Does Archaeology & Treasure Hunting heavily favor republic players?

[Godzillamax]

Does Archaeology & Treasure Hunting heavily favor Republic players, or do I just have rotten luck? I'm level 41, and currently questing on Hoth. I have hit every level appropriate planet and done nearly all the quests on each planet as I have leveled. I have kept my two gathering skills (Archaeology & Treasure Hunting) and my crafting skill (Artifice) up to my character's level as I have leveled.

 

During this time, what I have noticed is that accumulating color crystals, whether by gathering them from the game world, or via Archaeology crew skill, heavily favors Republic players (at an almost 4:1 ratio). Jedi players can use green/blue/yellow color crystals, and Sith can use red/orange/yellow. The first problem stems from the fact that the only gatherable color crystals from the game world are blue, green and red. Right there alone the Republic players have an advantage over Imperial because two of the three color crystals available to them can be simply acquired from the game world. While blue and green represent 2/3s of the gatherable color crystals from the game world, they are far more common than red (I didn't use any color crystals for 4-5 levels to see how many I would have and I ended up with something like 140-ish green, 90-ish blue, and 50-ish red).

 

Second, utilizing the Archaeology crew skill you can send your companions on missions to obtain color crystals. typically when you do so you will get two colors, usually red and green, or blue and red, etc. Where you obtain orange color crystals, I have yet to discover.

 

The end result is that a Republic player with the Artifice skill can easily and cheaply level up his/her Artifice skill (and use the large number of mats necessary to reverse engineer greens and blues to get a new schematic proc) with little effort due to the abundance of green and blue color crystals. Also, Republic Jedi have available to them 3 out of 3 of their color crystals (yellow color crystals come from Treasure Hunting for gems).

 

Conversely as a Sith player I have to spend an inordinate sum of money sending my companions on crew skills to locate red color crystals since they are so rare in the game world. And when they come back, half of what they bring me is utterly useless (may come back with 2 red crystals and 2 green). Also, as a Sith player I can only craft two of the three colors my alignment can use (yellow and red). I've looted sabers with an orange color crystals, but at level 41 I have yet to find the schematic to craft one.

 

And finally, when I dispatch my companion on a "Rich" Treasure Hunting mission and they bring home a relic, 9 out of 10 times it is only usable by a light side alignment character. I must not be alone in this, because our Imperial GTN is flooded with light side relics that no one purchases.

 

Anyway, perhaps I just have bad luck. If not, this is pretty poor tradeskill design IMO.

[Muffled]

Imperials can use green/blue. It's light-side.

[ZenoDnB]

I am also an Artifice crafter, and I would have to agree with this post... on many planets, the gatherable crystals are blue/green (no red at all). Also, yellow crystals are by default prototype (blue), which means you have to get yellow gemstones to craft these items, unlike the premium grade (green) crystals, which only require color and power crystals. The trade-off there is that the yellow crystals are better, but it would be nice to have another basic color option to help train the skill.

 

Regarding relics found from treasure hunting - I have never received a dark side relic, only light relics. As you mentioned, these are also hard to sell, since it seems other people are having the same problem. My assumption is this is not the intended behavior; it's possible there is a bug with the way relics are generated as loot.

[ZenoDnB]

Imperials can use green/blue. It's light-side.

 

True. So the problem here is bias towards light side players. I would assume that there are more light side players in the Republic...

[Skoobin]

Last I checked you can still use the schematic regardless of alignment. So you can still cheaply level off of the blue and green gemstones, you just can't use them unless you are at least Light 1. Make them and break them to make more or make them and sell them, your choice, but you still can get the skill increase.

[Darzil]

Are the red's actually rarer, or is it the same issue that you get in LOTRO, where there is a common spawn point for all types, and if people don't harvest the lot, but only those they want (red in this case), eventually no red are available.

[Godzillamax]

Are the red's actually rarer, or is it the same issue that you get in LOTRO, where there is a common spawn point for all types, and if people don't harvest the lot, but only those they want (red in this case), eventually no red are available.

 

Great question! Here is what I have noticed.

 

a) Spawn locations are static (i.e. at coordinates XYZ an item will always spawn).

b) What spawns at a node may to be random. I harvested a node (power crystal type A (for example)), and went AFK to answer the phone. When I came back power crystal type B had spawned at that node. What is unknown is if a node is random but limited to a single material type (so in my example, that node could spawn a power crystal type A, B, C, etc but not a color crystal.

 

Just from my observations, red color crystals in the game world are fairly rare compared to blue green.

[Godzillamax]

Last I checked you can still use the schematic regardless of alignment. So you can still cheaply level off of the blue and green gemstones, you just can't use them unless you are at least Light 1. Make them and break them to make more or make them and sell them, your choice, but you still can get the skill increase.

 

True, but then this requires you to continually buy the higher level schematics for blue or green color crystals from your trainer just to craft items you don't want and probably can't use or very few people on your faction will want. It also means you expend the other materials that could have been otherwise used to craft items that you could use or would be desired by players of your faction. Point is, the way the color crystals are working heavily favors the "good guys" in the game.

 

IMO what could help alleviate this would be to allow our companions to use any color since they are neutral. I should be able to mod an item as I see fit, but simply not use it due to my alignment. This way if I want Vette to have green blast fire, then I could. This might potentially create a market on the imperial side for green and blue color crystals.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Godzillamax

[TaishoD]

Regarding relics, it's the reverse on the republic side. Almost all relics that I get via the treasure hunting skill are for dark side.

 

It's probably the same deal with the craftable armor schematics that appear via missions : on republic side, we get schematics for empire players, and vice versa. Problem is, most players don't know that there is a cross-faction GTN available on Nar Shadaa.

[Jarlhen]

I wanted a blue crystal for my Jedi. But then I took an arrow to he knee (Ie, I went dark). I'm very sad. Nerf blue crystals!!!!

[pangwl]

o_O?

I'm a lil surprised by this thread....

 

I'm a lvl 45 Sentinel, and whenever I send my companion out to gather (archaeology), they seems to come back mainly with RED color crystals, and hardly any Blues (the color that I preferred)... Bummer.

[Raani]

 

Regarding relics found from treasure hunting - I have never received a dark side relic, only light relics. As you mentioned, these are also hard to sell, since it seems other people are having the same problem. My assumption is this is not the intended behavior; it's possible there is a bug with the way relics are generated as loot.

 

Just for some perspective, the AH on my realm (Republic side) is flooded with Dark relics. If there are 4 pages of relics, maybe 2 items in total will be Light.

 

I have a question for you, since I don't have Artifice myself: are the schematics you get from Treasure Hunting BoP or BoE?

 

If they are BoE, do sell the unwanted ones on the Nar Shaddaa AH. I've gotten plenty of recipes via Underworld Trading which are only usable by Empire classes and I've sold all of them for decent money. Every time I go to the neutral AH, I come back loaded with schematics for my friend (for Republic classes), which I never see on our AH.

 

I don't know if this is a bug or intentional, but I'm leaning towards intentional. It's just too bad that few people seem to know about the neutral AH, so they pointlessly try to sell items on their faction's AH or vendor them.

 

***********************************************************************

 

Regarding color crystals, I don't think the listing the OP had is accurate. For example, my trooper (Light side) has an orange crystal in her canon. It's a very nice one too, giving +Power, but I don't seem to find a lv 49-50 epic one on AH. This one I scavenged from a BoE.

 

It's not the first orange one I got either. My previous orange crystals came from dungeon drops or commendation weapons, and seemed to not have an alignment restriction.

 

My impression is that blue/green are forbidden to Dark, while red is forbidden to Light. Yellow and orange seem open to either alignment.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Raani

[AllanGand]

Tip No. 1 The GTN on Tatooine/Nar Shaddaa is neutral, that means both republic and empire have access to it. Post your green/blue stuff there and republic could buy it.

 

Tip No. 2 Loot all the nodes you see, they are random, and the colour crystals offered will change when they respawn. The reason you see so very few red nodes on empire worlds, is cause no one loots the green/blue ones!

 

 

There problem solved.

Edited January 9, 2012 by AllanGand

[Godzillamax]

I have a question for you, since I don't have Artifice myself: are the schematics you get from Treasure Hunting BoP or BoE?

 

You don't get schematics from Treasure Hunting.

[Godzillamax]

Tip No. 1 The GTN on Tatooine/Nar Shaddaa is neutral, that means both republic and empire have access to it. Post your green/blue stuff there and republic could buy it.

 

Tip No. 2 Loot all the nodes you see, they are random, and the colour crystals offered will change when they respawn. The reason you see so very few red nodes on empire worlds, is cause no one loots the green/blue ones!

 

 

There problem solved.

 

On my server either not enough people know about the cross-faction GTN, or simply not enough use it. I've tried using it, no one buys stuff from it, even at rock bottom prices. I end up just vendoring all the blue and green color crystals and light side stuff I get.

[Lurinorius]

This thread is full of confirmation bias...

 

I only want red crystals! I get more blue, green, etc. crystals... Well of course you get more of multiple colors then one color. Also, as stated, light/dark =/= republic/sith.

[Sakki]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but only blue crystals are light side restricted as far as I know.

It's blue for light, red for dark and orange/green/yellow/magenta/blue-black/etc. are neutral.

I know for a fact orange is neutral since I'm using orange crystals on my Light 5 Jedi Sentinel.

[Brantoc]

One thing that would solve this, would be if the Imperial Fleet market, and the Republic Fleet Market were linked, and people could buy and sell across both sides. For that matter, why not link ALL OF THEM? not much of a Galactic Market when its limited to the planet you are on. This would cut down on the traffic at the Fleet.

 

I have more than 200 each Green, and Blue Lucent and Solid Crystals.

I have less than 60 Red Lucent, 40 Solid and have not begun to craft them yet.

 

Nar Shaddaa market links both light and dark, so I sometimes put my relics and other items there.

 

Personally I'd like to see a complete market reform. The way it is now, is barely adequate.

[Brantoc]

Tip No. 1 The GTN on Tatooine/Nar Shaddaa is neutral, that means both republic and empire have access to it. Post your green/blue stuff there and republic could buy it.

 

True, but there are VERY few items on Nar Shaddaa's market. Almost no one uses it.

 

 

Tip No. 2 Loot all the nodes you see, they are random, and the colour crystals offered will change when they respawn. The reason you see so very few red nodes on empire worlds, is cause no one loots the green/blue ones!

 

 

I do that is why I have so many Blue and Greens.

[Godzillamax]

This thread is full of confirmation bias...

 

I only want red crystals! I get more blue, green, etc. crystals... Well of course you get more of multiple colors then one color. Also, as stated, light/dark =/= republic/sith.

 

You missed the point, it isn't a 3 to 1 ratio like you would expect, its closer to a 4 to 1 ratio.

[Godzillamax]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but only blue crystals are light side restricted as far as I know.

It's blue for light, red for dark and orange/green/yellow/magenta/blue-black/etc. are neutral.

I know for a fact orange is neutral since I'm using orange crystals on my Light 5 Jedi Sentinel.

 

Green is restricted to light side (lvl 1 and above I believe).

[angrydurf]

Heh as a LS republic player I've ended up with the opposite problem. It seems like all the crystal nodes are red. Not sure on treasure hunting I've been too short on funds to keep up on it.

 

I think it's a bit of a perception filter. When it's something you can't use it sits there building up and not being used and seems like you get way more of that even if it is fairly even.

[roocey]

Great question! Here is what I have noticed.

 

a) Spawn locations are static (i.e. at coordinates XYZ an item will always spawn).

b) What spawns at a node may to be random. I harvested a node (power crystal type A (for example)), and went AFK to answer the phone. When I came back power crystal type B had spawned at that node. What is unknown is if a node is random but limited to a single material type (so in my example, that node could spawn a power crystal type A, B, C, etc but not a color crystal.

 

Just from my observations, red color crystals in the game world are fairly rare compared to blue green.

 

I don't intend to spark an argument here, just a small lore tidbit that may or may not be relevant in how BioWare decided to distribute crystals: the vast majority of "Red" color crystals were made synthetically; on the flip side, colors such as Blue and Green could be found naturally in certain special geological areas. Again, I intend no harm and I also do not intend to state that this is by any means "balanced".

 

I know many lore fanatics have grown to hate the Star Wars wikia, but here's a page from it that I feel is fairly accurate regarding this topic: Synthetic Color Crystal.