Okay I could use some help in making an addon (not the actual making of the mod itself, but in the creative process of it)

Basically I had the idea of making an addon to Toasty's Robco Certified mod that allows you to turn your Robotic expertise into an entreprenoural business. I had two ideas for this:

1. More accurate Packaged Bot prices: My only real complaint about Toasty's Mod is the very haphazard pricing for the packaged robots. (Example: Protectrons are priced at 4999 caps while gutsies are priced at 1999 caps... how does that make sense?) And the fact that Crazed Inventor Junk bots don't have a price at all?

So right now I need some suggestions for revised prices for every single bot in the mod, especially junkbots since they don't have any price on them whatsoever.

(also, some way to sell Hoverbrains, scuttlebrains, cybercreatures etc?)

2. Specialized customers. Basically add in a few customers that you could sell your bots to (through dialogue rather than normal means) for bigger profits (and/or faction rep plus karma). The caveat would be that they'd only accept certain bots.

Here's My ideas so far:

Mr. House/YesMan: Pays 2x (2.5x or more if you have high enough barter) per bot. Buys: Securitrons only. (Informs you that in recent years he's managed to lose a few of his securitrons to various sources, and that a few broken models have wound up on the black market. He would like you to retrieve his "personal property" for him and will pay you generously to do so)

Old Lady Gibson: Pays 1.5x-2x Buys: Junkbots only.

Major Polatli: Pays full price. Also adds Karma and NCR rep. Buys: Anything that can fight. (In other words, anything that has some sort of attack) (He needs support to deal with the legion. And in desperation he's turned to some... unorthodox sources.)

It's a start, but I need input for more "specialized customers" . Specifically I need three things for each: Who they are, [i]How[i] much they're willing to pay (and what kind of karma gain/loss and faction rep you'll get too) [i] what [i] they want to buy (or don't want to buy) and some possible explaination for it.

Followers of The Appocalypse could buy repair/medic bots for 1.25 price...

Gun Runners could buy fighting robots at double price as guards.
Same with Crimson Caravan.

BoS could buy fighting robots too.

Soooo...

Julie Farkas: Buys at 1.25 Price (plus gives Follower and Freeside reputation) Buys: Mr Handy, Mr Orderly, Safebot (any other bot that could fit here?)

Gun Runners: Buys at 1.5x-2x price. Buys: Assemblotron (favored), Mr. Gutsy, Flichebot, Holobot, Projectorbot, SentryBot, Turretbot, Multibot Mk 1 and 2, Giant and mega roboscorpion, Securitron Mk 1 or 2(If Mr house is dead. Otherwise they'll refuse saying they don't want mr house on their ass), Mliitary Cyberdog. (They want Guards that can unload a lot of ordinance and can hold go a long time without needing replacement or repair. They have no use for robots that can't hold their own in a fight or In other words, they want only upper-teir fighting bots.) They will also buy safebots since they're more efficient than pack bramins. Of particular interest however is the Assemblotron which they'll pay 2.5-3x for, since it's not only one of the most intimidating robots, it's also useful for showcasing heavy weapons)

Crimson Caravan (Alice Mclaffery): Buys at 1x - 1.5 price. Buys:: Mr. Gutsy, Eyebot, Floating Eye, Safebot, Hoverbot, safebot, mini turret bot, Ovenbot, Tvtron, Mr Handy, (On the opposite end, Alice is looking for faster robots that have less intimidation factor and more cheap/speed factor.) Stuff that's not overly expensive yet won't lag behind.

Brotherhood of Steel (Knight Lorenzo): Buys at 1x-1.75x (plus BOS Reputation). Buys:: Protectron, Robobrain, RoboScorpion (all), Securitron (Favored), SentryBot, Assemblotron. (They're looking for Old world tech bots. "Oh and just so we're clear, we're looking for actual robots here. Protectrons, robobrains, Sentrybots. Stuff from the old world we can use, take apart, study, etc. We don't want ovens on treads or flying lightbulbs or any other jury rigged junk. And we really don't want robotic radroaches or mechazombies either." But they will buy Big Mountain based bots too, but not cyborgs. And Assemblotrons are just advanced enough that they'll take those too. Plus they can use Recursobots so they'll take them as well. But of real interest are the Securitrons, they'll pay 2x to 2.5x for those.)


hmmm there might be more later. But for now... any suggestions for robot prices themselves? (base values)

I fully support and approve of this addition.

What are the robot prices in the current mod?

Let's see...

• Assembletron: 4000 caps
  
• Multibot Mk I: 4000 caps
  
• Multibot Mk II: 5000 caps
  
• Working Safebot (the kind you buy at the store): 250 caps
  
• Eyebot: 1000 Caps
  
• Floating Eye: 1000 caps
  
• Mr Handy: 1500 caps
  
• Protectron: 1500 caps
  
• Jury Rigged Securitron: 1500 caps
  
• Mr Gutsy: 2000 caps
  
• Hoverbot: 1500 caps
  
• Mr. Orderly: 1500 caps
  
• Robobrain: 2000 caps
  
• Securitron Mk I: 2000 caps
  
• Unique Brainbots: 5000 caps
  
• Securitron Mk II: 3000 caps
  
• Sentry Bot (both types): 3500
  
• Broken Protectron: 100
  
• Broken Mr Handy: 150
  
• Broken Securitron: 100
  
• All other bots not mentioned (including cyberdogs, Junkbots, Turret and miniturret bot, and Recursobot: 0 caps.

Okay I've attempted to come up with a better more realistic formula for pricing the robots. What I've come up with is this:

Cost equation for constructable bots: Materials* x (Labor ((Skill required / 100) +1) * Teir# )

*Values for guns and armors are /teir to discourage players from buying fresh and new and using that especially for the lower two teirs.

teir 1 = 0.25

1 & 1 (weapon/armor calc only)= 0.325

teir 2 = 0.5

Teir 2 & 1 = 0.625

teir 2 & 2 = 0.75

teir 3 = 1

Also anything (except ammo) with a value of less than 10 is multiplied by 5


# Teir division is as follows.

1 = 1

1 & 1 = 1.25

2 = 1.5

Teir 2 & 1 = 1.625

3 = 2

4 = 4

5 = 6


JUNKBOTS:

Since we can't produce these through recepies, a different formula is needed.

Materials x Teir

Teir =

1 = 1.5

2 = 2.5


Only problem is that a lot of the time with the bots I wind up pricing them LESS than the orginal bot price listed above. (Full list coming soon)

Okay here's the new list. However I think that my calculation that I mentioned actually underpriced quite a few of them (in particular the junkbots and teir 1 robots) while SEVERELY overpricing the Teir 3, 4, and 5 bots.



As you can see we have a bit of a problem. the Teir 1 and 2 robots are underpriced, while the Teir 3, 4, and 5 robots are severely overpriced.

If anyone is interested in helping me out in repricing these, I present to you another list: one presenting the minimum cost in parts needed to make each bot. This is just the bare minimum cost for each part. Note that some bots need armors or weapons as parts. for this one I'll include the full value of these weapons and armors but I'll also include the cost of JUST the armors and weapons in parenthesis next to it so you can adjust the cost for armors and weapons if anyone so chooses.




So there you have it. The BARE MINIMUM cost to produce each and every single bot, assuming you're buying the weapons and metal armors at 100% condition from either the gun runners or the Silver Rush at base price (100 barter skill)

Yeeouch, yeah, those price tags are a bit hefty. The cheap prices of the low tier (it's tier by the way, not ''teir'') stuff are actually probably alright, if you want people to even consider using the cruddy ones, but those tier 3 robots are at least 10000 too expensive. The tier 4 Multibot costs as much as an average player makes in an entire game. Just eyeballing it, I'd say drop the tier 3+ robots down to double the cost of their parts. That keeps them still far pricier than the tier 2 robots, while still affordable.

Queue

Dat Multibot Mk II price!

Thing is, I wanna give some incentive for building and selling Upper Teir robots over lower ones. Otherwise if you just double the price of Teir 3+ robots there's very little incentive to build say, mutlibots over just building a crap-load of protections and handies.


But on the other hand, perhaps the "Unique Customers" idea could take care of that problem by giving customers that pay extra for these bots and yet ONLY want certain those kinda of bots.

I have to wonder though should I include the full price of the weapons (for bots that require weapons) into them or should I only include a fraction of them in order to prevent players from just running to the gun runners/Silver Rush to buy weapons for the bots just so they can sell them back at a huge profit, instead requireing players to either seek out bargins for these weapons or find them themselves?

Edit: Here's the new equation system I came up with. hopefully this should do a lot better than before.


and here's the new list. This time I've included both the fractionalized weapon costs AND the prices with full weapon values factored in.

Tier. I before E!

Those prices look much more palatable. For most of them, the FWP doesn't look particularly worse, except in a few outlying cases (like the Mini-turretbot where it nearly doubles the price); however, going with a fraction of the FWP will probably make more sense. Remember that the NPC merchants don't have infinite stock (I mean, sure they restock, but you can buy them out temporarily) so relying on them for weapons shouldn't be the end of the world since a player could only potentially make so many robots purely off of merchant bought parts before having to wait for the merchants to restock.

Queue

Any chance we will see this "customers" with their newly acquired tech patrolling, wishing for a nuclear winter?

You mean like with the fallout 3 robco certified?

Ha ha ha... no. unless someone else helps me with that, definately not.

I'm definately not that skilled when it comes to that sort of thing.


Hell, i'm not even sure how i'm going to get the dialogue systems going for the customers in the first place. >.>


Right now i'm trying to figure out where to put the Mr House greeting, or how to make that work.