Are you on a low population server, or is your faction low population? The level 50 CT speeder is very common on my server, probably just as common as any other speeder. I see them all over the place. Also, you price something by the value of its materials, even if you got those materials for free or at low cost. That's because you're basically giving up that amount of credits by not selling those materials. The loss is still the same as if you bought them off the GTN. Honestly, had it not been a recolor, I would have been fine with the cost. As it is, I paid 55k for my level 50 speeder from a vendor on Voss, and it's actuall LESS common on my server than the Cybertech model. The level 50 CT speeder should have been a different model from the level 40 CT speeder, or even better, there should be more schematics and options available for the level 50 CT speeder.

Save credits? I don't know about the rest, but the level 50 CT speeder is way, WAY more expensive than many of the other speeders in the game. After pricing the mats to be 140k, I skipped it. A recolored version of a speeder that anyone can get doesn't add much variety to the game, to be honest. I can't even imagine that anyone would buy the thing, given the cost.

I agree. People who are just trying to level as fast as they can at level 20 shouldn't be going for purple. Blue is plenty good. Actually, you can get by quite easily with green, to be honest, as this is not a hard game. Purple should be for dedicated crafters. I'm kind of bothered by this change. I have 15 or so level 49 purple schematics, and now someone else is going to get to where I'm at with less time and cost? That's somewhat annoying. I don't have a problem with the rate of success. The problem I have is with the system itself, where you have ZERO CONTROL over what you're going to end up with. That is the very opposite of what crafting is about. Getting +presence when you want +power means something is fundamentally wrong. Really, just take out "you already know this schematic" and I'll be content. I got four of those yesterday, and it's much more frustrating than outright failures.

I got four of them today. FOUR. Against one purple schematic learned. It's just messed up. Meanwhile, they're working on nerfing the drop rate of materials obtained from enemies. Because that's much more important than a screwed up trade skill problem.

I don't know that it matters all that much. Right now, BioChem is hands-down the best at level 50. Everything else is just kind of ... there. You won't have any problem building wealth even if you take zero crew skills, for example. So, really, just pick what interests you. Maybe it will get a buff down the line, or maybe not. Cybertech doesn't have much going for it, to be honest, but it's no worse than the rest (that aren't BioChem).

I'm afraid that's not bad luck, that's just par for the course. If I get a purple on a level 49 after 30 attempts, then I count myself lucky. That's a good day. I've probably RE'd 700+ level 49 blue earpieces and I have around 13 purple schematics, so yeah, the average is way above 30. I just wish it wasn't so random as far as what you get in return. Getting a "win" only to find out you really lost with a +presence or an out of place stat just bites. That's the worst part.

Also regarding lockbox missions, I've noticed that the mission level can have an impact on the level of the item you can get with a crit. Rich grade 5 missions, for example, can return a level 340 mission unlock item, but Moderate grade 5 missions will return a level 300 mission unlock item. As a poster above said, Rich grade 5 can still hit for 5-8k on a crit, so those those two factors make Rich grade 5 my A+ mission choices. This might sound strange, but at level 50 I run lockbox missions to address my augment needs. Those rare 340 Slicing mission unlocks return a purple +28 augment, which are all most level 50s are interested in.

The user you quoted made perfect sense, and is right about the actual amount not meaning very much. If someone in Japan told you they just made 1 billion yen on the same product you were selling in the U.S., would you get excited? No, you'd figure up exactly what that meant relative to your own economy. "I made X amount of credits" actually tells us very little. How much are the materials valued at? How much time and money did you spend to learn each pattern, including the "junk" patterns that aren't worth making? What is your net profit after all other expenses are removed? Those are the important parts when you're talking about a business. Regardless, any crew skill can earn credits, especially if you're lucky, though my experience has been that gathering and mission based skills earn a LOT more, mostly because they lack the high overhead. Still, earning credits in SWTOR isn't something a lot of people complain about.

I have 15 or so purple schematics for level 49 Earpieces. I just can't bring myself to trash that. If not, though? I'd switch to BioChem today.

I would rather NOT see that message. It's like picking the winning lottery numbers then learning the lottery has gone bankrupt. I got it three times in a row the other day. It's incredibly frustrating. As for being too easy, if you're going to increase difficulty then lose the random part. One or the other.

Armoring and Mods from crafting aren't needed. I had 400 Cybertech by level 28, but I almost never made mods for myself after I realized that they're virtually given to you for free, via quests and commendations. Are the ones you can make a higher level than what you can usually get from commendation vendors? Sure, but so what? This is not a hard game. There is very little need to stay up-to-date on your equipment while you level. Ship Upgrades are all over the GTN, and prices are falling as the servers mature. Supply is increasing and demand will soon begin to decline. No incentive there. Being able to get the Earpiece you want, with an augment slot, is the best thing about Cybertech. However, getting that particular earpiece is usually extremely expensive and takes forever. If you find it on the GTN for 100k or so, you would have saved a lot of time and credits. This is only a sideways perk, in that it's only worth it IF someone else cannot make what you want or need. Before someone mentions speeders, no. They're just recolors of models anyone can get, except the Cybertech version is really, really expensive. It's also odd to see people list the ability to make credits as meaningful. Wealth is not difficult to accumulate in SWTOR. You could skip crew skills entirely and still make money. You could skip crafting and make a LOT more money.

While I would kill for an Orange belt, purple earpieces aren't hard to find. I keep them up on the GTN constantly, and they don't really sell very well. If you're talking about purple earpieces with augment slots, then yeah, there is a very good reason they're hard to find. I chew through zal alloy like crazy, and for every Mastercraft I get, I have ten pieces with no slot. I have an entire bay filled with unslotted purples that I will probably have to end up REing soon. Frankly, it sucks.

Most people probably know that Cybertech is nothing special, and they're just lashing out because they feel it's a little bit better than what they have. Either that, or they don't know enough about it to judge, but they see grenades and speeder bikes and automatically think those things are a lot better than they really are. Cybertech might very well be in second place, but it's like finishing second place to Secretariat in the Belmont Stakes, 31 lengths behind and back with the rest of the field.

Element of exclusivity? For the level 50 Cybertech speeder? It's a recolor of the level 40 Cybertech speeder, which is a recolor a speeder ANYONE can get. It's kind of a joke, especially since the Cybertech version costs so much. When I priced the mats, it came out to over 140k, so I skipped it and bought a different speeder from a vendor for 55k. It's more a screw-job than a reward.

I almost dropped Slicing in favor of Underworld Trading, after the nerf, to pair with my Cybertech and Scavenging skills. Instead, I rolled an alt with UT, and I'm extremely glad I went that route. The reason is, Slicing is an extremely nice complimentary skill. I don't even run normal UT missions, generally, I just run unlocked missions that I obtain through Slicing, which last over 2 hours, so it's not like I need to log on and off constantly. With Diplo, it's probably even better, as those are much more common drops than UT missions. But, if that seems like a bother to you, then it's not like anyone really needs Slicing. It's a nice skill for boosting other skills, but it's not vital.

Really, so what? This isn't a hard game. You can use the mods from commendations and quests and level just fine. I know I did. I have Cybertech and I almost never made my own mods. They were always being handed to me for free, or for commendations that I had plenty of. It's not until you reach end-game that you need to worry about building up your gear. They could remove all the crafted mods tomorrow and it would make little difference, at any level.

It's usually well worth the price when you buy them, at least on my server. If I see them for 20k or less, I snap them up, as the real value can be 40k or more. Of course, they can fail, too, which is why they can't be sold for 40k. Wouldn't be worth the risk.

In order to REACH level 400 Cybertech? Scavenging. You can gain skill points by crafting green gear alone. Now, if you're Cybertech for the sake of crafting purple gear, then Underworld Trading. Most of the Scavenging materials you need are on the GTN. The Underworld Trading materials are sometimes there and sometimes not, and when they are, they can be extremely expensive. Either way, though, it's going to be expensive to not have both Scavenging and UT. I made an alt just for that purpose, and it's worked out well.

Ear-pieces are the only thing Cybertech really has going for it, and even that's kind of pointless since you can buy them on the GTN. If I didn't have over a dozen level 49 ear-piece schematics, I'd switch to BioChem in a heartbeat. CT really isn't something that's worth having right now.

I don't know the odds of getting a purple on a regular mission, but I'm guessing they're pretty low. I've run several on whim, and they've almost always been green, with a couple of blue mixed in. From what I can see, it's a bad gamble. After almost 2k for a mission that lasts 1 hour, your reward will likely be a green augment, about half of which won't even sell for 500 credits. If it's +presence, then just vendor it. The odds just don't seem very good. It's the same as playing a slot machine in a casino. Maybe you like gambling, and maybe you'll get really lucky, but I think the experience for most people would be that it takes a lot of credits and hours to get a purple augment with a worthwhile stat.

It's supposed to be an incentive to roll with Cybertech. Of course, the level 50 speeder is just a recolor of the level 40, which is a recolor of a speeder anyone can get, so it's not much of an incentive. When I realized it would cost me over 140k to craft, I completely skipped it and bought a speeder that was just as good for 55k.

I have three +Presence patterns for level 49 Ear-pieces. It's almost like some kind of joke BioWare is intentionally playing on crafters. No one is going to buy any of them, and they know it. I bet the developers get a good laugh out of it. Know what's just as bad? Running a two hour Slicing mission with an unlocked mission item that would sell for over 50k on the GTN, and getting a +28 Presence augment in return. That's happened to me twice. You might as well just vendor those, and pretend it never happened. I'm starting to think you have a greater chance to get +Presence items/patterns than all the others, just so BioWare can troll their own customers with a "lol you won but you really lost lol".

Oops. I got mixed up. I must have skipped the CT items that used that metal. It's a purple quality, so you'll probably need a critical, or you can buy an unlocked mission item for that level.

Earpieces are the best thing about Cybertech by far. Everything else is kind of meaningless. I have Cybertech, and I have the purple patterns for the Armoring and Mods I would use, but it's an absolute waste of credits to make them when compared against commendation rewards. The mats required for a level 49 modification are way, way too pricey. The speeders are some kind of joke, since they cost a lot MORE than the speeders everyone else gets, and they're just recolored version of what everyone else can get anyway. Earpieces with augment slots are the ONLY reason I haven't dropped it for BioChem.

I'm going to respond with something from the very same post you quoted. "2.A) OR there should be multiple paths to obtain schematics if the gear is BoE. Hell, make the other paths twice as hard as raiding, for all I care. I would actually prefer that." The reason I do not want to see schematics from raids produce BoE equipment has nothing to do with skill or difficulty. I never said anything about crafting requiring more skill than raiding. I've never once said that crafted gear should be as good as raid gear. All I want is for gear from raiding to not appear on the GTN, because it would destroy the normal progression. I would also have preferred it if vendor gear from daily quests was not such a much better value, which prompts many people to skipped crafted gear entirely, but it's a little too late for that.