Commando Archive

Pricing is such an inexact science, particularly in SWG. Not only must you cover your present and anticipated costs, you must also find the equilibrium spot where the rate at which the product is sold about equals the rate at which you are willing and able to replace it on the vendor. It's a continually evolving thing. Since the previous posts were entirely factual, I'm going to use this post to be more anecdotal and opinionated, bringing almost two yearsworth of experience as one of Bloodfin's top armorsmiths to the table.

Over the past six months, PvE Composite prices on Bloodfin stabilized around300K per suit, with particularly high-base or specialty-layeredvarieties fetching 25-50K more. The advent of the four-piece suit allowed me to focus more production on those pieces, as well as to charge more for them. Chestplates fetched 55K, helmets 45K, boots and gloves 40K. PvP Composite prices ranged a bit more -- I would easily sell full 39/67 suits for 450K, and probably could have gotten more, but I was also supplying my guildmates. I also sold 39/67 and 27/72 builds as individual pieces -- 65K for Helmets and Chestplates, 50K for Boots and Gloves.

Ubese sales crashed a few months after the dawn of the Village of Aurilia, but I still sold a few suits every now and then for around 150K. Ithorian armor was by special order only. I just recently got into the Wookiee Armor gig, which I soon discovered was ridiculously expensive and was actually costing me (d'oh) ... but at least I kept a few Wookiees alive.

By and large, I have been using resources that spawned well over eight months ago, some close to sixteen months. The only exceptions have been some new wooly hide spawns, a server-best polysteel copper, and an ever-improving Kammris Iron stockpile. Armor sales have almost completely dried up over the past week as more and more folks prepare for the CURB. My shop is now in "Operation Shutdown," anticipating the new resource requirements and clearing current stocks.

It is in this environment, with great trepidation, that we see the new schematics. Many of us are worried, and rightfully so. As demonstrated above, top-end armor will soon require over twice the resources that it does today. Some of the required resources are so rare that there have been more jetpacks and Mandalorian Armor pieces crafted on a server than the number of spawns of some particular ores. Furthermore, the general utility of armor in the post-CURB world is questionable with the new level-based damage system and the total lack of documentation as to what the protection levels on the armor actually mean, not to mention how elemental damage works.

Right now, I'm going to do something that I haven't done in a long time -- evaluate the resource cost of a single suit of my PV.5 Composite (ADV.3KL), much as appeared in the previous post. I'm going to price the resources as they would have been sold a month or two ago.

Phrik Al ... 15cpu

BeCu ... 15cpu

Intrusive ... 20cpu

SPF ... 10cpu

Nab FP ... 25cpu

Wooly ... 90cpu

ColatFe ... 10cpu

Kiirium Steel ... 5cpu

Polysteel Cu ... 5cpu

Kammris Fe ... 5cpu

Amorphous ... 10cpu

Polymer ... 15cpu

[RFP / SC resources are basically junk, I don't count them]

Total resource cost for a full suit? 72,275cr

Now, I will do the same estimate for my buddy Brutussk's ADV.4EL Assault suit.

Bone ... 30cpu

Metal ... 5cpu

Dant Wooly ... 100cpu

Dath FP ... 3cpu (Garbage)

Intrusive ... 20cpu

Kammris Fe ... 5cpu

Mytrha Cu ... 15cpu

Amorphous Gem ... 10cpu

Steel ... 5cpu

Iron ... 5cpu

Polymer ... 15cpu

Scaley ... 60cpu

Ferrous Metal ... 5cpu

Polymer ... 15cpu

Plexite ... TOTALLY UNKNOWN; SWGCraft.com reports only five Plexite spawns in Bloodfin history, all of them pretty much junk. If I were able to find someone with a stash, I'd probably go as high as 50cpu if the quantity were right. If it spawned tomorrow, I'd say 5cpu.

Alantium ... 20cpu

Total resource cost: 178,930 (5cpu Plexite) - 238,330 (50cpu Plexite)

If I were to use four Primus Layers, I would estimate my resource cost at 315,000 credits. In all likelihood, with the resources I have in abundance, I will make stuff with two primus and two kinetic layers (that sounds like a pretty good PvE combination to me, although I have no real basis to make that judgement ... call it experienced armorsmith intuition), so I'll say that my costs for that will be around 240,000 credits.

I don't think it would be a stretch to assume that the prices for Advanced Battle and Reconaissance armor resources will be in the same general range. Resource costs for Standard Cores will be within 15% of Advanced Cores, although I can see Basic Cores being nearly half the cost of the Advanced Cores.

Ahh, the final problem. Do I currently multiply my resource price for composite by 5, or do I merely add 250K or so to the resource price? If the former is the case, we might be looking at 1.5Mcr for a production suit of Advanced Armor, but if the latter is the case, new suits might only cost 550K. I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

The final price has to accomodate the open-market resource prices, the value added by combining the resources into a useful and needed product, my operating and maintenance costs, anticipated future purchasing power, and be high enough that the opportunity costs of having a crafter template in the new system are matched.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=armorsmith&message.id=81886

Former Master Commando/TKM

(gnn[[[[[[[[[[nnnnWX9gggggggggggggggggggggggg)

(gnn[[[[[[[[[[nnnnWX9gggggggggggggggggggggggg)

(gnn[[[[[[[[[[nnnnWX9gggggggggggggggggggggggg)