Droid Engineer Archive

Was wondering if there was enoughDE's on Chilastra ta do something similiar ta what Woody has set up on his server, or if anyone was interested?

Basically a loose organazation of droid engineers, to help each other, set some pricing guide lines, ect . I'm really not certain how Woody has set it up, perhaps he could explain in alittle more detail if he has the time

I'm not the organizational type, but i'm willing to try if no one else steps up to the plate, and there are enough of us around to make such athing worth the effort

I've been a MDE for around 5 months now and plan on staying here for the duration of my online swg life

Saleena Kyle

MDE - Chilastra

Sure

The first step is to compile a list of all the DEs on the server (or at least all the non Holo ones). The easiest way to do this is to just wander round looking for DEs and adding htem to your friends list.

Once you have a fair amount on there you can then organize up things. With it you can run a mineral mailing list (where all the DEs share mineral waypoints they find), you can announce news and spread the word on when a DE needs assistance with something. You can also gather feedback with the people by sending out questions to everyone. And lastly you can organize up meetings seeing as you now have the ability to talk to everyone.

From there you're on your own matey Good luck!

Sounds intriguing...sign me up

/sign

I'm here with my second(originally myfirst, heh)account, but I don't believe in price-fixing. It usually ends up hurting those who strive for quality and benefitting those who just mass-produce low-quality products...

I'm not planning on undercutting the market though - I suspect that once the fixes go in I'll be selling above the market price, with a focus on specialization and quality products.

price setting is the dream of many but has never become a reality unfortunately. However, what I've noticed develop on Ahazi are 'suggested minimums.' basically the suggested minimum price that the customer base have been shown to accept as reasonable. In fact, several people on our server have recently spent some time and effort in pushing up the suggested minimum and have been wildly successful. I myself have been able to raise my prices 5-10k over the last three months. Also, since the formation of the DEA/DEnet I've seen the complaints of undercutting drop dramatically. While we looked into price setting, we never enforced it. However greater pricing and larger markets seem to have appeared since its formation, just because we worked together and were able to sit down together. All voluntary, but benefiting far more DEs than before.

As such, I don't think you should be too concerned with price setting so much as seeing what everyone currently sells their droids at. once you can see the average you can then move on to suggesting that average, or 'suggested minimum', to future DEs as they take up the profession. That not only helps balance the market and prevent undercutting, but allows them to be set on the same level as you without any conflicts.

Sign me up, too!

Sure, why not. Been a Master DE since the second week of July. /sign

I *assume* (but I'm not positive) that Castorius is still a DE.

I, Longshot, am a Master DE, but I rarely craft anything. I'm ashamed to admit I did the "advance frame" grind and learned nothing about droids in the process. Add the fact that I own a 9-lot PA Hall, and you can imagine why I'm not exactly crafting much. This may sound sad, but I want to open a force slot just for the extra lots.

Still, I plan to stay a DE. I'd like to be a part of the organization so that I could help train folks in need, keep any future prices fair, and that sort of thing.

Count me in. PM me or email me in-game.

Heh heh... I know that there are more DE's on Chilastra than have made an appearance on this thread - I trained a lot of them

Just FYI, running three factories, 5 heavy extractors, and one fusion reactor, I have droids flowing out of my shop at a pretty good clip with the following prices:

Adv R2 - 5 modules - 25K
Adv R3 - 6 modules - 35K
Adv Probot - 2 modules - 25K
Adv Surgical - 2 modules - 20K

Of course, all droids are armored, have maxed out modules, and the surgical droids have talkie chipe in them.

Count me in ! My second account, name of Skylek, is just beginning novice DE (NOT a holo DE). Will help in any way I can.

Skylek, Talus, Chilastra, Novice DE/Novice Musician

Kbeone, Talus, Chilastra, Master Combat Medic

I would like to attend as well, your prices are much higher than mine, but hopefully we can all come to an agreement that we can live with.

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-Cereus- wrote:

I would like to attend as well, your prices are much higher than mine, but hopefully we can all come to an agreement that we can live with.

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Heh heh, if you are referring to my prices, well, this is the rational I have for setting them as they are:

1. First and foremost, they sell for that price. After considerable expenses concerning hoppers, factories, houses, etc, and the cost of buying those rare resources that I don't have the lots to mine, I maybe make a proffit of 50-100K per week.


2. They are top of the line droids. The pinicle of what a DE can make. I sometimes throw hand made, lesser droids into my vendors made from spare parts, but for the most part, I don't mass produce the lesser droids - I leave those to the up and coming DE's to make and sell.


3. As indicated above, I do mass produce. If you go to my tent, you will ALWAYS be able to find the droid you want - assuming it is one of the types I keep in stock. I have hundreds of R2's and R3's, with an incredible variety of modules installed in them.


4. I beleive that there are hidden, back end costs. There was training, all the wasted grinding steel and fibberplast (and I did it the hard way... DE and artisan only all the way up.... LOTS of delivery missions). There was the progression from small to med to large harvestors - and the the aquisition of a large enough fleet of hoppers to be able to drop 5 heavies on that uber rare Erco steel, or whatever happens to be the super rare droid material of the month - no matter what type. This means that I have extra heavies for gas, petro, and minerals.


5. I won't sell low because people have a low impression of droids due to their lack of education on the matter. I will tell someone who says, "Your probots cost too much, and they suxors" to go find another seller. I have also been known to give droids away to newbies.


6. I provide customer service. This includes paint jobs, droid repair, etc. I wrote the Droid Owners Manual in part for that reason, and oft refer customers to it. However, I will answer a customer's questions about their droid. This is a time consuming process.


7. I have a great location. Riverveil is a great, growing city. We have a string of merchant tents with armor, guns, droids, powerups, furniture, deeds, and the food and medicine production is growing. Our city is well organized, and the tents are all right next to our shuttle port. With this said, it should be noted that someone has to pay for all of this. As the leader of one of the three guilds that started Riverveil (and yes, we do have a lot of non-guilded people living in our city), I do have quite a bit of overhead for city contributions to keep taxes low, and for the guild hall that my alt uses 9 lots for.


8. Finally, I just intrinsically beleive that the droids are worth that much. I see guns going for 100K, suits of armor for half a million. The money is out there. Just because droids are not usually the first item on people's shopping list doesn't mean that we as DE's should sell ourselves short.

I have followed these boards for quite a time, and I think my prices appear to be about average. I see some people selling for a lot more, some for a lot less.

I have never had the time (read: patience) to go through every single sub-part needed to make droids and figure out what the CPU is for my droids. I wind up looking at the aggregate instead, and as long as I am growing, well, then I am happy.

My Alt, Trystani Aqaba, is a MDE, MM, MA on Chilastra. While I would be willing to form a loose partnership with my fellow DE's for helping each other, I am adamantly against any price controls what-so-ever. I believe anyone who charges too low will run themselves out of business and any one who charges too much will loose customers to others who are more reasonable. So, as long as no price setting is involved, you can count me in.