Hi,
currently, crafting seems to be in bad shape and in general more or less a time- and moneysink. It does not serve any real other purpose.
I find most of the system very well thought and promising, but the implementation is a plain fail.
1. Character and Item Customization:
Pro's:
+ Having recipes for base items, which defines the LOOK of the character is a very well thougt feature. The player can select the appearance he likes best and use additions to "bring up the item to speed" recording to the players level ("modding").
+ Recipes for base items can be purchased at crafting trainers, acquired by drop luck and luck in crew missions. Most crafting professions seem to have access to such base items. There are of course crafter professions where base items are not useful (e.g. Biochem).
Con's:
- The visual color of the base item cannot be altered, neither in the process of crafting nor later. There are different recipes producing the same looking items with only different color.
- Recipes for "adds" (mods, enhancements, crystals, hilt, barrels and armorings) are only available for up to character level 49 prerequisite for usage. So they do not compete with drops from level 50 Flashpoints nor Operations. The possibility to customize the characters appearance at level 50 is obsolete or very, very expensive if i unmod the dungeon drops to update my custom base items.
- There are adds recipes missing for crafters. Not all adds available can be crafted (e.g. rewards from level 50 dailies).
Solution:
=> Rework the recipes of the base items to have destinctive appearance for each one. It is possible to add "color" during crafting time to alter appearance to a manyfold setup.
=> Add recipes for level 50 adds. They must be competative to dungeon item drops/daily quest rewards. It is possible to provide the recipes to those adds as drops in higher tier content of SWTOR.
2. Comparison between crafting professions:
Pro's:
+ The player can decide what kind of items he want to create. Each crafting profession has a distinctive set of items available without overlapping with other professions.
Con's:
- The cost of increasing skill in the crafting profession is not comparable between the professions. While it is e.g. simple for Armstech (grinding barrels), it is not possible for Armormech (requires about three times of resources).
- Crafting professions currently have different worth for level 50 characters. While e.g. Biochem might add real value to the characters, e.g. Armstech does not. There is simply no recipe for competative gear for drops/quest rewards.
Solution:
=> Balance effort to gain skill in crafting professions to match the requirement of resources. If a recipe requires three times the resources (cheapest recipe available) in comparison to a recipe of another profession, the skill gain has to be three times as high.
=> Rework recipes available for skill 400 to give all professions a comparable usability for the character
3. Companion Items?:
Con's:
- Items primarily usable for companions cost the same for recipe and resource as items for players (e.g. Techstaff vs. Sniper Rifle). This seems weird because player based items are more likely to be tradet in the Galactic Market.
- Companion items seem to differ in names, e.g. Techstaff vs Electrostaff, while supplying comparable boni.
- Item names obviously create false impressions about the item type (considering this one as a bug!). Example: Grand Vanquisher's Electrostaff (purchasable recipe for Armstech) is in fact item type Techstaff.
- There are recipes for basic companion items (mod-able) available, but not for all. There are e.g. recipes for mod-able Electrostaffs, but none for Techstaff.
Solution:
=> Rework recipes for companion items to be cheaper and requiring less resources. Supply recipes for basic items (mod-able) for every type of equipment if applicable. Consolidate item types (e.g. bring item types Electrostaff and Techstaff together into a single class e.g. "One-Handed Polearm").
4. No Item Decay:
Pro's:
+ Players do not require to replace their equipment over time. The feeling of "requirement" urges many players in a negative way so leaving this out seems to be wise.
+ The main focus of item acquisition is in improving equipment rather to replace with comparable. This concurs with the feeling of "getting on in the game".
Con's:
- Crafter professions creating consumable items (e.g. Biochem) will, in average, achieve better sales volumes.
- Added to the fact that the top level equipment derives from Flashpoints/Operations/PvP only, there is simply no demand in crafted items other than mentioned consumables. And even those do drop or are supplied as quest rewards.
Solution:
=> Think about adding item decay. It *could* vitalize the Galactic Market. It also adds value to crafted items since there is currently no limitation in the amount of items which can be crafted from a single recipe. So they can *easily* be replaced again.
Please discuss and hopefully follow my suggestions
thanks,
Nordstern
