Shipwright Archive
Thread: How are you coping with the drop in business?
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certifiedandrew
Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:32 pm
#1
I used to get anywhere from 25 to over 100 customers a day back when Shipwright started. Now I get one every couple of days. I haven't gotten any less reliable, and my competition hasn't gotten better; in fact, they now have less stock and still have higher prices. I don't know for certain what's causing it. It could be the no-decay state of JTL, or it could be large-scale boredom. I've noticed that the cities are gradually plumping back up with people.
In any case, do you guys still craft, or do you coast with what's on your vendors? Your desire toseek new resources; has itwaned? Have you dropped SW? I myself am contemplating doing a huge final run; 1 or 2 days of crafting-crafting-crafting to stock my vendors to the brim, and then dropping SW so I can use the points in something that holds my interest and has a market. I'm hesitant to let go of my premium resources in case something is done to jolt business, especially with the resource market as it is.
I am honestly leaning towards doing that and picking up Speed Capped M Rifleman and some scout. That'd allow me to breeze through NS and get the crystals I need instead of paying 5-8 mil for each one.
Doo-Boo
Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:06 pm
#2
My business has been fairly steady the past few weeks. There will be an occasional day lapse but normally I keep busy. I replace items as sold with 2 or more of piece sold. Your competition is out there and is better than you give some of us credit for. 
GreatWarrior
Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:23 pm
#3
I don't know, my business seems to continually do well. People tend to like good Imperial shipwrights 
LexanderFarlander
Thu Jan 13, 2005 9:50 pm
#4
My Business has disappeared since the holidays have ended, id atleast sell 1 or 2 ships a day plus a few missile packs, i thought my price of 3 CPU was great until i walked around and saw all the competition was charging between 1-1.5 CPU for chassis, so until these guys run out of stock im pretty much stuck business wise and grind wise.... im at 4/2/2/3 and without any income comparable to what i was pulling in before i wont be able to Master Shipwright for awhile, but im opening up two new shops hoping maybe its just the location thats getting me (My main shop has 5 shipwright shops within 200m)
So hopefully establishing my new shops will help business, but meanwhile to cope for the lack of business im continuing the grind which led me to become a shipwright and working up Rebel Pilot scraping in enough money to keep the harvestors going.. but its a blast so
anyways thats enough of my rambling take it easy
Croll
Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:20 am
#5
From a customer's perspective I will say that most shops are not well advertised in their Galaxy Trade Forums. I have specifically visited shops that advertise there as I like to plan my day out rather than spend a couple hours browsing endless parts or finding empty vendors. Not only that, but places like just outside Coronet include a "Shipwright" vendor every 50m or so, and most have zippo on them. I am more likely to go to a shop that is well advertised in my trade forum before taking a chance with what the map waypoints in game "claim" is a shipwright vendor.
Case in point I was shuttling through an area to get back to the starport faster, and had 4 minutes to kill. I noticed another "Mall" guildhall, and decided to check out the shipwright vendor there. Finally found some decent parts, good condition chassis at about 2CPU, and best of all I found a fully stocked chip/flight computer vendor. I ended up spending a good 20 minutes browsing items, and will likely continue to return as long as the vendors are kept well stocked. I had never heard of this vendor, and it was well off the beaten path of any starport so it was just luck that I happened to be passing through. If this person had advertised in the trade forums I would likely have already visited once or twice.
Ackew
Fri Jan 14, 2005 10:56 am
#6
Well my sales have actually been picking up lately after droping down to a very low level. but then quality and a well stocked vendor will win in the end over the low ballers
Rowgue
Fri Jan 14, 2005 2:57 pm
#7
It has to do with the fact that JTL was new and it is no longer so. When it first came out everyone was buying ships and parts like mad because everyone could be a pilot as it requires no skill points and it was something fun to do that added some flavor to the game.
Most people that are interested in ever doing any piloting are already masters, and as such business is bound to drop off except for the occasional great gun or shield or whatever else they haven't been able to find anywhere else yet.
All crafting professions went through this in the beginning. When the game was new armorsmiths and weaponsmiths were rolling in money. Everyone had to have their comp and uber weapons. After everyone had these though business slows to a crawl. Sure after about 2 months I needed to go get a new set of armor and a new weapon, but it's just going to be a lot slower once everyone has pretty much what they need.
The days of being able to make millions every day without fail are over for most of us shipwrights. Most of my business comes from mark II space bombs, and paint and texture kits now. People buy up all my space bombs almost faster than I can make them, as all anyone does anymore is load up some space bombs and go help a group of 4/4/4/4's kill the vette. And the paint kits sell very well for me because people just can't seem to make up their minds about how they want their ship to look.
I have scaled back my chasis and component crafting quite a bit, but as far as I'm concerned that's a good thing. I don't really feel the need to rack up millions and millioins of dollars, as I don't have much to spend it on. I'm quite happy with a much more reasonable time sink in crafting, and a little slower trickle of income. It gives me much more time to take care of customers that need custom orders, or time to work on taking care of my city as I am the Mayor of my town as well.
More customers doesn't always mean a more enjoyable time in your crafting profession unless your only goal is to make piles of money as fast as you can. Personally I set my shop up so that the people of my town always have access to the ships and parts they need without having to travel all over the galaxy sorting through empty vendors. I still make a good profit on everything I sell, but it doesn't matter to me so much, because the only thing I really spend money on anymore is maintenace on harvesters, structures, vendors etc, and the odd piece of furniture or clothing when I feel like changing things up.
RasalTheWise
Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:32 pm
#8
Honestly, this is a natural part of the game. The excitement of JTL has levelled off and most people have their ships. The legions of SW's will dwindle down to a group of core SW's and they will be welcome into the ranks of the "normal" crafters. 
It happened to the Droid Engineers during Publish 7 and 8, it'll happen to the Shipwrights.
It happened to the Droid Engineers during Publish 7 and 8, it'll happen to the Shipwrights.
Scythykins
Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:39 pm
#9
This was fairly predictable...it's an economic craze. Good amount of people come in for the initial investment, then it skyrockets, everyone jumps on the bandwagon, going great going great, people start to cash out, and the market starts to fall...eventually it will stabilize with those who actually want to prosper in this profession. I personally think that phase is still a month off, but hey.
Stormwatch
Fri Jan 14, 2005 6:39 pm
#10
Well we have to consider a few factors that affect Shipwright sales accross SWG.
1. Jtl is not new and more than a few have jumped on the WoW bandwagon and will return due to certain things that will hurt WoW.
2. The holidays is a huge reason for slow sales and missing people.
3. We also have to realize that when a person purchases a ship along with the components that they won't be returning anytime soon to purchase a new ship or large scale ship component purchases. Business for me has been about right, with a little time and effort I am building and maintaining a consistent customer base. This is attributed to the length of some of the legs to Master Pilot plus the length customers have to go in order to raise the cash to purchase the next level ship. Which depending on the server and SW can range from 50k upwards of 10 to 20 million.
4. More than a few customers have told me "Customer for life" because I took time to answer some questions or craft an item or two for someone. It seems that in order to be successful you need to be friendly and take time out of an otherwise busy schedule, it works in Real Life and ingame.
Plus unless you have houses all over the planet for resource storage if we were truly busy with sales everyday in huge amounts we would run out of resources and either spend all that we've earned on resources or tell our customers, "wait 7 days until i can craft more."
Mariki
Sat Jan 15, 2005 10:44 am
#11
I did very well the first month of SW. I made enough to make it worth while but at this point in time its a lot of skill points not earning their keep so its time to move on. I made enough credits to last me a while and not work at all.
Look at the latest business climate. People are selling chassis for 2 CPU. In the past I have done quite well supplying high quality resources at a higher CPU rate then that and it only required survey 4 on my part.
The profession has hit rock bottom and there isn't many people even flying now.
The next big push is gonna be in the ground game. Dedicated shipwrights will be waiting a long time for the next big drive to get people back in space.
But hey, do what you find fun, thats what the game is all about.
Mosdl
Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:57 am
#13
I opened my second location in someone's tent just outside of theed, and in the 7 days its been open have made 445,200 credits. On Ahazi, there are about 11 or so space vendors registered on Naboo, so there seems to be a market for quality products. I also have guild on Lok who have asked me if I want sell in their city.
I'm also expanding and trying to sell space clothing (flightsuits) by reselling. I've had several people ask about what sort of clothing my vendors use (all have flightsuits) and think there might be a market for them.
I'm also expanding and trying to sell space clothing (flightsuits) by reselling. I've had several people ask about what sort of clothing my vendors use (all have flightsuits) and think there might be a market for them.
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