Ahhh okay. I also checked out the following post, and here's what one fellow described: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=325195&page=2 Do you suppose the pricing might make a difference? Not sure I like seeing those schematics on that vendor in the least bit. Are they same stats or different stats? If former, makes farming World Bosses pointless - 750k for quick purchase, versus a *chance* at the recipe? Gee, wonder what route I'd go.

Edited my post - see above.

If you read the 1.1.5 PTR patch notes, you'd also see that this is something that will only be in the game until Game Update 1.2 hits. It will be removed at that time. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=325047 Edit: Furthermore, are these simply raw crystals that still need an Artificer to craft, or already crafted ones? According to these patch notes, it could be either. If the former, I don't see the problem. If the latter... understandable, but it's not permanent.

Looks like a blue crystal archaeology node of some sort. It might be bugged, however, due to an incomplete loot from a previous scanner of the node?

To my knowledge, you'd lose everything, including all those artifact-level recipes. You'd have to start from the ground up again. Here's what I'd highly recommend... wait until patch 1.2 hits, then decide if you want to drop whatever crew skill you have. I'm guessing it's not Biochem, and that you're considering dropping it for Biochem. In the Dev Q&A today, they stated that the crew skills have 4 pages of changed devoted just to them so far, so expect a decent overhaul coming with patch 1.2, which I've been told will hit sometime in March. *crosses fingers*

Have a link stating this?

Hey guys, quick one for you. I've a couple of Slicers and have stockpiled a bunch of the purple-quality 340 Underworld Trading mission discoveries. I'm considering UWT on one of my alts, so I can send my own companions out to gather the goods, but not sure if it'd be wiser to sell these discoveries on the GTN and just buy whatever UWT goods I need. So my question: what is the average yield, assuming no critical, from successfully completing one of these missions? How many metals, fabrics, and gifts would I expect? Thanks.

I don't see how this would be a bad idea whatsoever. Oftentimes people accidentally click "Need" on things they clearly can't use, for whatever reason, and having this as an option to alleviate the mistake can only lead to positive results.

Biometric Crystal Alloys are Bind on Pickup, so this option isn't available. Furthermore, they don't drop in regular BT - it requires Hardmode, only accessible at 50.

Don't worry, there is an option in Preferences. Unless someone beats me to it, I'll repost how you get to it (I'm offline and can't remember off the top of my head). EDIT: Preferences > User Interface > scroll down to Tooltip, click "Enable Companion Comparative Tooltips." I'd also recommend checking all the other options in the Tooltip subsection.

Exactly my thoughts. You really shouldn't skip any of the side quests at all - they'll bring excellent experience points, and the heroics often grant superior-quality gear that will help with questing.

You often see people complaining about Slicing because they don't do it smartly - it appears, from my experience, that Moderate and Abundant missions almost always bring back fantastic profit, though YMMV. What these people fail to take into account and/or mention are the world lockbox nodes you'll find while questing (near buildings, tents, etc.), which of course are pure profit and also have the chance to spawn a mission discovery or an extra [higher-quality] lockbox. Truth be told, I put Slicing on all of my characters while leveling. I also may or may not keep Slicing on my Biochem main, in large part because of the overabundance of Diplomacy materials on the GTN, as well as dolts who simply right-click and post without adjusting the price to a higher value. What you choose really depends on your market. I also like covering gathering and mission crew skills that I find I'll need with my own characters (end-game materials), so the breakdown appears as such: Bioanalysis, Biochem, Slicing Archaeology, Slicing, Treasure Hunting Scavenging, Slicing, Underworld Trading (Bioanalysis while leveling) TL;DR: Choosing any combination of gathering/mission skills will result in profit, and it just depends on the demands of your server. See what areas are lacking for supply, and those might be your choice of focus.

I thought I'd just chime in with the numbers, hope it helps: Level 25: Rank 1 Mount Training costs 40,000 credits. The mounts themselves cost 8,000 credits. Total cost (min.) - 48,000 credits. Level 40: Rank 2 Mount Training costs 210,000 credits. The mounts themselves vary in price with the least expensive costing 25,000 credits. Total cost (min.) - 235,000 credits. Level 50: Rank 3 Mount Training costs 315,000 credits. The mounts themselves vary in price with the least expensive costing 55,000 credits. Total cost (min.) - 370,000 credits. So you're looking at spending 653,000 credits total for baseline mount and training. Some mounts will cost more than others (such as the Light V/Dark V mounts, Security Key vendor mount, etc.). I'm sure having this to look at is very intimidating, but if you're smart with your money and don't wantonly buy things you don't really need, complete all quests including bonus missions and each planet's bonus series, train only the skills you actually use, etc., you'll be able to afford the above costs. What will help is if you avoid crafting altogether until hitting end-level - none of the crew skills are mandatory while leveling, so having the ability to choose gathering crew skills and sell everything you collect. Edit: Some other tips. Don't hesitate to use moddable gear, and select mods as they appear as quest rewards. They'll suffice for leveling purposes and allow you to spend commendations on the more expensive mods (particularly armoring and hilts/barrels). If you can use moddable gear on a companion, that will help as well. Above, I advocated going with all gathering crew skills to maximize profit. To this end, I'd highly recommend Slicing, Scavenging, and Underworld Trading, as the latter two support multiple crafting crew skills, and Slicing is generally pure profit as well (particularly due to world lockbox nodes).

Note: if you're trying to find "Aluminum" (American English spelling) on the GTN, you won't find it. In the game, it's called "Aluminium," the British English spelling, with an "i" after the "n."

I believe the daily heroics on each planet can grant commendations (either as the only quest reward along with experience, or as a choice between commendations and moddable gear).