Droid Engineer Archive

I am tossing around the idea of forming a DE union.

Each server would have two union officials who dictate standard pricing for all droids, provide training and resources to novice DEs, and assist in coordinating the direction of the union in general. All members of the union, including the officials, would pay a fee to the union to support bug-investigation efforts and union maintenance fees (harvesters, etc.)

My thoughts are that the fee should be:
1000cr per week
+ 5% of the gross price of all sales.
( 5000cr droid = 250cr to union )

We would appoint a union leader (not me, as it could be a conflict of interest) who would work closely with the current correspondent on issues, assign tasks to officials including specific bug-investigation issues, and maintain a seperate budget for each of the servers union branches.

This would bring the DE community together, prevent price gouging by rogue DEs, and give the player base some assurance that their purchases are backed up by a union guarantee.

(I realize that no matter what the "set" pricing scheme, people will always undercut our prices, however I think people will be willing to pay a higher price for the security of purchasing from a larger establishment of engineers)

If you would be interested in joining this union, please respond to this thread, with:

Server

Planet

Closest city

In-game character name

DE skill levels

Whether or not you would be interested in an officer position

Any other information you think might be beneficial to the union.

Please note that this is not an actual application to join the union, as it does not (and may not ever, depending on response in this thread) exist yet.

The 1st 10% of the code takes 90% of the time; the remaining 90% of the code takes the remaining 90% of the time.

I'll start this off...

Chilastra

Corellia

Coronet/Tyrena

Raspen Jh'o

Master DE

I feel I should not be considered for officership.

...

The 1st 10% of the code takes 90% of the time; the remaining 90% of the code takes the remaining 90% of the time.

- Wanderhome

- Corellia

-Bela Vistal

- Ryoshuu

- 1/2/0/1

- no desire for leadership position

- I'd like to suggest a RANGE of prices, to foster a little competition within the group. however, upon further thought, most people would just set at the minimum of the range to try to undercut without screwing everybody.. heh... maybe it's not the best suggestion

sounds to realistice but what the heck...

Lowca

Theed

Rawbee Rawb

novice-de only

I would like to be a chapter president or treasurer...

I am a Master Artisan and could provide quality MA products for droids that require them

sounds like a great idea, could be useful for thos eof us who need help.

Nuit Roder'dans

Im a Novice DE on Wanderhome also.
I have moved shop to the south of Daeric,Talus on that lone island.

Current prices i have are---

--Seekers
1500 Bazaar or 1400 at my vendor, ALso sell 10 for 12k cr.

--Probes
Just started making these. Not sure on a Price. 2.5k each? and 5 for 10k?

--R5 Adv & DZ70 Adv with One Crafting Station and 2 Item Storage
I sell these for 5k on my vendor.

--R4 Statues (LOL, i love these. No fuss-No mess.)
2k each.

--Probot Statues
2.5k each

I dont do any armor modules til they are fixed. (Broken from what i have read)

If these prices seem too low or way too high please let me know. I try to visit other vendors and listen to what people sell these for and not Undercut those Vendors. I Offer 10% off to Rebels, and this I will not change.

I would stay a rogue I just cant conform to set prices, I dont gouge but Iwould probably beat the dictated prices, and I would say I have a decent reputation so I wouldnt worry about people shying away from me and going tounion. So I guess Im confused as to what this union would do?

Set prices for all who were in it, officials would get a cut of the profits from sales from the other members?

The officials would get everyone together and talk about the bugs in the driods, kind of like our correspondent does for the forums?

With resources being different on everyserver this might be hard to do in terms of pricing espcially with different economies, maybe make it server based? I think maybe a driod council might be a great idea.

I wouldn't join. Probably too much corruption. Can you imagine a 12 year old kid running the union? LOL!

Mr. Moo

Well, the "set" prices would be set on a per-server basis, of course, as resources do tend to be different across the galaxies. These prices would be competitive for the market, but not high enough to be considered gouging. Personally I think my prices would have to be raised to meet with union standards (and I don't even know what they are yet)

The fees, though held by the officials, would not be "for" the officials. They would be to fund research (such as purchasing resources to test droid experimentation on modules/chassis/etc.) Alternatively, those fees would pay maintenance for union harvesters, buildings, etc.

The officials would theoretically have access to MORE droid engineers than the people on these forums do, as not everyone stays current on the forums. This would give access to more information regarding the status of our issues, give _some_ responsibility to members to test out issues with the profession, provide some meaningful method to coming up with and reporting those results, etc.

--------------------------------------------

I'm getting mixed responses from the community here, and not ENOUGH of a response to actually do anything... The union can't be made of up only 1 person on each server, paying fees to himself and assigning himself tasks.

-X-

1) I'm staunchly opposed to unions in general

2) I'm even more opposed to a union for the purpose you state (price fixing)

3) What does the 1000cr per week go to pay for? Whose pockets are lined?

4) How will a "union" fix price gouging?

5) I think the free market will force prices to where they should be (and that changes from day to day)

I do kind of agree that a Union really wouldn't work.

Okay, so you get a bunch of Droid Engineers together. They all pitch in money. Like someone said, where does that money go? They fix prices, that's nice. But there's always the few individuals out there who can ruin that. What incentive is there for customers to pay the higher prices? What "security" comes from buying from a Union member? The Droids end up being the same whether from a private Master or from a union-backed member.

It just seems like there's very little need for a union. It wouldn't accomplish a whole lot.

---

Vuri wrote:
1) I'm staunchly opposed to unions in general

2) I'm even more opposed to a union for the purpose you state (price fixing)

3) What does the 1000cr per week go to pay for? Whose pockets are lined?

4) How will a "union" fix price gouging?

5) I think the free market will force prices to where they should be (and that changes from day to day)

---

1) Why?
2) That's not the purpose, only a side-effect. The "purpose" is to build a community of DEs that share a common viewpoint on: pricing, stock, bugs, mentor/apprenticeship, communication.
3) You haven't read all my posts if you've asked this question.
4) Set prices by a substantial group of engineers (more than 1 or 2 planets) will force the competition to lower their prices to our levels, or suffer loss in sales. Believe it or not, there ARE customers that shop around for the best prices.
5) Month to month, probably, week to week, maybe, day to day? No. The market on each server has stabilized to a point where each and every one of us can quote an "average" cost for a unit of resource.

The price for all items is based upon the effort/resources that go into the crafting of that item, bar none.
Resource price determines a minimum cost to manufacture the item, effort involved adds a "soft" component to the mix, and a standard markup % would allow the players to turn a profit.

-X-

The price "set" would not have to be a part of the union at all. In fact, neither does the fee.

Read my previous post, regarding the "purpose" of the union. I think our profession NEEDS some mechanism to investigate and report these issues; and here's why:

In putting together the FAQ last week, and reading responses from all you guys, I've noticed that not even here, where we all feel pretty much the same towards our profession (a few exceptions, hehehe) can we all agree on some of the issues we're having.

A few examples:

Do armor modules work or not? (mixed opinions)

What crafting stations work together? (some reports of success with multiples)

What are the effects of droid chassis' when installing module X? (MCR of 65 in an R4, but 55 in an MSE...?)

If we eliminate the fee (which I'm all for) people will have to start shelling out cash from their own stores when a bug needs to be tested. This means the less-outstanding members of the union would not be aiding the cause in any meaningful way. I feel that some people may wish to contribute monetarily rather than doing the bug-testing themselves.

Just another thought (or 10)

-X-

The 1st 10% of the code takes 90% of the time; the remaining 90% of the code takes the remaining 90% of the time.