Weaponsmith Archive

I usually stick to a base line system for weapon. I do not use the resource map I usually do flat charges. 3 to 5 k for pistols 3 being simple ones 5 being more complex ones. Carbines 3 to 5 k same way. Rifles 2 to 6 k the exception being t21 for obvious reasons. Special heavy and regular heavies for 10 k flat rate. Melee 1 to 5 k.

Its really more a question of what your market will tolerate, and what niche you fill. If your economy is bloated all to hell with weaponsmiths. No choice you are going to have to charge low just to get in the door. You will not beat them on quality, and high level combats will blow 50 k more creds just to get three more points on a weapon. So they will not even pay attention to you just starting out.

You are right though do not go compareing other weaponsmiths prices. Compareing with someone that makes the absolute best will not help you at all. He can gouge and get away with it you cannot. Other times you will go to a shop and see lower quality weapons going for high prices. Once again this guy might be a farmed weaponsmith, or worse he is really greedy and might not be selling those weapons. If you have to compare use the bizarre. This is a good way to tell what you can get away with. Gives you a good view of how healthy your economy is. How fast does the items sell. How high can you get it before sales slow down.

The best rule of thumb is to be makeing 5 times cost to obtain the resources. If you get power cheap and use very good harvesters you can do it for as little as a credit a unit. So if a weapon uses say 200 resources. You should not sell it below a thousand. That mark tells you that you will not starve to death. That is the most important thing of all. You should take anything you hear about here about priceing with a grain of salt their are alot of highend crafters on this forum. They have advantages you do not. From stockpiled resources, contacts, reputations.

Your scout pos. Might not even hold a candle to their scout from heaven. If you use their priceing system. You will arrive at what they charge for theirs, but you will not sell it. Focus on what you need to survive and what you need to grow first. Then figure out where your economy is running at, and where your guns fit in the spectrum.

You have a point. It's been some time ince I was a novice marksman so perhaps 2500 is a bit high. I'll have to rethink it a bit. Busy trying to master smuggler this weekend.

pi squared * CL / resource count = Min price
pi squared * CL / 2 x resource count = Max price

Don't ever sell ouside those ranges, and you'll do fine.

if y = 1/x^2 +/- a^2b + c

Where y = resource price,
x = resource amount
a = time resource has been despawned
b = amount of resource currently in stock
c = rarity of spawn

Pricing = n

n = random number

Thanks, ummm....

now I need to buy a super duper scientific calculator.

I use a rather simple equation:

Y=30x+5000

Essentially, 30 CPU per resources (x), plus a 5000 charge for factory/my time. I don't charge high prices for any of my weapons (ie on Valcyn, some big names charge a flat 35k while mine flucuate depending...my most expensive unenhanced weapons are around 28k [Heavy lighting rifle]). For me, its more than enough to make a profit...granted its not as big as I could probably get it, but I do want to sell my weapons (which they do).

For enhanced stuff, the equation gets more complicated however...

In all, its really up to you and what you feel it costs to make per weapon, and still make out with a profit. Some weaponsmiths who buy their resources exclusively may not make a profit using the above equation, but I'm one of those folks who has spent a good 8 months mining on my own (I was an architect prior, so I made my own fleet of harvestors) compiling my stock of resources so I can make out quite well.

Message Edited by StarNick on 09-26-2005 09:28 PM

Actually I'm pretty sure he's gunna have to use my equation to be successful

Haha!

I struggled with this when I first started, the only problem with using formula's based on resources, and sub-comonents used etc is because of the wonderful way that our schematics were not updated when all the weapon CL's were calculated for the CU you could end up charging the same for a CL14 weapon as a CL54 weapon and I just don't feel happy with that.

I just do a global vendor search and get a rough idea of what the other WS are charging, then I check my stats compared to theirs - and adjust my price accordingly. I might raise the price a little if I sell out a particular line very quickly or lower it if it doesnt sell.

Seems to work ok for me

My pricing mechanism is simple

aggravation factor *1 million credits

Now the calculation of my aggravation factor is a little more involved..

((Number of Tells/Hour)*(Number of Tells/Customer)*(Number of Components in Stock/Number of Components Needed)*(ResourcesI Dont Have and have to Gather))/(Previous aggravation factor)

Unfortunately the aggravation factor keeps growing with this formula and I find myself selling unenhanced CL10 item's for half a million credits..

You gotta account for inflation somehow eh?