CUEmu - Thread Posts

Vampiric_Hoshi

Mon Feb 09, 2004 5:34 pm

Yes, 'tis I, the mighty Hoshi. Posting once again for all ye believers <--- that was for DE-Rho who I know is a believer

In the past, we had many a discussion on the prices of droids. What you were charging, what you wanted to charge, what you thought was wrong. I'm just curious to see how the anticipated changes to DE will once again rock the price boat for you all.

So, what are your current prices and do you plan on changing those prices when publish 7 hits the patch server?

Personaly, my 6+ months of DE experience convinced me that the best way to price droids was to sell them in packages. I then base my prices off that. For instance, my R4/R3/R2 package is 20k with a lvl6 med mod, lvl6 storage mod, a quality 10 crafting station (or as close as i can get) and lvl6 armour. Not everyone wants all 3 of those parts, but because its a package its a fixed price.. so whatever I place in the R2 it goes for the same price. Rip off? maybe. But I haven't come across a customer that complained about my prices for well over 3 months now, and I have sold a LOT of droids in that time. Ofcourse, I'm willing to barter and have been known to sell droids to friends and people I've felt sorry for at amazingly low prices .. I may have "vampiric" in my name but I'm not a total monster

Do I plan on changing my prices? Nope. It will remain the same sort of package. 20k for an R2 with 2 lvl6 modules and a crafting station with lvl6 armour and I'll probably create a new package for combat droids. Maybe 35k? We'll see

Abandon all hope

Jenden

Mon Feb 09, 2004 5:44 pm

#2

I don't plan on changing my prices (unless they require more resources). Right now I'm at about 3k-14k per droid, plus 1k per module (any module) in it. All I do is custom orders so half my prices are made up on the fly. Works out to about 20k for a fully loaded Advanced R3 though, and 10k for Advanced Probots. My loadlifters are 30k, mainly because I've never seen a shortage of the resources used to make them since I've been a DE.

Jenden Morn - Master of Droids- Tarquinas
Droid Engineer Blue Glowy
Owner, Operator, and Founder of DarkStar Inc.
Groupy of the best band in the galaxy, Solar Flair
3D art of Jenden by Saeelwenea

Malitevv

Mon Feb 09, 2004 5:48 pm

#3

I use a modified version of an excel spreadsheet that someone posted here to work out my prices. I price based upon the resource costs for each component, assuming a base 5 cpu cost for most items. I apply multipliers to different components on a component by component basis that range from 1 to 6. For the most part I only apply multipliers to the service modules and to the chassis. Usually the rarity of the resources required, or the requirment of master artisan GP or Memorycomponents gives an item the higher multipliers. But for the crafting stations, I apply a multiplier based upon which level in the skill tree the station is granted (so the structure crafting module has a pretty high multiplier, but the weapon crafting module's multiplier is pretty low).

Anyway, this leads me to Advanced R2 units that range in price from 15k to 22k depending upon the modules. And Advanced Probots in the 13k to 15k range. Advanced MSE's go from 750 to 3.5k. Advanced R4's 6k to 8k. Etc.

When the system is revamped, I'll update the spreadsheet, incorporate any new modules that are added, rework the multipliers and see what prices pop out the other end.

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In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot

Malitevv

Mon Feb 09, 2004 5:51 pm

#4

interesting. from what I have seen on Kauri, my prices are lower than most. Though they aren't as low as Jenden's. Glad he's not my neighbor. :-) I will, of course,revamp all my multipliers if the market demands it (i.e., if my prices end up being high compared to what other DE's are charging on my server).

---------------------------------------------------------------------
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot

Lonkley

Mon Feb 09, 2004 5:57 pm

#5

lol, I sell R5s with item and 1 station for 20k. R2's usually end up around 50k

Im going to be adding 10k to every droid that has item storage if its avoids scans in patch 6. I may adjust it higher depending on response.

woot! Community Veteran! My Edit button at last!

Message Edited by Lonkley on 02-09-2004 04:59 PM

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There is a special place in hell for necro posters

Lasume

Tue Feb 10, 2004 5:49 am

#6

Interesting fort he most part the prices listed are a lot lower than those i see and sell (ahazi) i do all my orders custom (have only been master for about 3 weeks) and try to have personal contct with customers. A fully loadedadv R3 goes for 80k (maybe 75k if i like the person :-)) andAdv probots with 2 modules around 40k. maybe it's due to the active DEA on our server trying to incease prices but i struggle to see how profits are to be made at selling an R3 with all the trimmings at 20k!! (Those factory runs of Adv brains chew MA parts!!!!)

Maybe when i build up large enough stockpiles of components and resoures for lvl 6 modules i'll lower my prices a tad- remember though a droid is for life- without decay and selling at low prices eventually the market will saturate, new players or not.

My 2 cents

Lasume Okarr (MDE,MA, gunfighter wannabe) AHAZI

spearbearer

Tue Feb 10, 2004 5:53 am

#7

The following list is based mostly on resources (normal resources 8C/U, sem-rare 10C/U, rare 15C/U) If anybody wants my spredsheet for OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org), send a email to [email protected]
For example:
a R4 ADV with item 6, med 6 and food/chem craft would cost 18750 Credits.
a Protocol ADV with item 6, clothing/armour craft, sarcastic pers. would cost 27550 Credits.

Around 3 millions in the bank

Base:
550 - MSE Droid Chassis 900 - MSE ADV Chassis
1500 - DZ-70 Chassis 1750 - DZ-70 ADV Chassis
2500 - WED Treadwell 2750 - WED Treadwell ADV
3000 - R5 Chassis 3250 - R5 ADV Chassis
3500 - R4 Chassis 3750 - R4 ADV Chassis
7500 - R2 Chassis 10000 - R2 ADV Chassis
10500 - R3 Chassis 13500 - R3 ADV Chassis
3500 - LE Repair Droid Chassis 6500 - LE Repair ADV Droid Chassis
5250 - Surgical Droid Chassis 8500 - Surgical ADV Droid Chassis
10000 - Protocol Droid Chassis 12000 - Protocol ADV Droid Chassis
5000 - Probot Chassis 8000 - Probot ADV Chassis
22000 - Power Droid Chassis 25000 - Power Droid ADV Chassis
30000 - BLL Chassis 32000 - BLL ADV Chassis

Modules:
Medic Module, Item Storage, Data Storage
500 - Level 1
1000 - Level 2
1500 - Level 3
2000 - Level 4
3500 - Level 5
6000 - Level 6

Crafting Station:
3000 - WDG, Food
3500 - Clothing
4000 - Structure

Armour:
1500 - Level 1 Armour
2000 - Level 2 Armour
2500 - Level 3 Armour
3500 - Level 4 Armour
6000 - Level 5 Armour
7000 - Level 6 Armour

Personality Chip:
1500 - Stupid
3000 - Prissy
3750 - Sarcastic
4000 - Worshipfull
5000 - Slang
6000 - Geeky

Misc:
3500 - Droid Repair Module
2500 - Module Socket Cluster
10000 - Power Core

Icatipev IonoraiMaster Chief Droid Engineer
Federal Ore and Petrochemical Mining Corporation
Vendor located on Corellia at -2187 -4460

"I will tell you this, Droids (and DE's) are going to be the MAIN feature for the January publish. We will be fixing alot of things and adding combat droids.Yes, talk is cheap." - JustG - 11/25/2003

MachineZed

Tue Feb 10, 2004 7:59 am

#8

Icatipev, good news my prices are right in line with yours, except one droid. The Probot it is one of the few droids that actually has an inherent function, which I know is supposed to change. I sell my probots for 25k with either the medical or item storage, and they sell like theres no tomorrow. They have a market because they have a high HAM, can be loaded with Armor and are a good tank. I don't think you arecharging enough for the droid. That is my view of it, and being on Kettemoor, I think youcan raise your prices and make even more profit.

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X Machine'Zed X
Obsidian Dagger Squadron

Puck_Starfire

Tue Feb 10, 2004 8:20 am

#9

To save room I'm just putting my "bare-bones" Droid prices. I usually include all the subcompnents in them already. The only extras are modules, that run from 1-10k usually, depending on everything. I just wish I had more to list under "Combat Droids"

Utility Droids (bare-bones; all modules are extra)

Binary Lifter Droid25000
LE Repair Droid2800
LE Repair Droid Advanced Model6100
MSE Droid400
MSE Droid Advanced Model700
Power Droid18250
Power Droid Advanced Model20500
Protocol Droid5500
R2 Droid6700
R2 Droid Advanced Model10900
R3 Droid9700
R4 Droid2700
R4 Droid Advanced Model2100
R5 Droid2500
R5 Droid Advanced Model2700
Surgical Droid4650
Surgical Droid Advanced Model8400
Treadwell Droid2000
Treadwell Droid Advanced Model2200

Combat Droids (bare-bones; all modules are extra)

DZ70 Droid1300
DZ70 Droid Advanced Model1600
Probot4100
Probot Advanced Model7700

Although....after looking at some of the prices here, I may have to adjust. Mine seem kinda low, and I thought they were average LOL.

Vampiric_Hoshi

Tue Feb 10, 2004 8:48 am

#10

80k for R3's? wow I'm on the wrong server! lol and to think that 6 months agoI used to get flamed to high heavon on these boards when I said I sold them for 45k

I'm amased how many sell probots for LESS than average droids. Are you selling them without modules?

Like I said, my average price for most droids is 20k. I generaly sell probots for 35k and I install them with med mods and item storage ... they sell very quickly. Actually all my droids sell quickly. I'm having to restock my vendors daily now.. I guess its the mad item storage rush or something?

Abandon all hope

natebc

Tue Feb 10, 2004 9:30 am

#11

Lasume wrote:
Interesting fort he most part the prices listed are a lot lower than those i see and sell (ahazi) i do all my orders custom (have only been master for about 3 weeks) and try to have personal contct with customers. A fully loaded adv R3 goes for 80k (maybe 75k if i like the person :-)) and Adv probots with 2 modules around 40k. maybe it's due to the active DEA on our server trying to incease prices but i struggle to see how profits are to be made at selling an R3 with all the trimmings at 20k!! (Those factory runs of Adv brains chew MA parts!!!!)
Maybe when i build up large enough stockpiles of components and resoures for lvl 6 modules i'll lower my prices a tad- remember though a droid is for life- without decay and selling at low prices eventually the market will saturate, new players or not.
My 2 cents
Lasume Okarr (MDE,MA, gunfighter wannabe) AHAZI

Your prices are right in line with mine. I sell the very same ADV R3 for 73.3k with the only level 6 module being the medical one. I think we're using the same spreadsheet to price out our droids. I also sell BH droids like crazy, my factory is ALWAYS running making either Arakyds, seekers, EMMs or EGPs. The BH droids, quality crafting tools and regular sales of my ADV R3 Medical Edition keep my boat floating nicely.

--
Bomalla, Wookiee Ranger/Pistoleer, Kidron, Corellia, Kauri.
Brujo, Master Artisan, MDE, Master Tailor, S of Anchorhead, Tat., Valcyn
Ra'ta, Musician/ID, Travelling Musician, Tempest
Zizzi, Teras Kasi Master, CH, Rori, Gorath

"That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that." -H. Solo

TheWoody

Tue Feb 10, 2004 9:31 am

#12

80k is easy for the R3. Just let your customers know it is the 'Last Droid They'll Ever Buy.' It does the work of every other useful droid combined (except for the probot). Trust me, they sell very well at 80k. I'd suggest taking them all the way up to 95k.

But there is absolutely no reason to sell droids for cheap any more. If you do you're just doing yourself a disservice. There is always more demand than there is supply in the DE world, and as such you have free reign to charge whatever you like. The lower you go the more you're just costing yourself money, and more importantly, time. at 20k you need to build 5 droids to make the same money you would get for 4 of the same droids at 25k. Push them up to 30k and suddenly it's only 3 droids that are needed tomake the same amount of money, roughly. Giving that it takes roughly 15-20 minutes per droid, the time you save starts adding up fast.

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=droid_engineer&message.id=54815#M54815

Here's the link to my old price chart. When working all I did was shout "**DROIDS FOR SALE!** PST for my new Brochure!" every thirty seconds thenforward this out of my email to every person who requested one. It was a no-hassle/no-haggleon-the-spot service that gave the user an instant education in droid use and a nice progression up the price-value chart of droids. Note the steady increase in droid usefulness as compared to the price as you go up the list. (another added feature was the inclusion of waypoints to every droid engineer store on the server. That way if they didn't like my prices they could go elsewhere. But even still, I got 90% returns on all the brochures I sent out, even after telling some of them that there are places with cheaper prices.)

Finally, the last thing you should consider is the fact that inflation is starting to hit rather hard. the credit just isn't worth as much as it used to be. If you keep your prices low (or the same as they were two months ago) you'll just be left scratching the dirt while everyone else is running around in full compositeto their large houses, blasting everything with their krayt dragon guns. The three-CPU resource model doesn't work any more either, for the same reasons.

In closing, it is far better to overcharge than undercharge. The odds are you will sell the exact same amount of droids regardless of the price you set (whether it be 35k for an R3 or 80k) so you might as well make some decent money out of it. And even if you do sell less droids at higher prices, you are A)making enough money to cover the lesser amount of sales and B)get more free time to actually have fun rather than craft endless droids.

An appendium note. I suggest selling any droid with an inventory module for a MINIMUM of 20-25k if the smuggler scanners don't pick them up. If you sell them cheaper then you're just screwing yourself out of a lot of profit.

Bollocks man, if I was still in charge of Ahazi I'd have every droid engineer sell them for at least 40k as EVERYONE is going to buy at least one droid. The more the need the more valuable the droid.

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"Never in the field of forum posting has so much bollocks been said to so many by so few"

Vampiric_Hoshi

Tue Feb 10, 2004 9:39 am

#13

I used to sit on your side of the fence, TheWoody, but in all honesty the past 6 months of poor treatment to droids from the developers has crushed the droid market on many servers. One such server is Starsider.

I am very hard pressed to find anyone willing to buy a droid for more than 35k. I tried for quite a while and didn't sell anything. I've seen others selling them on Starsider for 10k which I think is also helping to ruine the market.

The biggist problem we have been suffering is, and most people dont realise it, the general cluster module exploit.

If the exploit hadent existed, only MDE's would be able to sell Surgical's with 10 item storage, 110 med and a crafting station .. just an example of a droid spec that should only ever have been available to MDE's. But since the general sockect cluster exploit is present, any DE that can make lvl 4 modules and a sergical can produce the same droid (more or less) as an MDE .. and its the low-level DE's that have been saturating the market with rediculously low priced droids which, after 6 months, has ruined the market.

It will be interesting to see what happens when only MDE's can make the better droids.

Abandon all hope

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Thread: What are your current prices and will they change with publish 7