Droid Engineer Archive

Today I was messaged by someone who wanted me to make a factory crate full of MSE droids with 10 item storage.

I informed him that I had to think about it as its frowned on putting high level Modules into low level chassis, such as the MSE. He thanked me for my time and said he would find help elsewhere.

I tried to stick to the guns and thoughts of other DE's here on these boards. I could have made a nice chunk of cash, but declined on Principle.

Someone let me know I did the right thing so I don't slap myself.

Regards,
Zeheeba Lorne.

I think you did the right thing. The only droids that I offer now are R2s, R3s, Surgical Droids, Power Droids, Probots, BLLs, Protocol Droids, and the occasional WED (just because they are so cool looking).

I've had people offer me 10k for an MSE with all of the good stuff and instead of making them an MSE I made an R2 with the features that they wanted for 10k. I haven't sold an MSE, or any of the other 'low level' droids in more than 2 months. I've turned down at least 20 orders in this time and because of that I feel a lot better about myself as a DE. Of course, I'm one of the 'rare' DEs that actually makes a good living at the profession.

I would have done the exact same thing. It wouldn't be worth my time and effort.

I always feel insulted when architects ask me to make them a bunch of storage compartment.

An MDE making novice parts!? NO!

Did you do the right thing? Yes, but not for the reason you think. Should DEs put Level 6 modules in MSE droids, sure..why not. There isn't anything wrong with it. Not even close to being a bug or exploit. The reason you shouldn't have done it is because he's obviously not buying them for personal use, he's gonna re-sell them. Find out where and under cut him. It's business.

Although I didn't post my suspicions, they were definitly there. A crate of MSE Droids with storage? At some point I would have asked him why.

Business may be business. But I'll take part in the peices I agree with, and leave the rest behind. Then its MY business.

Glad to hear that others agree with my actions.

Regards,

Zeheeba

The "why" probably has a lot to do with the decay. From what I've seen, items do not decay at all when they are stored in a droid. So having 5 MSE's in your datapad gives you 50 decay-less inventory slots. I've never done a crate of MSE's, how many come in a crate? 5?

Only a matter of time before they nerf this.....

I'd have sold them for 15000 each.

What's the problem?

I think you did the right thing too. I've turned away business more often than once because putting any high-level functionality into a low level droid is just an issue of trying to get the goods on the cheap. Yes, that's a customer's job--to get what they want for as little as possible. But that in and of itself is not justification enough. But to want a crate of them: you bet your bippy he was going to resell them. Remember that the only players that can havefive droids in their datapad are other DEs. Non DEs can only havetwo (last time I checked, at least).

For those of you that have a problem with seeing why this was the right thing to do, let me put it to you another way. There's a reason why (in general) no carmanufacturers ship their lowest end cars with leather seats and seat warmers. There is a reason why notelevision manufacturers put all their features into their lowest end televisions. You cannot tell me that you should be able to buy a $299 computer and get the same functionality AND performance as a $1,499 model. If someone walked up to you and told you they would sell you a $5,000 home entertainment system for $500, would you feel like it was your lucky day or would you be even slightly suspicious? If you feel that any of these situations are true, allow me to burst your bubble. In general this is not the way the retail market works. The moment you think you got something for nothing, you either didn't understand all the nuances of the deal, or you don't really understand what it is you bought. This is a cold, hard fact of life.

The same SHOULD be true for droids. In general, there is no way that a respectable Droid Engineer would sell an R2 unit for the price of one of those mouse droids (yes, there are always exceptions--I am talking about in general). In the Star Wars Universe at large, R2 units come with features and capabilities that you cannot and will not find on a MSE droid. I will absolutely admit that here in SWG, unfortunately, at this moment, this is not the case. But that could (and very well may) change in the not-too-distant future. And when it does, there is no telling what would happen to droids that utilize that configuration (high end modules, low end droid chassis). Business is business, but ethics are ethics. Some people feel business trumps ethics, some are the opposite, and there is every combination in between. Whether you feel this was the right thing to do or not depends largely on where you are on that scale.

I too am one of the few DE's that actually make a great living at crafting droids, etc. I will however refuse to put a high level module in an MSE droid, not because of any militant attitudes that float around or because of a certain principle... but because to me its not StarWars-y. Look at the size of those things! They couldnt possibly hold all of those things. That, and I don't like the idea of me making these things for people to re-sell on thier own vendors for twice what I sell them for. Nuh uh... not going to happen. Incidentlly, I'm also one of those "horrible greedy self-serving selfish rude" Master Artisans who don't make crated components for other professions. They want them? Master the base artisan tree like the rest of us. Anybody ever crate micro sensor suites? I have. Its a **edit** pain to do it and its expensive, so I don't crate for people anymore except my own use. Just a little side rant

Here's how I see it....

If you would've made the deal, there would be nothing wrong. You're simply using what the game developers put in place. Maybe it's right, maybe it's wrong, but that's how it is and if you don't do it, someone else will. So make the profit while you argue to change it. Same thing with non-CH Pets used in hunting. People whine, but they use it. So it's fine.

If you didn't do the deal (as you did), then it's a matter of principle. Maybe it's not worth your time, or maybe you simply have ethics about doing something that blatently screams to you that the profession is broken. If a Weaponsmith could make a CDEF-type pistol with Elite-style damages, do you think they would? Sure, some would, and that's their choice. But you hold yourself to higher standards, not for any reason other than to simply have higher standards. That's your choice, and there's certainly no problem in it. Sure, maybe someone else will do it, but you don't mind. You can get business elsewhere with more comfortable methods.

So either way you could've gone, it would've been okay. Some refuse on matter of principle, some do it because that's how the game is made. Neither is wrong.

Personally, I build droids according to what makes sense to me. And an MSE droid with anything other than a data module or level1 storage module just doesn't make sense.

Furthermore, if anyone asks me to make an MSE droid with my restrictions, I send them to an NDE.The quality of the droid will be the same since experimentation means squat... and NDEs need income too.

You did the right thing, although an alternative is to simply have a very high 'floor' price that you would do the work for. If you're an MDE most likely the lowest-level droid you'll produce is the R2. So whatever your R2 price, that is your floor price. Now this seems outrageously high of course, but (assuming MDE) your time crafting droids could be spent crafting more complex droids (with higher margins)instead of MSE's. It is compensation for your time and overhead.

If the R2 price tag seems a little too steep for you, you can always scale down to your comfort level, but at least it's a starting floor price.