First of all the game have way too much money sinks...I am leveling a character and in 27 level I spent 13000 credits just to learn 2 skills...put in all this the crafting skill trains and the missions I run in par of my crafting skill and I have no money....there so many things in game to do, buy gifts for your companions, unlock legacy perks, e.t.c. and the game just keep eating all my credits for just the very basic!!to train skills and train my crafting!

 

So I have decided to start selling my blue metal and silks from my Underworld trading and the blue gems from my treasure hunting on my alt and what to see??there are fools that sell them for less than 800-900 credits per item..when a mission wants 1000+ credits and 90% of the time return with 2 metals, why you sell it 800-900?to profit 100 credits?

 

I seriously thinking to drop all my mission skills and get slicing to all my characters..when I want to craft something blue quality I will just buy from fools or china bots in the network...

 

btw I think if bioware run a gold selling company will make more money than the subscriptions...this game is the bread and butter of gold sellers. even if you fart it will cost you credits...

 

P.S. People say that in level 50 you make lots of credits by doing dailies..well I am not level 50 and I do not want to rush to level 50!I play the game for the enjoyable story based leveling and I have 4-5 characters I level in the same time...focus just one one character , just to reach 50 as fast as possible and doing the dailies every day, to have a chance to enjoy legacy and crafting it seems more like a job to me rather than a game that will play for fun

My suggestion (give it a try if you like).

 

Tier 2-5 UT schematics are pretty rare, as you get them from Moderate missions, which most people don't run. So run them, and sell the schematics. Not sure about your server, but I can currently usually sell them for 15k each (Chest, Legs, Head) or 50k each (Gloves, Boots, Belts, Bracers) for tiers 2-5 (Chest, Legs and Head are junk at tier 6 - where many run moderate missions, and not as good at tier 1 - where everyone starts by running moderate missions). I can just run companion gifts at these tiers, sell the schematics, and get companions to max affection whilst making money. These prices will go down over time, and are only really high for the new stuff introduced in 1.3. Others sell for far more than I!

Thanks for the tip! I will try it out...so far I am very disappointed from mission skills...I never run gathering missions, I gather all materials by myself and only run mission skills and still have problem with credits...I ll try what you said and try to sell some schematics, although if I remember correctly the Network is full of everything in extremely low prices..

 

anyway, I ll keep playing until I will really get bored of all this situation. Probably this game is not for me. Don't blame me, I like hard things, I like hard dungeons, I love the hard and long level up in any game but I really hate the money sinks that keep me from enjoy the game in all their aspects.

I really hate the money sinks that keep me from enjoy the game in all their aspects.

 

The problem with money sinks is normally tuning. I think there is an issue around level 25, as you tend to want to buy an expensive speeder, and if you are running crafting missions, that is pricy. The three ways I've found around that are stopping running crafting missions around level 20, and starting again at 25 after buying speeder, making money through trading, or waiting til 26 to buy the speeder. I didn't bother buying later speeders til level 50, as the difference between 90% speed and 110% speed is marginal. A game without money sinks has hyperinflation, so it's about getting the balance right. Ideally (in my view) you should be able to afford what you need, have some spending money, and be able to save for nice to have stuff, at all levels. With varied playstyles, that is difficult.

 

Also, can always do grey space missions (if you enjoy them), as they give low experience, but some money. This means your income raises, but the money doesn't.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Darzil

Its ok to have big money sinks on high end game, but for casual play that includes leveling up and professions is not ok in my op..anyway, I ll try my best, if I feel I am not enjoying or I get frustrated I ll quit for second time and probably the last...

What does every character have? Companions!

 

Companion gifts are the way to go for constant gain. On my server, since I started playing again recently I've made 900k profit over 2 days (small change to some, but I make no money off artifice as it is ).

 

Granted some people don't care about companion affection, and I sell final tier gifts (which you may not have access to), but if you scale your prices accordingly to the gift tier, I think you could make a tidy profit!

While you are at the GTN selling your schematics (an excellent suggestion), go through the crafting schematics, with the search set for lowest price first and buy orange schematics cheap. Ignore lvl 50 stuff (most common in the game) unless it's gloves, boots, belts or bracers. I search up to $1500, buying those orange schematics that people sell too cheaply (belts and bracers sometimes show up at $5!) and reselling them. I sell most all helms and greeves at $5k, chests at $10k, gloves and boots at $5k (exception being lvl 50 stuff, which is still the most common and can sell for as little at $9k), and belts and bracers at $100k. I've got a lvl 50 and two in their 20s who make tons this way every day.

I thought the resent use of the term money sink by a dev in dev tracker was pretty disgusting..

 

Its like saying hey come use us we are running a "scam". It might be a needed feature for a balanced economy but why tell us are lovely new legacy perks which we can"earn" with hard work and some credits are are a money sink.

 

Like i say and im not the only one we thought it was pretty foot in mouth and like i say disgusting.

So I have decided to start selling my blue metal and silks from my Underworld trading and the blue gems from my treasure hunting on my alt and what to see??there are fools that sell them for less than 800-900 credits per item..when a mission wants 1000+ credits and 90% of the time return with 2 metals, why you sell it 800-900?to profit 100 credits?

 

IIRC Grade 6 missions cost 1700 or 1780 to run. (or is it 1400 and 1480? just remember they're only 80 apart)

 

The moderate 1700 ones return 2 mats. The abundant 1780 ones return 4. You're arguably a fool to actually run the 1700 ones if you're running missions to sell stuff. And if you're getting 4 for 1780, that's 445 per. selling @900 is doubling your money. (and, of course, selling the blue stuff they're just arguably trying to get their money back. What they're really after is the purples)

 

Tier 2-5 UT schematics are pretty rare, as you get them from Moderate missions, which most people don't run.

 

You get schematics from all missions. Yield (and heck, metal/fabric/gift) is irrelevant. Most people aren't running 2-5 UT missions in general. They're primarily wanting Mando iron, so are running grade 6 metal missions. That being said, since there doesn't seem to be any advantage to running rich missions, you are better off in general running moderate ones if all you're looking for is schematics, since they're both cheaper AND faster, so you'll be able to run more of them in the same time, for the least amount of money.

 

Oh, and P.S. The amount of money sinks in the game is just fine. As long as they're optional, I'm not sure it's possible to have too many. And most of them are optional here.

Edited July 16, 2012 by GnatB

I thought the resent use of the term money sink by a dev in dev tracker was pretty disgusting.

 

Or it's just the name used by developers and players to describe the way in game currency in a game is removed from play stopping hyperinflation. As long as it refers to in-game and not real currency, it's a good thing.

First of all the game have way too much money sinks...I am leveling a character and in 27 level I spent 13000 credits just to learn 2 skills...put in all this the crafting skill trains and the missions I run in par of my crafting skill and I have no money....there so many things in game to do, buy gifts for your companions, unlock legacy perks, e.t.c. and the game just keep eating all my credits for just the very basic!!to train skills and train my crafting!

 

So I have decided to start selling my blue metal and silks from my Underworld trading and the blue gems from my treasure hunting on my alt and what to see??there are fools that sell them for less than 800-900 credits per item..when a mission wants 1000+ credits and 90% of the time return with 2 metals, why you sell it 800-900?to profit 100 credits?

 

I seriously thinking to drop all my mission skills and get slicing to all my characters..when I want to craft something blue quality I will just buy from fools or china bots in the network...

 

btw I think if bioware run a gold selling company will make more money than the subscriptions...this game is the bread and butter of gold sellers. even if you fart it will cost you credits...

 

P.S. People say that in level 50 you make lots of credits by doing dailies..well I am not level 50 and I do not want to rush to level 50!I play the game for the enjoyable story based leveling and I have 4-5 characters I level in the same time...focus just one one character , just to reach 50 as fast as possible and doing the dailies every day, to have a chance to enjoy legacy and crafting it seems more like a job to me rather than a game that will play for fun

 

I am not sure that I am seeing any China bots in swtor.

 

In any case the problem that people have with money in game seems to be more due to inexperience and lack of understanding of how things work than anything else. Money can be daunting to a new player who does not spend time building a feeling for the economy. It is also tough on a player without a 50 (without respect to dailies) or without matured crew skills. Back in the good old days (lol, post launch), I found at times that I would ding a level and not even have enough money to visit my trainer. That was in the era before the (again lol) the GTN was fixed. tt was frustrating as all heck.

 

So I stepped back and thought about what it takes to make money in this game and spent time on this part of the forum and read what some of the great posters were saying about their approachs to making money. I then tried an experiment. I rolled a new character on a different server to start clean and went to work. By the time he hit level 19 he had almost a million credits, the best possible gear at level, and everything else he wanted. I then went back to may original server and played my "real" guys. I did have a stroke of luck. My original server ended up merging (oops transfering) into the one where my experiement guy was sleeping and so picked up the million crediits that were just sitting there.

 

The truth is out there. You just have to find it. Once you do, money is no problem as you level.

 

PS - I do run dailies on my main who has the most money of all of my characters, but only the tiniest part of his income comes from them. Far and away my two biggest consistant money makers are characters at level 40 who have forgotten the last time they have left fleet.

 

PPS - I do run quite a few UT, Slicing, and TH missions at all levels but with one exception never sell the purples that I get. They are all sitting in my cargo holds and are there whenever my wife or I need them. The exception is that when 1.3 hit, I had a number of stacks of augmentors and dumped a bunch at the initial over inflated price. I quickly learned that in swtor, crafting top quality items can suck you dry of purples, and if I try to get them when I need them (rather then amassing them over time) I am in for a long frustrating process.

 

PPPS - I would never call another player a fool, but indeed there are some that just don't get it. I often find stacks of crap stuff that is impossible to sell, but is listed under the vendor prices. Duh!!!! So it is a quick buy buy buy and then off to the vendor and sell sell sell - profit. With respect to those who list quality items way under value all I can say is buy and profit. Yes you need seed money to do that, but once you are at that point, you never have to look back and someone who significantly underprices either provides a great deal to buyers or an oppertunity for profit to me and others like me.

Edited July 17, 2012 by asbalana

Some materials are very very cheap due to an abundance of them available. Others are less available. I said in my guild chat last night if anyone has scavening and about 6 people replied yes. I told them there is never any laminoid (grade 1 compound) on GTN and often no Plastoid (grade 2 compound) and with missions only being a few minutes, its a great money maker for them as a stack of 10 would sell for 3000-5000 credits.

 

I started levelling an armortech recently also. I had noticed that for newer players levelling, there were often a complete lack of headgear on GTn for levels 30 and under, bar orange gear. I learnt the schematics off trainer, bought some schematics for a few hundred credits off GTN. I then RE the headgear to get blue and sold the lot in 1 day (80k sales, selling at around 4000-5000 each).

 

Crew skills can be expensive to learn yes, especially if its your 1st character but if say your can only wear heavy armor but can make heavy and medium, them dont buy the medium skills till u need them or afford them.

 

Just use GTN, see what you can make and what is not available for sale and make those. With regards to Underworld, ignore silk etc, just concentrate on metals. Grade 3 underworld metals sells well and you can also get kryat scales from critical missions

asblana makes an excellent point.

 

When I first started the game I was always broke. But this was mainly due to not understanding how things worked.

 

After reading the forums, finding helpful posts and changing what I spent money on, suddenly I had no problems.

 

Some tips:

 

1. Missions rewards sometimes give orange gear. Use those

2. Planetary commendations let you buy mods and armoring for your orange gear.

3. If you have one toon, crafting is a terrible waste of money, unless you know how to play the gtn.

4. If you have slicing, you can gather slicing nodes in the planet for free while you're questing.

 

I discovered that crafting gear my main was a terrible waste. But once I had alts it became useful. Crafting gear to sell on the gtn is a different story, but you better know what is profitable.

First of all the game have way too much money sinks...I am leveling a character and in 27 level I spent 13000 credits just to learn 2 skills...put in all this the crafting skill trains and the missions I run in par of my crafting skill and I have no money....there so many things in game to do, buy gifts for your companions, unlock legacy perks, e.t.c. and the game just keep eating all my credits for just the very basic!!to train skills and train my crafting!

 

So I have decided to start selling my blue metal and silks from my Underworld trading and the blue gems from my treasure hunting on my alt and what to see??there are fools that sell them for less than 800-900 credits per item..when a mission wants 1000+ credits and 90% of the time return with 2 metals, why you sell it 800-900?to profit 100 credits?

 

I seriously thinking to drop all my mission skills and get slicing to all my characters..when I want to craft something blue quality I will just buy from fools or china bots in the network...

 

btw I think if bioware run a gold selling company will make more money than the subscriptions...this game is the bread and butter of gold sellers. even if you fart it will cost you credits...

 

P.S. People say that in level 50 you make lots of credits by doing dailies..well I am not level 50 and I do not want to rush to level 50!I play the game for the enjoyable story based leveling and I have 4-5 characters I level in the same time...focus just one one character , just to reach 50 as fast as possible and doing the dailies every day, to have a chance to enjoy legacy and crafting it seems more like a job to me rather than a game that will play for fun

 

This is ridiculous. If you don't like crafting, you don't have to do it; it's completely optional. If you don't want to spend the time learning how to make money, you won't make money. It's not complicated at all, it just requires slightly more effort than right-clicking resources and new schematics from the trainer.

asblana makes an excellent point.

 

When I first started the game I was always broke. But this was mainly due to not understanding how things worked.

 

After reading the forums, finding helpful posts and changing what I spent money on, suddenly I had no problems.

 

Some tips:

 

1. Missions rewards sometimes give orange gear. Use those

2. Planetary commendations let you buy mods and armoring for your orange gear.

3. If you have one toon, crafting is a terrible waste of money, unless you know how to play the gtn.

4. If you have slicing, you can gather slicing nodes in the planet for free while you're questing.

 

I discovered that crafting gear my main was a terrible waste. But once I had alts it became useful. Crafting gear to sell on the gtn is a different story, but you better know what is profitable.

 

Absolutely true and number 3. is the key.

 

For a new player or one who needs money, put three gathering skills your character and then get out there and gather, gather, and gather. Never pass a node and never let a silver or gold droid (if you have scavaging) live. Sell everything that you gather. Hint, hint, hint, the low level mats sell well and for a good price since most people concentrate on the higher level stuff. Hint, hint, hint, gathering skills level up without cost (just gather and watch your levels rise).

 

To me (just my opinion) slicing is essential. You will find so many credit crammed lock boxes along the way that you will have to stop from time to time and click on them just to free up room in your bag. Once you become rich and fat, slicing missions can be run and they give all sorts of neat stuff (schematics and missions) and can provide invaluable purples. A win all the way around. For the other two choose from Arch, Scav, and Bio. Each provides saleable mats along the way and will be invaluable to a crafting skill that you will eventually want to level.

 

Once you have the gathering skills to 400 and a little spare change, you can power level any crafting skill in a day or two for a lot less money since all mats are obtained at cost.

 

To me the mission skills should come last, because they are rng dependent and a long run of bad luck can bankrupt a player with not a lot of cash. Indeed UT and Dip and TH provide essential ingredients for crafting, but they are for later in the game and can be progressed once you have the money while you are sitting on fleet and passing time.

Its ok to have big money sinks on high end game, but for casual play that includes leveling up and professions is not ok in my op..anyway, I ll try my best, if I feel I am not enjoying or I get frustrated I ll quit for second time and probably the last...

 

I can't fault you there. The money sinks included in this game are very poorly thought out. They are part of every game, but at least they are balanced. With this game they are far and above the ability of the casual player to maintain a "head above water" approach to the game if they want anything beyond the basics.

 

It is not unlike tradeskills, great basic format, very poor number management.

In any case the problem that people have with money in game seems to be more due to inexperience and lack of understanding of how things work than anything else.

 

I don't agree. I understand the "money game" just fine and I am quite capable of making that money by playing the GTN, crafting the big sellers, reselling etc. It is the amount of time required and the huge pile of credit sinks that can eat that profit right up without the extreme effort required to maintain sufficient income to be able to afford some of the basic niceties in the game.

 

What I'm saying here is that it should not be a matter of devising grand master plans to achieve great wealth sufficient to enjoy such things as basic legacy perks. This should be available to the casual, the new player with moderate effort derived from a system carefully balanced to allow for such, not just a random money sink that keeps players chasing carrots and doing mundane time sinks in order to keep up. It is balanced up to about level 25 or 30, then it skews well off the charts.

thank you all for the tips and hints. As I said I am not a new player in MMO's and I know how to make money if I give the time needed...the thing is, and that is what I said, I want to play the game casual, level my characters, level my professions without reasearch epic recipes, just some blue here and there and unlock my legacy perks with the experience I get.

 

All these are considered very basic and casual gameplay, although they need insane amount of credits...I don't ask for the high end game features to be cheap or the high end gear to be cheap. I ask for the basics..

 

I come back from work and I have 2-3 hours to play, why to spent 1+ hour to do dailies that I don't care, or spend 1 hour using the gtn just to be able to train my character skills, to train green recipes for professions, buy the vendor materials needed to skill up and unlock my legacy perks that I have already worked hard for them (gaining the experience through my alts)

 

I never complained in any MMO about epic gear or high end content being too expensive or too much time consuming but please let me have fun with the basics of the game without have to run a second, in-game job

Edited July 17, 2012 by Ampalaea

I want to play the game casual, level my characters, level my professions without reasearch epic recipes, just some blue here and there

 

IMO, in a well designed MMO, crafting *isn't* for the casual. All the best crafting systems have been decidedly non-casual. If you're planning on playing casual, then putting money into crafting is basically wasting money.

High end crafting of course it is not casual and thats why I said that I am not try to research epic schematics. Crafting is very fun activity for me. What I do is to provide my character and my alts with green quality armor to par with their level. I buy some blue mods/armorings with commendations and I fill the rest with green crafts and maybe once every 10 level 1 blue. This considered a casual crafting experience in my opinion and shouldn't need insane credits or as I said to spent 1-2 hours of my play time doing dailies and using the gtn

Never pass a node and never let a silver or gold droid (if you have scavaging) live.

 

Same with beasts for Bioanalysis. I've found that the easiest way to make credits as you level, especially your first character (or for all your characters you level before you get someone to 50, if that's your playstyle) is to take Slicing, Scavenging and Bioanalysis. Slicing is a gathering profession whose gatherable resource literally is money, and the other two (besides gathering for Cybertech, Armormech, and Biochem, which makes all tiers of gathered materials sell quickly on the GTN) will mean that almost every Strong and higher enemy you kill other than Humanoids will be able to be gathered for even more stuff to sell. Get these skills when you first get to the fleet and gather in places you have to go to (and from stuff you have to kill) anyway on your way to 50.

 

Then take Biochem, settle in for the long-haul, and laugh at other professions and their piddly little patch day payoffs.

thank you all for the tips and hints. As I said I am not a new player in MMO's and I know how to make money if I give the time needed...the thing is, and that is what I said, I want to play the game casual, level my characters, level my professions without reasearch epic recipes, just some blue here and there and unlock my legacy perks with the experience I get.

 

All these are considered very basic and casual gameplay, although they need insane amount of credits...I don't ask for the high end game features to be cheap or the high end gear to be cheap. I ask for the basics..

 

I come back from work and I have 2-3 hours to play, why to spent 1+ hour to do dailies that I don't care, or spend 1 hour using the gtn just to be able to train my character skills, to train green recipes for professions, buy the vendor materials needed to skill up and unlock my legacy perks that I have already worked hard for them (gaining the experience through my alts)

 

I never complained in any MMO about epic gear or high end content being too expensive or too much time consuming but please let me have fun with the basics of the game without have to run a second, in-game job

The casual gameplay you're describing above is EXACTLY what I did for my second toon. And following the basic tips I learned on my first toon, I was never hurting for money.

 

I didn't work the gtn.

I didn't do a lot of crafting.

I didn't buy gear, I got gear from mission rewards / planetary commendations.

I had slicing as a skill and gathered slicing nodes when they were convenient.

 

You say that casual gameplay requires an insane amount of credits. That's just not true if you skip over legacy perks -- everything is easily affordable without having to sell stuff on gtn or grind dailies.

 

The only way to be short on money is by SPENDING it. And if you're not doing crafting missions, and if much of your gear comes from rewards, what are you spending money on anyway?

 

P.S. Recently I went back to my level 45 gunslinger (currently on Voss) and picked up the quest line. Made 100k in an hour and a half -- plenty enough money to afford the skills at the trainer that unlocked when I dinged level 46. This money was only from quest rewards and selling junk drops from mobs killed.

Edited July 17, 2012 by JeffKretz

High end crafting of course it is not casual and thats why I said that I am not try to research epic schematics. Crafting is very fun activity for me. What I do is to provide my character and my alts with green quality armor to par with their level. I buy some blue mods/armorings with commendations and I fill the rest with green crafts and maybe once every 10 level 1 blue. This considered a casual crafting experience in my opinion and shouldn't need insane credits or as I said to spent 1-2 hours of my play time doing dailies and using the gtn

 

*shrug* as long as you realize doing so is pissing away money for no real reason. Like I said, "Casual crafting" such as you describe is, IMO, never a good idea in a well designed game. You want people to decide to either go full in producers, making profits by making stuff to sell to others, or to go full consumers, simply buying stuff those people have made. Simple self sufficiency breaks the whole point, and should never be a cost effective option. Doable "Casual crafting" would still be making stuff primarily to sell... but perhaps with only a character, and only up to a few blues.

I want to play the game casual, level my characters, level my professions without reasearch epic recipes, just some blue here and there and unlock my legacy perks with the experience I get.

Just playing the game you're all good till that last bit. If you want the Legacy perks you need to either grind Dailies or use crew skills for money. And while they are money sinks they are also rewards for people who want to keep playing and having something to work towards after level 50. It would be like if you were immediately just given a full set Rakata, War Hero or Tionese gear as a reward for hitting level 50.

 

If you want to play casual than play the story upto 50. If you want all the goodies and unlocks, especially goodies that are lifelong and all your toons share, you have to work for them.

I don't agree. I understand the "money game" just fine and I am quite capable of making that money by playing the GTN, crafting the big sellers, reselling etc. It is the amount of time required and the huge pile of credit sinks that can eat that profit right up without the extreme effort required to maintain sufficient income to be able to afford some of the basic niceties in the game.

 

What I'm saying here is that it should not be a matter of devising grand master plans to achieve great wealth sufficient to enjoy such things as basic legacy perks. This should be available to the casual, the new player with moderate effort derived from a system carefully balanced to allow for such, not just a random money sink that keeps players chasing carrots and doing mundane time sinks in order to keep up. It is balanced up to about level 25 or 30, then it skews well off the charts.

 

I don't think that we disagree rather are looking at two different aspects of the money game.

 

I was talking to the newer player to swotr who is trying to get his/her first or second character leveled. To them crafting is confusing to say the least and a very difficult system to understand and credits will not flow easily. Also players without a good deal of time to invest in crafting (doing it or exploring the possibiites) will often find themselves credit poor and struggling as they level up.

 

As far as the accomplished money maker who has the time, I agree somewhat with points made by JeffKretz. There are indeed a great deal of money sinks in the game and one has to be careful with the spending side of the equation. You have to pick and choose carefully and manage the money that you make (no matter how much). I am not saying in any way that you do not manage your money well. But truth is that no matter how many credits you can earn, you will never have enough to scratch the surface of the money sinks and indeed most will not be available to the casual player. Poor design? I don't know but if so, add it to the never ending list of poor design decisions and flawed implementations in the game.