Matching most of the blues to there easily respectable normal gathering nodes should be a good start.

 

Underworld trading Metals to chance on scavenging Nodes.

Treasure Hunting Gems to Arch Nodes.

Diplomacy Med Supplies to BioAn nodes, though you will be lacking the light dark alignment changes.

Underworld Trading Luxury Fabrics would be a Mob chance.

Research Components could be both scavenging and arch node chance. Scavenging cause it is far more direct to metals and components would be used in Armstech. Arc h odes as well, cause, well more from an out of game context idea, it is a researched item, and messing with gems and crystals requires a more delicate touch sometimes. Real Life high tech material require crystalline substances sometimes, so why not use that reasoning to justify it in game?

This is the way it should be. But dont add them to nodes as then they will be too easily farmable as there are so many per planet you trip over them. Make them mob only drops.

UWT metals off of droids. Silver droids chance to drop blue quality and gold droids purple quality

UWT fabrics. Silver human mobs drop blue cloth and gold humans drop purple

Diplomacy again Blue mats off silvers and Purple mats off Golds

Of course you can still run missions but this gives you a way to gather them as well while you quest.

Matching most of the blues to there easily respectable normal gathering nodes should be a good start.

 

Underworld trading Metals to chance on scavenging Nodes.

Treasure Hunting Gems to Arch Nodes.

Diplomacy Med Supplies to BioAn nodes, though you will be lacking the light dark alignment changes.

Underworld Trading Luxury Fabrics would be a Mob chance.

Research Components could be both scavenging and arch node chance. Scavenging cause it is far more direct to metals and components would be used in Armstech. Arc h odes as well, cause, well more from an out of game context idea, it is a researched item, and messing with gems and crystals requires a more delicate touch sometimes.

So, synthweavers can't make heavy/medium armor because they don't get metals?

Suck it up and send your companions on missions. The games economy needs the money sink.

As far as the affect on the in game economy, the rarity of materials already is bad enough that too few players can even find what they need, let alone want.

You don't NEED blue or purple mats. Nobody does. And it's easy enough to get them youself by sending companions off on crew missions. About the biggest argument you can make with crew missions is it makes the GTN superfluous. Why buy from the GTN when I can get it myself with crew missions? (usually for, bizarrely enough, cheaper... even for gathering mats)

I absolutely hate that there is no rare mats found when gathering. And I think the best way to not flood the market with rare mats is to limit the rare nodes to Heroic/Flashpoint areas. Doing so would also increase the chances of finding people to help with Heroic areas as well.

This would be the ideal.. you either have to be in a group or over-leveled to go into the area.

And, for the person who said how to sort if its one that an artificer or synthweaver wants.. Who cares? Just making more purple mats available is the point. If you cant use that blue/red/green/yellow/purple crystal, stimulate the economy by putting it on the GTN.

A blue 10% or even a lower 5% chance to spawn at a node shouldn't do much harm.

Then a purple node chance that is 1% or even as low as 0.1% should further reduce any flooding problems.

Having a chance shouldn't mean 100% chance for rare and purples, I never said often or always.

I am one of those few people who are a harecore crafter. Every MMO I have played, the first thing I usually max out aside from my character lvl, is my crafting skills on a main and at least an alt. I have never complained about farming resources. I know I am not the only player to choose to farm. It is usually an occasional thing, an as needed bases.

When I saw the crew skill ability to send companions out on mat gathering runs for a price, I was happy about it. Still happy about such a convenience, it does cut my personal farming work down by a lot. But I still choose to go out from time to time to gather my own mats. I still often lvl an alts gathering skills mainly by grabbing the nodes them selves.

I craft for both my self, my alts and for any guild I am in. Ironically, I don't often sell what I make. But I still make stuff, and sometimes I do sell them on the GTN or what ever MMOs player trade system exist in that game, like WoWs AH, SWGs Bazaar, or Perfect Worlds strange Kitty Cat Vendor thing.

I still go out on Farming Gathering runs my self though. And not having at least some sorta chance at drop/spawns of blues and lower chance of purples is still a little annoying. I most certainty wont be the only player that will find this a small bit irritating. That alone is not game breaking, but that added to many other things will be game breaking.

It is less game breaking to have a small drop/spawn chance. More player freedom means more players, means BW has more customers, means stronger likely hood the game produces more content, more fixes, and the players them selves feeling slightly more confident in the resource, crafting and even player trade system.

Hard lining a "NO WE WONT DO IT, GET OVER IT!" is MMO suicidal. Alienate potential customers, or continue to discourage current ones will only result in loss of customers, which means less profit, which means lower wages to employee's which means few workers, which means fewer game fixes, not as much new content, deteriorating customer support, which all comes to game breaking.

Listening to players who recommend nerf all the time, or suck it up get over it all the time will far too limit the customer base and destroy the game.

This issue with blue purple drop/spawn wont break the game for not being in it, but adding it has a far better chance of boosting the game by a small degree. It will boost player convenience by a small amount, their by boosting player favoritism over all. With a small drop/spawn chance, the roll over affect to the player trade system of allowing a few more resources will not only help the people who sell the mats, but in being "slightly" more available, players who need mats will have a slightly stronger chance of finding what they want/need for their crafting desires. That in term reduces the slight negative effect of player discouraged by the lack of mats on the GTN.

I have certainty run into a problem with not being able to find some grade 2 or grade 3 mats on the GTN often enough that I simply stopped looking. I have many alts, and I already do run down the line of log in, log out, switch alt, send companions on gathering runs.

I am one of those few people who are a harecore crafter. Every MMO I have played, the first thing I usually max out aside from my character lvl, is my crafting skills on a main and at least an alt.

I would argue that makes you a casual crafter. A hardcore crafter is going to max out their crafting skills first and foremost, probably for ALL the possible crafting skills.

Didn't read the whole thread because I got sick of the same things being vomited onto the keyboard, so if this has been said already sorry.

The problem with making everything including the rare items farmable is that you open up the farming to these credit selling sites. You think it takes a long time to farm up mats now? Wait until those businesses start paying people pennies to do nothing but farm up the mats you want to.

Happens on every game. You go out farming and there are tons of people flooding the areas these mats are. This method makes it way easier to get the mats you need without having to fight with people for it.

I for one get sick of seeing low levels toons on different games map/speed hacking to get the nodes I want and clearing out a zone in minutes.

I would argue that makes you a casual crafter. A hardcore crafter is going to max out their crafting skills first and foremost, probably for ALL the possible crafting skills.

Unless they only play 1 or 2 toons.

The gold farmer website augment against the idea is pointless as those kind of gold selling websites will do anything to get the product too sell. Their current method, is to sit on one toon, have an automated play system that runs space missions all the time, and send companions on mat runs.

Omitting the spawn chance from mobs and nodes because of those gold selling websites in the end, ultimately harms the player base in the entirety. You have not stopped the gold farmers, they changed their methods. And you scared customers or potential customers away in the process.

It is a lose lose for SWTOR to omit the ability.

O,o; If gold farmers can do that, then not allowing blues and purples to spawn from nodes and mobs really wont stop those farmers. Keeping it closed off really is pointless. The gold farmers find a way around, and everyone else that gets effected gets another reason that irritates them, that adds to why individual people leaving the game.

If Bioware and EA really want this game to work, then they have to view things from a macro big picture view point, and watch how micro issues affect the entire game as a whole, not just focus on a few players or a subgroup that does things a certain way.

And if not having a small spawn/drop chances on rare/artificing quality from nodes and mobs contributes to a negative overall effect, and doesn't solve the gold selling problem, then it is one of the things they will have to change.

Unless they only play 1 or 2 toons.

If they aren't covering most/all of the crafting skills, then they aren't hardcore crafting. They're dabbling. Only exception (I would argue) would be games where they don't allow you to play enough chars to do that with a single account.

Now, a dedicated crafter, sure. 1 or 2 toons. (but still probably maxing tradeskill before character level, unless the game itself prevents that)

I think the rare material should stay, and it should be gatherable only via companion. By doing this, you put a limit on how many you can gather per day, so insuring the offer of some crafted items can't be too plentiful.

 

Moreover, if you allow people to farm rare materials, you put in place mechanics that favor grinding, and anything that moves the game towards rewarding the ability of doing boring things for hours is detracting from the game experience, not improving it.

I was on the fence on this suggestion, but you have swung my opinion against the idea as well.

If the game wasn't facing a hard time where players are leaving and few are coming back, then I wouldn't suggest making any changes. But the player base is dwindling slowly down to just hardcore gamers, hardcore Star Wars Fans and gaming addicts. The general truly casual players are disappearing. If EA and Bioware are to restore the game and increase the players attracted to it, then freeing up some minor things that they closed off is what needs to be done. An MMO is not doing good if it is only limping by on hardcore players, hardcore lore fans, and/or addicts. It has to consider a larger variety and accept players who may not play the same way you do.

 

MMOs commit suicide from stubbornness, and not fixing things, as well as not allowing enough player freedom on things. Adding a few features without taking anything away is the wisest choice. If that means enduring a couple or a few player controlled farmer players, then that should be perfectly acceptable. Hard-lining a "NO FARMERS" idea is a bad thing cause not only do you alienate those who do or would, but you also cause a minor irritation in the general pop or even potential players who would only farm on occasion, or rare times.

 

If your irritating the general or potential players, your making it harder on your self to gather a player base. And that is the problem that this game is facing now, and why there are fewer and fewer high pop servers. And the inability to gather blue purples manually from nodes or mobs is one of the irritants.

Please don't invoke the 'game is dying' argument just to win favor for your idea. It's like politicians invoking 'do it for the children' to sway opinion. Your suggestion really only benefits the hardcore player, not the casual player. As a casual player, I certainly don't want to be camping nodes to get mats.

Mob drops? Are you kidding me?

A happy little marauder lvl 25 runs to do a quest of killing 30 ebil robots... And there's a pack of campaign geared 50s killing all his quest mobs. T_T

The over all problem with people farming mobs doesn't really start to negatively effect the game as a whole unless 2 things are happening.

1: A gold farmer who supports a in game money selling site.

2: When there is a large enough server population where there would be a lot of people fighting over nodes and mobs, enough so that they regularly interfere with the normal play of others.

I do recognize these issues. By my suggestion still stands.

SWTOR has a pretty good handle on the Gold Farmers and the spammers. They are few and far in between, and they seem to get taken out quickly enough. So the gold farmer issue seems to be it good control.

The current stat of populations for this game is dwindling bad enough, that casual farmers are going to be extremely rare to find. SWTOR needs to be doing good, and have high populations on the servers for enough casual farmers to effect the game. And Hard core farmers them selves are few and far in between.

The complaints you have about how your personal convenience is effected, the actual sources of that problem are already so rare and decently well control enough that it is still better to have the spawn/drop chances from node/mobs, then it is to not have it.

It will be better to have to complain about someone farming and getting in the way, and have a good server population, then it will be to have low population to make the game convenience of a few players.

The lesser of the 2 evils is to allow a small chance drop on mobs and nodes.

When EA and BioWare really study this issue, and watch how other games have it, and fair better then SWTOR is right now, it will most likely result in adding a small chance drop, because of the overall effect will be player freedom, and how it effects the silent majority.

EA and Bioware has to look at the whole picture, in order to make the best choices to sell this game, that includes the silence of a majority that neither complements, complains or even mentions anything. Dispite the more subtly of that, the issue is still similar in high importance that not having it overall negatively effects the game more then having it, just like not having dual or multispec is negatively effect this game, just like nerfing world PvP rewards and Ilum has hit this game pretty hard.

It is better to have the drop spawn chance, it is better to have world PvP rewards and an Ilum that gets played, it is better to have dual/multispec working, allowing for the positive effect of player freedom, and to endure the negative effect of complaints from those things existing, then it is to not have them, and have a low population because the players don't feel they get much of anything for their efforts.

Crew skill mission eat up a lot of daily money... And with dailies being the main source of money for everyone, the cost of stuff on the GTN ends up always being high for everything. High GTN prices is a discourager to new players. You have to have a 50 that can do dailies, in order to buy anything from the GTN for your alt or alts, or for a friend new to the game.

The player trade system is to high in price too soon for this game. Yes every MMO deals with such a problem. But the early ones that are still around didn't have it start so hard and fast. It did get up there, but not as crazy soon as SWTORs did.

It will be better for the customer base to have features that will lower GTN prices such as chance to drop mats. As it stands now, the mats them selves cost so much so soon, that mostly hardcore players and a few casual players are sticking to the game.

The loss of world PvP reward, the loss of ilum, and the lack of a more then 1 speccing thing is hitting this game hard, and so is the restrictiveness of not having rare and artificing mat drops.

Having an occasional farmer farming nodes and mobs, and suffering the temporary irritation of that, which can be worked around, will be far better then not having mats drop at all.

The loss of reward from World PvP, how that has hit ilum, and how that has crossed into the player base entirely... how not having the ability to spec more then 1 spec limits player freedom and playability, both raid ability and PvP ability and soloing ability. All of these things hurt the game worse in not having them, then they would in having them.

Catering to the personal convenience to a small, vocalized group, is the death of many MMOs. MMOs that overspecialize in conforming to a small groups wish for convenience commit suicide over and over again. If SWTOR is to survive, EA and Bioware must accept this reality, and change for not only survival, but to also thrive.

As inconvenience as seeing a farmer every once in a while could be too you, it will do far less damage to the game then not having the chance at all. And if EA and Bioware really study the issue, they will see that. they will see how it is working on other game, they will see how not having things has hurt their own game, they will see how nerfing something like ilum, and taking the reward out of world PvP has hurt them hard, and in a desire to survive and thrive, they will change to offer things that support more player freedom, and things that give players a sense of reward.

I'm probably a bit more on the hardcore side of crafting than the casual, and I don't see anything wrong at the moment with material acquisition. UT 340 missions go for between 20-30K, Mand Iron for about 8-10K per unit (I'm primarily cybertech, though working on others atm). There seems to be no shortage of "in-demand" items on the GTN.

In essence, what is being asked for, from what I read, is not a shift of how current materials are obtained, but an overall addition to make the non-gatherred mats easier to obtain. But that will lead to an oversupply of items, and a reduction in prices. Maybe that will stimulate some demand, but my belief is that supply will overstrip any such demand increase.

An economy is a pretty complex interconnected system--it's like the "butterfly" effect--twiddle one small bit in one place and the whole thing unravels.

Way back when I played Eve (from launch for about 3-4 years), I saw them do a fairly good job overall, but it was by no means perfect. Did you know they had an economist studying and advising on their design? If I recall, they actually controlled the money supply in the game by throttling how money entered and left the system. The inflow was controlled by how many asteroids they seeded daily, and also how many resources would be bought by the NPCs (you couldn't just bring a ton of tritanium to a vendor--you had to find an NPC with a buy order on the market.

Then when it came to item rarity, they did it by restricting the blueprints (schematics). And boy did they restrict it. There might have only 5-10 schematics handed out for the new top level ships when they first came out (for a player base of maybe 50-100K). Didn't get one? Too bad--there was no way to "RE" one.

By the time that a new schematic got out into more general circulation (and you had to grind missions for research agents to get "points" in a lottery system), the profit margin started vanishing quickly.

Frankly, I don't envy anyone the task of trying to design and manage an MMO economy.

The issues brought up against the idea are of personal occasional conveniences. They are easily worked around, and they are not game breaking.

Players who don't feel rewarded, and that irritation of a lack of gain build up is game breaking.

This is why the lose of World PvP rewards decimates ilum, and the player base took a hit through the entire game.

This is why not having dual/multi spec is hurtning the game.

This will be why not having drop spawn chance of rare and artificing quality form nodes and mobs is hurting the game.

The economy of the game as it is now, simply doesn't have much to offer at all. Yeah there are a few things on the GTN, and if you look at it from the ratio of GTN content to player base and the risk of oversupply, then from that viewpoint alone could it be an issue. But when you calculate out over all effect of how it effects all customers game wide, and if it is attracting new players to the game verses irritating them, and building up to them leaving, or to scaring possible customers off, the ultimate bottom line is, you need more materials, because the larger effect of the lack of mat availability is contributing to overall game breakage.

The risk of over supply is going to be minimal to begin with, especial with a 5% blue mat drop rare, and a decimal purple mat drop rate. The amount of farming that would have to be done to flood the GTN would be impractically huge. Only a gold farmer website supporter, or a gaming addict, who has abnormally hardcore crafter, would go that far. The gold farmer would get ousted by Bioware, the addict will have RL things come up on its own terms.

Right now the need for wide spread player based confidence that they will be able to find materials, either through gathering in some way, or through GTN bought and how that will make happy customers, and attract players to the game is far greater then greatly limiting mat availability. Besides, that i it self with grade 7 and 8 mats almost always requiring a HM or an ops run more then covers that issue in this stage of SWTOR.

SWTOR may have had over 2mill in box sells, but the returning player base is not any where close enough to that to make concerns about mat control on the GTN important enough to deny the idea of drop spawn chances from mobs and nodes, especially with a small % chance.

Right now, the main focus has to be an over all, attract customers and keep customers.