Hi,
My character is a high-intelligence, high-perception scientist/crafter, which uses crossbows as its main combat weapon (but also has some firearms training). I'm playing under the oddity XP system. That was for the context.
Now, I'm making decent money thanks to crafting (at first, it was mostly on extracted chemicals from rathounds, but now, weapons and armors are my bread and butter).
However, I've noticed that not all recipes are interesting, money-wise. That is, if you craft pistols and SMGs, you make a LOT of money (those my character crafts have the value of more than 2x the base parts, AND add 3x the value of most "extras" (for some extras, it's not as much, maybe only x2.5 or so, but it's still very interesting to buy parts, craft the weapon, and sell the result). Same goes for Tactical Vests, Riot Armors, and Metal Armors. Not very sure about leather armors (those are profitable, but kinda "beneath me", now ^^).
But, for other recipes, it seems that there's not much, if anything at all, to gain from crafting them (apart from the powerful item itself, that is):
Assault rifles are not as profitable, if they do not sport any extras (I'm guessing the base components modifier is lower - but it seems to be offset by the "extras" modifier, which is maybe higher).
I've NEVER been able to make a profit on a sniper rifle (they always sell for less than the buying cost of their parts, and even the premium on extras doesn't offset that initial loss). For goggles, extras seem to factor at 2x, merely reimbursing the expenses you went through to buy the amplification parts. And the list goes on.
So, I'm wondering: Is there a good reason for those differences ? Is that a balance decision, to prevent players from being riddled with money too easily ? Or is that merely happenstance (which could possibly be amended ?)
I'm asking because it seems to me it doesn't make much sense, story-wise (and, more generally, economically speaking), to "lose" value when adding work to something. Especially if you produce rare, and highly-sought, very-high quality items...
Right now, I find it hard to monetize most items, to the point where I don't even bother with anything electronic anymore, don't bother with traps either, only build grenades for my own use (which is pretty high - I find that roasting people and other things tends to dramatically improve my survival rate),
mostly rely on medicines and weapons/armors for money, and I was wondering how I could (maybe) relieve those other merchants of the money burdening them.
I mean, sure, I also sell high-quality repair kits to some merchants, but that's usually very limited, and those guys tend to gobble up much more of my cash than I get back from them - blame the nice, shiny parts (or battered and rusty, heh - I'm not judging) used to produce the aforementioned weapons and armors.
So... Are there other good recipes I should try, or are electronics and those other recipes I mentioned a non-profit area ?