Doctor Archive
Thread: Buff Economics! A guide...
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Bad_Bad_Leroy
Thu Sep 02, 2004 10:36 am
#1
In response to "Avian Meat Pricing: a Cost/Benefit Guide", some people asked for a more general evaluation of ALL the costs involved with buffing, not just Avian. If you adjust the quantities required, you can apply the Avian model to each individual resource, so I won't make separate posts for each. Thus, here's an overview of Buff Economics:
Buff Economics, similar to other crafting professions, is all about value-adding, and deciding where is the most profitable point in the process for you to cash in.
Decide who you are, then follow the discussion; Then decide who you might become, and compare:
Person A: Harvests resources to start, enhances other players to finish.Person B: Buys resources, enhances other players to finish.Person _': Sells raw resources to finishPerson _'': Sells buffpacks to finish.Person C: Buys buffpacks from _'' to start, enhances other players to finish.
1. Someone (Person A = anyone with novice scout and/or artisan) must collect meat and resources. This is the initial Raw step. Value is created from an investment in harvestors and maintenance (creds/power) and time = [Harvest Cost].
If you are Person A, and you keep the resources yourself, your account balance is now at -[Harvest Cost].
If you are Person A', and you cash out here by selling all your resources, your final balance is at +[CPU * Units)] - [Harvest Cost]. You are done.
If you are not Person A but instead are Person B, meaning you entered the equation here by buying resources, your account is now at -[(CPU * Units)].
If you are Person B', then you buy resources and then sell them again, so you are a commodities broker and not a doctor, so get out of this thread 
2. Someone must craft buffpacks using these resources, with the investment cost of Factories, Crafting station and crafting tools, and Master Doctor (=Crafting Cost).
If you were Person A and keep the packs, your balance is now -[Harvest Cost] - [Crafting Cost]. Or, you're at a loss of ([Harvest Cost]+[Crafting Cost]).
If you are Person A'', meaning you sell the packs now, your final balance is +[Buffpack Sale Price] - ([Harvest Cost]+[Crafting Cost]). (ignore vendor costs)
If you were Person B, your balance is now -[CPU * Units] - [Crafting Cost]. Or, you're at a current loss of -([CPU * Units] + [Crafting Cost]).
If you are Person B'', meaning you sell the packs now, your final balance is +[Buffpack Sale Price] - ([CPU * Units] + [Crafting Cost]). (ignore vendor costs)
3. The buffing doctor must acquire buffpacks
If you were Person A or Person B, you simply take the packs out of your factory at no additional cost.
If you are Person C, then you purchase the buffpacks from either person A'' or Person B''. Your balance is now at -[Buffpack Sale Price].
4. The buffing doctor must sit somewhere and sell applications of buffs to other players, at a cost of [Cost To Buff] = [bivoli+medical droid+clothes+time],
making [Gross Buffing Income] = ([per-enhancement price] * [number of ehnancements applied]).
You make revenue of [Net Buffing Profit] = [Gross Buffing Income] - [Cost To Buff].
If you are Person A your final balance is:
[Gross Profit] = +[Net Buffing Profit] - [Harvest Cost] - [Crafting Cost]
If you are Person B your final balance is:
[Gross Profit] = +[Net Buffing Profit] - [CPU * Units] - [Crafting Cost]
If you are Person C your final balance is:
[Gross Profit] = +[Net Buffing Profit] - [Buffpack Sale Price]
If you are Person A' your final balance is:
[Gross Profit] = +[CPU * Units)] - [Harvest Cost]
If you are Person A'' your final balance is:
[Gross Profit] = +[Buffpack Sale Price] - ([Harvest Cost]+[Crafting Cost])
If you are Person B'' your final balance is:
[Gross Profit] = +[Buffpack Sale Price] - [Buffpack Sale Price] - ([CPU * Units] + [Crafting Cost])
So where do people stand? What's the most profitable Person type on your server? What takes the most time? What's the most fun?
I happen to be about 90% Person A, 10% Person B.
Message Edited by Bad_Bad_Leroy on 09-02-2004 02:05 PM
ZeroK0ol
Thu Sep 02, 2004 1:54 pm
#2
Without the equations ill put in my 'opinion' on whats the most profitable on ur questions on bria to my knowledge.
Most profitable
Harvesting resources, waiting for a 1 month dry spell and then selling them on the forums.
Least profitable
Harvesting resources and selling them IN SEASON.
Dr profitablity is for Harvesting every unit u need personally and then selling them in the form of buff packs to Dr's.
You would make more money buffing each person, BUT, you couldnt buff 100 people at a time, but you could
sell 100 buff sets at the same time.
Bad_Bad_Leroy
Thu Sep 02, 2004 3:08 pm
#3
I'm leaning towards this too... I recently made my first crate set, so maybe I'll keep 10 or 15 sets for my own personal and guild buffing, and sell the rest for some instant cash, maybe to buy a scythe
ZeroK0ol wrote:
Dr profitablity is for Harvesting every unit u need personally and then selling them in the form of buff packs to Dr's.
You would make more money buffing each person, BUT, you couldnt buff 100 people at a time, but you could
sell 100 buff sets at the same time.
Jirob1
Fri Sep 03, 2004 4:10 am
#4
I harvest ressources, buy moreto keep up sales and sell buffpacks and buff too.. so that might be most of profit. though I'm doing and selling all medical items and ressources too. its pretty much work though..hehe
Ashine
Fri Sep 03, 2004 8:00 am
#5
The following is my view of buffonomics.
Guiding Principle -- The ultimate goal is to have the capability to independently perform all aspects of resource collection, manufacture, and delivery of the buffs. I suspect this is impossible since there are not enough skill points to go around, so for the sake of discussion let’s assume we will buy the necessary food and work out a deal with a merchant to sell things. Once this capability is established you will likely wish to focus on one or more aspects of the process based on profitability and/or personal preference. However, should market conditions change profitability (i.e. market glut of buff packs) or you just get tired of just one aspect (i.e. I find public buffing only slightly more entertaining that waiting on a shuttle), you can shift to another area.
Getting Started – Again for the sake of this discussion let’s assume you are not subsidizing this profession with another (i.e. running Mokk missions to fund your doc venture). The first thing to do is establish positive cash flow. The easiest way to do this is to buy buff packs and start public buffing. On a tight budget you can get started for about 300k. This will cover the cost of a med droid, bio-engineered clothes, buff packs, bivo, and brandy. This should give you 30 buffs at 15k each or 450k. Good first step positive cash flow!
Making your own buff packs – The next big step is to start making your own buff packs. Many never accomplish this! You could buy all of the resources you need to make individual sets of buff packs or even buy enough to make factory runs. I skipped this step since the actual making of the buff packs seems the least profitable aspect and have decided to first focus on gathering the resources myself to make factory runs of buff packs. To do this you need a lot of patience (and buff patients). I have invested at least 5 million credits and two months at this point and have yet to make my first buff pack. The money I have made by public buffing I have invested into harvesters and resources.
The first step was to buy generators to produce my own energy at about 0.1 cpu. This also gives you the option to sell energy on the side. To be efficient I have two of each heavy harvesters at 100 to 130 k each, plus two factories. The highlight of my day is checking out swgcraft to find out about the latest spawns. Since I can’t survey myself I hire someone to do the survey and send me a waypoint, I have been paying 50k a survey. Once you start harvesting you can sell resources on the side to improve cash flow. We have had some good spawns of most required ingredients on Gorath over the past few months and I have 100k stacks stock piled.
The most problematic resources are those that have to be hunted. To solve this problem I have dropped MCM and perused Rifleman with minimal scout skills; now I can get my own. There has not been a good spawn of Herbivore meat in some time. That’s the last ingredient I need.
Once I start making buff packs I’ll have to figure out how to sell them, another adventure that I’m looking forward to. At that time I’ll have a lot of options; sell energy, sell resources, sell buff packs, or sell buffs. I'll probably try all of them at least once or twice to see how it goes.
I /salute anyone that has made it to the point of independence; being able to harvest their own resources to make buff packs. To my mind that is quit an accomplishment. And good luck to all the other including myself that are working toward getting there.
Bad_Bad_Leroy
Mon Sep 06, 2004 11:17 am
#6
How did you manage to spend 5,000,000 credits and not have enough to make a buffpack? You only need ahundred or two of each resource to make one set of buffs. It's easier than you think; just go for it! If you can't find the best of a certain resource, don't worry. It'll only cost you a few points here and there in final quality. The only real important parts are the Avian and the Reactive Gas, and even 500/500 avian isn't terrible.
Ashine
Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:51 am
#7
“How did you manage to spend 5,000,000 credits and not have enough to make a buffpack? You only need a hundred or two of each resource to make one set of buffs. It's easier than you think; just go for it!”
I don’t see the point in making one set of buffs when they are easy to buy and basically for the same effort, with a little patience, I can make 60 sets. 5M does not go very far when buying big harvesters, factories, and keeping them fed. I dislike crafting and shopping for resources almost as much as waiting for the shuttle or public buffing. I look silly in that apron and try to spend as little time wearing it as possible! Additionally I’ve harvested 100k stacks of the resources except for meat, so it should just get easier in the future.
With the current spawn of Herbivore Meat on Yavin, I have the last resource to make a run of buff packs. The factory run of ACRDMs finished last night. Wish me luck!
Arrya
Tue Sep 07, 2004 8:17 am
#8
I collect many of the hard to get resources when I get a chance then just trade them to someone who manufactures the packs in large quantites for packs that I can use. I don' do public buffing though, just myself and friends. One day I might get into making my own packs, but I kind of burnt out on crafting after a year of being a weaponsmith so I am finding this low hassle route to be more enjoyable for the time being.
Bad_Bad_Leroy
Tue Sep 07, 2004 10:09 am
#9
Good luck! It's awesome to look at your crates of buffs and know that (unless you're selling the packs to other docs) you won't have to craft again for a while
Ashine wrote:
“How did you manage to spend 5,000,000 credits and not have enough to make a buffpack? You only need a hundred or two of each resource to make one set of buffs. It's easier than you think; just go for it!”
I don’t see the point in making one set of buffs when they are easy to buy and basically for the same effort, with a little patience, I can make 60 sets. 5M does not go very far when buying big harvesters, factories, and keeping them fed. I dislike crafting and shopping for resources almost as much as waiting for the shuttle or public buffing. I look silly in that apron and try to spend as little time wearing it as possible! Additionally I’ve harvested 100k stacks of the resources except for meat, so it should just get easier in the future.
With the current spawn of Herbivore Meat on Yavin, I have the last resource to make a run of buff packs. The factory run of ACRDMs finished last night. Wish me luck!
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