Should i spend my time on datacrons?

[kreeshak]

Kinda fresh 55,

 

Should I spend my time on datacrons or should I grind credits to buy GTN modifications and or augments?

 

what is the best value/time?

 

(i have oricon gear now)

[psandak]

Kinda fresh 55,

 

Should I spend my time on datacrons or should I grind credits to buy GTN modifications and or augments?

 

what is the best value/time?

 

(i have oricon gear now)

 

For me neither are particularly appealing over the long haul. My point is, do what you want to do, not what you feel you have to do.

 

If you enjoy flying around the galaxy and then running to an area on a planet and then solving a "maneuver puzzle" (ALA Tomb Raider) then datacrons are for you.

 

OTOH, if you enjoy doing the same set of quests day in and day out for the satisfaction of killing enemies and getting credits, comms, and rep in the process, then "grind credits."

 

If you are looking to break into the upper-upper-echelon of elder game content, then you really need to do both: datacrons and optimized gear.

[nightsproull]

I think the datacrons are a big pain, especially because I'm on a west coast server but playing from Russia, which means that on laggy days, my character doesn't always jump when I press the button, making the tomb raider action painful at best, and incredibly frustrating at worst.

 

Also, because of the big jump in stats from 50-55, i think most of the datacrons have lost their edge a bit. At level 55, for example, an extra 30 str and sta is a very marginal improvement for my tank set.

 

On the other hand, once you know where they are all, it's easy to get them for every one of your characters as you level.

[dermitni]

Kinda fresh 55,

 

Should I spend my time on datacrons or should I grind credits to buy GTN modifications and or augments?

 

what is the best value/time?

 

(i have oricon gear now)

Well, I tend to get the easy-to-reach datacrons that are hard to find (the first time) but not hard to get to. The ones blocked behind "Super Mario" jump'n'run parcours however, I usually ignore (unless I'm really bored and in the mood to complete all achievements on a planet); same goes for social points btw., they are so tedious to get that I normally just ignore them and don't care.

 

As for your question about modifications, I'd suggest farming basic commendations through flashpoints and dailies in areas where basic commendations are dropped (like Makeb) for a fresh level 55 character and planetary commendations for a fresh level 50 character, so you can gear up at least with purple Makeb mods. The GTN however I'd ignore; the prices for purple end level mods are so far off the scale that you'll have to grind a lot of credits before gearing even one character.

[nightsproull]

You'll get to a point with Makeb dailies where once you know them all, and know when to use your Quick Travel, you can knock all of them except the heroic out in less than 30 mins. If you find a friend, or just a random stranger on Oricon, that's another 30 mins for a lot of basic comms. CZ-198 is about 15 minutes max solo, and even faster with a partner.

 

For a little over an hour a day you can get a load of credits and basic comms to spend on gear from the basic gear vendor. Don't forget to do the weekly Makeb and CZ-198 for elite comms.

 

You can do section x and black hole for dailies as well, but I'm not sure how much you really want to grind. If you're completely fresh on gear, the extra basic comms from those places could help you get your first few pieces.

 

High end item modifications on the GTN are insanely priced. You're looking at 800,000+ credits for a single enhancement, mod, or armoring. I'd save your money for the 31 hilt/barrel for your chosen spec, as it's reasonably priced and there are no options to buy the equivalent with commendations.

[bannsider]

I would advise you to focus on your gear first

[dermitni]

Oh, and don't bother grinding classic commendations. For the effort (in time and travelling) you get only a mere pittance in commendations per quest, and everything you can buy with classic commendations needs a lot of them.

[AlrikFassbauer]

"Hunting The Datachron" is to me kind of an "game within the game". It can be fun, it can be challenging ... A few days ago I just happened - by pure chance ! - to be there just in time to catch the Jawa Balloon on Tatooine, and thus got one of the two Sandcrawler Datachrons ... Noticing that I didn't have it yet (albeit being level 43).

 

What I also like that this has created some kind of prehistoric "culture of knowledge" : You help someone getting to an datachron (where the way is complicated but not difficult to go), and ask that the person you just helped will in the future help others to get to this datachron as well. I think that this is the way our human culture developed ijn the first place : You show something, and then this knowledge is passed on onto later generations ... without this "knowledge chain" or "wisdom chain" [there's actually a song by Jon & Vangelis named like that] the knowledge would get lost and we'd have to invent the wheel again ...

Edited February 25, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer

[Kerensk]

Well, putting a single level 9 augment on your gear provides the same upgrade as finding all datacrons for your class so time wise they're not worth it at all.

 

But I think they're good if you're sick of the grind and want to explore a bit. Get a few when the game seems too grindy, to keep things fresh.

[Khevar]

Well, putting a single level 9 augment on your gear provides the same upgrade as finding all datacrons for your class so time wise they're not worth it at all.

 

...

Eh??

 

There are about 9 datacrons for each primary stat. If you include the +10 fleet one that's about +40 to your main stat.

 

A grade 28 augment at level 55 has +32 to a stat. A grade 1 augment at level 9 only has +4 to a stat.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Khevar

[Kerensk]

I wasn't counting the fleet one since it's more than just some simple parkour to get.

 

So hours and hours (or days/weeks) of difficult jumping to get 40 mainstat vs buying +32 mainstat +20 augment off the GTN? My point stands.

 

In the time you spend getting +40 from datacrons you could probably grind the money for much of a full set of augments (+384 mainstat, +240 endurance) or craft your own.

See my point?

 

Save the datacrons for a day you're bored and feel like a +2 bonus for exploring a cool planet is worth it.

[Khevar]

Sure, it's a lot of work for not a lot of return.

 

But any serious endgame player already has all 14 augment slots filled. And going up an entire tier (e.g. 69 to 72) only adds 15-20 points of mainstat per slot.

 

So 9 primary stat datacrons bumps your main stat as much as 2 pieces of gear in the next tier. That's not a bad trade off.

 

Getting the remaining 59 datacrons? That's nowhere near as valuable.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Khevar

[AlrikFassbauer]

You measure a GAME after VALUE ?

 

Uh, then you probably measure your friends after how much work they are able to do for you ... ?

[Khevar]

You measure a GAME after VALUE ?

 

Uh, then you probably measure your friends after how much work they are able to do for you ... ?

That's a bit harsh, don't you think?

 

Only a self-centered d-bag would judge their friends on how much "work" they do for them. How is that even remotely equivalent to what I said above?

Edited February 26, 2014 by Khevar

[AlrikFassbauer]

To me, a game - or its contents - just cannot be measured in value - because in games the most important part is the "play" part, or / and the part that makes a game to be a game.

 

If you apply economic judging to a game or to parts of it, it loses the part that makes the game being a game, and it becomes something different instead, then.

 

In my philosophys it is so that - in business - a game ceases to be seen / valued as a game but rather becomes an "sold unit" (note that the word "game" is totally missing there), then it ceases to be a game, and becomes an "tool to increase company profits". The "game" part of it cases to exist - at least for those who have chosen to see the "game" as such - and in the end this shift in subjective Reality will make itself shown through how the game is handled by business men. This can be seen - for example - by publishing a game that's simply unready for shipping, because it is full of bugs (Example : TOEE, published by Atari / Infogrames). An buggy but regardless of bugs shipped video game is - at least to me - the prime example of an "game" that has ceased to be a "game" because business people saw it as an "tool to increwase the company's profits" and therefore tried to get it out as soon as possible - for money, for nothing but that - and NOT thinking of the people who would like to ENJOY the game by simply PLAYING it. The game has ceased to be a game, and has become an business tool.

 

This way of thinking - I value things within a game against other things within the game - lets me drift away from the "play" factor of the video game, and towards the "business" factor of the game.

And to me this shows how much powerful "business thinking" already has become - in fact so much that we have already begun to value friends and games and things that are püarts of games according to typical business thinking.

Business thinking has led to an "economization" of everything. Everything, and we even have begun to value things that should NOT be valued after economical reasons indeed after economical reasoning.

 

This is the philosophy standing behing what I had written to you.

 

Friends and games should not be measured in the same wqay as an business person measures things - the economic way - but yet we have already begun to do so.

 

I fear what this might bring in the future : EVERYTHING will be measured against "will it bring profits to me ?" or "will this be efficient to me ?" I fear what might become of society if this business way of thinking even begins to value each individual and society constructs in business terms.

 

Will handicapped individuals be regarded one day as "unprooductive", and therefore as an "money loss" for the state ? Because that would be what this business way of evauating everyone of us wouzld lead to. And this was exactly Nazi thinking : The Nazis decided to kill every handicapped person because to them they were unproductive and an mere money loss for the state. This is what evaluating individuals against "profits" and "efficiency" leads to.

[kreeshak]

For me, it annoys me greatly if I am not efficient, in everything I do. And I think this is normal. As far as I can remember it has always been like that with the people I interacted. People born back in 1920 which I had met, struggled about efficiency their whole life.

[dklundt]

Are you a completionist?

 

Then do both.

 

Are you pressed for time?

 

Then ignore datacrons.

[Khevar]

...

 

I fear what this might bring in the future : EVERYTHING will be measured against "will it bring profits to me ?" or "will this be efficient to me ?" I fear what might become of society if this business way of thinking even begins to value each individual and society constructs in business terms.

 

Will handicapped individuals be regarded one day as "unprooductive", and therefore as an "money loss" for the state ? Because that would be what this business way of evauating everyone of us wouzld lead to. And this was exactly Nazi thinking : The Nazis decided to kill every handicapped person because to them they were unproductive and an mere money loss for the state. This is what evaluating individuals against "profits" and "efficiency" leads to.

Godwin's Law in a discussion about Datacron hunting? I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

 

You're trying to relate "looking at the VALUE of things in an RPG with statistics" to "the decline of modern society", which is more than a little silly. I don't know about you, but I've been playing RPGs for about 35 years now, going back to pen and paper, and looking at the value of things in a game like this is not exactly uncommon (nor is it a bad thing).

 

You're making a new character. You roll a 17 strength and a 9 intelligence. While there's nothing wrong with deciding to RP a stupid wizard who is really strong, would you really fault the player that sees more value in making him a warrior instead?

 

Look through the forums. People ask questions like:

 

1. Should I stack endurance over mitigation as a tank?

2. Is Alacrity better than Surge for this build?

3. Are the 78 armorings without set bonus better than the 72 ones with it?

 

Which brings me to a more important point. When you move into endgame, unless you plan on running dailies forever, you move into doing group content.

 

At this point, looking at the VALUE of things, that make your character better, improves the GROUP. It's not necessary to ascribe purely selfish motivations to looking at value.

 

I'm not terribly fond of the jumping puzzles in this game. But I picked up a few key datacrons for my character specifically because it made me a more valuable group member.

 

I hope I've given you some points to think over in this regard.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Khevar

[gabrielluigi]

Not to be mean, but I wanted to point out some fallacies in your reasoning.

 

To me, a game - or its contents - just cannot be measured in value - because in games the most important part is the "play" part, or / and the part that makes a game to be a game.

 

Personally I agree with you, 'games' by definition are meant to be enjoyed and refreshing like any other form of recreation. However, what a person enjoys doing is very subjective. For example; one player might enjoy spending hours tracking down an elusive Datacron that gives relatively little stat increase, while another player might get more enjoyment out of the tunnel space game which gives even less in-game incentive. Each of these players has assigned a 'value' (and not necessarily a monetary one) to the parts of the game they play, or they wouldn't be wasting their time doing it. Also I'll assume you're a subscriber (since you're posting here ) and so have measured this game in monetary value. ie: SWTOR is 'worth' $15 a month. Sure it can be measured in other things, but it can also be measured in "value" as you call it.

 

If you apply economic judging to a game or to parts of it, it loses the part that makes the game being a game, and it becomes something different instead, then.

 

I disagree with you here. A game remains a game regardless of whether or not you value it as such. Let's take something besides a game as an example. I'm sitting in a chair. This chair is very comfortable, it takes the pressure and weight off of my legs and feet allowing me to stay in one static location for long periods of time without discomfort or injury. This chair cost me money. Does this mean that it is no longer a chair? Just because the person or persons who designed and built the chair measured it's worth to them as a financial gain instead of comfort? Does that change the purpose of the chair or what the chair will ultimately be used for? The answer, of course, is a resounding "No. It does not."

 

In my philosophys it is so that - in business - a game ceases to be seen / valued as a game but rather becomes an "sold unit" (note that the word "game" is totally missing there), then it ceases to be a game, and becomes an "tool to increase company profits". The "game" part of it cases to exist - at least for those who have chosen to see the "game" as such - and in the end this shift in subjective Reality will make itself shown through how the game is handled by business men. This can be seen - for example - by publishing a game that's simply unready for shipping, because it is full of bugs (Example : TOEE, published by Atari / Infogrames). An buggy but regardless of bugs shipped video game is - at least to me - the prime example of an "game" that has ceased to be a "game" because business people saw it as an "tool to increwase the company's profits" and therefore tried to get it out as soon as possible - for money, for nothing but that - and NOT thinking of the people who would like to ENJOY the game by simply PLAYING it. The game has ceased to be a game, and has become an business tool.

 

First, "Reality" is not "subjective." Reality is an objective truth that does not change regardless of how someone perceives it. This is the whole "If a tree (the object) fall in the woods and a person (the subject) isn't around to hear (perceive) it, does it make a sound?" The answer is that it does. (Reality. ) I'm going to assume that you meant a shift in perception. So I'm going to apologize for harping on this minor word usage issue, but if a person allows for reality itself to be subjective then that person is forcing reality to never be knowable, because fundamental rules (like gravity) would be changeable based on how people chose to perceive them.

 

Next, I'm not sure that you understand the purpose of businesses. A regular business or corporation is supposed to make money (profits.) They create those profits by doing whatever it is they're in the business of doing. (Some are service businesses like cleaning services, or manufacturing which is self-explainatory, as are transportation businesses and retail, etc.) They provide valuable products and services that they wouldn't be able to continue providing if they weren't making a profit. That's because it takes an initial amount of money (an investment) to make the first whatever.

 

I'm not sure what game you're referring to in your example but let's use it. Atari knew they were making a game. It was taking longer or costing more money than they planned on, probably both as the first results in the second. So now they're in a situation where if they finish the game how they want to they'll end up losing x amount of money, in which case they have debts to pay instead of profits to use building another game, this means that a different game that has been going along fine has to be axed to pay for the failed game or the studio that made the failed game gets laid off, or some other unpleasantness- business wise. Or, they can cancel the game. Denying us the players from experiencing it all and losing their entire investment with likely the same results as above.

 

However, if a game is close to release but still requiring more money to polish it (read: remove bugs) they might decide to spend a little more money to get it out to the customers and make back their investment or as much of it as they can. The fallacy here is that the company deliberately created an inferior game in order to make more money. That makes no sense what-so-ever; however, they were more interested in making a meh game for profit than in making an absolutely omg amazing game at a loss. That still doesn't change the fact that they created a game. TOEE (or whatever) was still a game meant to be played and enjoyed even if it was done very poorly.

 

This way of thinking - I value things within a game against other things within the game - lets me drift away from the "play" factor of the video game, and towards the "business" factor of the game.

And to me this shows how much powerful "business thinking" already has become - in fact so much that we have already begun to value friends and games and things that are püarts of games according to typical business thinking.

Business thinking has led to an "economization" of everything. Everything, and we even have begun to value things that should NOT be valued after economical reasons indeed after economical reasoning.

 

I disagree again. Valuing things against other things (in a virtual world or the real world) allows us to determine their relative importance to us. Let me give you a real world example. I typically work all day Fridays and all day Saturdays. One of my jobs is serving in a restaurant so those are my 'money days' my highest profit per hour. And by "all day" I mean that I leave for work at 9AM and usually get home around 11PM sometimes without a break- I don't mind because, as I said 'MONEY!, YAY!' Anyway, this Sunday I planned on build my new computer; however, yesterday I found out that there is going to be another ESO beta this weekend, also 'YAY!' because I'd love to tryout their World PVP before launch. But I have a limited amount of time because Sunday is my day to catch up on dishes/laundry/vacuuming/cleaning the toilets etc. So I have some decisions to make. Factors to consider:

 

- I'm not sure how long building my rig is going to take. I've never built one completely from scratch before.

- I hate living in a 'dirty' house so I really need to spend those 3-4 hours cleaning on Sunday.

- I will probably buy ESO and play for at least a month regardless of how beta goes because I have a friend who's going to want to play when it goes live.

- I could get someone to work for me Saturday night but that would end up costing me between $150 and $250.

- My friends know that Sunday is my 'free' day to hang out if they want to, so I might get a call to go out or something.

 

What I'll likely do is work just like I planned. I'll wake up a little bit early on Sunday and get my chores done before lunch. I'll build my pc after lunch and any time I have left that night will be on ESO beta. If a friend calls I'll go out for lunch so I can get back sooner (supper plans usually lead to several hours long gaming sessions ) This effectively pushes ESO off of the list.

 

I wouldn't be able to prioritize my time at all without assigning 'value' to the things I have/want to do. Now, you could infer from this that I 'value' money over maintaining my friendships and you'd be wrong. However I do value having food/shelter/clothing over 'hanging out'. I also value what I call 'active recreation' over 'conversational recreation'. Which basically means I'd rather 'do' something than 'hang out'. Unfortunately 'doing' things requires money which requires that I sacrifice unproductive time(I know, another evil business word) for time spent working to earn an income.

 

This is the philosophy standing behing what I had written to you.

 

Friends and games should not be measured in the same wqay as an business person measures things - the economic way - but yet we have already begun to do so.

 

I fear what this might bring in the future : EVERYTHING will be measured against "will it bring profits to me ?" or "will this be efficient to me ?" I fear what might become of society if this business way of thinking even begins to value each individual and society constructs in business terms.

 

I'd hate to be the one to break this to you, but that's how all thinking creatures do things. Business people are simply mimicking a system found in nature to direct their limited resources. Animals eat and reproduce based on a priority system. If I'm hungry I'd rather go find some food instead of the other thing; conversely if I'm ***** I'd rather do the other thing instead of eating. What if I'm both?, or neither? well there's a sliding scale of what I'd rather do and while I don't ever evaluate it rationally I always do thing higher on the priority list, and I know because that's thing I decided to do at that moment. Every decision you make uses what you call the 'business way of thinking'. Just because you don't use money as your criteria doesn't mean you're not using the same process.

 

Will handicapped individuals be regarded one day as "unprooductive", and therefore as an "money loss" for the state ? Because that would be what this business way of evauating everyone of us wouzld lead to. And this was exactly Nazi thinking : The Nazis decided to kill every handicapped person because to them they were unproductive and an mere money loss for the state. This is what evaluating individuals against "profits" and "efficiency" leads to.

 

That's a little more complicated because now we have to discuss ownership and property rights. Not going to go into it but...

 

Do "handicapped individuals" belong to the state? If 'no' then the state has no right to kill them. If 'yes' then your society has more things wrong with it than "business thinking." And, by-the-way, that is how states (A.K.A. governments) think because they are a type of corporation, which is why they should never 'own' their people. The people should always hold the power over the states.

 

Anyway, I apologize if this seemed overly critical but I felt I needed to correct some erroneous concepts you seem to hold.

 

EDIT: To the OP. I'd suggest running dailies because you can spend the credits on more than mods, however If you get a little bored go ahead and get you main stat, endurance and presence datacrons because they do help a little and because the stat boost isn't tied to gear, so you'll never have to reacquire it.

Edited February 27, 2014 by gabrielluigi
to be on topic :)

[scarlet_magpie]

"Hunting The Datachron" is to me kind of an "game within the game". It can be fun, it can be challenging ... A few days ago I just happened - by pure chance ! - to be there just in time to catch the Jawa Balloon on Tatooine, and thus got one of the two Sandcrawler Datachrons ... Noticing that I didn't have it yet (albeit being level 43).

 

What I also like that this has created some kind of prehistoric "culture of knowledge" : You help someone getting to an datachron (where the way is complicated but not difficult to go), and ask that the person you just helped will in the future help others to get to this datachron as well. I think that this is the way our human culture developed ijn the first place : You show something, and then this knowledge is passed on onto later generations ... without this "knowledge chain" or "wisdom chain" [there's actually a song by Jon & Vangelis named like that] the knowledge would get lost and we'd have to invent the wheel again ...

 

I like you, you're a decent person.

[KBowz]

I agree with the "game, within a game" idea. Is it a worthwhile return for your time? That's up to you. Did you have fun doing it? That's the most important question. I play this game to have fun, if I am not having fun, I have other things to play. Or maybe spend time with my family which has an even greater return.

 

Getting the datacrons gives you a bump on your stats and your legacy. With or without the augments it's still a bump over what you had before. Some are quite interesting to get, some are ridiculously easy, some are the-devs-must-hate-us hard. My main is getting them all for the legacy, my alts are getting only the ones that benefit them. The color shards are worth it at least.

Edited February 28, 2014 by KBowz