IMO, current end-game crafting is an imbalanced joke and significant changes should be made to balance crafting as part of RotHC.

 

Changes I'd like to see include (in no particular order):

 

1 - Bound means bound, no ripping and sending bound mods to alts using legacy gear.

2 - Highest tier PVE items require mats that only come from highest tier PVE content (not space, not comms, not PVP, not CM).

3 - Mid tier items require mats that can be obtained from alternative sources.

4 - Schematics for highest tier items only obtainable from direct RE or drop of highest content (very low chance).

5 - Schematics for mid tier items can be obtained from alternative sources.

6 - No schematics can be learned by RE'ing a crafted item.

7 - Crew skills rebalanced such that each skill contributes equally to gearing (cybertech too powerful while synth / armor irrelevant).

8 - Mission skills rebalanced such that material supply is aligned with material demand (UWT metals too important while UWT cloth irrelevant).

9 - As new content is released, schematics and materials for the previous highest tier items become more readily available, with the newest tier items taking their place as rare and difficult to obtain.

 

I'm sure many others have lots of ideas that are much more detailed and specific on ways to improve crafting while improving the integrity of end game such that players are encouraged and rewarded for participating in end game content, not buying end game gear off the GTN.

 

Please share yours (though yes, the jaded part of me feels it won't matter as the devs will do whatever they feel like doing and even with the best of intentions, will screw it up somehow anyway).

6 - No schematics can be learned by RE'ing a crafted item.

 

So, you're saying that all Base items (Premium or Prototype) that you buy from your Crew Skills trainer would have their Tier 1 and Tier 2 versions come from mission or loot drops? So, there would be no reason to buy any schematics at all from your trainer because no one wants green gear and that is all you would be able to produce?

 

Or do you mean something else here?

So, you're saying that all Base items (Premium or Prototype) that you buy from your Crew Skills trainer would have their Tier 1 and Tier 2 versions come from mission or loot drops? So, there would be no reason to buy any schematics at all from your trainer because no one wants green gear and that is all you would be able to produce?

 

Or do you mean something else here?

 

What I mean is removing the ability to take a mod crafted by another player, slot it in a piece of gear, remove it, and then be able to RE for a schematic as is happening with 61 / 63 mods today.

 

The alternative for balancing would be to just let anyone RE anything that has a possible schematic, regardless of whether it was crafted by another player, including orange shells, relics, ear pieces, implants and such.

So your alternative is to have it work exactly like it is working?

 

In my opinion, the widespread availability of the best crafted gear is a positive thing. There is no reason to prevent people from learning schematics by reverse engineering items from the GTN. The whole concept of reverse engineering supports that method.

 

People who convinced their guilds to let them RE the first few mods or drops of a kind got an advantage in the early sales, but things trail off after that.

 

The only problem I see right now is the lack of profitability in crafting augmentable items. This mostly stems from clueless crafters believing they can crit an extra implant/relic/etc and therefore not charging for crafting or marking up in any meaningful degree even where they don't benefit from the critical duplicate chance.

What I mean is removing the ability to take a mod crafted by another player, slot it in a piece of gear, remove it, and then be able to RE for a schematic as is happening with 61 / 63 mods today.

 

The alternative for balancing would be to just let anyone RE anything that has a possible schematic, regardless of whether it was crafted by another player, including orange shells, relics, ear pieces, implants and such.

 

Thanks for the clarification. +10 to that!

What I mean is removing the ability to take a mod crafted by another player, slot it in a piece of gear, remove it, and then be able to RE for a schematic as is happening with 61 / 63 mods today.

 

The alternative for balancing would be to just let anyone RE anything that has a possible schematic, regardless of whether it was crafted by another player, including orange shells, relics, ear pieces, implants and such.

 

If you don't want non-raiders crafting this gear then don't sell it on the GTN, keep it in guild. What you really seem to be saying is because you are one of the few that raid you should be able to hold the GTN to ransom and make millions of credits simply because your guild gave you the schematic. No thanks.

 

My wishes for crafting in the expansion:-

 

Provide new green trainer schematics up to level 55, what is the point in a non-raider crafting at all when you can only craft to 50 but level to 55? If they do this you can keep your mods and tiered gear, at least then I will have an alternative to aim for.

Edited December 26, 2012 by mothear

Wow,here we have seen "where's my billion profits" whiner again. All suggested changes leads only to monopolizing GTN by persons like thread starter.

As for notice-legacy system is designed for a such purpose-like transferring items between characters.Why should i waste another couple of month for gearing up my new character if i want to change faction or simply switch to other game role?

Edited December 26, 2012 by chapiteaux

If you don't want non-raiders crafting this gear then don't sell it on the GTN, keep it in guild. What you really seem to be saying is because you are one of the few that raid you should be able to hold the GTN to ransom and make millions of credits simply because your guild gave you the schematic. No thanks.

 

My wishes for crafting in the expansion:-

 

Provide new green trainer schematics up to level 55, what is the point in a non-raider crafting at all when you can only craft to 50 but level to 55? If they do this you can keep your mods and tiered gear, at least then I will have an alternative to aim for.

 

That isn't what I'm asking for at all. I'm actually asking for balance between crew skills while keeping crafting relevant without it taking away from top tier end game content.

 

It seems silly that right now I have low level cybertech and artifice alts who can craft current BIS items (63) and sell them on the GTN, while my 50 synthweaver and armormech characters cannot even sell the few Rakata (58) or lower items they can craft and for end-game gear are basically irrelevant.

 

If I was calling the shots, at this point in the game trainable schematics for non-BOP items would exist for everything up to Columi, schematics for Rakata would exist as drops, and from RE and comms, and schematics for BH would exists as drops or RE, with all requiring mats available through multiple sources.

 

However, schematics for DG (63) gear would only come from RE of DG gear with a very low chance for schematic, and would require rare mats that only dropped / came from DG gear RE.

 

Also synthweave and armormech would be able to produce useful items for all tiers, such as being able to craft a full piece of armor with mods or equal stats to armor with mods.

 

And lastly, legacy gear would no longer be capable of sending bound mods to alts.

 

BTW - Legacy gear was not designed as a way to send bound mods to alts, being able to use legacy gear to send bound mods to alts works because of the way the binding checks only look at the shell (along with Bioware being too lazy or unable to add checks for the mods).

 

If this was truly by design, wouldn't they just make all gear Bind to Legacy?

 

I mean why stop with just being able to send mods...why not allow sending of non-moddable armor, relics, implants, and earpieces to alts as well?

Edited December 26, 2012 by DawnAskham

Orly mate?If it's not by design so why they give 2 full sets of empty moddable aromor bound not only to legacy but also to specific class?

Concerning implants i think it has been done for biochemics because they don't have nd-game crafting at all exept implants.As for non-moddable gear-why bound it to legacy while you can buy or craft it?For which purpose it should be use used when character overlevel it?

 

On the other side i agree with you that Armormechs and Synthweavers is quite useless now,but at least they can craft some pretty-looking armor sets. Armstech is useless from the game-launch.Augment and 26,27 barrels is only usefull things which can be crafted.

Edited December 26, 2012 by chapiteaux

If you don't want non-raiders crafting this gear then don't sell it on the GTN, keep it in guild. What you really seem to be saying is because you are one of the few that raid you should be able to hold the GTN to ransom and make millions of credits simply because your guild gave you the schematic. No thanks.

 

My wishes for crafting in the expansion:-

 

Provide new green trainer schematics up to level 55, what is the point in a non-raider crafting at all when you can only craft to 50 but level to 55? If they do this you can keep your mods and tiered gear, at least then I will have an alternative to aim for.

 

I have to agree. If the only path ot higherst level crafting is raiding then clearly a small class of rich players with access to the best gear is created to the exclusion of everyone else. The highes level of crafting and most credits will just go to the few that are cashing in on their and their guilds raiding. To me that is not crafting, rather just collecting the rewards of following dev favored end game content.

 

No soloist or pvper can craft at the highes level. That does nor make sense, never has, and never will and is a good way of forcing people to eventually unsub.

He's just upset that because he thinks he should be the only one that is alowed in the market. Find yourself lucky your guild lets you RE things, of course every guild has a different aproach to this. I know things have really gotten out of hand with the current sets but its been a couple months and the time to make the real bucks is gone. Go find another market.

That isn't what I'm asking for at all. I'm actually asking for balance between crew skills while keeping crafting relevant without it taking away from top tier end game content.

 

It seems silly that right now I have low level cybertech and artifice alts who can craft current BIS items (63) and sell them on the GTN, while my 50 synthweaver and armormech characters cannot even sell the few Rakata (58) or lower items they can craft and for end-game gear are basically irrelevant.

 

If I was calling the shots, at this point in the game trainable schematics for non-BOP items would exist for everything up to Columi, schematics for Rakata would exist as drops, and from RE and comms, and schematics for BH would exists as drops or RE, with all requiring mats available through multiple sources.

 

However, schematics for DG (63) gear would only come from RE of DG gear with a very low chance for schematic, and would require rare mats that only dropped / came from DG gear RE.

 

Also synthweave and armormech would be able to produce useful items for all tiers, such as being able to craft a full piece of armor with mods or equal stats to armor with mods.

 

And lastly, legacy gear would no longer be capable of sending bound mods to alts.

 

BTW - Legacy gear was not designed as a way to send bound mods to alts, being able to use legacy gear to send bound mods to alts works because of the way the binding checks only look at the shell (along with Bioware being too lazy or unable to add checks for the mods).

 

If this was truly by design, wouldn't they just make all gear Bind to Legacy?

 

I mean why stop with just being able to send mods...why not allow sending of non-moddable armor, relics, implants, and earpieces to alts as well?

 

I just had to quote this for emphasis, as it's much clearer than your original post. And with that clarity: I agree, I think that crafting really should be like this. I have some similar suggestions, but I'll make another reply for those.

I'm gonna make an argument for keeping the current system of sending bound end-game mods through Legacy Gear to alts.

 

1. HAVING MULTIPLE ALTS IS A CORE GAME FEATURE

 

SWTOR was marketed as being a "story-driven" MMO with a heavy emphasis on leveling multiple alts. It was never designed to appeal to the raid oriented segment of the MMO population like its contemporary, Rift.

 

Unlike almost every other MMO, you simply cannot experience the majority of what the game has to offer if you only focus on a single "main" to the exclusion of alts because the core differentiating design conceit of this game (class stories) are locked to specific classes.

 

1.2's introduction of the Legacy system simply reinforced alt leveling as something the Devs wanted players to do. Leveling an alt to 50 simply makes leveling the next one easier, through the self-application of multiple class buffs, XP boosts, Inheritance/Birthright gear given as Chapter rewards etc.

 

2. END-GAME GEARING/COMMENDATION SYSTEM

 

Once all my companions are fully kit-ed out in full Columi or Rakata and even BH gear, what am I to do with the extraneous gear/coms? The game does not provide any means to exchange the gear/com rewards I receive from running ops and HM FPs for anything useful to me other than gear that I either already have or is lower tiered. Even as a crafter I can't RE most of the mods/shells I get for useful mats unless I have multiple alts with the appropriate crew skills.

 

Without the ability to send bound mods to alts to RE into useful mats or a way to spend coms/tokens for things that benefit me, there is no incentive for a geared player to run T1 OPs or even HM FPs thereby reducing the pool of available players; something that is already a problem with the "low" overall game/server population sizes even after the mergers.

 

After a certain point, even BH coms don't buy much of anything that is an upgrade (ex. Hazmat Implants/Ears @ 350 BH coms/piece don't provide a sufficient stat upgrade over a Rakata piece to be a must buy to anyone but a true min/max'er, especially at that price.)

 

Finally, simply having extraneous bound, end-game mods in sufficient quantities to gear up an alt must mean that the player must have already done the content multiple times in order to acquire the mods in question.

 

Hopefully that also means that the player should be sufficiently acquainted with the fights to perform other roles (or the same role with another class) with some level of competence or at least familiarity. At the very least it would make it easier to run KP and EV over and over again learning the nuances of how their newly minted 50 performs at end-game.

 

TL;DR -

 

SWTOR has never been a game that emphasizes hardcore end-game raiding. Why should a player who has already experienced most/all of the endgame content be subjected to the full gear grind for each of his alts that he has already experienced on his first character? The player has already paid his dues.

 

Even though transferring mods is an unintended consequence/perk of the legacy armor system, the rest of the game increases the rewards for each new alt a player levels. What's so wrong about continuing that trend with end-game gearing?

I just had to quote this for emphasis, as it's much clearer than your original post. And with that clarity: I agree, I think that crafting really should be like this. I have some similar suggestions, but I'll make another reply for those.

 

Agree too, only thing I would add is some kind of fix for the Cartel Market, I really am upset that the new upgrades to ship are so easy to get no point to craft them at all the cost of crafting is too high compared to what you can pay and get off the market. I would also suggest some kind of fix for armor making skills too, other than augments, there is no point to sythweaveing and armortechs with the able cheap supply of orange gear of the market. On Shadowlands, everything but Revan's mask and the white clown face are going for cheap. The dancer outfits can be had for 2k full set. I don't have a Armstech but I would assume he is in the same place too.

IMO, current end-game crafting is an imbalanced joke and significant changes should be made to balance crafting as part of RotHC.

 

//snip

 

lol, I think we have different opinions on what imbalanced means. Currently, I see that pretty much anybody can participate of end game crafting. What you're asking, imo, is exactly the opposite. You want BW to set rules to benefit very few

@kustrin

 

I would say gearing up alts through Legacy is one of the major functions of the Legacy system. Whether moving mods around that way was initially intended or not, it's very clear that they like that functionality and all its advantages. By the time they did the 2nd world event, everybody knew of this function. What did BW do ? They introduced Legacy weapons as rewards, adding the ability of moving two types of items that couldn't be moved before, barrels and crystals.

 

Also, having decently geared up alts means more choices and easy ways of getting a group going. Sometimes we're just one short and all we need is 1 more, doesn't matter what role. We just reshuffle accordingly. Without having alts with good gear, bunch of raids would have been canceled

 

All this is made possible because of the state of end crafting as we have it now and because of the Legacy system.

Here's that other reply I said I'd make. BTW I also agree with the above poster on the ability to share gear across Legacy. That may be a bug that they decided to call a feature, but I think it should be a full-on feature for subscribers.

 

Some ideas to make crafting more relevant for those who don't have access to the highest raiding tier stuff:

 

Armstech:

Can make BOE mainhand/offhand combos that have a 2-piece set bonus to them.

Can make up to rating 136 (Columi) BOE gear for others.

Can make 2 rating 140 (Rakata) gear for self--weapon and offhand.

 

Synthweaving:

Can make BOE belt/bracers combos that have a 2-piece set bonus to them.

Can make up to rating 136 (Columi) BOE gear for others--all products.

Can make 2 rating 140 (Rakata) gear for self--belt and bracers (can already do this, no real change needed).

 

Armormech:

Can make BOE belt/bracers combos that have a 2-piece set bonus to them.

Can make up to rating 136 (Columi) BOE gear for others--all products.

Can make 2 rating 140 (Rakata) gear for self--belt and bracers (can already do this, no real change needed).

Can make the 23-26 series barrels, either learned from trainer or RE'd for.

 

Artifice:

Can make no-alignment-required relics ranging from 1-50.

Can make BOE relic pairs that have a 2-piece set bonus to them.

Can make up to rating 136 (Columi) BOE gear for others--all products.

Can make 2 rating 140 (Rakata) gear for self--relics (can already do this, no real change needed).

Can make the 23-26 series hilts and enhancements, either learned from trainer or RE'd for.

Can RE Cartel Market color crystals to learn schematics.

 

Cybertech:

Can make up to rating 136 (Columi) BOE gear for others.

Can make the 23-26 series mods and armorings, either learned from trainer or RE'd for.

[Cybertech already has grenades for self, as well as all the new droid and ship parts schematics, plus vehicles. No further changes are warranted IMO; if they simply got more of what they can already do, they'd be fine. ]

 

Biochem:

Can make up to rating 136 (Columi) BOE implants for others.

Can make implant pairs that have a set bonus.

[No further change. Already has the full suite of Rakata stims and adrenals they can make for self, as well as the Exo schematics for others.]

 

Admittedly these changes would put the Mission Support Vendors for modifications largely out of business, but so what. They're basically out of business anyway, as they're in the same boat as crafters--the game is handing you better stuff for free or very little play to get, so why would you blow dailies on those items. Those vendors need to start selling better poop or get another job.

Edited December 27, 2012 by Autorch

Admittedly these changes would put the Mission Support Vendors for modifications largely out of business, but so what. They're basically out of business anyway, as they're in the same boat as crafters--the game is handing you better stuff for free or very little play to get, so why would you blow dailies on those items. Those vendors need to start selling better poop or get another job.

 

I agree with this. As each successive tier of gear was released, the gear on these vendors should have progressively improved (and not just updated relics, but all the armoring, barrels, hilts and other items). I also think they should have phased out Tionese commendations as part of the daily / weekly HM missions and progressed the commendations earned there as well.

 

If they had done so, and if crafters had been able to craft and sell progressively better gear as well, they would never have had to just hand out free gear to 50s as there would be lots of crafted and vendor stuff available at various quality levels / price points.

 

And just to come back to my thoughts on legacy gear and bound mods, while I still think it is a dumb system (though I too take advantage of it), it still needs some changes to balance it one way or the other.

 

Either they remove it entirely or they let us send anything bound to alts. Right now no hilts can be sent nor can any relics, implants or ear pieces. Not to mention only people who participated in the Rakghoul event can send barrels and crystals. This isn't balanced.

 

Maybe they add a new credit sink / legacy unlock which grants the ability to send bound items within a legacy. Maybe it becomes a separate credit sink like removing mods, such as X credits to change the bind from character to legacy.

 

At a minimum though, if they keep this in place as it is today, they need to add legacy weapons available to all and which include weapons with hilt slots.

 

Oh and for the alt-o-holics (of which I am one), I'd gladly give up the sending bound mods in legacy gear if I could get true legacy leveling gear that was decent looking, stat specific (not class specific), and auto leveled with my characters.

Edited December 27, 2012 by DawnAskham

I feel like we need these things in a grade between Tionese & Columi with each item requiring some form of grade 7 mat. All the schematics should be on the trainers. This is just kind of the minimum to keep crafting somehow relevant, up to level 55.

 

Armstech

1) a new tier of modable weapons with unique graphical visual effects like we're seeing in the cartel market

2) barrels through mod level 54

3) augments through level 54 & a grade 7 kit

 

Armormech/ Synth

1) level 50-55 crafted blue schamatics - so 1 new full 5 piece set of light/medium/heavy armor per profession

2) a fresh set of orange modables restricted to level 55 per weight & profession) - patterns to drop from UT crits/ or makeb mobs

3) augments through level 54 & a grade 7 kit

 

Artifice

1) BOE relics through Item level 54

2) modable offhand schematics

3) enhancements/ hilts through level 54

4) a new tier of modable weapons with unique graphical visual effects like we're seeing in the cartel market

 

Cyber

1) mods/ armors/ /ears/ droid parts through level 54

2) 120% grade 4 speeders "augmented thrusters" (and speeder training 4 on the class trainers)

3) a full set of paterns for the grade 7 ship parts.

 

Biochem

1) implants through level 54

 

But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Good point about the implants. I forgot Biochem does that. Edited my post to bring the overall pattern in line to be consistent with the other suggestions.

I agree with this. As each successive tier of gear was released, the gear on these vendors should have progressively improved (and not just updated relics, but all the armoring, barrels, hilts and other items). I also think they should have phased out Tionese commendations as part of the daily / weekly HM missions and progressed the commendations earned there as well.

 

If they had done so, and if crafters had been able to craft and sell progressively better gear as well, they would never have had to just hand out free gear to 50s as there would be lots of crafted and vendor stuff available at various quality levels / price points.

 

 

If you want to help end-game crafting, you should phase out those vendors, not boost them. Every hilt, barrel, amoring,etc bought to one of those vendors is one less piece bought to a crafter. I don't think that helps crafting.

 

 

Either they remove it entirely or they let us send anything bound to alts. Right now no hilts can be sent nor can any relics, implants or ear pieces. Not to mention only people who participated in the Rakghoul event can send barrels and crystals. This isn't balanced.

 

Just a correction. The Legacy weapons weren't introduced in tthe Rakhoul event. It was in the sencond one, it was the Grand Acquisitions Race event

 

Maybe they add a new credit sink / legacy unlock which grants the ability to send bound items within a legacy. Maybe it becomes a separate credit sink like removing mods, such as X credits to change the bind from character to legacy.

 

That could work. Or maybe charging a fee everytime you mail them to one of your other characters.

 

Oh and for the alt-o-holics (of which I am one), I'd gladly give up the sending bound mods in legacy gear if I could get true legacy leveling gear that was decent looking, stat specific (not class specific), and auto leveled with my characters.

 

So one piece of gear for the entire campaing ? How does that help crafting (end-game or low-mid level) ?

Less gear needed, less need for crafters. And crafters dont make Legacy gear to begin with.

 

There already are crystals that aren't provided by crafters that last the entire campaing. And those are bad imo. Extending this would be terrible

I agree with some of these ideas, like rebalancing mission skills and crafting skills, but I think you have the problem backward.

 

The real problem with SW:TOR crafting is that it has been reduced to an auxiliary reward system for raiding.

 

A good crafting system rewards players for spending time and effort mastering tradeskills. Luck may play some role in this, but the overall rewards for crafting should be roughly proportional to a player's investment in crafting. The crafting system in SW:TOR is broken because it rewards players for raiding, with no relationship whatsoever to the time or effort they have invested developing their tradeskills. The players selling the best hilts on the GTN should be the ones who invested the most time and effort honing their craft and acquiring materials, not someone who powerleveled artifice a couple days ago because no one else in the operations group could RE hilts.

 

The fact that the riffraff can forgo gear upgrades to buy stim schematics with their hard-earned Black Hole Commendations or gamble several thousand Fleet Commendations to get the Molecular Stabilizers to pay a raider to push a button and craft them new barrels is not a problem; it is one of the only redeeming features of the current system.

 

Contra the OP, the best thing BioWare could do to improve the crafting system is to completely separate crafting from raiding and raid rewards.

 

Whatever its problems, the crafting system at launch provided a meaningful independent path to gear progression with significant depth and time/resource gating. A player who invested enough time and credits to learn tier two recipes and craft augmented versions of these could produce something that was roughly comparable to Tionese gear. Select BoP pieces were best-in-slot when augmented. The players selling the best earpieces of the GTN were the cybertechnicians who invested the most time and Mandalorian Iron crafting and reverse engineering items to produce augmented versions of earpieces with the most highly sought-after tier two affixes. They had no artificial advantage over other cybertechnicians.

 

The introduction of augment kits, the ability to remove mods from endgame gear, free Tionese gear for all level fifty players, and the paucity of new trainer- or schematic-taught recipes to keep up with new raid gear have all conspired to render SW:TOR crafting a reward system for the handful of players who, ironically, don't actually need any of the gear they learn to craft by reverse engineering operation drops (else they would use it instead of reverse engineering it).

 

Do not get me wrong: I fully support each of these developments (except for the part about the lack of new schematics), and I doubt BioWare fully foresaw what they would do to the crafting system. Nevertheless, the current system rewards raiding rather than crafting and it gives those who already have the largest advantages the ability to monopolize realm economies at the expense of everyone else. If you think raiders are not rewarded enough for what they do, tweak operations drops. Do not continue to make endgame crafting contingent on reverse engineering operations gear (or prohibitively expensive crafted gear that someone else learned to make by reverse engineering operations gear).

 

If BioWare wants to develop a functional, compelling crafting system and foster healthy realm economies what they need to do is separate crafting from raiding altogether, not further marginalize and exclude those of us who do not raid by making every aspect of end game crafting the exclusive province of raiders.

IMO, current end-game crafting is an imbalanced joke and significant changes should be made to balance crafting as part of RotHC.

 

Changes I'd like to see include (in no particular order):

 

1 - Bound means bound, no ripping and sending bound mods to alts using legacy gear.

 

sounds great until you get that third 50 and need to go through all of the end game content again. a vast majority of us have LOTS of 50s. the game promotes this.

 

2 - Highest tier PVE items require mats that only come from highest tier PVE content (not space, not comms, not PVP, not CM).

 

i can agree with this. pvp needs to get thier mats the same means as pve. if one can use coms then either both or neither should. same with quest rewards and drops.

 

3 - Mid tier items require mats that can be obtained from alternative sources.

 

what is "mid tier items". mats should be gained from content that drops the gear. make the gear re the mats if "mid tier" is what i think you are talking about.

 

4 - Schematics for highest tier items only obtainable from direct RE or drop of highest content (very low chance).

 

make the schematics boe and see the prices soar or if done your way a select few guilds will have a monopoly on certain crafted items. competition is a good thing like it is now. re chance is fine now since it has been increased from what it was some time ago. reing something over 100 times for a schematic isn't enjoyable so it was changed. none of us wants to ever go back to this.

 

5 - Schematics for mid tier items can be obtained from alternative sources.

 

again mid tier. sources should be the same content being done which drops the item. coms from that content would be fine.

 

6 - No schematics can be learned by RE'ing a crafted item.

 

kinda agree with this.

 

7 - Crew skills rebalanced such that each skill contributes equally to gearing (cybertech too powerful while synth / armor irrelevant).

 

synth and armor make augments and kits. they are the best material efficient crew skills to make kits. armstech i can understand

 

8 - Mission skills rebalanced such that material supply is aligned with material demand (UWT metals too important while UWT cloth irrelevant).

 

cloth is only used for light armor by synthweavers. changing this to medium and heavy for synthweavers would suffice. i really never had a problem with this either but that doesnt mean others dont.

 

9 - As new content is released, schematics and materials for the previous highest tier items become more readily available, with the newest tier items taking their place as rare and difficult to obtain.

 

disagree with content or perhaps level is what you meant here. so i can support obsolete levels when a level increase is made. like any mods below the new level. no need to make level 61/63 a lot easier when max level is 55 for example. a little easier i can agree with.

 

I'm sure many others have lots of ideas that are much more detailed and specific on ways to improve crafting while improving the integrity of end game such that players are encouraged and rewarded for participating in end game content, not buying end game gear off the GTN.

 

Please share yours (though yes, the jaded part of me feels it won't matter as the devs will do whatever they feel like doing and even with the best of intentions, will screw it up somehow anyway).

 

shared some of my thoughts under each of your points.

 

i do have other ideas but people have already hit upon some of them and i am pressed for time.

 

nice post.

I agree with some of these ideas, like rebalancing mission skills and crafting skills, but I think you have the problem backward.

 

The real problem with SW:TOR crafting is that it has been reduced to an auxiliary reward system for raiding.

 

A good crafting system rewards players for spending time and effort mastering tradeskills. Luck may play some role in this, but the overall rewards for crafting should be roughly proportional to a player's investment in crafting. The crafting system in SW:TOR is broken because it rewards players for raiding, with no relationship whatsoever to the time or effort they have invested developing their tradeskills. The players selling the best hilts on the GTN should be the ones who invested the most time and effort honing their craft and acquiring materials, not someone who powerleveled artifice a couple days ago because no one else in the operations group could RE hilts.

 

The fact that the riffraff can forgo gear upgrades to buy stim schematics with their hard-earned Black Hole Commendations or gamble several thousand Fleet Commendations to get the Molecular Stabilizers to pay a raider to push a button and craft them new barrels is not a problem; it is one of the only redeeming features of the current system.

 

Contra the OP, the best thing BioWare could do to improve the crafting system is to completely separate crafting from raiding and raid rewards.

 

Whatever its problems, the crafting system at launch provided a meaningful independent path to gear progression with significant depth and time/resource gating. A player who invested enough time and credits to learn tier two recipes and craft augmented versions of these could produce something that was roughly comparable to Tionese gear. Select BoP pieces were best-in-slot when augmented. The players selling the best earpieces of the GTN were the cybertechnicians who invested the most time and Mandalorian Iron crafting and reverse engineering items to produce augmented versions of earpieces with the most highly sought-after tier two affixes. They had no artificial advantage over other cybertechnicians.

 

The introduction of augment kits, the ability to remove mods from endgame gear, free Tionese gear for all level fifty players, and the paucity of new trainer- or schematic-taught recipes to keep up with new raid gear have all conspired to render SW:TOR crafting a reward system for the handful of players who, ironically, don't actually need any of the gear they learn to craft by reverse engineering operation drops (else they would use it instead of reverse engineering it).

 

Do not get me wrong: I fully support each of these developments (except for the part about the lack of new schematics), and I doubt BioWare fully foresaw what they would do to the crafting system. Nevertheless, the current system rewards raiding rather than crafting and it gives those who already have the largest advantages the ability to monopolize realm economies at the expense of everyone else. If you think raiders are not rewarded enough for what they do, tweak operations drops. Do not continue to make endgame crafting contingent on reverse engineering operations gear (or prohibitively expensive crafted gear that someone else learned to make by reverse engineering operations gear).

 

If BioWare wants to develop a functional, compelling crafting system and foster healthy realm economies what they need to do is separate crafting from raiding altogether, not further marginalize and exclude those of us who do not raid by making every aspect of end game crafting the exclusive province of raiders.

 

Totally, completely, and absolutely agree.

 

Crafting is at the highest levels a raiding reward and little else. If the intent is to get people to raid, it has missed the mark in that it more likely motivates them to give up on crafting or unsub in frustration,

Totally, completely, and absolutely agree.

 

Crafting is at the highest levels a raiding reward and little else. If the intent is to get people to raid, it has missed the mark in that it more likely motivates them to give up on crafting or unsub in frustration,

 

I also approve Kaskali's message.