Shipwright Archive
Thread: Number of shipwrights in decline? Is is starting? How is it on your server?
thecolonelcardaks
Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:46 pm
#14
GOOOD I say, more business for those of us who have the fortitude to stick with it. I enjoy the class, but moreso so I can make my own components and ships because goddamn they are expensive if I wanted to buy thatcrap (rightfully so, but still expensive for poor me) cheaper to mine my own resources and build. 
Chra
Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:06 pm
#15
I have seen three trends in my business.
1) The purchases of low end ship chassis still happen from time to time, nice to see new customers now and then. But sales are getting pretty much thin for chassis on anything but the weekend. The only positive side is I haven't made a chassis in over 3 weeks except by special order. I buy other people's. They make them cheaper than 5 cpu, I sell chassis at 5, I will take the meager profit and call it a day.
2) Purchases on armor and missiles remain unchanged. It seems that the mad rush of new stuff has fanned off, but the old regulars keep on replenishing. I am pretty bad about the ordinance though. Upping the prices to 20cpd hasn't dropped off sales at all.
3) High end equipment always sells in the tier 3 and 4 market, especially the Weapons. This hasn't seen any drop in sales at all. Now I wasn't running a booming business but it pulled in .5 mil a day without chassis sales. I am down now to .3 - .4 mil now with .7 mil weekends. I am in the process of upping prices to 25 cpu to thin out my customer base some more.
I think it is getting to the point where marketing and good business sence is starting to take effect.
My model works very well for me. I replenish 20 - 30 items a day (which I hate) but I always have my customers, many repeats. Even at what I consider very high prices (I try to give the best quality I can for the money, but still), my sales are stable. I owe it not to my craft but to the business model. Good location, High mechandise stock on hand, and very complete selection.
So yeah, thinning out. I think it's all about business model now *g*.
PetaByte32
Thu Dec 09, 2004 10:23 pm
#16
Yes people are leaving. I think for some its the competition thing. Limited factory support didnt stop that like so many imagined. Only made the competition more clear cut and harder. I have seen many shipwrights on my server quit because they cant compete with the more hardcore powergamer shipwrights.
Tyranus
Atreus47
Fri Dec 10, 2004 12:17 am
#17
I think it's a combination of several things.
1) People are leaving the game
2) Loot/RE parts are often superior
3) Honeymoon is over, most people are at least tier 4 and have the ships and gear they want
4) Solo group nerf. A lot of people have had thier incomes cut by 2/3.
5) Decay removed from deep space
1) People are leaving the game
2) Loot/RE parts are often superior
3) Honeymoon is over, most people are at least tier 4 and have the ships and gear they want
4) Solo group nerf. A lot of people have had thier incomes cut by 2/3.
5) Decay removed from deep space
Message Edited by Atreus47 on 12-10-2004 01:17 AM
Rogue1970
Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:05 am
#18
I've seen some decline and I'm not concerned about it.
On chasis - at 5cpu for Tier 1-4 & 1mil for Master ships(my prices) I'm riding out the grinders and still selling a few - I just keep a limited stock so not much is tied up in them
On Parts I get 80-20cpu (Tier 1-4) for parts - thats 25k/45k/75k/100k/160k for advanced parts - they sell out frequently.
I'm using mid-high range resources on chasis, mainly because I have 20-30mil units on hand at all times (I employ over 50 miners for myself and guild needs). My cost is around 4cpu - so I get a 1cpu markup on chasis.
Parts tend to use avg 10cpu resources or better - to maintain the HIGH stats where they matter - a Mark V engine under 103.3 speed is typically deleted rather than sold for example.
I hear about the occasional price complaint, but never to my face - I assume it comes from the uninformed who doesn't bother comparing stats - so I don't worry about it at all.
80% of my business is repeat business and my customer loyalty seems fairly high - about 30% is guild customers which is expected of course and they all get 10-20% rebates on parts when asked as acourtesy.
With the sales drops since launch I did have to suspend buying ALL space loot from anyone, and now only buy in-guild. Going from the 30million credit with3 hour linesrecord day the weekend after launch (hand crafting that was a carpal tunnel nightmare I'll tell ya) to the 2-5mil a day in sales now took some major adjestments to what I was buying resource wise - but it's still fairly profitable.
I did d/l all my vendor mail and have a 3rd party program read all my Novemeber emails - I spent 230mil in Novemeber and made 200million - yes thats a LOSS - but I over bought resources like mad trying to keep upw itht eh demand - now I'm sitting on a HUGE chunk of high stat stuff I can ride on for months. It's nice to know I won't be forced to pay 20-50cpu for stuff I snagged for 10-20cpu last month tho - as the high end resource market is near depletion on Intrepid now.
If the grinders and fly by nighters are falling out - fine by me, I'd rather compete with the knowledgeable high quality crafters who price near what I do - fair, well stocked, high quality competitors are much more challenging and fun to deal with.
WranglerDekar
Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:44 am
#20
always said it would drop to bout half steam from the initial launch, leaving the real SW's behind. Myself being a master on bloodfin, I focus mostly on munitions and armor...the occasional shield or weapon but nothing much else. loots still overpower a lot of things.
Neogame
Fri Dec 10, 2004 5:16 am
#21
Yes i've noticed this too. think it has to do with "honeymoon" is over and also most pilot have or nearly have mastered their pilot prof so they have "their" ship of chose. I'm currently only 3000 on SW and doing 1box per week. but i'm 3332 pilot. As i haverst all my resources myself its a bit slower. once i've masterd the chassis part i plan to put a couple of each ship type in my vednor and then only make ships as custom orders and replace the one/s sold. everything thing else will be missiles, countermeasures and componets (crafted and RE'ed) as this is where i think the money will be.
Ulrick
Fri Dec 10, 2004 8:58 am
#22
Neogame wrote:
Yes i've noticed this too. think it has to do with "honeymoon" is over and also most pilot have or nearly have mastered their pilot prof so they have "their" ship of chose. I'm currently only 3000 on SW and doing 1box per week. but i'm 3332 pilot. As i haverst all my resources myself its a bit slower. once i've masterd the chassis part i plan to put a couple of each ship type in my vednor and then only make ships as custom orders and replace the one/s sold. everything thing else will be missiles, countermeasures and componets (crafted and RE'ed) as this is where i think the money will be.
I would have to agree. The main reason that the prof is in decline is that in order to gain decent crafting XP, you make chassis blueprints. That burns up resources like crazy and the market is so saturated right now, you can go buy tier 2 blueprints on the bazaar for 4-5k.
However, for the higher-end pilot, they are looking for the strongest weapons out there, and so the market for that will be hot for a while, until everyone has the ship and key components that they want. Ammo will stay in demand as long as people are using it up, but that's the deal. No other component really gets "used up" and needs replacing unless you get yourself into a real mess in space and need to actually replace components due to damage. Decay hasn't really impacted any of my own ship's components yet so I can't speak to decay's impact longer term on market demand.
hockeyrules
Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:10 am
#23
Actually, I'm amazed by how many people in my guild who do NOT have JTL. I wonder what is the overall percentage of people who are still playing on a regular basis, but have yet to purchase JTL?
thecolonelcardaks
Fri Dec 10, 2004 9:57 am
#24
Remember too that engines and reactors degrade from people using those very popular overload commands. I know I used to use engine overload alot to make my khirax go 1100, but my nice RE'd engine is wearing down, so unless you are in deep space, those commands will decay equipment more quickly... so thats a potential market.
Also, I just frankly enjoy making my own components and running a small shop. I make quality goods, but I am not trying to compete with the powergamers... i dont have 100 lots, i have 9 (1 borrowed actually so 10). But I feel it is more fun that way because I am totally self-sufficient. More interesting. And i meet people on missions and have guildmates who need stuff, so i do enough business. I am in it for myself mostly though. It is a fun crafting profession.
pwiffo
Fri Dec 10, 2004 10:13 am
#25
As expected, SW is going the same way every other prof did. Lots of people try it, but in the end the ones that survive are the ones that focus on quality.. either quality of goods and/or quality of service (2nd is more important for profs like tailor without stat'd goods).
Just as an example... I havent stocked/sold a chassis in a week or two, but my high end components are selling quite well.
You have to really like crafting to put up with the lack of factory support though. Maybe some of those quitting just found they dont have the time to hand craft everything... which is a shame.
Pwiffo
FS Master Shipwright
Valcyn
Just as an example... I havent stocked/sold a chassis in a week or two, but my high end components are selling quite well.
You have to really like crafting to put up with the lack of factory support though. Maybe some of those quitting just found they dont have the time to hand craft everything... which is a shame.
Pwiffo
FS Master Shipwright
Valcyn
repoism
Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:25 am
#26
hockeyrules wrote:
Actually, I'm amazed by how many people in my guild who do NOT have JTL. I wonder what is the overall percentage of people who are still playing on a regular basis, but have yet to purchase JTL?
i think our guild was/is right around 10 percent. 100 or so members and i think i can name 10 who fly