Considerations Of Clone Pricing In The Star Wars Universe

If it's somehow interesting or entertaining to anyone else, I was recently wondering over how much clones cost in the Star Wars universe in comparison with droid costs.

I like thought experiments because you can usually at least come away with a new or novel perspective on things. I hope I didn't kill off too many brain cells trying to figure it out, but if you feel a strong disturbance in the force you'll know what happened.

Note: This is all purely speculative, since it's fiction. I don't consider it moral to "grow people" for evil intentions. Also, I don't claim ownership of the mem uploaded. I just needed to have an image to upload this article and don't have a clue who made it. If they ever ask me to take it down I would.

So, what would go into the price of a clone? And would it be comparable to the price of say, an battle droid? Also, what might that logistical nightmare look like? And lastly, I'll give a possible GM aid for tabletop RPGs in calculating their price.

The place I was sorta working from was that clones couldn't be too much more expensive than a droid, or else it wouldn't be cost efficient. Someone could just buy ten times as many cheap droids and then overrun positions of clone troopers, for example, if they were that much cheaper. However, if one clone was worth like 20 droids in combat they could be priced more expensively. But, judging from storm trooper accuracy... Hey, that was a low blow! *You have been awarded one dark side point* Ahww, maannn.

There's also the time value of a clone, in more ways than one. Even though a clone took half the time to reach maturity as a regular humanoid, 9 years is still a long time to wait when compared to mass producing battle droids in a relatively shorter period.

Arguments could be made either way for why or why not it means clones are more expensive or not. Like, droids are made of special metals, materials, etc. so that would increase their cost as well but they'd last longer too. So production time, and long-term usability would affect the prices of both. However I'm not sure if it'd be good or bad for who. It'd just depend on market conditions, the sentiment of the players in that market, and who won out at whichever specific time the purchase is being made.

The main cost, I think, would have been the simple logistics required to feed, house, equip and train the clones. Perhaps, one way of lowering this would be to create the first batch as like a national guard, or reserve force, that farms, builds, and performs other helpful skills to provide for the next rounds of clones. They could be a backup force and double as Kamino security, but would be phased out as like a throw away batch since by the time the last batch of clones was produced the first one might be too old for combat.

The next costliest factor, possibly, might have been the specialists salaries needed to produce the clones. Lab researchers, workers, and skilled scientists are going to cost a good bit. Even if they managed to setup an highly automated system of machines to do most of the work, the machines would have been expensive, I'm sure, since it's precise, good quality laboratory equipment we're talking about.

Then you've got the owners. The Kaminoans would have wanted a healthy profit margin for the inevitable problems that arose and ate into that margin so they didn't end up with a loss. To get an idea we'll step back into reality for a moment to consider what a realistic profit margin looks like. It will probably surprise you to know that generally speaking, a lot of the larger corporations have smaller and smaller profit margins. For example, oil companies, and businesses like WalMart only have like a 1 or 3% profit margin. "If only the government could figure that out" right?

Long story short the median profit margin of a business in the US is only around 7%. So half make below that and the other half make more. Now, let's assume the Kaminoans are greedy since they sorta have the emperor over a durasteel barrel, so charge 20% because he can't get clones of such good quality anywhere else. That'd mean the clones have to be more expensive since anyone could setup a droid factory, while no competitors could come in with clones to price them out.

Some of the price of each clone would be influenced by the cost of facility construction on Kamino. Remember those platforms above the turbulent sea? They kinda remind me of the Big Shell on Metal Gear Solid 2.

Anyway, one of the biggest problems that's apparent quickly, is the need to build more platforms for growing the clones. That's where a lot of the cost would be. What percentage, I don't know but construction, especially on such a difficult planet to live on, would probably cost more than usual. There is the possibility that they were grown on planet, and then moved once they'd reached a certain maturity level to another location. But, then that would take large cargo ships which cost even more money.

I'm sure I'm overlooking several things, including official cannon for the Star Wars universe.

The way droids are priced would influence how the clones would be priced. In Shadows Of The Empire Xizor's special assassin droid was so lifelike it cost over a million credits. A droidika costs over 20k. As a different reference on the spectrum a protocol droid only costs around 3k. What would there be to stop someone from buying up a ton of old junk droids, and then hiring a developer firm to reprogram them with using surplus military gear?

If clone troopers are as good as 20 battle droids they'd have to sell for 60k or less before they were competitive. Also, I'm assuming they'd come with their own armor, arms, and equipment. That would definitely boost the price of a clone. I guess droids would have the same problem though.

There's also the modifiers of buying directly from the manufacturer, at wholesale prices, brand new, in bulk, second hand, retail, or in locations where they are hard to come by.

In the comments section of a Youtube video (below in the sources) someone mentioned that a clone cost over 800k, but that the price went down after more rounds were purchased. I had searched to see if anyone else had offered their calculations for quicker reference. My ultimate conclusion is that it's up to the GM, which is sort of a cop out. Sorry. A lot of similar questions go that way.

I sorta slipped into tabletop RPG talk there. Part of the reason I wondered too, was for gaming purposes. Here's a possible GM aid if anyone's interested. For a quick and simple roll, to determine how much a particular clone is running for, you might roll a percentile die, and then multiply that by whatever other die you think is appropriate, depending on the circumstances. Even then you might add modifiers that factor in.

Ex. Darth Bob is trying to buy a platoon of clones to attack his rival. They're on an outer rim planet, but it unfortunately has laws against cloning.

The GM rolls a 1d100 to establish the base price. It's a 36. (That's just what the market is currently costing for a brand new clone at the time.) Being in the outer rim makes it a more exotic purchase, and being illegal makes it even more so he just adds a 1d4 for each of those together they end up rolling and being a total of 4.

36 times 4 equals 144. So each clone would cost 144,000 credits, and a platoon (32 clones) would end up being 4,608,000 credits. That sounds good, to me at least, although it might have just worked because the dice cooperated.

Would a clone really follow orders from someone though? In the movies they had been programmed a certain way, so I guess so. That'd be a major selling point, as opposed to just hiring mercenaries, and would definitely up the price some. The customer would know the clone could be trusted.

Humanoids certainly make errors, but droids would too so we'll just say those just cancel each other out. However, unless the droid is very high quality and expensive, the clones would be superior in adaptation to circumstances, and problem solving. That's another desirable quality to have, and worth something. I mean, not having to micro manage and tell the droids every little thing to do. unless, you like that. then... *you have been awarded one more dark side point* Grrr!

One possible way a customer could lower their cost might be purchasing like a license from the Kaminoans so they could grow their own clones. they'd need to make their own infrastructure to produce and house them though, so it'd have to be a big enough order to even consider it. Only a small country, mega corporation, or planet would think that was worth it.

Durability for lack of a better word, would be another problem in the formula. Clones need food and water, but droids need an energy source too. Droids can be knocked out with an EMP, but clones need to sleep. Clones need a habitable condition, or equipment to endure it, but droids can work in oxygenless climates.

In conclusion, clones would definitely be more expensive than most droids, but might serve a part in an strategy where droids just can't do the job. anybody needing clones for battle would probably use them up before they lost their value, while droids could be stored inactive for several years and then used again.

Are you a clone in need of citrus?.. or just a regular person who'd like fresh picked citrus delivered directly to you? This link below is to a fundraiser that helps the blind. If I can I'll remove it at the end of January 2021 when the sale is over.

https://shop.floridaindianrivergroves.com/ecommerce/1023163

Sources:

A Reddit article where the contributors came to a lot of the same conclusions as myself. How satisfying to have my preconceived notions reinforced *you have been awarded another dark side point. Now turn over your character sheet. Your character has fallen to the dark side* Noo! Nnooo!

https://www.reddit.com/r/MawInstallation/comments/5d8l6i/battle_droids_vs_clone_soldiers_which_were_more/

Great Article, 2 of many I think, breaking down the cost and logistics of building a clone army -

https://nerdecon.com/blog/2018/2/18/secret-clone-armies-part-i-personnel-costs

The referenced Youtube video -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8uEWO0fcRU

An interesting article slightly unrelated, but breaking down the cost of a galactic credit as compared to a Big Mac. I kid you not. I'd like to buy this guy a one for this highly entertaining article -

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=442915