Droid Engineer Archive

As far as the money thing goes, my suggestion would be to head up into space (assuming you've got JTLS). You can make very easy/quick cash there. Also, if you've got plenty of patience you can go the non-grinding route, which means you don't need really any up front cash (couple thousand for some harvesters and energy would do trick). Then just make some droids to sell (you'll need to either find a friendly local DE that would be willing to sell you some higher level modules or else come up with some very creative advertising).
As far as the resource thing goes, I personally buy all my resources, then again I've already got the liquid capital so I can do that. When you're just starting up usually its better to harvest your own till you can get rolling at least (and even then most people continue to harvest their own).

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Jenden wrote:
As far as the money thing goes, my suggestion would be to head up into space (assuming you've got JTLS). You can make very easy/quick cash there. Also, if you've got plenty of patience you can go the non-grinding route, which means you don't need really any up front cash (couple thousand for some harvesters and energy would do trick). Then just make some droids to sell (you'll need to either find a friendly local DE that would be willing to sell you some higher level modules or else come up with some very creative advertising).
As far as the resource thing goes, I personally buy all my resources, then again I've already got the liquid capital so I can do that. When you're just starting up usually its better to harvest your own till you can get rolling at least (and even then most people continue to harvest their own).

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Thanks for your reply Jenden. I do have JTLS, but I've never been much of a space person. I've done a few freelance missions and looted some credits here and there, but nothing worth writing home about. Unless I am missing something obvious, which could be the case.

I will look into some harvesters. Thanks again.

Whats your IGN on ahazi, I Have a BH on that server, who could get you into a guild (imperial with grinding groups, its own shuttleport and vehicle garage.Im sure we could come up with some deals to help you on your way. I can also give you some in game advice on DE, although Im not yet a master DE myself, I have learnt a fair bit as Ive gone along, by not power grinding. My DE is on Radiant and so I wouldnt be able to help with decent modules on Ahazi.

DE is one of the longest grinds going for crafters, one of the least well paid, and underused , but if you love droids you're in it for the right reason, and that makes it all worthwhile

The only way to make good products as a novice DE is by buying the modules in, until you get top quality resources and a decent amount of expermentation points, your modules wont be that good.

Realistically you are going to want to master artisan as well, you will go through memory electric gp modules like you wouldnt believe. buying them in will be an expensive venture.

with master artisan being a easy grind, you can then make and sell weapon upgrades etc, and vehicles.

Well unless you are one of only 2 DEs on your server I doubt you will be selling many droids at Novice DE till you get some more boxes filled. And unless you have lots of credits(which it sounds like you surely don't) you will definately want to make/use a bunch of harvestors for a long time and probably forever. You will need a gigantic amount to even get up to MDE plus you will need a fair amount of varied resources to make any of the droids in demand. It can help you in the long run if you get the full list of the named resources we require for certain droid parts and drop some harvestors on them anytime they might show up on your server.

If you're totally opposed to harvesting credits in space, you can take crafting missions for quick income. Go to Tyrena in Corellia and pick up two of the 1500c crafting missions from artisan terminals (refresh until you get them). This is how I supported myself when I first started out. That and setting up a few harvesters somewhere and selling the resources cheap (like 2:1 or thereabouts).

If you don't like space there are two other goods ways to make money, and quick.

Crafting Missions, that you get from Artisan terminals.

One of the best places for this would be Moenia to Deeja Peaks on Naboo, then Deeja Peaks to Moenia. With no shuttle wait times if your willing to buy shuttle tickets you'll make a little less off each mission but get them done quickly. You'll have to play with it some to be sure which missions go to which town, as its been so long I can't remember. But once you got that down pat this is great way to make some money.

Also do not underestimate the bazaar. Right up front vendor expense might be something you want to avoid, but you can make money selling on the bazaar. It has a 20k limit. Usually Mos Eiseley, Coronet, and Theed are good places to sell on the bazaar. You might try seeing what's for sale. I know recently I found someone on Radiant that was a week old, he had found a niche market on the bazaar in fireworks because noone else was making them. He was making more than his combat buddy.

Keep in mind maintance is turned off, which should help you get started as you don't have to worry about paying maintanance on your harvestor to mine ( you still will need to pay some to make this green before you pick them up. ). You will need to still provide power though . Vendor maintance is still paid, just structure maintanance is disabled, and soon city will be as well ( City is currently on TC).

Yep, Artisan crafting missions are a great way to make cash. There's a good cycle between Bestine and Anchorhead that I used back when I did my first artisan grind to make cash. Tyrena has a higher payout if you get missions to Vreni Island, but there's nothing on the return trip. I did quite a few of those, too, though.

If you master artisan (always handy), there are a lot of things you can make with nice margins. Vehicle customization kits, vehicle restoration kits, subcomponents for elite crafters (like electronics memory and GP modules), etc. Some artisan foods are good sellers, too. See the Artisan forum for more details.

Personally, as much as I like surveying, I've found it much more economical in terms of time to just buy my resources once I have the cash. I have a lower margin but I can spend my time crafting, not surveying, so my business does more volume and (most importantly) I have more fun.

Planning on starting DE this weekend or so to go with architect, but now I have the credits to do it.

Message Edited by KupyiLabe on 09-30-2005 01:23 PM

I personally harvested all my resources. I only buy resources that I desperately need and haven't got. Two years down the line I havetwo full houses of resources. I'm now at the point where I only harvest when something reallllly good comes along.

As to the space thing, at first you don't notice the cash turnaround but if you climb up somewhat into the harder levels you get to fight the harder ships which drop the higher loot. Ship parts looted are sold at 1k a level so a few mid level pieces could net you10k or so. Also, sometimes you can finish a single mission run (the higher ones are made up of multiple missions) with almost 10k in cash or more.

Another way to go is to get to master artisan buy some steel/iron and aluminum/copper with high resistance and toughness and make some vehicles. These can sell real good but take quite a few resources for each vehicle.

Great! Thanks everyone. I didn't even think about the mission terminals. I am too combat minded. This is my first crafting profession.

• ORE! All of my other toons mine ore for a nice monetary supplement. Every ounce of ore you mine will sell for at least 3cpu on bazaar. Architects need TONS of ore. Isell 6k ore for 20k credits. ATM you have a very easy start. Build 2-3 wind generators and 7-9 personal mineral harvesters. This will net you free money for awhile. Sometimes you can even find these on bazaar for 100-1k credits. With no maintenance it really can be free money... build you own harvesters, harvest your own power, no maintenance. Nothing out of your pocket but the initial resources to make, which you can survey and sample for, so really all free.


• Artisan Bazaar Sales. Mastering Artisan is easy and can be a money maker to start. If you can find someone with a unused factory, make a few schematics for the ranged weapon powerups and mass produce some. One other thing to note is Bazaar sales can be very different than vendor sales. Some players won't take the time to do a vendor search so they will pay more for bazaar sales. You can put stuff on the bazaar for 20k, and sell it, when on a vendor it would do good to bring 5-10k.


• Loot. Lots of good loot can be purchased for little money and sold for lots more. Just have to keep your eyes on the bazaar. This can take awhile for return on your money, but it can give good money. Mainly this is for after you get established more. My first character bought an AT-AT suit for 1k and sold it for 10k the first day. My second found a rebel suit (?) and done the same. Haven't found any since either. lol There are "Droid in Contrast" paintings on the bazaar (vendor) for 400k and up. Took me about 10k to build my own, and now I have 4. I also calculated to build a glasstop table for my vendor would run about 275k at the current prices, they are selling for 400k and up. Some things can be bought for 1k or less and immediately sold for 20k. Sometimes you sell and sometimes you have to hold on to it for a little while.