Droid Engineer Archive

Falacy, you are obviously not comprehending my point.

My point is, my only hope to make money is to sell low. I am a beginning DE, and I have NO competition what-so-ever against higher level DE's. People are obviously going to go to them for the better droids, better modules, and better crafting stations.

So it's really quite simple: If you want me to stop selling low, then you need to stop making high level droids, because by you making higher level droids, you are stealing away my customers, and ruining my business, just as you say by me pricing low takes away your business.

It's quite linear, really, and if you are going to come up with some complete garbage like I shouldn't price my droids under a certain limit, then I'm going to come up with some of the same garbage and say that you can't sell droids over a certain level.

Thanks for the clarification, Nell2ThaIzzay. What you're really saying, whether you realise it or not, is that SOE really didn't put any thought into our profession. Obviously if I am able make droids that do the exact same thing as you, except that my droidsdo that exact same thing much better than yours, no one in their right of mind would buy your droids. Especially considering how easy credits are to come by.

Seems to me we've returned to the issue which plauges the entirety of the base Artisan profession; Everything they make is useless and undesirable (aside from the first few hours of a new character's life, when she can only use a CDEF weapon), because player demand and can obtain higher performing items. Quite simply, no high end DE would bother making medical modules if there were actually 'high end' droids, with specialized functions and mulitple roles. As is, they're all interchangable, which makes the novice entirely usless, expect to sell things so cheaply that players never bother to buy an expensive version of the same mouse trap.

Follow?

As far as your last paragraph though, friend, if you're going to attempt to flame someone, you may wish to take some time to come up with something a little more moving than what you posted. Nice try though.

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MadCat0911 wrote:
250 credits is still slightly more than 2 times the amount of resources put into the thing. Lets take a look at the math here, you get at least 3k of resources from a medium harvester, so if you sell stuff at 2 times the resources, you get at least 6k for that one harvester alone. Does it take 6k to run a harvester? No, it's a little over 1k, if you count running your own solar gen to power all of the harvesters you have. So do you really lose out by selling "that low?" No, not really. I for one sell the seekers at 250 and the arakyds at 350. They're cheap, easy to make, and quick to make too. So what's the point of hiking up prices on them?

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Are you sure you sell seekers at 250? Do you sell droids at all, *sniffs the air for Bounty Hunter scent*? It takes 172 resources to make a seeker, so your math is incorrect. Selling them at 2x the amount would be 344 creds, not only that if you makeGPs, Memory Modules and/or the seekers themselvesin bulk from factories you have to tally in the factory costas well. Also the arakyds take 312(or around that) to make, so while you might be happy selling your droids at a 40 cred gain many people are not. Im doubting your a DE at all actually, do the math on this.

1)Find a supplier for all the numerous different metals/ore/chems/gases needed to make the seekers that will sell them for 1 cred each.(lol good luck on that)

2) Make them yourself or pay factory cost to make the GPs, Memories, then the seekers

3)Go and sell them for 250 creds with a 40 cred profit

OR

1) go take one newby destroyer mission and make 20 times the profit in 1/25 of the time

Keep selling them seekers at 250 creds...you only hurt other DEs actually trying to make a living. Thats if your even a DE to begin with...*smells a Bounty Hunter*

Unfortunately people are greedy. Lets look at my cost for a droid. Wind power at 35% yields me 100 wind per hour or 2400 power in 24 hours for a cost of 1200 (actually slightly less I use generators that have great stats due to experimentation). Or 2 power per credit. My harvesters (personal only) use 600 cash and 800 power per 24 hours. I always harvest over 75% so I end up with 2000 resources per 24 hours. With a power cost of 400,and maint cost of 600, resources cost an average of 2 credits per resource.

If you run a factory, you can add .8 credits per resource that has to go thru factory. .8 is just an average, create time in factory is governed by item complexity level just like when you create by hand. And thus can affect cost by .2 in either direction depending on item.

I wasnot going to add in travel cost as if done right, it adds less than .1 credit per resouce. But lets add in .2 for those who like to visit harvesters frequently anyway.

OK, so now we have a fixed cost of3 credits per resource used. Add 25% for profit ( I only add 20% but I'm not that greedy) and we are up to 3.75 credits per resouce.

The average droid has 1000-1500 total resources used. But lets use 2000. If a droid uses 2000 resources, your cost was 6000. Add in a 25% profit, and total cost to customer is 7500.

People will charge whatever they can get away with, but, there are some of us who understand that the other players work just as hard for their money. And when they find a good deal, they will stick with it. And tell friends. So yes, you may still be able to sell an R2 occasionally at 20,000 credits. But I assure you, I am selling 5 for your every one at 7-8k. And I am making a decent profit.

As for seekers for 250 each. Thats what i sell them for. But only from factory crates. I am constantly making GPs and EMMs in factory for adv droid brains. When i do, usually once a week, i make a few extra runs of GPs and EMMs. Then its just a simple matter of running 60 or so seekers off after brains are done. It is a loss, but it brings BHs in to the store. And I have sold quite a few adv probots to them as well, And since I sell weapons too, I dont mind selling 1 item at a loss if it increases foot trafic in the store, and gets the BH to buy a few crates of powerups (talk about ripoffs have seen people charging 5k for a box of 10 that has a total of 600 credits in materials in it).

Most droids are under 1000 resources used.

I sell my R2 unit at 18,500 which is approximately 20cr/unit on resources. And if you are selling 5 for every one I sell you must play 24 hours a day and craft constantly, because every day when I log in I have 8-12 orders waiting, not to mention the ones I get while I'm in game crafting them.

"other players work just as hard for their money" -- no they don't, if you believe that, then go start a toon on another server and make him a marksman. Concentrate on just making money and see how long it takes you to get 20k. It took me 30 minutes to make 20,000cr starting from scratch (going through the tutorial mission level).

Now, how long did it take you to get to Master DE? Alright, that's what I thought.

I'm not saying you should gouge your customers, but you also shouldn't sell yourself short. With a medical rating of 110 and a decent crafting module, a droid is a very useful tool to have. When permadeath goes away, they are much more "permanent" than weapons or armor, and I've seen weaponsmith's pricing...it's not 3.75 cr/unit and they get constant return business (and people have to pay more to get the weapon sliced after buying it).

Guy name of Milamber on Bloodfin keeps undercutting droid engineers.

I undercut him. I won't get pissy. I'll just tell you to by my droids from my vendor
the re-sell them if you have a problem with the pricing.

just one reason why I wish this game ran by Shadowbane rules... If ya can't reason
with the competition, just destroy them =)

That's why I'm glad we're not. See, in this system, we're free to operate our
businesses and crafts as we see fit. Not get dictated by others who seem to think we're
harming them in some way.

So if you see Milamber let him know that we don't take kindly to such.

Careful, with that attitude, I'll give away another 63 advanced surgical droids (with
med-6 and food/chem) like I did when I made Master DE a few weeks ago. "Give
away" as in "free".

I gavea fellow DEan earfull earlier today for selling an Advanced MSE
droid with medical I for 250 creidts.

Maybe he was just trying to sell something and get ahead. Who are you to dictate
his prices? Personally, I read these sanctimonious pricing threads and get sick.

Yes, it was a lot of work to make Master DE. Yes, I couldn't sell a lot of it
until Blueprints 3. But, that doesn't mean that you go off on someone else just
trying to get ahead and enjoy themselves. Rather than crying when someone sells at a
low price, try to figure out how you can do better than them. There are other ways
to compete than just in price ... location, service, quality of goods, etc.

And, for those on Bloodfin who hate my pricing ... come by my droids and re-sell them.
Heck, custom order them from me and I'll make them to your specifications.

quality of goods is a way to compete? That's a laugh...how long have you been a DE?

With stackable modules, and the fact that everyone is using that **edit** exploit to stick clusters in slots where they don't belong, a Novice DE can make an MSE droid that has a 110 Medical rating, 10 item slots and 150 data storage slots.

That argument doesn't fly, pricing is and will always be the way to compete in this game

quality of goods is a way to compete? That's a laugh...how long have you been a DE?

I started working at it starting the first day SWG went live. I've been a Master DE for about a month now. I've lived through the bugs, nerfs, and worse. So, don't get all pissy with me because I don't agree with your gestapo-like viewpoint that we should all charge higher prices. I've been through the same things you have. I just disagree with you.

With stackable modules and the fact that everyone is using that **edit** exploit to stick clusters in slots where they don't belong,

Has there been clarification on this issue? Or is this just an assumption on your part?

a Novice DE can make an MSE droid that has a 110 Medical rating, 10 item slots and 150 data storage slots.

That's true. Having data, storage, and medical modules add together is moronic. And needs fixing now.

That argument doesn't fly, pricing is and will always be the way to compete in this game

OK, well, then start competing and stop complaining. Between the in-game threats and the out-of-game whining, I wonder if you guys actually take the time to make any droids.

"And, for those on Bloodfin who hate my pricing ... come by my droids and re-sell them. Heck, custom order them from me and I'll make them to your specifications."

Why? Why would we do that? Why would we want to do it? Hello, the whole point of us working so hard was so that WE could make droids and sell them. If we wanted to buy cheap from you and resell them we would have been scouts thank you very much.

With the low travel fees, location means jack unless you've placed your house really, really far away from a town. Besides, person to person sales are how most DEs I've met sell the majority of their upper end droids.

And, who are YOU to dictate MY prices girly? See, in the end it's your low prices that make everyone else have to play the game your way, because playing it any other way givestakes away their businessbusiness. Seems really fare that one idiot can ruin it for everyone, but hey, isn't that how everything else on this sticking planet works any way?

Face it, the way you play is selfish and antisocial. Go ahead and live with that if you so desire.

Wasn't being pissy, you're just massively misinformed

From your other post on this subject, Michela

Here are my droid prices:

• Mouse 3k
  
• DZ70 4k
  
• R5 5k
  
• R4 8k
  
• Probot 8k
  
• R2 15k
  
• Probot ADV 15k
  
• Protocol 15k
  
• Surgical 15k
  
• R2 ADV 20k
  
• R3 20k
  
• R3 ADV 30k
  
• Protocol ADV 30k
  
• Surgical ADV 30k
  
• BLL 50k
  
• BLL ADV 75k

Those prices are fare, for the most part, and I can't see anyone having a big problem with them. Though, I think we do owe it to ourselves to double the price of Probots once perma-death goes away. Sorry for jumping down your throat, but you made it sound like you are one of those people who purposely sells MSE droids for 250 credits...

"And, for those on Bloodfin who hate my pricing ... come by my droids and
re-sell them. Heck, custom order them from me and I'll make them to your
specifications."

Why? Why would we do that? Why would we want to do it? Hello, the whole point of us
working so hard was so that WE could make droids and sell them.

If you don't want to buy my droids and re-sell them, shut up about my prices.

If we wanted to buy cheap from you and resell them we would have been scouts thank
you very much.

Uh, the class is called "Merchant".

With the low travel fees, location means jack unless you've placed your house
really, really far away from a town.

I can see Moenia's Cantina from my front porch. Is that "really, really far away
from a town"?

Besides, person to person sales are how most DEs I've met sell the majority of
their upper end droids.

Really? Not me. I move lots of high-end droids (e.g., advanced surgicals,
R3 ADV, probot ADV, etc.) on my vendor.

And, who are YOU to dictate MY prices girly?

Who are you to dictate mine? You really need to work on that hypocrisy.
It's showing.

See, in the end it's your low prices that make everyone else have to play the game
your way, because playing it any other way givestakes away their
businessbusiness.

It's not "their business" if they can't keep it. That's why it's called
"business".

Seems really fare that one idiot can ruin it for everyone, but hey, isn't that how
everything else on this sticking planet works any way?

Actually, one person cannot ruin it for everyone. Tons of people buy tons of
droids all of the time.

Face it, the way you play is selfish and antisocial. Go ahead and live with that if
you so desire.

I'll live just fine with the way I play. I'm having a blast. If you're not,
perhaps you're doing something wrong. Go out, talk to people. Make deals.
Get better equipment. Do something.