Slicing Lockbox Changes Intended?

[zerrkerr]

slicing missions are designed to give fast skillups for lazy people who dont like farming the stuff. honestly if you want credits dont pay 2k for a mission to possibly yield 2200 when they could get 1600 by grabbing it in the world for free.

 

in my personal results slicing missions over all break even or end up a loss. every box you open may net a gain but dont forget to count all the missions that fail and factor in the losses

[KidRaid]

I reeally do not mind the change per say. It is what it is. I had mainly taken slicing on secondary toons as a way to "gather money" (seems in the Star wars universe poeples are really dropping money on the floor ) I was in the habit of sending my minion on mission for additional potential at money. Now I guess I wont. Or I will change skill to treasure hunting .... whatever.

 

 

But what bothers me is that the change was not part of any of the notes I read either on PTS or now on live. Neither did I see any thread on PTS forum concerning that prior to 1.2 being deployed ( I may very well have missed them so tell me if there were) Therefore either 1. The change is intended and the lack of note was an oversite or 2. The change is unintended and therefore will be fixed later.

 

I just wish someone from BW would tell us one way or the other.

Edited April 13, 2012 by KidRaid

[Stevil]

slicing missions are designed to give fast skillups for lazy people who dont like farming the stuff. honestly if you want credits dont pay 2k for a mission to possibly yield 2200 when they could get 1600 by grabbing it in the world for free.

 

in my personal results slicing missions over all break even or end up a loss. every box you open may net a gain but dont forget to count all the missions that fail and factor in the losses

 

Well in my experience we got a small percentage return on slicing missions prior to this patch. I use slicing missions for my companions when they are not crafting to keep them busy. Now I'm losing 50-60% of the money I put up for each mission. This IMO is wrong.

 

Slicing lockboxes is not for lazy skill-ups. Slicing money is an important part of the economy. Without this income I can't afford my skills, to craft or to buy stuff from other people so that they in turn can buy stuff.

 

To get back on topic... Slicing mission returns have changed and we are discussing why it wasn't in the patch notes if indeed it was intended. Not what the purpose of Slicing missions was or is.

[PutinDoesJudo]

I guess once again this comes down to server population.

 

Those on more populated servers such as myself, are much more likely to have a market for their sliced parts at this early post patch stage of the game. If you've got no market for those parts, you are stuck trying to get mission crits, or having to run around ilum farming nodes.

 

Some less populated servers don't even have a big market for 340 missions, whereas stuff like UT340's sell for over 20k, and slicing for 50k average on my server. (The Swiftshaw)

[Sharita]

Therefore either 1. The change is intended and the lack of note was an oversite or 2. The change is unintended and therefore will be fixed later.

 

I just wish someone from BW would tell us one way or the other.

 

There is a 3rd option - change was intended and lack of patchnote was also intended (stealth change).

[Morticoccus]

So where exactly do you sign up for PTS access?

[TaiBrix]

Lockboxes return has definately changed for the worse - running level 4 missions (400 in slicing and 50% affection) and got returns less than half the cost of the mission on both low end and high cost missions. Used to pretty much break even.

 

Lockbox missions net you schematics and crew skill missions - they are not just a lazy way to level. With the missions nerfed so badly and the secondary returns on crits at such a low percentage it hampers the slicer from running these missions. This will in turn drive up the cost of any additional drops these missions provided.

[Ravaran]

If everyone will be running the tech mat missions just for the crits, their prices on the GTN will be forever garbage. Just like smart cells are garbage with everyone trying to crit for radioactive paste.

 

The only way to try to fix it is to make critting not return the one-time missions, and just return purple grade 6 mats. People will then continue to run lockbox missions to get the one-time missions from crits. Even still the blue slicing mat will remain garbage like smart cells while the purple mat will be sought after.

[Yazule]

so all that money i find laying around on the ground in world is a loss?

 

people really need to get off of fleet once and a while.

[KidRaid]

so all that money i find laying around on the ground in world is a loss?

 

people really need to get off of fleet once and a while.

 

Again the issue is not that they changed the return rate on the mission per say. It is that there is no notes saying that they did.

 

I have no problem with an intended change. I can change my beavior accordingly. Undocumented changed however I do not like. Because I cannot be certain of what my path should be if I do not have the info.

[Megwain]

Agreed, and now that I know the schems definately come from tech missions, I'm anxious to get back online and start running rich techs in all the ranks..

 

And yeah, the same thing is going on in my server.. a couple of green schems up for over 200k(insane) and TONS of rank 5 mats for sale for less than mission cost...

 

I was pretty shocked to actually get a LOT of Augment Schematics from slicing mission yesterday.

 

I also experienced the sudden nerf/bug in cash returns on missions and promptly stopped running the lockbox missions.

 

Instead I focused on all levels of Sliced Tech Part missions and blam, the augment schematics started flooding my bags.

 

Grade 3 missions yielded the largest number of them (7 or 8 as I recall), but grade 2 and 4 were also quite good with 4 each.

 

So here's the problems I ran into.

 

1) The tech parts from those missions did NOT sell on the GTN.

 

2) As of last night when I logged out, only 4 of my augment schematics had sold and I wasn't overpricing them! I actually was selling for just a bit over cost.

 

Not sure why even the low level tech parts and augments weren't selling, but wanted everyone to know that, on my server at least, the actual Grade Level of the tech parts/schematics at GTN didn't seem to make a difference. NOTHING was selling (other than the 4 schematics)

 

I had more luck selling orange armormech/synth/armstech schematics that I got from UT and investigation missions.

[Ravaran]

You gotta give people a few days to learn the schematics, make the greens, RE greens, make the blues, RE blues....and then make the purples that people will actually use.

 

OP, yes stealth nerfs shouldn't happen, and I hope BW comments.

[cindalkitty]

edit: mrgh Edited April 13, 2012 by cindalkitty

[Mirkov]

so all that money i find laying around on the ground in world is a loss?

 

people really need to get off of fleet once and a while.

 

 

Why should people get off the fleet more often? It's been set up as the social hub and gathering point for almost all "on demand" group content. Standing around the fleet, running lockbox missions and hoping for a nice schematic or crew skill mission isn't being actively disengaged from the game world or other players.

 

Prior to this change, lockbox mission let you have a breakeven return on investment, if not a small profit. This along with a chance at finding schematics or crew skill missions. Now, lockbox missions are a financial sinkhole and are tremendously de-incentivized to run. Sure, a player might still spend a couple of hours with 5 companions at max affection running a full load of lockbox missions, but you know what happens to the price of crew skill missions?

 

That's right, they become priced far away from purchase appeal. If having to dump 100k into a run of lockbox missions to find a rare 340 Treasure Hunting mission, you can bet your booty that it'll get priced at 150k on the GTN. Who is going to pay 150k for that mission, which takes 2h30m to run and STILL might fail? Basically, this change to the lockbox return rate will cripple the pricing of crew skill missions that slicers sell into nearly "not worth it" for their typical target market.

 

If Slicing is supposed to be a gathering skill, then let us get crew skill missions and schematics from lockboxes in the open world as well. That'll at least incentivize level 50's to go out and explore some. Yet, this still runs into an issue because certain lucrative routes will become contested and lead to contentious behaviors. Other gathering professions can at least run crew skill missions and either sell or generate the materials they find into profitable goods, improved schematics or marketable raw materials.

 

As of now, slicing can do this only rarely. And when I say rarely, I don't mean three or four times an hour. I mean RARELY, as in you might find a schematic or crew mission that's in demand enough to be profitable enough to be worth the time invested in running the missions in the first place, perhaps every couple of hours. On Average. At best. Maybe.

 

Otherwise, stop making it a gathering skill and make it a mission skill like Treasure Hunting or Underworld trading. Remove all the slicing nodes from the game world ( I'm sure this'll help improve server load) and return Slicing back to the way it was prior to 1.2 and allow it a marginal form of small profits while having a chance at finding schematics or missions that are either useable or marketable. The material missions for Augments already are inline with Underworld Trading and other mission based professions.

 

At 50, I really don't see any incentive to go run lockbox circuits when daily missions, space missions and loot drops are far more lucrative uses of my time. However, those profits, as of now, are, in part, dumped down a hole into Slicing for a fingers-crossed-knock-on-wood-pray-to-the-gods-of-fortune return of something that's actually marketable on the GTN or useful for other characters.

 

This persistent ambiguity that Slicing is the lazy player's way of making money is absurd, as it functions much differently at 50. I've kept Slicing even in lieu of much more profitable skills so that I may spend the time needed to provide schematics and crew missions to guild mates and fellow players. With this new Al-Capone-assaulting-a-dinner-guest swing of the nerf bat to Slicing, it's now been relegated to those that wish only to use it to supply poor-profit Augment schematics and materials, or those leveling to offset the cost of training, or those that feel like throwing enough credits into a well in hopes that something worthwhile will come floating to the top.

 

It's a pisspoor gathering skill and and even worse crew skill after these recent changes and I hope, sincerely, that whichever dev has this particular system as his or her baby, stops to think outside of their own skewed view about how this really does work in an active playerbase across all level ranges and across multiple playstyles. Please put the rate of return of lockbox mission rewards back to where they were. It was balanced and working.

 

Thanks.

[medrosata]

Get lockboxes for the mission crits only.

 

Otherwise, sell sliced tech parts. The profit margin is huge, and I mean it. Lots of people want augments, we have the keys to those augments. Exploit it.

 

It's far easier to sell sliced tech parts, than it ever was to sell an augment.

 

What I'm trying to say is... slicing is making more money than it ever could before, can you dig that?

 

My money wasn't made from augment selling, in fact the only augments I ever made were from the missions I discovered. I do not think that replacing 90% profitable mission cases with low GTN value parts is a good trade off. I did one mission for 2430 credits, the parts it yielded got me less than 500 creds combines on my server. Is Slicing easier to make money at? God no. Is it more complicated? Yes. Is it more likely to lose you money? Most definitely. I doubt we'll ever see a Bioware response to this.

[Eliandal]

Not even a 'we're looking into it'?

 

How surprising

[Ravaran]

Not even a 'we're looking into it'?

 

How surprising

 

The game is broke right now, so I'm sure its nowhere near a high priority.

[Tehdame]

I personally find it amusing how lazy some people are.

 

Lockpboxes on "Average" now give lower returns... and if you look only at the lock box, you barely break even.

***If you leave fleet, and find boxes to slice in the field, this is 100% profit***

 

However, sometimes they crit and you get ~4k credz from a box, or schematics, or augments (now peices.)

 

 

A quick look at L340 missons:

Underworld sell for 25k to 50k

Treasure hunting sell for 25k to 50k

Diplomacy sell for 25k to 50k

Biomech sell for 25k to 50k

Slicing/Scavenge sell for 25k to 50k

 

Augment Schematics sell for 75k to 350k

 

In summary: Look at the big picture, and compare it to other gathering skills.

Can you make this type of money elsewhere?

[Eliandal]

The game is broke right now, so I'm sure its nowhere near a high priority.

 

 

Odd that...I'm pretty sure the person who most often responds here is on neither the server or deployment team

[DerekMiller]

I personally find it amusing how lazy some people are.

 

Lockpboxes on "Average" now give lower returns... and if you look only at the lock box, you barely break even.

***If you leave fleet, and find boxes to slice in the field, this is 100% profit***

 

However, sometimes they crit and you get ~4k credz from a box, or schematics, or augments (now peices.)

 

A quick look at L340 missons:

Underworld sell for 25k to 50k

Treasure hunting sell for 25k to 50k

Diplomacy sell for 25k to 50k

Biomech sell for 25k to 50k

Slicing/Scavenge sell for 25k to 50k

 

Augment Schematics sell for 75k to 350k

 

In summary: Look at the big picture, and compare it to other gathering skills.

Can you make this type of money elsewhere?

 

just gonna point out gl with that.... prior to 1.2 yes.... now def not happening... only UT sells that high and you have to get it first which is what we are saying, they aint dropping

[ErikModi]

It seems to me that's what happened is the lockbox rewards are now those for moderate-yield missions of the same tier, which is why only moderate-yield missions seem profitable.

[Tehdame]

Maybe it's different on different servers but:

 

In some cases I'm critting and getting 3-4 items on one misision, and I've grabbed ~5 UW 340's in ~24 hours (yesterday morn to this morn.)

 

Treasure Hunting can drop orange custom gear and/or lockboxes worth up to 8k so they still sell well

[Ravaran]

Slicing is now far worse than Bioanalysis in terms of money-making potential. And if you think farming slicing nodes is worth your time, lets look at some bio returns.

 

One grade 5 bio node nets you 2-4 quick-growth agents or red goo. Lets say 3 average.

 

3 x 1500 credits = 6k credits per node. And on Voss they are all over the place.

 

Are you getting 6k on average per slicing node in perfect circuits where you need to kill no mobs? I don't think so.

 

25k per 340 mission, sure, but that = less than five bio nodes which you can gather in 2-3 minutes. How long does it take to get a 340 mission? Sure you can do both, but you can get good gains from Bioanyalysis and Diplomacy missions themselves.

 

Experimental Serum (5 med) - with missions average 300 credits each as cost. They consistently sell for 1500 creds each. Pretty good gain.

 

Grade 6 samples - gets you small amounts of mutagenic paste / neuro extract - but cheap. These sell for good profit, and you can always keep running these.

 

In short, you can make much higher returns for gathering bio mats in the zones, specifically Voss (perhaps different if red goo changed).

 

Before in one hour I averaged:

 

120 - Quick-growth agent - 200k+

65 - Red Goo - 150k+

120 - Parasitic Micro- crap

120 - Psychoactive Compound - ~100k

 

thats 450k per hour on top of running bio and diplo missions.

[medrosata]

It seems to me that's what happened is the lockbox rewards are now those for moderate-yield missions of the same tier, which is why only moderate-yield missions seem profitable.

 

Not sure if I am understanding what you are saying, but if I do, you are suggesting that rich missions now reward you with the credit case that moderates formerly gave. If this is a correct interpretation, I would simply say that the boxes rewarded may contain the same amount, but the boxes rewarded are still the same boxes, for example a grade 5 medium jeweled credit case. I had about 45-50 grade 5 boxes unopened when 1.2 hit, and they all gave the incredibly low returns. So, the boxes are the same, the returns are about the same as Moderate missions.

[Blattan]

It seems to me that's what happened is the lockbox rewards are now those for moderate-yield missions of the same tier, which is why only moderate-yield missions seem profitable.

 

I don't know about actual box type/name, but the values are definitely lower for Rich and Bountiful than Moderate and Abundant.

 

I haven't done enough testing to really matter, but Moderate and Abundant Class 5 Lockboxes were yielding 1 to 1.2K for me, while Rich and Bountiful were yielding under 1K everytime. Mostly in the 890 to 900 range.

 

That is more than just a perspective of Rich and Bountiful being being unprofitable, that is those missions actually underperforming the Moderate and Abundant missions of that tier.