So, after throwing around in first Hammer Station looting, and then attempting to craft and run missions, I've run across a bunch of the same issues everyone else has - everything is too damn expensive, crafting requires too much including stuff we can't currently obtain to actually test crafting, and basically everything just feels out of whack.

 

However, I contend that there are some good bones here for something that could work very well, but some adjustments need to be made.

 

This post is to detail the issues specifically, and suggest a correction that brings it inline with a more playable style that players will want to use, but also uses what is currently in the game so that major overhauls aren't needed nor is scrapping the systems entirely.

 

So, let's dig in.

 

CRAFTING:

 

So for crafting, I had character transferred over a 600 Cybertech who I got to 700 using the trick of cashing in money on Oddessen and buying and then reconstructing stim packs (and I did a LOT of that - the cash investment as is, is WAY too much).

 

The breakdown of sub-Components was as such (keeping it generic as I imagine all the crafting classes are mirrored, number in (#) is how many of that resource is needed):

 

• Green Sub-component 1 = Green Mat 1 (10), Green Mat 2 (10), White Vendor Mat 3 (8)
  
• Green Sub-component 2 = Green Mat 3 (10), Green Mat 4 (10), White Vendor Mat 3 (8)
  
• Blue Sub-component 1 = Blue Mat 1(10), Blue Mat 2 (10) Green Sub-component 1 (3), Green Vendor Mat 1 (8)
  
• Blue Sub-component 2 = Blue Mat 3(10), Blue Mat 4 (10) Green Sub-component 2 (3), Green Vendor Mat 1 (8)
  
• Purple Sub-component 1 = Purple Mat 1(10), Purple Mat 2 (10) Blue Sub-component 1 (3), Blue Vendor Mat 1 (12)
  
• Purple Sub component 2 = Purple Mat 1(10), Purple Mat 2 (10) Blue Sub-component 1 (3), Blue Vendor Mat 1 (12)
  

 

Note, these are just the sub-components, that go into making anything useful - we aren't at actually useful items themselves yet.

 

Right off the bat, the main issue I have is that mats are being used unnecessarily and are over-complicating everything, not to mention the volume used. It's too much a burden on the crafter, and sub-components should be on the cheaper side to make, as a dedicated crafter will need to make a lot of them.

 

I would suggest the following Alternation to Sub-components:

 

• Green Sub-component 1 = Green Mat 1 (2), Green Mat 2 (2), White Vendor Mat 3 (2)
  
• Green Sub-component 2 = Green Mat 4 (2), Green Mat 5 (2), White Vendor Mat 3 (2)
  
• Blue Sub-component 1 = Blue Mat 1(6), Blue Mat 2 (6), White Vendor Mat 1 (4)
  
• Blue Sub-component 2 = Blue Mat 3 (6), Blue Mat 4 (6), White Vendor Mat 1 (4)
  
• Purple Sub-component 1 = Purple Mat 1(10), Purple Mat 2 (10), White Vendor Mat 1 (8)
  
• Purple Sub component 2 = Purple Mat 1(10), Purple Mat 2 (10), White Vendor Mat 1 (8)
  

 

 

Because Cybertech is intertwined with INVESTIGATION and UNDERWORLD TRADING, blue and purple mats needed for these recipes SHOULD COME FROM THOSE MISSIONS AND NOT FROM CONQUEST OR ANY OTHER CONTENT.

 

Getting away from this is one of the biggest crafting mistakes this game ever made. AT the very least, these resources should come PRIMARILY from crafting missions at a fairly reliable rate. And then if you want, have Groupfinder and conquest also allow non-crafters to get these materials in smaller quantities. But they NEED to be gotten primarily from Crafting missions. PERIOD.

 

That said, over all this simplifies the sub-components, allows the crafter to make a lot of greens, fits in with the theme of the original crafting recipes for sub-components (in Cybertech's case, from Desh to Polished Plasteel), but still ups the requirements for making more advanced components. I think this simplification will fit in better with crafter's expectations. I understand the developers are likely wanting more credit sinks to clear out the excess cash in the game economy, but if that's the case, you need to have available cheaply made goods, not something so ridiculously expensive that no one will bother, which has been the state of crafting really since 5.0.

 

So, on to the actual Items themselves. I will again use Cybertech as an Example, and go over Ear Pieces, Mods, and Enhancement costs.

 

In PTS Currently:

 

• Green Earpiece: Green Sub-component 1 (2), Green Mat 1 (20), Blue Mat 1 (20), Blue Mat 2 (20), Purple Conquest Only Mat 1 (20)
  
• Green Modification: Green Sub-component 1 (2), Green Sub-component 2 (1), Blue Mat 1 (20), Purple Conquest Only Mat 1 (20)
  
• Green Enhancement: Green Sub-component 1 (2), Green Sub-component 2 (1), Blue Mat 1 (20), Purple Conquest Only Mat 1 (20)
  

 

HOLY BLEEPING OVER-COMPLICATION BATMAN!

 

You do know these are supposed to be GREEN components, right?

 

Back when crafting was more simple, around Item Rating 220, a BLUE mat would have a GREEN COMPONENT, and a BLUE Mat, and that was IT. Adept Enhancement 45, blue level, only required 2 of EACH. Plus, including 10 of a conquest item that you only get 2 of for completing your personal conquest of? What if the player doesn't do conquest? Its just all around BAD.

 

This is where I think the biggest changes need to be made. I couldn't even test blue and purple crafting on these items because I can't get the material to test it! The purple mat isn't in Jawa scrap trading, so basically, there is this wall here, and it doesn't need to be, nor should it be.

 

So let's simplify again, shall we? I suggest this:

 

• Green Earpiece: Green Sub-component 1 (5), Green Sub component 2 (5), Green Mat 1 (25)
  
• Blue Earpiece: Blue Sub-component 1 (5), Blue Sub component 2 (5), Blue Mat 1 (25)
  
• Purple Earpiece: Purple Sub-component 1 (5), Purple Sub component 2 (5), Purple Mat 1 (10)
  
• Green Modification: Green Sub-component 1 (4), Green Mat 1 (6)
  
• Blue Modification: Blue Sub-component 1 (4), Blue Mat 1 (6)
  
• Purple Modification: Purple Sub-component 1 (4), Purple Mat 1 (10)
  
• Green Enhancement: Green Sub-component 2 (4), Green Mat 1 (6)
  
• Blue Enhancement: Blue Sub-component 2 (4), Blue Mat 1 (6)
  
• Purple Enhancement: Purple Sub-component 2 (4), Purple Mat 1 (10)
  

 

Again, this simplifies things by a LOT, and also, I reiterate, Blue and Purple Mats MUST come primarily from crafting missions. Doesn't mean only, but crafting missions need to provide the best yield for it to feel like crafting is "worth it".

 

By doing this, it will allow crafters to craft, and by allowing for an influx of goods, it also will allow to keep prices down, particularly with all the Jawa Junk coming in from the PTS system, which also should help with getting resources.

 

The concepts I use here for Cybertech should be mirrored across the way for most other crafting professions.

 

The one caveat I will give is this - if at any point we will be able to craft gold LEGEND items, then and ONLY then would I want something as complicated as what is in the game now - for that, I would EXPECT it do be difficult to get the resources to make. But ONLY LEGEND TIER ITEMS. Not the green for christ sakes....

 

 

AMPLIFIER SYSTEM:

 

I get some hate the RNG nature of this, but it really isn't all that bad...to a point.

 

Look, the devs need more credit sinks in the game, and this works.

 

However, as I said - to a POINT. Once the cost of re-rolling exceeds 50k, players on live who don't have the benefit of accessing an instant money terminal on Odessen are going to be in a lot of pain financially, and the system will start to feel unfair and get a HUGE bad rap. It just won't sit right with people, even if values reset every week.

 

So I think the most simple solution is to leave the system as-is, buuuuut......

 

Put a 50k credit cap in place

 

50k, especially for what one can earn doing heroics, doesn't feel like a ton to most end-game players. Yet also, it adds up quick - 20 re-rolls at 50k is 1 million credits. I think terminating the increasing amount at 50k will allow the system to be in as it is, without it feeling like just another tool to torture the players, and I say that because in my testing, Amplifiers add up and do end up being pretty damn useful. So long as a player protection is put in at 50k, I won't begrudge the devs for adding another credit sink.

 

 

LOOT AND DECONSTRUCTION:

 

So the big bruhaha right now is that Hammer Station and KP drop green, unmoddable armor sets. While I found the armor useful over my character-transferred armor, players need to know what the intent here is - are armorings, mods, enhancements, hilts and barrels now supposed to only come from crafters now? What Gives? Supposedly yellow armor sets with set bonuses haven't been seen too often yet either other on the extremely Expensive Kai Zykken vendor.

 

I finally got in a KP story mode OP today, and saw what others have been complaining about - even the OP dropped unmoddable green gear.

 

But it gets wierder - it also dropped the unassembled tier 2 eternal gear, which doesn't have a vendor any more in the game, and the final boss dropped a level 302 item rated set piece (Kai Zyyken only had level 270 for the set bonuses)

 

I had a suggestion at first after 10 or so Vet Hammer Station runs, but to be honest, loot drops are all over the map, so I don't know what to expect or suggest here, because I have no clue what the developers are thinking or even doing.

 

Add to that Heroics seem to be dropping crap past level 60 (no more alliance tier crates), and it's just all over the map and weird now.

 

I think some sense needs to be made of all of this. But doing the best I can, here is what I suggest:

 

Tech Fragments: Total Inventory upped from 3000 to 10000.

 

Class Stories: Grant lowest rated unmoddable tiered gear needed to complete the stories. Deconstructing unmoddable gear grants the user tech fragments, and based on the item, mods for custom armor they can use. For example: Player completes a class quest. Player gets as a reward a green unmoddable belt. Also during the quest, a mob drops a green unmoddable lightsaber. Player opts to deconstruct these 2 items. Player then gets in return for both items, tech fragments from both, a green level armoring and modification from the belt (which equal the stats on the original belt), and a green hilt, modification, and enhancement from the lightsaber that equals the original stats on the lightsaber.

 

Heroics: Grant Blue Tier unmoddable gear that can be deconstructed for mods, as mentioned in class stories. Item rating is just a few above the green tier story.

 

Story Mode Flashpoints and Uprisings: Grant Purple Tier unmoddable gear that can be deconstructed for mods, as mentioned in class stories. Item rating is just a few above the blue tier story. Final Bosses have chance to drop tacticals for general professions only.

 

(The Above is for all gear tiers under 270)

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Veteran Mode Flashpoints and Uprisings: Grant Green Tier Unmoddable Gear Item Rating 270-274 that can be deconstructed for mods, same deconstruct rules as Class Story mention. Final Bosses have chance to drop Tacticals and Blue Item enhancements (Mods, Barrels, etc)

 

Master Mode Flashpoints and Uprisings:Grant Blue Tier Unmoddable Gear Item Rating 276-284 that can be deconstructed for mods, same deconstruct rules as Class Story mention. All Bosses have chance to drop Tacticals and Purple Item enhancements (Mods, Barrels, etc). Final Boss has a chance to drop Set Bonus Item Shells.

 

Story Mode Operations: Grant Blue Tier Unmoddable Gear Item Rating 276-284 that can be deconstructed for mods, same deconstruct rules as Class Story mention. All Bosses have chance to drop Tacticals and Purple Item enhancements (Mods, Barrels, etc). All Boss has a chance to drop Set Bonus Item Shells. Shells will have mods rated at 276-284.

 

Veteran Mode Operations:Grant Purple Tier Unmoddable Gear Item Rating 286-298 that can be deconstructed for mods, same deconstruct rules as Class Story mention. All Bosses have chance to drop Tacticals and Purple Item enhancements (Mods, Barrels, etc). All Boss has a chance to drop Set Bonus Item Shells. Shells will have mods rated at 286-298.

 

Master Mode Operations:Grant Gold Legendary Tier Mods, Enhancements, Barrels, enhancements, etc. Item Rating 300-306. All Bosses have chance to drop Tacticals and Set Bonus Item Shells. Shells will have mods rated at 300-306. Crafters can learn to craft the legend tier item enhancements by reverse engineering them. Master Mode Operations will also have a specific resource type exclusive only to Master Mode and drops off all bosses, that is tradeable, and will be required to make the crafted legendary mods.

 

 

That's my best stab at the looting system, how it interacts with crafting, etc, as I can't figure out any more without further dev input on what they were wanting.

 

Also, remove all the no longer used Eternal gear drops.

 

 

SOW VENDORS:

 

Kai Zykken: Reduce cost on all items from 1500 Tech Fragments and 1 million credits to 150 tech fragments and 250k credits for tacticals, and 500 tech fragments and 500k credits per set piece with mods.

 

Takanna: Seems to be just another way to get low end green gear. Prices are reasonable, but seems pointless. I'd say remove the vendor, but it could have a use if paired with my deconstruct idea that allows unmoddable items to be broken down into tech fragments and mods. To make things interesting, give Takanna a chance to return a green item that, when broken down, might have a blue modification or enhancement snuck in there that can only be discovered breaking down the item you get. Could add a layer to make it less pointless.

 

Renown vendor: Its fine as is.

 

SOW Pet and Mount Vendors: Fine as is.

 

 

FLASHPOINT AND OPERATION LEVEL SYNC:

 

I am actually enjoying the brisk pace of Flashpoints and Operations, which seemed just to be slogs before. I think everything could be just a tad harder, but not by too much, because it is a lot more enjoyable now.

 

RENOWN SYSTEM: Overall, need to add more to it. In the prior system, people got companion gifts, gear shells, and mats. I would make it so that it does grant another layer of unmoddable gear, which can be deconstructed in the way I mentioned prior, and also include the shells and items from the alliance crates (since those seem to be going away), and all 3 tiers of jawa junk as a possibility. Get the quantity to feel like it did with the previous system.

 

 

Anyway, that's all for now based on my testing, and what my suggestions would be.

Edited September 3, 2019 by ZionHalcyon

Nice write up. Very well thought out. I would add one other thing. Increase the amount of Tech Fragments that drop from wherever you get them. Even with a lower price on the SoW vendors, it will take a ton of farming just to afford those items.

I wonder, why there is a Tech Fragments Cap, when they are Legacy wide currency and there is no way to "stash" them up, like with the current Command Tokens ???

 

There's a tons of ideas around 6.0 that makes me scratch my head and wonder - who hates the players of SWTOR so much to come up with that stuff ?!

Nice write up. Very well thought out. I would add one other thing. Increase the amount of Tech Fragments that drop from wherever you get them. Even with a lower price on the SoW vendors, it will take a ton of farming just to afford those items.

 

Thank you. I would also agree with the increase for Tech fragments.

Let me start by saying that I hate it when people use hyperbole when talking about videogames(I mean "oH MaAh GaWHd, tHe gAMe iS ruINeD aNd tHe dEvVS aRe aS bAd aS dAhMeR!"- type arguments), but after testing the gearing systems currently in place for a good couple of hours, all I can say is that they are atrocious in their current state. In no particular order:

 

1. Upgrades never jump a tier. If your ilevel is 270, you will get 272s until your ilevel is 271, at least. Downgrades, on the other hand can go as low as 12 ilevels. And that's from the vendor.

Burning through a 3k stack of tech fragments at iLevel 288(12 items) gave me 6 downgrades(272-282) 4 sidegrades(286-288) and 2 actual upgrades. One of the upgrades was a tank off-hand, the other was a healing relic. I was playing a marauder.

2. Having all classes and specs in the loot-pool when determining drops makes gearing even more agonizingly slow, especially when hunting for set-bonus shells.

3.The ridiculous cap on tech fragments, coupled with making the only vendor that sells stuff that isn't determined by a roll of the dice available only at specific times is the exact opposite of "play your way". If you work during the weekends(I tend to) you're very much left holding your polesaber, since you can only get maybe 4 or 5 items off him(depending on how efficiently you grind tech fragments during the one day you have access to him),

4.Playing without any sort of set-bonus or meeting any of the stat thresholds that mark power spikes for your toon for a long-*** time is gonna drive whatever's left of the raiding community away faster than you can say "MM Dxun is coming about six to eight months after 6.0 launches).

5.The ridonckulous crafting requirements for even the most basic stuff means that there won't be any cheap-ish augments available to mitigate some of the problems raised in my previous point.

 

It feels like Bioware decided a long time ago that it can't create content fast enough to keep up with what players wanted and, rather than try to find a middle ground went with insanely time-gated releases that get slowly improved over time.

As someone who's not played the PTS but been reading about it, I like your breakdown & suggestions.

 

Especially for the crafting. I can't believe they're trying to tank that so much.

As someone who's not played the PTS but been reading about it, I like your breakdown & suggestions.

 

Especially for the crafting. I can't believe they're trying to tank that so much.

 

Thank you. The Devs under Keith have been really responsive, and said they will have a summary of our issues and what they will do about it tomorrow. Which is a big deal to have that quick of a turnaround.

 

As for crafting, I am super curious about that as well. Crafting took a VERY bad turn in 5.0 under Ben Irving's direction. It might be that they are continuing from what was started without realizing most of the community hated it.

 

There may be some confusion with them too on making crafting fun. If none of them are really crafters, they might think crafters feel like "the challenge of making something" is what they are after, and therefore mindlessly add challenge where it isn't needed.

 

But for most crafters, they want to feel "useful" and want the ability to sell their wares. Sure, a more fun crafting system is great, but no one wants something needlessly complex for the most simple of things. The challenge of a craft should only come from the top of the top items, while allowing a crafter to still make a living selling everything else.

 

Hence my suggestions to simplify it back to how it was 4.0 and before. Give crafters a role or function. And then if they want to spice things up for crafting at a later date, then don't muck with the recipes - look at the system itself.

snip

 

Devs, read the OP! Read it thoroughly.