Attempt at saving crafting, and the whole thing in he end...

[JMCH]

Crafting overhaul proposal.

 

Crafting is a cornerstone of an MMORPG, and as such should be considered seriously by players as much as devs.

 

As of now, it virtually has no usefulness as :

• * you level so fast it's pointless to buy crafted stuff over just anything that drops during your progression, particularly heroic missions which generally reward good customizable items you're able to regularly upgrade with planets commendations
  
• * once you reach lvl 50, your main activity has high chances to be PvP, which require a PvP-only "Expertise" stat, especially since patch 1.2 increased its impact, except for healers which actually have a better time using high-end PvE gear
  
• * let's face it, everyone don't want to run the same flashpoints or operations again and again to obtain "competitive" PvE gear, they could buy grade 23 armorings/mods and such too for... running the same dailies again and again, or they have to stick to grade 22 max crafted items
  
• * the changes introduced with patch 1.2 simply don't make sense, especially if we don't know what the chances of us getting schematics by RE something are because the promised tooltip simply is not there, but I digress, the point is there's no point in PvE farming to obtain gear to then obtain schematics by RE
  

 

Ok, introduction is over, let's see the proposal, starting by who's who.

 

• * Biochem is supposed to biochemically enhance a char, so stims, medipacs and adrenals seem just right, contrary to implants.
  
• * Cybertech is supposed to biomechanically enhance a char, so there should at least be earpieces and implants in there.
  
• * Armortech is supposed to be a purely mechanical enhancement, there's no point in splitting it in 2 crew skills with Synthweaving.
  
• * Synthweaving is some "tailoring" equivalent, the "caster's armorer". No more medium/heavy armor should be here and relics should be added, as you're in fact working on "artefacts".
  
• * Artifice is some "sound and lights" thing, crystals and shields being part of it is ok, the remaining quite a bit less.
  
• * Armstech seems OK as it is, perhaps move hilts there.
  
• * Ships upgrades and speeders should be handled by an entirely other crafting profession.
  

 

Now, how to make crafting more social incentive, as it seems to be the point of all the mess 1.2 patch introduced? Make them interdependant!

 

Cybertech requiring a Biochem intermediate crafted item seems like a perfect example and would give the "green" items some use.

Non-Force armors requiring Biochem and Force-users armors requiring Synthweaving as a minor tradeskill isn't shocking either.

Artifice requiring Armstech or Armortech depending on the recipe (crit/surge/power or absorb/defense/shield bonus) isn't too stupid.

 

Balance the recipes costs with this in mind, and it ends up with quite a good social incentive and time/money sink, although with lifetime gear it's not a lifetime sink.

 

So, now, get rid of the "unwearable" status of all items in the game except a few "artefacts" (legendary items?), lifetime time/money sink in place.

 

As for the crafting professions themselves, RE needs to be changed so that when you RE something you can obtain the schematic of either a variation of it (Reflex/Commando cannon for example), an upgrade of it (premium/proto/artefact/legendary) or an higher grade version of it (Reflex 22 to Reflex 23). Let everyone with the same crafting skill start with the same 4 or so schematics and progress from there! Has to be "harder" than it is, too, so that anyone just can't self-equip their 8 crafting-skill-capped chars.

 

Legendary items could be unbreakable and legacy-bound (on equip?), but extremely costly, items.

 

 

I'd appreciate other players views on my proposal, as well as crew skills designers' ones. I'm not liking an MMO just looks like a bad Diablo-like grind game where just about anyone plays the same spec with the same gear in the end and, with my mere but far from inexistent MMO experience, I think something like this proposal at least is a step in the right direction.

 

BTW, I know this would reset absolutely every crafting skill already learnt... harm has probably already been done by releasing the game in the state it was.

[Veeius]

I don't agree with what you said about synthweaving vs. armortech.

 

I do agree that crafting is nearly useless, with the exception of biochem. I think 1.2 was a stab at making the others useful, but they didn't fix the reasons why they're useless in the first place.

 

It's still biochem or ****, both in pvp and pve. This is an easily fixable problem, but it appears to me that many folk don't understand WHY it's biochem or ****. Biochem does NOT need nerfing. All other crafting professions need buffs to bring them in line w/ biochem. And not just "very very end of game" buffs, but "oh, you're a cybertech, well here's your ear pattern that gives you this humongous buff for being a cybertech. Oh, you're armstech? Well, check out this awesome weapon/barrel/whatever that ONLY armstech can use &c. &c.