I'm not actually qualified to comment on this post as I came from the Star Wars Galaxies method of crafting, so I am incredibly biased. All MMOs, with the possible exception of EVE Online, have horrible crafting systems in comparison. Alas, SWG is gone, so for my Star Wars fix I have come here. ... Perhaps, and I've said this elsewhere, since SWTOR is a ... themepark (and I"m not even sure I'd go that far) and SWG (and most certainly EVE) are sandbox games, that's the difference that makes crafting in those games amazing and crafting here just plain bad. On the other hand, the storyline in SWTOR is phenomenal, and obviously, Bioware favors that, for which I am grateful. I love the storyline. It's sad, though, that crafting a la SWG has been destroyed, removed, gone - and none of you will get to experience the in-depth wonders of SWG-style crafting - it doesn't appear to fit the modern MMO game theory design. Good luck! and enjoy your stay in the game!

My, I have to say, crafting was very poorly designed here in SWTOR. We have to actually pay our crew to do our crafting vice letting us run our own missions and earn credits while getting mats at the same time. admittedly, i'm only on the low end of things; I unsubscribed a few weeks into the game when I realized that the UI/HUD was an unmitigated disaster making the game totally unplayable for me. Bioware went and fixed that, so I've re-upped. I had forgotten how poorly crafting was designed and now that I'm back, the crafting makes me want to unsubscribe again - well, almost. Not every new modern MMO can have a crafting system like EVE Online or, even better, Star Wars Galaxies - but as those are 'sandbox' games with actual player-driven economies, maybe that's why crafting works over there vice the stale poorly copied WoW-clone like crafting here. I do wish Bioware had looked around at a few other MMOs just to see how crafting could be done well. At least SWTOR has a good story, so I can run through those and not bother with crafting. Which sort of makes me sad - I really like to craft. Just not here.... ...When it comes to crafting, I sometimes shed a tear that Star Wars Galaxies has been shut down in favor of SWTOR. Oh well, life goes on. SWG is dead, Long Live SWTOR!

I would drop SWTOR so fast if SWG - post NGE SWG even - came out again - and I despise SOE whereas I love Bioware. Yes, SWTOR's graphics and story line are amazing - much better than SWGs - I admit it. But, I like to craft. I came from SWG way of crafting - it was my first MMO. Crafting here in SWTOR is so amazingly bad, the auction hall, i mean, the galactic trading system was so poorly designed I'm surprized people have actually figured it out, and when you craft in SWTOR you aren't doing it - your crew is. and you have to pay them to do it. I know, I know, TANSTAAFL, but still... Gods, I miss SWG crafting. prospecting for resources. setting up harvesters, experimenting with schematics, planning factory runs, putting up vendors in actual housing and having people come from all over the server to buy your pet food as it's the best on the server. Now I'm depressed. So depressed that I'm going to go to work early and stay late.

I love this game. The story line is amazing. I love the questing and the flashpoints. But, this game has so many things wrong with it that I get so frustrated that I can't play the game. The HUD is awful. The HUD/UI issues drive me mad! I can't move my windows around. The quickslot bars are 'too big'. I can't move my quickslot bars. my character portrait is 'tied' to the bottom center bars as is my target. the chat rooms are stuck in the upper left and block the top portion of my left quick slot bar, which i can't move down. My mini map is stuck in the lower right whereas I'd like to move it to the upper right. My chat rooms disappear after each log out forcing me to reform them as soon as I log in. I have to reset my preferences for some things each and every time I log in. I can only have two windows up at a time; and, if i'm in the middle of one window working something out, and my pet's crafting mission completes that window pops up closing the window I'm looking at, after moving the two windows around. Bioware devoted so much time into the things that make this (would make this, anyway) a great game but forgot to put any effort into the little things. I won't even talk about how poorly designed crafting is. There's a huge laundry list of incredibly wrong things there as well. I can sweat the the crafting. But the stuff that affect actual game play, that stuff is so annoying that I'll be taking a hiatus until these issues get fixed; if they are even looking into them. I'd try to find that out, but you can't even search the forums. Good luck, everyone. I'll be in Lord of the Rings Online, at least that has a sane HUD/UI and a great story to tell/play as well. Probably better, actually. Tolkien VS Lucas? Tolkien wins hands down!

Thanks Marlaine, for that bit of advice. I will certainly look into this more and start to work your suggestions. I need to learn patience, a la Luke! and give it more in-depth practice. But, you have to admit, SWG crafting was amazing. Thanks for the encouragement!

From what I could find...since searching has been disabled, is that searching has been disabled. They didn't say why. Another 'Win' for Bioware!

So, Crafting in SWTOR is nowhere near as amazing as crafting in SWG -the one thing Sony did right. And now, Sony, in collusion with Lucas Arts, has murdered the one and only amazing crafting system of any MMO in the past, and, I fear, alas, never ever to be reproduced in the future as it doesn't fit 'modern game theory'. This makes me one sad panda that crafting here in SWTOR is so, uh, juvenile. Simple. Tediously boring and expensive to do to boot. I'll probably still play SWTOR here and there; I love the story line, the artistic style. Besides, many of my friends play SWTOR, at least for now. I may despise the hideousness of the UI and inability to move windows, my target, the target of my target (haven't even found that yet), move the quick-slot bars, the pet bar, heck, everything HUD element-wise but I understand that SOME of those issues are a future patch, way in the future patch. (you know, actually, LotRO does their HUD/UI elements right and I wish Bioware had learned how from them). But what really kills me is how poorly crafting was designed. You pay your companion to run missions instead of being able to gather on your own. Yes, I know, some gathering professions allow you to harvest. But Diplomacy? You pay. That's the one "Non-Gathering" gathering profession I/ve tried and do - you just can't pick it off the ground/corpse/drop. Maybe I'm just not high enough to see it happening, I am only CL19. Not that it matters, really. I can tell that crafting was 'added' as an after-thought, much like LotRO,, and pretty much every other new MMO. Same established pattern. SWG, and EVE as well, being two of the few exceptions to poorly-designed 'modern game theory' crafting - perhaps because SWG to a certain extent, and most certainly EVE, are 'sandbox' MMOs vice being a 'themepark' like SWTOR. I guess if I want to be a serious crafter, I'll have to reactivate my EVE account(s) that I closed in anticipation of SWTOR. Rest in Peace, Star Wars Galaxies. I for one, will miss you, especially for the crafting.