Slicing, How Can it be Fixed While Keeping its Flavor Unique?

[Pohonasin]

So when I started playing this game I chose slicing and underworld trade as my crew skills, I held off on a crafting skill believing I would be able to purchase materials with money from slicing at a later date. I leveled slicing as fast as I could because at the time it was broken, and I was concerned I would be unable to afford my speeder. Turns out when I got to level 25 I could buy my speeder 3 times over! Let me be clear when I say, Slicing was broken to a ridiculous level on release.

 

However it seems after the nerf (which I agree it needed a nerf) I seem to lose credits on every lock box mission. Even with the crew skill at max level I lose credits more often than not. This bothers me, in fact this really irritates me.

 

I do not believe slicing should make as much money as it did, however if this crew skill has almost no promise of making me money at maximum level, why is it in the game? All of the other crew skills give you something for having a companion complete a mission. Lock boxes rarely do. Even treasure hunting seems to be better structured (I must admit my alt's treasure hunting is still a low level), at least I get an item and most of my money back when I run treasure hunting.

 

So how do fix this? Am I supposed to ditch the skill and tell new players never to bother with it? That doesn't sit well with me. I would like to ask the community for their opinions on how to fix (not re-break) slicing while keeping it's unique flavor intact. My hope is that the developers will read some of our suggestions and possibly implement some of the better ideas, because honestly I doubt the developers want to have a useless crew skill in the game either.

 

I would love to see slicing make more money than the investment, however that is how we arrived at this dilemma. I might even consider receiving items with money as a reward, but that would take away the flavor of treasure hunting and slicing. Perhaps it would be possible to return better payouts, while limiting the number of slicing missions you can have active at any given time. This would encourage players to use other crew skills with slicing. These are just some of my thoughts, I look forward to reading better ideas from the SWTOR community!

 

On a closing note I'd like to ask any responses to be constructive, and not just people raging about the nerf. The best way to get this fixed is to try and work with the developers not to let our emotions get out of check.

[Spero-Mcgee]

It made to much money hence why alot of people felt it was a no brainer, you made extra cash by just sending your companions away, this extra cash could fund stuff like your mounts, skills and such not just for your main but also alts.

Another thing about slicing what people forget that besides lockboxes is the chance that your companions might also bring shemantics for the other crew skills, this can range from blue to even purple shemantics.

But even more importantly are the augments. When you can make your own gear, you can reverse engineer these into more powerfull versions. These more powerfull versions will have augment slots which regular gear does not have. I assume that raid gear/pvp gear also has augment slots. Then of course you got green, blue and purple augments as well, so basicly this way you can make your items more powerfull.

This is usefull, because the lvl 50 augments and especially the purple ones will be more expensive on the GTN, if there are even any sold.

So basicly being able to provide for yourself, alts, friends/guildies is usefull.

This goes for every crew skill though. Even just for gathering mats, though you need money for that ofc.

[Pohonasin]

I understand what you are saying, but you aren't offering any ideas. You are just stating how the crafting system works. I will admit I chose not to discuss augments in my initial post, but this is because that part of slicing already works! I think the augments function as intended, my concern is with the lock box missions specifically. When you gather you expect to get resource for your investment. When you craft you receive items. When you look for companion items you expect to get them. What then do you get for your investment when you search for lock boxes at max level? I seem to get very little, the schematics and mission items are very rare. I can't search for lock boxes and expect to get those items, the way I expect my treasure when I treasure hunt. That is the issue that I feel needs work, do you have any thoughts on fixing that? Edited January 10, 2012 by Pohonasin

[KrelosDarksky]

Slicing has already been fixed and all you have to do is scroll through a few pages of forums and you will see that people are still able to profit from it.

 

You won't get any sympathy because you don't have your credit printing machine anymore.

 

.

[Glorionn]

Spero is spouting trash. You never make items with augment slots consciously, they're a lucky proc. augments are in abundance for the amount of people that actually need them.

 

If you think I'm coming across harsh, it's because the constant perpetuation of misinformation that is spread by half wits can only be accepted for so long.

 

Buff slicing, or remove it from game. As of this current point in time, it is useless if you compare it with other gathering skills.

[Battilea]

Buff slicing, or remove it from game. As of this current point in time, it is useless if you compare it with other gathering skills.

 

Slicing is fine. It is a gathering skill and works fine that way.

 

Buff the other tradeskills so they get augment slots a lot more often. They could use the love and slicing benefits indirectly, gains some value from their missions.

[Madokftw]

Well...its a bit disappointing slicing now, sent the companion on two 535 credits mission and she came back with 541 and 555 credits lockboxes...12 minutes for 21 credits i could beg for more money in that time at the starting zone

 

EDIT: ok, another 535 spent and came back with 518

Edited January 10, 2012 by Madokftw

[Ayoki]

I do not believe slicing should make as much money as it did, however if this crew skill has almost no promise of making me money at maximum level, why is it in the game? All of the other crew skills give you something for having a companion complete a mission. Lock boxes rarely do. Even treasure hunting seems to be better structured (I must admit my alt's treasure hunting is still a low level), at least I get an item and most of my money back when I run treasure hunting.

 

Currently the situation is rather simple.

 

If you send a companion out on slicing missions you spent 1000 and he comes back with 800-2000 credits and a chance to a mission discovery or schematic.

If you send a companion out on a archaeology/bioanalysis/scavenging mission you spent 1000 credits and he comes back with 800-2000 credts worth a resources. And here you actually have to hope that someone will buy your resources while more and more players are starting to realize that crafting is next to useless as you progress through the game.

 

In both cases knowing which mission to do will increase your chances to make a profit.

 

And can we stop comparing slicing to mission skills that provide resources not available from nodes and stick to the other gathering skills when making a comparison?

 

As a sidenote, levelling slicing after the nerf to about 300 now has earned me credits without considering mission discoveries and schematics and 9 out of 10 lockbox mission I send my companion(s) on are making a positif return not much, but enough to afford anything I need.

 

The way slicing was before the nerf was clicking a few times every 30 minutes and you would be making enough to live a life in luxury and as far as I'm concerned that is something that should require just a bit more effort.

[Keagan]

The lockboxes for everybody seem pretty weak. Mine usually also cost more than they are worth. I will say that in a span of a few hours of randomly sending crew members out. They came back with a schematic and 3 purple missions for diffrent crew skills. Only one of them useful to me, but still not bad.

 

I'm not sure if I regret slicing or not yet. I'm going to play around with the augments a little more before I bash it.

[Jaecex]

I don't understand why people continue to complain about slicing. I am Artifice/Archeology/Slicing and I think it is fine...but I use slicing as a GATHERING skill.

 

I run around and look at my map and get free credits from slicing all the time. IMO you should lose money on a crafting mission. It should be a last resort to stand around and send out companions to farm. I know with Archeology it is much cheaper to farm crystals as I run around vice send out companions.

 

Gathering skills should be just that...I have yet to hear of a "mission" skill. Use missions to possibly get you a few levels to catch up if needed, other than that use it for what it was intended to be.

[Ironspeed]

Well to be honest, the sales from missions that you get from the slicing has been pretty good and the fact that every zone I quest in brings from 5-20k credits extra just due to lockboxes and computer terminals around there (at level 28 atleast)

 

I'we got my speeder, and I still have plenty of cash to go, even spent alot levling my other crafts up (synth and arch) so meh, dont see the issue...

[Forkrul]

With slicing at 250 on my alt I think I've lost credits on a (successful) mission twice. And the mission discoveries more than made up for that. Slicing is good atm, it gives a good chunk of cash for those with no tradeskills.

[aedan]

you asked for a fix, well here it is.

 

Level cap crew skill missions. and return yields from missions to previous levels. Unfortunately for the sake of fairness that means that all the level 20 alts out there that are doing underworld trading farming metal and selling it on the auction house are actually going to have to level up to get any metal worth a damn.

 

status of slicing: at level 50 i sent out 5 companions twice (so an hours worth of slicing) and managed to make 4k in that time. in an hour doing daily missions on ilum and Belsavis i made somewhere in the realm of 200k. It appears to me that slicing was balanced for end game but not for having level 20's with 400 slicing.

 

Problem with augments:

 

1) missions are so random all other classes say treasure hunting send their companion out for a level 6 gem they get what one of two gems, granted maybe not the one they want but its one or the other. Slicers on the other hand have a chance of returning an augment for any one of what 9 stats (so the long and short of it is augment missions are too random)

 

2) end game armor, so the purples you can get from pvp, and hardmode flashpoints have the armor mod locked, and set bonuses. They are much better than anything a crafter could make, but they don't come with an augment slot.

 

fix for augments:

 

1) give more control over what type of augment is being hunted for in a mission

 

2) allow crafters to make augmentation slots that can be added to other gear such as orange gear and end game raid gear.

[Elyree]

Slicing isn't broken. If you aren't making good money off it you are doing it wrong.

[Eliezer]

Slicing isn't broken. If you aren't making good money off it you are doing it wrong.

 

I have to agree here, the OP is doing it wrong.

 

You want to only do Rich/Bountiful Lockbox missions, and that means sticking with tiers 4 and 5. Don't do max level (tier 6) missions because they are only Moderate yield value.

 

You will make money. But you will not make tons of money quickly unless you are online for a good chunk of time sending your guys out over and over.

[Stormkitten]

You want to only do Rich/Bountiful Lockbox missions, and that means sticking with tiers 4 and 5. Don't do max level (tier 6) missions because they are only Moderate yield value.

 

This. Same applies while leveling Slicing, too. By sticking with missions a tier lower than the max I can use, I've managed to level slicing post-nerf from 1-360 or so, just on missions, and making a small profit. The Schematics/Mission Discoveries are a bonus.

[orbing]

Best Crew Skill ever to have while leveling. Free cash all over the map. Better then the other gathering skills as you dont have to GTM them or sell them cheap to vendors. It doesnt clutter your inventory either.

[Pohonasin]

Currently the situation is rather simple.

 

If you send a companion out on slicing missions you spent 1000 and he comes back with 800-2000 credits and a chance to a mission discovery or schematic.

If you send a companion out on a archaeology/bioanalysis/scavenging mission you spent 1000 credits and he comes back with 800-2000 credts worth a resources. And here you actually have to hope that someone will buy your resources while more and more players are starting to realize that crafting is next to useless as you progress through the game.

 

In both cases knowing which mission to do will increase your chances to make a profit.

 

And can we stop comparing slicing to mission skills that provide resources not available from nodes and stick to the other gathering skills when making a comparison?

 

As a sidenote, levelling slicing after the nerf to about 300 now has earned me credits without considering mission discoveries and schematics and 9 out of 10 lockbox mission I send my companion(s) on are making a positif return not much, but enough to afford anything I need.

 

The way slicing was before the nerf was clicking a few times every 30 minutes and you would be making enough to live a life in luxury and as far as I'm concerned that is something that should require just a bit more effort.

 

My slicing is max, last night I ran 5 slicing missions for 30-40 minutes each, all of them lost 200 or more credits without returning any additional items. We can stick to gather professions if you like, how often do you scavenge and expect to receive nothing for your time? From my perspective the only reliable use for lock boxes is to level slicing faster (lock box missions tend to be short) and cheaper (cheaper not very profitable).

[Pohonasin]

I have to agree here, the OP is doing it wrong.

 

You want to only do Rich/Bountiful Lockbox missions, and that means sticking with tiers 4 and 5. Don't do max level (tier 6) missions because they are only Moderate yield value.

 

You will make money. But you will not make tons of money quickly unless you are online for a good chunk of time sending your guys out over and over.

 

Then why are the class 6 lockboxes in the game? I am aware on how to make a small amount of money on the lower class lock boxes. But what then is the point of having these class 6 lockboxes? I have never seen a class 6 lockbox quest over abundant and those often lose me money. It would seem to me that if any of the lock boxes should have a positive yield it should be at the maximum level, our should abilities get better as we level not worse. Do you have any thoughts on this issue?

Edited January 10, 2012 by Pohonasin

[Pohonasin]

This. Same applies while leveling Slicing, too. By sticking with missions a tier lower than the max I can use, I've managed to level slicing post-nerf from 1-360 or so, just on missions, and making a small profit. The Schematics/Mission Discoveries are a bonus.

 

I agree lock boxes are good for leveling slicing, but why would you want to level a crew skill that at the maximum level reliably loses money? If the lock box missions are only in the game to level slicing then at class 6 they need to be replaced with something useful, something that can make the character money or be of use to the character. All crew skills and missions at level 400 reliably reward the player with something they can use except lockboxes. How do you propose they fix that?

[Pohonasin]

After reading all the responses, it seems to me most people are slicing not to make money from lock boxes but to obtain mission items and schematics. Then why don't the developers re-structure the lock box missions. Perhaps remove the lock boxes of money, increase the mission time, increase the investment and increase the probability of being awarded these items. This way when I do slicing I know what I'm getting. Maybe make the missions take 1-2 hours but have something like 70% chance to award these items. Keep in mind that is sill much lower success rate than other gathering professions. This would remove the money farming portion of the game and instead make the crew skill more reliable on the galactic market.

 

Instead what we have is run 10 missions and hope you get a mission item while in the mean time I make back some of the investment money. In many cases I basically send my companion away for 40 minutes just to lose credits.

[Lodril]

I originally selected slicing because I assumed it would come up in game that I could, you know, slice things in a useful way. I didn't think it was just some lame crafting dealie.

 

What needs to be done is to make the skills more functional in non-crafting situations. The scavengable droids in some of the flashpoints are a great example.

 

All the concern for post-levelling uses baffles me. My plan for post-level-50 is to start a new character.

[Pohonasin]

you asked for a fix, well here it is.

 

Level cap crew skill missions. and return yields from missions to previous levels. Unfortunately for the sake of fairness that means that all the level 20 alts out there that are doing underworld trading farming metal and selling it on the auction house are actually going to have to level up to get any metal worth a damn.

 

status of slicing: at level 50 i sent out 5 companions twice (so an hours worth of slicing) and managed to make 4k in that time. in an hour doing daily missions on ilum and Belsavis i made somewhere in the realm of 200k. It appears to me that slicing was balanced for end game but not for having level 20's with 400 slicing.

 

Problem with augments:

 

1) missions are so random all other classes say treasure hunting send their companion out for a level 6 gem they get what one of two gems, granted maybe not the one they want but its one or the other. Slicers on the other hand have a chance of returning an augment for any one of what 9 stats (so the long and short of it is augment missions are too random)

 

2) end game armor, so the purples you can get from pvp, and hardmode flashpoints have the armor mod locked, and set bonuses. They are much better than anything a crafter could make, but they don't come with an augment slot.

 

fix for augments:

 

1) give more control over what type of augment is being hunted for in a mission

 

2) allow crafters to make augmentation slots that can be added to other gear such as orange gear and end game raid gear.

 

Some interesting ideas, I too have thought that putting a level cap on the crew skills would be a good idea. In fact I was very surprised when I began playing and there were none (save getting out of the starting area).

[Ludashanus]

I have slicing up to level 400 and have had it there since about level 26. Granted, as a trooper, I have three companion missions running at all times, while hunting with MAX. I'm losing money with some slicing missions, of course, then again I'm making up to 6000 credits (with a cost of 2000) plus a random mission which I sell at the galactic market, so I am making money with slicing.

 

Maybe my misunderstanding of the posts is doing augment missions, which there is no money made. I am not really into the augment missions because I haven't really touched on modding and they don't really sell that well.

 

After running ten missions, I generally come out ahead and have amassed 200k from missions and selling the missions. I am able to give some money to my alts to make their progression in skills a little easier...I thought I had enough money for the endgame, until I realized that the advanced speeders can go for as much as 1.5 million credits.

 

Sigh...

 

I also find a benefit of Armormech making armor for me and my havoc squadmates, though I am producing armor now that is a higher level than I can wear. Also the quest pieces I get are about two levels back to equal what I can produce.

 

I think crafting can be improved, but I don't really understand some of the posts explaining that slicing is still broken or that armormech is useless... I haven't found either to be the case.

 

Good luck!

[aivedoir]

I'm content with slicing. I get lots of lockboxes while questing, and I sell mission discoveries from crews.

 

My main gripe is those damn POPUPS! My crews always seem to come back when I'm fighting a quest boss. I don't even care for each mission's credit per minute return. I just pick the longest mission time.