Not sure if this is a proper spot for this topic.

 

While roadmap is great and insightful, this one got me worried. Companion Influence earned from Crew Skill Missions.

 

This is such a slap in the face to many hard working crafters that put a lot of time, credits and energy into leveling their companions. The very thought of every single player having a possibility of reaching level 50 relatively quickly sickens me.

 

First, BW removes Data Crystals which were great way of buying Grade 6 gifts. Then, they bump up the price of Grade 6 gifts so barely anyone will buy them. Then they remove CXP from Esseles and Black Talon, to further demoralize people running it. And now, they want everyone to have more convenient way of leveling companions?

 

What could be the reason? Some sort of money sink? Reducing inflation on GTN?

 

What are your thoughts on this?

What are your thoughts on this?

Meh.

 

(Well, you asked. That's what I think.)

I think putting influence behind such a massive credit sink was stupid to begin with. I preferred he data crystal system, and barring that I prefer their future plans

I have a feeling that each mission will generate a very small amount of influence (random number pulled from the aether: 100 influence per mission run, possibly variable based on mission difficulty and/or quality; i.e. a yellow difficulty rich mission will generate more influence than a moderate gray), therefore it will take a VERY long time for someone to get a companion to rank 50 solely through crew skill missions.

 

This is just another example of exchanging time for credits: want to get your companion high rank quickly, spend credits on gifts. want to get your companion high rank without spending additional credits, run crew skill missions.

The very thought of every single player having a possibility of reaching level 50 relatively quickly sickens me.

 

 

We still don't know how much incluence will be gained with missions (or have they say that already and i missed it?).

I don't think that is going to be much. And it probably will give more with higher grade, but as those missions takes more time it will not be too fast.

 

I personally do like the idea, the first time i started with crew missions i thought that it should provide some influence gain with each one (even a little bit). Now i'm looking forward to it.

My bet, it will be like LS/DS, that was mitigated by raising bar for max points. Still, running missions for influence is a win-win since you will get mats as well. If you sell those, you will be gaining influence for free and that is the idea I do not like.

I think it's a great idea. I don't think it will be that fast as top level crew skill missions take a decent amount of time to run. I assume the higher the crew skills the more influence you get, so you will be better off running top tier over bottom ones. I'd be surprise if it's that good (I actually hope it is) and if it is that good I'm going to love it. Even if I did waste a lot of money getting my companion up so far it will benefit any alts I make. I overall hate tedious massive grinds in general. To be honest people can raise their companion influences by buying gift from the vendor on the fleet which is much cheaper than buying gift off the market. The only bad part is you have to stand their for hours which is stupid. I think it just a way to passively help player level up the countless companions they have. Which I think is a good thing for everyone.

Even if its 500 per run - your still talking a huge grind and a lot of credits spent just to get to influence rank 50. IF anyone here has pvp'd Pierce or Mx to 50 you will know it takes forever. I'm still pretty confident that companion gifts are gonna still sell well and be the primary means to level a companion.

I think it is a good idea especially in light of how many companions we have now.

I stopped sending comp for crew skills/crafting long long long time ago. I just do not care to waste time on it. i can buy what ever i need on GTM. So i hope we can still get influence on our every day activities with comps? Cause that would suck and no doubt tick off a lot of people like my self.

Cause that would suck and no doubt tick off a lot of people like my self.

 

I;m sort of in that boat since I'm one of the folks who sunk a lot of in game money into my companions to get their influence up.

 

Glad though I stopped at 35.

I think putting influence behind such a massive credit sink was stupid to begin with. I preferred he data crystal system, and barring that I prefer their future plans

I agree also credit sink is bad.

I think it is a good idea especially in light of how many companions we have now.

 

Agreed, people need to get past this "but it was this way before and it's not fair" nonsense.

 

It's basically implying we should never improve anything ever because someone else had to do it the hard way before and we don't want them to feel put out.

 

Pfft.

they can complain about sinking credits into gifts all they want. there were and are still ways to get gifts without spending any credits. I have over 50+ comps at lvl 50 without paying a credit for gifts. plus many more ranging from 20-49.

they can complain about sinking credits into gifts all they want. there were and are still ways to get gifts without spending any credits. I have over 50+ comps at lvl 50 without paying a credit for gifts. plus many more ranging from 20-49.

 

But how much time did you spend grinding star fortresses and/or heroics to get all those gifts (from I am assuming alliance crates)?

But how much time did you spend grinding star fortresses and/or heroics to get all those gifts (from I am assuming alliance crates)?

 

no grinds at all really. just play. its not that hard. and then before they took away crystals, it was even easier then.

Edited June 6, 2017 by CrazyScruffy

But how much time did you spend grinding star fortresses and/or heroics to get all those gifts (from I am assuming alliance crates)?

Starter companions from the class stories (T7, Jorgan, Khem Val, Vette, Qyzen, Kaliyo, Corso, Mako, on their respective classes) can gain several thousand points of influence per visit to Black Talon / The Esseles. (The "old" versions, before you get them back from the KotFE storyline or alerts, that is, for Vette/Jorgan/T7/Kaliyo/Qyzen.)

 

Granted, that still counts as grinding existing content, but you see the idea, right? And that process doesn't even require gifts!

 

And M1-4X (Pub characters) and Lt. Pierce (Imp characters) gain 250 per warzone lost, 500 per win after you get them back from the KotFE alert. Again, grinding, but no gifts.

 

And you get gifts in GC crates.

It really is about losing OPs advantage, which he obviously has worked for. But the new system will still need work and credits while it provides the possibility for new players to catch up eventually. That is not bad. And OP had probably had returned many times for his investment so all he loses is his headstart.

My bet, it will be like LS/DS, that was mitigated by raising bar for max points. Still, running missions for influence is a win-win since you will get mats as well. If you sell those, you will be gaining influence for free and that is the idea I do not like.

 

Why not? Because you cannot benefit from it anymore since you already got your crafting comps to lvl. 50? Dont be selfish please.

How will I not benefit from my companions? Their level will not decrease.

 

Sadly, with half the population of the game being so stupid, I'm afraid no "improvement" of the game will make them smarter, quite the opposite. Game is becoming easier due to stupid players unable to competitively play.

 

Also, another downside is that this change will somehow support already terrible companion system 4.0+. What to do with 20+ companions per toon? Well level them, of course...

How will I not benefit from my companions? Their level will not decrease.

 

Sadly, with half the population of the game being so stupid, I'm afraid no "improvement" of the game will make them smarter, quite the opposite. Game is becoming easier due to stupid players unable to competitively play.

 

Also, another downside is that this change will somehow support already terrible companion system 4.0+. What to do with 20+ companions per toon? Well level them, of course...

 

Please note: there is no requirement to have 20+ companions on each toon; you do not have to complete every recruitment of every companion on every toon. So long as you have nine companions (eight for crew skills and one to use in play), you're set. Granted as the level cap goes up so will the number of companions "needed" for crew skills...so you just recruit what you "need".

 

Players wanted more variety in their companions. Players wanted the ability to kill companions. Players wanted the ability to use a specific companions without their "role" clashing (i.e. using mako when your merc is a healer too; or forced to use mako because she's the only healer you have) With this system, we get all of the above. Granted, one of the interesting features of companions was/is their story and conversations we have with them and with so many companions all we now get is an introduction and then crickets. And some new companions might be interesting romance options but we do not get the chance.

 

The system is not perfect, but it is not terrible either.

According to guildmate: a rich grade 10 mission will net 203 influence with the companion that ran it. As I expected, this is NOT a great way to level influence. It takes 250k influence to reach rank 50. At 203 per mission...that's 1232 missions to go from 1 to 50. or 5,864,320 credits.

 

Even if you are starting a companion at rank 20...it is still 1035 missions to get to rank 50 at a average of 10 minutes per mission (yes the time to complete goes down with each rank, again talking AVERAGE) that's 172.5 HOURS of running missions.

 

My point is that this is a good supplement to gifts or grinding not a replacement.

 

And I thought about this last night: this might be an inducement to not farm as much. If players pay credits for materials in the form of missions AND get some influence out of it, more players might just run missions instead of farming.

I welcome this change a LOT. It only pains me to know that most my comps would be level 50 by now but hey, you can't retcon everything can you?

 

Besides, what makes a great crafter is not the level of his toons. And if suddenly everyone and their sisters start producing twice as much of everything because more efficient comps, prices will only plummet.

And don't worry. Crafting like a pro takes a bookworm gaming style that would drive most player nuts, so the change should be marginal.

 

As Psandak says your goal is to sell - not to produce.

Edited June 13, 2017 by BenduKundalini

Even if you are starting a companion at rank 20...it is still 1035 missions to get to rank 50 at a average of 10 minutes per mission (yes the time to complete goes down with each rank, again talking AVERAGE) that's 172.5 HOURS of running missions.

 

My point is that this is a good supplement to gifts or grinding not a replacement.

 

Woo Hoo! It's taken a year and a half of running the Nar Shadda Star Fortress to get Verona Deez up to 31 influence at 325 per Star Fortress Bonus mission, I might actually get her to 50 now before I die of old age!

At first I was relieved that this is going to be slow as well. However, this could create a dump in price of mats, specially blue and purple mats, but in return it won't persuade crafters to lower their prices, so I highly doubt this would work as a money sink. We will see.