Slicing Lockbox Changes Intended?

[apeiros]

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?

 

On your server maybe, not the server I am on.

 

25k was tops for missions, and those were UWT/TH missions (which I use myself on alts). Everything else sells for 10-12k, enough still to make a good profit as long as the missions are coming up in rewards. As of 1.2 they are not coming up as often. Prior to 1.2 I could run those rich missions and short of complete failure I would always recover at least ~90% of the cost of the mission. Now it's 50% if I get lucky. Coupled with the decrease in mission rewards coming up makes rich mission a losing proposition now.

[Shimmer-Holler]

I ran grade 5 and 6 slicing missions last night for Grade 5 Mod/Abun/Rich and suffered a 25-50% credit loss. Grade 6 was more break even with a small credit gain.

 

Stealth nerfed or incompetent devs

[KidRaid]

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?

 

Be careful when quoting prices. Thye are very dependant on the server you play. For example when I play on Space Slug the price I see match closely what you are mentionning However on Axial park I will be lucky to get one fith as much. Why ? Because space slug is a busy server ( as a meter I regualarly see 120+ player on fleet) meanwhile Axial park is amlost dead (11 players on the fleet).

 

 

This I am sure is part of the problem for the dev in trying to balance the economy. Because there is not ONE economy but rather as many as there are servers.

 

This being said I will not deny that slicing was an easier way of making money. This is why I keep repeating that my issue is not with the change but with the fact that there was no patch note concerning it. Therefore it is possible that this was not intended , specially if the observaytion that rich mission actually give less money than moderate is confirmed. If it was not intended then brigning up the observation is worth while. It is also possible that it was intended and if they confirm that it was and that the notes saying so were just missplaced then case closed , but it still was worth brigning it to their attention.

[ErikModi]

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.

 

Ah. I hadn't been doing that kind of comparison, and I had been running mostly Tier 3 missions, because I want the mission discoveries for my crafters, so the spread was a little tighter.

[NermalDetonator]

So slicing is now in line with other money-search crew skills like underworld trading and treasure hunting.

 

I dont have Treasure Hunting, but its quite different than Underworld Trading at least. With UT, you have metals and silks as your gathering side, which you can then sell on the GMT for a profit. You have companion gifts missions, which have a function as well, and can sell for a profit.

 

Slcing's lock box missions now have no function other than crits. The cash used to roughly break even, allowing you to make a profit through the crits you got resulting in missions. Now it requires a crit in order to yield anything meaningful.

[Eliandal]

Patching now, and will try 4 rich missions when I get in. If it's still the same I'll bug it as well. Definately bugging this.... Had 4 missions running from last night - all Moderate (6) - can't remember the costs, but they'd be around 1400. The results were all Ancient Small, no crits, and 1348,1333,1781,1511.

 

Today ran...

 

Rich(5) - 1930 - crit - Diplomacy(340) + 8309 (Seems crits are working OK)

Rich(3) - 870 - no crit - 425

Rich(3) - 870 - no crit - 389

 

Rich(5) - 2025 - no crit - 812

Rich(3) - 870 - no crit- 328

Boun(3)- 780 - no crit - 600

 

Currently running...

 

Abun(6) - 1485 - crit?(Arch) + 1156 (obviously no crit on the box)

Mod (6) - 1415 - no crit - 2154

 

Abun(6) - 1485 - no crit - 2077

Mod(6) - 1415 - no crit - 2037

 

It's borked

Edited April 13, 2012 by Eliandal

[Cupelixx]

I can confirm this as well. I almost have to assume this is not intentional. Getting more yields out of moderate missions than rich missions can't be right.

[Verella]

It seems that after today's unsheduled maintenance slicing is back to pre-patch. I don't have the hard data since I've run only a few lockbox missions but each time the rewards were at least close to what the mission cost. I guess it was a bug then. Edited April 14, 2012 by Verella

[Revcis]

missions are still bugged or nerfed. can we get a response BW

[Evil_Dave]

After 1.2, my returns on Slicing missions dropped precipitously, much as everyone else's. I looked through every line of the patch notes for answers, only to find none. Then I came here, and found my worst fears confirmed. So now I'm adding my voice to the crowd seeking clarification on this unexpected change. Not that I expect any, of course.

[ErikModi]

The Moderate and Abundant missions seem okay, anything else is still minimal returns.

 

300 credits on a 700 credit mission. Greater than 50% loss. Even other skills aren't that bad.

[Eliandal]

Heh...my worst was 812 CR for a 2025 cr mission cost. From playing most of the night, Moderate missions are about 90% guarenteed at least a small profit. Abundant about 75%. Rich and Bountiful are always a loss unless you crit - and even then it seems you can have levels of critting - got a purple mission onvce with a lockbox thaqt had half the cost in credits (unfortunately, it was investigation - and they only go for 4K on my server )

 

Anyways, bugged it - no responswe as of yet though.

[xeraphyne]

my ticket:

 

Greetings #####,

 

I am Protocol Droid U3-O4 of Human-Cyborg Relations.

 

Thank you for contacting us regarding your slicing skill.

 

Your report has been forwarded to our development team, who will investigate further. Please be aware that when a ticket is escalated for such an investigation, it will no longer be visible to you through the in-game helpcenter.

 

We regret that we will be unable to provide you with further updates on this issue, but recommend checking the latest patch notes at http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes for information on any fixes or changes related to this issue.

 

We would like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and to thank you again for the valuable feedback you have provided. Please do not hesitate to report any other issues you may encounter while playing.

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us again if there is anything further we can help you with.

 

Galactic Support is our speciality…

 

Sincerely,

 

Protocol Droid U3-O4 (aka Marla)

Star Wars: The Old Republic Customer Servic

[Eujin]

Also put in a bug report last night. Also got a response that it's being forwarded to a specialist team.

 

Here's hoping that means it's not working as intended.

[DarthTHC]

This is yet another in a long list of reasons I almost certainly will not renew my subscription when it expires in (now) August.

 

It's not necessarily the nerf. If BioWare wants to make these sorts of adjustments, they probably have a good reason to do it. At least what they believe is a good reason.

 

It's that there was no communication about a nerf of this scale. They cut the effectiveness of a skill in half and said nothing. That is indicative of a company that doesn't give two shi... shakes about their customers.

 

That or it's yet another bug that slipped through a QA process with more holes than a sieve, and that's indicative of a development or management process that's fatally flawed.

 

It's a shame. I really dig the SW setting and the BW stories. But I'm going to have to go find another MMO to play, probably in a fantasy setting (meh), to find one in which the developers respect their customers enough to communicate with us effectively and ensure the code works right instead of unleashing steaming piles of excrement upon us time and time again.

[DonJuansen]

Heh...my worst was 812 CR for a 2025 cr mission cost. <snip>

 

Anyways, bugged it - no responswe as of yet though.

 

I had the same result on my top tier rich missions a few times. Reported it as a bug.

 

I don't understand why there isn't at least some developer acknowledging our concerning in some way or another. Let's hope we get a response soon.

[Raansu]

I'm getting like 300-400 from missions that cost me 1500...This is ridiculous. Not even trying to crit mission skills is worth that much of a loss in credits... Did they think the slice tech parts was going to be a big boom or something?

[Alodar]

@alodar

 

Sorry if you answered this already but the signal to noise is pretty thick here.

 

Were you able to determine what is any the increase in success and criticals was from improving companion affection?

 

I'm wondering if the changes seen here for high end missions isn't really a change to focusing more on affection for improved results.

 

I'm seeing something similar in my crafting. My high affection characters seem to have dramatically increased their critical returns.

 

Unfortunately I never got to test affection.

I did most of my leveling in War Zones and Space Combat so my affection with my companions was nominal.

 

 

 

Alodar

[Alodar]

So where exactly do you sign up for PTS access?

 

The PTS is currently closed.

 

When there is a new Patch to test you don't have to sign up for it.

All you have to do is:

 

 

1. Log in to the Star Wars: The Old Republic launcher using your username and password.
   
2. Click the Settings button (gear) in the bottom left corner of the launcher
   
3. Under “Enable Public Test Server Access”, select “Yes”
   
4. Click “Save”
   
5. Now the bottom left corner will have two buttons: select the new button next to settings
   
6. Under "Pick an Environment" select "Public Test"
   
7. Click "Next" and you will begin patching on the Public Test Server*
   
8. Click "Play"
   

 

The first time you do this it will be a largish download as you are downloading the Beta client. Most patches after that are small.

 

Until BioWare gets the character transfer mechanics down, playing on the PTS means you have to create a new character.

 

The good news is so far the characters haven't been wiped, so for the next patch instead of starting from scratch I will start testing with a 23rd level Guardian.

 

 

Alodar

[Cupelixx]

Unfortunately I never got to test affection.

I did most of my leveling in War Zones and Space Combat so my affection with my companions was nominal.

 

 

 

Alodar

 

All but one of my tank's companions are max affection. I've gotten as low as 700 credits on a rich 5 mission that cost 2025 credits. Not cool.

[Alodar]

The Moderate and Abundant missions seem okay, anything else is still minimal returns.

 

300 credits on a 700 credit mission. Greater than 50% loss. Even other skills aren't that bad.

 

This mirrors what I saw on the PTS.

After running 100 missions on the Test server I had the below results. (Due to limited time I only was able to test up to Moderate level 5 missions)

 

Bountiful missions lose approximately 464 credits on average.

Rich missions lose about 296 credits on average.

 

If you wish to make money slicing you'll need to run Moderate or Abundant missions.

Moderate missions average approximately 138 credits per mission

Abundant missions average 53 credits per mission.

 

The above figures don't include crits, but even if you include them Moderate > Abundant > Rich > Bountiful

 

 

I was running a bunch of Moderate missions on live and getting positive returns last night that were in line with what I was seeing on the PTS.

 

 

Alodar

[HereInPlainSight]

So...

 

Ticket verbatim:

Slicing is returning roughly 50% the cost of lockbox missions above 'Moderate' yield. This was not in the patch notes, there has been no BioWare response to the growing forum thread, and this has made this the only profession that is incapable of making any money off of a mission type. When other mission types return an item, you can turn it into something and sell it. When Slicing returns a lockbox that has less than the cost of the mission, there is nothing you can do to undo the fact that you threw money away. Please find and fix this bug, or please let me know if this is an intended change that was not documented.

(You may quibble over my wording, and in/accuracy, but I wanted answers.)

Dear ####,

 

I am Protocol Droid ##-##, Human-Cyborg Relations.

 

I have recieved your transmission.

 

We are sorry to hear that you have some concerns with recent changes made with lockboxes.

 

From time to time, based on a variety of factors such as player metrics and other forms of feedback, the development team will make adjustments to certain items in order to provide as much balance as possible. We would like to assure you that these changes are intended and are never introduced lightly.

 

The decisions to make these changes are only ever implemented to benefit the player base as a whole. Because of this, we are unable to swap, refund or affect any items that have been adjusted by a game content change.

 

If you have any feedback or suggestions that you would like to bring to the attention of the development team in relation to these changes, please post them in the Suggestion Box section of our Community forums.

 

We would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your understanding on this matter. Should you require further assistance with any other issue, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

 

Galactic Support is our specialty...

 

Sincerely,

Droid name erased to protect the messenger.

[Evil_Dave]

Just got the same notification from one of the customer service reps. Thanks so much BioWare for lettng us know yourselves. I can definitely see this game surviving for a long time, with such great community engagement.

[DerekMiller]

So an intentional stealth nerf.... niiiiiiiiiiice.. ty bioware for being transparent, and keeping us players in the loop.....

[Revcis]

what else would you expect after Fridays fiasco!