The Contraband Slot Machine

[LordArtemis]

Just because I replied a few times about it today?

 

It just gets really old. I would like to see some other stuff here finally when I come to the forums that usually aren't this bad. At least there were some real issues before, now it's just annoying and with that completly unnecessary and pointless. So yeh that irks me because this is a topic that is so silly that it should've run its course by now.

 

I don't find that odd. What I do find odd is that it's suddenly an obsession because of a handful of posts. Is it so difficult to understand that some people might get tired of this incessant verbal diarrhea about this topic? This is the SWTOR forum and not the slot machine forum. It was fine that people were upset about it initially. I do get that, but come on, can we just get over this and complain about sensible things again?

 

Well, I do find it odd. Your understanding is not required. Nor is your approval naturally.

 

However, to express the fact that you are tired of seeing the complaints, especially in the light that they are likely not constructive at this point (that moment has likely passed) is certainly a sensible contention IMO.

 

But you will likely find failure if you attempt to manipulate people into presenting opinions that you find acceptable. Instead, you may find more success in expressing your true disdain for this topic and the fact it continues.

 

That, to me, would be much more influential from a person of your reputation on this board. Otherwise your current posts in response to the complaints seem petty to me....

 

....just as petty as mine have been as of late.

 

BTW...you really expect, with the litany of issues that came with 3.0 that something like this would "run it's course"? Do you not understand that it was likely a cumulative effect?

 

Other issues have abated quickly because they existed in singular form. This is a crapstorm of issues, this one issue and the ravager issue representing the cap stone. So naturally this is the one issue that has a bit of life to it.

 

it will die out soon enough.

Edited February 7, 2015 by LordArtemis

[Tsillah]

it will die out soon enough.

 

Clearly it hasn't.

[Vhaegrant]

Just because I replied a few times about it today?

 

It just gets really old. I would like to see some other stuff here finally when I come to the forums that usually aren't this bad. At least there were some real issues before, now it's just annoying and with that completly unnecessary and pointless. So yeh that irks me because this is a topic that is so silly that it should've run its course by now.

 

I don't find that odd. What I do find odd is that it's suddenly an obsession because of a handful of posts. Is it so difficult to understand that some people might get tired of this incessant verbal diarrhea about this topic? This is the SWTOR forum and not the slot machine forum. It was fine that people were upset about it initially. I do get that, but come on, can we just get over this and complain about sensible things again?

 

General Discussion tends to be the melting pot of any forum. If a topic is able to stay afloat on the front page for a week or two it may be worth a look by a dev. If the first page is nothing but posts on the same topic then it should set alarm bells ringing.

 

I don't see the issue of the slot machines as a 'silly issue' nor one that 'should've run its course by now.'.

 

Developers for an MMO released an item that effectively undermined a large chunk of existing game content (the quality of the content is debatable, but none the less the crew missions for blue and purple materials have been in since launch) and gave early adopters and those willing to spend long periods of time clicking a credit printing machine.

 

If you get tired of a thread then the best way to deal with it is to ignore it, not post on it and thus incite those affected by the issue to resume discussion

 

I think it's eminently sensible to complain over the poor design of the item in the first place, the extreme fix and the associated communication, or lack of.

[Nickious]

Clearly it hasn't.

 

It will soon enough. Its not even that big of a deal to the point that that the actual in game community wants to talk about anymore.

 

Personally that slot machine was the dumbest idea Bioware's ever had. Even surpassing those encryption cubes that sold story.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Nickious

[Tsillah]

General Discussion tends to be the melting pot of any forum. If a topic is able to stay afloat on the front page for a week or two it may be worth a look by a dev. If the first page is nothing but posts on the same topic then it should set alarm bells ringing.

 

I don't see the issue of the slot machines as a 'silly issue' nor one that 'should've run its course by now.'.

 

Developers for an MMO released an item that effectively undermined a large chunk of existing game content (the quality of the content is debatable, but none the less the crew missions for blue and purple materials have been in since launch) and gave early adopters and those willing to spend long periods of time clicking a credit printing machine.

 

If you get tired of a thread then the best way to deal with it is to ignore it, not post on it and thus incite those affected by the issue to resume discussion

 

I think it's eminently sensible to complain over the poor design of the item in the first place, the extreme fix and the associated communication, or lack of.

 

I agree that the original item was a terrible idea and should've never been released. They nerfed it to oblivion which was needed. For me that closed the subject. People got upset when it first came out, I get that. I agreed it was a bad idea. Then they nerfed it. Other people got upset. I got that too, but I felt it wasn't realistic to keep complaining about something that had to be done.

 

You are right that things shouldn't get to me, but sometimes they do. Sometimes the level of stupid just wears me down and I join in. So yeh, time to pull out again and let it be.

 

It's just so hard to ignore when half the threads on the front page have slot machine in the tile and a lot of the other threads are turned into threads about this. I just want to be able to go to the forum and not get thrown to death with the same stuff over and over again by the same 5 people who just can't stop.

 

But still, you are right just the same. Time to just use the ignore function on a couple of names if only to avoid further outrages from my side.

[Tsillah]

It will soon enough. Its not even that big of a deal to the point that that the actual in game community wants to talk about anymore.

 

Personally that slot machine was the dumbest idea Bioware's ever had. Even surpassing those encryption cubes that sold story.

 

Your words ring true.

[branmakmuffin]

Personally that slot machine was the dumbest idea Bioware's ever had. Even surpassing those encryption cubes that sold story.

Well, no argument there.

[LordArtemis]

Clearly it hasn't.

 

Have patience. It will run it's course soon enough.

 

Time to just use the ignore function on a couple of names if only to avoid further outrages from my side.

 

That is probably the best course of action.

[Vhaegrant]

I agree that the original item was a terrible idea and should've never been released. They nerfed it to oblivion which was needed.

 

I actually think the initial idea of the slot machine was rather cool.

Enough time has passed since the release and subsequent embargo of the Contraband packs that introducing a new source for reputation shouldn't have ruffled too many feathers.

 

However then the poor decision making came in. The drop rate of Green, Blue and Purple Jawa tokens was the same. Now, I don't know about you but I would have thought any sensible, considered design would attempt to reflect the common, uncommon, rare availability of said resources.

 

Green resources (Common) - you can go to the planet in the level range of the resource and gather to your hearts content, while you are doing that you can also send companions out to run crew missions to bring even more in. At the same time every mob you kill has a chance to drop loot, and the silver/gold mobs will be adding to the Bioanalysis/ Scavanging resource tally.

Having Green Jawa Tokens on the slot machine makes very little impact.

 

Blue resources (uncommon) - available from running crew misisons. Limited by the number of companions you have available, the number of potential missions you can run for the resource (many of the missions are for gifts), the time it takes to complete (5 mins to over an hour) and access to the game to send companions out on their missions.

The dedicated resource grinders set up a cycle of alts with the same crew skill to rake in the resources. However this tends to be set up in the pursuit of Purple resources, the non-crit missions that return blues are just supplying redundant materials.

Having Blue Jawa Tokens on the slot machine has an impact on lower grade supply, but top grade is already saturated.

 

Purple resources (rare) - available from a critical success of a crew mission (about 20% max chance). The reason blue resources saturate the market are because so many missions are run to obtain these purple materials. This probably suggests that the drop rate from crew missions is a touch on the low side considering the demand on resources has increased since launch. At launch there were no augments and the top end purple stims and adrenals were reusable.

Having Purple Jawa Tokens on the slot machine has a significant impact on the need to run crew missions or turn to the GTN.

 

Of course all the Jawa tokens can be found in the cartel packs as filler (I vaguely recall the initial Contraband packs had actual resources rather than the Jawa tokens) but you have to pay cartel coins or a reasonable amount of credits to get access to those.

Green and Blue Jawa tokens appear as conquest rewards, but they are rather limited per character per week and to achieve across multiple characters usually requires more of an output of resources in crafting.

Purple Jawa tokens are the reward if your guild manages to get into the top 10 on planetary conquest (now the first round of conquest has been completed there may be more opportunity for smaller guilds to compete for these scraps) and again limited to a few.

 

Seeing the above methods of gaining access to the resources, and the established costs that could be seen on the GTN (even allowing for fluctuation) it would have been relatively easy to set the price of the slot-chip and the drop rates for the Jawa tokens to be less enticing. As it was the redeeming of reputation tokens once rep hit Legendary offset much of the initial outlay and the final nail in the coffin was the high drop rate of the Cartel Certificate.

 

The Cartel Certificate sits there as an incentive to purchase more cartel packs as they are not a guaranteed drop, they are used to get those items considered especially desirable from the Cartel Reputation Vendors, but these items were bound. The problem is with the addition of Personnel Decorations (Twilek Dancer, Barman, Jawa Scrap Vendors) that can be listed on the GTN. It gave an easy way to convert the Certificates into credits. The value would drop over time as the personnel decorations saturated the market, but even still given the cheap cost of putting a stack of 99 slot-chips through the slot machine it was a virtual credit generator (technically redistribution rather than creation).

 

All of the above should have been self evident, so it slightly concerns me that the slot machine made it into the game in its original form in the first place.

 

The biggest abuse was always going to come from those that keep their eyes open for an easy exploit, okay technically not an 'exploit' in terms of game legalese, but very much a case of taking advantage of an unintended situation. So it was no surprise that their reaction from the opening communication was to force feed vast amounts od slot-chips into the machines.

This was confounded by the opening communication that said, slots not bugged and it's not an exploit to use them.

 

Queue the outrage on the forums by the folk who spent hours at a time sending companions out for purples so they could rake in a profit from the GTN, and to a lesser extent from those that acquired their purple mats from cartel packs and conquest. I can understand that outrage. A large part of that is driven by the time they have to spend setting up crew missions and flitting between alts. A side effect from relying purely on critical success and the fight between player and RNG (and in the mind of most players with a tendency to recall the failures over the successes RNG always wins).

 

The nerf into oblivion wasn't really needed with regards green and blue jawa tokens (yes it might have had an effect on lower grade materials, but they tend to be overinflated any way because endgame players are willing to pay over the odds for the convenience of not having to go and collect them).

 

It was definitely needed with regards the Purple Jawa tokens and Cartel Certificates.

 

Placing the mount at such a low drop rate makes sense if you consider the slots will be played at the same frequency as they were before the nerf. Unfortunately that's unlikely to be the case, if you really want a walker mount it's far easier and cheaper to get the Yavin 4 reputation mount.

 

The biggest problem with the slot machines now is that they need to be balanced for those players that are willing to spend hours feeding the slot-chips in. This means very low drop rates for everything (even the drop rate of the purple reputation tokens was lowered).

 

Or you could cap the usage.

[Tsillah]

I never had an issue with an alternate method of gaining reputation.

 

It was the jawa token drops that made crafting missions a joke that made it such a big mistake for me. They should've just kept crafting materials out of the equation entirely.

 

Crew skill missions consist of random missions, a credit cost and a time factor. The slot machine made a mockery out of all three of those factors.

 

If they can make slot machines so that they do not outperform crafting missions for mats then it wouldn't have bothered me so much but I am pretty sure that various limitations on the usage of the slot machines would've ticked someone off again even if you are ok with it. That's why I think mats shouldn't have entered into it at all because I do not see BW capable of balancing this correctly without ticking a group of people off or at all.

 

This slot machine has proven to be more of a pandora's box. I am not so sure if BW is ready to open another one.

[LordArtemis]

Materials need to be removed from packs and conquests as well. They do not belong there. It is silly to put them there, instead of simply putting them into improved crafting and scavenging like they should be.

 

Putting mats in the game outside of traditional gathering and mission skills is where this problem began and remains today. The CSM only threw the problem in our faces IMO.

 

That problems remains to be solved. It will only get worse as more time passes.

[Menolley]

Materials have always been in packs .. way before the JJ they were there as materials. More often than not I'd get items I already had 7 stacks of and would never use (they are still in my Cargo Hold from the early days). The only difference now is that with JJ you can select which mats are actually usefull. In a hypercrate of 24 packs I get on average 4 to 6 purples, which is not enough to affect the economy but helps me obtain what I need for personal use. What comes from missions goes to crafting items for me and items to sell. It varies. You are right that the drop rate from missions .. especially the Discoveries, need to be looked at. Those discoveries take 3hrs and 45 minutes and except for the rarest of occasions, they return the same as you'd get from a Rich mission on the crafting table. Even there the success rate is exceedingly low.

[ivanhedgehog]

Materials need to be removed from packs and conquests as well. They do not belong there. It is silly to put them there, instead of simply putting them into improved crafting and scavenging like they should be.

 

Putting mats in the game outside of traditional gathering and mission skills is where this problem began and remains today. The CSM only threw the problem in our faces IMO.

 

That problems remains to be solved. It will only get worse as more time passes.

 

the number of places to get mats should be increased. there is nothing sacred about sending your companions out to maybe find them. have 3 or 4 ways of getting them, make it more inclusive, not less.

[LordArtemis]

the number of places to get mats should be increased. there is nothing sacred about sending your companions out to maybe find them. have 3 or 4 ways of getting them, make it more inclusive, not less.

 

If the proper venues existed to get mats there would be no reason to need them from alternate sources. Currently the payouts for mats from missions and scavenging is far too low.

 

They keep adding sources for mats instead of fixing what should have been fixed years ago.

[light_senshi]

If the proper venues existed to get mats there would be no reason to need them from alternate sources. Currently the payouts for mats from missions and scavenging is far too low.

 

This. You spend an hour running a mission (and odds are that you can only do two at a time) only to get enough mats to make maybe one item?

[jpswtor]

Just because I replied a few times about it today?

It just gets really old.

 

Not quite as old as struggling for your mats to just get your own personal crafting done. I am a very patient and quiet person usually. But this is so obviously ridiculous favouritism towards the mat tycoons it has me flabbergasted and upset.

 

And some random dude posting about me being childish when there are light saber sizes, shoulder pads and free XP giveaways to be discussed does not make me and -- as it seems quite a few other players -- any happier about it.

 

Just make mats bind on pickup to let us all feel the joy of the grind and the mat tycoons can keep their truckloads of scrap for all I care. Hey, they can melt it away in crafting bombs on conquests. Should keep them busy until they have the "galaxy conqueror" title.

 

Cheers

 

JP

[Vhaegrant]

I never had an issue with an alternate method of gaining reputation.

 

It was the jawa token drops that made crafting missions a joke that made it such a big mistake for me. They should've just kept crafting materials out of the equation entirely.

 

Crew skill missions consist of random missions, a credit cost and a time factor. The slot machine made a mockery out of all three of those factors.

 

If they can make slot machines so that they do not outperform crafting missions for mats then it wouldn't have bothered me so much but I am pretty sure that various limitations on the usage of the slot machines would've ticked someone off again even if you are ok with it. That's why I think mats shouldn't have entered into it at all because I do not see BW capable of balancing this correctly without ticking a group of people off or at all.

 

This slot machine has proven to be more of a pandora's box. I am not so sure if BW is ready to open another one.

 

Limiting the usage is the only way to balance out the return over time to stop it being abused by the 24/7 brigade.

 

As we seem to be agreed on the initial drop rates were far too high. I suspect that many of the developers see SWTOR as a job and would rather be off developing systems/writing code for the next big thing rather than adding content to a game that was never quite as successful as it was expected to be. As such they probably don't go home and play it having spent a day working through issues on it, they'd use some other activity to chill out and relax (going to the gym, walking the dog, pretty much any other activity that doesn't involve sitting in front of a PC for hours on end). And this leads them into a more casual mind-set and opens up the possibility of underestimating the player base's desire to click one button for hours at a time. That's about the only plausible explanation I can come up with regards to the mind-set that thought such a high drop rate from an open use item was a good idea.

 

I also suspect the fix factored in the subsequent metrics of how much the slot machines were being used (of course there was a slot frenzy, the players had been told the high drop rate was fine, it wasn't an exploit to take advantage and a change was incoming... quick go make hay while the sun shines) and the outrage from the crew mission runners that generate most of the purple materials for sale on the GTN.

So, the drop rate was rebalanced to give the same return on an hour of clicking (about 5-7 stacks depending on your reflexes ) as a top level crew mission would give.

 

It seems to miss out the glaringly obvious issue that the player can actually be off enjoying content when running crew missions (unless they are the type to set up 12 alts and cycle through them so they are generating as many crew missions as possible) but at the slot machine you are stuck feeding slot-chips into the gaping maw of an ever hungry infernal machine.

 

So, while I am completing flashpoints, operations, heroics, pvp, galactic star fighter, taking down world bosses and setting my crew to crafting to complete personal conquest goals and aid my guild to getting into the top 10 for the chance to be rewarded a handful of Jawa tokens.

Or, running content to generate credits to purchase cartel packs off the GTN for a chance to win Jawa tokens cartel certificates or other items I may want.

All I can actually do while playing the slot machine is play the slot machine.

 

Keeping the slot machines interesting enough to appeal to the casual player means a drop rate high enough to be abused by the dedicated clickers (there is a lot of fine tuning that could be done on making sure the cost per slot-chip is high enough to offset any potential gains).

 

One of the more straightforward means to throttle back the flow of materials into the game and to a certain extent limit self damaging behaviour by the player (yes players tend to find the most boring way of accomplishing a task and then blame the devs for poor design) is to limit the amount of time that can be spent at the slot machines.

 

The reason I suggested a usage limit is that I feel much, if not all, the coding pre-exists to achieve this goal, as seen with the tracking of reputation gained across a legacy.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Vhaegrant

[Tsillah]

Well I do understand your point about limited usage, but I am not sure if many people would like that limit. That by itself could cause another **** storm here.

 

Of course you can other other content while doing crew missions, but here's the thing. While doing other content like fp's and ops, you wouldn't log onto other characters to set missions there so you can only get mats of the gathering skill(s) that you have on that character that you are playing.

 

A slot skill machine would take you out of that content but it gives you mats consistently and much faster and you can choose which kind you get because they are effectively unassembled tokens for mats. Unassembled tokens for gear drop in ops where you have to kill bosses.

 

It seems rather uneven to reward clicking a console of a slot machine with that type of reward.

 

I still don't think mats should drop at all from slot machines, but if you are going to do it, don't make it jawa tokens, make it a random amount of a random mat, so you couldn't choose what you wanted but you still win something. If BW is smart they would make the drop chance of common materials higher as they are low value anyway.

 

But what I do not agree with is making slot machines the most reliable way of gathering mats.

 

Als limited usage has another problem. What if they would bring out more slot machines types as they originally planned? In the end 10 slot machines with limited usage each might still equate to having 1 with unlimited usage. You also have to look ahead with such decisions.

 

My view simply is that slot machines should have their own reward system that doesn't interfere with other elements of the game directly, like crafting.

 

Let there be a slot machine reputation that takes all tokens from all packs and slot machines. Make it require a lot more points to level up and give it some cool rewards from said reputation vendor. Also throw in some more rewards like the mount, maybe an armour set or two that you can collect etc. that drop directly as rewards from the machines You can even make such rewards tradeable.

 

Then you could make the slot machines more rewarding but also a sensible addition instead of an infringement that could cause all kinds of havoc on crafting and the GTN.

 

Oh and please...better design on the slot machines please. The current one is too ugly for my strongholds. I wouldn't want to put them in there because they look like a big zit on a pretty face if you will.

[jpswtor]

A slot skill machine would take you out of that content but it gives you mats consistently and much faster and you can choose which kind you get because they are effectively unassembled tokens for mats. Unassembled tokens for gear drop in ops where you have to kill bosses.

 

It seems rather uneven to reward clicking a console of a slot machine with that type of reward.

[...]

But what I do not agree with is making slot machines the most reliable way of gathering mats.

 

Oh, it is the one that never wanted to post again in a slot machine thread. Welcome back. Again.

 

So, why don't you want the slot machines to be the most reliable way of gathering mats? If you don't like gathering mats with a slot machine but rather spend your time and coins sending companions out, what is stopping you from doing it? Are the crazy machine clickers holding a gun against your head?

 

The only people that have an issue with the slot machine are mat tycoons that want to protect their market. Everybody else can just ignore the damned things and go on with the way they prefer.

 

It is like saying: "Wahhh, I don't like vanilla ice cream. Let's make vanilla ice cream illegal so other people cannot eat it either." Where the much easier solution would be to simply ignore vanilla and get chocolate or mint or whatever.

 

So just be honest: You are either a mat tycoon afraid to lose market share or you are simply jealous that others might get materials without grinding as much as yourself. Feel free to ignore what others do, if it does not impact you whatsoever, that is my "Hot tip of the day" for you.

 

Cheers

 

JP

[Vhaegrant]

Well I do understand your point about limited usage, but I am not sure if many people would like that limit. That by itself could cause another **** storm here.

I'm sure if the limit meant that the slot machines actually had an enjoyable drop rate that complaint would be mitigated

Of course you can other other content while doing crew missions, but here's the thing. While doing other content like fp's and ops, you wouldn't log onto other characters to set missions there so you can only get mats of the gathering skill(s) that you have on that character that you are playing.

For the most part the desirable crew missions are those that have a chance to return the top grade (currently grade 11) purples. This mission takes just under an hour to run. So you could go through 5-6 alts set their companions up on missions then go run a FP on another alt to keep the credits flowing in and then go back and see how successful the missions have been.

I suspect the return from selling the purples on the GTN (or the crafted items that use them) would be enough to fund this venture without resorting to running any other content at all. Just cycling through alts and sending out companions then listing purples on GTN. An endless loop that probably returns a good profit but doesn't appeal to me... I suspect the players that do indulge were a major part of the initial complaint as the initial slot machine took them out of the crafting loop and dropped material prices down to where they should be

A slot skill machine would take you out of that content but it gives you mats consistently and much faster and you can choose which kind you get because they are effectively unassembled tokens for mats. Unassembled tokens for gear drop in ops where you have to kill bosses.

 

It seems rather uneven to reward clicking a console of a slot machine with that type of reward.

 

I still don't think mats should drop at all from slot machines, but if you are going to do it, don't make it jawa tokens, make it a random amount of a random mat, so you couldn't choose what you wanted but you still win something. If BW is smart they would make the drop chance of common materials higher as they are low value anyway.

 

But what I do not agree with is making slot machines the most reliable way of gathering mats.

Only with regards to the initial design of the slot machines.

The various suggestions on a half way point seek to address the rate at which the materials drop and the balance of cost to get them.

While the Jawa tokens are unassigned to a specific material, they are not able to be used to craft BiS items, at best one or two tiers below. Issuing the Jawa tokens also gives the player the chance to decide what is useful to them and limits the amount of cargo space needed to store them. I've watched the mid-grade materials inflate well beyond the price at which a first time player would be able to afford them, largely because end game players can spend 15mins running Ilum for 100k and buy the materials (a better time return than trying to harvest them themselves).

Als limited usage has another problem. What if they would bring out more slot machines types as they originally planned? In the end 10 slot machines with limited usage each might still equate to having 1 with unlimited usage. You also have to look ahead with such decisions.

My original suggestion here:- http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=7998846 was to place the limit across the legacy. It's been suggested that future slot machines would have used the same slot-chips so you can just assign a variable to keep track of how many have been used.

My view simply is that slot machines should have their own reward system that doesn't interfere with other elements of the game directly, like crafting.

 

Let there be a slot machine reputation that takes all tokens from all packs and slot machines. Make it require a lot more points to level up and give it some cool rewards from said reputation vendor. Also throw in some more rewards like the mount, maybe an armour set or two that you can collect etc. that drop directly as rewards from the machines You can even make such rewards tradeable.

 

Then you could make the slot machines more rewarding but also a sensible addition instead of an infringement that could cause all kinds of havoc on crafting and the GTN.

 

Oh and please...better design on the slot machines please. The current one is too ugly for my strongholds. I wouldn't want to put them in there because they look like a big zit on a pretty face if you will.

The slot machines were partly intended as a fun way to introduce more grade 11 materials, and as a way to increase reputation to access items on the older, embargoed, cartel reputation vendors.

Introducing another tier of reputation and associated vendors just seems to confuse the matter with regards to Cartel specific slot machines.

 

That said, I see no reason why you couldn't have a separate series of slot machines that issue out specific tokens that can be used to buy gifts/ vanity items from a kiosk. Sort of like arcade slot machines already do (well here in the UK they do, not sure about anywhere else )

[Max_Killjoy]

There should be, in general, more ways to get most things.

[Drew_Braxton]

Having dumped some serious credits to buy 8 slots my vote leans towards increasing the drop rates

[ivanhedgehog]

If the proper venues existed to get mats there would be no reason to need them from alternate sources. Currently the payouts for mats from missions and scavenging is far too low.

 

They keep adding sources for mats instead of fixing what should have been fixed years ago.

 

what is wrong for having multiple avenues to get mats? what is sacred about gathering missions?

 

there should be a limit of how many gathering missions you can run a day.

Edited February 7, 2015 by ivanhedgehog

[RahaylaCora]

If the proper venues existed to get mats there would be no reason to need them from alternate sources. Currently the payouts for mats from missions and scavenging is far too low.

 

They keep adding sources for mats instead of fixing what should have been fixed years ago.

That is not true. Simply you don't like it. I craft a lot for completing purple outfits (for injecting some life to those original outfit sets for my own use) and that crafting eats tons of materials, but i won't say that materials from missions are too low (however, it is a pain in time invested for blue materials). For crafting blue items is enough, and blue items of any class are good enough for gearing; nobody needs purples until max level and endgame content.

 

And as now i am here, a question for Mr. Musco: is the CSM working as intended? I am still worried about if the machine is broken and i could exploit it unintentionally.

[LordArtemis]

That is not true. Simply you don't like it.

 

Actually it is true, you simply disagree....and it is my opinion. AND it seems quite a few people don't "like it". Not to mention the absolute fact that they are adding materials from other sources though folks have been asking for improvements to crafting for YEARS.

 

...and they have stated they wanted to make level 11 mats more accessible as an excuse to add them to the machine, packs and conquests, not to mention the jawa vendors, which in my opinion was absolutely foolish.

 

I will define what I mean by my statements if you don't mind. After all, I am likely a better source as to their meaning than you are.

 

I craft a lot for completing purple outfits (for injecting some life to those original outfit sets for my own use) and that crafting eats tons of materials, but i won't say that materials from missions are too low (however, it is a pain in time invested for blue materials). For crafting blue items is enough, and blue items of any class are good enough for gearing; nobody needs purples until max level and endgame content.

 

Fair enough.

Edited February 7, 2015 by LordArtemis