Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droids: Efficiency and Marketing. Some tips I wish I had known earlier.
IMHO.
ALL of my heavies I create are BER of 13...I am one skill point or slightly higher quality resources away from hitting 14's.
Great Post!
Therearentan wrote:
I'm just going to add some Marketing tips, hope the original poster doesn't mind.
Don't mind at all. Actually I encourage it! 
Another lucky thing from tonight's Dev Tracker that will be fixed on Thursday:
"Removed the high efficiency harvester maintenance penalty as it imbalanced heavy harvesters and punishing experimentation. This change will immediately affect all deeded and placed harvesters, you do not need to redeed your harvester. "
So it looks like it will be benefitial to have harvestors over 7 extraction rate. Woot!
Cameo
great thread all, super useful for the new crafter in general, not just the new DE.
I've also found that merchant is a crafter's best friend. I use Merchant efficiency 4 for the reduced maintenance cost and Merchant advertising 4 will help out with DE's in new player cities.
rock on
Ok I have learned a few more things recently that have been really helping me. Thought I'd share them.
First /transferstructure has been a great tool for me when I wanted to devote more of my 10 lots to harvestors. If you have a trusting friend who doesnt use their lots or a second character etc, you can have them stand next to you near the structure (or in it if it is a house) and transfer the structure to them without having to redeed. The new owner can then add you to the Administrator List. I recently transfered my shop over to a friend. Nothing disappears and the vendor stays inside. And since the vendor has already been placed, no one can declare the building private. Also it appears that if you have Merchant Efficiency 4 the structure discount will carry over to the other owner. Since learning this command, I have quadrupled the amount of harvested minerals/gas/chems I can mine per week.
Another thing I have learned is that non-artisan players can place harvestors if they are given a waypoint. Another way to mine more resources when you use upyour lots. Send the waypointto a good friend or someone who would like to earn $$$ outside combat. For me, this works best for power because I only have to /tip them money to run the machines. You can then be set to either an Administrator or be given access to the Hopper so you can come by and get the minerals when you need them.
Find a site where users post new resource spawns. I use www. swgcraft .com under current resources. It is really helpful for finding out when and where new resources are spawning. Check your resource site often and pick and choose the best resources without sampling for a long time!
If you dont like to keep your MDE tag up but would like people in the immediate area know you are a DE, you can rename your droid Buy-(your name here)-Droids or Shop-(your name here)-Droids etc. I sometimes pull out my Buy-Cameo-Droids R2 out at a Starport and it gets results.
You can put that same droid on patrol and leave it in a high volume area to advertise for you.
Also sometime try the /mailsave function if you have a lot of email. It can be another great in-game/out-of-game tool.
I hope some of these tips can help you run a cheaper more efficient droid practice. If anyone has any other suggestions and/or comments, it can only benefit our DE community in the future.
Cameo - Master DE on Nartius
A few additions:
- If you are an up-and-coming DE, MAKE FRIENDS WITH AN ARCHITECT!!! I can't stress it enough. The deals you get on harvesters are invaluble. DE is a tough profession WITH help, it's near-impossible without.
- If you plan on opening a shop, recruit other crafters. Droids sell all right, but weapons and armor go like Gangbusters. You have a good chance of selling droids to the fly-by customers who orginally come in for another item. They may not buy it then, but if they are fond of the other vendors in your shop, they will automatically think your goods are equally favorable.
- Take the time out to write a How-To manual in an email and send it to yourself. Include things like "How to program a droid", "How to name a droid", and maybe even "Common Droid Bugs". It showsthat you care (even if you don't) and it saves you the time of typing it out 9 million times. You might even go so far as tomake a macro that you can use to answer common questions without typing.
As of this writing, maximum base extraction rates on harvesters are as follows:
Personal: 5
Medium: 10
Heavy: 13
Fusion-Ion Generators have a maximum BER of 14 right now, but that has changed so many times that who knows what it'll be after the next patch. I don't know what the maximum BER is for a Wind or Solar Generator because I haven't used one in ages.
I really think the sweet spot is Mediums with BER 10. Less energy and maintence cost with close to max extraction. I get them from Goliath on Intrepid server.
Kollos wrote:
As of this writing, maximum base extraction rates on harvesters are as follows:
Personal: 5
Medium: 10
Heavy: 13
Fusion-Ion Generators have a maximum BER of 14 right now, but that has changed so many times that who knows what it'll be after the next patch. I don't know what the maximum BER is for a Wind or Solar Generator because I haven't used one in ages.
Yeah, I recently switched my entire fleet over to BER 10 Mediums. I now have 8 mineral, 2 chem, and 2 gas and those keep me more than supplied with all the resources I could need.
My other character is my power harvester (and has my factories), and he's using 6 fusions - BER 14 x 3, BER 16, BER 19, and BER 21. That fleet'll bring in about 100k radioactive per day on a 70% spot, so I make good money on the side selling power. Actually, selling power is my main source of income, so I guess I'm a power broker and not a Droid Engineer, eh? Sad.