Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Pricing your Droids
Hi all.
I was wondering what kind of prices you guys have on the various droids you make and sell. Are they based on the total number of resources (Component resourcesincluded) or are those using components higher then those not using components?
I know as I am 3-0-4-4 in DE that only the MSE isn't requiering any components, but as for pricing.... I haven't got a clue.
I dont sell many droids, and most of those I sell is to the guild.
Also what kind of price range do you have on the ADV. chassis? Not for droids, but to be used as decorations and such?
Would really appreciate any input on this.
I gather my resources myself. I uses a friends factory when needed. I sell of my own vendor.
Thank-yee for any reply regarding this.
So for instance, any given component price = (((resource_count + rares_modifier) * resource_per_unit_price) + subcomponent_total) * profit
What's nice is that this cascades beautifully up the line, from the simplest electronics memory module to an R3 advanced fully-loaded.
I have 'named ranges' on my spreadsheet which contain the final cost for each subcomponent, so my formula cell for 'subcomponent_total' may look like '=EMM+2*EGPM' for a seeker droid.
I'm thinking of simplifying my formula. Something like 3cpu * (X+Y) X and Y are multipliers based on rare resources, factory time required, complexity, and experimentation results.
Whatever I come up with in the end will probably stay right around where my prices are now, but I wouldn't need to ALT+TAB to my spreadsheet quite so much whenever someone wants an order estimate.
Yeah, I have college level calculus, but I hated it and I'm a lazy minimalist at heart.
My price works out to be:
4 cpu * resources + 21 cpu * rare resources + 1000 * tech level + 300 * components + 500 * factory components + x.
x is an arbitrary value I assign to raise/lower prices on a few droids.
To take the easy way out, I actually have gathered the pricing from all of the various droid engineers who already sell in my area (Coronet of Ahazi). I did this for two reasons: A) they have been selling longer than I have and as such know what people will or won't pay round these parts and B) It prevents me from undercutting my fellow DE.
As such, as well as looking into the various excellent methods laid out here, see if there's any local DEs running shop near you and examine their prices. Using them as a theoretical base, experiment a little. Raise the price, say, 5 or 10k higher than what they sell them for and see if you still sell the same amount of droids.
All in all, sales are as much about location and region as they are about mathmatics and numbers. It varies wildly depending not only on what server you are on, but even which city you are in. That's my two cents anyhow.
Ackis wrote:
My price works out to be:
4 cpu * resources + 21 cpu * rare resources + 1000 * tech level + 300 * components + 500 * factory components + x.
x is an arbitrary value I assign to raise/lower prices on a few droids.
I like this one.
Well, after testing this formula with some minor changes: (4 * resources) + (21 * rare) + (1000 * tech) + 300 * comp) + (500 * fact comp) + X, on an MSE and using X = 0, I come up with 272 credits. That's 28 credits less than my selling price. That's not so bad. The difference can be made up by X. But X is arbitrary and I don't like those factors. I would have to assign X to something like skill level. Maybe X = (skill lvl * 30). I'll have to try it on some of the more sophisticated droids.
errr jenden, are they ever adding edit for us lowly non admins?
I'm too lazy to spreadsheet this... its a game, not a second job. =P
What I normally do is just charge 5k for the basic droid, 10k for an advanced one, and pop a 3-5k per module onto that.
The prices stay fairly close to what other the other DE's I checked on were charging... maybe a little high for the ADV R2's and 3's, but that'sjust the PITA surcharge kicking in. ![]()
And I don't do mouse droids.