I have been thinking hard on what about TOR's economy is dragging things down. I have to say, the slicing nerf is not it. All slicing did was print money, a temporary solution at best. In the real world, we call that "inflation" and it is generally considered bad. No, the problem is that nothing encourages us to spend money. Any gear I can buy is a stopgap until I've ground through & collected that rare drop off that one champion somewhere, or completed a certain set of quests. I'm not going to empty my pockets for it.

 

So, how do you encourage people to pay money to other players instead of NPCs? Give them the ability to do something worth paying for. Make it so some craftable gear is in the high-end of what is available at a given item level, then control rarity and cost by controlling access to materials. The single easiest way to get the credits flowing is give crafting the ability to make aesthetic changes to gear. Make it so an Armortech can, for example, paint a set of armor or add decorative bits, etc. Set up the screen so both players can view the results & charge COD for it. Boom, instant market. Players are giving other players money without changing the gear balance at all.

 

Another example, I recently got a schematic for building a speeder from a Slicing mission. Intitial reaction was "Awesome, finally something I can make people would pay for!". Then I looked closer and saw that not only were the materials cost higher than just /buying/ the thing from a vendor, but it was BOP. So, not only could I not sell it, but even if I somehow could it would be at a loss. What then is the point of including it? No sane person will ever use that schematic. Market? Denied.

 

So. What needs to happen is the market needs revamping to encourage players to give money to other players. The problem is not a lack of funds, it's that what funds exist are going right back into the NPCs instead of sharing around.

 

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Thoughts? Reaction? Threats? Letter bombs?

You just dont know how to make money... The economy is non existant.. The game came out a month ago...

 

I built all 3 speeders so i actually did use it!

 

Create goods and sell them! I made 750k today without using slicing, so there is money to be made, you just have to get off the forums and play!

 

Even just from lvling im making a ton of money, just cuz you cant make money off a schematic doesnt mean the game is broken

 

You just have to sell things people need.. Think about it

The problem I can see with the market is that there is no real incentive for players to actually buy anything from the GTN because the quest rewards keep you more than equipped for your level (im talking equipment here). The only decent purchases I feel - would be purple items.

 

The other issue with say armour and weapons is that most players will be using orange variations to upgrade the parts. Now initially I thought this would be great because I could simply make the parts instead, but the best mods etc are usually bought using commendations or as quest rewards.

 

The level 50 items may be a bit different - but as it stands, the economy is severely flawed because there is no demand for the items. Aesthetics are one possibility, and will be stronger on the RP servers, but I think there needs to be a some patterns / schematics which differ greatly from whats already on obtained from quest rewards etc.

I was going to make a thread just like this... but I'm lazy.

 

You essentially hit the nail on the head: The Slicing nerf was 1) unnecessary because 2) there's nothing to buy anyway.

 

So, it boils down to this. Craftable gear has to be able to compete with Vendor Comm Gear. Otherwise, people just won't bother. But you can't allow Crafters to make the very same gear, I suppose... because that would defeat the purpose of Vendor Comm Gear. What to do?

 

I say make it so that Craftable Gear can have certain innate/unchangeable imbuements, which have a Strength randomly calculated and modified by Companion bonuses, Companion Affection, and Skill level. These imbuements boost things that nothing else can boost. There is only one imbuement, it is random, and only occurs on a Crit on Orange Gear.

 

Each of these provide small increase to prevent stacking abuse. A full set of equipment of one type would apply a good bonus.

 

1. Increased threshold to stuns. (Useful for PvP)

2. Increase your base movement speed in and out of combat. (useful for everyone)

3. Jump higher. (useful for everyone)

4. Boost to Companion Affection Bonus. (useful for crafters)

5. Elemental Damage. (for weapons)

6. Elemental Resistance. (for armor)

 

Maybe make them location sensitive.

 

1. Helmets

 

• Heat Vision (to detect stealth)
  
• Targetting Assistance (increased range)
  
• On Screen Hostile Sensor (everything but target is black and white)
  

 

2. Chest

 

• Thermal Weave (defend against Heat Vision)
  
• Fitted Understitching (faster HP regen)
  

 

3. Belt

 

• Ergonomic Design (3 additional Quickslots on your Hotbars)
  
• Quickdraw Harness (equip a second weapon set)
  

 

 

 

There is all sorts of stuff they could do to make Craftable gear viable.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Raice

Treerootz, what crafting profession are you using? Edited January 9, 2012 by Aesrei

Treerootz, what crafting profession are you using?

 

Crafters don't make money by making end-game objects. You gotta make stuff for the people who are leveling, still. They will buy stuff on the GTN all the time because. There's this dude on my server who is making a killing on Armstech, crafting lvl 20-45 Purple Pistols. They're GOOD pistols, and people buy them. I've bought 3 since I was lvl 35. He's made roughly 100k off of me alone. These guns (at the time) were essentially the best options I could get my hands on. I couldn't have modded an Orange to be as good as any of these guns, and even if I could, I would have spent more money, more time, and I would just have to do it all over again in 2 or 3 levels.

 

But... that doesn't do anything for the crafter in the long run. It assumes there will always be a steady supply of people leveling. I just don't see it happening. crafters need to craft for end-game too.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Raice

The single easiest way to get the credits flowing is give crafting the ability to make aesthetic changes to gear.

 

Agreed, this would make crafting professions useful

 

So, how do you encourage people to pay money to other players instead of NPCs?

 

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Thoughts? Reaction? Threats? Letter bombs?

 

i spend alot of money on gtn for craftying mats for reverse engineering a ton of items, works

Easy fix for this is to make the best weaps armor via schematics and materials which are lootable and tradable only via PvP/PvE.

I dont need craft, I can get biochem and get my own free pic consumables and get all the gear from flashpoints, it comes with epic mods so screw cybertech and artifice. Armormech and synth? Never heard of it. Getting all the gear from flashpints, now thats my stuff!

 

 

p.s. not really, but crafting in this game (other than imbachem) is a "filler" only - a bit usable when leveling and when you hit L50.

 

Agreed, this would make crafting professions useful

 

That would be awesome, consider how fugly endgame PvE and PvP gear is.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Vesperr