That's just it though, in EVE there is no "face to face". When people are all docked at a station and in a 'bar' or 'office' channel it is a lot easier to rp. In TOR that environment isnt present because you are just standing around. People cannot go to your ship, there are no personal quarters etc, but again, there are...I did rp in eve and enjoy it btw... I just dont think a game as graphically well put together as tor is should have to go down to the level of 'chat room' rp.

Missions return the same type of materials based on their name. Track that or look on TOR. when one of those that you need are not available, grab a diplomacy mission and sell whatever blue companion gift you get. Spend those credits on the raws you need, problem solved. The system is gated so that one person cannot supply an entire guild or the entire demand for a given market segment. That is reasonable and one of the better designs I have seen. Do not get me wrong, in the past I have played trader roles like I do pve or pvp, I want to be the best of the best. In TOR it is easy to be the best, just difficult to make the most.

I found that, "well I could go out drinking with the guys at work instead," always works well.

Pretty simple actually, if there is an imbalance in the game between classes putting one class over others in terms of combat effectiveness, then the easiest solution is to 'nerf' the dominant class. Pretty clear from a dev perspective, time mgmt perspective, anyway you cut it... The issue comes in quantifying the imbalance. If it is simply because more people want to use duel glowsticks vs a blaster cannon, then no, the jedi class shouldn't be touched but the trooper class should be made more attractive some way visually. The thing is the vocal players will migrate to the most combat effective class regardless of visuals. The more vocal players are usually the pvp'ers who's goal is to be the most combat effective and take it to the opponent. Over 7 years of playing another mmo, I have seen the strongest quantifiable evidence come out of this population in terms of asking for or defending against a nerf. TOR is too young for this base to be established enough yet so it is still up to the devs and whatever metrics they are able to collect. To get off on a tangent, it is also the crafters that can express imbalances in their system most effectively, but the vocal ones are not the most effective crafters, they are usually the ones that have hit a brick wall and 'cannot figure out how to make money,' thus the system must be broken. There is a lot of other changes that would help the gtn over the mundane whinefest you usually see but the forums are structured so that we currently do not have nor will we ever have a solid player representative base for these playstyles. In the last mmo I was a part of I was contacted by devs working on my primary class asking for input on changes and gladly gave them the pros and cons of every aspect they were considering even if it was a change I did not like. This game is too young to have that dev player relationship and such events as the guild only invite round table in austin will not help that situation.

My background is a certain sandbox game that I will leave unnamed and I really enjoyed rp in that atmosphere. I would like to partake in it here but see it as very one dimensional. This is a legit post asking how do you rp in a themepark environment? and no I don't consider simply being a smart *** in gen chat on my smuggler toon rp'ing...

I think this is an intended function to limit crafters from absolutely dominating a market. We cannot easily mass produce items in TOR and I think that is intentional. In terms of simply levelling and making what you use yourself, I went through biochem to 400 and constantly sold excess stuff to others levelling while crafting for myself and enough to put on the GTN to gross 100k a day, at least 50-60k net. That is a perfectly reasonable pace. Yeah I'm from an mmo that mass production was the name of the game but this isn't that game, nor will it ever be. Edit: since you did ask a question in your OP title, simply put, run missions for compounds and samples as often as possible. While levelling a trooper, about Taris you run into a cash shortage but if you start hitting dailies it makes up the difference. You will quickly out level yourself and always have an excess of supply for when you actually need to use what you are able to make.

Every aspect of this post is incorrect, post nge, unless your goal is to completely dominate a market segment and produce items in mass quantity. No areas were inaccessible to a crafter that had either a gun or a simple mid to low level pet. A crafter could hire people to get meterials for them while they were afk. If there was a resource spawn near water or a town, guess what, look somewhere else. I was a stay at home dad with a newborn and had my hands full a lot of the time. I was able to return to SWG post nge and become one of the top beast crafters (made 100% of my own consumables, eggs, etc) on my server with a reputation that followed me when I xfer'd to other servers. I had a 2nd account for storage only. Post nge at a certain time players were granted two toons per account. SWTOR crafting is effortless. You literally need to do nothing but click to craft and wait. I have gone through 2 main profs to learn them and on either I cannot keep items up on the gtn long enough to answer demand, and this is with only picking 1 or 2 per level or crafting flavor. 2 days not enough? Youre selling the wrong item or it is too expensive 50 items not enough (crafted)? You are using multiple characters to get raws and working the system anyway so deal with it.

Determining cost based on the avg of materials resellers is your first issue when yourself have command over a good portion of your own supply. When you think about it, 15% swing isnt very significant when you are talking about non-purple materials, and usually blues. What crafting flavor are you basing this on?

Nothing Bioware could do to prevent this from happening as long as no trades were done through the website using cash as an intermediary

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can level up your companion skills and be level 400 with your main toon at cl1 with enough credits. You are asking for non-combat ways to level a combat toon. If you are satisfied with non-combat oriented play then stick to the crew missions and crafting, dont try to turn it into something it is not. A lot of missions have you locate items and you can avoid killing if that is how you choose to play.

The only planets where this holds true were the wookie planet, instances, and mustafar. EVERY other planet you could cross from one edge of the map to the other. Yes planets were "rectangle maps" but you could freely travel any direction. There were zero invisible barriers on the core worlds except at maps' edges.

So I am confused...would you prefer to buy purple schematics from the trainer or do you just want it to only take 1 re swipe to get a purple? What makes your definition of "Too much random" any more/less valid than the devs or other players?

and a risk of penalty if caught.

That's true enough, but if a crafter wasn't selling on fleet and they had this additional resource to use, the fact remains they are not. So it appears they do not need the additional market of cross team trading...

Which means the imperial markets are sufficient for the imperial crafters and the republic markets are sufficient for the republic crafters. if no one is using it, that means there is no need to use it.

Personally I do not understand why each class does not have access to the same companion bonuses in some combination. No one knows what the math is on the bonuses but I have found them to be considerably relative. My main is a biochem and I crit craft meds maybe 1 out of 4-6. My alt is artifice with a profession that has no bonuses to it, I am mid 300's atm, and have yet to crit on a single craft. In terms of biochem let me explain what this does. If I am crafting an item which I can sell for 10k/per and crit once in every 5 builds, I can sell the same item for 8334/per and net the same credits. This allows me to be more competitive on the GTN if competition demands it. Now as an artifice crafter with no bonuses I will not enjoy that same pricing flexibility. This isn't so much an issue of min/max'ing. Even if you agree with it or not, some people play mmos for the crafting and markets, just like others play for the pew pew or rp. What the OP is pointing out amounts to a combat imbalance in pvp, which if happened, there would be QQ galore. I do not agree with his solutions, there are much easier alternatives....namely access to additional companions that would allow us to dismiss current ones...that would be great story content for later on down the line... edit: yeah I know artifice has no crit to crafting, but the fact remains that it is a valid example of biochem vs artifice crafting instead of artifice crafting with crit vs artifice without crit

worst troll bot ever

good lord I had no idea you were senator that long...

C2N2 affection is currently set at zero and should remain at zero. He is an alternative for crafters to run missions with in the mid range when you have 2 companions and C2N2, and can send out 3 at once. He has no crit or efficiency bonuses so is a last option in end game crafting. I would like a class skill named "rip C2N2's voicebox out" added to the smuggler and trooper classes please.

You are misinformed about biochem...the medpack with the base heal plus the hot is useable by anyone, the stims that last through death are useable by anyone. There was another thread of people complaining all they could get were the blue rare crafting components from diplomacy missions which both of your examples use. There is no reason these should not be stocked on the gtn. What you use as an example is no perk for biochem as it is accessible by ANYONE.

I am confused as to how people are levelling their crafters. I have levelled one to all 400s and am on my 2nd toon and sitting at about 300. During both grinds, I have sold EXCESS materials to other grinders. If a mission for something you 'need' isnt available when you want it, take the next best thing and sell it. This is especially the case with the biochem profs as tons of people are constantly grinding their companions' affection up. Really to see anyone ask for TOR crafting to be made more simple...just makes me die a little inside.

Why was it decided to use guild affiliation in a two month old game as a basis for admission to the roundtable in Austin?

Simple solution really, suggest your guild recruit a dedicated biochem to craft you meds. If you are making crystals for the crew it should be quid pro quo.

/fixed

I kind of agree with this. I consider harvesting and building mission crits way more important than efficiency. I notice a considerable drop off in purple rare materials without the bonus.