Uh Oh, the world as we know it may come to an end

[psandak]

Same though I'm not entirely sure how this effects gifts market right now so i just listed everything I had stowed away just in case heh.

 

Should make an easy 10 million back ( these just accumulate from packs I open, not really crew skills so it's all pure additional profit to the items I got and sold/sell too ).

 

Small risk as they could have it designed that gits are more important with the extra companions we are getting but I'd rather make money now than have worthless trash later.

 

I'll probably do the same as we get closer to launch. As of now I have two characters that will need gifts and will most likely use up most of my stock.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Well I sold through most of my stock in about 24 hours. Didn't really track what they went for but my balance jumped up about 17 million and most of it was from gifts it seems.

 

That is just listing them all in whatever stacks I had at a small unit undercut to the lowest price on Harb. Most things seems to be selling for a good price anyway right now so the only real risk is will they be worth more with the new expansion?

 

According to Eric we get the same bonuses for all comps but it doesn't say whether or not those bonuses go up with "influence" which I'll assume we get with gifts also. If it doesn't I would possibly expect the gift market to tank somewhat as it removes a fairly major factor to having influence/affection maxed.

[Khevar]

According to Eric we get the same bonuses for all comps but it doesn't say whether or not those bonuses go up with "influence" which I'll assume we get with gifts also. If it doesn't I would possibly expect the gift market to tank somewhat as it removes a fairly major factor to having influence/affection maxed.

I'm personally gambling on the theory that influence will go up with gifts the same way that affection does, so I moved into full-blown "companion gift gathering" mode.

 

I've been wrong on these guesses before. But if I'm right, I'll have many stacks of gifts by the time 4.0 rolls around that will sell like hotcakes.

 

/fingerscrossed

Edited August 30, 2015 by Khevar

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I'm personally gambling on the theory that influence will go up with gifts the same way that affection does, so I moved into full-blown "companion gift gathering" mode.

 

I've been wrong on these guesses before. But if I'm right, I'll have many stacks of gifts by the time 4.0 rolls around that will sell like hotcakes.

 

/fingerscrossed

 

Yeah and hopefully you're correct, maybe you bought some of mine.

 

I just took what I would call a smaller risk gamble in that I've already got a nice payment for my gifts so I'm not losing, just not gaining as much.

 

I am back to buying/opening regular packs again so my gifts stock will go up again fast enough ( as opposed to all the grand packs I've been getting for the past month, addictive buggers ).

[Khevar]

Ah, well, I get my companion gifts the old fashioned way -- running missions.

 

It's funny though. I remember how annoying it was when the mission lists were filled with comp gifts and I have to relog to get Mandalorian Iron or whatever.

 

Now it's happening to me in reverse.

 

/murphyslaw

Edited August 30, 2015 by Khevar

[psandak]

Ah, well, I get my companion gifts the old fashioned way -- running missions.

 

It's funny though. I remember how annoying it was when the mission lists were filled with comp gifts and I have to relog to get Mandalorian Iron or whatever.

 

Now it's happening to me in reverse.

 

/murphyslaw

 

That has happened to me more than once too. Tthe fact that it happens, encourages me to run comp gift missions when I have "nothing better to run" instead of relogging (AKA changing strongholds).

 

And I could have sworn I read somewhere that mission grades above 6 were getting gift missions with the expansion. But I cannot locate it.

[Rizartha]

Ah, well, I get my companion gifts the old fashioned way -- running missions.

 

It's funny though. I remember how annoying it was when the mission lists were filled with comp gifts and I have to relog to get Mandalorian Iron or whatever.

 

Now it's happening to me in reverse.

 

/murphyslaw

 

Actually that's Irony.

[Khevar]

Actually that's Irony.

Crap. Now I have that Alanis Morissette song going through my head.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Khevar

[Lecaja]

On the plus side if the market is killed those of us already rich are going to be the only millionaires in the game each million going a lot farther than it does now.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

On the plus side if the market is killed those of us already rich are going to be the only millionaires in the game each million going a lot farther than it does now.

 

The market won't die even if crafting were to become less useful as a money maker.

Crafting itself doesn't really generate credits ( well not fortunes anyway ), we just take credits from someone else who has generated them ( or someone before them has etc. ) doing dailies or what not.

 

There will still be billions and there will be inflation it's just the people might move where they spend it ( which is why I use CM items as my main money earner these days over crafted/gathered goods ).

[Lecaja]

The market won't die even if crafting were to become less useful as a money maker.

Crafting itself doesn't really generate credits ( well not fortunes anyway ), we just take credits from someone else who has generated them ( or someone before them has etc. ) doing dailies or what not.

 

There will still be billions and there will be inflation it's just the people might move where they spend it ( which is why I use CM items as my main money earner these days over crafted/gathered goods ).

 

Which is why I'm going to stop if I can't craft for credits to support my gameplay. I don't want to spend any real world money beyond the 15 dollars a month I spend. Right now I have nine toons level 55 or better I log in once or twice a day to all of them and I earn millions of credits if that goes away I'm going to play until I run out of credits then quit. I have a huge stockpile, not like some some worth hundreds of millions but I've done all right.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Which is why I'm going to stop if I can't craft for credits to support my gameplay. I don't want to spend any real world money beyond the 15 dollars a month I spend. Right now I have nine toons level 55 or better I log in once or twice a day to all of them and I earn millions of credits if that goes away I'm going to play until I run out of credits then quit. I have a huge stockpile, not like some some worth hundreds of millions but I've done all right.

 

That's your choice but I don't think the general intention of crafting is for people to make millions, it's a side effect.

 

You'll still make credits easily enough, ample amounts.

 

I would wonder why you seem to imply you only play to craft for credits though but then I guess lately I've only been playing for GTN marketing also and crate/pack gambling since my actual "gaming time" lately has been going elsewhere as opposed to playing other toons or doing ops etc. ( since it's nigh on impossible to get pug or pops in my timezone, hopefully KoTFE changes fix this *fingers crossed* ).

So I guess I'm in the same boat but I'll stop paying and playing when I actually don't feel the urge to log in any more, it's not something I would plan in advance.

[MSchuyler]

Which is why I'm going to stop if I can't craft for credits to support my gameplay. I don't want to spend any real world money beyond the 15 dollars a month I spend. Right now I have nine toons level 55 or better I log in once or twice a day to all of them and I earn millions of credits if that goes away I'm going to play until I run out of credits then quit. I have a huge stockpile, not like some some worth hundreds of millions but I've done all right.

 

I don't really understand your issue. If you want to quit, do so; nobody cares. Why do you need credits? They're kind of an add-on, really. You don't need zillions of credits to play the game unless you want to buy strongholds, etc. During normal game play you make credits automatically just by looting mobs and completing quests. It's not necessary to be "rich" in fake money to advance in the game. I have toons that are worth 15 million at level 56 and toons that are worth 400K at level 60. There's no real difference. They play equally well. Relax. Enjoy. Or quit. Credits is not a real issue. Unless you're OCD.

[TapVallian]

I hope they give some new thing to crafter, as they confirmed today that the no gear thing for companion is form 1-60. That mean droid part are complete worthless as no one going to need them as they don’t even change the look of the driod like armor do for other companions. Maybe they could give cybertech customized droid looks or something. Sadly this is also going to hugely impact mod, armoring, implants, etc because the only thing players will need is the one for themselves (which the basic com/ questing) should cover easily. I know purple and blue might still sell some, when come to what players need. I just hope they realize how much our market are being ruined and give us other items to craft. I’m so sad I ground out so many purple droid part as that was my main crafters market and it sound like right now it was complete waste of time. I’ll adapted but still it sort of a bummer.

 

I hadn't thought of droid parts, but you're absolutely right. My first thought after hearing the Twitch broadcast was I craft a lot of Blue melee weapons which are almost certainly all for companions. Those won't be needed after 4.0.

 

The "player" side of me was happy hearing the changes, especially the part about any companion being able to fulfill any role. But the "crafter" side of me soon saw the writing on the wall and realized there would definitely be a decline in sales from most facets and almost complete annihilation (droid parts, melee weapons) of others.

[Lecaja]

I don't really understand your issue. If you want to quit, do so; nobody cares. Why do you need credits? They're kind of an add-on, really. You don't need zillions of credits to play the game unless you want to buy strongholds, etc. During normal game play you make credits automatically just by looting mobs and completing quests. It's not necessary to be "rich" in fake money to advance in the game. I have toons that are worth 15 million at level 56 and toons that are worth 400K at level 60. There's no real difference. They play equally well. Relax. Enjoy. Or quit. Credits is not a real issue. Unless you're OCD.

 

I have level 500 toons in Biochem, cybertech and Artifice. Wearing all Adaptable armor and weapons I upgrade every piece of equipment, implant, earpiece etc when it become available except for Augments which I buy on GTN around level 30 and 56. I am able to do this because I have toons with level 500 Biochem, Cybertec and Artifice. Doing this requires I have credits to pay for crafting because the game doesn't give me enough to cover all the missions I need to go on. I need to do this because quite humbly I am an average player so I need the advantage superior gear brings not for PVE so much but the other group content, I want to be an asset not a burden to my team mates.

 

That said I said I will quit when I run out of credits. I have a lot of credits lots of basic commendations so I plan on playing for a while even if I'm losing credits.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

I have level 500 toons in Biochem, cybertech and Artifice. Wearing all Adaptable armor and weapons I upgrade every piece of equipment, implant, earpiece etc when it become available except for Augments which I buy on GTN around level 30 and 56. I am able to do this because I have toons with level 500 Biochem, Cybertec and Artifice. Doing this requires I have credits to pay for crafting because the game doesn't give me enough to cover all the missions I need to go on. I need to do this because quite humbly I am an average player so I need the advantage superior gear brings not for PVE so much but the other group content, I want to be an asset not a burden to my team mates.

 

That said I said I will quit when I run out of credits. I have a lot of credits lots of basic commendations so I plan on playing for a while even if I'm losing credits.

 

New operations/flashpoints system are bolstered by the sound of it so ideally ... you won't even need gear for it?

 

Has anyone though about this in terms of crafting also? Companions don't need gear, ops/fps are getting bolstered if I understand the blog correctly, regular content will no doubt drop gear and comms ...

 

We need to craft mods etc. why exactly?

 

I mean it may depend on how the bolster works but the more I think on these changes the more they do sound like a bit of a nail in the coffin for crew skills in relation to crafting stat based gear. Not trying to be doom n gloom and I kind of don't care as I haven't crafted that sort of thing in months but yeah just my thoughts so far.

[Khevar]

We need to craft mods etc. why exactly?

Your logic makes perfect sense -- I'm not trying to argue against it here.

 

But tell me this: Who is buying the 186 mods I'm listing on the GTN? It's a bit of a mystery to me. Companions get free 192 gear. Main toons get free 190 gear. It's not like the 186 mods are unlettered or something, they're all A or B variant.

 

I took a break from the game for quite a while. When I recently came back, I expected the 186 market to be dead in the water, but weirdly enough, isn't. Somebody is buying this stuff. I've probably sold about 40-50 mods just in the last week alone.

 

Quite odd, but it gives me hope that there will always be a gear market.

Edited August 31, 2015 by Khevar

[asbalana]

Your logic makes perfect sense -- I'm not trying to argue against it here.

 

But tell me this: Who is buying the 186 mods I'm listing on the GTN? It's a bit of a mystery to me. Companions get free 192 gear. Main toons get free 190 gear. It's not like the 186 mods are unlettered or something, they're all A or B variant.

 

I took a break from the game for quite a while. When I recently came back, I expected the 186 market to be dead in the water, but weirdly enough, isn't. Somebody is buying this stuff. I've probably sold about 40-50 mods just in the last week alone.

 

Quite odd, but it gives me hope that there will always be a gear market.

 

You can use 186 purples at level 58.

 

The 192 and 190 stuff is poorly itemized in some parts. The companion gear is ugly and every companion in the Yavin stuff looks the same. Some people rather go with moddable stuff for their main / primary companion.

 

After you run Ziost a few times it is boring to the max, so some don't bother with the drops / rewards there for alts.

 

Although I craft for my own needs, since I do not do end game group content, there is nothing that is not easy in 186s.

[DawnAskham]

Your logic makes perfect sense -- I'm not trying to argue against it here.

 

But tell me this: Who is buying the 186 mods I'm listing on the GTN? It's a bit of a mystery to me. Companions get free 192 gear. Main toons get free 190 gear. It's not like the 186 mods are unlettered or something, they're all A or B variant.

 

I took a break from the game for quite a while. When I recently came back, I expected the 186 market to be dead in the water, but weirdly enough, isn't. Somebody is buying this stuff. I've probably sold about 40-50 mods just in the last week alone.

 

Quite odd, but it gives me hope that there will always be a gear market.

 

The only thing that comes to mind is the level requirement - all the crafted 186 stuff has a level requirement of 56-58 versus 60 for being able to access Ziost and get the 190 gear.

 

It could also be players who skipped the SoR story line don't have access to Ziost (Ziost requires completing the SoR line to access - which would also mean they do not have access to 192 companion gear).

 

Lastly - it could be the ignorant players I've seen arguing in chat over whether the Ziost 190 is better than the Basic 186, including the compelling "Basic is purple so its better, duh" argument.

Edited August 31, 2015 by DawnAskham

[Khevar]

Both of those answers make sense. We'll see what happens with 4.0 ...

[asbalana]

New operations/flashpoints system are bolstered by the sound of it so ideally ... you won't even need gear for it?

 

Has anyone though about this in terms of crafting also? Companions don't need gear, ops/fps are getting bolstered if I understand the blog correctly, regular content will no doubt drop gear and comms ...

 

We need to craft mods etc. why exactly?

 

I mean it may depend on how the bolster works but the more I think on these changes the more they do sound like a bit of a nail in the coffin for crew skills in relation to crafting stat based gear. Not trying to be doom n gloom and I kind of don't care as I haven't crafted that sort of thing in months but yeah just my thoughts so far.

 

At this point, many have offered their opinions. We will find out what is what in early access since the devs have not said squat about crafting with repect to the expansion.

 

I did read that the free 60s will be geared sufficiently to do the first chapter of the release.

[MSchuyler]

I have level 500 toons in Biochem, cybertech and Artifice. Wearing all Adaptable armor and weapons I upgrade every piece of equipment, implant, earpiece etc when it become available except for Augments which I buy on GTN around level 30 and 56. I am able to do this because I have toons with level 500 Biochem, Cybertec and Artifice. Doing this requires I have credits to pay for crafting because the game doesn't give me enough to cover all the missions I need to go on. I need to do this

 

Maybe I'm just obtuse, but I'm still not getting it. I have EXACTLY the same setup as you--exactly what you said. I assume that you also have, as I do, toons with gathering skills: scavenging, archaeology, treasure hunting, to name a few, and that those who actually gather (as opposed to missions) do so whenever they can. BTW I also consider myself a less than perfect player. Add a little slicing into the mix and credits simply are not an issue. My last toon just reached 60 while on Rishi in 62 hours (/played) and has 1.6 million credits without doing anything fancy at all, i.e.: I did not intentionally go after credits. I'll send you an email on some ideas for credits, though. I donlt want to be too loud about it on here.

[MSchuyler]

I don't understand why people are saying there won't be anything to do with crafting. First of all, you don't get "good gear" dropped unless you do group ops of one sort or another, right? Lots of people do not and play quite happily without the grief. Secondly, gear that drops, drops late. For example, if you go through the 4 flashpoint prelude to Revan and the first bit of Rishi 168 gear drops, but there's no good reason not to be in 178 gear before you even do it, and once you reach 58, you can make yourself 186 mods and keep the gear you like (without benefit of the outfit designer thing). So that dropped gear, which drops bound, is useless.

 

In the latter half of Rishi some 178 drops in normal missions, but once again it's not a benefit to those already in their own 178 gear. I have several toons at 60 in 178's and I see no reason to upgrade their gear at this point. Just today my last toon reached 60 fighting Torch. I was almost sad to see it happen. This time I just got lucky. As I said above, I'm not a good player at all.

 

But most importantly, this is all for 55+ stuff. Are you NEVER going to take a toon from zero ever again? If you are, you'll very likely need to craft for them. And with crafting changes, we will certainly need to re-tool and re-evaluate tactics. But I don't see the need for crafting going away any time soon. We may need to do some things differently, but there'll still be plenty to do.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

But tell me this: Who is buying the 186 mods I'm listing on the GTN?

 

Answered by the other posters really and I tend to agree with them so I won't elaborate further.

 

At this point, many have offered their opinions. We will find out what is what in early access since the devs have not said squat about crafting with repect to the expansion.

 

I hope they release some information before launch otherwise it's going to create some early monopolies for those that choose to use the not official data to their advantage.

You tend to get them anyway but it's worse if BW say nothing before launch because quite a lot of people wouldn't even know where to get the non official information or that it even exists.

 

 

I don't understand why people are saying there won't be anything to do with crafting.

 

Maybe quote who you are talking about because I personally am talking about statistical crafting ( mods, enhancements etc. ). I'm not saying there won't be anything to do with crafting. The most profitable ( imo ) aspects of crafting right now will remain so.

 

 

First of all, you don't get "good gear" dropped unless you do group ops of one sort or another, right?

 

Have a read of this: http://www.swtor.com/blog/operations-and-flashpoints-fallen-empire

 

Importantly this:

Story Mode Operations will be playable from Level 50 to Level 65, and will grant a Bolster to ensure everyone in your group is prepared!

 

There is info on tacticals and HM FP's also using bolster.

 

I really hadn't thought too much on this until today tbh but once the companion changed clicked in my head I recalled all this and thought "wow, all this is really going to kill end game stat gear crafting".

 

There will still be a use for leveling gear of course ... well depending on what changes leveling is getting since they promised some changes to this too ( that I'm assuming isn't just continued 12x exp ).

 

It all comes down to how the bolster will work but my hunch is you can go and do SM ops and not need gear to do them at a sufficient level. I assume you can be stronger and do them easier from the gear that drops but if people can do them without forking out 100's of K ( or millions, not sure where the market is at right now lol ) then they quite simply won't.

 

It also depends on what the top tier we can RE is and how it relates to gameplay. If it's a tier you can only get via HM content then you will see a nice strong market for this gear even if people don't want to do HM - people just love the best. However if the top tier ( that is REable ) is gear from SM hat peopel can get with bolster runs, again expect a drop here too.

 

Either way ... things aren't looking pretty if you rely on end game stat based crafting for a steady income source.

 

Except of course augments - those will still sell even if people don't need them and things from Biochem.

 

Lots of people do not and play quite happily without the grief. Secondly, gear that drops, drops late. For example, if you go through the 4 flashpoint prelude to Revan and the first bit of Rishi 168 gear drops, but there's no good reason not to be in 178 gear before you even do it, and once you reach 58, you can make yourself 186 mods and keep the gear you like (without benefit of the outfit designer thing). So that dropped gear, which drops bound, is useless.

 

But the point is you can do all that content with gear that drops and save yourself the hassle of crafting or buying. Sure YOU might like to craft for yourself but the point here is trying to guess what the majority of players will do as to how it affects the market.

 

More people craft for profit than they do solely for themselves. I think personally this point is given.

 

But most importantly, this is all for 55+ stuff. Are you NEVER going to take a toon from zero ever again? If you are, you'll very likely need to craft for them. And with crafting changes, we will certainly need to re-tool and re-evaluate tactics. But I don't see the need for crafting going away any time soon. We may need to do some things differently, but there'll still be plenty to do.

 

Yeah leveling crafting will still have a use and a market as it stands but that could change yet.

 

I think "gearing" is going to become a niche thing in games like this from now. You can do it if you want but they want to design the majority of content so you don't have to and if you do that it's very accessible to do so.

 

Especially in a game like this where you have such a massive fan base that is "star wars" and with the movies coming, they want people to give it a go and be able to do everything content related really easy without having to do a ton of maths and learn all sorts of different things just to work out what they need to be wearing to do X content.

 

Basically it's about become "casual" friendly because that is what's going to sell at the end of the day.

[psandak]

But the point is you can do all that content with gear that drops and save yourself the hassle of crafting or buying. Sure YOU might like to craft for yourself but the point here is trying to guess what the majority of players will do as to how it affects the market.

 

More people craft for profit than they do solely for themselves. I think personally this point is given.

 

I think you would be surprised how many players want the best gear possible just so that they can do the content they are in that much easier. While the SOR and Ziost content can be done using nothing but quest rewards from FA and beyond, having full 178 at 56 and 186 and 58 makes everything that much easier.

 

I know this from experience because I did SOR on my main in full 186 to start (I ran NIM DF/DP with him in 2.x) and the content was cake; never struggled once. Even in my primary alts, in optimized but no set bonus 180, I never struggled. I even tried giving myself a challenge by pulling multiple groups of mobs on many occasions. OTOH, my most recent 60, I leveled from 56 (after running FA solo) starting Rishi in 168 and getting to full 178 after Yavin, and there were times where I had to break out Heroic Moment to stay alive. that being said, I still only died once.

 

As to bolster, if I read the blurbs correctly it is for SM and only through GF. Furthermore, it will also downgrade characters so they can experience the content as an "appropriate level" (permitting players of higher level characters to assist their lower level character friends)