commendation vendors ruin economy/crafting

[sskinzz]

i am not proclaiming to be an expert of any sorts on economy/mmo economy, but in my opinion, the BIGGEST problem in swtor right now is the commedation vendors making crafting skills insignificant. player characters should not be able to keep their gear up to date (especially acquiring orange gear!!!) using commendations vendors, but instead should be done through spending credits for peoples crafts at the GTN. the trickle down effect that commendation vendors have on weakening the economy is really effecting the gameplay for alot of people in a very negative way.

 

i am not saying to get rid of commendation vendors, but imho, commendation vendors should offer bop companion gear only, which will greatly increase the need for crafted gear and strengthen the economy.

 

it seems almost EVERY crafting skill, sans biochem, is completely DE-VALUED because of what the commendation vendors offer for so cheap.

 

when someone can get orange gear at level 15 through commendation vendors, and keep that gear up to date for the ENTIRE leveling process, through commendation vendors, you are going to have a fubared econcomy.

 

for the people that dont like crafting, i think bw should un-nerf slicing to some degree the way it was before so that these people can still make a nice income. this income will also help feed the economy as the "slicers" will spend alot of that income in the GTN.

 

these are just my opinions, and by my own admission, i am a very inexperienced mmo player. so far, i love the game, but it just feels like these commendation vendors really "cheapen" and undermind the entire economy/crafting skills that swtor has to offer.

 

please discuss, and keep the bashing to a minimum. this is NOT a thread that is meant to bash bioware.... i just wish that getting great gear didnt have such an "easy mode" feel to it.

Edited January 6, 2012 by sskinzz

[Natarii]

During the levelling process I did not feel this way. As an artificer, I was able to make 3 of the 4 mods that go in my light saber, and 2 of 4 mods that go in all my other gear. Commendations filled in the holes left by my personal crafting.

 

I am now level 50 and starting Illum dailies.... which grant me access to purple quality rank 23 mods. My crafting mods have topped out at rank 22, and even if I RE them into purple quality, they are still a tier behind what I can purchase.

 

This is a flaw that has been discussed ad naseum, and I agree with the sentiment that one of two things needs to happen to make crafting more relavent at level 50: Add lvl 50 patterns to crafting trainers, or remove rank 23 purples from commendation vendors (note I did not say remove rank 23 altogether, dropping them to blue or green would give crafters an opportunity to provide something better - a rank 22 purple would be better than a rank 23 green, possible equal to a rank 23 blue).

[Aethyn]

I agree.

 

400 Armstech.

[chton]

Just curious you don't consider crafting to be ez mode? It requires nothing but an investment in time. I'm sorry that people can't make a million credits while afk but hey if you actually play the game you can make a load of credits. Just my opinion.

[Thanatosx]

I am glad for the vendors.

 

The prices for gear are so overinflated I can't actually afford to purchase any upgrades from the GTN.

 

I'd be totally screwed if they removed the gear vendors.

 

And slicer's don't have the income to really spend freely anymore, at least as a majority.

[Tacola]

I would agree. IMHO a quick fix would be to up the accommendation vendors prices by about 10x the current cost.

 

And make accommendation have a set value across planets. Like Taris = 1/4 of a tatoonie accommendation. Or just have one accommendation type, and give more for end game planets. Still sale the same gear at each planet but with a modified accommendation cost.

 

This would make accommendation from earlier planets not worthless and make the gear from these vendors rare. And in turn make Crafted goods more useful.

[DarthTHC]

Just curious you don't consider crafting to be ez mode? It requires nothing but an investment in time. I'm sorry that people can't make a million credits while afk but hey if you actually play the game you can make a load of credits. Just my opinion.

 

It's not a matter of making credits for everyone. For some, it's a matter of having a favorite activity ingame that now feels absolutely worthless. Why bother crafting?

 

In "that other game", the best armor and weapons always came from the game, not crafters. But also in "that other game", crafters were the only source of modifications that could be made to armor and weapons and characters. The game didn't give you gems, enchantments, and glyphs. You had to go to a crafter for those.

 

Crafters were useful because of that. Even at endgame. Especially at endgame.

 

Crafters at endgame in SWTOR are absolutely useless, except for Biochemists, and that's only for self-buffs.

[Aethyn]

Just curious you don't consider crafting to be ez mode? It requires nothing but an investment in time. I'm sorry that people can't make a million credits while afk but hey if you actually play the game you can make a load of credits. Just my opinion.

 

It's not about making millions of credits.

 

It's about being viable and able to provide a service in your chosen profession. Premium items come at a premium cost. You certainly don't have to buy them. However, we should still have the ability to create them.

[sskinzz]

During the levelling process I did not feel this way. As an artificer, I was able to make 3 of the 4 mods that go in my light saber, and 2 of 4 mods that go in all my other gear. Commendations filled in the holes left by my personal crafting.

 

I am now level 50 and starting Illum dailies.... which grant me access to purple quality rank 23 mods. My crafting mods have topped out at rank 22, and even if I RE them into purple quality, they are still a tier behind what I can purchase.

 

This is a flaw that has been discussed ad naseum, and I agree with the sentiment that one of two things needs to happen to make crafting more relavent at level 50: Add lvl 50 patterns to crafting trainers, or remove rank 23 purples from commendation vendors (note I did not say remove rank 23 altogether, dropping them to blue or green would give crafters an opportunity to provide something better - a rank 22 purple would be better than a rank 23 green, possible equal to a rank 23 blue).

 

im not familiar with artifice so i dont know the in's and out's of everything you just said, but should and gear (blue, orange and purple) be only available to purchase from peoples crafted items?

 

i always thought vendors should be pretty much for green items only?!?

 

call it what you want, but to me, commendations vendors are pretty much just a very "cheap" place to buy gear...and the fact that you can buy orange and blue gear for so cheaply, and ALSO, buy the item modifications the keep this very low cost gear up to date all the way through level 50 completely "gimps" the entire economy....

 

am i missing something here? was this bw's actual intention? or is this just a major oversight by the devs?

[digglez]

there shouldnt be any item drops or rewards at all, only salvaged left overs from slain opponents. Crafting should account for 95% of all goods, with a small % of lowbie trash able to be purchased from NPC vendors.

[Rhinoplat]

My suggestion would be to put the commendation items at a stat rating somewhere between the green & blue of what a crafter can make.

 

Normally I can make a green with say +20 to a main stat, and the blue for that armoring/mod piece is +22. So why not allow the blue commendation piece to be +21. It makes it easier to stay equipped during levels, but will always make the crafters gear superior that what players can get from commendations.

 

I rarely, rarely use the commendation vendors for anything other than picking up a new knife or piece of orange gear. With quest rewards and cybertech I stay ahead of my level most of the time by having blue or purple modifications in my armoring slots.

 

BioWare is really screwing the crafters over by not allowing the best in slots to only come from crafters. Raids should drop the mats that crafters use, but the actual crafting and gear should have to be made by crafters.

[sskinzz]

I am glad for the vendors.

 

The prices for gear are so overinflated I can't actually afford to purchase any upgrades from the GTN.

 

I'd be totally screwed if they removed the gear vendors.

 

And slicer's don't have the income to really spend freely anymore, at least as a majority.

 

a simple fix = make commendation vendors bop companion gear only and make slicing the way it was so the people that dont like crafting (like yourself) have an easy means to make the income they need so they can afford to buy their gear through the gtn.

[sskinzz]

I am glad for the vendors.

 

The prices for gear are so overinflated I can't actually afford to purchase any upgrades from the GTN.

 

I'd be totally screwed if they removed the gear vendors.

 

And slicer's don't have the income to really spend freely anymore, at least as a majority.

 

thanatosx, i would like to ask, why cant you afford the upgrade prices through the gtn?

[Rhinoplat]

thanatosx, i would like to ask, why cant you afford the upgrade prices through the gtn?

 

If he was on my server, or in my guild I would give him armoring/mods for free. I don't know how it's hard to keep orange gear up to par when so many of my quest reward choices are for enhancements or armoring/mods.

[sskinzz]

If he was on my server, or in my guild I would give him armoring/mods for free. I don't know how it's hard to keep orange gear up to par when so many of my quest reward choices are for enhancements or armoring/mods.

 

the reason i asked him why he cant afford to spend at the gtn, is im guessig he cant make sufficient credits in his profession .... which is the whole reason im bringing this point up. alot of people arent making a sufficient living at their profession, and i believe the biggest reason people arent making sufficient income is BECAUSE of the commendation vendors.

[Lividcalm]

Commendations are not ruining the economy, over inflated prices are.

 

It's expensive leveling up. Repairs, new skills, crew skills, etc...

 

Not to mention that I am not going to spend a ton of credits on a piece of gear that is going to get replaced in a level or two anyway. Maybe if crafters started putting items up at REALISTIC prices it would change. But as long as people are putting up sub-par items at 10,000 credits when I can go get a better piece for commendations, why would I spend credits?

 

Commendations make it easy to keep your gear current while saving your credits for other things that you really need.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Lividcalm

[Purlana]

Commendations are not ruining the economy.

 

It's expensive leveling up. Repairs, new skills, crew skills, etc...

 

Commendations make it easy to keep your gear current while saving your credits for other things that you need.

 

At the same time we can't sell our crafted items because people just get them via commendations...

Edited January 6, 2012 by Purlana

[Racheakt]

It's not a matter of making credits for everyone. For some, it's a matter of having a favorite activity ingame that now feels absolutely worthless. Why bother crafting?

 

In "that other game", the best armor and weapons always came from the game, not crafters. But also in "that other game", crafters were the only source of modifications that could be made to armor and weapons and characters. The game didn't give you gems, enchantments, and glyphs. You had to go to a crafter for those.

 

Crafters were useful because of that. Even at endgame. Especially at endgame.

 

Crafters at endgame in SWTOR are absolutely useless, except for Biochemists, and that's only for self-buffs.

 

But Crafted gear in that other game was better then vendor gear.

[chton]

At the same time we can't sell our crafted items because people just get them via commendations...

 

What's the problem.. oh you mean it's a problem for you... It's funny people talk about not being able to make money from their profession, they've got it all wrong. I make plenty of money from my profession, I'm a bounty hunter. Armormech is my hobby. I make enough to help out my friends and keep my companions geared.

Also do you really think BW didn't realize this? Think about what that says about crafting. It's a diversionary mini game like space battles. The only people seem to be bothered by it are the folks who can't make a mint while being afk.

[DarthTHC]

BioWare should nerf the gear mods available on commendation vendors and give crafting skills that produce gear mods the ability to craft better than they currently can, and better than what is on the commendation vendors.

 

They should leave the gear on commendation vendors as-is, or alternatively ensure that all slotted gear always comes with empty slots.

 

In this manner, BioWare will create a market for at least some crafting professions to have actual value throughout the life of the game.

 

BioWare should also implement bind-on-pickup schematics for armor and weapons, that drop from difficult objectives on difficult operations, that are better and/or cooler-looking than anything available through any other means in the game.

 

Give crafters a fighting chance at producing something of value.

[Thanatosx]

there shouldnt be any item drops or rewards at all, only salvaged left overs from slain opponents. Crafting should account for 95% of all goods, with a small % of lowbie trash able to be purchased from NPC vendors.

 

I totally disagree 100%. That would be a game killer for me and everyone I know who plays.

[Sivlar]

I agree.

 

400 Armstech.

 

Agree.

 

I have 400 Armstech, everything we can make is complete garbage. Totally broken profession at best.

 

The only slotted guns we can make are lvl 48 and require a BoP crafting material only found in hardmode flashpoints. They don't even have very good stats either, you can get better off the PvP vendors easily.

[sskinzz]

Commendations are not ruining the economy, over inflated prices are.

 

It's expensive leveling up. Repairs, new skills, crew skills, etc...

 

Not to mention that I am not going to spend a ton of credits on a piece of gear that is going to get replaced in a level or two anyway. Maybe if crafters started putting items up at REALISTIC prices it would change. But as long as people are putting up sub-par items at 10,000 credits when I can go get a better piece for commendations, why would I spend credits?

 

Commendations make it easy to keep your gear current while saving your credits for other things that you really need.

 

ummm... not its not. its not expensive doing repairs, new crew skill, crew skills etc...

 

and if you shop around just a bit, you wont need to spend 10,000 on a piece of gear...unless you want epic gear.

 

and yes, your right, in that commendations make it easy (easy mode) to keep your gear current and save your credits.... which makes crafting essentially almost worthless other than just a little side game. what happened to crafting being an essesntial part of having a successful journey through an mmo game?

 

im actually advocating them un-nerfing slicing, so that people like yourself that dont like crafting, dont have to take it to have the money/credits to be able to progress through the game.

 

un-nerf slicing, get rid of commendation vendors, and both sides (crafters/non-crafters) will be happy. as it is now, non-crafters get what they want, and crafters are screwed.

[Thanatosx]

a simple fix = make commendation vendors bop companion gear only and make slicing the way it was so the people that dont like crafting (like yourself) have an easy means to make the income they need so they can afford to buy their gear through the gtn.

 

I'm good with that actually. I never really got a chance to make much money with slicing, I picked it up too late...but while I did have it, I did buy stuff off the AH since I knew I would make enough money by 25 to get my speeder training.

 

thanatosx, i would like to ask, why cant you afford the upgrade prices through the gtn?

 

Prices have gone through the roof on any actual piece of gear or modification that would be an upgrade for me and I don't have the disposable income since I need to save for training (speeder training, etc), repairs, etc.

 

There is also an issue of very little stuff on our GTN too, overall.

 

I know pretty much everyone says you still make buckets of money with slicing if you follow the spreadsheets (Which I do) but, I still don't. I'm one of those rare people who have consistantly bad luck with random generators. I think I was a bad man in my previous lives lol.

 

If he was on my server, or in my guild I would give him armoring/mods for free. I don't know how it's hard to keep orange gear up to par when so many of my quest reward choices are for enhancements or armoring/mods.

 

I appreciate that...I'm part of a small guild with friends and we just aren't to the point where we can do that for each other yet...we're all very casual and behind the curve of what's going on in the general market.

 

I have mostly organge gear and it usually lags 5 to 10 levels behind where I am. I usually use my comindations for mods and it helps, but I still lag behind.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Thanatosx

[sskinzz]

is this what weve really come to at this day and age? mmo role playing game, where crafting is dumbed down and not needed anymore? you can get great gear for the entire leveling process cheapily from a vendor?

 

if so, im very disappointed, and not sure how much longevity this game will have for me down the road... the next few months, absolutely...next year? not so much.

 

if this is the case, this doesnt really feel like an mmo...but more like a single player game that you can play co-op multiplayer style missions.