Hi, since i was bored, I did some math about the cost of the Companion Gift Legacy Perk Thingy to see if they're worth it to buy... They seriously reduced the price of them, compared but before, but is it worth it? Read on to find out!!!

 

To sum up the findings...

Buying the first perk is worth it, when you level ONE or more companions from 0 affection to 10,000.

Buying the first & second perk is only worth it when you level TWO or more companions from 0 affection to 10,000.

Buying the first, second and third perk is worth it, when you level THREE or more companions from 0 affection to 10,000.

 

Here is the math...

 

Rank 1 costs 10,000 and raises the affection you get from gifts with 10%.

Rank 2 costs 30,000 and raises the affection you get from gifts with an extra 10% to 20%.

Rank 3 costs 50,000 and raises the affection you get from gifts with an extra 10% to 30%.

 

Now, as we all know, the best way to get companion gifts is the gift vendor on the fleet for level 1 and 2 gifts. Those gifts are very, very cheap on the vendor (because they are mass-produced by cheap children in poor conditions, but as well-trainded consumers in this capitalist society we don't care about such things, we want our stuff cheap!!!).

 

Rank 1 green gifts cost 200 credits on the vendor.

Rank 2 green gifts cost 600 credits on the vendor.

 

The way most people go is...

Use rank 1 green gifts from the vendor until you reach 6,000 affection

Use rank 2 green gifts from the vendor until you reach 8,000 affection

Use rank 5 gifts until you reach 10,000 affection

(if you got alot of rank 5 gifts, you can start using those from 6,000 affection onwards, it will be more cost efficient)

 

 

I'm gonne assume that you can get green rank 5 gifts for the price of 1,600 credits, cause that's the default price on the GTN (the cheap children haven't learned to make these gifts yet, someone should punish them for that!!!).

 

Now, without any perk, the cost for affection is this...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affection . . . . . Price . . . . . Amount of gifts . . . . . Cost

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . gained . . . . . per gift . . . . . for this level . . . . . for this level

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . per gift

Until 2,000 . . . . . . 96 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,200

Until 4,000 . . . . . . 48 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,400

Until 6,000 . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . 104 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,800

Until 8,000 . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . 600 . . . . . . . . . . . 105 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,000

Until 10,000 . . . . . 96 . . . . . 1,600 . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33,600

So, total cost for one companion to go from 0 to 10,000 without perk : 130,000

 

 

With 1 single perk (10%, for 10,000 credits) the cost for affection is this...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affection . . . . . Price . . . . . Amount of gifts . . . . . Cost

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . gained . . . . . per gift . . . . . for this level . . . . . for this level

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . per gift

Until 2,000 . . . . . 105 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,800

Until 4,000 . . . . . . 53 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,600

Until 6,000 . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19,200

Until 8,000 . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57,000

Until 10,000 . . . . 105 . . . . . 1,600 . . . . . . . . . . . .19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,400

So, total cost for one companion to go from 0 to 10,000 with 1 perk : 118,000.

 

You save 12,000 credits per companion with 1 perks, for a cost of 10,000 credits.

So, even when you only got 1 companion to get to 10k, it's a good deal.

 

 

With 2 perks (20%, for 40,000 credits) the cost for affection is this...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affection . . . . . Price . . . . . Amount of gifts . . . . . Cost

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . gained . . . . . per gift . . . . . for this level . . . . . for this level

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . per gift

Until 2,000 . . . . . 105 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,600

Until 4,000 . . . . . . 53 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,800

Until 6,000 . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,400

Until 8,000 . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52,200

Until 10,000 . . . . 105 . . . . . 1,600 . . . . . . . . . . . .17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27,200

So, total cost for one companion to go from 0 to 10,000 with 2 perks : 107,200.

 

You save 22,800 credits per companion with 2 perks, for a cost of 40,000 credits.

So, you need at least 2 companion for this to be a good deal.

 

 

With 3 perks (30%, for 50,000 credits) the cost for affection is this...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affection . . . . . Price . . . . . Amount of gifts . . . . . Cost

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . gained . . . . . per gift . . . . . for this level . . . . . for this level

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . per gift

Until 2,000 . . . . . 124 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,400

Until 4,000 . . . . . . 62 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,200

Until 6,000 . . . . . . 25 . . . . . . 200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,800

Until 8,000 . . . . . . 25 . . . . . . 600 . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48,600

Until 10,000 . . . . 124 . . . . . 1,600 . . . . . . . . . . . .16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25,600

So, total cost for one companion to go from 0 to 10,000 with 3 perks : 99,600.

 

You save 30,400 credits per companion with 3 perks, for a cost of 90,000 credits.

So, you need at least 3 companion for this to be a good deal.

Edited June 28, 2012 by Yogol
Added remarks from other people & corrected.

<reserved>

So Rank 2 looks to be best way to go huh? Saves some time too.

Awesome post. I like to know the math behind things. I only pose one question about the tables you have there. Did you forget to increase the affection gains on the 2nd and 3rd perk bonus? Example: the first one starts at 96, then 105 at 10%. Shouldn't the 20% now show 115 and the 30% be 124/125? Your math on the amount of gifts required seems to be in line with these numbers. Other than that I have no problem.

Now, without any perk, the cost for affection is this...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Affection . . . . . Price . . . . . Amount of gifts . . . . . Cost

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . gained . . . . . per gift . . . . . for this level . . . . . for this level

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . per gift

Until 8,000 . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . 600 . . . . . . . . . . . 105 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63,000

Until 10,000 . . . . . 96 . . . . . 1,600 . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33,600

So, total cost for one companion to go from 0 to 10,000 without perk : 130,000

 

This changes the math, but assuming those green grade 5 gifts are available at 1,600, simple math demonstrates it's better to switch to thos gradee 5 gifts at 6001 points, and not bother with the grade 2 stuff at all.

 

grade 2 = 0.032 points per cred.

grade 5 = 0.06 points per cred.

 

~2x as cost effective, and less gifts involved. (and that's if they actually only gave 96 affection, which since they're higher grade, they actually give more. Don't remember exactly how much more offhand though.) But that'll cut quite a bit off the price of getting to 10k

So, non perk: <100600

1 perk: <91400

2 perks: < 82200 (per character)

3 perks: < 76600 ( per character)

 

So, need at least 2 companions for 1 perk to save money. (save < 9200 per), cost is 10k.

need at least 3 companions for 2 perks to save money (save < 18400 per), cost is 40k

need at least 4 companions for 3 perks to save money (save < 24000 per), cost is 90k

 

And, of course, this excludes any benefit from conversations. I usually get them up to 8k, then have a bunch of conversations with them, which is usually worth at least a couple hundred points of affection. and, considering the trend, if somebody cares to report how much points you actually get from giving a grade 5 green to a char with 6k to 7.9k, probably get even more accurate. Maybe it's 5 companions for the 3rd perk to be worthwhile.

Edited June 27, 2012 by GnatB

Awesome post. I like to know the math behind things. I only pose one question about the tables you have there. Did you forget to increase the affection gains on the 2nd and 3rd perk bonus? Example: the first one starts at 96, then 105 at 10%. Shouldn't the 20% now show 115 and the 30% be 124/125? Your math on the amount of gifts required seems to be in line with these numbers. Other than that I have no problem.

 

Yeah, good catch: I forgot to update the columln ''affection gained per companion'' in that one.

 

The rest is correct, so the results are the same.

This changes the math, but assuming those green grade 5 gifts are available at 1,600, simple math demonstrates it's better to switch to thos gradee 5 gifts at 6001 points, and not bother with the grade 2 stuff at all.

 

Yeah, I only used rank 5 ones for the last level, because they are not easily available. When you got ALOT of them, you might want to start using them earlier and the math changes.

 

But from the dozen or so people that I asked, everyone uses rank 2 till 8k, so...

 

 

And, of course, this excludes any benefit from conversations. I usually get them up to 8k, then have a bunch of conversations with them, which is usually worth at least a couple hundred points of affection.

 

Yeah, I didn't take those into account. It would be more cost efficient to do the conversations.

 

All in all, I think the benefits from these perks are pretty low compred to the cost. Companions should be glad to work for a member of such an important legacy!!!