commendation vendors ruin economy/crafting

[Ontos]

Thread is to long to care to read, but the commendation vendors are fine as is.

 

The crafters are fine as is.

 

They do not need to be changed.

 

Its the damn value of credits and what you can do with them that is the problem.

 

My SI is hasn't upgraded several abilities for the last 4 levels, because its 1000+ to nearly 2000 credits to make an old ability better at 25 (I like to take a slow trip to the top). Whats laughable, is for that 2000 credits the ability like overload gets 15 extra damage. Thats right ***15*** damage for several thousand credits, lets not forget that the force cost doesn't change, the cool down doesn't change, the knockback range doesn't change...its just a measly 15ish damage AoE on massively long recharge which makes the ability unviable except when you need breathing room. Heck, I am starting to hate to upgrade the other staple spells like Force Shock because they are barely any more effective then the last level and haven't really changed in the past 10.

 

Credits don't have enough value, between paying for things I actually need (abilities are like basic utilities food/water/electricity) to luxuries likes a speeder bike (I don't need one really, its just nice to have though). I have to crunch and maintain a budget (for a video game FFS ), I am having a hard time keeping my gear up to date (either I out level and pick up something better then the reward or I just don't have enough to get better stuff off the GTN for fear I lose out on picking up something else I may need ( a new ability, more space, repairs that just keep going up and up)

 

tl;dr aspect: The cost of living in SWTOR is to high vs the amount of income you generate. Commendation vendors are great, because its essentially free gear you pick up while grinding out levels. I wouldn't mind buying crafted gear, but the prices need to come down or the amount of credits I am making needs to go way up so I don't feel like I am on a ramen noodle every night diet.

[TumblerSW]

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.

 

It's a double edged sword because players would craft and list their items, such as mods, if the GTN would organize things in a way that players can find things easily. Each planet has a commendations vendor that sells mods but if you go try and look on the GTN you basically have to browse ALL those vendors on every planet.

 

Imagine if all those commendation and equipment vendors from the various planets that are on one corner of the imperial fleet station were just one guy. And imagine if shopping on that one guy meant you had to look through ALL the things on all those vendors. That is why the GTN is so overpriced. No one is buying so you don't have the benefit of tons of supply to keep the prices reasonable.

 

On the flip side those mods for armor and weapons are expensive to craft and they cost very little off those vendors. The armor plates are ok, 7 I think?, but stuff for the Mod slot is 2 commendations!? TWO!? Even I go buy them there instead of crafting the green, RE'ng it to blue, and building my own. I'm sure as heck not going ot try and sell them!

 

Fixing the GTN is a huge deal. It's horribly broken right now and shopping at vendors is far easier. When you buy something from from a vendor they simply give it to you. Not with the gtn! no no no, gtn shoppers have to go open a mailbox then grab the item attached to the mail.

Edited January 7, 2012 by TumblerSW

[Dubblebass]

Thread is to long to care to read, but the commendation vendors are fine as is.

 

The crafters are fine as is.

 

They do not need to be changed.

 

Its the damn value of credits and what you can do with them that is the problem.

 

My SI is hasn't upgraded several abilities for the last 4 levels, because its 1000+ to nearly 2000 credits to make an old ability better at 25 (I like to take a slow trip to the top). Whats laughable, is for that 2000 credits the ability like overload gets 15 extra damage. Thats right ***15*** damage for several thousand credits, lets not forget that the force cost doesn't change, the cool down doesn't change, the knockback range doesn't change...its just a measly 15ish damage AoE on massively long recharge which makes the ability unviable except when you need breathing room. Heck, I am starting to hate to upgrade the other staple spells like Force Shock because they are barely any more effective then the last level and haven't really changed in the past 10.

 

Credits don't have enough value, between paying for things I actually need (abilities are like basic utilities food/water/electricity) to luxuries likes a speeder bike (I don't need one really, its just nice to have though). I have to crunch and maintain a budget (for a video game FFS ), I am having a hard time keeping my gear up to date (either I out level and pick up something better then the reward or I just don't have enough to get better stuff off the GTN for fear I lose out on picking up something else I may need ( a new ability, more space, repairs that just keep going up and up)

 

tl;dr aspect: The cost of living in SWTOR is to high vs the amount of income you generate. Commendation vendors are great, because its essentially free gear you pick up while grinding out levels. I wouldn't mind buying crafted gear, but the prices need to come down or the amount of credits I am making needs to go way up so I don't feel like I am on a ramen noodle every night diet.

 

I have to say that my play experience has been quite the opposite. I have never skipped a skill, I keep my crew skills (artificing and supporting skills) at level and make much of my own upgrades, and I had enough money to buy my level 40 speeder skill and speeder at level 35. I don't play the market or anything either; I don't even use the GTN. I am able to keep ahead of my expenses by just normal questing and doing some space dailies. Haven't even done any flashpoints or many heroic areas on my Sage because I out leveled my wife and friends. I use my Trooper for those (who is also able to keep ahead in credits).

 

I am really not sure what people do with their credits to make them fall behind in this game. Credits are soo easy to come by.

[TrevNYC]

The player you're describing (the one who would buy your techblades) is an exception and not the rule.

 

I see exactly where you're coming from with this and it's sound logic, but upgrading companion gear is going to come 2nd to upgrading a player's own gear. Also, quest rewards do provide companion upgrades.

 

Of course it comes second, just like what we might be seeing is that people are viewing upgrades through crafting as second to things like trainer skills and speeders. That doesn't mean that it won't happen. It means it happens, well, second.

 

Now I'm not making the argument at all that crafting will be relegated to outfitting companions, because I believe there is a market for players themselves too. But do people really think players are going to want to grind commendations to outfit themselves and up to five companions before buying a single thing from a crafter?

 

As for the quests providing upgrades for companions, they do -- but not nearly fast enough to keep up with demand. Not everyone wants to do every single quest on a planet so they find the one that gives their companion an upgrade in a slot. It gets even harder once you have multiple companions, because even if you get a quest reward, you only get one at a time.

 

Meanwhile, players are saving for skills, speeders and the vital necessities.

 

Let them. That's how people get a guage for how many credits they need, and how well they can earn them, which is a prerequisite for them loosening their pursestrings. When I hit 20, I got the message "start saving!" and I only had 5k credits. I thought, "there's no way I'm going to have 40k credits in 5 levels." So I went on an austerity plan. By the time I hit 25, I had enought for speeder training and had 16k left over. I thought, "oh, I guess 40k credits isn't as much as I thought it would be at this level."

 

Those moments will happen for more and more people as the days go by. The sticker shock of seeing vendor items for over a million credits will wear off, and people won't think they need to hoard in order to accomplish things.

 

Your logic definitely makes sense for players who are leveling alts and have cash to spend (and god willing, we'll see more of those sooner rather than later), but at this point in the game, the economy is extremely hazardous to crafters.

 

It makes sense for people leveling up the first time, too. I discovered the techblade issue because I was having some difficulty with quests, and I realized that my companion was wearing a lot of terrible level 9 gear. There weren't weapons for him on the commendation vendors, and the green weapons from vendors seemed pretty terrible too (although I got one because it was better than nothing). I checked the consular forums and other players were having the same complaint. It was there I learned that armstech crafters made them.

 

"Awesome," I thought. I went to the GTN, searched and found ... nothing. I figured they were sold out so I checked back the next day. And the day after. And the day after that. Eventually I trained armstech on an alt, because no one was selling the item I wanted. For leveling. Which so many people seem to think no one makes purchases for. Now I'm the one selling the techblades, and they fly off the virtual shelves. But I was perfectly happy to buy them from a crafter. No one was selling them.

 

But I also have an artificer. He has a similar story. I had the collector's edition black yellow color crystal. It is hideous. I wanted a blue one for my lightsaber, but I wanted one with similar stats. Again I went to the GTN. Not a single blue crystal for sale. There were tons of red ones (I'm Republic and light side, so ... yeah). I checked for a few days, and after hitting a wall I decided to make my own crystals. I also RE'd a purple hilt.

 

So now I'm selling blue crystals and that same purple hilt for profit. I'm leveling the skill using a single green mat recipe until I can't anymore, then I get the next one. I'm leaving most of the schematics on the vendor, untrained. I keep my costs low, so they don't eat into my profit.

[DarthNethus]

It's a double edged sword because players would craft and list their items, such as mods, if the GTN would organize things in a way that players can find things easily. Each planet has a commendations vendor that sells mods but if you go try and look on the GTN you basically have to browse ALL those vendors on every planet.

 

Imagine if all those commendation and equipment vendors from the various planets that are on one corner of the imperial fleet station were just one guy. And imagine if shopping on that one guy meant you had to look through ALL the things on all those vendors. That is why the GTN is so overpriced. No one is buying so you don't have the benefit of tons of supply to keep the prices reasonable.

 

On the flip side those mods for armor and weapons are expensive to craft and they cost very little off those vendors. The armor plates are ok, 7 I think?, but stuff for the Mod slot is 2 commendations!? TWO!? Even I go buy them there instead of crafting the green, RE'ng it to blue, and building my own. I'm sure as heck not going ot try and sell them!

 

Fixing the GTN is a huge deal. It's horribly broken right now and shopping at vendors is far easier. When you buy something from from a vendor they simply give it to you. Not with the gtn! no no no, gtn shoppers have to go open a mailbox then grab the item attached to the mail.

 

You're right on many points here, Tumbler. However, I'd like to personally add that many (if not, most) people selling on GTN will simply sell their item(s) at or just around the default/suggested sell price.

 

I think this is a reflection of the fact that BW intends for things to cost a LOT of credits...

For example, go to one of the "Specialty Goods" vendors on a lvl 40+ planet.

You'll see a pair of Orange gloves selling for 47,000 credits.

Yet people complain about spending 20k for an equivalent item on GTN.

 

Too many folks are associating credits with gold or plat in other games.

The currency value scale is totally different. You don't have copper/silver/gold/plat.

It's just credits...The only variation in value there is to simply have things cost MORE credits.

 

TBQH, the rate at which credits are accrued is very good IMO. I don't play the GTN or really bother trying to sell the things I craft on GTN. I make all of my money from quest rewards and PVP, and I'm doing just fine on money (can afford all of my training, companion missions, speeder upgrades, and even occasionally buy a cool looking piece of gear off GTN).

 

The problem here, IMO is that people don't really see an incentive to buy crafted gear pieces.

I personally don't think that the commendation vendors are to blame. I think it's the way they've been implemented, to a degree...Sure.

But I also think players need an incentive to WANT to buy crafted gear.

 

As far as the organization and usability of the GTN, I agree with you 100%. It's awful.

Makes it VERY difficult to search around, find what you want, price out what you're selling, etc.

[Dorkfrey]

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 would like to state a counter arguement for this. I do not believe that they are a hindrance to the economy - with a caveat - as some folk will have noticed, I have been very vocally anti Slicing nerf, but I also believe that - the welfare gear (via commendations) is a GREAT thing.

 

In my never humble opinion - the two as they were, combined to make a game, that was very accessible, while leaving no room for goldsellers (since gear could always be acquired with commendations).

 

Crafting - needs a boost, to bring it in the same region as the vendors, as a baseline. The two - need to scale equally, but have differences in what they can offer over Commendation gear. I.E. Commendation gear gives the inital starting boost to gear, but crafted gear can be refined to mix/match for perfect setups.

 

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.

 

This I think is wrong. Commendation gear being able to provide a welfare baseline of gear that's easily obtainable is a "GOOD" thing, that gives the market that felt freedom of Goldsellers. It's a market that they cannot ever - control.

 

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

 

This is true - almost all of the crafts cannot compete with what is available via Vendor at almost any stage of the game, short of artifact gear, and that is levelled out of quickly - making it worthless considering few have the cash to spend freely.

 

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.

 

If Cybertech's could easily keep up with the vendors for mods, we would not have an imbalance. Likewise - if Armstech/Synth were able to produce more Orange gear - the same would apply. Having Vendors selling "decent" gear isn't a bad thing, however - I think crafting gear should be in-line with it.

 

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.

 

I think that Bioware should review the nerfs, but for different reasons.

 

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.

 

In my opinion - they only cheapen what can be produced by crafters because crafters cannot compete in-line with them. They are an essential commodity to a relatively Credit Farmer free environment.

 

Having that environment encourages play sans the need for RMT. Unfortunately, crafting has taken a backseat, because by their own design (which in turn has encouraged RMT to spring up) - will take a while for it to settle.

 

I do hope they look at crafting seriously, and bring it back into line with what's vendorable. I also think they should look at slicing within this, because a functioning slicing skill, allows for crafting to prosper.

Edited January 7, 2012 by Dorkfrey

[Kyryck]

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.

 

TLDR? I want to overcharge people at every stage of the game, making millions and then laughing about it after the fact. I'll thank Bioware to keep the greedy bastards that ruined virtual economies in pretty much every game out of the loop. I have no problem with crafters being able to make gear that is roughly equivalent to the best gear, but certainly not the best gear. Know why? Because there are a huge amount of 'crafters' that are so stupidly greedy that they ruin the game and economy all by themselves by overcharging for their goods and then claim that it's 'market price' or something dumb (when in reality they're overcharging so massively on their product that it's beyond ludicrous).

[Terwilliger]

TLDR? I want to overcharge people at every stage of the game, making millions and then laughing about it after the fact. I'll thank Bioware to keep the greedy bastards that ruined virtual economies in pretty much every game out of the loop. I have no problem with crafters being able to make gear that is roughly equivalent to the best gear, but certainly not the best gear. Know why? Because there are a huge amount of 'crafters' that are so stupidly greedy that they ruin the game and economy all by themselves by overcharging for their goods and then claim that it's 'market price' or something dumb (when in reality they're overcharging so massively on their product that it's beyond ludicrous).

 

You're wrong, though; they should be able to make the best gear.

 

And, like all the best gear, it should be BoP so there's no market for it.

[Amdarius]

You can't keep your gear up to par just using commendations. You don't get nearly enough of them. You can upgrade 2 or 3 pieces per planet (less if you want to go for a random purple item, which may or may not be useable by you).

 

The bigger problem is all the quest drops.

[Ghostmachine]

ghostmachine .... i respect your reply and am not misreading your tone.

 

and yes, i do admit that i am not an experienced mmo player.

 

the question i keep coming back to, is how are the crafters items ever going to ever have any real/relevant value, when people can get geared out with orange gear, and keep that gear always relevant by using commendations vendors for the duration of the game?

 

i believe that you are an experienced mmo player, and maybe you can shed some light to this noob on this question?

 

Hi Sskinzz

 

To answer your question, this isn't determined in SWTOR quite yet. As I said the game is still developing. In other MMOS, for example Warcraft, when new content is released the developers create recipes for items that can be crafted and sold as starting gear for that content patch.

 

For example, let's say that Bioware releases new content in patch 1.5, new endgame content for example. They can easily create recipes for gear that will allow players to access that content without having to sludge through outdated content. That gear will be replaced by what those players earn as they play through the new content.

 

In addition to this, crafting can provide certain perks, bonuses to stats, vanity items, gear augmentations, etc. From what little I've seen in SWTOR so far there are a few of these items, mounts for example which I understand are bind on pick up.

 

The fact that low level crafted gear isn't on par with quest items or vendor gear is to me a mistake that every most MMOs tend to make. It makes sense however that end game gear for PvP and PvE is provided by other means (killing bosses and participating in PvP for example).

 

Basically, to sum it up, the game has only been live for a very short amount of time, what we have now is a base with which the development team can grow on.

[Knockerz]

Not really. If you want the best your still better off using the ah. Vendors don't sell purple mods or weapons. Although, I only buy stuff of ah if I like how the gear looks or if I really need an upgrade for a particular item. I use my commendation for the orange gear or for those purple boxes, then you can sell the purple items and buy what you need.

 

It's just that the game is still too young. In wow people who have a main and are established don't care about the cost of items and will purchase the best for leveling. In a few weeks or months, people will only buy the purple gear for leveling alts. Perhaps, they want two of the same classes and same advance spec, but one spec for pvp and other for pve. Can also level two same class, but different advance spec.

[TheRealBoz]

TLDR? I want to overcharge people at every stage of the game, making millions and then laughing about it after the fact. I'll thank Bioware to keep the greedy bastards that ruined virtual economies in pretty much every game out of the loop. I have no problem with crafters being able to make gear that is roughly equivalent to the best gear, but certainly not the best gear. Know why? Because there are a huge amount of 'crafters' that are so stupidly greedy that they ruin the game and economy all by themselves by overcharging for their goods and then claim that it's 'market price' or something dumb (when in reality they're overcharging so massively on their product that it's beyond ludicrous).

 

You don't have a clue what you're talking about, why are you in this thread?

Are you seriously suggesting that a whole server is supplied by just one crafter of a particular type, and that ONE crafter decides to overcharge?

And are you seriously suggesting that on that whole server being ravaged by this fiend, NOT A SINGLE PLAYER will think "gee, this guy is making a killing, maybe I should get into this crafting business myself"?

Or are you just suggesting that these two crafters will peacefully coexist and not tear each other's prices down within a few hours at most?

Or maybe you're one of those "TLDR I want to have everything best and I want it all cheap, and I don't care who gets ****ed over for it."

Edited January 7, 2012 by TheRealBoz

[TheRealBoz]

You can't keep your gear up to par just using commendations. You don't get nearly enough of them. You can upgrade 2 or 3 pieces per planet (less if you want to go for a random purple item, which may or may not be useable by you).

 

The bigger problem is all the quest drops.

 

11 commendations per armor item, 13 per weapon.

Doing everything except for the bonus series nets me anywhere from 35 to 50 commendations per planet. That's ~enough for a weapon, a hat, a shirt and some pants.

[Ghostmachine]

You don't have a clue what you're talking about, why are you in this thread?

Are you seriously suggesting that a whole server is supplied by just one crafter of a particular type, and that ONE crafter decides to overcharge?

And are you seriously suggesting that on that whole server being ravaged by this fiend, NOT A SINGLE PLAYER will think "gee, this guy is making a killing, maybe I should get into this crafting business myself"?

 

One seller decides to overcharge, if they can't buy out their competition they undercut them, the price goes down until it is bought out by one player or the other and then gets jacked back up. When we're speaking of rare items, it is very easy to dominate the market on even medium population servers. Less so on high pop servers, but when you have more people you have more demand. Basically the problem isn't always one seller, but all sellers will try to maximize profit, when a "Good Samaritan" comes in and tries to undo this their low priced goods are just bought out and sold at a higher price.

 

Player driven economies are consistently abused, not always by a single player, but quite frequently by a handful of people with deep pockets and more time than your average player.

 

Trust me, I'm telling you this from experience.

[TheRealBoz]

One seller decides to overcharge, if they can't buy out their competition they undercut them, the price goes down until it is bought out by one player or the other and then gets jacked back up. When we're speaking of rare items, it is very easy to dominate the market on even medium population servers. Less so on high pop servers, but when you have more people you have more demand. Basically the problem isn't always one seller, but all sellers will try to maximize profit, when a "Good Samaritan" comes in and tries to undo this their low priced goods are just bought out and sold at a higher price.

 

Player driven economies are consistently abused, not always by a single player, but quite frequently by a handful of people with deep pockets and more time than your average player.

 

Trust me, I'm telling you this from experience.

 

I've experienced some of these events. They never last more than a few days, and the price jacks are never more extreme than a factor of 2, maybe 3. It's certainly never comparable to the "2k item sold at 60k" that some posters mention constantly.

[SackofOwls]

Am I crazy...or has no one else noticed that the mods Cybertechs make are, in fact, different from the ones the Commendation vendors sell?

 

I don't remember the exact stats, but the Guardian Mods that the Commendation Vendor sells have the reverse stats of the Might Mod that the Cybertech makes.

 

So a Guardian Mod 4 would be something like +10 Strength +15 Endurance

The Might Mod 4 would be something like +15 Strength +10 Endurance

 

I think this is the same for everything. I am not sure what exactly Artificers make as far as Enhancments go, but I have only seen the Rage Enhancement at Commendation Vendors so far. Do Artificers not make different ones?

 

I am doing Cybertech myself and have always been able to make better things than the Commendation Vendor. I make stuff for me and the three other guys I play with. I haven't really messed with the GTN too much yet.

 

I go through some planets and never use the Commendations for gear, because they don't have anything I need.

[Sogrin]

@ OP directly

 

As it seams that one of your questions hase gone unanswerd even though it has been asked multiple times, here it is.

 

If you have an orange item with full purple mods at the same level (ie all lvl 25 required mods), then the orange item should be comparable to an artifact level item requireing the same level. The stats propbably wont be the same, but they would be considered 'equal' in strength, escept to the most pedantic min/maxer

 

@ topic in general

 

I'm in my low 30's

 

I dont buy off the GTN or from other crafters

 

I dont buy from the commendation vendor either (at all. i have something like 80+ commendation ranging from lvl 8 to 30 that never got spent)

 

This is because i can get 'sufficient' gear for leveling from quest rewards, and random drops.

 

i have created an army of alts though, so that when i get 1-2 characters to 50, i can feed credits to my alts, to craft gear to make leveling easier for my alts

[TheRealBoz]

Actually, that question has been covered already.

[angrydurf]

Am I crazy...or has no one else noticed that the mods Cybertechs make are, in fact, different from the ones the Commendation vendors sell?

 

I don't remember the exact stats, but the Guardian Mods that the Commendation Vendor sells have the reverse stats of the Might Mod that the Cybertech makes.

 

So a Guardian Mod 4 would be something like +10 Strength +15 Endurance

The Might Mod 4 would be something like +15 Strength +10 Endurance

 

I think this is the same for everything. I am not sure what exactly Artificers make as far as Enhancments go, but I have only seen the Rage Enhancement at Commendation Vendors so far. Do Artificers not make different ones?

 

I am doing Cybertech myself and have always been able to make better things than the Commendation Vendor. I make stuff for me and the three other guys I play with. I haven't really messed with the GTN too much yet.

 

I go through some planets and never use the Commendations for gear, because they don't have anything I need.

 

This is true but the inverse happens as well. My Jedi Guardian would rather have the Guardian mods than the Might ones I can make. Meaning even if it wasn't WAY cheaper and easier to use the Commendation vendors it would still be better for me to get those than use what I can make.

[MacHarborGuy]

One thing that made me enjoy Star Wars Galaxies Crafting system above all other MMO crafting systems was that it wasn't simply "get the schematic, craft the item". Players had a number of experimentation points that they could put into different aspects of the final crafted item, allowing more variety in items.

 

For weapons, one player could make Blaster A with a higher rate of fire, while another could increase the damage per shot.

 

For gathering equipment, one player could make an extractor that had a larger hopper to hold more extracted materials, another player could make one with a faster extraction rate, another could make one that used less power per extraction tick, and another could make a more balanced version of the three. And this wasn't just a +1 to each of those, some could be +2, +3, all depended on the experimentation points available.

 

Another thing was that crafting, if i am remembering correctly, was a specific class on its own, making it so not everyone could really be one unless you specifically made an alt for the purpose of crafting. But even then, the crafting class had 3-4 different specializations they could work on, again, limiting the total number of crafters.

 

With games using the WoW model, any character can be a gatherer and/or crafter, there by making the potential crafting population to 100% of the game population. People want to talk about making a "realistic" or "semi-realistic" crafting system and economy, but really, how realistic is it that everyone is or can be a crafter in the real world? Not everyone produces something. Yes, people have jobs, but not every one of those jobs is in manufacturing.

 

But back to the topic, crafting in SWTOR is basically the same as "that other game", but at the same time wants to be the SWG version as well. Reverse Engineering can be kind of considered a more expensive version of experimentation from SWG, especially with Augment slots, but the randomness of that is a bit much. Being able to increase your chances of getting that Augment crit by using more materials would be great, and if the augment slot doesn't get added, the additional materials wouldn't be used.

 

/rant over

[Zennshi]

But that doesn't mean they should ignore avenue's such as this. Horray for BW trying to reduce the number of gold farmers. Every step they take to stop this is a good one in my book.

 

Do you have any idea how gold farmers operate? I don't think you do otherwise you would understand my stance.

[patoman]

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.

 

Commendation vendors or others?

 

Buying blue or green from vendors for isk (specialty vendors) for same level gear is way higher then anything on auction house. 4000 to 1000 for something I can buy for hundreds on AH

[OsarionRDM]

I support the OP. Orange items and Commendaton vendors need MAJOR adjustment. What's the point of being an armor or weaponscrfter otherwise?

[Sajuto]

I support the OP. Orange items and Commendaton vendors need MAJOR adjustment. What's the point of being an armor or weaponscrfter otherwise?

 

There's not, so don't roll one. Herp derp

[SackofOwls]

This is true but the inverse happens as well. My Jedi Guardian would rather have the Guardian mods than the Might ones I can make. Meaning even if it wasn't WAY cheaper and easier to use the Commendation vendors it would still be better for me to get those than use what I can make.

 

This is true, but others will not. If you were a Sentinal you would want Strength. As a Commando (despite the mod title) I don't want the Commendation Mod, because I want to stack Aim.