Droid Engineer Archive

Thread: My most embarrasing MDE moment

Squygxicus
Sat Apr 03, 2004 10:55 am
#1

OK, Im gonna try and keep this brief but I have a hard time doing that, please bear with me!


So, Ive been planning on MDE since getting this game last month. Ive been not grinding it but just trying to build things as I go along, with the occasional grind here and there when I get a hold of cheap resources. Well last night I finally reach the pinnacle. MDE! So instead of toiling in my lab making stuff I whip up a R3 fully maxed out for combat with level 6 armour segments that our guild armorsmith helped out with a pair of nice composite armor segments. Now Ive been working as a droid engineer sometimes artisan sometimes miner/surveyor since buying the game. So I figure I got about the best combat droid I can make and its probably pretty close to the tops in the galaxy. (Its only 102 on the combat modules). Now my guild is awesome, a lot of encouragement and tonnes of free resources to get to where I am and the weaponsmith needs some template found in the Genosian cave so I figure Ill go and help out with the schematic.


So our intrepid little group includes a master riflemen/doctor, combat medic, commando, and master creature handler/swordsman and me. So we drop on Yavin 4 whip out our bikes and start the drive. As we are going the armoursmith is telling us on voice that he is really looking forward when our little town becomes a research center. Hes not worried about the cost because he sells three times the weekly charge in a like a night of armour sales. (I really dont know if hes exaggerating or not but hes probably pretty close) . Im in a negative cash flow as I havent put up many droids because I cant compete in the cookie cutter world of DE. My Probots cost the same to make whether Im like 4 4 4 4 or 1 1 1 1 (wherever adv probots are), and why buy mine when you can get a maxed out one for the same price. Ive been suplementing my income through mining and selling weapon power ups on the bazaar!


Well we get to the cave and we are getting prepped, we've all been buffed and getting ready. I pull out my prize droid and group him. I turn around and I see the absolute biggest beast I've ever seen in my life. The little name on top says "A Rancor". Ive heard they're bad but never run across one. I ask the CH if its his, he assuages my fears and says its a pet. My guild is laughing at me (not serious) because I rarely have been off planet. As we are going in I mention something about Sparky (my droid) and one of them says "great he can lay incapped in the first room".


Well I dont really need to continue the story but I got a lot of comments like "hey cool his head spins around before he drops" and stuff like "well at least that lightning bolt thingy looks cool."


We get to the end, someones already killed the baddie, so we leave. I go back to town, sit in my lab and experiment up a muzzle min/max damage and a tertiary point blank mod. My first experiment and its like "Wow guys look what I just made" on voice. Everyone else says "WOW make as many as you can I'll buy em ALL!"


So here I am a master DE, showing off about the pinnacle of my profession in the Genosian cave and my guild instead of putting in orders for the bitchin' droid I just made, get excited over a weapon power up I create in my lab before I log off.


I think Im taking my Droid vendor down and put up a nice little artisany vendor selling beginner artisan goods at a noob town. Im sure Ill make more money. Maybe the architect in the guild will lend me a vendor tent (I dont have enough to buy one).


Sorry if this doesnt make sense, just had to vent somewhere where people might feel a bit of sympathy!
Jnath
Sat Apr 03, 2004 11:41 am
#2

oh man, well i enjoyed your story for the sake of a read, but of course this is a common occurance. One thing to the little droids credit, the geo cave IS a bit of a stretch for any pet at the level that droids are currently at. Now the rancor is a pet that can last at least a while there.


But im not surprised by the outcome. My business thrives from the sale of powerups, even my guild weaponsmith makes them. So dont feel bad about making them, you can supplement your losses to droid sales.


But this brings up a larger issue really. Its that the combat level of droids does not reflect the price (which equates, of course, to the cost of production). The best cutsomer from a customers standpoint is a player working on the marksman or brawler tree. Unfortunatly these are the customers that dont have much in the way of creds (at least compared to adv combat professions). Now the customers that can easily afford our products, those with adv combat professions who can generate more creds thru higher level missions, dont need a droid. The mobs that they are likely to encounter (im thinking dantooine and dathomir here) are gonna be able to easily take down the LE (with highest HAM). And yes there are repair kits, but they run out eventually. So what are we left with? Selling a tool to level faster, perhaps, but where is the return business in that, where is the lifetime customer?





Jenar
Master Droid Engineer
Director - Cabal of the Toothy Maw
Cult of Sarlacc (Starsider)

"It's the accumulation of small pinpricks over time that causes one to bleed to death" -- Shian Tavkin, Master Droid Engineer/Master Artisan
Kaldeth
Sat Apr 03, 2004 2:39 pm
#3

I feel for you. Being new to a profession is never easy. As you say you have to compete with others in the same profession who have been around longer and managed to 'corner' a piece of the market.


You put your heart and soul into reaching MDE and earning that title for you were a path that to many is just a stepping stone to something else. Some have a large stack of resources at their disposal and can reach master in any crafting profession fast while others, like you have to do it a bit of time. For that you have my respect.


Your story as sad as it was, also told me that you have good friends that help you out and that even if reaching MDE wasn't what you might have hoped it was, you still reached it.


I salute you





********************************
Member of The Power Empire (TPE)

"Droid Invasion? More like Droid Evasion"
AvalinSabine
Sat Apr 03, 2004 4:47 pm
#4

Yeah. I just became an MDE, as well, and have had the same experience. "Hey, I made the best droid ever!" Hah. That's like saying "I spent thousands of dollars and hours and hoursand made the best bedpan ever! ... But everyone uses toilets these days."


Well, droids aren't quite that bad, but so much effort for such little reward...


I can't possibly imagine how the veteran DE feels.



--------------
Avalin Sabine

Master Pistoleer | Master Rifleman
Fort Krayt, Tatooine, Eclipse Galaxy



Shian_Tavkin
Sat Apr 03, 2004 8:53 pm
#5






AvalinSabine wrote:

Yeah. I just became an MDE, as well, and have had the same experience. "Hey, I made the best droid ever!" Hah. That's like saying "I spent thousands of dollars and hours and hoursand made the best bedpan ever! ... But everyone uses toilets these days."


Well, droids aren't quite that bad, but so much effort for such little reward...


I can't possibly imagine how the veteran DE feels.






Ohh, you really, really, dont want to know. Believe me.



Shian -- Master Droid Engineer/ Master Artisan
CapnSteve
Sat Apr 03, 2004 11:47 pm
#6

I know how you feel. My most exciting moments are when I make a really good crafting tool or fishing pole.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Kauri) Indur Dawndeath - Master Droid Engineer / Smuggler (0,4,1,0)
(Chilastra) Indur Dawndeath - Creature Handler (3,3,1,1) / Smuggler (0,0,3,0)

"Next thing you know it's going to require a Droid Brain in order to make an Electronics GP Module. Sheesh." --Kollos
Aeneus
Sun Apr 04, 2004 12:01 am
#7






Shian_Tavkin wrote:





AvalinSabine wrote:

Yeah. I just became an MDE, as well, and have had the same experience. "Hey, I made the best droid ever!" Hah. That's like saying "I spent thousands of dollars and hours and hoursand made the best bedpan ever! ... But everyone uses toilets these days."


Well, droids aren't quite that bad, but so much effort for such little reward...


I can't possibly imagine how the veteran DE feels.






Ohh, you really, really, dont want to know. Believe me.





come on now... a little taste.... bitter, resentful, angry, pissed off, outraged ( I could go on... but you would notice a pattern... its all negative)



Glory to the Empire
Jenden
Sun Apr 04, 2004 12:34 am
#8

not all of us are cynical, bitter "old farts" (in reference to game time, not necessarily age). I get all that out of my system in real life.



Jenden Morn - Master of Droids- Tarquinas
Droid Engineer Blue Glowy
Owner, Operator, and Founder of DarkStar Inc.
Groupy of the best band in the galaxy, Solar Flair
3D art of Jenden by Saeelwenea

Aeneus
Sun Apr 04, 2004 12:46 am
#9

yeah, not all of us 'old farts' are angry... but I'll wager a BLL that the majority of us 'old farts' are angry



Glory to the Empire
Shian_Tavkin
Sun Apr 04, 2004 1:47 am
#10








Squygxicus wrote:


<snip> a worderfully telling tale


And then said :


Sorry if this doesnt make sense, just had to vent somewhere where people might feel a bit of sympathy!





You do have my sympathy, but it's a tale I have heard all too often, and it really makes me weep for all you keen new MDE's. It genuinely does.


Such high expectations and such low reality.


I too once thought there was some kind of equality in mastering an elite crafting profession, sadly this is not so. The DE is not anywhere close to being as useful and as wanted as your WS guildmate, ar an AS guildmate come to that.


I'm sorry it is so, and worse, it looks like it always will be so.


We tried to make it different, God knows we tried...and we finally failed. It will never be what you want it to be.


You do have my sympathy, lots of it.





Shian -- Master Droid Engineer/ Master Artisan
slaier0702
Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:32 am
#11

I know how you feel. Soemthing similiar happened to me a few weeks ago. How about pulling my "battle droid" with sense of pride, and then see a CH pullout a matching set of rancors and one of my own droids. The only thing he wanted me to do was resurrect the droid.



This past weekend I began to research Weaponsmithing and Architect. I want to feel that my character has useful features.


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