Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Oh dear
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StevieBUKDroidEngineer
Mon Aug 23, 2004 6:00 pm
#1
Just, only just made Master Droid Engineer. Grinded a bit but also made and sold droids on the way. Now I'm a Master Droid Engineer, i'm thinking about dropping it. Why? Well all the top droids, like the R3 and Adv Protocol just seem so much hassle to make that they become redundent to me and unprofitable. The amount of time you have to take looking for the right steel or right whatever for these later droids is just so off putting. And why oh why can't us MDE's have more droids in our datapad and have them called like a Creature Handler. Why oh why can't we test out our droids, like the detonation mod and the Merchant Barker mod (i had to get Merchant Advertising IV to find out these droids are kinda crap). I'm now thinking of going the Master Doctor way. Making money as a Master Doctor seems a dead cert as everyone wants buffs but not everyone wants a droid.
RangerMoe
Mon Aug 23, 2004 6:26 pm
#2
Sorry to hear this. I just picked up Novice Droid Engineer to add to my business and hope it will add to my sales. Guess its all in where you put you tent. 
Stravros
Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:18 am
#4
dont forget as doctor you still have to get certain materials to make best buffs and theres plenty doctors around.
plus i find droids bit more intresting than just standing in starport with a macro saying dont tip till i say 
Kylania
Tue Aug 24, 2004 10:34 am
#5
Yeah, don't pick Doctor if all you want is a crafting class to make money with. First time you've forced to spead 50-200cr/unit for avian meat you'll realize you screwed up.
Also hope you have multiple accounts, or millions and millions of credits, to plant 4-6 harvesters on every single decent spawn on amazing resources or you'll get stuck paying 10-50cr a unit for them.
Go Chef or Armorsmith if you want money.
StevieBUKDroidEngineer
Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:16 pm
#6
Think i'll stick with it for awhile thanks. All my other stuff sells ok. My swoops, my crates of knifes for all the smugglers out there. Also found you can stick 5 enterainer modules in an R2 droid if you use the combat capable socket cluster. Works nicely. Also my LE-Repair droids with +100 med rating sell well at a small price of only 7k each. Will now look into sticking 10 storage and Food and Chem station in them.
Malitevv
Tue Aug 24, 2004 5:42 pm
#7
Yeah. I hear doctor is good money if you work at it, but I also hear the acquiring the resources needed to make the buff kits they use is a lot of work. A lot more work than getting the resources that a DE needs. DE does have a lot of rare resources, but the major ones are used in relatively small quantities and last quite a long time once you have found them. Extrusive ore is the one I've had the most trouble with (because that one is used a lot). But even that hasn't been too much trouble.
Butterwufabow
Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:28 pm
#8
This post is both encouraging and scary. I've been a Novice 0/0/0/2 DE for a week or so now, but I put on the back burner so I can grind up weaponsmith in order to help DE along a bit when I saw exactly how much more DE was going to involve. I've been torn with the idea of dropping and cutting my losses before I get any deeper in, but I cant help but think, will it pay off? has it payed off for the MDE out there reading this? Also, how do you think JTL is going to effect our Astromech sales? JTLwas the main reason I decided to go with DE in the first place, besides the fact I'm an Electronics tech IRL, so I figured it was fitting. Crafting itself I enjoy, and weaponsmith is going pretty well. Just DE is starting to get me discouraged.
Kayles Freestar
Artisan/Weaponsmith/Droid Eng.
LonelyGhost
Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:19 pm
#9
Preface: I have never been a WS or Armorsmith, but I have studied thier schematics and resource needs.
Weaponsmiths need the greatest number of unique and specific resource to craft everything in their profession. AS need pesky and expensive organic resources. DE take the cake in components needs. Here is a total of the numbers...(taken from swgcraft)
Components (including those out of the profession like Artisan or Tailor things)
AS= 15
WS = 19
DE =59 (not including all 6 levels of Med, storage, etc)
Resources
AS = 47
WS = 60
DE = 44
None of these professions is easy. I am in a Guild who invites new players to the game in so we can help them get started. When any of them talk about doing any of these 3, we are supportive, but we are honest in the difficulties and realities facing them. It took me 8 months to get all the resources for DE. Generally we suggest things like Tailor and Doc or even CM or Smuggler for crafting, since the resource needs are slimmer, and they get to interact with many more people along the way.
To get started in one of these 3 at this point in time takes patience. Lots and lots of it. You can still do it, but it will take plenty of time if you are mostly solo.
robertwo
Wed Aug 25, 2004 3:06 am
#10
I have to agree there that Armoursmith and Weaponsmith take up just as much (if not more) time gathering resources. I can't count the amount of times I've heard our guild WS saying that XXX resource has just spawned and the T21's are on their way or someone asking, do you have any T21's in stock and the reply was that the resources needed are not available.
With a DE if something rare spawns you can harvest the hell out of it and you're then not likely to run out of it in a hurry and only need to harvest more if better quality comes up later.
When I first started out with DE it all looked a bit daunting and scary. Making those Adv R3 droids took ages but as I made more and more droids it all started to become so much easier and I started to pick out components that I used a lot and did factory runs on them. (There is also a nice list on the DEA site of common things to do factory runs on - I forget the URL now).
It took a couple of months to gather up the large quantities in the generic resources - copper, steel, ore etc - and this will be the same case with WS and AS.
I'd say stick with it for a while and you may find it becomes less frightening and you might enjoy it. If you don't you can always drop it later.
With a DE if something rare spawns you can harvest the hell out of it and you're then not likely to run out of it in a hurry and only need to harvest more if better quality comes up later.
When I first started out with DE it all looked a bit daunting and scary. Making those Adv R3 droids took ages but as I made more and more droids it all started to become so much easier and I started to pick out components that I used a lot and did factory runs on them. (There is also a nice list on the DEA site of common things to do factory runs on - I forget the URL now).
It took a couple of months to gather up the large quantities in the generic resources - copper, steel, ore etc - and this will be the same case with WS and AS.
I'd say stick with it for a while and you may find it becomes less frightening and you might enjoy it. If you don't you can always drop it later.
Gnirak
Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:09 am
#11
i have a very profitable business on chilastra, i keep 2 vendors fully stocked with a wide assortment of droids ranging from medical, to crafting, and i thiink my prices are on the high end for my server. The biggest key is to have a fully stocked vendor, once people come to it and its empyt, they most likely will never come back. Especially BH looking for droids, once they find a spot that is always stocked they keep coming back. I always make sure i have plenty of both types of bh droids and receive e-mails from bh all the time thanking me for keeping my vendor stocked. Also remember Factories are you friend. If you don't have the lots for several, try to use a friends lots, i have 5 factories always running for parts. That way all i actually need to craft is the final assembly so that i can pick the color scheme accordingly.
Message Edited by Gnirak on 08-25-2004 11:11 AM
Rippen208
Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:45 am
#12
Butterwufabow wrote:This post is both encouraging and scary. I've been a Novice 0/0/0/2 DE for a week or so now, but I put on the back burner so I can grind up weaponsmith in order to help DE along a bit when I saw exactly how much more DE was going to involve. I've been torn with the idea of dropping and cutting my losses before I get any deeper in, but I cant help but think, will it pay off? has it payed off for the MDE out there reading this? Also, how do you think JTL is going to effect our Astromech sales? JTL was the main reason I decided to go with DE in the first place, besides the fact I'm an Electronics tech IRL, so I figured it was fitting. Crafting itself I enjoy, and weaponsmith is going pretty well. Just DE is starting to get me discouraged.Kayles FreestarArtisan/Weaponsmith/Droid Eng.
Yes, DE is worth it, if by "worth it" you mean will it be both profitable and enjoyable. I've made multiple millions since becoming a Master DE in April, right before Patch 8. Dozens of other DEs have been just as successful, and some even more so. The people you see complaining that it's not worth it are those who won't put in enough effort. They stick one vendor in a house or tent, stick 5-6 lame droids on it, sell them for 2k each (because they still think 2k is a lot of money), and think that's all they need to do. Then they wonder why no one buys their stuff or why they don't make any money, and then they spew it all on the forums. Meanwhile, I'm sitting at 48 million credits and counting, and have a reputation as one of the best DEs on Starsider. What does that tell you? It should tell you that I did something that those people didn't do. It should tell you that if you do it right, you'll make millions and have fun just like I did. It makes me angry to keep seeing this crap about DE not being worth it, from people who didn't even try.
Btw, that 2k price example I mentioned isn't made up. There really is some guy a few houses from my shop who sells his droids (some being medical droids) for 2k each, I kid you not.
Rippen
Rippen208
Wed Aug 25, 2004 7:49 am
#13
Gnirak wrote:i have a very profitable business on chilastra, i keep 2 vendors fully stocked with a wide assortment of droids ranging from medical, to crafting, and i thiink my prices are on the high end for my server. The biggest key is to have a fully stocked vendor, once people come to it and its empyt, they most likely will never come back. Especially BH looking for droids, once they find a spot that is always stocked they keep coming back. I always make sure i have plenty of both types of bh droids and receive e-mails from bh all the time thanking me for keeping my vendor stocked. Also remember Factories are you friend. If you don't have the lots for several, try to use a friends lots, i have 5 factories always running for parts. That way all i actually need to craft is the final assembly so that i can pick the color scheme accordingly.Message Edited by Gnirak on 08-25-2004 11:11 AM
See, Gnirak is obviously an experienced DE who knows what he's doing. I agree with him that a fully stocked vendor and a wide variety are the most important keys to DE success. Do you hear him complaining about the DE profession not being worth it? Nope. Yes, eventually people can get tired of it no matter how successful they are, but to say it isn't worth it is just wrong.
Rippen
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