Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Market, new DE
Sunfire1 wrote:
Lets say someome walks in to my shop looking for a Food/Chem crafting droid, look at the options I provide them:
R4 Food/Chem crafting station - 10K credits
Power droid F/C crafting station - 25K
R2 F/C Crafting, Med 110%, 10 Item storage - 35K
R3 F/C crafting, Med 110%, 10Item storage, 3 Stim dispensers - 50K
BLL F/C crafting, Med 110%, 10 item storage - 75K
Some people walk out with an R4, others with the BLL. But they have a choise.So whatever they want,I offer with many models to choose from. If you are going to have a vendor, keep it stocked, trust me, word of mouth will spread that if people want droids, yours is the shop to visit.
Not sure about your server, but you're way undercharging! I'd at least double every single price you've got there. Basic guns cost as much as some of those models and they wear out. That same R3 configuration "Doc Buddy" I sell for 160k, and have never gotten a complaint about the price. The R4 "Medic Buddy" without the stim dispensers is 60k. I'd never sell an R3 under any configuration for less than 100k with the dual advanced brain requirement.
You've got a good point about keeping a variety of things stocked and people will come! Always keep BH droids, droid batteries and repair kits in stock. Medical, Creature Harvesting and Storage droids generally move the fastest for me (not all on the same droid of course).
Javac wrote:
Not sure about your server, but you're way undercharging! I'd at least double every single price you've got there. Basic guns cost as much as some of those models and they wear out. That same R3 configuration "Doc Buddy" I sell for 160k, and have never gotten a complaint about the price. The R4 "Medic Buddy" without the stim dispensers is 60k. I'd never sell an R3 under any configuration for less than 100k with the dual advanced brain requirement.You've got a good point about keeping a variety of things stocked and people will come! Always keep BH droids, droid batteries and repair kits in stock. Medical, Creature Harvesting and Storage droids generally move the fastest for me (not all on the same droid of course).
The biggest problem with figuring out what to charge is that droid abilities aren't really consistent. For example, anyone with Novice Scout can get a big bonus from a 107 creature harvesting droid. However, a 600-rated combat droid is really only useful to characters who are still grinding novice combat skills. You don't see Master Pistoleers or Master Riflemen (or master melee players) out hunting with droids. I know, because I'm nearly a Master Rifleman myself, and the only thing I use my combat droid for is to get extra XP on missions. He stays next to the mission terminal while I'm out on missions. I just don't need him anymore, and he takes away XP when he fights for me.
I see DEs charging 80-125K for a combat R3, and I think to myself, they're just not worth it! Not to mention the people who need a droid like that usually can't afford to pay that much. And really, combat droids haven't been a big seller for me since the initial post-publish 8 rush.
A creature harvesting droid, on the other hand, is worth a lot more. It gives players a definite bonus, no matter what level of Scout they are. The droid will always harvest more than they can alone.
Auto-repair droids do not sell, at least at my place. I'm on Dantooine, so I get very few n00b combat types coming by. I have a few for sale, but I haven't made any in weeks. Nor have they sold for weeks. I also get surprisingly few visits from Bounty Hunters, and I have a factory full of their droids just sitting there, because it's too full to use.
I cant see charging more than I do for droids. As I stated, batteries, repair kits, customization tools, and even vehicles provide more than enough income to pay all my exspenses with a few thousand credits a week left over.
So, 50K for an R3 does not seem unreasonable since my profit on that droid is 50K. Same with a BLL, 75K? I cant believe people would spend that much, yet I sell them with Barker modules, medic modules and crafting stations all the time.
If you think my droid prices are low, you should see my weapon prices. Highest priced weapon I sell is Rocket launcher at 15k, and thats only if it has over 30 shots, otherwise I charge 500 a shot.Of course it helps that 90% of the resources I need for droids I also need for weapons, the ones I dont harvest I just buy in 100K stacks.With the copper I use to make droid combat modules I can make D18 pistols 35-110 Damage 1.8 Speed. Great stats for an unsliced D18, i charge 5000 for it.
Of course I could charge two three even four times what I do for weapons, but thats not why I took up weaponsmith. At 1st I made weapons to finance droid grinding (this was last august when you could not give away a droid). But once I hit master, I found people would come in to buy a weapon, and leave with a droid. So the lower my weapons prices, the more people would visit my shop. And lest face it, I can make 20 weapons in the time it takes to make one droid, so it not like its a strain on my time.
Even today, people come in for a weapon and leave with a droid. I love seeing 4 mails in a row that say XXX has bought a Laser Rifle, then a Probot, then Batteries, then Repair kits. I know that it is a weapon sale that led to a droid sale. Even if I only charge 7500 for a Laser rifle 38-380 Damage, 5.5 Speed. I make a profit on it, and then a huge profit on the droid and accesories.
And seriously, what is there to spend your money on in this game anyway? Once you have over 10 million credits, you cant spend it all if you wanted to.
Well, I think Javac is way too high and Sunfire is way too low on prices. How's that ? I am right in between and I am still a 20 Million rich DE on droids alone (well, powerups before the much needed DE love). Pricing is going to be server specific. I found if I raise my prices even 5K over what I am charging now, sales drop like a rock. You need to hit that sweet spot to see them keep moving and if your too high, you sell a lot less and you don'tget thathappy feeling seeing all the sales messages everyday. Too low and you find yourself doing more of a job than enjoying yourself maintaining factories to crank out parts.
I am seeing the Auto-Repair droids picking up in pace quite a bit lately. Sold 6 probots with all auto=heal last night alone. I just don't think people realize the benefit and huge boost to exp gains they get when they use one, but they are catching on as more and more people get one and spread the word.
I can't even imagine Sunfire trying to juggle factories for both droids AND weapons. It would drive me insane trying to balance factory slots and harvester slots. I barely stay ahead of the curve now and when I run out of something it is a day or three before I have them stocked up again. Having two craft professions sounds like a chore instead of a game. I manage three shops with around 100-120 items on each vendor, I can't fathom doing twice that.
LOL, at least someone responded to it. Actually, I find my interaction with my personal R3 unit (named Splice) helps me sell droids. I swear it has a mind of it's own. As a result I find myself talking to him (and yelling at him) quite often. One timehe actually just went scooting off on it's own (with no combat symbol next to him in his group bar). I followed him for about 20m and he eventually entered combat with some Meatlumps. He may have been in combat the whole time but didn't get the symbol for some reason and the meatlumps didn't engage him until it showed up. He had a bad experience with some meatlumps once before I upgraded himso I'll just believe he was looking for revenge, he's spunky that way
Straker_Atrella wrote:
DrakoonShao wrote:
I'm pretty small scale when compared to most DEs. I have no vendor and make droids on a per person basis. All customers come in by word of mouth (same as 90% of my slicing customers). Usually, if I am on for any prolonged period of time (over 2 hours) I have no problem selling 2 or 3 droids. I don't make a lot of money, but still have lots of fun. For me, the profession would lose it's appeal if I mass produced the droids and had a vendor. Wouldn't be able to see the reaction of people who really wanted the droids when they receive them. Plus, droids produced fully on an assembly line don't get souls
OMG the souls comment made me spit my Soda all over my desk.
guide to using your droid | Use the ‘tame’ command from
Hey Cass,
Your guides outta date..
_KernMist wrote:
guide to using your droid | Use the ‘tame’ command from
Hey Cass,
Your guides outta date..
lol well spotted that boy 
Fortunately I took that from the old old version I have on my work 'puter, the one actually in game has it right. One gold star though honey
Kisses
Cass