your results are super exceptional and your ingredients are very rare then sure charge a ton.

Pretty much I agree with Jonzun, and disagree with Ida

I use the credits per resource method to figure out my target price (not enough chefs around to simply evaluate the competition to get the price...feel like I'm going it alone)

My BASE price is over 10 credits per resource to make a food item.

I *am* fascinated by Jonzun's prices. I'll evaluate the demand of my items and be very willing to raise prices. I sell Breath of Heaven at 4k currently, and thast at something like close to 20 credits per resource.

--ssauron