This is why i personally gave up on this promising crafting system, its just too random for my liking, going from a green to a blue can take from 1 RE, right up to 20+ REs and to me, that is just too many.

Just 1 is too little, but i am thinking 5 Max is enough for green to blue, from blue to purple i am thinking 10 max would be the right amount, otherwise you are wasting resources in a futile attempt to get a good selection of craftable items.

It's random and Blue to Purple is a very low percentage...

I think i went over 30 ear pieces before i finally got a purple.

It's somewhere north of 30 blues per purple for me. At level 44 it costs me approx 2k and 45-55 minutes to run the mission to get enough blue fabric to craft a single blue.

So, we're talking 60k and 22.5 hours. That's more time than any raid and most of the craftable gear is nowhere near as good as raid gear.

My record is 254 blues RE'ed to get the Purple prefix I wanted.

Sometimes its like that.

Sometimes you get it on the first few tries.

I dont mind.

It has to be this random so that not everyone can craft the best stuff, only dedicated crafters. And as much as I hate losing creds and materials to RE, this HAS to be kept that way.

The only thing I could support would be having some kind of RE XP/stat (incredibly slow to level up) that gives very minor bonus chances to successfully find tier1 or tier2 schematic.

But making it 5 to 10 attempts to find purple would be killing the real crafters.

The only problem is that there is less and less incentive to craft purples at lower levels because it just ends up costing too much/taking too much time and when you really need it, you'll level right past it and outgear it. Why spend the time/effort for something that's going to cost more than people will be willing to pay because they will outgear it so quickly?

Having RE take forever at level 50 with the highest level gear is completely and totally understandable. Having it take forever when you're level 31 trying to get a new implant is extremely lame.

Kudos to the poster above me who had the balls to stick with it even after 250+ tries to get their particular purple prefix. Personally speaking, I almost gave up myself when I had passed the 3 dozen mark hunting for the prefix I wanted.

Regarding another poster's concern regarding time / effort / cost spent : IMO, the time / effort I spent was definitely worth it in the increased performance I got in WZs. Especially since at this point in the game you would very likely run into a lot of people higher levelled than you, running with purple gear gives you a better fighting chance, so I found. And no, I do not want to rush things and power level to 50 to just do my gear farming there.

Even with all the mission items I burnt through to get the prefix I wanted (and all the accompanying costs that entailed), I think I've more than broke even selling crafted items of that schematic in the GTN. Of course, there's no way that people will buy your stuff if you price it such that you'd get returns after only selling 2 or 3 items. Price it right, and the item's quality will speak for itself. It also helps that I don't churn things out factory style, nor do I expect everything to sell within 2 days. Just keep those expectations in mind, and you'd be OK.

The only problem is that there is less and less incentive to craft purples at lower levels because it just ends up costing too much/taking too much time and when you really need it, you'll level right past it and outgear it. Why spend the time/effort for something that's going to cost more than people will be willing to pay because they will outgear it so quickly?

 

Having RE take forever at level 50 with the highest level gear is completely and totally understandable. Having it take forever when you're level 31 trying to get a new implant is extremely lame.

Completely agree.

So until lvl 25 i would need around 3 to 6 blue crafted items from armstech to get a purple one. But since i tried to make my lvl 29 Purple Riot Blaster Rifle, i spent around 20+ Blue blaster rifles, and i an still trying. Is that a normal thing? It's just a lvl 29 crappy rifle, but needs a terrible amount of mats to make it purple. If it ever goes to purple...

RNG i got a purple lvl 50 from re after the 4th

people should just accept it is random

It has to be this random so that not everyone can craft the best stuff, only dedicated crafters. And as much as I hate losing creds and materials to RE, this HAS to be kept that way.

 

The only thing I could support would be having some kind of RE XP/stat (incredibly slow to level up) that gives very minor bonus chances to successfully find tier1 or tier2 schematic.

 

But making it 5 to 10 attempts to find purple would be killing the real crafters.

This!

Making it easier would be a kick in the you know what of the dedicated crafters.

....Even with all the mission items I burnt through to get the prefix I wanted (and all the accompanying costs that entailed), I think I've more than broke even selling crafted items of that schematic in the GTN. Of course, there's no way that people will buy your stuff if you price it such that you'd get returns after only selling 2 or 3 items. Price it right, and the item's quality will speak for itself. It also helps that I don't churn things out factory style, nor do I expect everything to sell within 2 days. Just keep those expectations in mind, and you'd be OK.

I agree that the upfront cost of getting the required pre-fix would be bearable if you can make multiple items to sell using the schematic you've worked so hard to get.

Like you, my strategy was to sell enough crafted items at attractive prices to break even on the schematic or make a small profit. The difficulty I've found is that on my artificer it's proving equally difficult to get the necessary materials to make the purple item as it was getting the right schematic in the first place.

Treasure Hunting for the required gemstones seems to be the additional problem for me: it's consistently taking at least 20 to 30 runs to get sufficient gemstones to make just one artifact lightsaber hilt at level 25 making the whole process uneconomic. I can totally understand such a situation for level 50 items but at such a low level it makes no sense.

The problem with RE is it doesn't really make a lot of sense to build thirty earpieces, then smash them all and try to guess how to improve it. It's pretty laughable how you can spend 25 items going from green to blue and them get lucky and learn purple on the first try. Instead the green-blue-purple rate should be a fixed number (or the chance of success should increase with every RE) with a very small chance to crit and learn some kind of super schematic.

Add in a new tier of schematics that have some significant bonus that makes them better than commendation/PvP gear, that way dedicated crafters can actually get something worthwile out of their crafting skill and the more casual crafters can get their purple gear without rolling the dice and spending all their money for stuff they'll just outlevel in a day.

The only thing I could support would be having some kind of RE XP/stat (incredibly slow to level up) that gives very minor bonus chances to successfully find tier1 or tier2 schematic.

That's an interesting idea. I too like that it's hard to get the good stuff. But my problem with it is that it's so random. An exp bar would be great because then that would give the dedicated crafters slightly better chances. So they're more likely to end up with the good stuff than some random dude who just happened to get really lucky.

A low percentage chance of getting a purple isnt so bad IF the purple is raid-quality or heroic FP quality.

As of now, it isnt even vendor quality.

I have a purple lvl 49 earpiece and the one from Ilum/Belvaris dailies blows mine away.

Granted, it's 120 commendations for one vendor earpiece but that just takes a few weeks and pretty much cost-free, in fact, u earn money from doing the quests.

A separate reverse engineering skill bar is EXACTLY what this game needs.

Crafting is too random and unlike almost everything else in this game (social, valour, even legacy which doesn't actually *do* anything right now) doing something a lot doesn't make it any easier.

if the chance to learn a purple is currently 0.5% then if you RE thousands then it should be closer to 5 or 10% so once you finally become a "level 50 reverse engineer" you can go back and discover all your purple/blue recipes.

Embarrassing Admission: Last night, I got the artifact recipe from my first RE of a prototype. Not playing or trolling. RNG is will forever taunt us. And I got it on something I have no reason to ever craft too (basic Red Crit crystal 2) le sigh.

Meanwhile, I trudged through 18 prototype bracers on my trooper and not a single discovery.

In many ways, I wish the unlocking came from the crafting rather than from RE.

Personally, I make 20 or so different items, with a few duplicates, and RE them all together. Sometimes I get 1 schematic, sometimes 2. That's a pretty good ratio and it hasn't changed. Would I keep track of how many each is taking? No, that sounds like a good way to irritate yourself needlessly.

As for there being no incentive to craft purples at lower levels.. not true at all, they get snatched up like crazy. But you can't sell them at a ridiculous price either, since it's going to bind and they're only going to use it for a few levels.

There are much, much easier ways to make money in this game than crafting. Personally, I'd rather do the crafting and be poor. If the crafting just frustrates you, why do it?

Random is what keeps crafting exciting.

How boring it is to have a set system saying if i craft 5 blues i should get a purple RE. I think that would make me quit crafting.

I craft because i love it... not for the credits... I can easily earn 1 million credits per day at level 50.

This is why i personally gave up on this promising crafting system, its just too random for my liking, going from a green to a blue can take from 1 RE, right up to 20+ REs and to me, that is just too many.

 

Just 1 is too little, but i am thinking 5 Max is enough for green to blue, from blue to purple i am thinking 10 max would be the right amount, otherwise you are wasting resources in a futile attempt to get a good selection of craftable items.

I agree that is a good idea. I didn't think about that.

Originally Posted by SalvorHardin

The only thing I could support would be having some kind of RE XP/stat (incredibly slow to level up) that gives very minor bonus chances to successfully find tier1 or tier2 schematic.