why can I never find item modifications on the market ???

[MilkPudding]

I love how a guy posts about how he can't find certain things that he wants on the GTN, and half the responses basically say, "because there's no demand for the things you are demanding." And when another guy posts, "there's plenty of demand, because I've been supplying those people," the response is, "yeah, but those people are a waste of my ship droid's valuable time."

 

People are explaining to him WHY he can't find it at his level. No one is stopping you from crafting or putting low level mods up in the GTN, there's no need to be vitriolic about it. LOL.

 

 

Perhaps I should have elaborated here. Grenades ARE awesome, but their usefulness leaves something to be desired when they have a 5-minute CD on use. Right now (at least on my server), grenades rarely pop up on the GTN - not a huge market for them. I imagine there would be a much more lucrative market for them if the CD was perhaps, 2 minutes.

 

 

Ya and after you factor in the materials for making grenades, only cybertechs bother to use them at the end of the day.

Edited February 7, 2012 by MilkPudding

[Raelstrom]

I have had this same issue so I created crafters to make the stuff I want when I want. When I have the time to make stuff for the market it sells almost immediately. Many feel the market is broken and are unwilling to work at fixing it by making crafters and selling stuff. We just entered the 2nd month of the game being live and the market has been declared broken so no one feels they can make tons of credits instantly like they want. I think it is too much whining and not enough playing. I know whatever I say is not going to change the opinions of those who declare this and I am not trying. There are issues but they are compounded by those who do not want to make an effort to make it work. Edited February 7, 2012 by Raelstrom

[pokota]

I can't speak for anyone else, but it's a pretty simple situation for me.

 

Should I use up my limited storage space and GTN slots with low level modifications that make me 5k at the most, or with level 49 Earpieces and ship parts that make me at least 20k, and as much as 140k on a crit? Should I run missions and gather materials for items with a lower sell rate but a much higher return on investment, or should I spend more time gathering many, many more low level materials in an attempt to earn profits by volume? Should I spend more time running to the GTN replacing faster selling, lower profit stock, or should I list goods that might take longer to sell, but return a much greater profit?

 

It's a simple equation. Trying to earn the same kind of profit by selling lower level goods would mean more materials, more time at the GTN managing stock levels, more time crafting instead of running valuable missions, and at the end of the day, it STILL wouldn't turn the same kind of profits.

 

That's part of the reason that you don't see many low level modifications for sale. It really ISN'T worth my ship droid's valuable time.

[Ofeogeous]

Being a jedhi i took the Artifice skill. While questing i harvested even went out of my way to harvest. I then would craft and reverse engineer and maybe come up with a couple blues in my stats, however i had commadations to spend and those vendor items were equal to or better than what i could craft. Too soon after that my crafting started out lvling my character in attempts to make blues and so my companions started returning with materials i did not yet need, nor did i want to return to an area i had already completed all my quests. On the other hand purples wich would have been better than the vendors blues would not occur untill after my character had already out lvled thier usefulness.

 

Now lets consider why people craft

 

1) To make things they can use and not have to buy them.

 

2) To make money to buy the things they cant craft.

 

Niether happens in this game, crafting is just a money sink. Therefore i crafted simply to keep lvling my craft and reversed engineered everything i crafted rather than try to sell in attempts to make something good that might sell. Then say i did make something purple. What i could get on the market for it failed to even come within a fraction of the cost took to make it, so it was a waist of time. There was no sense in trying make purples at lower lvls so i just kept lvling my craft thinking when i mastered them all i would finaly have my day in the sun.Once you get to 400/400/400, pvp gear and FP gear is still superior to anything you can craft. LMAO!!

 

Only thing i do now is constantly stay broke trying to make lvl 50 purps because FP repair costs are so ridiculously expensive. The materials to craft at that lvl exceed the price you can sell the items for in most cases. It is not unusual to spend 150,000 in repairs learning a new FP.

 

PvP horrible start

Crafting, waist of time and effort so far also a horrible start

Only positive for me has been doing the class quests. I did enjoy that.

[Jjix]

Well, this was predicted when they nerfed slicing, though people don't want to admit it or see it.

 

The problem is NOT that you can get equivalent or better gear through commendations . . . everyone who is frustrated by the lack of mods on the market are frustrated precisely because commendations aren't enough. I've been there, I know what you are talking about.

 

The problem is that it costs too much to make mods, period. The price of materials is sky high and just to sell at cost alone would be more than most players want to spend on a mod.

 

And the reason materials are so expensive is because there wasn't enough inflation to reduce the value of the credit and thereby reduce the relative value of materials. You have to remember, mission crew skills have a fixed value as determined by the cost of sending your companions out. The only thing that can bring down that cost is inflation, nothing else can. But because slicing was nerfed prematurely not enough money was injected into the system and thus we are experiencing a period of relative stagnation.

 

You don't see many low-mid level mods because there's no profit in it.

[ZNICK]

I think the real answer to the OP is "those things are available and craftable, but most crafters won't/don't waste their time, credits and mats to craft the high-end low level items".

 

Why bother wasting resources RE'ing low level blues over and over to get a low lev epic that will be used for 4-5 levels? (2-3 days)

 

Who would buy them if they did? Until level 50 it doesn't really matter what gear you have anyway, you can EASILY level to 50 in all greens, so why bother?

 

Level up, there's plenty of what you want at level 50.

 

Z

 

PS- I TOTALLY disagree that crafting can't make you money/profits, or that crafting is a money sink. If so, you're doing it terribly wrong. I have have millions of credits banked from crafting and selling things on the AH. (but that's another discussion)

 

I've also never spent more than 8,000 to repair, but meh.

Edited February 8, 2012 by ZNICK

[Raani]

The problem is that it costs too much to make mods, period. The price of materials is sky high and just to sell at cost alone would be more than most players want to spend on a mod.

 

That I do agree with. I think they should nerf mat requirements for armorings and mods from 4 pieces of each component to 2 (armorings) and 1 (mods). Then we could crank out more leveling mods and be able to able to sell them relatively cheaply, even with the crafting mark-up.

 

Of course, they'd also have to remove the stupid 50-item limit, which makes no sense considering how many item variations there are.

[ChunkCohen]

That I do agree with. I think they should nerf mat requirements for armorings and mods from 4 pieces of each component to 2 (armorings) and 1 (mods). Then we could crank out more leveling mods and be able to able to sell them relatively cheaply, even with the crafting mark-up.

 

Well, the devs were talking about nerfing the mat requirements for making blue/purple items, but IIRC, there was no real mention of doing the same with the base green items. IMHO, nerfing the base greens would have the best overall effect, especially with the non-linear schematics that have several blue variants (like weapons, earpieces, focii, etc.). For all of this, I'm talking about crafting in general.

[Battilea]

That I do agree with. I think they should nerf mat requirements for armorings and mods from 4 pieces of each component to 2 (armorings) and 1 (mods). Then we could crank out more leveling mods and be able to able to sell them relatively cheaply, even with the crafting mark-up.

 

I'd suggest something slightly different...that the cost stays the same, but we make two instead of one, when it comes to blues and greens.

 

Mods are essentially a volume good. To fill up one piece of orange armor, for example, you need an armor mod, a mod, and an enhancement. And when people upgrade, they are generally looking to upgrade around 6 slots (5 armor, 1 weapon).

 

By producing two at a time, it would recognize this volume aspect and essentially allow us to queue up 10 at a time, instead of 5.

 

Of course, they'd also have to remove the stupid 50-item limit, which makes no sense considering how many item variations there are.

 

And the 2 day limit needs to be increased to 7 days. 2 days is too much of a hassle if you want to target certain market segments that are less in demand. And doubly so if you have more than 50 slots...

[Battilea]

And the reason materials are so expensive is because there wasn't enough inflation to reduce the value of the credit and thereby reduce the relative value of materials. You have to remember, mission crew skills have a fixed value as determined by the cost of sending your companions out. The only thing that can bring down that cost is inflation, nothing else can. But because slicing was nerfed prematurely not enough money was injected into the system and thus we are experiencing a period of relative stagnation.

 

If people had more money, the cost of the materials would increase, not decrease. That's what inflation does. Tons of money floating around, same supply of rare mats, so it costs more. Tons of money out there, so the money involved in something must be higher else the return isn't high enough.

 

Anyway, the easiest way to increase the supply of rare materials is for more people to go slicing. The more wealthy missions, the lower the price of those missions. And those missions get you a nice quantity of the rare mats.

[parmie]

As a gunslinger cybercrafter I had the same issue as the original poster with gun barrels. There was only ever purple aim barrels put up by obviously commando armtechs.

 

The issue is the sheer real time it takes to gather, RE and then gather some more for the final item. By the time I had purple built a mod at x level, I had quested to y level and needed to start over. Now multiple this time/hassle for crafting items for other classes.

 

For a long term objective it's something I'm still interested in doing, although I spent all evening gathering and crafting for the lowest grade droid parts to obtain just the first level purple. My one level 23 mastercraft droid part sells very well when I can find the mats (which in itself competes with gathering for other items anyway).

 

I have sold purple 22 armouring for force wielder (went quickly) and commando (4 days). However, I could use the same material for an instant sale on a ship upgrade for more credits. Greater diversification and probability of purple mats coming back would be good, you don't really build space ships out of the same stuff you stick in personal armour do you?

[zerobounds]

You can outfit yourself with good mods using the planet commendations through the entire game and then use daily mods to get the level 51 stuff. Then use dropped commendations and BM/Champ commendations for either PvP or PvE gear. Don't need to craft anything.

 

I crafted my own as cybertech but found myself outleveling the rate that I could scavenge materials and RE the purples, I typically had to begin RE'ing stuff 4 levels ahead otherwise i would just pass the item level up and need the next mod. Keeping up with your own mods is time consuming enough, I never really had time to spend materials or companion crafting time on stuff I'd sell on the GTN. Didn't need the money either.

 

Once you hit 50 its much easier with the ability to send 5 companions out to do things, now I can craft some stuff for the GTN but again the materials and time involved make it hard to compete with someone that could just use a few commendations to scoop up the blue mods they need.

Edited February 8, 2012 by zerobounds

[JacksonMo]

I'm the type of player that wants the best possible gear for every level. It makes me sick to have lvl 24 blue mods as a lvl 28. I would prefer for all blues with the proper stats but epics would be better.

 

As fast as people roll through levels, why stress this much about it?

I could understand if we were talking about an alt you're keeping at a certain level to farm pvp points like they used to do in WoW. But I don't think SWTOR is structured to allow "twinks". ( I think thats what they called them)

 

If we are talking about an alt, i've considered mailing com. mods. to my alts as they aren't bop like the gear, and by the time i have the coms to buy anything, i've out leveled it, or found better, or just plain forgot it was there.

 

That is one thing I miss about wow, there was a solid base of 3rd party web sites I could go to to find the gear I want, and actually learn WHERE to get it.

[Jjix]

If people had more money, the cost of the materials would increase, not decrease. That's what inflation does. Tons of money floating around, same supply of rare mats, so it costs more. Tons of money out there, so the money involved in something must be higher else the return isn't high enough.

 

Anyway, the easiest way to increase the supply of rare materials is for more people to go slicing. The more wealthy missions, the lower the price of those missions. And those missions get you a nice quantity of the rare mats.

 

Heh, no. Only supply and demand and the base cost of mats can change their value. Since their base cost is fixed (we are talking primarily about mission crewskill mats here) changes in the relative value of the credit are the only way of impacting this cost. If one credit today is worth .25 credits of the future, then in the future it is four times cheaper to run a mission to get mats. So inflation, which lowers the value of the credit, inherently makes mats cheaper.

 

Now if you are saying that supply and demand would change, that may very well be, but that is the sign of a healthy economy. Right now, there aren't actually that many mats being sold because demand is low, and the reason demand is low is because few people are selling the items crafted out of those mats. If people could start making money from crafting low-mid items, more mats would sell.

 

The ideal scenario would be cheap mats selling like crazy (so plenty of money to be made there) that allow for items to be sold at a profit and thus also selling like crazy -- a scenario where even ordinary players could enjoy being able to upgrade their armor every two levels without thinking much about it. That would be a flourishing economy. That's what we wanted, that's why we were against the slicing nerf. But that is not to say having slicing the way it was was the only way they could fix this.

 

Now you have the austerity folk here saying people shouldn't upgrade there armor every two levels, that that is just wasteful. To them I say, why not? Getting new armor is fun and a nice reward for leveling.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Jjix

[Yaiser]

To OP:

 

I am on Ajunta Pall and I can make Mods and Armoring for you on the Imperial Side.

 

Message Vindicus and I can help you out. I am just under 300 Cybertech.

 

Thanks,

 

Vindicus

[scootle]

It's been touched on, but bears repeating... while commendation vendors are great in concept, they pretty much gut the crafting market. It's so bad, there is zero reason to sell any armoring/mods until at least L45 at a minimum.

 

Even then, at L49/50, you realize the daily heroic quests on Belsavis/Ilum reward Artifact Mk 22 mods/enh that are equal to the best purple crafted mods for free. Using daily commendations from Belsavis/Ilum, you can outfit yourself with Mk 23 barrels/hilts/armoring that are *better* than what top tier crafters can make -- yes, this sorta puts top-tier crafters out of business just a little bit, no?

 

As for the purple earrings, they are "ok" -- but with the commendation-available Rakata earrings available on Ilum after some grinding (120 tokens), the only purple earrings that ultimately have any value whatsoever are Mastercraft (augment) versions with the "correct" prefixes (e.g. not worthless combinations), which are very very very rare and expensive to proc.

 

All said, crafting in the game had promise, but a failure to execute a workable system in the context of the end game makes it very very difficult to make crafting anything but personal convenience while leveling and for gearing alts.

[Calsetes]

Just last night someone was asking for a cybertecher to make some stuff for them, but turns out they really wanted an artificer. Me being the crafting fanatic I am, helped them out. Made for them a custom package of some low-level enhancements, mods, and color crystals, threw in a saber hilt for them, and sold it for a COD of 5k.

 

They got a really good deal, but whatever - not like I had anything better to do.

[TrevNYC]

People are explaining to him WHY he can't find it at his level. No one is stopping you from crafting or putting low level mods up in the GTN, there's no need to be vitriolic about it. LOL.

 

I'm not sure how vitriolic I was about it, but I was just saying that the answers people are giving don't actually make sense in the context of the question, at least if you take them at face value.

 

I can understand (and even agree with) the point that people don't sell low and mid level items because there is a perception that you can't make money on those things. But I don't see why people just repeat that as if it's a fact, particularly as a response to someone that's offering evidence that suggests that the perception isn't entirely accurate. I also agree with the point that a lot of people raced their crafting to max level and only wanted to focus on that market. Both of those answers DO explain to the OP why there aren't item modifications on the market at his level.

 

The OP's question, however, is evidence of some demand for mid level mods that aren't duplicated by commendation vendors. It seems silly then, for some posters to tell him that there isn't any demand for those items because he's coming here to tell you that there is. This is especially true when the people answering haven't indicated that they actually tried to sell to that market -- they instead post that they assumed there isn't a market for that and haven't bothered with it.

 

I haven't seen any posts from people who say, "I made mid-level item modifications and I haven't been able to sell them, so I quit doing it." That would be evidence of a lack of demand, or an inability to make a profit. In fact, the only post from anyone who apparently has put these items up for sale said that he did make money on them.

Edited February 8, 2012 by TrevNYC

[Meriki]

Item mods are simply too expensive to make compared to the other things you can do with the rares. If they dropped them to 1 or 2 rares instead of 4 you might see more. It is just too much work/costs too much to make item mods for the general market.

[Calsetes]

Item mods are simply too expensive to make compared to the other things you can do with the rares. If they dropped them to 1 or 2 rares instead of 4 you might see more. It is just too much work/costs too much to make item mods for the general market.

 

Truth be told, I don't bother much with making purples while leveling. Blue's good enough for me, with the only exception being maybe a color crystal (since they cover a much larger level span than, say, an enhancement, an armor plate, or a lightsaber hilt.)

[parmie]

There is a market for level 22 purple upgrades, namely the level 49ers. Time will tell if enough of them spend enough time at 49 to make this sufficient size.

 

Personally, I'll carry on retro-RE on lower level items as a general sales strategy but theres no real incentive other than a community aspect.

[TrevNYC]

It's been touched on, but bears repeating... while commendation vendors are great in concept, they pretty much gut the crafting market. It's so bad, there is zero reason to sell any armoring/mods until at least L45 at a minimum.

 

It also bears repeating that the OP's main point is that he *can't* get what he wants from the commendation vendors, so maybe the market isn't as gutted as people think it is. A lot of other factors go into people's buying decisions besides whether something close to it is available elsewhere.

 

The amount of content that grants xp -- class quests, side quests, pvp, flashpoints, space battles, etc. means that if people do more than one thing they often find themselves outleveling the story content. For example, on one character I got sent to Balmorra after I was past the max "recommended" level for it, because I had done "too much" content on the previous planets.

 

So, in order to catch up, I skipped everything on Balmorra that wasn't part of the class quest or "main" planet quest that I picked up (since the game wouldn't let me abandon it). That meant I didn't get a lot of commendations, and a whole lot of my gear was seriously outdated (I ran the FPs, but didn't get lucky on drops there). I couldn't update everything from the vendors without spending even more time grinding commendations on the planet I was outleveling. I too would have loved to just be able to buy some mods to update my gear more closely to my level. One thing that crafters overlook when deciding whether mid-level items are worth the effort is that people *love* to get upgrades, and they get antsy when they go a long enough period without getting one. While there absolutely people who won't upgrade because they know they'll just "outlevel it soon anyway," there also are people who would love to upgrade their stuff every level if they could.

 

Moreover, mods aren't the only things that vendors sell. If you only have 20 commendations, it doesn't always make sense to buy 10 mods with them. It might make sense to buy the mods, and spend the commendations on a bigger upgrade for another slot, or in filling out gaps on your companion. That is, if someone bothered to sell the mods. But often they aren't, so I "settle" for what the commendation vendors have, and even that ends up being several levels behind me based on the timing of my quest progression.

[Battilea]

Yeah, the problem isn't comm vendors at all, at least not for cybertech. Just upgrading you and your main companion's weapons each planet is 14 to 28 comms. And 5 armor mods, which is the next most likely thing to pick up, is a further 35.

 

So there's definitely a market.

 

The problem is that the current system actively works against us filling this need. Not enough sales slots, too much much hassle with only a 2 day sell window, a lack of early companions for many imperial classes, and so on.

[Luno]

There is a market for level 22 purple upgrades, namely the level 49ers. Time will tell if enough of them spend enough time at 49 to make this sufficient size.

 

Most of the Purple level 22 upgrades currently on the GTN were not crafted by Cybertechs. They were obtained from the repeatable daily quests on Ilum/Belsavis and then put up on the GTN because those quest rewards are BOE. On my server these Armorings are selling between 25K and 30K when Mandolorian Iron is selling for 8K to 10K each. Crafting the purple upgrades at 4x Iron each is a loss under these conditions.

 

While there is a market for the quested level 22 purple upgrades, there is NOT a market for the corresponding crafted upgrades until conditions change significantly.

[Mozivicus]

I'm 400 cybertech, and have most of the patterns in the game. The mod schematics call for underworld metals, like the armorings we make. It's hard enough to sell the armorings, but pretty impossible to sell the mods. Why? Because I can't sell them for what I can sell the raw metals for.

 

The way the game is now, at below level 50, it's all about money for skills. If I can make more money selling the underworld metals that I get from my underworld trading missions (when a frickin METAL mission is available) than I can from selling the mod that take 4 promethium to make....why would I even MAKE the mod???