Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Zen and the Art of Grinding
Sorry mate. As you aren't a droid engineer you have no concept of what leveling is and how frustrating it is turning valuable resources into droids that are unlikley to sell. You have notexperienced people saying 'tell me when you can build an advanced probot and I will buy one' or 'I was looking for a new surgical droid with a lvl 6 med module' and you know you will be weeks away from that sale.
You have no idea how frustrating it is knowing you could make more money selling power-ups using your factory than producing droids.
Ranaki, you are so right. I have people ask me all the time if I can build a certain droid. I let them know that I need to go another level to do that. There fine with that responce, until they see me a few days later in the game, or send me a tell looking for that droid. When I tell them I still need that level, there like "You still haven't advanced? It's been 3 days!" I don't think a lot of people who aren't DE's realize how long the road to Master is for us. And not being able to put out some useful product at prime prices takes the wind out of your sail. My brother, who is a fencer, makes more money than me running missions even at todays payout. I'm forced to sell half of my material I mine, just to cover costs for the shop and harvestors I run.
This is starting to feel like my real life :-)
Geminii
House of Pain, Weapons and Droids
So you want to be a Master DE? So do I. I've been playing the game for a month now and I haven't hit Novice DE yet. I'm not upset though. I've got other stuff to do, like get my Smuggler level up and go on adventures.
It's a long way from Engineer to Novice DE, but I've managed to earn 80% of the experience I need in about a week. I don't practice on anything unless I fail miserably at experimentation, and I don't grind out wooden staffs that nobody's ever going to use for ten hours straight.
Instead, I'm trying to actually enjoy crafting. I'm making superior products that people can actually use and I'm making a decent amount of money doing it. If you look on the Bazaar you'll see that it's choked with jillions of low-quality items, because most of the people who put items up for sale don't bother to experiment on them. Mess around, find some decent quality resources, test them out, and when you know what you're doing start cranking out some high quality stuff. Even if it's not THAT high-quality it's still going to be better than 90% of what's on the Bazaar. I now make powerups that experimant up to 88% improvement. I make full suits of enhanced bone armor that usually sell in a matter of a few hours. Almost anything (barring low-quality blasters) will sell if you experiment on it.
Consumers are out there, hungry for quality merchandise. Why not give it to them and have a little fun crafting in the process?
This is just my opinion, but I see a lot of posts complaining about "the grind". So... if you're like me and you hate the idea of grinding... don't grind. You weren't meant to make it to Master DE in a day.
Veezor
You can't make high quality stuff as a DE. It's ALL THE SAME. Experimentation and quality metals do NOTHING.
I can go out and find something with an attribute of 1 in everything and make the same bot that I would if I found resources with 1000 in everything. It is the same.
I don't know how many people I see come in here and say "I enjoy making items that people need, I don't grind you shouldn't either, and my way is holier than thou".
Give me a few minutes to calm down.
OK here we go again. I enjoy making items that people need. The problem is I can't find people that need all the items I can make. Most are worthless. The others don't do anything at all.
I have tons more material than I will EVER use if I only made stuff for people that actually wanted it. Thus I have to grind to get to the next skill box to make more variety for people so they will buy more stuff. I cannot hold all the MSE I had to make at novice to advance, nor could I sell them all.
Please, Please, PLEASE, make them stop coming in here and telling us this stuff. We play the game the way we like it. I don't mind the grind, I don't. But really, how many people will need so many mouse droids to justify the first skill box gain? 10% of the people on the server will have to buy MSE from YOU - not including the rest of the DEs out there - to justify making them all without 'grinding'.
I never said I was trying to tell you how to play. I was just saying that people who don't like to grind don't HAVE to grind. If you're cool with the grind, then grind away.
I haven't made it to DE at all yet, myself, but I am concerned about some of the broken skills and the fact that materials seem to have no benefits.
For me, it's all the more reason to take it slow. Hopefully by the time I'm making my first mouse droids some of these problems will be worked out.
Hopefully.
I could have been master DE a while ago, but I stopped grinding because I didn't feel like it anymore.
I'm angry because it seems like every week we get somebody in here who preaches about how nobody has to grind anything and that they should only be making items that people need, etc, etc.
At my current rate of sales it would've taken me probably something like four months to reach master DE and it's the only thing I actually worked on besides artisan at one point.
Actually at my current rate of sales I would probably be broke before I reached master DE, as sales seem to be slowing down for me dramatically. All my money is going into harvesters now.
Whatever, I went a bit overboard (again) so I apologize.
I don't know why I get worked up on the boards, I never do this in game (thankfully) which is why I don't reveal my character name here. Hah.
Fig wrote:
The problem is I can't find people that need all the items I can make. Most are worthless. The others don't do anything at all.
*sob* its so true heh.
I grind because its more fun than making a probot going into town trying to sell it, mark it down 1k, try to sell, mark it down 1k, try to sell, mark it down 1k, ignore non creature handlers with thear big cats yelling "probots S**k, heres the cords to my shop where i sell nothing as weak as a probot" end up giving my probot away to guild member and go home and grind steel and fiberplast surrounded by my belovid advanced frames who wont judge me. 
"My Mouse can beat up your mouse."The problem is Grimbot, is you really DO have to grind. If I made a MSE and sold one to every single person on the server, then woohoo! 1 Master DE, barely. Have 2 people try it and they collide in short order. 20 people and no one will make Expert blueprints, let alone ever even dream of Mastery,
There is too little exp for the DE tracks to support the possibility of climbing on merely making droids as the market occurs.
I mean really, everyone and their country cousin already has a craft station bot and/or a medic 6 bot. What market remains for the new Novice and their Med 1 MSE, when Med 6's are out there and common??
I fought the grind and the grind won...