So, Crafting in SWTOR is nowhere near as amazing as crafting in SWG -the one thing Sony did right. And now, Sony, in collusion with Lucas Arts, has murdered the one and only amazing crafting system of any MMO in the past, and, I fear, alas, never ever to be reproduced in the future as it doesn't fit 'modern game theory'. This makes me one sad panda that crafting here in SWTOR is so, uh, juvenile. Simple. Tediously boring and expensive to do to boot.

I'll probably still play SWTOR here and there; I love the story line, the artistic style. Besides, many of my friends play SWTOR, at least for now. I may despise the hideousness of the UI and inability to move windows, my target, the target of my target (haven't even found that yet), move the quick-slot bars, the pet bar, heck, everything HUD element-wise but I understand that SOME of those issues are a future patch, way in the future patch. (you know, actually, LotRO does their HUD/UI elements right and I wish Bioware had learned how from them).

But what really kills me is how poorly crafting was designed. You pay your companion to run missions instead of being able to gather on your own. Yes, I know, some gathering professions allow you to harvest. But Diplomacy? You pay. That's the one "Non-Gathering" gathering profession I/ve tried and do - you just can't pick it off the ground/corpse/drop. Maybe I'm just not high enough to see it happening, I am only CL19. Not that it matters, really. I can tell that crafting was 'added' as an after-thought, much like LotRO,, and pretty much every other new MMO. Same established pattern. SWG, and EVE as well, being two of the few exceptions to poorly-designed 'modern game theory' crafting - perhaps because SWG to a certain extent, and most certainly EVE, are 'sandbox' MMOs vice being a 'themepark' like SWTOR. I guess if I want to be a serious crafter, I'll have to reactivate my EVE account(s) that I closed in anticipation of SWTOR.

Rest in Peace, Star Wars Galaxies. I for one, will miss you, especially for the crafting.

I still play SWG pre cu and its still great.

Such a shame it got murdered nothing else came close to it.

(Unfortunately I cant tell you who what how etc as its against forum rules for some reason)

crafting and the community seem like the only thing that people really like about it.

But anyway SWG still exists go look up SWGEMU

Sorry you feel that way. As a SWG architect I can certainly relate to what you are saying. However, this is way better of a crafting system than I thought it would be. In fact, I think it's better than wow (although that doesn't take much) and better than eve's. It revolves around creating alts, and to a certain extent having more than one account.

I think you need to dig into the crafting system a bit more here. Determine some markets to participate in (which will likely be focused around your main character's needs), and the alts you need to support varying professions.

For example, I have a lvl 19, and realized quickly that I needed an alt for him. As a sith warrior I needed synthweaving and artifacing, and of course one of those requires an alt. I also need archaelogy (for mats), underworld trading (for mats), investigation (for schematics), and treasure hunting (for gemstones). Boom! There's two characters filled with crafting skills, and I haven't even started yet on biochem/bioanalysis and cybertech. And all that is just for a force user. I'll have to create even more alts if I want to play a non-force alt, cause there's an entire array of stuff for those characters.

Another good thing about crafting in this game are the rare recipes. At least for artifacing and synthweaving, from the information I've seen on TORHead it appears that you can create a blue schematic of pretty much any green schematic. Now of course the easy to make ones that are used for leveling (e.g. belts and bracers that have lower resource requirements) will be pretty well worthless. But if you want to get a foothold into the other markets, it comes down to you to spend the time and materials to get the rest of the blue recipes. Not everyone is going to do this and allows us a certain amount of differentiation between crafters. Add in critical procs, and there's all kinds of market potential.

Finally, I woud really like to get a second (or more) account at this stage because those mission skills should be run constantly. I think there's gonna be real money in that part of the game. It makes good sense to have some alts dedicated to those skills who are doing nothing but running missions 24/7 (uh-oh sounds like an easy to make bot). I've got these two characters running four companions most of the time now (although money is limiting that), and I've got a whole lot more mat collecting to do.

So anyways tldr version....doesn't sound to me like you've really checked out all that crafting has to offer in this game.

I am glad that people can not pick up this game and just focus on crafting/etertaning/selling alone. If you want to be a crafter go to the craft store and build a bird house. Otherwise pick up a light saber or blaster and go save or destroy the galaxy. Crafting is for companions, as it should be.

Well that's a really closed-minded view. Crafting brings a ton to mmos. If you can't understand why people like crafting than that's really your problem. Suffice it to say that only a child-like mentality would think that their way of playing is the only way others like to play.

I prefer this crafting system. I like that gear that drops is as good as made because I am not into playing business oriented games.... You desires are certainly valid however I hope this game is never a crafters paradise and instead continues to focus on story and plot... I hope that other games meet your needs as well as this game meets mine.

SWG proved that a crafting game alone is not a profitable model. There can be no doubt about that. That's why the future is in the hybrid mmo, cause you can't have wow raids every moment you play either.

Thanks Marlaine, for that bit of advice. I will certainly look into this more and start to work your suggestions. I need to learn patience, a la Luke! and give it more in-depth practice. But, you have to admit, SWG crafting was amazing.

Thanks for the encouragement!

i dunno man nge was pretty bad

I do miss SWG a lot and many of the features it had.

But the single feature I noticed that I miss the most in TOR are the chat bubbles, as it's pretty much impossible to socialize and roleplay on a larger scale without them. I do really hope they will add them in soon as promised. Without them, the game isn't worth playing in the long term for me, I'm afraid.

Thanks Marlaine, for that bit of advice. I will certainly look into this more and start to work your suggestions. I need to learn patience, a la Luke! and give it more in-depth practice. But, you have to admit, SWG crafting was amazing.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Cool. I hope that you find some options that are of interest to you.

If you haven't read this yet, you may want to check it out. It's a good basic guide to crafting that explains the crew skills in more detail and helps to decide what alt skills you need:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=530

It's a shame they moved this thread. I think it's perfectly valid in the general forums. People can compare swtor to wow to their heart's content, but a comparison to SWG crafting goes to the trash bin. Oh well.

Yes crafting in SWG was awesome, and greatly missed.

If you want something like this again or even better they bring back SWG officially then contact Lucasarts and let them know, as maybe EA/Bioware or Lucasarts themselves will be able to take over running SWG

I am going to contact them regularly to say I am missing SWG

crafting and the community seem like the only thing that people really like about it.

 

But anyway SWG still exists go look up SWGEMU

stop promoting the EMU, it's a bag mockup of the bad version of SWG...

I loved SWG pre-cu but i was never a fan of the crafting time-sink. I guess some people like that stuff but rather boring to me.

on a side note, i loved all the different professions of the original model, dancers, doctors, image designers, the game has so much to offer.

Shame they screwed it up by nerfing the prestige class and totally changing the entire game.

Well that's a really closed-minded view. Crafting brings a ton to mmos. If you can't understand why people like crafting than that's really your problem. Suffice it to say that only a child-like mentality would think that their way of playing is the only way others like to play.

^ repeat a thousand times until you get this

Woohoo I think this is my first post on these forums.

I wanted to say in my years of playing SWG I realized what brought the community together. It was all aspects of that particular MMO that made it so great. 36 different starting professions and all of them relevant. Master Doctors to buff your stats, and heal. Master Weaponsmith/Armorsmith/Architech etc etc for all those items you couldn't find looting, or for sale. Master Entertainer buffed you by watching them dance or sing. Creature Handlers could whip out their pets to attack you. All the professions were playable and very much needed. The player housing, and player based economy is what drove that game toward socializing, and the community was awesome! The fact that it took some people upwards of a year or more just to unlock their Force Sensitive slot kept the Jedi class rare and very much sought after. Going outside of a major city like Bestine and you will see litteraly several hundred people all gathering in one place. IMO you lose alot of the MMO feeling when you don't include things like good crafting, player housing, player based economy. You had a sense of belonging to something special in that game. I remember before CU and NGE there were tons of player run cities. Where you had to have 10 or more ppl place their residence, or house in a given area and then you could add a city hall. Get tons more ppl to move there and eventually you had your own cantina, hospital, and shuttleport. It was a wide open world with millions of things to do.

This game will NEVER compete with what SWG gave us over 10 years ago. I run outside of Anchorhead in this game and see about 10 ppl. All the while my server says Heavy, or Full. lmao! I am almost always in a different instance than my friends playing on the same server at the same time. Nothing special or custom about crafting your own items. This game seems like it's more of a single player RPG with the ability to party when need be. It doesnt have the same feel of community that SWG once had. Shoot even WOW and RIFT have a better since of community envolvement than SWTOR does. I like this game don't get me wrong but MMO games have never stepped up to the plate in terms of immersion into a virtual world like SWG did, or even EVE. We are not involved or tied to each other in any way in this game. Sorry but endgame content was never the treasure, it's the quest to get there that was. I realize that this MMO has great graphics and a great story line but where's the MMO part of it? I just don't see it. We get personal ships but nothing makes them special. We can't decorate them. We can't throw parties on them, or do anything special with them. Heck I get tossed back onto my ship after certain space missions on my GF's ship. There is nothing in this game that is going to draw us together except for Flashpoints, and Heroics. The worlds are too small, and linear. Crafting is a joke. Sorry to complain but it's true. This game has the makings of something great but it seems like they tried to please everyone by making a cookiecutter type game that any 12 year old can sign up on and play with relative ease. There was something special about grinding out that last tree in SWG for the Jedi slot. Now it's just a starting profession in pretty much every SW game to date. There was something special about that extra 15% customization skill you had when crafting a blaster no body else could. These classes are so unbalanced, and nobody needs anybody. The healing classes are not special. Nothing from an MMO standpoint in this game is special. But if this were KOTOR III then this game kicks butt!!!! But it's an MMO!!!

WHERE'S THE BEEF???? lol

You know what, I agree mate you have actually just changed my mind on this game, just like RIFT this has nothing new to offer. Its single player KOTOR 3 with MMO written on it, I cant fly in other peoples space ships i cant be a part of anyones crew.

I cant switch between weapons to use its all just set weapons either 2 blasters or 1 YAY i cant just get better blasters i cant use sniper rifles or assault rifles, even Jedi use blasters sometimes.

And its not even hard to level after 17-18 with all the space battles and PvP exp ive risen 10 levels in less than 2 days, and half of that ive stood around waiting for my mate to get to me on the same world so we can do social missions.

I guess the plus side to this is that you dont grind to level but youve got to have something else to keep the player busy, if theres not crafting what is there? And you dont do any crafting really.

Theres got to be something productive towards the game which you can do which involves your character and not leveling otherwise at lvl50 theres not much to do, im on a pvp server and im not going to shell out £9 a month to play PvPall the time :/

Once youve done the storyline of one charac is the idea to just do the other, as i cant see too many differences, and ill soon get bored of a story line if it becomes repetitive.

I know its EA who have influenced the design again, i had hoped that they hadn't but i can feel their business like minds at work again, cut here, cut there, you just know there's a group of people in business suits who have never played games in that corporation who decide the fate of the game.

If only they would just put their logo on and just give funding and stand back, let the real games developers design the games, you'd get an amazing game with no limits to what you would get in the end.

You always have that feeling with EA i dont know why, its like they havent got any time left for actual gamers they only want to try and influence the younger generation to accept flashy games with no real back bone.

The back bone to this game seems to be the storyline, but unfortunately there is no difference per gamer, if I say the same things I get the same results, there is no dice roll on the NPC saying something different or offering something different.

Everyone of the same class gets the same looking Companion, what if there were hundreds of companions and there was a dice roll on that too, imagine how attached you would become to that companion if you knew that it was unique.

also imagine how different the circumstances could be each time you met that companion, you could make quite a few different ways of meeting that companion and it would just add to the experience.

Okay yes you wouldnt have the same missions per person but atleast the person who accompanied you would experience something new and not their story so in this way they could get away from thier story for a few missions.

meh this is too much thinking for me, EA just wants me to pay and play they will never understand what its like to have an imagination for something other than their next profit and loss sheet/ balance sheet / employee audit.

You know what, I agree mate you have actually just changed my mind on this game, just like RIFT this has nothing new to offer. Its single player KOTOR 3 with MMO written on it, I cant fly in other peoples space ships i cant be a part of anyones crew.

 

I cant switch between weapons to use its all just set weapons either 2 blasters or 1 YAY i cant just get better blasters i cant use sniper rifles or assault rifles, even Jedi use blasters sometimes.

 

And its not even hard to level after 17-18 with all the space battles and PvP exp ive risen 10 levels in less than 2 days, and half of that ive stood around waiting for my mate to get to me on the same world so we can do social missions.

 

I guess the plus side to this is that you dont grind to level but youve got to have something else to keep the player busy, if theres not crafting what is there? And you dont do any crafting really.

 

Theres got to be something productive towards the game which you can do which involves your character and not leveling otherwise at lvl50 theres not much to do, im on a pvp server and im not going to shell out £9 a month to play PvPall the time :/

 

Once youve done the storyline of one charac is the idea to just do the other, as i cant see too many differences, and ill soon get bored of a story line if it becomes repetitive.

 

I know its EA who have influenced the design again, i had hoped that they hadn't but i can feel their business like minds at work again, cut here, cut there, you just know there's a group of people in business suits who have never played games in that corporation who decide the fate of the game.

 

If only they would just put their logo on and just give funding and stand back, let the real games developers design the games, you'd get an amazing game with no limits to what you would get in the end.

 

You always have that feeling with EA i dont know why, its like they havent got any time left for actual gamers they only want to try and influence the younger generation to accept flashy games with no real back bone.

 

The back bone to this game seems to be the storyline, but unfortunately there is no difference per gamer, if I say the same things I get the same results, there is no dice roll on the NPC saying something different or offering something different.

 

Everyone of the same class gets the same looking Companion, what if there were hundreds of companions and there was a dice roll on that too, imagine how attached you would become to that companion if you knew that it was unique.

 

also imagine how different the circumstances could be each time you met that companion, you could make quite a few different ways of meeting that companion and it would just add to the experience.

 

Okay yes you wouldnt have the same missions per person but atleast the person who accompanied you would experience something new and not their story so in this way they could get away from thier story for a few missions.

 

meh this is too much thinking for me, EA just wants me to pay and play they will never understand what its like to have an imagination for something other than their next profit and loss sheet/ balance sheet / employee audit.

I agree totally!!! This game has such potential but they tried to please everyone by pretty much handing you everything. I hope that they make some changes because this game should have been more Sandbox with tons of content, instead we got Theme Park with arrow directionals to show us the path to run. I like the game but not much in it screams MMO to me. However, it does look like a bad***** version of KOTOR 3 he he

People just don't seem to realize just how big of a part crafting played in Pre-CU SWG. Ask 10 Weaponsmiths to make the same item(lets say a power hammer) and each of the created items will be different. Some will have more damage and others a better attack speed. The more time you put into crafting the better items you would make and the more money too. Crafters ran the economy because they were actually needed. PvPer were usually lower on the economic totem pole while the crafters would be the 1% of America. Now a days with games like WoW and TOR, 10 Armstech asked to make the same item will give you 10 identical items. It used to be a challenge to make better items. You actually had to go out and find the good resources. Now I just send my companions off when im in an instance. Absolutely not fun crafting now.

Ive played WoW for years and have mastered most crafting professions in that game. My experience from that is that gear from raids is better then what A crafter can make anyways, and its free too.

Trying to compare SWG to TOR is like trying to compare a car to a tree. They're just two completely different games.

People just don't seem to realize just how big of a part crafting played in Pre-CU SWG. Ask 10 Weaponsmiths to make the same item(lets say a power hammer) and each of the created items will be different. Some will have more damage and others a better attack speed. The more time you put into crafting the better items you would make and the more money too. Crafters ran the economy because they were actually needed. PvPer were usually lower on the economic totem pole while the crafters would be the 1% of America. Now a days with games like WoW and TOR, 10 Armstech asked to make the same item will give you 10 identical items. It used to be a challenge to make better items. You actually had to go out and find the good resources. Now I just send my companions off when im in an instance. Absolutely not fun crafting now.

 

Ive played WoW for years and have mastered most crafting professions in that game. My experience from that is that gear from raids is better then what A crafter can make anyways, and its free too.

 

Trying to compare SWG to TOR is like trying to compare a car to a tree. They're just two completely different games.

Amen to that!!!! Just nowadays nobody wants to work hard at stuff anymore. They just want it handed to them. A good example of that would be when SWG did the CU/NGE upgrades and pretty much gave out Jedi profession from the start... Where as before you had to grind for many months to unlock it. Nobody has the persistence or patience anymore. We are raising a bunch of entitled little brats that want it all right now... Those that hated crafting in SWG didn't craft simple as that. But they knew where to go when they needed good stuff.. ---> ex Master Weaponsmith/Architech/Doctor/Ranger/TK/Rifleman/Merchant/Entertainer lol

This game would be alot better if they would just listen to the customer base that knows what and how a true MMO works. Sandbox is the way to go... Build your life from scratch not in just one week either.... lol

In the beginning, yes. But in the last couple of years (i.e. when a new development team took over and they started listening to the players' wishes and suggestions), the game had become good again. Of course, many things never reached the greatness it once had. But there were a lot of new things that were great again.

 

I do miss SWG a lot and many of the features it had.

 

But the single feature I noticed that I miss the most in TOR are the chat bubbles, as it's pretty much impossible to socialize and roleplay on a larger scale without them. I do really hope they will add them in soon as promised. Without them, the game isn't worth playing in the long term for me, I'm afraid.

No wrong the NGE was bad... through and through.. from the attempt to make it a over the shoulder shooter... it was bad.

Listen, face the facts. IF THE NGE WAS A SUCCESS... it would still be going. Period. - no doubt, this is a fact not a opinion.

As a business if SWG had 1 million subs do YOU REALLY THINK it would be shut down?? I know you cannot be that silly.

No matter what, the attempt to change that game was a mistake, a failure and every MMO franchise knows it. Including John Smedley himself has stated constantly it was a mistake he wishes he never did.

So while you may even attempt to try to say it got better... SURE anything is better from the bottom of the bucket.

The NGE ruined a very good game that should have been fixed in the first place. There is NO GOOD that came from it other then SOE learned that anyone will pay for any crap code... and that they will NEVER ever do that again.

Nor would Raph, Nor would LA, Nor would any logical minded person.

I can post 20 links to why and how bad the NGE was from very wise game makers... to the producers themselves wishing they had not done it.

I am sorry but after seeing LUKES HEAD as a choice for a Char - I like many others... in fact my entire friends list left the game.

AS did the majority of the playerbase. Sorry.. I cannot feel bad for the NGE crowd at all. I just can't.

So, Crafting in SWTOR is nowhere near as amazing as crafting in SWG -the one thing Sony did right. And now, Sony, in collusion with Lucas Arts, has murdered the one and only amazing crafting system of any MMO in the past, and, I fear, alas, never ever to be reproduced in the future as it doesn't fit 'modern game theory'. This makes me one sad panda that crafting here in SWTOR is so, uh, juvenile. Simple. Tediously boring and expensive to do to boot.

 

I'll probably still play SWTOR here and there; I love the story line, the artistic style. Besides, many of my friends play SWTOR, at least for now. I may despise the hideousness of the UI and inability to move windows, my target, the target of my target (haven't even found that yet), move the quick-slot bars, the pet bar, heck, everything HUD element-wise but I understand that SOME of those issues are a future patch, way in the future patch. (you know, actually, LotRO does their HUD/UI elements right and I wish Bioware had learned how from them).

 

But what really kills me is how poorly crafting was designed. You pay your companion to run missions instead of being able to gather on your own. Yes, I know, some gathering professions allow you to harvest. But Diplomacy? You pay. That's the one "Non-Gathering" gathering profession I/ve tried and do - you just can't pick it off the ground/corpse/drop. Maybe I'm just not high enough to see it happening, I am only CL19. Not that it matters, really. I can tell that crafting was 'added' as an after-thought, much like LotRO,, and pretty much every other new MMO. Same established pattern. SWG, and EVE as well, being two of the few exceptions to poorly-designed 'modern game theory' crafting - perhaps because SWG to a certain extent, and most certainly EVE, are 'sandbox' MMOs vice being a 'themepark' like SWTOR. I guess if I want to be a serious crafter, I'll have to reactivate my EVE account(s) that I closed in anticipation of SWTOR.

 

Rest in Peace, Star Wars Galaxies. I for one, will miss you, especially for the crafting.

SWG will Return once SWTOR goes down eg. probably next week.