Smuggler Archive

This is a modified version of a reply to a thread I made tonight:

It's been said many times before. It's not about the cost to slice, it IS about the service rendered. 30% more speed or damage or whatever...is a lot...so is 20% for that matter. The service rendered is worth more than 100c/%. And according to all of you people using costs to make the tools needed as arguments...are you saying a Musician or Dancer should buff for free? Well? It doesn't matter, really! Who cares? No one is gonna charge you more than 15k a slice, and what is 15k nowadays?! You pay that much for 2-3 hours of godmode from a doc. You pay weaponsmiths 100's of thousands of extra credits for a good slice! Just please stop coming on these boards and telling us Smugglers that we don't need to raise our prices. It is our decision, not yours. We are not talking to you, we are talking to our fellow smugglers. And as for the smugglers who like to slice for next to nothing...fine, it is your choice if you want to keep the slicing market from reaching it's potential. It is your choice if you want to try to get more slices and therefore make more money than your fellow smugglers. It is your choice to do that and to ruin the market for public slicing and in turn ruin your own profit.

AND NOW, MY FELLOW SENTIENTS, THE POINT:
It's not about the money, it's about pride. We and what we do is worth more than 3000 credits. Period.

15K? Whow.

I charge 5K and get pissed all over all the time.

I don't give a flying F. what they say, I ain't going lower than that.

I don't slice for anyone but myself and my friends anymore. Waste of time. I'd be happy to do a nice bit of roleplaying slicing things for people if they wouldn't say things to me that would make my Mother cry, or threaten to report me for telling them ahead of time that it costs 10k per weapon slice and then actually expecting them to pay afterwards! I just don't understand why people become so offended when they find out they won't be getting a slice for how much one gets payed to destroy a couple kreetle lairs. When they find out that they won't be getting charged 50-1mill more than the unsliced cost of the weapon just because it IS sliced. (Referring to weaponsmiths here). /shrug. People like that make me sick.

HotHeAd#34895793: "You @#$^$%&! 10k to slice my weapon so it performs 30% better than before!? OMG!!! That's nuts! Are you insane?!"
HotHead walks over to a doc.
HotHead: "Hey doc, how much for a buff that will last 2 hours and fade just when I need it most?"
Doc: "12k"
HotHead: "Okay, 12k on it's way, cause Ima get buffed today!"

Just imagine this...A Rifle with 400 damage. A rifle with 400 damage getting a 30% damage slice. A rifle with 520 damage.

As a Customer and a Novice smuggler, here is what I have to say about slicing price :

I really don't like the credit per % price system because :
- I don't know what I'll have to pay before the slice
- I won't bother ask for a slice unless it is the top end weapon/armor and don't plan to change soon.

I finally made it to be able to buy a light compo armor.
Cost me 250K, a hell of alot of money for me.
Of course I was unable to wear it, and spent days trying to find an ID.
So I made it sliced by a nice master smuggler hoping for an encombrance slice.
He priced with the usual per % price system, and the result price was 24K. As he was very nice, round it at 20K.

So, roughly, the slice price was 10% of the armor price. Seem reasonable.
And I think a price based on the original item price make much more sence, that's why for the weapon I always buy pre-sliced.

Cost based pricing system is an old joke. Use your cost to calculate your minimum price, not the market price.

For the comparaison with doc buff : Weapon and armor last longer, but don't last forever (a friend of mine use 2 guns a day), and a slice does help, but don't give you god mode.

My advices:
-Set fixed price per item (please cheaper for ubese than for a compo, novice cert weapons cheaper than master cert weapons,...)
-Sell pre-sliced items (especially weapons), people will usually have no problem paying more for a pre-sliced item than for the item+the slice because they know what they buy.(also true with armor, but require either AS skills or alot of money)

Smugglers are the lone gun men of thisgame and those who have stuck around through the holo grinding and mass exodus of players for whatever reason should be patted on the back. Far as pricing goes, do what you want, who cares. Any kindof union or slicing cartel would just lead to more"master slicers"(grrrr I hate that term) out there yelling in front of starports giving people sub-par slices. They get a 10% on a geo pistol or krayt enhanced item and that will be the last timethey forget the name of thelast Master Smuggler to slice thier items. Also these sort of agreements kind of get rid of the lone in lone gunman and seem to me to go against the ideal of a smuggler most of us have.

If all that still has some of you mad about slicing for others do two things first before you go off on anyone. First, do not make your character searchable, you will be surprized how few tells or mails you will get just by doing that. Second, put up any title other than Master Smuggler. You may still get a few tells, especially if you use Slicer, but it will cut back a great deal on the requests for slicing.

I keep my Master Smuggler tag up (hey, I earned it), but I'm not searchable (what criminal advertises in the phone book). The only tells I get for slicing is when someone sees me standing there (I figure it's my rep )

Anyway, when someone does ask for slicing, it's 5k per slice. For awhile, I got no complaints, but lately, I've been getting the "nm" response (how polite is "nm" anyway). My response to the "nm"?

"Good luck."

I need cash as much as any other guy (more than most, I'd say) but 5k sounds reasonable for a permanent upgrade to weapons or armor. I mean, what's 5k? 15 minutes (or less) running one of those popular Quenker missions on Dantooine (get two and get two weapons sliced for less than double the time of doing one). Slice is paid for and the benefits will be around for some time after.

People have just become used to cheap slices and until they can't get cheap slices, that's what they'll expect. I see more and more Smugglers here saying they stopped slicing for the public. If it was hard to find a Smuggler willing to slice, the prices could go up, but right now, there are plenty not only willing to slice, but willing to slice for very little cost. I figure if I went back to 2k per slice and stood outside Coronet Starport, I'd make a good bit of cash, but how much in comparison to a few missions during the same amount of time on the more advanced planets? Probably less.

So, I'll continue to slice for those who request it and are willing to pay my price. If they think the price is too high, good for them.

I should be mastering tonight (only 50k more pistol exp to go), and I was thinking 5k per slice would be my price. I see a lot of people slicing for 5k, and a bunch for less, but I learned the pricing game when I did 3 months as a Master Doc. I am not going to do the pay-per-percent deal. The randomness and variablity is part of the game, not part of my skill.

5k is really quite reasonable for a permanent modification to a weapon or piece of armor. Doctors are charging 8-10k for 2-3 hours of buffs, and a decent weapon will last many times longer than that.

"Good Luck" really is the proper response to someone complaining. It'sa free market, and if you want to shop around for a slice bot to savea couplecredits, so be it. I don't want to sound like I have an attitude, but after all, I am supposed to be a smuggler, in it for the money, and yeah-- I am cocky about my skills.

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MobusDyrus wrote:




About the lone gunmen thing. If saying "Fellow Smugglers" made you say that about lone gunmen...well, you got it wrong. Not only did Han Solo always have a partner (Chewie, and even had another for a while), he had tons of fellow Smuggler friends on Nar Shaddaa, his home. Bounty Hunters are the lone gunmen. So if wanting to play out the part of the lone gunman is the reason for some of you not wanting unite with the other Smugglers to raise prices...you are playing the wrong part. Don't forget, it was the Smugglers who united to fight off the Empire in the Battle of Nar Shaddaa.
Anyway, I'm sure whatever changes the devs make to the slicing system will be a good excuse to raise prices. Not that we need an excuse. But that is so very far, far away now.

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The only reason Han had a partner was because he saved Chewie from slavery. In fact, during their first adventures together, Han wanted nothing to do with Chewie. It wasn't until after Chewie saved his life more than once that Han decided to keep him along.

When Han Solo got involved with Luke and Ben, he didn't want to do the job, but took it anyway because he knew Jabba would kill him if he didnt get the money. The whole time he was involved he kept saying that he wanted nothing to do with the rebellion. That he just wanted his money so he could leave. sounds like a lone gun to me.

Regarding the infamous battle at Nal Shaddaa, the smugglers ONLY united after Han (and some of the was able to sell to them the fact that their individual operations would be in jeopardy if they did not try to defend themselves. There are other examples of smugglers uniting in the Star Wars universe, but it always comes down to a self-serving purpose. The only time you actually see smugglers willfully working together is when they're working FOR someone. Something which can be difficult to roleplay in SWG as it is now.

Now, getting back to the original subject.....I'm telling you from personal experience that there's no way we can organize an EFFECTIVE server-wide price hike on our servers. Simply put, although I agree that we should charge more, many more people don't, won't or don't care.

I know I'm coming off as cynical here, but I spent quite a bit of time from November to February preaching the same message "We should all raise our prices". I got all the same kind of responses that we see today. Nothing has changed.

I currently charge 200cr/% on all weapons and armor pieces. I also charge 5k to slice a locked container (go bother a novice smuggler if you want it sliced THAT bad ). I have my pricing clearly stated in my profile and its the first thing I do when someone asked for my services, "Check my profile for pricing". I personally think the credits/% pricing model is best because I don't think people should pay the same price when they get a +35% slice as they do when they get a +15% slice. I've only got 1 complaint from someone who I was slicing a suit of armor and a couple weapons (>10 items). He stated I should give him a discount "to keep the customer happy". I told him if I wanted to keep my customers happy I'd have been a Dancer instead of a Smuggler. He paid the bill and ran off without a word .

My current rate upped to 10k per slice. Barely anyone ever asks for the price before hand. If they won't pay after they find out, I just got some free equipment to resell or use if it would benefit me. My rate for locked containers will always be 5 times my normal rate. Don't **edit**ing ask a master to slice a container unless you expect to pay. Go find a bloody novice.

Message Edited by RoninGaijin on 05-25-2004 06:07 PM