Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Droid Poll: Has the advent of Publish 7 been a good thing or a bad thing to your business?
On the question being polled: I realize the question wasn't the best. Cut me some slack, I'm not a professional poll writer.
All I wanted to do was get a general test of which way the wind was blowing...that's all.
I'll try to work up a better poll / survey on this issue.
My tallied results (note: there's a margin of error here but I'm not outrageously worried on that point):
Bad: 35
Good: 13
Good (short term) but Bad (long term): 10
No effect (or unsure/abstain): 6
/bow
Respectfully,
"bad"
Because Ive been spending all my time making droid sub components, and havn't been making any crafting stations with my novice architect. I guess I did sell a couple probots tho. which is more droids than usual.
Long range effect of this ? Less DEs, More biz, if i stick.
I've already voted, but wanted to point out that some of the "BAD" reports are accompanying admissions that these DE's actually are NOT crafting the new droids to sell, because they consider them worthless. If you dont craft em, you cant sell em. Don't see how those votes should count.
As I said, I already voted GOOD, so dont countme twice. Many sales. Folks who use em love em. I'm still swamped with back-orders for more, so back to it...
YodaMac wrote:
I've already voted, but wanted to point out that some of the "BAD" reports are accompanying admissions that these DE's actually are NOT crafting the new droids to sell, because they consider them worthless. If you dont craft em, you cant sell em. Don't see how those votes should count.
As I said, I already voted GOOD, so dont countme twice. Many sales. Folks who use em love em. I'm still swamped with back-orders for more, so back to it...
So you think votes which don't agree with you on a simple question 'good or bad for your business' should not count eh? I see you are a real deep thinker then.
A vote is a vote, and honestly made. The effect on a business has more to it than the obvious 'more credits' in the short term. Like (but not limited to) How your profession is percieved, how much time you spend making a droid, how much time you spend in conversation with clients about a droids attributes (or lack of them), how much the added complexity is costing in factory and resources cost, what the publish has done to your image (PR if you like), how much the 'cost of ownership' has had to change, how much added inventory (credits tied up in stock)cost there is, how much added storage (resource and subcomponent) cost there is (versus storage limits in game), how much added 'fun' (subjective but valid) the change has given you, how many lost customers have you had as a result of the publish, .....the list goes on and on, even to the point of simply not being able to store samples of your wares in the datapad for demo purposes.
I swear democracy isn't deserved by some people.
I like this better than the poll, so I'm answering Shian's more appropriate questions.
Shian_Tavkin wrote:
The effect on a business has more to it than the obvious 'more credits' in the short term.
True. But this is also true about most things in a unique commercial enviornment as we have in SWG. Something newcomes out (or something not so new but suddenly becomes popular), prices skyrocket, people buy, people stockpile (biggest seller right now for me is a crate of 160dmg Probots), the market either a) kills itself or b) gets nerfed externally, and the product becomes ubiquitous and worthless at the same time. This happens over and over in some fashion or another just by the nature of the game.
While I am all for looking long-term, and agree that many people just don't get the concept, we should always be careful to not look too far in the future when it comes to these things. Right now, I'm making a ton of money - I don't expect it to last indefinately but nothing does in an MMO. Spice was once necessary and not cheap - now people are giving away crates on the bazaar for nothing.Neutron wasnerfed by doctor buffs, and then Muon was done in by the chef changes. Virtually every market in SWG has turned into an "early sellers" market, because speculation more than a few days into the future rarely pays off in an MMO.
Like (but not limited to) How your profession is percieved,
Well, we are still cool, if that's what you mean.
how much time you spend making a droid,
Well, after getting burned with 500+ old Probot deeds pre-patch, I was careful when this one hit. I started running combat modules in my factories immediately, but didn't start selling until late into the second day. Because I was still feeling the sting of all those Probots I would now be severely discounting, I used all the factory parts I had and began to make the final deeds by hand. After a couple of days of this I grew tired of just the inventory jumping (crated droids are easier to transport between planets), and started running 100-200 runs of the LE and Probot deeds. I used to run off 500-1000 at a time, but this way I can keep my stock of crates low and just do 2-3 smaller runs a week.This change was mostly forced by thefact that I don't want to run off 1000's of combat modules at once, because who knows when the "perfect"metal will show up and I can get them from 108 to 110.
I set up an additional factory with the help of a friend (gotta love people who don't use all their lots...) to make a total of 6 : 1) Probot Chassis, 2) LE Chassis, 3) Combat Modules/Clusters, 4) Droid Brains/Some General Components, 5) General Comonents, 6) Droid Repair Kits. I've taken the time to organize things rather well; the only complaint I have about the investment at this point, after compensating for the extreme increase in simple components, is that I am going to bust my wrist clicking and dragging crates. There needs to be a better way to move crates from one place to another - BLL!!!!
In ways my time has gone up per droid, but so have my prices - I feel that the money I am making at the moment is worth the cost in time. I also live on an advanced planet now, so I hunt near my factories making everything a bit easier to manage.
how much time you spend in conversation with clients about a droids attributes (or lack of them),
Zero. I have to say, my comlink is usually broken. That said, I ALWAYS say (even my vendor tells people) to email me with any questions/comments/concerns/etc. I also have e-mail droid guides that I send to anyone who buys droids off my vendor (a one time e-mail, that specifies I won't bother them again - no spam). I always reply to these promptly and fully - I sometimes take a half hour or more when I log in answering mails - however, I simply can't handle "/tell hell" anymore, and with the ones I see come in my decision has been reenforced many times over. Before this, I spent roughly 30-45minutes/droid with first time customers, almost always.
how much the added complexity is costing in factory and resources cost,
The operation is much more complex, and I'm having to run six to keep up. And it's not so much the resource cost, but the sub-components - the extra droid brain in a cluster is starting to REALLY bother me. Price goes up a lil' just for that.
what the publish has done to your image (PR if you like),
I'm pretty well known as a combat specialist, and this has increased that ubiquity. I also have more than one chassi to sell, which is nice, so I can stop endlessly configuring utility modules in Probots. I think the PR image of DE has been very anti-SOE...not anti-DE.
how much the 'cost of ownership' has had to change,
People are just figuring about about the stims, and it's hard to tell. Most people haven't commented about the battery timer (I guess 1/2 hour-1hour wasn't a lot, especially since people are using droids more that camp restrictions were lifted). For those that do find our new droids useful, it's too soon to tell.
how much added inventory (credits tied up in stock)cost there is,
I'm not so much worried about the credits, but again - the damned storage. I could actually make do with 3-4 factories except that I have to leave things in the hoppers for such long periods of time because moving 40 crates of components is not only not fun, it's just not practical.
how much added storage (resource and subcomponent) cost there is (versus storage limits in game),
Prices have gone up because of this in my case (the biggest concern for me right now, actually). Storage needs to be looked at across the board. The Devs have said they are very satisified with how far the database has come - good, now give us some more storage. I'm tired of seeing PA Halls with three beautiful rooms and six empty rooms anyway.
how much added 'fun' (subjective but valid) the change has given you,
Nothing new. My interest for quite some time in amusement in SWG has been far away from droids - it's a means to an end at this point (money), and I'm just too stubborn to start another crafting profession to continue my financial success. Oh yeah, and I love droids.
how many lost customers have you had as a result of the publish,
Lost a lot, gained a lot. It's early to tell how long the gains hang around though. Unless Publish 8 really dazzles - and I mean REALLY - I will simply remain in the DE profession until the market dries up or the parts run out and I just lose the will to make more.
I'm not proud of my profession anymore, I simply am finding that at the moment it fits my needs. I once thought I would be a DE forever, or until I left SWG...but the passion has definately gone because I'm sick of hoping for things that at this point I'm quite sure will never happen.
.....the list goes on and on, even to the point of simply not being able to store samples of your wares in the datapad for demo purposes
My prices have gone up because I've been doing this far too long not to expect to be paid well for continuing to stay in the profession - that is increasingly becoming one of the largest factors in my pricing.
AO
My Probot sales have flatlined (they are all basics with either level 1 or no armour which I buy in from suppliers) probably because I can make a DZ70 (with only 1 combat module) that does more damage and has about the same HAM (and is even better if I make an adv DZ70 and use 2 combat modules). Unfortunately since I cant make combat modules myself I'm at the mercy of the higher level DEs who are trying to make some money from this abortion of a publish (I dont hold it against you fellow DEs).
My level 1 med droid market is probably unchanged (not that it was ever great) which is the only other market I have besides seeker droids (which is my best market but has curiously slowed over the last week) because, lets face it, there no market for level 1 item or data modules.
BAD
And frankly, I feel like the Star Wars community as a whole deserves an apology from the Development Team for what is a complete abomination. Deadlines, especially in this kind of environment, are flexible. They have already proved that many times over. The Dev's should have said "This isn't working out, and it's not ready." They should have held off the publish until the bugs were fixed and they could give us the revamp and attention our profession deserves. Instead they have turned what is arguably one of the most important and central themes of Star Wars - Droids - into a laughing stock.
At least before the patch we all had hope. What, exactly do we have now? Oh right, publish 8. Let's just say I'm not holding my breath...