What are crafted items worth?... here's the science bit!

[Couch_Goblin]

After the various debates on here and in-game I thought I'd do some maths to show an example from the endgame crafts my main can do and highlight the economical problems (at least faced by players I have spoken to)

 

lets break it down a bit (i'll use rounded numbers)

 

My main (bounty hunter) is a cybertech/scavenging/underworld trading 400/400/400

 

My rank 22 (last schematic in the list with exception for raid drops) artefact mods for example:

 

The mandalorian iron needed to craft them costs 7-9k (at time of writing) a piece on the GM or closer to 20k to get via missions (maybe I am unlucky)

 

I probably get 4 pieces in a 10-12 hour period with 4 crew members (maxed out or close to on affection) constantly underworld trading that's around 40 missions so an average of 1 piece per 10 missions.

 

The missions are around 2000creds (varies depending on the yield) so that's 20000 per piece of iron

 

On a good day I may get 6-8 pieces but even then that's still 10k a piece of iron at best!

 

To craft the item it requires 4 pieces of iron so thats now 21-36k from the GM or 40-80k

from underworld trading.

 

Even if I gather the rest of the mats out in the world you then have to factor in the thermoplast flux (4 pieces at 400 a go so that's another 1200) and the listing cost of about 5k to do a 1 day auction an an item that price. (i've never even considered the listing price until now)

 

This makes the mods themselves cost at least 30-50k using the GM or 40-80k gathering your own mats to craft, assuming you lie to yourself that the other mats are not worth anything because you have collected them yourself. looking at the GM on my server (at time of writing) there are many people who are either obscenely lucky with their crew missions or are making a loss on all their crafts.

 

even listing my crafts at a break even price they don't tend to sell because of this.

 

needless to say after I have made my own mods I wont be making any more.

 

After speaking to other players about the other professions it seems to be a similar experience across the board.

 

I'm not complaining, it is not bioware's fault that endgame crafted items are not worth the mats there made from and hopefully it might level out once people become a bit more knowledgeable or the demand perhaps increases.

 

However, it might be worth considering re-working the entire crafting system somehow (if I new how I'd be a game dev lol)

 

By all means if you are having more luck on your server / with your crew skills please let me know

[DamienStark]

[clears throat]

 

Your doin it wrong.

 

Okay with that out of the way, some advice:

 

1 - Crit success on the missions is affected by companion affection, so whichever companion you send out to get that Mando Iron, make sure they're at 10K.

 

2 - That said, sending them on regular missions should NOT be your primary method of getting purple metals. That would be buying UT Missions off GTN, each of which guarantees you purple mats. So your real cost of purple mats will be mostly the cost of these missions on GTN, which will vary widely. I've seen it go from 1K (seriously) to 30K on my server, YMMV. More slicers on your server means a surplus of these missions, and the slicer population declined a bit after the nerf.

 

3 - Because of 1 and 2, I don't craft much purple stuff for profit. Blues are for profit, purples are for yourself/alts/friends/companions. Only turn to selling them once you've made all that you want and have purple mats left over.

 

4 - Armoring is way more useful to customers than Mods are, but costs the same in mats to make. In theory the market will eventually balance to similar prices, but as the old saying goes "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent". So for now I sell mostly blue Armoring, not mods.

 

Droid parts, grenades, and ship upgrades are all possible good avenues for profit, but more dependent on the market on your specific server.

[Talzed]

Adly this is typical for most mmo's. The mats almost always sell for more than the gear.

 

 

People who purchase mats are using it to skill up and make gear for themselves and friends-not to sell for a profit . Profit is almost impossible for most items except consumables.

 

 

If you raid, you can likely get better gear with much less effort.

 

It does stink, but it is how they encourage EVERYONE who possbily can to raid

[nezitx]

Even if I gather the rest of the mats out in the world you then have to factor in the thermoplast flux (4 pieces at 400 a go so that's another 1200)

 

Fail. You know you can get those with Scavenging missions right? There is a abundant mission that nets you at least 20. I think I've crit and gotten 35+ before. It's been about a month since I was scavenging though - either way if you're paying 400 per you're failing.

[Couch_Goblin]

@damienstark:

 

ok thanks for the advice just to clarify...

 

1. the crew i am sending are 10k or very close too

 

2. thought this would be the case but not had much luck getting these I have a guildy slicer on the case.

 

3. fair enough not had much luck with blues either lol

 

4. when I said mods I meant item modifications IE armouring as well sorry I should have been clearer.

 

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@talzed: tru m8y it does feel like titansteel again lol

 

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@ all: as I say was just laying down some of the maths thanks for the extra info but i suspect even factoring that in it is still pretty crazy.

 

Hopefully if we can get people knowing the costs it might help to balance things out but then that is probably wishful thinking

[DamienStark]

Ah yes, I forgot to address the flux thing.

For the first two grades, it's cheaper or at least easier to just buy it from the crew skill vendor, but for the top two grades that will needlessly chew through credits.

 

Definitely get all your flux from Bountiful or Rich Scavenging Missions.

[DamienStark]

@damienstark:

2. thought this would be the case but not had much luck getting these I have a guildy slicer on the case.

 

Doesn't hurt, but given the workings of probability, with him alone working on it, your odds of getting missions out of him aren't much better than your odds of critting in the first place.

 

If you're looking for any decent quantity of purple metals, probably have to keep checking the GTN for crafting missions.

[Couch_Goblin]

thanks for the advice, as it stands its not a massive problem for me as I make enough money on selling mats that I'm only really concerned with crafting purples for myself and friends

 

this topic was made with the intention of sharing my experiences and the hope of finding out better ways of doing things and i'd say mission accomplished

 

thanks again

[DiLune]

I am starting to see a decent profit from selling low-mid level purple mods. People snap them up because there are a lot of Alts out there at the moment. Even when I'm too lazy to do missions and just buy mats I am turning in about 1.5x that cost in profit.

 

And the blue item mod market is still very robust for the mid levels.

[GnatB]

Even if I gather the rest of the mats out in the world you then have to factor in the thermoplast flux (4 pieces at 400 a go so that's another 1200) and the listing cost of about 5k to do a 1 day auction an an item that price. (i've never even considered the listing price until now)

 

This makes the mods themselves cost at least 30-50k using the GM or 40-80k gathering your own mats to craft, assuming you lie to yourself that the other mats are not worth anything because you have collected them yourself. looking at the GM on my server (at time of writing) there are many people who are either obscenely lucky with their crew missions or are making a loss on all their crafts.

 

1. The listing price (deposit) is returned when you sell the item. There is a fee, but it's substantially less than the listing price.

2. Presumably you should be doing SOMETHING with the blue mats you've been finding when obtaining all that mandalorian iron. I happen to actually do missions for the blue mats, and if I find a purple, great. I consider the purple mats "free". It's the blue mats I've priced all the stuff I sell around. (largely because almost everything I sell are prototypes)

 

Now, maybe this changes up at 50. I imagine that lvl 50 prototypes don't sell all that well, because at that point there's no reason to not save up/wait for the lvl 50 artifact, as it isn't like you're gonna outlevel it while saving/waiting.

 

But presumably you'd could sell all that blue stuff to other crafters still working on discovering their artifact schematics and leveling up their skills.