Is it just me?

Now that companions are dress up dolls and stats no longer matter, isn't the GTN and economy going to go through some radical changes? I mean tons gear is going to build up since companions no longer need upgrades. Greens and blues will mostly be vendor trash. Money will tend to build up without the companion gear as a major money sink.

Gear gotten from events will be purely cosmetic since stats only affect main characters and it'll pointless to get more than one set since most of us aren't going to change gear on our main characters very often. A huge amount of crafted and adaptive gear will be pointless now. All the +41 stones that were companion off-hands are now trash. Probably the worst part (from my perspective) is getting great drops of purples and blues that would normally upgrade companions, are now wasted. Either vendor trash or GTN with every other player trying to sell them off.

The millions I spent on setting up my companions isn't really an issue because making money in SWTOR isn't a problem. Even the gear bought through the Cartel Market for companions is now cosmetic. For example, the bowcaster bought for Treek off the Cartel market is just a dress up item.

Crafting armoring, power crystals, mods etc is going to be mostly pointless because selling them on the GTN is no longer worth while and the amount needed to skill up means they will simply be bag fillers. Commendations need only be used on main character so those will build up and become useless. For players who like to solo, the companion as a dress-up doll is extremely annoying. Since there will be no point in either setting up gear for companions or attending events or even changing companions since they are essentially the same now (aside from affection that can be bought from gifts).

I like the majority of the new content. However since there's no point in gearing companions, other than for looks, then there's no need to even gear most of them.

Does it save money and time? Yes. Will gear accumulate and essentially become worthless? Also yes. The GTN is about to be hit with a ton useless gear that will pointless since companions are essentially Barbie dolls with story lines.

Just my thoughts. I'd be glad to hear what other folks think.

Was pretty much what I was thinking although I never took the thought thru to the roll on effect on the markets which I think will be devastating.

Not only is the market slower the mat rewards through crew missions will be more than 3x than with 3.0.

 

Crafting as a player interaction with buying/selling stuff will be pretty pointless.

The only thing left is probably cosmetic items (clothing, etc) for yourself and your companions, which EAware has full control of through the cash shop. It was probably planned just like that

A couple of people have been saying this for a while now, the crafters subforum has a couple of threads on the topic, but the general euphoria has drowned out concerns like this. But hey, worry not, crafting consumables yielding 8x the amounts and stims lasting 4x as long will stimulate the market (according to dev blog on crafting changes).

On Monday night I logged to all my character and stripped every single one of my comps... glad I did, made a profit from the vendor and kept the pieces I still wanted for myself or were legacy pieces (had them in mostly modded gear than the 192 legacy stuff)

Most people never bothered with gearing companions in the first place.

 

and those who did did it with commendations.

 

So no, not really.

 

gifts, OTOH, will be quite interesting, i started doing only gift missions 2-3 weeks ago, its gonna pay off me thinks

Edited October 21, 2015 by Mikahrtwo

Yep. Crafting is so yesterday, the cartel market is the future!

And don't forget: all change is good.

The GTN is about to be hit with a ton useless gear that will pointless since companions are essentially Barbie dolls with story lines.

Just my thoughts. I'd be glad to hear what other folks think.

 

I dont think GTN will be "hit" by that gear. Theres little point to even put that gear up on sale, it just costs money. I think crafting changes are a complete disaster and will put me away from even thinking about crafting anything.

 

On the plus side: companion gifts will be in high demand when the official release rolls about, methinks.

 

Most people never bothered with gearing companions in the first place.

 

and those who did did it with commendations.

 

So no, not really.

 

I disagree. With the epic story boost you could equip you and ONE another companion with the comms you got from it while leveling.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Karkais

Most people never bothered with gearing companions in the first place.

 

and those who did did it with commendations.

 

So no, not really.

 

gifts, OTOH, will be quite interesting, i started doing only gift missions 2-3 weeks ago, its gonna pay off me thinks

 

That's going to be interesting. Because what's the point of raising influence (via expensive gifts) on more than one companion if crafting is pointless, anyway (= no ROI on the gifts), and one companion can cover all combat requirements?

I'll get ur point, i agree that it prolly will change economy in game.

 

But i don't agree that the old companion gearing way was better one. I'm happy to see where this goes and ecomical changes don't matter in this sense to me, since now i dont need to waste time for optimizing / sending gear ie from treek to treek. Like doing some event with whole bunch of max leveled chars.

 

All content that require companion was quite easy to do with unoptimized companion. Most of maybe soloable harder content was doable with well geared comp, but companion gear wasnt the prime reg and doers of such are bit marginal vs prime popula.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Fazaani

That's going to be interesting. Because what's the point of raising influence (via expensive gifts) on more than one companion if crafting is pointless, anyway (= no ROI on the gifts), and one companion can cover all combat requirements?

 

Same as gearing all comapnions pre-patch?

 

I also forgt to mention LEGACY GEAR which people used for companions (leveling in general), you only ever needed few sets to cover ALL your needs.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Mikahrtwo

I think that sicne companions are dress up dolls now... People will buy more gear for cosmetic purposes!!!!

I always geared companions in Cartel Market armor and with comms, The only thing I ever got from the GTN besides CM armor I wanted (which I paid good credits for) was ear pieces. I have a bio for implants, I like the new system. I'm very happy with it.

 

Most of my characters don't craft, only two do. I never felt the need to be bothered by it. I think CM stuff will keep the market going. There are a lot of people who want the CM stuff but don't want to pay real cash for it. It will always be that way.

Same as gearing all comapnions pre-patch?

 

I also forgt to mention LEGACY GEAR which people used for companions (leveling in general), you only ever needed few sets to cover ALL your needs.

 

No, not quite the same. While not all companions, I still used to have a healer, a tank and a dps geared. And since all my alts have different levels, legacy gear wasn't interesting until they reached level cap. All that has been reduced to "gearing" one fav companion with gifts.

Edited October 21, 2015 by KyaniteD

I don't think the hit to the economy from companion gear is going to be that extreme. Most people geared out the rest of their companions once they hit cap and would use excess comms for it.

 

The hit is going to be to anyone who played the low level markets. The change to companion gear and the multi-roles, means that there is almost no reason to craft or buy gear as you level up anymore.

 

I don't know how big that market is, but I doubt it is a game changer.

 

I actually think there might be more of a market at cap though, because this is the first time that crafters can craft good gear at the expansion launch, usually it is several tiers behind and takes a couple of months before they patch in the better crafted recipes.

I don't think the hit to the economy from companion gear is going to be that extreme. Most people geared out the rest of their companions once they hit cap and would use excess comms for it.

 

The hit is going to be to anyone who played the low level markets. The change to companion gear and the multi-roles, means that there is almost no reason to craft or buy gear as you level up anymore.

 

I don't know how big that market is, but I doubt it is a game changer.

 

I actually think there might be more of a market at cap though, because this is the first time that crafters can craft good gear at the expansion launch, usually it is several tiers behind and takes a couple of months before they patch in the better crafted recipes.

 

Dont worry, that market on TRE (second most populated server) was dead pre patch. Comm rewards removed ANY need to craft anything. And fact that that you could buy that stuff with high level character (who was swimming in excess comms) and send everything to alts.

 

The ONLY time it was alive was during SoR prerelease and first 12x xp, and i made a fortune because i sold blue mods for 20-35k a pop and i had crapton of mats just laying around. My cybertech couldnt keep up crafting lol.

 

But no, since i came back mid august - dead.

 

So all this "it will kill economy" is really laughable.

 

In fact there might be bigger market for blue mods/barrels/hilts since comm mods are green

Edited October 21, 2015 by Mikahrtwo