What's crazy is that everything has the same costs while the benefits are quite different. A hilt/barrel for mainhand is one thing, a relic another and an enhancement another.... yet all have the same costs....

Not to mention how a crafting crit returns two items for mods while just adding an augment slot for relics, implants, and ears.

When this crit bonus was originally added, augment kits did not exist, and thus the only way to get an augment slot on things like relics, ears, and implants was on a crafting crit.

Now that anyone can add an augment slot to any item for minimal credits using augment kits, relics, implants, and ears should provide two items on a crafting crit and not a worthless augment slot.

Oh and the difference don't stop there.

To learn the schematics, one can simply legacy off mods pulled from dropped and comm armor to various crafting alts for reverse engineering, yet one must be obtain the item to reverse engineer on the crafter with the right crew skill to be able to reverse engineer relics, implants, and ears.

I agree that crafting them is not worth it. I stocked up on item modifications to RE and materials to craft them prior to 2.7. I got a handful of schematics and crafted about a dozen total items. Since I ran out of materials, I have only crafted two barrels for guild mates...I have gone back to my bread and butter: grade 28 item modifications for the simple fact that they are profitable without the need to crit and sell like hotcakes.

I disagree that the material cost should be decreased. You are talking about the second best item modifications in the game, and the best (grade 36) will only ever be achieved by a small percentage of players; for the overwhelming majority of players, until the level cap is increased, grade 34 is the best available. With this in mind, they should be hard to acquire. That being said, EVERY player has options:

- run HM DF and HM DP to get the best of the best grade 34/rating 180 stuff. But even then full optimization takes picking and choosing specific mods and enhancements with the best stat distributions (for some it is an unending process)

- run three 55HMFPs every week to get ultimate comms and purchase less than ideal grade 34/rating 180 stuff. You can optimize but it will take longer.

- pay the millions of credits on the GTN for single grade 34/rating 180 item modifications

- acquire materials for grade 34s (run dailies for I-5s, run 55HMFPs for EEEs, and buy MMGs) and give them to someone and pray they crit.

I agree that crafting them is not worth it. I stocked up on item modifications to RE and materials to craft them prior to 2.7. I got a handful of schematics and crafted about a dozen total items. Since I ran out of materials, I have only crafted two barrels for guild mates...I have gone back to my bread and butter: grade 28 item modifications for the simple fact that they are profitable without the need to crit and sell like hotcakes.

 

I disagree that the material cost should be decreased. You are talking about the second best item modifications in the game, and the best (grade 36) will only ever be achieved by a small percentage of players; for the overwhelming majority of players, until the level cap is increased, grade 34 is the best available. With this in mind, they should be hard to acquire. That being said, EVERY player has options:

 

- run HM DF and HM DP to get the best of the best grade 34/rating 180 stuff. But even then full optimization takes picking and choosing specific mods and enhancements with the best stat distributions (for some it is an unending process)

- run three 55HMFPs every week to get ultimate comms and purchase less than ideal grade 34/rating 180 stuff. You can optimize but it will take longer.

- pay the millions of credits on the GTN for single grade 34/rating 180 item modifications

- acquire materials for grade 34s (run dailies for I-5s, run 55HMFPs for EEEs, and buy MMGs) and give them to someone and pray they crit.

I think the costs should be high for these items, and that high cost should be due to materials requirements that require rare drops from Operations.

Even with a high cost and using rare Operations only materials, I don't think the costs for ALL items should be the same.

Implants, ears and relics each fill a gear slot while modifications (Barrels, Hilts, Armorings, Mods, Enhancements) fill a mod slot within a gear slot.

Implants and ears have a stat budget above a piece of gear with both an Armoring and a Mod, and close to that of a piece of gear with an Armoring, Mod, and enhancement.

Barrels and Hilts are primarily used for main-hand weapons, and provide a large 'player power' benefit above and beyond their base stats. Armorings provide base stats plus armor rating. Mods and Enhancements simply add static stats.

IMO, the materials costs for each item should be relative to the amount of stats and 'player power' provided by the item.

I'd have the materials costs set such that Implants and Ears (Relics most likely as well) would cost the same and would be higher than Hilts, Barrels and Armorings which would be higher than Mods and Enhancements.

I'd most likely leave the current costs what they are for Relics, Ears and Implants, with adjustments downwards for the various modifications based on their relative power / stat budget.

I'd also have all crafting crits produce two items, not some crits providing two items (value ~1.5-2 MM Credits) and some crits providing an augment slot (value ~60-90K).

@DawnAskham,

I understand what you are saying, but look at it from another perspective: which will get fewer complaints...

A) all rating 180 items requiring the same number of "exotic" materials

B) different types of rating 180 items having different "exotic" material requirements.

Bioware believes it is choice A.

Furthermore there is less chance of a coding problem if all rating 180 items require the same exotic materials.

Not saying that the "path of least resistance" is the best overall option, but it is the option Bioware (and - let's be honest - most MMOs) has chosen.

I also with that the cost should be high! But nobody, NOBODY can afford/bother to buy an enhancement for 2 million credits. 500k-1200k range on enhancements was just fine. The amount of mats needed for 34s is absolutely ridiculous. I thought I'll be back into crafting but there is neither demand nor supply for the 34s crafting to be profitable and timeworthy at this stage. Relics, hilts and implants - alright you see a number of people seeking them every-now-and-then but enhancements, armorings and mods should not cost more than one million given that their bonuses aren't as noticable as the above's.

One Implant/Earpiece counts for armoring,enhancement and mod with all its effects so it's understandable that they're more expensive.

Wish they let us craft end-game gear again. For such price it would be totally reasonable and there would be demand.

I also with that the cost should be high! But nobody, NOBODY can afford/bother to buy an enhancement for 2 million credits.

Maybe YOU cannot afford those prices but there are PLENTY who can.

That being said, 34s are falling into the same pattern as 30s and 31s before them: the demand is in the harder to get item modifications - barrels and hilts (main hand only drops off the Council in HMDP) and VERY specific enhancements (depends on AC and spec) - and non-moddable gear pieces - ears, implants, and relics. The rest of the item modifications (armorings and mods) are readily available if one works the weekly quests: drops and ultimate comms

True the cost of mats is high for crafting this high-end gear. And there are imbalances. It never was going to be a completely level playing field. - And mk-9 augs kits are about 60-70K each. - peanuts to Lev 55s.

I agree with all the above posters up to that point.

But OP, If you are crafting with mats worth 1.5 million (-ish) - less if relying on drops. - WHY are the prices for the items (mods/hilts/barrels/ears/relics etc,) 3-4.5 million on the GTN (at least on my Server) - You're making 2.5 million per piece. Say you craft 3-4 per week, plus doubles for crits..... Mats come as drops - so free-ish.....+ rewards from Ops. Thats easily 10 Million a week. - What are you spending 10 million a week on?

day one into 2.7, advanced resolve hilt on GTN: 14m

day two: 3.4m

first they have moreless the same prices underworld pieces/mods had on gtn before patch. i'm ok with those prices since i raid HM to min-max my gear, and i use to put on the GTN the results of my crits.

and as said before, you have a lot of ways to improve/min max your gear..if you have more credits than time just buy mods on the gtn, otherwise grind mats from ops fps to have mods crafted or raid yourself..it's not hard at all to have access at HM content and i know several guilds whose members just log once-twice a week to do HM runs.. and i honestly find useless having 180 gear min maxed to run SM ops over and over again.. i prefere to sit in my arkanians and need on the occasional underworld item..(damn 16m pugs are so packed with ninjas ;-))

True the cost of mats is high for crafting this high-end gear. And there are imbalances. It never was going to be a completely level playing field. - And mk-9 augs kits are about 60-70K each. - peanuts to Lev 55s.

 

I agree with all the above posters up to that point.

 

But OP, If you are crafting with mats worth 1.5 million (-ish) - less if relying on drops. - WHY are the prices for the items (mods/hilts/barrels/ears/relics etc,) 3-4.5 million on the GTN (at least on my Server) - You're making 2.5 million per piece. Say you craft 3-4 per week, plus doubles for crits..... Mats come as drops - so free-ish.....+ rewards from Ops. Thats easily 10 Million a week. - What are you spending 10 million a week on?

Two reasons:

#1 and more importantly buyers are willing to buy at those prices. Simply put, the GTN is a buyers market. YES, sellers try to make as much money as they can, but if buyers don't buy then the value comes down until they do. And I have a GREAT example with grade 34 stuff: I had one Aptitude Mod 34 and there were NONE on the GTN. I posted it at 5 million, no one bought. The next day there were a handful more in the 4.5 million range. I undercut by a very little bit...no one bought. The next day the same handful but now in the 4.2 million range...no one bought. This went on UNTIL the value came down to the 2.9 million range and my one mod finally sold. In the scenario there are two possibilities for the lack of demand: a) no one needed a Willpower/Power Mod as they are relatively easy to acquire (belts and bracers: 80 comms), b) players wanted them but balked at the high value; they decided they would rather work to get the 80 comms than spend more than 3 million credits.

#2, while acquisition of schematics is easy - Acquire an item, pray to the RNG gods, RE the item - the resources required to get the schematic are substantial. If we assume that the RNG numbers work out - that on average it will take five attempts to get one schematic - that means that the player trying to get a schematic has to get five of the item in question. That is a large investment of time and/or credits. The question is how much are those resources worth? That is purely up to each individual.

Maybe YOU cannot afford those prices but there are PLENTY who can.

I have 300 million, I don't care. Lol @ you. My server is poor and I can't help it. You're very lucky to be able to sell enhancements for over 2 million on your own servers. :[