Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Resources : why so much exactly ?
I'm kinda new to DE but there is something I still can't understand : Why do those droids require so much resources ?
I mean I'm crafting Advanced Droid Frame Unit to grind faster but...150 steel / 70 Fiberplast LOST for only 462 XP...what is it ?
It takes me much more time gathering resources than to craft...am I doing something wrong or is it just poorly designed ? Why is "practice mode" wasting resources ? Aren't we....practicing ?
Useless to tell I won't purchase those resources so I am harvesting them (buying such amount of resources would cost trillions).
Jenden wrote:
I bought most of the resources, its really not too bad, you can make more than the resources cost selling the droids (even at novice). It takes a bit longer but puts you in a better position later on.
It's "really not too bad" if you already have millions of credits laying around, which I'd wager most starting DE's do not. I know I had less than 1k on me at any given time when I was grinding DE.
RokleMNoK wrote:
It's "really not too bad" if you already have millions of credits laying around, which I'd wager most starting DE's do not. I know I had less than 1k on me at any given time when I was grinding DE.
It took me a few months to get to a decent DE level, as I had to run missions to buy hoppers to mine resuorces to grind - rinse and repeat.
If I had been a bit smarter, I would have sold off some of the resources.
One thing to do during your grind - if you find the DE rares, stock up on them and do not grind them. It will slow your progression down, but it will be worth it in the long run. The things to keep an eye out for are:
- Duralloy steel
- Ditanium steel
- Neutronium steel
- Link steel aluminum
- Duranium steel
- Lidium extrusive ore
- Dioxis gas
Yes, I spent about half my time running missions to feed my harvesters, the rest of the time crafting.
If your dont have alot of money you need to mine resources yourself but you need to do it smart.
You need to get some small personal harvestors with 10 as a rating/speed. You may not realize it (or maybe you do) but not all harvestors are created equal. FInd a good archie and as him to make the fastes harvestors possible (small ones are cheaper). You can get a 10 speed and they rock!
Then relax, find a good spot of steel. Plunk down about 3 or 4 of the same type of harvestors (mineral) and let it sit for about 3 or 4 days, run missions while your waiting and get some money to buy power (dont pay more then 2cpu for power.. find a seller who isnt gonna rip you off). Mow you have a nice stack of 50k steelor MORE, switch it out, now put down 4 small chemical harvestors, same good speed. Again let em sit a few days and make sure your always on 80% or 90% spots. Now in just a week or two weeks you will have like 100k of the two resources you need. Grind away. Prior to that do missions, make some freinds.. you would be suprised how much people will help you if you get to know them and are freindly and kind.
RokleMNoK wrote:
It's "really not too bad" if you already have millions of credits laying around, which I'd wager most starting DE's do not. I know I had less than 1k on me at any given time when I was grinding DE.
That only assumes you're grinding, I started DE with 2-3k (after purchasing novice DE) and made it to master without running a single mission. All you have to have is patience. I sold all 200+ mouse droids needed for blueprints one (took me about 1.5-2 months). After that its actually all pretty much downhill, you can get a skill every week or so just in customer sales. It won't get you master in 2 days but you will come out with more credits, a much better understanding of the profession, and most importantly, a massive customer base that is worth much more than the extra time it took you.
"If your dont have alot of money you need to mine resources yourself but you need to do it smart.
You need to get some small personal harvestors with 10 as a rating/speed. You may not realize it (or maybe you do) but not all harvestors are created equal. FInd a good archie and as him to make the fastes harvestors possible (small ones are cheaper). You can get a 10 speed and they rock!"
Umm, I hate to burst your bubble but Small harvesters max at rate 4 and 98% experimentation (unless the final 2% will take it to 5). It's the Medium harvesters that hit rate 10. I'm guessing this was just a typo/brain freeze.
Thal
The good thing though is that once you start selling droids, they have the highest markup on Credits per Unit (CPU) of minerals used. This means that compared to how much it takes to build a droid, you'll make a much larger profit than you would with most other things.
Course, the downsides to this are twofold: first, we don't have anything that takes a huge amount of minerals (barring the worthless BLL), so therefore even with an incredibly high markup it still doesn't provide insane profit like weaponsmithing does. Secondly, you have to wait till you're literally 2/3rds the way through the profession before you can really sell useful models of droids in the market. Some have found a market for lesser droids (discount models that don't have full functionality but are cheaper) but they are mainly the exception rather than the rule in those cases.
Anyway, hope that helps shed light on your immediate future as concerning mineral uses. The grind is tough (if you're not insanely rich) but worth it. Droids are the most customizable and interesting things in the game, and each level of DE gives new things to play with. But to get those levels it does take a fair bit of work.
RokleMNoK wrote:
It's "really not too bad" if you already have millions of credits laying around, which I'd wager most starting DE's do not. I know I had less than 1k on me at any given time when I was grinding DE.
I started DE with maybe 2-3k in the bank. Made myself a couple personal harvesters (back when they were only pulling at extraction rate of 2) and made droids for people whenever they wanted to buy them. It took me about 1.5-2 months to get blueprints one, but once I did I had a decent amount of money in the bank (all of which was from droid sales), from that point on it was all down hill, I'd get another skill every week or so. This didn't require me to have any money upfront (other than the 5k to get trained in novice DE). its a snowball effect, the more droids I sold, the more money I made, the more money I made, the more resources I could buy (started buying once demand started outpacing my 2 harvesters), and the more resources I could buy the more droids I could build. All it requires is time and patience. The key thing you seemed to have missed in my post was that I was speaking of going through the profession without grinding.