CUEmu - Thread Posts

Straker_Atrella

Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:10 pm

The problem is that if you sell a levle 1 flight computer for 1k, that is 15 cpu.

Some DE's will feel that 15 cpu is plenty. Heck make it 5k, that is 75 cpu. If you charge more, they will just go to the other person maybe. Even if you sell yours for 10k each. That means you need to sell 300 of them to equal the cost of one suit of armor that wears out.

You CAN make money from Droids, I'm not saying you cant.

All I am saying is that if you enjoy other things such as PVP and such, where gear matters, as a DE you jsut don't have a deep pockets as others. You DO end up competing in auctions for resources though. You can actually make more money doing missions then making Droids.

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Droid Vendor at Resurection near Theed on Naboo -5757 6222. Both carry a wide variety of maxed Droids, I also carry every type of Droid and Droid supply.

*Straker Atrella: Dark Jedi * Atrella's Wench: Master Droid Engineer / Artisan / Scout / Merchant * Dark Vortex: Ranger / Rifleman * Havana:Musician / Dancer / Image Design * Enigmatica : Doctor / Swordsman* CrazyEyes: Role playing BH.

Nell2ThaIzzay

Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:10 am

#15

I feel your pain man. I'm not even a master. I'm a lowly novice with a couple extra boxes that can craft advanced R5 droids that nobody wants because they can buy R3's from masters.I can't craft Power Droids or Seeker Droids or Maintenance Modules because I don't have the right resources, and there are other things I do in this game besides Droid Engineer, so I can't afford to take MA and Architect. I have a ton of product on my vendor that won't sell anywhere, because I have no way to advertise, and the people I talk to in game and give my shop waypoint to can get better droids than whatI have to offer. So then I make no money to support my harvestors and resources to continue making droids. I'm wondering if I even have a chance at being successful as a Droid Engineer.

The thing that keeps me going tho, is that I like droids. I like all the different types of droids that I can make, and will be able to in the future. I'm still a n00b, so I'm looking at my next boxes with big eyes, knowing that my next 2 skills get me combat modules, food / chem craft stations, and advanced R4 models. I look forward to what I'll be able to build for myself. And every once in awhile, when I make a sale in game, it also gives me a sense of pride, success, and purpose. I stick with it, because I enjoy droids, and droids are what I want to make. I don't want to play the game as a Doctor, or a Bounty Hunter, or an Image Designer, or Commando, or whatever. I want to be a Droid Engineer. I want to be a Creature Handler. I want to be a Musician, and a Rifleman (yes that's a lot, I'm gonna be over by 49 points when all is said and done). That's why I stick with it, because it's what I wanna do. Sure, I'm poor, and my vendor is really only up for more of a "roleplay" purpose of running a corporate empire, than it is to make money. I'll probably never have anyone LOOK at my vendor, let alone buy. But it's fun to go up to my vendor and see my stock of droids, and just thing "Some day someone will buy something".

I've still got the naiive n00b syndrome, I still think that I'm gonna be able to craft all these droids w/o factories and MA. And by golly, when I come to the harsh realization I was wrong, I'm gonna cry, and be making posts like yours. But right now, I'm having fun, and enjoying myself, and hoping for what could be.

Marr'Taan LeBeau
Imperial Mercenary - Professional Contract Killer

"Death is my business, and business is good"

Bounty Hunter, Creature Trainer, Droid Engineer, Rifleman
Former Musician and band member of the Tyrenian 3 (Marr'Taan LeBeau, Cale Amossoo, Bari)

Fobok

Fri Oct 22, 2004 4:29 am

#16

I just entered the Droid Engineer profession today, after an unsuccessful attempt at being an Architect. I was trying to decide between waiting for Shipwright <sp?> and this, and decided on this because it seemed more enjoyable. Sure, a Shipwright would make more money, but it's going to be cutthroat competition at first and, honestly, making droids sounds more 'cool'.

Now, if I can just get past the MSE droids and make some more interesting ones...

Asen Lieglama
Level 72 Jedi / X-Wing pilot, on Starsider

Ewas Ibon
Master Entertainer / Imp Pilot, on Bria

Straker_Atrella

Fri Oct 22, 2004 5:16 am

#17

Well thanks for the words of wisdom people. I had some good custom orders today, and dealt with some of my normal customers. It made me happy and put me in a better mood.

I'm sorry for my recent rants, I normally try and be a good contributing member of the community. JTL was just such a huge disapointment for what it could have meant for our profession.

I'll get out of the funk. My apologies.

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Droid Vendor at Resurection near Theed on Naboo -5757 6222. Both carry a wide variety of maxed Droids, I also carry every type of Droid and Droid supply.

*Straker Atrella: Dark Jedi * Atrella's Wench: Master Droid Engineer / Artisan / Scout / Merchant * Dark Vortex: Ranger / Rifleman * Havana:Musician / Dancer / Image Design * Enigmatica : Doctor / Swordsman* CrazyEyes: Role playing BH.

Jjiaah

Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:14 pm

#18

Straker,

You are the only other DE that I have had any real communication with on Scylla. I haven't been a DE but for a few months, yet I have learned tons from your posts. If you feel the need to move on, it's understandable.

While fairly new to SWG comparatively, I am not new to RPG games (tabletop) and MMOs by any standard. I played UO for several years starting at it's first release (left when server crowding was way too much of an issue... you could actually put a castle down back then), and played EQfrom the time of the first expansion till I left for SWG. Also, throw in many other littler online MMOs and FPS's. I am no stranger to what you are feeling.

The best advice I can give to you is this.

TAKE A BREAK. Not necessarily from SWG as a whole, though that would have the same effect only stronger. But take a break from Droid Engineer. You don't need to sell off your resources or anything. Just take a break. Change your shop sign to say "Strakers Droids - On vacation starting 10/22/04 till whenever I get back". Unregister your vendors, and put up signs infront of the vendors that customers can't miss that say the same thing. You don't even have to remove the stock so customers can still purchase what you have there (though I would recommend refreshing the inventory timers at the beginning. Your vendors won't "suck" because people will know that you are on break. Nobody holds that against anyone, especially if the vendors aren't registered. That'll give you roughly 59 days of vacation away, more if you lather-rinse-repeat. The only real maint you would have to do is once a week or so, pop in and put a new item for sale on the vendors to refresh their activity timer (I do that when I have a vendor with a dry spell. I simply call it Vendor Marker and put it up for 99mil).

Go take an alt, if even on a different server, and go have FUN. Do the combat thing. Do the PvP thing. Start over. If it's on the same server, deck him out with decent gear and go have FUN. Kill things. Kill people. Blow the cr*p out of several starships. Beat the p*ss outta some smart*ss Overt. Do whatever tickles your fancy. JustSTAY AWAY FROM CRAFTING! Do this for at least a few weeks, if not longer.

One of two things will happen.

One, you willfeel the pull of DE and come back to it with a renewed vigor and desire. The issues from before won't matter as much, and because of the whole "use it or lose it" aspect of the human mind you will feel slightly noobish again. And that can be a great feeling. But you won't have to start all over gathering everything. You can pick up right where you left off, and your customer base will likely return to what it once was IF you want it to. You can start doing Special Orders only for a while. Give yourself the feeling of a lack of "OMG, my vendor's low... I gotta start the factories NOW". That stress gone is an incredible lifter.

Or two, you will enjoy what you are doing enough that when (read if) you come back you just won't feel like it's home, and want to get out of it completely. At that point, it would be relatively safe to sell off your resources with no regrets. Sure, you may come back to DE someday. But you have to start over from scratch. So what! That's where that great noob feeling comes in again.

To sum up how I feel about it, losing you would be a great loss to the DE community. But by the same token I, and I believe everyone else here feels the same, would not want you to stay if you weren't happy about it. A DE gone sour from lack of enjoyment is not pleasent, especially for the one afflicted. And nobody wants to see you feel like that. You are very respected here, IMHO.

Take your time and think it through. Don't jump to it hastily, especially selling everything off. Things permanent like that take some serious work in undoing. That alone might keep you away in the future. It can be a daunting task. I wouldn't want to go through it again, and I don't expect you to. Just plan this and do it smart. Keep your options open.

Bro, if you must leave DE, then leave. But the door here is always open, and we as the DE community will rejoice at your return.

leeds

Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:42 pm

#19

JavelinCatcher wrote:
My take on PvP in this game. It's a lot of who's got the best equipment and the best skill mods. Then there is JTL where a lot more is based on skill with a skill point "free" profession. I can take my Droid Engineer and he'll stand a chance against people and not be hurt because he doesn't have that extra +5 Dodge. Depending on how it works out, I can see a lot of PvP moving toward space than the ground game.

Yes i was really glad they did this. This means that that master entertainer+dancer+musician on the ground could totally own you in space. This is a good thing for this game.

As for talking you out of it, des arn't in it to make much money we're in it because we can make cool droids. I make most of my money with vehicles and doing missions. My droid sales are starting to improve, i'm setting up to make a probot factory run because they've improved so much, that i may actually start making good money on droids. JTL will help with this somewhat, would help better once we get decay in. droids need to be a targatable item as well, they are in the movies. (yes i know they don't follow the movies and such)

leeds

Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:51 pm

#20

JavelinCatcher wrote:

Straker_Atrella wrote:
You can actually make more money doing missions then making Droids.

At the moement, you can make more money running missions than ANYTHING else in the game....that's for certain. People will gravitate toward what will make them the most money in the shortest amount of time. It's sometimes why people have Doc alts that buff the public. They know they can get quick credits doing so. It may not be the most efficient way to make cash, but they can make it quickly.

Here's the suggestion I've been making to people tired of the Hologrind: Play to fit your playstyle. If you want to do something, do it. If you want a change, go for it. If you're happy the way you are, stay that way.
Remember one thing though if you're going to go 100% combatant, we still have the combat balance comming up. I wouldn't make any drastic profession changes until I knew what was happening there first.

This has been my theory from when i first started. And while i won't give up master de there is some tweeking to my template. I won't even give up things to get a jedi, although i am going to go after some of the force skills. I have novice pistoller ?-?-2-? and am going to take it up a bit. This gives me some pve punch. giving up most of my architech skills won't cramp me too much and the new revamp fits my style. If this game was real, this is what i'd be doing with it....

LonelyGhost

Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:03 pm

#21

I have been taking it a little easy lately. My time in game has been cut back to an hour or two every other day. I feel your pain though. I too am continually bothered that DE are near or at the botom of the earning potential in game. I refuse to do DE or AS. I wont cave in to it. Its just not fun for me. The only WS I know are the mass-producing ones, and I just cant see how pushing "go" onyour fleet of 10 lot-swappedfactory's once a day can be called crafting. I made my money in resources during the holo-grind, and I have been coasting on that income for over 6 months. I have never run a droid "busines" I make them for friends mostly, and every once in a while I make a dozen or so random ones for a vendor. The only thing I have made fairly consistently are bomb droids. Even those have stopped moving lately.

I look to the combat balance the same way now that I did when they first started talking about it....as the salvation of this game. The impact on every single person playing SWG will be enormous. Sales of combat droids will rocket up. Droid repair kits. Batteries. If we get lucky and they finally institute some kind of decay for ALL droids, we may thrive again.

My suggestion is to just cut back as much as you can for a little bit. Get out in the sun before winter gets here. Maybe even start a toon on another server. Get someone to swap a million or so to get you started, and do the combat thing. Or go to Test and see if you like it. If I didnt have 15 houses to maintain and a Guild to help run, I would have taken a leave of absence about 2 weeks ago.

The last suggestin I have would be to store your DE stuff and take a crack at Shipwright. It really is an interesting profession.

Crys Akkori - Merchant Engineer
Veteren of SIN, IO, and XC - A Founder of Jaxian Bay
Elder DE, Architect, Artisan, Chef, Merchant

Vendor on Naboo at -7547 4635 (Fly in to Theed)

Crafters do have decay on resources. As we use it it GOES AWAY. And when it's gone, we have to get more. - Elekae

Straker_Atrella

Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:37 pm

#22

Yea, I may muck around with shipwright some, it is kind of cool, wont go public with it though.

I guess what bothers me a lot as well is people attitude that you can't make money with Droids, so we should just be happy that we make cool things. There is no reason that you can't think Droids are cool and still make money. Then you get the problem that some people don't even TRY to make money. This causes problems for everybody. It's odd because you really don't get that problem as much in other professions.

Equal in space? Yea maybe. The problem with that is that there will be Uber loot drops in space as well. You will see Blasters, Ion cannons, Shields with killer stats goingfor millions of Credits. Sure good twitch skills will help, but again, it will fall into the pattern of who can afford the best gear wins.

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Droid Vendor at Resurection near Theed on Naboo -5757 6222. Both carry a wide variety of maxed Droids, I also carry every type of Droid and Droid supply.

*Straker Atrella: Dark Jedi * Atrella's Wench: Master Droid Engineer / Artisan / Scout / Merchant * Dark Vortex: Ranger / Rifleman * Havana:Musician / Dancer / Image Design * Enigmatica : Doctor / Swordsman* CrazyEyes: Role playing BH.

jefmes

Fri Oct 22, 2004 6:13 pm

#23

Sorry my friend, if you're sporting 50 million +, you have no reason to feel like you're not getting your share! I've been a DE since launch, and pretty darn active most of the time as well (although I have tended to stay on the backwater planets more) and I've never gone over 3.5 Million creds.

Do it because you still think it's fun, otherwise, just drop some skills and so something different! I've found a Droid Engineer/Bounty Hunter combo to be pretty fun and it gives you the ability to engage in at least a better portion of the combat game!

Our market WILL pick up a bit with JTL, and over time things are bound to change and get better. Worst case, just don't play for a bit...you're sounding like you have a bit of the old burnout there

Rodo Doneeta (jefmes)
TCO - Smuggler - Chilastra
Owner of: Rodo's Automatons, Tsarin, Talus
Saving a respec to go home to Droid Engineering...

...when it's more useful!

babyblue_d

Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:40 pm

#24

ifI may ....

Straker_Atrella wrote:

Well now I am disheartened. Not looking for pity or sympathy, just looking for good sage advice from friends.

I love Droids, I love the options,I love building them. Yet just as much as I love Droids, I also love having a Droid business. Building a clientel, stocking vendors, making money is a lot of fun. I seriously spend 40+ hours a week dealing with my business, building, stocking, harvesting. It's not really work, because I enjoy it.

Then this is what you should focus on.

Remeber back in the Factory Vs Hand Crafter threadI said Factory crafting is the "middle game for me? well that stims from what you are saying here. i got to that same point wereI felt "whats the point" soI closed down the factories. and let the vendors run dry. and i focused on thatI enjoy about the profesion. the crafting, the customer interaction, andfinding theright options for each customer. this compleatly changed the wayI look at DE and crafting droids. im not "stressing to keep up" I run off a load of componets and keep a "droid crafting pack" on me that has one crate of each. and i only take custom orders. i dont rely on the sale to make my way in the gameI "enjoy the game on my terms" and let the credits follow. many on my server consider me"fair priced" and "the best DE" but there are some DE's thatI cant compeat with (detonation droids) so I direct thoses customers to the DE'sI know "fit the bill" and still thows customers will se me fist the second time around becouse Iwasjust and fair.

The point Im tring to make is dont look at whats broken and how it could be better and why you cant keep up. look at what works how you can be the best DE you can be. and remeber ... HI Quantity Does NotEqual A Good DE. and if your not haveing as much fun now as you where befor reinventing your DE game play could renew your game play fun.

But no mater what you do.Good luck with it. you would be missed if you left.

[EDIT]

as for the "DE's cant make credits" issue its there we all know it, ButI FindI make more from tips thatI do my droids the other night for exampleI sold 120k worth of droids to a customer and he payed me 250k for "being fast & helpfull" as he put it. so even this way you can still make credits.

Message Edited by babyblue_d on 10-22-2004 07:46 PM

Deloo Droid Works
Deloo Pabet, Master Droid Engineer Since 8/03, 2535 6446 Tatooine in the Corprate Sector
\\ 12 Point Master Artisan || 11 Point Droid Engineer || Force Crafter || Master Shipwright //
::UPS What can brown do for you? ::UPS Price Guide::DC Proposal 2.0::

Straker_Atrella

Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:16 pm

#25

jefmes wrote:

Sorry my friend, if you're sporting 50 million +, you have no reason to feel like you're not getting your share! I've been a DE since launch, and pretty darn active most of the time as well (although I have tended to stay on the backwater planets more) and I've never gone over 3.5 Million creds.

Do it because you still think it's fun, otherwise, just drop some skills and so something different! I've found a Droid Engineer/Bounty Hunter combo to be pretty fun and it gives you the ability to engage in at least a better portion of the combat game!

Our market WILL pick up a bit with JTL, and over time things are bound to change and get better. Worst case, just don't play for a bit...you're sounding like you have a bit of the old burnout there

That is 50 million over 8 months of 40 hour weeks, plus probably 25 of that went back out into resources (which luckily I still have.)

I do have a combatent account guys, a pretty effective one. That's part of the problem, I never play him because I am making Droids, yet if I did play him, I would have more money. Kind of ironic actually, it just feels better to make money from Missions.

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Droid Vendor at Resurection near Theed on Naboo -5757 6222. Both carry a wide variety of maxed Droids, I also carry every type of Droid and Droid supply.

*Straker Atrella: Dark Jedi * Atrella's Wench: Master Droid Engineer / Artisan / Scout / Merchant * Dark Vortex: Ranger / Rifleman * Havana:Musician / Dancer / Image Design * Enigmatica : Doctor / Swordsman* CrazyEyes: Role playing BH.

jefmes

Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:48 pm

#26

Straker_Atrella wrote:

jefmes wrote:

Sorry my friend, if you're sporting 50 million +, you have no reason to feel like you're not getting your share! I've been a DE since launch, and pretty darn active most of the time as well (although I have tended to stay on the backwater planets more) and I've never gone over 3.5 Million creds.

Do it because you still think it's fun, otherwise, just drop some skills and so something different! I've found a Droid Engineer/Bounty Hunter combo to be pretty fun and it gives you the ability to engage in at least a better portion of the combat game!

Our market WILL pick up a bit with JTL, and over time things are bound to change and get better. Worst case, just don't play for a bit...you're sounding like you have a bit of the old burnout there

That is 50 million over 8 months of 40 hour weeks, plus probably 25 of that went back out into resources (which luckily I still have.)

I do have a combatent account guys, a pretty effective one. That's part of the problem, I never play him because I am making Droids, yet if I did play him, I would have more money. Kind of ironic actually, it just feels better to make money from Missions.

Well there ya go, play the game the way you're supposed to then, drop the combantant account and do what you can with your ONE character. I still don't get why people think they have to have 2nd accounts to have fun in this game. They decided on Single Character Servers for a REASON (*cough* financial */cough*), so that people would have to make decisions about direction they went and the markets wouldn't be saturated by crafter specialists as people choose to pick up some combat skills too. I mean, think about it...why do resources cost so much? Because people used their 2nd accounts to horde resources instead of dealing with the imposed limitations of the game systems in place.

Nothing against you Straker, I understand the reasons forhaving an alt,but it's been a huge pet peeve of mine since, well...before beta even. And really, if you like it more to make money from missions, then go play that guy for a while! Nobody says you have to spend 40 hour weeks being a DE! I started enjoying the profession a lot more when I stopped treating it like a job and just got creative with my droid models and building as I felt like it. And I still manage to keep up a decent inventory most of the time.

Rodo Doneeta (jefmes)
TCO - Smuggler - Chilastra
Owner of: Rodo's Automatons, Tsarin, Talus
Saving a respec to go home to Droid Engineering...

...when it's more useful!

Droid Engineer Archive

Thread: Ok friends, talk me out of it.