I went ahead and ran some more of these missions for lvl 10 and lvl 11 lockboxes and have found that they do provide various currencies when deconstructing the gear you get. They also give jawa stuff. I have also received, on one occasion, a bag of Daily Matrices directly from a lvl 11 lockbox. All of this using a lvl 80 character to open and deconstruct. So, not as bad as it first seems. Perhaps some players early in their leveling would prefer the equipment they receive over direct bags of currency. I am still evaluating, but it looks like the missions still have value to perform.

It won't be long before they handle gear on characters the same way they do for companions (i.e., cosmetic only). All current gearing stats will be built into the leveling system, much like they have done with abilities. This way they can obsolete all of the mod and gear vendors the way they obsoleted trainers.

I had the very same observation. I was a bit annoyed when opening up these lockboxes and getting green gear that is nowhere near even the value of the cost of the missions themselves. As these lockboxes are currently with 7.1, they are completely useless. Level 80 characters should continue to get the level 80 currencies, Daily Matrices being the most important, as the current drop rate from other sources is completely ridiculous. If this is not a bug, then it is a huge STEALTH NINJA NERF.

I am not sure about 7.0 or 7.1. Did I miss the new and exciting content added for players that don't really want to be forced into group play? Now it appears that 7.1 is forcing those groups into a single operation and forcing them to repeat the operation over and over and over and over and over and over, well you get the point. I also seemed to miss the added content for those players that chose to do crew skills and crafting. They really need to do a better job of leading players to the new content in the game!!

Seems to me that after attempting to force solo players to play in groups, they are now just content with solo players leaving the game. The same is true for players who enjoyed crew skills and crafting. You notice that they didn't give crafters the ability to make anything for the end game, except for perhaps augments, which require insane amounts of RE usually at significant costs in materials. You can bet that soon an update will make better augments available without going to crafters, just as they did with implants. They will likely wait until many crafters invest (waste) an enormous amount of time and materials getting to where they can make the best augments. Then, Bang Zoom, to the Moon Alice!!

Too bad they killed it, but you must never have played SWG. I just tested it, and you can't "friend" a cross factional toon either. I suppose that is for economic reasons too, lol.

Yes, just coincidence, cause it can't be an RP thing. Just ask. They will tell you that it is economics.

Ok, this one made me laugh. Good one.

A couple people keep saying this, however, so far no workable explanation exists to support the economy argument. Same faction characters can freely exchange stuff via mail. Restricting to same faction doesn't do anything to improve or contain the economy. If anything, it makes it worse. It doesn't matter what the "reason" for this restriction is, it should simply be removed. There are apparently ways to circumvent the restriction, which are just annoying to the player base. So putting the restriction on the mail is sort of like requiring corpse runs.

I was just wondering why there isn't "smuggler missions" as part of the crew skills, or "bounty hunter" missions for that matter.

Fine, then make my smuggler and my bounty hunter a part of the Hutt Cartel Faction like they are supposed to be, instead of republic or imperial. Problem solved. They can freely transfer mail that way. None of these "restrictions" serve any purpose but to ultimately cause player base to shrink. Players of the same faction can freely transfer items via trade and mail. So any argument about economy is silly. That's why it is more a "republic is not supposed to trade/communicate with imperial" thing.

All good information. Thanks. But a completely bankrupt design. You are telling me that Galatic really means Planetary, so it should be called the PTN. No wonder things don't sell like you might expect. The visibility is limited to about 100 players at any one time.

There should be NO restrictions on mail or to whom you can trade with. And certainly the GTN should be Global.

How is it an economy thing? It can only be an RP thing.

This is sounding like the Global Trade Network is not really global. Are you saying that stuff I put on the GTN at the Republic Fleet cannot be purchased by a player on the GTN at the Imperial Fleet?