This game needs a complete overhaul in crafting.

[Kodosong]

This. The crafting system isn't perfect, but it's far from needing a complete overhaul. We haven't even seen everything that's possible to make yet. It's a very good system I think, it just needs some tweaks, which it sounds like they're addressing.

 

The armor set I'm using is 100% crafted and I spent good money on it too because it's the only BH set that I really liked. I also sell quite a few ship upgrades, droid parts, and earpieces from my craft. Crafting in this game is great if you actually put the work in it that you're supposed to. If you pay attention to what sells well and RE stuff to get better schematics it's an easy way to make money. You get what you give.

 

Is it worth making driod parts? I have been ignoring them mostly as my cybertech bounty hunter doesn't have any droid companions (except ship) so kind have ignored that part of the skill. I have been making some ship parts and they seem to sell ok but not sure about droid parts.

[lokivoid]

Biochem is still the only profession worth having.

 

There is no "in demand" profession like WoW's enchanting/jewelcrafting that people need to use at all gear levels.

 

The lack of crafting makes credits worthless. I'm currently sitting at 6mil credits and don't see anything I can spend them on other than repair bills so my credits will just keep going up and up.

 

 

This games crafting needs a complete overhaul to encourage an in-game economy, because as it stands now there is no use for credits or professions once you get your rakata stims/adrenals/medpack.

 

Overhaul no, it needs to be complete scrapped and redesigned from the ground up.

[Beziel]

To be utterly fair, crafting isn't.........[...]So, there's that. I genuinely hope this, if nothing else, gives you a fair and reasonable idea (sans as much of my own bias as I can with-hold) to ponder.

 

Could not bear to re-post it all but thank you. It was my genuine idea that crafting is NOT as bad as people -those who are trying to raise an alarm- are saying. Though I would like to see most if not all crafts have something comparable to biochem's re-usable items.

 

Like a light-saber color/power crystal you can equip ONLY if you have artifice 320 (e.g.).

Though maybe that would be too reminiscent of that other MMO game ppl talk about.

 

No my main beef with crafting, and why I think it needs serious thinking into (maybe not an overhaul), is that once you decide which craft you pick, take that gathering skill and mission skill that go with it, you are fully independent pertaining to crafting that gear. No need for that special ingredient that can be made from that other crafter, or that you can gather from that other gath skill... It's you, yourself and ye.

 

Of course, I've thought about how that could be dealt with just by having 2-3 alts for all the skills. But you have to put time into THOSE as well. And in-game money (which, all being said, is just more time).

 

Also, I've always been inclined to like (a whole lot) that your gathering skill is capped by your current level. So OK you have all those alts pumped up full of cash, well now play them a bit if you want all that crafting available to you.

 

It's been done; it may not be what most ppl want now: but it sure sounds sweeter to me than what we have now.

 

Oh. In case you are a dev reading this.... go brainstorm a new GTN.

[Bovinity]

I see all the posts by crafters saying they're making a "fortune" and I can't help but wonder if their idea of "fortune" is the same as mine.

 

Unless you absolutely have a ton of clueless rubes on your server who aren't aware of daily commendations and such yet, I'm not sure how you can be selling crafted epics at any rate/price to make up your costs.

[swooshien]

Overhaul no, it needs to be complete scrapped and redesigned from the ground up.

 

this. theres nothing in the crafting/gathering system that can be fixed to anything remotely useful.

 

maybe they should take a look at games that did actually try some interesting crafting systems? like mortal online for example...and not just basically copy WoW's outdated boring crafting system and make it even worse...

 

for 500 million us dollars you would think that bioware spends more than 5 minutes thinking about how crafting should work.

[Uruare]

I see all the posts by crafters saying they're making a "fortune" and I can't help but wonder if their idea of "fortune" is the same as mine.

 

Unless you absolutely have a ton of clueless rubes on your server who aren't aware of daily commendations and such yet, I'm not sure how you can be selling crafted epics at any rate/price to make up your costs.

 

 

I can't. I make the huge majority of my credits selling blue and purple mats and doing my dailies.

 

I try, repeatedly and consistently, to sell gear. I'm trying to keep a finger in this new, evolving market so I can -maybe- participate in it in a more comfortable fashion when it stabilizes.

 

But right now? It's a gorram fustercluck. Not a big surprise to me. Understanding the conditions and causes is worth exactly one internet (soapy) in doing anything about it at this time, however.

 

 

Still, I thiiiiiiink....maaaaaaaaaybe...there will be more reliable niches crafted gear in the 1-40 range particularly will be marketable to when things simmer down and start cycling.

 

I don't know for sure. Just what I suspect will be true at this time.

 

Right now...sell what you can if you can for as much as you can get away with. For tomorrow (some tomorrow, sooner or later), the cashcow markets of now will be barren and everyone'll have a pretty good idea of what they will and won't pay for this, this, this, thsi, this or that at any given level.

 

And so it goes.

[ChrisOld]

I am now a level 42 marauder, I got my orange quality stuff in my low twenties in a flashpoint. I still use it, I just keep using commendations to upgrade it and if any are left, get new orange level gear for my companions and get them mods.

 

I am also poor as a church mouse. My synth weaving is maxed out, my archeology is almost there at 397. Underworld trading around 350. I don't have all the schematics, can't afford them. Don't have my latest training done, can't afford it. Don't even have my speeder training yet, can't afford that. Why? All the money spent on increasing those skills.

 

Now I told myself, based on what others told me, when I get my synth weaving higher I'll start making money, but as of today I doubt it. Here is why, today I bought two color crystals, level 35 for about 1k each. I know based on my experience in synth weaving that I highly doubt he made a profit. Of course the same guy said he sold 10 crystals for 300k each. I cannot see how he did this, but to his credit color crystals are the hardest things to come by.

 

Point is I never went to the galactic exchange before today, I never needed to, and if commendation vendors sold color crystals, I never would have.

 

Based on this I am dropping the axe on this clearly.

 

The commendations and the crafting can not coexist. Plain and simple. Not only that, but the item drops must always come in at a lower level.

 

It is not the lack of end game gear, it is a lack of comparable gear across the board. Other than belts and bracers I never used my own gear because it was inferior, let alone hope others will buy it.

 

If crafting does not give superior equipment from 1-50 there is no need for it. Why bother putting all that money and time into crafting to have some commendation vendor give higher quality stuff. When you sell things, they pay credits, hard earned credits. The biggest competitor is the commendation vendors, and you don't even pay credits to get their stuff!! You use little tokens that are literally useless anywhere else.

 

At the level 50 you get dailies that give tokens for great quality gear, while some of that might take a little time, the fact is that the best items in the game should be coming from crafters. Not 50 dailies, not the pvp tokens, not even the battlemaster tokens, but the crafters.

 

I am certain some people will say "but the best stuff must come by grinding or what is the point of playing past the end game?" Well that just means that Bioware will have to come up with more interesting things at the end game than the traditional MMO PVP grind. It will take imagination, but I am certain the game will benefit from such an innovative change. I say we leave that problem up to them. That's what we pay them for right?

 

In fact the system should be like this.

 

The top level schematics can only be achieved by Reverse Engineering almost everything. The crafting skill must be at 400, the resource gathering skill must be at 400 as well. The materials are hard to locate and can only be found on planets, there are no missions that give the high quality materials, no vendors that sell them.

 

For Artifice, Synth Weaving, Armstech and Armormech these items automatically have 3 moddable slots. Other skills have equipment that is superior to anything else in the game.

 

This way only the dedicated crafters can make the top quality equipment. But only the best gear in the game would require that effort. Normal gear would not, making the best gear rarer and more expensive.

 

If people do not want to put the effort into crafting, fine. Crafting costs money, if you do not craft then you would logically have more money. Buy stuff from the crafters, they make a small profit, and put that towards improving their skills to make more things. Money keeps circulating, that's the way it works in the real world, and that's the way it should work here.

 

Streamline the inventory so there are fewer craftable items, maybe remove the blues and go straight to purples. Makes it easier on those who craft, and easier for those who want to buy.

 

Finally throw ina credit cap of around 5 million. Helps keep inflation down, cannot charge 4 million for an item easily if the cap for all players is 5 million, people won't pay.

 

In a system like this, commendations, planetary or pvp are no longer needed and can be disposed of. They stick with credits as the only currency.

 

As it is, crafting is useless, credits are useless, commendations are all that matter. I fear for the long term prospect of an mmo with an economy driven like this. In 3 years time the game will almost collapse like Ultima Online did. Everyone has 100 million + credits and no one is using them. they just go for commendations instead, how will the Galactic Exchange be then?

Edited January 25, 2012 by ChrisOld

[KTheAlchemist]

I am now a level 42 marauder...

 

*Snip*

 

There's a problem, as is, with the removal of commendation vendors though:

 

Incomes would need to be adjusted accordingly. Depending on the path you take through the game, credits can be rather tight. If gear upgrades are removed from commendation vendors, people will still want/need gear upgrades on a regular schedule. However, their credit curve will not have changed.

 

So, if they were to remove commendations vendors, the devs would need to choose one of the following options:

 

1. Do nothing. Credit Crunch on some gameplay paths gets even worse. Cybertech suddenly becomes the end-all be-all crew skill while leveling and, frequently, at 50, vastly outpacing all others in terms of profitability. Oranges produced by synth/armor would see a decent increase while nothing on the scale of Cybertech's boost. Purely cosmetic purchases would likely become only affordable for level 50's or alts. Meanwhile, entire currently valid paths to 50 no longer function. Players must take the most profitable path to level through, or face inability to afford their expenses.

 

(SIDE NOTE: If items all came pre-fitted with 3 mods as your post might suggest, cybertech would become largely obsolete. If they came empty, my scenario for #1 stands as-is.)

 

2. Re-supplement player income in some fashion. This could be done in a few different ways:

 

a. Replace all commendation rewards with a credit box of roughly equivalent value.

b. Flat proportionate increase to all quest rewards and/or enemy drops.

c. Greatly reduce all fixed costs while leveling (repairs and training), and reduce the costs of tradeskill missions and/or address the high randomness of many tiers of crew skill leveling (3 different varieties of Grade 3 Biochemical Compunds, et cetera.)

 

This option is not without its own problems. The devs can't force these credits exactly where they want them to go (in this case theoretically the GTC). Inflation occurs, with favorable results re: fixed costs (repairs, training costs) but with other impacts on GTC that would need to be examined.

 

I agree with you that the current economy has problems that need to be addressed, but the answer isn't quite as simple as just removing commendations vendors.

 

The schematic can only be achieved by Reverse Engineering almost everything. The crafting skill must be at 400, the resource gathering skill must be at 400 as well. The materials are hard to locate and can only be found on planets, there are no missions that give the high quality materials, no vendors that sell them.

 

This, I would have a huge problem with. This completely invalidates certain styles of play (PvP focused, Raid Focused) and removes one of the only GOOD parts of the current crafting system...those being the pricing and availability thresholds established by the mission system. I'd be fine with say, nodes existing out in the worlds that guarantee an artifact-quality item return. This would allow diligent physical-gatherers to produce artifact-quality items at a higher rate while not cutting others out of the loop entirely. Keep in mind that there is no way to guarantee a result of artifact-quality mats from mission skills.

Edited January 25, 2012 by KTheAlchemist

[Broom]

One of the major issues holding back crafting is that components for higher end stuff is only available within hard mode instances, and on top of that they are BOP. This makes it very hard for gear to get out there at any large degree that would be a competitive market on the GTN (outside of the fact that the GTN is a broken mess).

 

My preferred playstyle is PVP, but I love crafting too. I absolutely HATE the idea of HAVING to do PVE (which I REALLY don't like much) just to craft something useful.

[ChrisOld]

You two are missing the point. The best option is this one.

 

2. Re-supplement player income in some fashion. This could be done in a few different ways:

 

a. Replace all commendation rewards with a credit box of roughly equivalent value.

 

While not perfect (no system is) it is the most logical. And no, you are not forced to pve to get the stuff. PVP players will most certainly not be penalized.

 

Certainly there will be rough spots. But the main focus is that people who don't do the crafting are given enough money to buy things from those who do.

 

The second purpose is to make crafting cost money. In my example those items should be amended to acutally cost money to craft, since it is not spent on gathering, for the sake of balance.

 

The ultimate goal? Keep money circulating back and forth between the two groups to achieve balance. While inflation could occur, if you cap each player to a maximum of 5 million credits, and prevent people from overcharging (can't charge 30k for an item that cost 300 credits to make) by putting a cap on how big the profit can be, to prevent the crafters from grouping together and gouging everyone else, it could be manageable.

 

No my implication was that they do not come with fitted slots. They automatically come with three empty slots that can be fitted.

 

Also please not my example was for "TOP" level gear, the cream of the crop. So that only those dedicated to crafting rather than casual crafting can make the best of the best. It was not supposed to be an example for the "average". Only the top level gear would require it.

Edited January 25, 2012 by ChrisOld

[KTheAlchemist]

You two are missing the point. The best option is this one.

 

2. Re-supplement player income in some fashion. This could be done in a few different ways:

 

a. Replace all commendation rewards with a credit box of roughly equivalent value.

 

While not perfect (no system is) it is the most logical. And no, you are not forced to pve to get the stuff. PVP players will most certainly not be penalized.

 

Certainly there will be rough spots. But the main focus is that people who don't do the crafting are given enough money to buy things from those who do.

 

The second purpose is to make crafting cost money. In my example those items should be amended to acutally cost money to craft, since it is not spent on gathering, for the sake of balance.

 

The ultimate goal? Keep money circulating back and forth between the two groups to achieve balance. While inflation could occur, if you cap each player to a maximum of 5 million credits, and prevent people from overcharging (can't charge 30k for an item that cost 300 credits to make) by putting a cap on how big the profit can be, to prevent the crafters from grouping together and gouging everyone else, it could be manageable.

 

No my implication was that they do not come with fitted slots. They automatically come with three empty slots that can be fitted.

 

Also please not my example was for "TOP" level gear, the cream of the crop. So that only those dedicated to crafting rather than casual crafting can make the best of the best. It was not supposed to be an example for the "average". Only the top level gear would require it.

 

I'm still having a problem seeing where your plan doesn't lift Cybertech up to destroy all others in terms of profitability. Then we've got inflation in the hands of a certain % of the population, or, everyone rerolls to cybertech...no good either way.

 

The forced PvE (not only that, but a very specific style of PvE activity) comes from the notion that Artifact-level mats would only come from farming out in the world. You'd need to supplement this in other ways...either leave the mission system intact, or continue dropping artifact mats from raids and add them to pvp vendors, and possibly to daily quest commendation vendors, possibly at a high cost. The point is that I don't see any area of this game as less valid than another for primary enjoyment, and I wouldn't feel comfortable putting artifact crafting only in the hands of those out there combing the worlds for mats the way every MMO prior has done.

 

Another problem I have with the world-gathered only rare mats is the HUGE variance in time per reward...things that are rare but world obtained in this fashion don't usually resemble a bell curve so much as a mildly inclined ripple...the system becomes so large with so many variables that individual incomes for the same amount of time dedication are all over the place. I think that is a major failing of previous MMO gathering systems that is one of the few positives of swtor's crafting.

 

Again, I do agree, this system needs some serious work. I just don't want to throw the positive ideas and differences from the same-old-same-old that this system has over other MMOs along with the bathwater.

Edited January 25, 2012 by KTheAlchemist

[Shyeed]

I posted this in the PTS section before I read this thread

 

These are just some of my thoughts in regards to Crafting and the some what lack of need for it in SWTOR and in general this is speaking from a PVE view point.

 

1. In any MMO crafting needs to play a major part in the game design. It creates a whole new side game apart from the daily Tank & Spank mob kill and quest/story line sequence.

To achieve this Crafting needs to be a worth while endevour for any one that wishes to pursue it and a another way to create wealth. The game designers did a great job in regards to the Crew Skill concept (needs some fine tuning) but in general I think the sytem is sound as it allows you to play while your minions grind away for you.

 

2. Generate an effective in game economy. All crafters SHOULD be able to sell anything that they can produce. Prime Example: Cyber Techs should be able to craft and sell their Speeders. I don't understand the point behind any crafter NOT being able to sell top line gear as that goes against any basic crafting principle and it would also allow those not into crafting to be able to purchase items from those that enjoy it. As it stands we have our own GFC (Galactic Financial Crisis) and this is due to the fact that commendation gear is better than crafted gear.

 

3. What this will cause is in a month or two once you have bought your skills, speeders, cargo hold and inventory upgrades, credits will be worthless because I can't think of anything left to spend credits on (not that I have completed all of those yet myself, but I know a couple that have)

 

4. Crafted gear should be the absolute best gear available in game, apart from maybe a very rare item from a Raid drop. This system of PVP commendation gear is fine I guess for the hardcore PVP servers, but it goes against the the concept of game play in a PVE server. To that end I play on a PVE server but I do enjoy PVP as well. My thoughts (PVE wise) are that the commendations should only provide either a schem or materials that can be used to CRAFT top line gear (ie the base item and any mods for items).

 

5. Failure. Item crafts should have a chance of failure when crafting or the very best schems should be Single Use. This would ensure that people need to continue to hunt for them and those items would actually have in game value, yet again creating an economy and the item would mean that much more to the individual if they put in the effort to get the schem and the craft was a success, conversely if it failed to craft and say 25% of the materails were returned instead it would give that person something to aim for again.

 

I am really enjoying SWTOR so far, but I fail to see the worth in crafting anything higher than a "Green" item whilst leveling cause in 2-3 levels you can craft a better one. So why waste time and effort REing to get the "Blues" and "Purples" because once you hit 50 and start grinding Daily PVP missions soon enough your gear is going to get replaced by the commendation rewards any way.

 

I know it's to late to do anything about it now, but hopefully in a future expansion when they raise the level cap they will change things around and give crafting the the importance it deserves as there is so much that could be done to make crafting an enjoyable part of this game.

 

I apologise for the post length.

[KTheAlchemist]

5. Failure. Item crafts should have a chance of failure when crafting or the very best schems should be Single Use. This would ensure that people need to continue to hunt for them and those items would actually have in game value, yet again creating an economy and the item would mean that much more to the individual if they put in the effort to get the schem and the craft was a success, conversely if it failed to craft and say 25% of the materails were returned instead it would give that person something to aim for again.

 

I don't really have objections against most of what you have to say except this. No. Absolutely not, under any circumstances, should crafting fail unless you get back 100% of the materials. Part of the whole point of crafting is that once you acquire the materials (often via RNG + time) you don't hit yet another RNG to craft them.

 

When trying to set up the distribution of reward per time spent your goal from a design perspective should be a nice tight bell curve with a large center of distribution. When you factor this in to all the other random factors in how long it takes to produce a saleable product, you're now layering RNG's, a sure fire way to create helter skelter reward distribution. When that happens, you have more and more people percentage wise putting lots of effort for little to more rewards. As fun as it is for there to be a small elite when you're the elite, players on the bottom end get frustrated and quit, and that's no good for anyone.

[Blazehound]

The only change that needs to be made is for Raid materials to be sellable, and not bind on pickup.

 

Fix that, and things will be much better.

 

The problem I see with all these "crafting sucks" arguments is that people don't realize that crafting is not supposed to be BiS. At least not for the major slots (head, chest, hands, waist, legs, feet). The best gear in the game will always be Raid gear. But crafted gear can get pretty darn close.

 

 

I can tell you for a fact that:

 

-Artifice doesn't suck

-Cybertech doesn't suck

-Armstech doesn't suck

 

Those three have the ability to make Hilts, Armoring, Mods, and Barrels, respectively. If you do it right, you can craft the highest level of commendation mod available for a planet before you even start.

 

The people who claim that Biochem is the only useful craft are either over-reacting or just don't know the crafting system well enough.

I can assure you that you are wrong on artifice.

 

Yes, you can make mods that will be completely useless, and in most servers, being sold for a relatively low price for the blues.

 

While yes, Biochem is not the only useful craft, it and cybertech(for the Wynztech infinite consumables) are the only crafts worth choosing. I can tell you from personal experience that a biotech can obliterate anyone who choose another craft skill because he can simply heal a quarter of his health for free, and buff his health some too. also, I can make implants, so there's that too.

 

With cybertech, you get DOTs and a lot of snares for nothing. The other crafting professions? they are worthless.

 

Without worth. You can try and claim it's balanced, but until crafting has a place in the end game, it isn't. In fact, I'd say that other crafting professions need some buffs of some sort. As said by several people, the best gear is in raids, hard mode raids specifically.

[Teslamatic]

Biochem is still the only profession worth having.

 

There is no "in demand" profession like WoW's enchanting/jewelcrafting that people need to use at all gear levels.

 

The lack of crafting makes credits worthless. I'm currently sitting at 6mil credits and don't see anything I can spend them on other than repair bills so my credits will just keep going up and up.

 

 

This games crafting needs a complete overhaul to encourage an in-game economy, because as it stands now there is no use for credits or professions once you get your rakata stims/adrenals/medpack.

 

Been saying exactly this since presale, and not alone. The economy will wither unless something is done.

 

I do believe a random FAILURE chance while crafting is a poor idea. There already is a random factor included in reengineering, and it can get quite frustrating. I absolutely do not wish to repeat the RnG process while crafting the schematic that I just spend 20 crafts to get to.

 

World nodes with rare mats are not such a good idea, either.

 

I like the suggestion of having merchants sell rare BoP mats for tokens that one could get from dailys - that way the top crafted items would be limited in number, proportional to the population able to run the dailys. This would combine with instance-dropped mats.

[Golarz]

Those cybertech granades aren't that great. They all share cooldown so you can throw one in 5 minutes.

I just recently droped cyber for biochem after crafting all ship upgrades for myself and all my current and future alts. I made some nice credits on earpieces and I'm sitting now on 5 milnions. But economy is going down day by day and people are selling stuff like ship upgrades below cost of materials. So it is basicaly more profitable to sell mats then crafted stuff.

Biochem have only consumable that can be remotely needed and bought by people - blue stims. No one will ever buy cybertech granades and not only becouse those suck so much. But you need so many expensive mats to craft just one blue granade that can be used by others that their market price would be ridiculous. Armoring and mods you can get from daily quests....

As for other crafts it's even worse. No one need armor or weapon becouse majority of players prefer moddable equipment. Sure it's not the best in slot stuff but it's close enough. It will allow you to beat every hard mode flashpoint and normall operations. Besides, PvP gear is sort of for free.

Crafting in this game is broked thanks to moddable equipment.

[The_Mystic]

If they made crafting better than end game stuff, people would complain that there is no point to end game stuff...

 

Wow was pretty much the same stuff. Heck, I was a leatherworker in vanilla wow, and other than the black scale dragon set for beginners at molten core, nothing I did early on had any use for end gamers. but end gamers are not what professions are supposed to be balanced around.

 

You are talking about WoW. This assumption that WoW did everything right is grossly misinformed. Blizzard talked a big game about crafted items in WoW but never lived upto it. That is one of the main reasons why they had to add bonuses to professions such as extra big gems bonus sockets etc. Blizzard are very good at doing gear in games (from what I've seen Bioware have doen a pretty good job here to so im not taking anything away from them) and subsequently failed to deliver with the professions.

 

As someone previously linked some of Biowares statements about crafting you can see that Bioware took a strong standpoint on devising and implementing a good crafting system that was usefull at all levels.

 

What we currently have is a system that is alright for when you are leveling and for equiping companions. Now with the amount of companions we get equiping them with crew skills is not a bad thing. However, this is not the be 'The best Armstech in the Galaxy' system we were promissed.

 

The really annoying thing is that with how this game works a balance were you could get high level gear from ops then improve it with the top level armour mods you bought off your cybertech friend to make the very best armour should be possible. Sadly right not it seems Bioware are nerfing crew skills based on knee jerk reactions from players that notice any difference from WoW. This is bad.

 

What we need is more schematics either RE or drop that allow us to create the best items and mods. As was said pre release some components you may have to get fom Ops, I'm fine with that. Now some people have said that these components should not be BoP. Again this makes sense as it would allow players who want to do high level Ops something to sell or barter with in order to get the gear they want.

 

If crew skills create the BEST items and mods the economy will benefit. Any character can only take one crafting skill so you get a full set of gear they would have to trade with other players witch is good for trade and good for the community. Alternatively they could of course use alts but if the crafting system requires X amount of time and effort then there would still be an ample market for characters who were dedicated to their craft more so than an alt.

 

So what I'm saying is basically a good crafting system is benefical to everyone.

 

Can we improve crafting please.

[ChrisOld]

I have been sleeping on this and I agree with KTthealchemist.

 

The example I stated was just that, an example. It was the first thing off the top of my head as to how people can make tope quality things. I admit it was poorly phrased.

 

But my point is valid. My point was that the best quality things have to be crafted, and they have to be hard to craft. My example is the easiest to implement, but obviously a better way to appeal to all ways of playing should be implemented. An example of how to do this escaped me then as it does now.

 

But the point is.

 

The top level stuff should be only available from crafting. Scrap all the commendation vendors, pvp included. Redistribute their wears to normal vendors, keeping the top level equipment for crafters only.

 

The top level equipment for any level 1-50 should be crafted. So a level 10 crafted item can be better than a level 10 bought item, but harder to make and rewards for it make it worthwhile.

 

The number of items to be crafted should be reduced. This can be done by making all armor give primary and secondary stats only, such as strength and endurance for syth warrior armor (bare with me).

 

After you have put the time in it by Reverse Engineering things, you gain the the ability to add more boosts, surge rating, power, critical rating, defense, etc. When you get close to the top of the skill you can even add elite abilities, reduce cooldown time for x ability, increase stun duration for x ability, etc. You craft the item and add the normal or elite bonuses via a drop down menu.

 

Reverse engineering goes from giving you a random chance to get a new schematic to the chance to learn the ability to add bonus boosts. The chance increases if you are Reverse Engineering an item that has the appropriate boost. Obviously if elite boosts are crafted only, there must be way to acquire them by Reverse Engineering too.

 

The green->purple idea should remain intact. The higher the level, the higher the armor rating, and primary stats will be. It will also increase the number of boosts it can hold. A level 10 purple armor can hold the same number of boosts as a level 39 armor, but obviously they would be less powerful. As for the elite bonuses, they should be restricted to high level item, not just 50s, say 41 +. The elite bonusses should be equally distributed to all crafters.

 

The above example was mostly for synth armor and cybertech. But I am certain that the general idea can be applied to all crafting abilities with proper tweaking. Yes the above example certainly favors cybertech, but it is just an example of how things should be done and would need tweaking for balance of course.

 

I also believe that the top level crafters will undoubtedly try to cheat their customers. I think the Galactic Exhcnage should enforce a profit limit. Say you can't make more than 10% profit (for example) so when you give a price, it will stop you from putting a ridiculously high number to cheat the customers. Also a credit cap, say 5 million credits is the most anyone can have at one time, might be a good way to help prevent inflation.

 

I am certain there other ways to achieve both goals, those are just examples. But steps should be taken to make certain they are addressed.

Edited January 25, 2012 by ChrisOld

[KTheAlchemist]

I have been sleeping on this and I agree with KTthealchemist.

 

The example I stated was just that, an example. It was the first thing off the top of my head as to how people can make tope quality things. I admit it was poorly phrased.

 

But my point is valid. My point was that the best quality things have to be crafted, and they have to be hard to craft. My example is the easiest to implement, but obviously a better way to appeal to all ways of playing should be implemented. An example of how to do this escaped me then as it does now.

 

But the point is.

 

The top level stuff should be only available from crafting. Scrap all the commendation vendors, pvp included. Redistribute their wears to normal vendors, keeping the top level equipment for crafters only.

 

The top level equipment for any level 1-50 should be crafted. So a level 10 crafted item can be better than a level 10 bought item, but harder to make and rewards for it make it worthwhile.

 

The number of items to be crafted should be reduced. This can be done by making all armor give primary and secondary stats only, such as strength and endurance for syth warrior armor (bare with me).

 

After you have put the time in it by Reverse Engineering things, you gain the the ability to add more boosts, surge rating, power, critical rating, defense, etc. When you get close to the top of the skill you can even add elite abilities, reduce cooldown time for x ability, increase stun duration for x ability, etc. You craft the item and add the normal or elite bonuses via a drop down menu.

 

Reverse engineering goes from giving you a random chance to get a new schematic to the chance to learn the ability to add bonus boosts. The chance increases if you are Reverse Engineering an item that has the appropriate boost. Obviously if elite boosts are crafted only, there must be way to acquire them by Reverse Engineering too.

 

The green->purple idea should remain intact. The higher the level, the higher the armor rating, and primary stats will be. It will also increase the number of boosts it can hold. A level 10 purple armor can hold the same number of boosts as a level 39 armor, but obviously they would be less powerful. As for the elite bonuses, they should be restricted to high level item, not just 50s, say 41 +. The elite bonusses should be equally distributed to all crafters.

 

The above example was mostly for synth armor and cybertech. But I am certain that the general idea can be applied to all crafting abilities with proper tweaking. Yes the above example certainly favors cybertech, but it is just an example of how things should be done and would need tweaking for balance of course.

 

I also believe that the top level crafters will undoubtedly try to cheat their customers. I think the Galactic Exhcnage should enforce a profit limit. Say you can't make more than 10% profit (for example) so when you give a price, it will stop you from putting a ridiculously high number to cheat the customers. Also a credit cap, say 5 million credits is the most anyone can have at one time, might be a good way to help prevent inflation.

 

I am certain there other ways to achieve both goals, those are just examples. But steps should be taken to make certain they are addressed.

 

I"m a bit concerned about how difficult it would be to balance "stats only" until higher crafting levels with "best gear per level" successfully. I know for example, as a Balance Shadow crit is incredibly valuable for me and it would need a very large amount of pure willpower to trump a willpower + crit item. That might be difficult to do without overpowering the item. Also, it'd be nice if people can still turn a profit while leveling...if "best gear for leveling" only comes into play at higher levels that would remove that potential.

 

Other than that, I like this set of ideas a lot better and it looks like overall not a bad plan.

Edited January 26, 2012 by KTheAlchemist

[rocdogg]

No, it doesn't need a complete overhaul. It needs a lot tweaking, and end-game concerns need to be addressed, so that players have a good reason to get to max level, but I like the system generally.