How do I make money in this game?

[Picoom]

http://i.imgur.com/Kyu2r.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/76SE0.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/N1lMI.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/a7CAc.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/XP6QC.jpg

Edited January 2, 2012 by Picoom

[Alstiar]

I have spent a good amount of time making items and REing them to get purples. The problem I find is the rate of actually GETTING the purple mats. If you have to spend 4k to get the mats for a single item that only nets you 1k, then whats the point? And once you have the purple schematic, you no longer need the blue mats you get.

 

If you could desynth the purple item to get an orange schematic, at least that'd be worth it.

[Grytts]

I expected a punchline with all those pics, picoom

 

Fom what I've seen of crafting so far I'd agree it's a pointless money sink.

 

Can't comment on the economy too much as everytime I see that painful AH interface I die a little more inside.

[Alstiar]

The sad thing is it was better in beta. You could search for gear on the body part you wanted.

[Zhiroc]

I am level 31. I have 175K in the bank. I have never had slicing.

 

I have trained every skill presented to me. I have my speeder skill, and the first speeder, so that is about 33K spent.

 

I have been judicious so far with crafting (cybertech), but have probably spent about 30-50K on missions and learning every recipe I can. My scavenging and cybertech are both > 200 at the moment, and UT is somewhere around 150 if I recall. My crafting sales have been minimal at the moment. I mostly craft to help get rid of excess scavenged materials (Plasteel and below), because for most I have about 200 that I got from gathering in the field (I haven't run a scavenging mission since the early days).

 

I have probably spent somewhere between 10-20K on ship upgrades.

 

If I had forgone crafting for slicing, all those extra mats that I have on hand probably would have been credits looted from nodes instead.

 

Where do I make money? I do every normal quest I can, loot everything I can, and vendor sell most things (I will GTN some blues and higher, but I've probably only gotten at most 10K this way.)

 

I do space missions daily. This is probably the source of a lot of my money. I don't do PVP, and haven't done any flashpoint or heroic more than once.

[Belkiratwo]

I just turned level 30. I'm Armormech/scavenging/underworld trading. I have 1,227 credits. I have not ever had enough money to afford a speeder. I cant buy anything off the auction house. Crafting has taken all of my money and, frankly, given me very little of value in return. I have learned that people are not interested in buying anything i have to sell from the auction house. I put several purple pieces at what i thought was an extremely reasonable price but after 2 days i had not made a single sale.

 

Come to find out, everyone just wears orange gear and upgrades the stuff they put in them. Is my profession even remotely useful in that sort of situation? It seems kind of broken when you have a profession that is meant to provide gear, but equivalent or superior (not to mention fully customizable) pieces are readily available (gear is often quest reward or bought cheaply off a vendor, mods are bought with planetary badges). My own character has orange helm, gloves, boots, chest, and pants. Whats left for me to sell? Belts?

 

I chose my profession under the assumption that it would eventually pay off, but here I am 30 levels later and i have nothing to show for it besides the little bar in the crew skills window being half way filled and an empty wallet.

 

I guess if I wanted to make money i should have gone slicing? Oh wait that got nerfed.

 

So answer me this:

 

True/False If I had utterly ignored the entire crafting feature of this game I would be several hundred thousand credits richer with no drawbacks. And i would have a speeder.

 

 

Your major problem is that you failed to understand the market in which you are participating.

 

There are very few craftable items that people are going to spend credits on in this early in the game. If you're crafting anything except level 50 items the chance that they will sell is almost 0.

 

Why?

 

Because the majority of sub-50 gear purchases are going to be made FOR alts by MAINS. 3 weeks into the game there isn't a large enough player base of level 50's to support the alt economy.

 

What does sell?

 

Crafting Materials, Schematics, Missions. why? Because as people are leveling these are the actual things that are useful. Rare and epic missions will usually have a high profit margin or offer something unique. Schematics offer crafters the ability to provide a unique service. Crafting Materials are always in high demand as people hit level cap and want to power up their skills or RE to new epic patterns.

 

 

Currently I am sitting on 378 Underworld, 400 Scavenging and 25 Cybertech (dropped yesterday for slicing again). Have over 350k credits and have had no issues making sales.

 

 

I dropped slicing after the nerf to pick up Cybertech but have since dropped it to level slicing again as the added bonus of world lockboxes while leveling was just too much to turn down.

 

In short, know your market before making such huge investments and you won't find yourself a broke ***.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Belkiratwo

[Stillnotking]

Dailies give you 150k/day at 50, which isn't enough to support a serious crafting habit but will keep food on the table easily.

 

There are also certain items that sell for way more than their default value on the GTN, and occasionally the ignorant will post them for the default, which gives you the opportunity to turn them around and pick up some quick credits. No, I'm not going to say what they are.

[SacredPanda]

In most mmos it is a bad idea to level crafting too fast at lower levels. It is common to have crafting lag way behind the first character's needs. Once that character is established then crafting can catch up.

 

Slicing offered a way to power level skills which is not common, and has been nerfed to the normal need to prioritize spending. At higher levels credits will be less of an issue and crafting can catch up.

 

Yeah, I mean, why should a person craft items appropriate for their level as they play? In what world does that make sense, really?

 

I disagree completely. Crafting should be done as you level. The things you make should be relevant, useful and desirable for your level, and should take materials appropriate for your level.

 

Slicing offered a way to offset the costs of leveling since crafting is in fact a moneysink in this game. If by powerleveling you mean that people were able to craft beneficial items before they reached their level so they didn't have to quit questing in order to gear up for their level, then I don't think that's a bad thing. If you mean they were buying all sorts of mats off the GTN to level far ahead of their level, then more power to them, it kept the economy going.

 

At higher level all the benefits of leveling crafting as you play are lost, so credits 'not being an issue' at high level doesn't really matter. I would prefer to enjoy my game having good gear for my level my entire game, rather than just at the end.

[RpTheHotrod]

Best ways to make credits:

 

1. Don't pick up crafting (no joke)

2. Pick up gathering skills, manually collect them out in the field, and sell on market

3. Do quests (I'd say missions but people get them confused with companion missions)

4. Do PVP (LOTS of credits to be made here)

5. Do space daily missions

[Gformutorila]

put them back up for less. repeat until they sell. if you are gathering the resources yourself you will profit. everyone needs armor for their companions and they need constant upgrades while levelling... advertise in the trade forum for a specific market... for instance "selling level 18 vette suit, 25k".

 

Sorry not true. Most people I know never buy any gear for their companion. Right now I have anout 60K credits. I have never ever bought anything at GTN for me or my companion. Nor have I ever put up anything for sale at GTN. I just vendor everything I find and make.

[RocNessMonster]

The best way I've found to make credits is in PvP. I usually make anywhere between 1.500 and 2,500 credits per warzone, plus between 6,000 and 12,000 XP.

 

My character is level 30 and I have about $100,000 credits in the bank after buying my speeder. I have diplo, biochem, and bioanalysis at roughly 300 each. If it wasn't for the crafting I would probably have double the amount of credits.

 

That is horrible, if you do the space mission Syvris Evacuation (late 20s) you'll make 1400c over the course of 3 minutes. I know your WZs aren't ending within 3 minutes.

[Aepervius]

Best choice would have been going 3 gathering, and collect as you quest. When you get back to a GTN pop it up, simple.. cont. questing as needed.

 

That would have been the best choices. BUT that is just my option.

 

I always do that in new MMO until I see the dust settle on crafting (exception is I take potion/biochem). This is the best way to quickly make money short term. Crafting might be better long term but at the moment it is still unsure. My main has Biochem/Diplo/BioA but my alts have Archeo/BioA/Scav....

[Zhiroc]

I'll add: my crafting is currently targeted at getting me my armoring/mods/earpieces at more or less my current level. For a while I stopped since I was leveling too fast to make it worthwhile to keep up, but I just took the time to fill my 4 orange items with Resolve Mod 12 blues (+10 End, +20 Will), and Resolve Armoring 11 blues (+11 End, +17 Will). I also crafted myself a Redoubt Cerebral Upgrade Relay blue earpiece (+23 End, +27 Will, +13 Crit, +13 Defence).

 

At least with respect to looted items I've come across, these beat them (with some extra hilt and enhancement mods I've bought on the market), though some have a bit lesser stats but some extra secondary ones (crit, etc.)

 

So yes, you can have 175K (oops, just checked and it's actually 205K after last night's questing, and at most 3K of that was market), train all your skills, and craft some fairly good stuff for yourself (and others of your class, but the pain there is connecting with people who would be willing to buy it--it's not entirely cheap as it took about 1K or so to get the UT metals I need for each, so I'm a bit reticent at producing on spec for items that you will probably outlevel within a week).

 

You have to be judicious in your spending though.

[Kholvan]

I avoid training skills I don't use. 30-40k for a 8% upgrade in damage on a conditional skill that I rarely meet the conditions for? 210k for the option to spend another 25k to get a 5.3% out-of-combat speed boost?

 

That's helped a lot, and post-35 or so, credit drops seem to get a lot more plentiful. Even keeping gathering missions going full time, I find myself roughly breaking even while out doing quests - pulling modestly ahead when the quest rewards are factored in.

[Fograw]

I hit 41 yesterday. I bought the 210k riding skill + mount at 40. I have been been raising cybertech/salvage/UT skills since level 18 (I actually made a huge error, I dropped the bio skills for this, and lameneted my error at level 30, but decided to keep it anyways). That didn't even ruin my chances to get the mount skill at 25 as well as a mount. My cybertech is at around 390, salvage at 300-340, UT at 310.

 

Secret to my success? Well I dunno, everytime I play, I at least do the space dailys. I also vendor everything I find, and complete all the normal quests I can. I've only really done 3 bonus series (tatooine, taris, and balmorra). I don't buy anything really, with the exception of commendation items and crew skill missions. Of course I haven't really purchases a couple of the last few skills available for me, but I never use them, and I would happily buy them latter.

 

Really, it isn't hard to make money while leveling.

[dasum]

I was down to 5k, then i went out killing stuff, missions, selling junk, looting green drops, crafting from 90 - 210, sending companions out non stop, giving away loot to people along the way and in 4 hours i was up to 70k by time i logged out. Mind you it be more if i wasn't crafting and sending companions on missions. I did find 2 loot drops 50 meters from one another that gave good creds and loot, just from that i got 4 head gear that i sold for 4k each on vendor, 2 got sold, hopefully the rest has as well.

[CriticalMasses]

There is no end level crafting to this game. It is a contradiction. The only profession that will be viable in a big way at end level is Biochem. They are the only ones that make a consumable product to sell.

 

Right now, making lower level items is doable. When the game matures, sales will slump until augmented items are easier to make (right now it costs way too much to produce one for sale. and I image most people will keep those in the beginning).

 

Stick with mid-level items. Make one of each, put them up for sale, and see what sells. Then make more of those and less of the others. Rinse and repeat.

 

I've only crafted a single exceptional item with an Augment slot. And I mistakenly RE'd it. I have made hundreds of items since then, and have not come across another exceptional item. They need to change this. Because as it is. it will be months before I have any to sell to others, and they will go for an extremely pretty penny.

 

I've got augments, but nothing to put them in right now.

 

Also keep in mind that exceptionally crafted items might actually be equal to or better than raid gear with those augment slots filled. It's hard to tell at this point because it seems exceptional gear has a success rate of about .5%. When you add a 5% success rate to get purples, then an even lower success rate for exceptional purples. It is a huge money sink with no real foreseeable returns within the next several months.

Edited January 3, 2012 by CriticalMasses

[jasoncollins]

only real way to make money is doing quest

crafting will suck your money dry before making you any

do the bounus series quest lines and you will be rich in no time

also pvp battle grounds will net small amounts

ship quest i think gives a good amount not sure off hand

[Zhiroc]

There is no end level crafting to this game.

 

Eve had no "endgame" crafting (since it has no levels and no cap, that's a misnomer, better to call it "high-level") when it initially went live. But those who kept at it were better situated to take advantage when they added the T2 items.

 

If/when they add something to end-level crafting, those who stuck it out will be the first to reap the benefits.

[Amdarius]

Right now most crafting skills are worthless as far as selling items on the market. The only reason to do them is to craft gear for yourself, but of course it's cheaper just to buy items on the market than to do that.

 

I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on synthweaving and probably have sold 5-6 items from those skills. Whether it's all the drops that are just as good or people just going with orange gear and upgrading the mods, there isn't much of a market out there. Quets are so plentiful and reward gear at every turn that there's very little need to buy any gear until you're very high lvl and levelling slows down. And even then you're just going to PVP and get commendations to buy champion's gear for the expertise.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Amdarius

[CriticalMasses]

Quests/Missions.

 

PVP.

 

Etc.

 

Your options drop when you hit 50 and your class quests are over. Then you'll have to go to dailies/space/pvp etc.

[elarahis]

Economy is crap because you can have 3 professions and you can only have one crafting profession so obviously most crafters won't need to buy mats because they are nearly forced to get a gathering profession, so hey why not pick the gathering profession that matches your crafting profession ?

 

They should limit to one crew skill per player account and economy would explode.

[Darth_Gao_Gao]

i don't understand reports that one's crafted gear will not sell. this may be the case if you are only producing the maxed level stuff, because you don't understand the fact that the majority of the playerbase is not level 40-50. there is a large mid to low level market to cater to, and you can make good credits from catering to these people. just make the right stuff.

 

once the market (especially its interface) matures, this will be easier to do.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Darth_Gao_Gao

[PlagaNerezza]

My first suggestion is to relax. My second, is to do some questing.

 

If you are Cybertech, you should easily be able to watch what kind of Mods and Armoring and Earpieces are being sold, and fill in the gaps on the market to what's missing. I do that all the time, and can make 5-20k a night simply from crafting and supplying the missing things on the GTN. On my server, there is especially a plethora of jedi based mods, and less of others, so when I putt up pieces with CUnning and Aim, they sell quickly.

 

If you have Scavaging, be sure to collect as much as you can from your questing and from in the world resource nodes. Even if you collect enough just to make lower level skill mods and armoring, selling them for cheap is essentially pure or high profit. When you've paid nothing to gather the resources (and gained credits in the looting process of Strong/Elite Droids), or minimal (for Conductive Flux, etc), you make a lot even if you sell the crafted goods for cheap.

 

Droid parts (sensors) tend to be in short supply. Low level sensors sell. If you make purple low level sensors you'll sell them pretty quickly. I sell greens for 1k. I only list about 3 a day. If you add in mods you'll probably make some descent cash. I would caution against anything over 2.5k below 25. That still is about 12.5% of a players cash with 20k in the bank and frankly at about level 20 you might only have that much cash if you tried crafting yourself. Players get sensors later and once you "give" players something they won't pay a crafter.

[mrwillie]

I was broke at level ~19-20. Stopped doing crafting missions and had 49k by the time I was 25. Just from doing quests and selling loot to the vendors.

 

Kind made me mad as I bought the $20 CE upgrade so I could save money on the speeder bike and ended up waisting $20 as I had enough credits for riding and bike. Oh well, got the game as a gift so I guess it ins't all bad.

 

I was back up to 48K by level 29 just questing and selling loot after.

 

Stop doing crew missions for a few levels and the money will add up quick.