Ranger Archive

I am an aspiring bio engineer (1 1 1 3). I just went through the math on what its going to take to master this, and I am thoroughly depressed. I need something like 80,000 units of meat. If I look on the bazaar, a 'good' deal is something like 4cc per unit, or 320,000 cred for me. There is no way I can afford that. To keep the factory going and all the harvesters running and powered, my hand crafted pet stim business is just keeping pace.

So I've looked into self harvesting. The problem is my crafting profession requires so much in terms of supporting skills that all I have left for in my build is say novice pistoleer with no range weapon support.

If I use pets, I get valuable CH experience *but* my meat yield is horrible. If I go solo and volume kill little stuff, I can do ok, but still I am not pulling down that much meat with my hunting 4 rating. Also when I solo it, thats all I get...the meat. I don't need pistol (i train and detrain that all the time to help people with apprenticeship), I don't need combat, and more scouting is doing nothing.

Now I don't need any great quality or potential energy on this meat. If it is meat, it works. When I look on the bazaar, I just look for the words 'meat' and the size of the stack, and the price of that stack. That is all that matters.

So I came here hoping you guys could give me a few good strategies for obtaining vast quantities of cheap meat. Have any of you been hired to do something like this? Should I be hanging around Endor trying to get in parties? I don't really need any med experience either, so it would just be purely for the meat.

Fluorence D'icatto/ Flurry

I would suggest networking.

A friend of mine is an aspiring bio-engineer also. After he told us about his meat requirements, everyone I hunt with started harvesting meat. People with just a touch of scouting resumed harvesting -- they had stopped. I'll harvest meat from any critter who has poor hide or bone. All in all, he has a surplus of meat now. The sheer quantity of it has compelled him to purchase a small house for storage. Needless to say, he is a happy be.

I realize that it might be hard to create that sort of network at first, especially people who will give it to you for free. You never know what will happen if you just ask around, though. Many players are pack rats and are holding onto stuff in their packs, banks, and houses -- saving for when they might find a use for it. Perhaps offer discounts on pet stims?

Also, I know a good number of rangers who prefer selling organics directly, bypassing the bazaar entirely. You might be able to establish a good business relationship with a few of them. When I supply someone in bulk, I will give some discounts.

So I came here hoping you guys could give me a few good strategies for obtaining vast quantities of cheap meat.

One of the biggest problems for hunters in the game is that many players don't pay attention to what they're harvesting, they're just out there hunting for weapon xp. Consequently, most of them are just giving it away on the bazaar to keep their inventory clear. So you need to find mid-level players that aren't really into selling their harvests.

So do this: Create a macro that shouts "Want to clean up your inventory or safety deposit box? I'm buying all meat of any quality in any quantity!" Then go to Coronet and travel back and forth between the Starport and the bank, they're right next to each other. You'll catch players returning to their home base after a hunt, looking to dump whatever they picked up. And don't spam your message more than once every 60 seconds, it's very annoying after people have heard it for the ninth time.

When somebody asks, offer 1 credit per. If he laughs, offer 1.5 or 2. If you make a deal with someone, be sure to tell him its a standing offer, you'll take all the meat he can harvest at that price. Write his name down and send him an email once a week, asking if he has any meat he's looking to unload. Ask him to tellhis buddies that you'll buy theirs, too. Don't worry about picking upsmall amounts of a particular meat. After awhile, they'll stack up into a usable pile.

Did you say you make pet stims with them? Give away freebies to your trading partners to foster a sense of gratitude. People remember other players that unexpectedly give them a nice little perk.

Then travel from city to city doing this routine at the Starport and Bank, stick with the more crowded planets like Tatooine, Corellia and Naboo. I guarantee that in a week or two you'll have established enough ongoing relationships to get what you need at a priceyou can afford.

Also, depending on your critter that you hunt with (occasionally), you might go Nudfuh hunting on Rori. They drop a decent quantity of meat, aren't too hard, and (my favorite) are single aggressive, so you can stand in the midst of them shooting and the only one that will attack is the one you are shooting at. Admittedly, the quality of the meat isn't all that great, and it can get boring as all get out by your 3rd nest of them, but they are good for getting quantity. In addition, Carrion Spats on Corellia and Ikopis on Rori are both plentiful and single aggressive, so they are reasonably easy to hunt, even if you aren't overly high on your shooting skills.

Your critter will help you take them down faster, too. I am averaging about 3200 units per night right now, hunting constantly for about 4 hours, for a BE friend that is trying to grind his way to the top. Not the most exciting or rewarding (kind of low XP, but I'm not in a big hurry), but it helps him out, so it's worth it in the long run.

Watch your server's message boards for high end planet hunts that you can get in on. Make sure you arrive early so that you can get into the main group. If you concentrate on harvesting everything, you can rack up thousands of meat pretty quickly. Tell the other group members you need meat to grind BE, some of them who wouldn't otherwise harvest might get you some for free or cheap to help you out.

When you are hunting solo, ungroup your pet so you don't get the harvesting reduction.

Keep an eye on the bazaar for good deals. Check the entire galaxy, sort by the time remaining in the auction. Mem is right, there are plenty of people who are either trying to unload meat that they picked up while working on combat skills, or that don't know what to charge for it.

I doubt you will be able to work out a deal with someone who earns their money off of harvesting, unless you are in their guild. Any time they pick up low quality meat for you is a time they could be getting high quality meat and making lots more money. High quality harvests are the only ones that actually pay for the time it takes to get them.

Thank you for your great ideas.

I will disband the pet and harvest afterwards. That should help alot. At least I'll get CH xp that way.

I think i'll pay more attention to meat yield. Some stuff seems to be chronically skinny. What I need to do is find a static pop of meat.

I am definately going to go with free pet stims per X meat, and maybe advertise that. I am cranking out (26x400) pet stim A's now, and up to 28 str vit packs. Direct barter might be the way to go.

The player association may be fun, although I would not want to be a burden on someone else. I would rather join a PA because its with people I enjoy playing with, not because I want them to give me something...that sort of seems dishonorable.

The little piles make big piles idea is ok for empty houses. WIth all of the stuff I need to make pet stims and the pets and the vendors, my house is getting pretty crowded. If I give up 2 more lots for a storage house, my flora harvesting suffers. Oh the sweet agony...

not grouping with your pet is definitely the way to go. although you can't keep track of it's HAM as good, it keeps that stupid 60% harvest from coming into play.

Give me an ingame email. I'll see if any of my guild members would want to do this for you. I'm sure we can work out a deal for like 2-3cr/unit or something. (my guild members are poor... they'll do anything for a bit of dough, not to mention that most of them barely have their feet in the SWG water, so they'll need xp from lower lvl creatures anyway)