Droid Engineer Archive

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Straker_Atrella wrote:

There is a market for selling (and buying) those parts if you make one. Talk to the other Eclipse DE's a bunch of them exist. Say "what if we could drop MA, and had a supplier for the parts." Work out a price with the other DE's, for example 200cr for an EMM so 5000 a crate, adding an extra 3200 cost onto your R3s for example.

Then once you settle on a price, you advertise that you are looking for somebody to keep a vendor (or more then one,) always stocked with MA parts. You will get people JUMPING to fill the role. That is 10 CPU profit off of resources that do not matter.

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One of the coolest ways that I have seen someone suppling schematics for sales was a Master Artisan that had set up a vendor with a few bags of resources, with a serial number for a name, and a few corresponding schematics. The bag was listed for 3 cpu for the resources in the bag, and the schematic was listed for its own price.

This gave the Artisan the ability to offer the schematic, and everything needed to make the factory run, without needing to use his/her own factory time or create storage issues.

You know, it really doesn't matter if I spew bile here or not because nothing is going to come of it. Yeah, CU has to happen but do you really think that moving a few schematics from MA to Engineer 4 is really more than a 5 or 10 minute code change? Someone did some bad code design if is more time consuming than that. And I can't see how the change will have more effect than stir a few eddies in the backwaters of the economy. Just that little change would cover the increased skill point requirements for keeping mastery in a single combat profession so players like me can get out of the shop and enjoy other parts of the game.

I do SWG in the evenings occassionally as entertainment. I'm not looking to turning my evenings into a full time hunt for Master Artisans, most of which will be off chasing some other profession by the next time I need a factory run of modules. I want to spend some time rebuilding and restocking my vendor, then go out to meet friends to go hunting, or do the latest village phase, or go kill the Star Destroyer in Deep Space, or go chase my lady friends, or go explore some new quest or content that's just been added. That is how I've continued to be a DE for two years! I don't burn myself out doing any one thing.

Thank you for your advice but what your suggested will quickly turn what is suppose to be entertainment into a chore.

Message Edited by ArdenStarmariner on 03-28-2005 04:37 PM

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I do SWG in the evenings occassionally as entertainment. I'm not looking to turning my evenings into a full time hunt for Master Artisans, most of which will be off chasing some other profession by the next time I need a factory run of modules. I want to spend some time rebuilding and restocking my vendor, then go out to meet friends to go hunting, or do the latest village phase, or go kill the Star Destroyer in Deep Space, or go chase my lady friends, or go explore some new quest or content that's just been added. That is how I've continued to be a DE for two years! I don't burn myself out doing any one thing.

Thank you for your advice but what your suggested will quickly turn what is suppose to be entertainment into a chore.

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BLA BLA BLA....what your saying is that you pay monthly for an mMorpgyou dont play very often, that you hate, and that you are not willing to relate to other players in..................hmmmm

Why ???

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ArdenStarmariner wrote:

I don't think any other crafting profession in SWG is more work for less return as Droid Engineering is. By all means, lets increase the PITA factor and make it even worse. While your at it, why don't you run over and grease the gears for the Armorsmiths and Weaponsmiths so its easier for them to make a profit on their products thats a factor of 100 or more greater than ours. Oh! And they even get to have return customers! Imagine that!

Message Edited by ArdenStarmariner on 03-28-2005 04:01 PM

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DarthRoe wrote:



With all due respect, Jenden, working around the MA requirements is not as easy as you continually espouse. Despite the fact that you have a good working arrangement, it doesn't work that way for most DEs. Given that MA components are required for nearly every final build product we make, you either need to be a MA yourself or be a very low-volume DE that can make 249 adv. droid brains last forever.

I don't really get into combat, so I don't really care too much about the skill points myself. I do feel, though, that it is a slight mischaracterization to be telling DEs that not having MA is a minor inconvenience that can easily be worked around.

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I think a lot of this is derived from a catch-22 situation. Since most DEs are MAs, the market for crafting these components isn't there. If there were fewer DE/MAs, there would be a bigger market for the parts and therefor more MAs selling them. I do agree with Jenden, however, that finding a MA to make these parts isn't really hard, just a real PITA.

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DarthRoe wrote:

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Jenden wrote:

First, not having master artisan can be pretty easily worked around. I know it takes me at most 5-10 minutes to find someone to make me schematics for my GP/MM modules. Its not as convenient, but it saves 48 skillpoints, so there is a valuable tradeoff there.

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With all due respect, Jenden, working around the MA requirements is not as easy as you continually espouse. Despite the fact that you have a good working arrangement, it doesn't work that way for most DEs. Given that MA components are required for nearly every final build product we make, you either need to be a MA yourself or be a very low-volume DE that can make 249 adv. droid brains last forever.

I don't really get into combat, so I don't really care too much about the skill points myself. I do feel, though, that it is a slight mischaracterization to be telling DEs that not having MA is a minor inconvenience that can easily be worked around.

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I'm kind of on the fence on this issue myself.

I have done time without MA, EMMs, EGPs and the simpler things are easy. I just filled up an MSE droid with 100k stacks of resources, and it's data pad with schematics using those resources. For the parts that need factory parts themselves to make, it is much harder though. It was inconvieniant.

I got most of my stuff from MA's in my guild, 75% of the time they were on and I could get them to make schematics. The other 25% kind of sucked, I eventually got somebody to stock them for me on their vendor. Given a choice, I would get them for free, but if I needed too, they were there. My prices are good enough that if I needed to put an extra 1k in for parts, it wasn't a big deal. This could be trouble for people who sell droids really cheap though.

I think part of the problem is like Gnome said, currently there are so many MA's that there is very little market for the products. If a market became available, it may be eaiser to find them. A smart enterprising MA woudl start advertising right now that they will be selling stuff, and get it going.

Then after the CU when skill points are tighter, people could know 100% that a certain vendor always had them.

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GnomeAd wrote:

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DarthRoe wrote:



With all due respect, Jenden, working around the MA requirements is not as easy as you continually espouse. Despite the fact that you have a good working arrangement, it doesn't work that way for most DEs. Given that MA components are required for nearly every final build product we make, you either need to be a MA yourself or be a very low-volume DE that can make 249 adv. droid brains last forever.

I don't really get into combat, so I don't really care too much about the skill points myself. I do feel, though, that it is a slight mischaracterization to be telling DEs that not having MA is a minor inconvenience that can easily be worked around.

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I think a lot of this is derived from a catch-22 situation. Since most DEs are MAs, the market for crafting these components isn't there. If there were fewer DE/MAs, there would be a bigger market for the parts and therefor more MAs selling them. I do agree with Jenden, however, that finding a MA to make these parts isn't really hard, just a real PITA.

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No. There won't be a bigger market for parts and more MA's selling them. There will just be ALOT fewer DE's and the ones you do find will most likely be alts for BH's. Or it becomes mandatory to have two accounts to be in the DE business.

After two years of flatline on interdependency, you'd think people would get a clue that it isn't going to fly. For interdependency to even have a chance, the end product in the feeding chain has to be a very high demand one and we all know droids don't meet that requirement. Not very intelligent making a profession with a weak and sickly market like ours even more handicapped. Interdependency will only work in the high demand markets. Right now, thats weapons, armor, foods and medical buff supplies. After the CU, it will most likely be weapons and armor only.

I don't think any other crafting profession in SWG is more work for less return as Droid Engineering is. By all means, lets increase the PITA factor and make it even worse. While your at it, why don't you run over and grease the gears for the Armorsmiths and Weaponsmiths so its easier for them to make a profit on their products thats a factor of 100 or more greater than ours. Oh! And they even get to have return customers! Imagine that!

Message Edited by ArdenStarmariner on 03-28-2005 04:01 PM

Greetings All,

I find the contents of this thread very interesting, and I am surprised I don't see a little more of this type of thing. I have been a MDE now for 9 months. I don't think I could choose another profession as my favorite, but recent updates to the game have hit crafting/service professions hard, with DE being one of the most damaged casualties. I have been reading the boards for a very long time and I have always been impressed with the integrity and professionalism of the DE boards, however and unfortunate reality of life is that more often than not nice guys and gals finish last.

There is definitely a time to develop well thought out proposals and suggestions for possible future attention from the devs. Then there is a time to raise your voice a little to at least get some explanation from those same developers. This is just one example of how the lack of information, and the recent attention to combat classes will cause an increasing amount of concern. Do we have even the specter of an answer from anyone about combat droids after the CU? Is there even the hint of how things like the stimpack module or any of our other effected products will be handled? I have been reading daily and I don't see anything, do you? The realality of the situation is that there is very little left at this point to take away from us and not a lot of noise has been made as a result. With each of the last few updates the small amount of utility that we did have has been chipped away at.

As to the question of skill points, ArdenStarmariner makes an excellent point that it seems no one is willing to address directly. It was said earlier in the thread that SWG is about choice and the CU is about balancing the choices a player makes in combat professions. In honesty that would only be a valid point if the combat professions and the crafting professions existed in bubbles and did not pull from the same skill point pool. This is not the case so to say that combat can be balanced without effecting every other profession, not just the ones listed in the CU, is flawed to say the least. Hybrids and dabblers in this game are already have it rough. I am not sure how much worse it should get to allow the already extremely powerful in combat to be even more powerful. Bottom line is just because this is a MMORPG should not mean I need to gather 2 fighters, a doctor, and a ranger to go to an adventure planet to place and/or collect from an extractor.

Also, it was pointed out that ultimately the CU will be better overall for the game. This is nothing but speculation and very optimistic thinking, bordering on being blind to the facts. Once again I point to the recent round of changes as being evidence that the developers have a long way to go before they earn that kind of trust and optimism. One of the strong points of this game is the fact that you can be a crafter during the week and go hunting on the weekends. The information currently available suggests that this will no longer be the case. IF the CU is done right then it would stand to reason that hybrids and dabblers would stand a better chance in the wild, not less of a chance, but again there is little information to support that the CU IS being done right.

Being a patient man I honestly hope Jenden and the other vets here on the boards are right, but I have a hard time ignoring the facts looking us in the face.

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ArdenStarmariner wrote:

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ELAzalin wrote:

Well im a Master Merchant, DE, and shipwright and i dont have any problems

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How many themeparks have you completed? Village quest? Hmmm. Let me guess, none. In fact, your arse never leaves your shop.

Boring....

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you don't have to master in a combat profession to do the themeparks. as a pikeman 2/0/0/0 i've done the themeparks just fine.

the major falacy in your argument is that you have to be master of a combat profession to do any combat. being just novice of any fighting profession is enough to join groups and provide a meaningful contribution.

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WTS wrote:

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ArdenStarmariner wrote:

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ELAzalin wrote:

Well im a Master Merchant, DE, and shipwright and i dont have any problems

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How many themeparks have you completed? Village quest? Hmmm. Let me guess, none. In fact, your arse never leaves your shop.

Boring....

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you don't have to master in a combat profession to do the themeparks. as a pikeman 2/0/0/0 i've done the themeparks just fine.

the major falacy in your argument is that you have to be master of a combat profession to do any combat. being just novice of any fighting profession is enough to join groups and provide a meaningful contribution.

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Ummm. Yeah, right. Why don't go out and really try that and find out how many of those groups laugh at you when you ask for an invite.

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ArdenStarmariner wrote:

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WTS wrote:

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ArdenStarmariner wrote:

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ELAzalin wrote:

Well im a Master Merchant, DE, and shipwright and i dont have any problems

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How many themeparks have you completed? Village quest? Hmmm. Let me guess, none. In fact, your arse never leaves your shop.

Boring....

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you don't have to master in a combat profession to do the themeparks. as a pikeman 2/0/0/0 i've done the themeparks just fine.

the major falacy in your argument is that you have to be master of a combat profession to do any combat. being just novice of any fighting profession is enough to join groups and provide a meaningful contribution.

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Ummm. Yeah, right. Why don't go out and really try that and find out how many of those groups laugh at you when you ask for an invite.

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I don't know about that... I joined a number of DWB groups as a novice rifleman, as well as groups heading to the tusken fort or krayt graveyard. This will be even more prevelent with the CU when people won't be soloing everything.

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Jenden wrote:

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ArdenStarmariner wrote:

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WTS wrote:

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ArdenStarmariner wrote:

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ELAzalin wrote:

Well im a Master Merchant, DE, and shipwright and i dont have any problems

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How many themeparks have you completed? Village quest? Hmmm. Let me guess, none. In fact, your arse never leaves your shop.

Boring....

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you don't have to master in a combat profession to do the themeparks. as a pikeman 2/0/0/0 i've done the themeparks just fine.

the major falacy in your argument is that you have to be master of a combat profession to do any combat. being just novice of any fighting profession is enough to join groups and provide a meaningful contribution.

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Ummm. Yeah, right. Why don't go out and really try that and find out how many of those groups laugh at you when you ask for an invite.

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I don't know about that... I joined a number of DWB groups as a novice rifleman, as well as groups heading to the tusken fort or krayt graveyard. This will be even more prevelent with the CU when people won't be soloing everything.

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I wasn't even that far along when I joined on a Warrens trip originally. I think I had pistols 3 in Marksman. My first Krayt hunt, I was at pistols 2, joining in a full group. A couple weeks ago, I joined in another Warrens trip with my Bria character as Rifles 1 and novice doctor, and while the group fell apart upon entering since we had no established leader, the point remains. If this is happening before the update, it'll likely be happening after too.