What Needs to be done to Make Crafting Useful

[Squiddish]

UPDATE: Patch 1.1 has NERFED BIOCHEM and CYBERTECH, showing Bioware DOES NOT understand the current issue with Crew Skills. It is not that those two were underpowered, its that the rest are useless.

 

There is another thread discussing these nerfs here.

 

This thread has gotten pretty large, so before my wall of text explaining the major fixes I think will revive crafting, here is a bullet point list of the ideas that have come from this thread (summary of what we would like to see)

 

-Buff the Crew Skills other than Biochem and Cybertech to have toys for the crafter

-Give more "Orange" moddable gear to crafters

-Allow moddable gear to at least COMPETE with PvP and Raid gear

-Make Crew Skills require more materials dropped from mobs, or from other Crew Skills

-Buff leveling crafted gear OR nerf quest rewards. Crafted, at level gear should outstrip quest rewards.

-Bring endgame crafted gear up to be SUPERIOR to commendation gear for all classes and specializations

-"Exceptional" crafted Orange gear that comes with additional Augment slots

-Give crafters the ability to customize gear color TO AN EXTENT

-Give crafters the ability to ADD Augment slots to PvP and Raid gear

-Some sort of system for Synthweaving, Armormech and Armstech that allows players to improve a piece of gear (lower the GCD on your spammable attack? Increase elemental resistance? Boots with a +5% run speed?)

-Add more Lightsaber colors obtainable through Artifice (seems to be the biggest offender of being a useless skill)

-THERE IS NOTHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO MAKING AS A CRAFTER

 

And some more ideas I'm not sure I agree with:

 

-Make some slots unobtainable through Raiding or PvP, only Crafting

-Make some Raid bosses drop BoE mats for those slots instead of full pieces of gear

-Remove commendation gear from max-level planets entirely, so your starter endgame sets come from Crafting

-Orange gear ONLY obtainable through crafting

-Craftable gear equivalent to normal mode raid gear or PvP gear

-Replace commendations with BoE mats to MAKE the gear that used to come from commendations

 

And the original OP, in all its glory:

 

Bioware, the crafting system DESPERATELY needs addressed. Hopefully in this thread here we can pile up everything wrong with the crafting system where hopefully somebody will see it and something can get done.

 

I'm not asking for SWG. I'm not asking to make a character that does nothing but craft. All I want is a crafting system that isn't absolutely pointless.

 

Here are my MAJOR concerns:

 

1: Everything but Biochem is pretty much useless.

You could arguably say that Cybertech's grenades make it not ENTIRELY useless compared to everything else, but its still leagues below Biochem. Bioware, take a good hard look at Biochem. It gives the crafter rewards for there work. It gives Biochem players some tangible, beneficial rewards that cannot be matched by anything outside Biochem. Its also a good source of income (as good as anything is in this game, I guess) and provides rewards for you and friends even at low levels.

What does everything else have? Cybertech, like I said, has some grenades. Everything else just makes useless gear that, while maybe helpful for leveling A LITTLE, offers no benefit at 400 skill or player level 50. There's no reason to level Synthweaving, Armstech, or Armormech AT ALL. The gear you make is far outstripped by even quest rewards.

I absolutely hate to bring the WoW-Beast into this, but look what they've done with crafting. I use them because they are a prime example; EVERY trade skill gives the crafter a tangible reward that can ONLY be obtained through crafting. Better armor enhancements. More SLOTS for armor enhancements. Even active-use abilities!

The bottom line is, a crafting skill needs to REWARD the player for all their work. The population (minus Biochemists) shouldn't be sitting around with their 400 skills wondering why they bothered.

 

2: You might as well just pick one crew skill.

Let me elaborate: everything is tied together. You take Armormech, you take Scavenging. You take Artifice, you take Arhcaeology. Now, I understand this. This is reasonable. Obviously, a crafting skill is going to be generally linked to a gathering skill.

But why do the mission skills have to fall into this as well? I expected mission skills to be some cool gravy I could pick after I hashed out a gathering and crafting skill, not effectively ANOTHER gathering skill I needed to craft.

Granted, you can level a crafting skill to 400 fine without using the related Mission Skill. Granted, there is ONE Mission Skill you could take advantage of regardless of crafting skill.

But I still expected more. I didn't expect to pick Biochem and be immediately pigeonholed into Bioanalysis AND Diplomacy to take full advantage of my craft. I was hoping mission skills were going to be something new and exciting, a new addition to the old crafting schedule, not a glorified gathering skill for blue and purple mats.

I guess you could say this isn't a major issue, and it probably isn't. It's just something I would have liked to see more done with.

 

3: Blandy McBlanderson's tax accountant is probably more exciting.

Ripped shamelessly from Yahtzee on Zero Punctuation. There is virtually no excitement or real sense of progression in the crafting skills. You're never really aiming for anything. There's no magical carrot-on-a-stick thresholds you're shooting for, other than 400. You never look forward to getting to craft that supershinyawesome item that is totally exciting.

This somewhat ties in to number 1. If all the trade skills are pointless and a pile of suck, there's clearly nothing to be excited about. But even Biochem is lackluster. Sure, its useful, but has ANYONE who has ever leveled a crew skill in this game ever been excited for anything? Probably not.

The crafting skills need more goodies you can look forward to. Even things like Armstech and Armormech could add in some fun things to built other than JUST armor and weapons. You've got all your silly social items Bioware, make some silly things for the crafters! Give us something we can look forward to! Let Cybertechs make a Mod that has no stats but lets you rocketjump at somebody once every 20 minutes! Let Armstech make Barrels with cool effects or sounds! Let Armormech make a tank chestplate with a built-in defensive CD! MAKE THINGS FUN!

 

4: When everyone is self-sufficient, there is no economy.

Lets jump back to number 2! Ok, I'm gonna jump in front of the bus here and say my highest crafting skill is Armormech at 250, so I might be wrong on this one.

Armormech uses Scavenging and Underworld Trading materials. JUST Scavenging and Underworld Trading materials. There is 0 overlap to other tradeskills. Armormech is never going to require a couple items from Archaeology, or Bioanalysis. Hell, Slicing doesn't even have items, I figured Slicing was gonna be the wild card that had computer chips and data discs all the other professions would need to build fancy toys.

When everyone is completely self-sufficient, there is no economy. If you can use your 3 skills to gather everything you will ever need in your life, why would you ever buy things from anyone else?

OH GOD, ITS THE WOW-BEAST AGAIN! In WoW, every single tradeskill requires materials from multiple gathering professions. Lets look at Blacksmithing. Blacksmithing uses Mining as a gathering skill, since it makes things with metals and stones. However, a LOT, and I mean a LOT of blacksmithing recipes require leather from Skinning. A lot require cloth from mob drops. Some even require rare gemstones you can get RARELY out of ore veins or commonly from Jewelcrafting, or even weirder things like potions or scrolls.

The point is, Blacksmithing and Mining does not make your character a sad little crafting minion sat alone in the corner leveling his profession by himself. If you want to level Blacksmithing and make the shiniest toys, you're going to need some help. You're going to need to buy some things. You're going to need to kill some mobs for lewts.

Nothing in crew skill crafting (that I've seen) even takes mob drops, it is literally 100% from you gathering skill and technicallynotagatheringskill mission skill. THIS is why there is no economy. Sure, the GTN interface is a terrible pile of poop. But when you can't make anything anyone wants, and you can't gather anything people need, and hell, mobs don't even drop Troll Sweat or Deeprock Salt or Fluorescent Bat Guano that somebody, somewhere wants to make a hat out of, why would you ever use the GTN in the first place?

 

 

 

That's all I've got for now. If you have any other issues with the crafting system, or ideas to improve it, or just want to agree, or think I'm a gimped monkey slapping the left side of his face on a keyboard, feel free to chime in.

If anyone has any other major concerns with the crafting system, I'll definitely add them to the OP. I just really, really want crafting in this game to be less of a complete waste of time than it is.

 

Another good post from Page 13 with more ideas MAINLY about moddable gear and RE'ing:

 

Overhaul Re-engineering

 

Make sure all non-trash/mission items have a material value

 

Remove the chance of learning a known schematic

 

Research Bar: add a secondary progression method to stem bad luck streaks(a cumulative chance increase on failures, 1% on [Premium], 5% on [Prototype], 10% on *[Artifact]*), tracked on a per schematic basis

 

*Reverse Engineering [Artifacts]*

• Mods: grants access to next tier [Premium] quality mod schematic(endgame schematics only, ones not on trainers)
  
• Consumables(medpacs, grenades**, etc.): current [Artifact] quality items become advanced boe's, new [Legendary] reusable bop versions with same stats added with shorter cooldowns, can only be obtained through reverse engineering and require special event* materials
  
• Armor and primary weapons: chance at schematic for [Custom] version of item with same model
  

 

**Grenades would be brought inline with the design of adrenals, stims, and medpacs; with 3 quality levels of BoE products and multiple tiers

 

Increase the Usefulness of Crafting

 

Redistribute Item Types to make every crafting skill useful/profitable

 

Spread schematics from each crafting aspect of the game across the crafting skills (mod system ,gear, ship customization), trying to redistribute them in a logically consistent manner

• Artifice: light sabers, hilts, crystals, focii, relics, shield and power generators
  
• Armstech: primary weapons, off hand weapons, barrels, ship missle magazines
  
• Armormech: heavy and medium(tech) armors, armoring mods, ship armor
  
• Synthweaving: light and medium(force)armors, enhancements, future option for ship interior decorations/furniture
  
• Cybertech: droid parts, mods, ear pieces, ship electronics(shield and beam regen), grenades
  
• Biochem: implants, adrenals, medpacs
  

 

Eliminate [Custom] quality gear and [Prototype] quality mods from vendors and mission rewards

 

Change mission reward [Custom] gear to [Premium]

• Only comes with [Premium] mods
  
• Can only equip mods within a set 6 level range for that item
  

 

Change flashpoint loot and vendor [Custom] gear to [Prototype]

• Only comes with [Prototype] mods
  
• Can only equip mods within a set 12 level range for that item
  

 

Lock all mods given with these items to prevent removal

 

Change all vendor mods to [Premium] versions

 

Add material boxes

• [Premium] - scavenging, archeology, and bioanalysis mats; 2 commendations
  
• [Prototype] - underworld trading, diplomacy, investigation, and treasure hunting materials; 8 commendations
  

 

Introduce new PvP schematics and add world events for unique crafting materials

 

Add Schematics for various PvP focused items to valor vendors

 

Introduce World events for gathering Ultra-rare crafting materials

• World PvP events would occur every 1-2 hours and would announce themselves to the entire server, bringing players to the affected planet to fight for control of it. For example: A sandstorm on Tatooine uncovers an ancient Rakata relic and players have to rush to the planet to secure it for their faction. Once secured all the players in that faction on the server with the Archaeology skill could interact with the relic for a number of a rare pvp material for associated crafting skills.
  
• World Bosses would also be adapted to this system to spawn an object on death to be used by ops members to recieve unique materials for specialty PvE crafting
  

 

Introduce more Crew Skill Specialization

 

Add a method for players to customize a companions skill bonuses obtained through missions or luck with crafting

• Would grant a [Crew Skill] Customization Datacron that could be used to either a) replace 1 companion bonus with either a 10 efficiency or 5 Crit bonus or b) add 2 efficiency or 1 crit to a matching pre-existing bonus
  
• One for each Crew Skill
  
• Bonuses Cap at 20 Efficiency and 10 Crit
  
• Maxed Companion affection could increase this by 20% up to an effective 24 Efficiency and 12 Crit
  

 

Add bonuses to the Legacy System allowing players to choose certain perks for example...

• Reverse Engineering Efficiency - returns more materials
  
• Reverse Engineering Critical - increased chance of success and greater research progress
  

 

 

TL;DR: Go away, us grown-ups are talking.

 

Keep this thread alive, ladies and gentlemen! We've had all kinds of good ideas roll in, let Bioware know we ARE NOT happy with the current state of crafting!

Edited January 17, 2012 by Squiddish

[TREBU]

I'm using my first post to absolutely agree with you (and every other poster about this broken system). Your points are very valid. For me I'd like to see crafting gear be applicable to my level and be worth going after because it's better then what I can get from most missions or commendations. There also needs to be gear worth getting that can ONLY be crafted and then like you said you should need materials from many other crafting professions/gathering skills. I hope someone in Bioware is taking note and working to fix this... I'll say it, I loved SWG crafting pre-cu!!! I had a virtual business that was as much fun as PVE and just as time consuming (if not more).

[Chromiie]

1: Everything but Biochem is pretty much useless.

2: You might as well just pick one crew skill.

3: Blandy McBlanderson's tax accountant is probably more exciting

4: When everyone is self-sufficient, there is no economy.

 

 

That's all I've got for now. If you have any other issues with the crafting system, or ideas to improve it, or just want to agree, or think I'm a gimped monkey slapping the left side of his face on a keyboard, feel free to chime in.

If anyone has any other major concerns with the crafting system, I'll definitely add them to the OP. I just really, really want crafting in this game to be less of a complete waste of time than it is.

 

TL;DR: Go away, us grown-ups are talking.

 

Great post. I agree and it's sad to think WoW with it's boring crafting system still is more fun and useful then TOR's. I remember leveling up leathworking and how I excited I was when I crafted my first blue set of gear or when I went dragonscale leatherworking back in Burning Crusade and spent a few days farming mats to make my epic set of armor. While I never cared for WoW's crafting system it does one thing great it gives you something to look forward to and provides some fun or benefit to the player.

 

Leathworking had some great leg and bracer enchants. Jewelcrafting could enchant their rings, blacksmith could socket their gear with epic gems and not only that skinning gave a critical buff, herbalism gave a healing spell and mining gave a stamina buff. Engineers also had the most fun stuff like a helmet that launched you in the air, a parachute or net to root people.

 

Also on point three very important. People aren't selling mats to each other or auctioning off goods they found. Like you said everything you can possibly need only requires your two extra gathering or mission skills to fuel your crafting. Less stuff are sold on the GTN unfortunately.

 

And more important you can't craft anything that is better or as useful as gear you get from pvping or hardmodes which can be obtained faster and possibly less effort. A typical Grade 5 Crew skill can take 45+ minutes. I can complete a warzone in that time possibly and earn credits, experience, commendations and valor and more if I get MvP votes. I could complete a flashpoint in that time and not only get loot for myself but also for my companion or even sell that at 100% profit.

 

 

Hopefully Bioware takes a good look at SWG, Eve Online and WoW's crafting system and see what are good and bad in the three. I loved SWG's crafting system and current'y EvE is doing great (no longer subbed) and I did quite well too. TOR being similar to WoW could also take some lessons from their. Yes I said TOR can learn from WoW no need to call me a troll.

[Dark_Ombra]

I might be wrong, but for a leveling point of vue. Those skill are usefull... Not for end content, but only for leveling.

 

I have armormech and I make better armor then what I found... Yes it's not by a great deal and sometime when I do big quest I get better armor from the quest, but as my skill go up, I can make myself better stuff and just take the currency item.

[Teslamatic]

I might be wrong, but for a leveling point of vue. Those skill are usefull... Not for end content, but only for leveling.

 

I have the same feeling with my Syntweaving, but it IS hugely expensive. If I have to burn all those creds only to be a touch better equipped while levelling, well... it´s a letdown.

 

I was hoping for crafted epic gear, customization options, skill-specific upgrades and such, but the current state is hardly appealing at all. Why even bother if at endgame I can run Warzones and get much better gear, while even making money? What good are companions at engame, if their crew skills are largely useless?

 

I´d also like to point out that crafting was very underwhelming in Warhammer upon release and it did keep some people away. It should be another level of immersion, but it needs to actually do something. There are people who LOVE crafting stuff and aren´t actually in it only to have the most awesomest bestest Hyperpotion-of-eternal-life for PvP.

[chton]

People do realize that by pointing out bio chem is the only useful skill it will result in the fix being to nerf bio chem? Look what happened with slicing. Anyways it's sadly easier for them to nerf one skill than to fix all the rest. Also this talk of needing other people, even if implemented that's what alts are for.

[Dalnar]

I say it again, remove item rewards from quests...

[Mezzovhal]

I say it again, remove item rewards from quests...

 

This....and make world drops and raid drops crafting components for the best gear, that has to be crafted. Full item drops should be very rare.

[aedan]

I might be wrong, but for a leveling point of vue. Those skill are usefull... Not for end content, but only for leveling.

 

I have armormech and I make better armor then what I found... Yes it's not by a great deal and sometime when I do big quest I get better armor from the quest, but as my skill go up, I can make myself better stuff and just take the currency item.

 

cost benefit analyses folks: it cost you both time and money to make this gear, it is not significantly better then the gear i am able to purchase with planet commendations, it does take you away from leveling game play, it does not make the missions significantly easier.

 

thus in conclusion the cost is higher then the benefit.

[chton]

This....and make world drops and raid drops crafting components for the best gear, that has to be crafted. Full item drops should be very rare.

 

Hilarious, but whatever. Never going to happen.

[constiane]

this is my perspective having maxed out all 3 of my crew skills, i am level 50 and currently raiding normal and harmode operations. The leveling process and crafting gear was alittle fun , but not alot. Getting a epic proc or augment was nice touch during leveling. Having played wow for many years there was a sence of joy when i was crafting my lionheart blade and then using raid mats furthering the progression of it to the final product. It made the grind of leveling worth it. I have been getting patterns from EV reg and hardmode. Some are boe and some are bop when crafted. IM hoping the raid schematics will be worht it down the road. That is why i stuck with it.

 

IMO modable gear absolutely killed craftable gear. A player gets the look there looking for and uses commmendations to keep the gear current. Its not until the raid and pvp gear where the gear gets better than the modable 50 gear. Bioware has made the epic drops have two mod slots not three so the armoring of the item isnt able to be removed. That alone will give raid gear and pvp gear merit. There needs to be some awesome patterns or stats or some enhancement that armorers or weaponcrafters can do to there gear. Even if its only to our own gear i would be ok with it .

 

Also the skins in this game are just hideous. Give crafters some unique skins that are either modable or epic with awesome stats. THis will create a buzz and if the look and stats are really good people on the server willw ant them. Right now unless u get a augment slot in a modable piece nothing really sells.

 

In the end realize the game is only a few weeks old and hope that bioware is aware of this and will make right by it . I totally agrree with the OP and we will see if our hard work will pay it self off

[DrMelhattan]

Said this in one of the other billion "crafting (except Biochem) is useless" threads, but I'll say it here because it's a relevant suggestion.

 

I think endgame crafting can be fixed in part by giving high level crafters access to schematics for different cool-looking level 50 orange pieces with extra modification slots, or other purely aesthetic items (like OP suggested, having a rocket blaster that lets you do cool things would be awesome, and I bet a lot of people would pay for it).

 

Then, you have higher level mods with stats EQUIVALENT to raid gear drop in raids. Make them BoP so they cannot be sold on the GTN, so that the general public cannot have easy access to them.

 

Crafters now have a viable endgame market. Raiders still need to raid for the best gear. Endgame people have something to work (grind) towards. And the best part? Level 50's won't all look the freaking same!

 

Also, if they make an exceptional version of the cool orange gear, give it an extra augment slot or two. Then the REALLY hardcore people will have something to work towards.

 

People are willing to pay a lot to look cool/unique. Just look at how many people are in a tizzy for a purple lightsaber crystal.

 

Not sure what to do as far as gameplay usefulness goes, as Biochem would still be the most useful in those terms, though.

 

That being said, this game is only a few weeks old, so I'm hoping Bioware will have some additions/changes to make crafting better already in the works.

Edited January 6, 2012 by DrMelhattan

[XaeVinci]

If enough people say biochem is crap bioware will jump in and make it invaluable.

 

It would be nice if the armour crafting skills atleast provided gear that was on par with the first set of pve and pvp gear (at 400) and higher level schematics were dropped in raids and given for pvp tokens.

 

Synthweavers should have access to the colour mod system they wanted to include to match gear. That would make it uber popular same with armstech.

 

Client : firsts two items in trade, ranked from left to right.

colour matching ui matches the two items together.

 

Synthweaver : matches colour + is given a small credit fee.

 

Client goes away happy with two items that match eachother.

Edited January 6, 2012 by XaeVinci

[aedan]

another suggestion, make synthweavers and armortechs able to make augment slots that can be added to pre-existing gear, so that look that you achieved stays relevant because lets face it, I've seen the screen shots of the end game armor and i'm not impressed.

[Squiddish]

I saw a thread earlier that talked about crafters being able to color their armor. Why can't we do this?

 

If we make a piece of Moddable armor, why can't we have some barebones coloring mechanic? I'm not talking a great gigantic editor, I'm talking pretty much what Bioware did to all the reskinned pieces of armor out there.

 

Give us a piece of armor we can craft, and when we craft it, give us RGB color sliders (or even just a grid of predetermined colors) for primary, secondary, and accent colors.

 

TA-DA! Now just add in the ability to Armstech and Cybertech to make mods that don't blow, and we have useful skills and a booming economy!

[Icedanno]

There are some EXCELLENT ideas in these posts:

 

1. Coloring armor

2. Different 'looks' craftable

3. Have crafters work together

 

...and many many more.

 

It has been pointed out that this is just one of hundreds of "Crafting, except Biochem, is useless" posts, but it IS one of the better ones.

 

However.. people, listen up. The system we have was put in because people in Bioware said to the themselves: "This makes sense. This is what we think crafting should be"

 

Now, where they wrong? Well.. most of the current subs think they are, but that doesn't really matter. The question is will the Devs listen to this feedback?

 

The one word that got thrown around alot in beta was arrogance. The Devs announced what the game was and there was a HUGE outcry from the fanbase. They wanted an MMO.. not a single player KOTOR with the option to group sometimes. The Devs gave us what THEY thought was a good game, NOT what the actual players said was a good game.

 

These same Devs would have to publicly admit crafting is not working, that the system they put in place is broken. Then, they would have to revamp crafting, (even some of the minor but excellent suggestions on this post would require a big overhaul).

 

Folks.. I wouldn't hold my breath on this. Crafting is how the Devs want it, and that's the way it's going to be.

[pjskull]

I hate to do it, but...

 

 

...I agree with all of your points...

 

I am hoping crafting sees some love at some point in near future...

[ZingFreelancer]

Armortech crafting is a stupid mess!

 

When you first learn armortech, what can you make? Two type of belts and boots of heavy and medium armor types for level 9 characters. Each one can be reverse engineered into 3 blue versions with additional stats and 5 purple versions with additional stats. Sure if you invest enough time you can create a better belt then the one you already have.

However, if you utilize the same amount of time to level and do story mission you will also obtain improved items.

This make me feel rather discouraged about crafting, I cannot make full sets of well looking armor. So if I am going to look like a cheap clown, I'll make sure the gear is cheap.

 

When I reached armortech 140 I could make a level 15 chest piece that had 3 blue and 5 purple versions.

I have nay to say about what blue or purple version I wish to unlock and reverse engineering feels as if it was made especially for masochists.

 

 

Crafting vendors dont need to sell green schematics for every two character levels, what they need is to sell is green sets for every 5 or 10 character levels. That includes gloves, chest, legs, boots, wrist, belt and helmet schematics that look like they belong.

Something people can strive to achieve and feel rewarded for doing so.

 

If I would ever see a guy walking around in full set of Heavy Military Armor I would feel respect for him, regardless if he purchased it or crafted it himself.

 

Then comes GTN and underworld missions to obtain more unique / rare schematics and eventually sets. If I can find mod-able Hydraulic Press Chest and Legs schematic I should be able to find mod-able Hydraulic Press boots, gloves, wrists and belt.

 

 

Mission Skill

 

Dont even get me started there, so annoying to be armortech and have literally abundance of Rich Gift and Fabric missions and I be damned lucky if I manage to run more then 3 rich metal missions within 6 hours of gaming.

 

Then we have traitorous companion gift mission rewards. 70% of all companion missions I've run I received Imperial / Republic Memorabilia or Curting gift. This is so stupid to the point of becoming funny, GTN is FLOODED, I repeat FLOODED with Luxury Fabrics and useless companion gifts nobody want.

 

T

H

E

Y

 

D

O

 

N

O

T

 

S

E

L

L

!

Edited January 7, 2012 by ZingFreelancer

[TREBU]

Bump!

[Squiddish]

It has been pointed out that this is just one of hundreds of "Crafting, except Biochem, is useless" posts, but it IS one of the better ones.

Well, to be fair the reason there's so many is because its a major problem. If every crew skill is useless but one, well... we have a problem.

 

I am glad you think this thread one of the more productive though, I just outlined what I think will be easier fixes to improve the system as it stands. Granted, its a bit of an overhaul, but that's REALLY what's necessary.

[firequill]

I'll list some of the issues as i see it:

 

1: Commendations, and what you can buy with them.

As it stands, between mission rewards and commendations, i have Zero incentive to ever visit the GTN.. Ever.

 

2: which brings me to "custom" gear (orange).

These are given out waay too freely, and as others have said, as soon as you find a look you want, you just need commendation and vendor-mods for the rest of the game.

and the mods are really easy to get from vendors/missions, so no love for crafters there either.

 

I propose that the custom gear be removed from all vendors and seeded into the crafting proffessions at different levels, not just all of them at 400 .

 

After all, It ain't CUSTOM if it rolled of an assembly line!

 

 

3: Crafting interdependancy is lacking (read: nonexistant).

 

Why can we just push a button and get a finished product in one go?

at least make us go shop for components crafted by other professions..

 

example: I wanna make a superawesome lightsaber, so i need a subassembly from a cybertech, i ether chat one up for it, or actually *gasp* use the GTN and stimulate the economy.

 

 

4: No carrots, just sticks..

 

There's very little reason to *want* that next tier of crafting except to go 400 for the oranges.. which are pretty useless,since everyone can just get oranges elsewhere anyway...

 

There's nothing special on the way there, most equipment is just appalingly Fugly to boot, never mind the lackluster stats.

 

 

I'm very sorry to have to draw a comparison, but my time as a weaponsmith in wow, i always had something to look forward to and something to aim for..

I'll never forget the day i crafted my first arcanite reaper, because it was so dang cool, and exclusive!

There's none of that here, which is a shame.

 

 

 

 

 

MMO 101:

It's called "Carrot on a stick", not "stick,stick,stick, Cabbage"

 

 

/rage

[weevil]

I say it again, remove item rewards from quests...

 

how stupid.... not everyone has the time to sit there sending companions off for 20 mins crafting quests...

[WillyWampa]

So I've been thinking this one over and I have a fairly broad perspective.

 

I craft,I pvp and I raid. I get why some people feel raid gear must be AAA+ I also get why others feel crafting should be AAA+.

 

Both camps have valid points.I have done crafting grinds,tried to establish myself as a market leader as a top crafter collected mats and schems etc so forth (think of it as chess player's PvP).It is effort of equal value to dedicated raiding to those who dedicated the effort

 

Say we do have a crafting system that produces the best gear possible.Now lets say for fairness this best ever gear needs BoP mats gathered only from raids.So obviolsly crafters need to raid to make these awesome gear sets.

 

However the crafters customers do not need to raid to buy from the crafter.

 

Now you may ask...Willy why is that such a bad thing?We all want awesome stuff and we wanted it yesterday!

 

Here is a potential pitfall...

 

Raid guild supported crafters could saturate the market with all this awesome stuff because they may be like me and have little need for sleep and work a night shift

 

This gives all the gimmie nows their awesome stuff well um...NOW! Gimmenow has never done an operation,crafted a toaster or seen another player with a red name but he sure as heck has the best crap China supplied credits can buy.

 

So all the gimmenows are bored and lets face it these are the people who QQ up our forums and prevent intelligent debate and problem solving from occuring.

 

Essentialy free access to end game rewards without experiencing the end game (time sink between expacs) causes rapid consuming of available content (thus not enough players time sinked between expantions) that in turn causes rampant QQ posts about no end game.

 

I do have an idea and once I fully form it I may drop it here for folks to like,dislike poop on or whatever these kids do these days.

Edited January 7, 2012 by WillyWampa

[Quindia]

Not to dissuade you from you from your objections with the system, but you know this game has been released for less than a month right. All the references to Warcraft aren't talking about how the crafting system in that game began. I am not giving Bioware a pass by any means, but as a long time beta-tester and MMO-fan I am satisfied with the current system. I admit I didn't max level in the first two weeks. Spent Christmas with my kids and have a day job. I apologize for sounding superior too. Just been around these communities for 10 years now, and completely understand that folks want a lot more than they are ever gonna get. You don't think they rolled out this launch and gonna just sit on the game do you. We all have little things we want to see pop up in the future for SWTOR, but crying about end game crafting less than a month after release seems a little out there. I love this game, and make a New Years Resolution not to troll the forums. To play the dev-'s advocate, just wait and see where this game goes. It is great base system.

[Leilei]

I'll list some of the issues as i see it:

 

1: Commendations, and what you can buy with them.

As it stands, between mission rewards and commendations, i have Zero incentive to ever visit the GTN.. Ever.

 

2: which brings me to "custom" gear (orange).

These are given out waay too freely, and as others have said, as soon as you find a look you want, you just need commendation and vendor-mods for the rest of the game.

and the mods are really easy to get from vendors/missions, so no love for crafters there either.

 

-snip

 

/rage

 

I have gotten SEVERAL orange armormech and synthweaving schematics for the 110-200ish armormech range. The problem - No one is buying them when I put them in the AH for stock unchangeed price