I'm trying to get some underworld metals for crafting. These can not be farmed. The only way to get them is from companion missions, and my mission log is constantly filled with companion gift missions which I don't need.

 

I understand having some there. But is 4 or 5 really necessary? All I want is AT LEAST one Underworld Metal mission there at all times when no companions are already out.

 

Why is this not happening?

I guess you're very unlucky if that situation happens to you all the time. You could always buy some UT missions from the GTN and get some from your Slicing missions. But I think there's a workaround to "reset" the UT missions list. You send one of your companions to an UT Gift mission but you cancel it after ~5 minutes. I think it resets the whole UT missions list, but I'm not 100% sure.

Yeah, it's a constant thing with my Cybertech toon.

 

I'm constantly without Underworld Metal Missions. I've been sending companions out for underworld fabric missions even though I don't have a high level Synthweaver, just try try to sell the mats and reset the list, but Synth mats really suck for rates to sell, so it's not even worth it.

 

I've also been sending them out on gift missions and sending the gifts to my alts... Still, this is a horrible waste of credits.

you can always change zones to have list rewritten but it takes too much time. I have same problem with diplomacy. 80% of missions are for companion gifts and it is a pain when I need Medical Supplies.

I know they mentioned in a dev post that they were thinking about changing this so at least one of each mission type showed up at all times. That would be a start, because I run into this as well....and I have three toons that do UT, as I have a cybertech, an armormech, and a synthweaver, all of whom need metal. It's endlessly frustrating to log from toon to toon farming for one tier of metal only to end up with just a couple of missions over three toons. Metal shows up far less frequently than luxury fabric, and nothing shows up like companion gifts. Companion gifts should, at most, be one or two of the selections. Never, as has happened to me on more than one occasion, four or five. I should have to jump through hoops to reset the missions, either.

Bioware is aware of it, but just because their aware of it and looking into it doesn't mean it will be fix any time soon, in fact it will probably take 6 months of them looking at metrics to fix it. its been a known issues since early access.

My goal for this game is, and has been since day 1, to get all of the companions AND max out their affection/complete all conversations. So I LIKE how many missions provide gifts for them. Its not an easy goal and the gifts make it possible. I always toss in enough missions to keep a decent stock of metals/cloth going on, not a big deal really.

 

My vote goes to yes, increase the amount of missions that give other items, but no, do NOT decrease the comp gift missions!

 

M

 

PS I am about half way to my goal. Good times!

My goal for this game is, and has been since day 1, to get all of the companions AND max out their affection/complete all conversations. So I LIKE how many missions provide gifts for them. Its not an easy goal and the gifts make it possible. I always toss in enough missions to keep a decent stock of metals/cloth going on, not a big deal really.

 

My vote goes to yes, increase the amount of missions that give other items, but no, do NOT decrease the comp gift missions!

 

M

 

PS I am about half way to my goal. Good times!

 

The thing is that most of us who do UT or Diplomacy are doing it for the tradeskill materials. The companion gifts are, and should be, a bonus. Not the majority of what we see. It's nice that you can keep a decent stock of metal and cloth....you must not do as much tradeskilling as you do farming for companion gifts. I assure you the ratio of missions for anyone doing much cybertech or armormech is atrociously bad. I should never, ever have a tier in which I see five companion missions and not a single metal mission. It should not even be possible to not come up with at least one of each actual crafting mission per tier. I have no problem with them adding additional missions, but barring that, it should never be skewed to more companion gifts missions than missions for tradeskill materials. You can always sell the tradeskill materials for far more than the companion gifts if you want companion gifts, in my experience. Because there....are....so....stupidly many companion gift missions.

My goal for this game is, and has been since day 1, to get all of the companions AND max out their affection/complete all conversations. So I LIKE how many missions provide gifts for them. Its not an easy goal and the gifts make it possible. I always toss in enough missions to keep a decent stock of metals/cloth going on, not a big deal really.

 

My vote goes to yes, increase the amount of missions that give other items, but no, do NOT decrease the comp gift missions!

 

M

 

PS I am about half way to my goal. Good times!

 

Once you get all 8 of your characters to 50 and their companion affection maxed out the gifts become totally irrelevant. Heck it's been so long since I've had a conversation with a companion I'd almost forgotten they did that.

 

Once you max out they are quiet, once you max out gifts are useless.

There's times I have wanted to send companions off for metals and EVERY mission available was for companion gifts. Most sessions I'm lucky if I see two missions for metals.

Once you get all 8 of your characters to 50 and their companion affection maxed out the gifts become totally irrelevant. Heck it's been so long since I've had a conversation with a companion I'd almost forgotten they did that.

 

Once you max out they are quiet, once you max out gifts are useless.

 

Also, those missions start to become useless well before all your companion's affections are maxed out. Once you get to the point where you have one or two maxed out, running companion gift missions hoping to get a gift one of the remaining ones will like...it's inefficient and annoying.

 

My tip for maxing companion affection at 50: take that companion on dailies. They don't need to fight, just listen in on the conversations. Way better than companion gift missions once you're past the stage where any kind of gift will do.

There's times I have wanted to send companions off for metals and EVERY mission available was for companion gifts. Most sessions I'm lucky if I see two missions for metals.

 

Don't remember ever seeing this. As long as a companion is not already on a materials mission I always have at least one available.

 

My tip for maxing companion affection at 50: take that companion on dailies. They don't need to fight, just listen in on the conversations. Way better than companion gift missions once you're past the stage where any kind of gift will do.

 

Unless you have companions not on max affection for your alts. I have a big stack of gifts waiting for my Trooper to get Yuun, I estimate he will be at 6-7k affection as soon as I get him. I can certainly use all types of companion gift on some character.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Arlbo_Nabbins

The biggest trouble with companion gifts is that once your companion affections are maxxed out, these missions are basically useless.

 

We're at a point now where many have mains to 50 and many alts to 50 as well with companions maxxed out. I understand the missions being there, but for me most of what I have is gift missions, followed by fabric, and very often not any metal missions at all.

 

This happens a lot and is frustrating when I want to be putting stuff up on the GTN as it all takes a lot of real time.

Edited June 25, 2012 by LeonBraun

I find the more frustrating problem is the unique components (Demicot Silks etc.) in archaeology - I often have no mission at all for them and have to run my companions through 3-4 sets of missions before anything at all shows up. Heaven help me if I need Thermoionic Gel Suspension! I've seen it take 2 hours plus to even get the mission.

My goal for this game is, and has been since day 1, to get all of the companions AND max out their affection/complete all conversations. So I LIKE how many missions provide gifts for them. Its not an easy goal and the gifts make it possible. I always toss in enough missions to keep a decent stock of metals/cloth going on, not a big deal really.

 

My vote goes to yes, increase the amount of missions that give other items, but no, do NOT decrease the comp gift missions!

 

M

 

PS I am about half way to my goal. Good times!

 

The difficulty with this approach is that you can buy Companion Gifts of all levels from vendors. So if we had the opposite weighting, with a ton of UT metals and fabric missions but few or no Gift missions, then the option would be to go to Coruscant/Dromund Kaas and buy gifts (yes, it is more expensive, but you get the specific gift you want, not a random choice, so the cost difference is probably not that great if you are looking for specific gift types). As it stands now, there are no vendors for the metals and fabrics available from the UT missions, so that option is not available.

Buying on the GTN is feasible on some of the more populated servers, but depending on the player base to generate a mature-enough economy to solve a basic shortage of materials in this way is not ideal.

Mixed feeling about this. I was of the same opinion about 2 months ago, and posted a topic nearly identical to this one.

 

As was pointed out to me, the companion gifts aren't as worthless as they look. Over time, you'll find that companion APs do go down due to decisions you make in dailies, etc. You'll also find that the gifts work a bit like lockboxes--they can be sold to recoup a portion of the mission cost. And one of the most overlooked possibilities--you can sell them on the GTN.

 

A lot of people don't consider the *quality* of companion gifts, especially when they aren't trying to raise their companion's affection, but the higher quality gifts represent a huge difference in gained AP, and are in demand on some GTNs. (And they auto-sell for more as well).

 

In the end, it comes down to an availability of resources thing, though. There's a balance in there, where you have to run a certain number of missions on average to get a certain yield of materials, and it's the same for everyone. What it amounts to is that the things you craft will be worth a lot more if BW makes the frequency of Underworld metals missions low.

 

I know it's frustrating to you--you want the metals. And maybe you'll give up trying to get them in abundance because of it. But that means that some dedicated and enterprising crafter who is determined to raise funds, run more missions, and participate in more crafting will ultimately be rewarded for his or her efforts.

 

(Side note--Underworld trading is particularly evil-feeling; I have it to on my main. On my biochem alt, "Diplomacy" frequently yields lots of companion gifts, but at least all of the non-companion gift missions are "medical supplies." With Underworld trading in particular, you get the further division between Underworld metals and fabrics, making the specific one you want seem even *less* likely. Solution: Craft all types, sell what you don't need.)

Edited June 25, 2012 by Journeyer

I find the more frustrating problem is the unique components (Demicot Silks etc.) in archaeology - I often have no mission at all for them and have to run my companions through 3-4 sets of missions before anything at all shows up. Heaven help me if I need Thermoionic Gel Suspension! I've seen it take 2 hours plus to even get the mission.

 

Isn't that the truth. I needed Demicot Silks to craft a level 31 augment yesterday and could not come up with one mission in three alts with archaeology. I had to spin through the characters a few times before I obtained a few missions.

 

As far as UT is concerned, I take the pack rat approach. When I pull up my character to run UT missions, if there is no level 6 mission for metals, I go to level 5, and then 4, and so on. That way I can keep three or four companions going on metal missions at all times and I just drop the metals I get into cargo hold. Over time, I have almost a full cargo bay full of metals (and cloths) that I can access when I need them. Yesterday, I decided to level UT on one of my alts, wiped a redundent crew skill, and set him going and so will have two characters with UT. I also run a lot of slicing missions and although not many, they return UT Crew Missions which are sweet.

 

The same is indeed true for Dip and I do the same thing there. I just spin missions for Medical Supplies when they come up and store the returns to be used when my Biochem wants them.

 

I have not had to craft a mod for a while, but as I remember they take four irons at the highest level and I have always felt that is to high and contributes to the scarcity. Two would be right to me.

 

In any case, if you want something specific and have to go out and get it, it can be a pain and time consuming or very expensive on the GTN if you can find it. If you just run missions and store the results, chances are that you will have what you need when you need it. Running mission after mission can be expensive and suck you dry of credits. I started out subsidizing my habit through dailies and by selling off a small portion of the materials that I recieved from the missions, but now have reached the point where selling off a small portion of the mats that I recieve and keeping the rest and dearest provides a net credit gain each time I play.

 

As a last thought, I am probably wrong in this but this this point never run Companion Gift missions. My main and first alt have thier primary companions at max affection through play and the thought of the expense and time to bring up the other companions (who I never use in play) does not appeal to me. I am not sure that the marginal increase in crafting returns is worth it. My wife, on the other hand, is into the companion part of the game and has every one of hers at maximum affection.

Unless you have companions not on max affection for your alts. I have a big stack of gifts waiting for my Trooper to get Yuun, I estimate he will be at 6-7k affection as soon as I get him. I can certainly use all types of companion gift on some character.

 

OK, I guess I can understand if you're trying to max out affection for 7 alts (Personally I make my alts fend for themselves. Farm your own damn gifts children!). But there are what, like 7-10 unique missions that are rich yield grade 5 companion gifts? You think if a few were swapped out for metal missions it would seriously eat into your affection gains?

I totally understand your frustration, my friends. As a proud owner of 8 characters, I really know the importance for getting the best missions for my toons (Bountiful and Rich). Let me give you a nice trick that would make your crafting a LOT more fun.

 

The first thing you have to do is go to your ship in the Interfleet station, so when you leave your ship to the station, it resets all your crew mission (it takes around 20 sec to 1 min in most computers). Every crew skill has 6 different mission per level, so if I want to hunt down lvl 5 underground metals, all I have to do is send 5 companions with one lvl 5 mision each; this way there is only 1 mission left. Then I go to the station, check my lvl 5 underworld trading and there are 6 NEW missions, best part is the ones I'm looking for are already there, If not, then I go back to my ship...and there are 6 NEW mission replacing the ones I saw on the station.

 

This way you can get all the missions you ever wanted, even taking 4 underground metal mission at the same time (moderate, abundant, bountiful and rich) and get your stock up in no time! Just remember, the more companions you have, the better this method works.

 

Same way for archeology for getting those rare materials: check 5 missions (of the same level) at the same time, go out of your ship to the fleet (mission reset) and chances are that the mission you're looking for appears!

 

Happy crafting, pals!