Droid Engineer Archive

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Raystonn wrote:

This spreadsheet seems based on a couple incorrect assumptions:

Assumption 1: That a finished product should cost more than the raw resources required to make it.

This assumption is true in real life, but false in SWG. Why? Because raw resources are far more valuable to the community. They can be turned directly intoXP, whereas a finished product cannot. By turning resources into a finished product you are usually reducing their value. This factor will shift as the percentage of people looking for XP decreases. But right now that percentage isstill extremely high.

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I understand what you're saying, but personally I made a decision at the beginning that I would never sell a crafted item for less than the resource cost on the open market. I made a spreadsheet, similiar in some ways to the one above but with a few more levels to it, and based it all off resource cost and difficulty. My droids sell at multiples of the resource market value, and sell very well. You don't have to give up on trying to get fair value for the finished product just because the demand for the resources is high for other reasons.

As far as basing prices off of what the market will bear (which is what I believe your second paragraph was discussing, though I'm not an ECON major) that can all be factored in with the above spreadsheet over time. Droids selling fast? Raise the modifier. Not selling fast enough? Lower the modifier. You will eventually get to the point where you have maximized profit based on the time it takes to sell the items.

Free lesson in MS Excel:

The VLOOKUP worksheet function does exactly what you are doing with all those nested IF statements.

For an example, start by NAMING your Droid table:

Highlight Cells A5 through G32 on your "Droid Mark Up Tables" Worksheet.

From the menu, choose "Insert" -> "Name" -> "Define"

Type "DROID_TABLE" into the "Names in workbook:" text box.

Click "Add"

Click "Ok"

Now to apply the VLOOKUP function instead of the nested ifs:

Move the cursor to cell E3 in the "Droid Prices" Worksheet.

Replace the text:
=IF($E$2=1,'Droid Mark Up Tables'!$B$5,IF($E$2=2,'Droid Mark Up Tables'!$B$6,IF($E$2=3,'Droid Mark Up Tables'!$B$7,IF($E$2=4,'Droid Mark Up Tables'!$B$8,IF($E$2=5,'Droid Mark Up Tables'!$B$9,IF($E$2=6,'Droid Mark Up Tables'!$B$10,IF($E$2=7,'Droid Mark Up Tables'!$B$11,IF($E$2=0,"Select a Droid"))))))))
With:
=VLOOKUP(E2,DROID_TABLE,2,FALSE)

And abracadabra, the work is done for you, with much less effort on your part. You can also remove the "need" for the second through fourth column using this (as you don't hit the maximum size of the cell).

Now I'll explain the arguments to the VLOOKUP function:

1st argument is a cell reference to the DATA you want to search for, in the 2nd argument.

2nd argument is a range reference (you don't HAVE to name the range) containing the DATA to search within.

3rd argument is the column offset of the data you want to return (zero based: 0 = "Droid #", 1 = "Droid Models", etc.)

4th argument is whether to perform a "ranged lookup". This should always be false in situations like yours. True is only for when you are looking for a number that exists at or BETWEEN data in your table.

Hope this helps, and happy excelling.

-X-

The 1st 10% of the code takes 90% of the time; the remaining 90% of the code takes the remaining 90% of the time.

JediCart I'm going to report you for abuse. Your post made too much sense and this forum is definately not the place for telling people how simple it is to make money selling droids if they just followed your example.

You sir, are ruining the spirit of these boards by your logical thinking and your common sense.

/sarcasmOff

PS: Everything I've done regarding droids is the based on the exact model you presented (except the Global Map... I've got too many other skills to work with at the moment).Good job.

All you guys that are trying to be DE AND merchant, consider teaming up with a guy who is focussing on their merchant profession. I wholesale my "stock" droids at 75% retail to my merchant. I make all my money up front, and he holds the merchandise until it sells.

I'll occasionally make some custom droids to toss onto the market to see if they sell, and have him only pay me if they sell.

-X-

You have to remember that prices will be different on different galaxies b/c the economy on that galaxy is different.

I remember one guy switching from one galaxy over to bloodfin where i play, and he complained that weapons and armor cost almost twice as much on bloodfin as they did wherever he was before.

Ok I have gone back and updated the spreadsheet thanks to more comments (special thanks to JayTeKay).

So Version 1.1 is now available. Just follow the link:

http://www.jcarlson.com/swg/droids.htm

Updated in 1.1:

Now can calculate your stacked modules.

Now can calculate for multiple General Socket Module Clusters.

Reorganized the spreadsheet for a more intuitive feel after the two about updates.

Fixed Personality Chip #3: No longer reads "False" when entering 3.

Added resource count of Probot and Protocol Droid Adv Chassis to the Droid Unit Count worksheet.

Added Advanced R2 example to show how to use the spreadsheet.

Enjoy!

Cameo - Master DE - Nartius Server

Shop located south of Coronet, Corellia: -48, -5656