Originally posted by Benedikt

huh? companions can have different crafting/gathering skills then your char? up to now everything i know (didnt played and not sure if i ever will) pointed to the fact that your selected 3 crew skills are only skills you or your companions can use.

does it mean that teoretically between all the companions you can have all crew skills?

No all your crew members have the same 3 crew skills. He's talking about alts.

To have everything covered you gonna need 6 alts, as there's 6 crafting skills. Also it would require you to level all your alts, seeing how the missons are bound to character level.

Originally posted by Benedikt

Originally posted by arieste

Now that i think about it more.. if you want to be mostly self-sufficient, the best setup would probably be:

 

Main:   3 gathering skills.

Level 10 Alt 1:  The crafting skill that makes weapons (Artificing or Armstech) + 2 mission skills

Level 10 Alt 2:  The crafting skill that makes armor (Armstech or Synthweaving) + other 2 mission skills

huh? companions can have different crafting/gathering skills then your char? up to now everything i know (didnt played and not sure if i ever will) pointed to the fact that your selected 3 crew skills are only skills you or your companions can use.

does it mean that teoretically between all the companions you can have all crew skills?

no, i meant, if you make 2 alts.

Originally posted by Mightyking

Originally posted by Benedikt

huh? companions can have different crafting/gathering skills then your char? up to now everything i know (didnt played and not sure if i ever will) pointed to the fact that your selected 3 crew skills are only skills you or your companions can use.

does it mean that teoretically between all the companions you can have all crew skills?

No all your crew members have the same 3 crew skills. He's talking about alts.

To have everything covered you gonna need 6 alts, as there's 6 crafting skills. Also it would require you to level all your alts, seeing how the missons are bound to character level.

oh, right, i confused alt with companion, sorry :)

that explains it :)

thanx

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Originally posted by arieste

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Originally posted by Benedikt

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Originally posted by arieste

Now that i think about it more.. if you want to be mostly self-sufficient, the best setup would probably be:
 
Main:   3 gathering skills.
Level 10 Alt 1:  The crafting skill that makes weapons (Artificing or Armstech) + 2 mission skills
Level 10 Alt 2:  The crafting skill that makes armor (Armstech or Synthweaving) + other 2 mission skills

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huh? companions can have different crafting/gathering skills then your char? up to now everything i know (didnt played and not sure if i ever will) pointed to the fact that your selected 3 crew skills are only skills you or your companions can use.
does it mean that teoretically between all the companions you can have all crew skills?

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no, i meant, if you make 2 alts.

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Originally posted by Mightyking

 Also it would require you to level all your alts, seeing how the missons are bound to character level.

Missions are not bound to character level.  At least they weren't in this build.  I was able to gather materials for (via missioning) and craft items above my level.

New missions opened up based on my skill in that particlar crew skill.  (i.e. I need Investigation 60 before Tier 2 investigation missions opened up)

Unless I was doing something wrong, only thing I did not enjoy much was the crafting itself - you have to make zillions of low level items in order to raise your crating skill.

Overall, imo the concept is good though.

Originally posted by Gdemami

Unless I was doing something wrong, only thing I did not enjoy much was the crafting itself - you have to make zillions of low level items in order to raise your crating skill.

Overall, imo the concept is good though.

I Felt the crafting was enjoyable, it was nice that i could send my 2 companions off to gather and craft while i was pvping or merely taking a smoke break..

Beats the hell out of node hunting like other various mmos, Even tho you can "node" hunt in swtor.. you dont Have to..

Crafting in SWTOR is incredibly stupid and done chjeap to get it in the game as fast as possible.They elininated al lthose nodes ,eliminated 3d animations and crafting tables.Just a quick thrown together idea.

Your companion doesn't craft he actually does nothing at all.It is just a script and a 2d window that pretends to do things,pretends to send your compaion off and pretends to craft.There is no real crafting process just a more of that same EVE online crap that has windows that open .I call it spreadsheet gaming,takes any possible immersion out of a game and is a super cheap design.

Crafting is one of the very main reasons i decidd to not get this game,because i take crafting seriously as an important part of   gaming.

SWTOR shows it's rushed out face in amny aspects.A lot of it's design is based more on creating code instead of creating mesh's,animations, actual content that a player can see, and interact with.Example instead of creating more useful abilities and spells ,they opt for the super cheap TREE lines to do the EVE online thing again ,ticking off boxes.One player model to escape having to make new models and create the animations.The Crafting part i already touched on.Instead of creating quests to actually go do with your companion they opt for the fake 2d pop up windows again a lazier effort.Then there is just the VERY bare minimum quests to carry you through each zone,an extreme lack of content.What they actually do is give you xp just for showing up to meet a npc lol or just for clicking your crafting trainers.../sigh.I think i got almost 3k xp just clicking Crafting trainers.

Originally posted by Gdemami

Unless I was doing something wrong, only thing I did not enjoy much was the crafting itself - you have to make zillions of low level items in order to raise your crating skill.

Overall, imo the concept is good though.

You get 1 crafting skill-up for every item you craft.  

You need to make 3-4 of each item in order to get the upgraded recipe (unless you get lucky, but 3 on average).

So really, if i make weapons, there are at least 5 or 6 different weapons i can make.  

So, 3 copies of each of the 5 weapons = skill +15.

3 copies of each of the 5 weapons (upgraded version) = skill +15

1 copy of each of  the 5 weapons for self (purple version) = skill +5.

1 copy of each of the 5 weapons for sale (purple version = skill +5

Total skil 40.  By the time you have skill 40, you already have access to version 2 and possibly version 3 of those weapons.  

It takes a bit of doing to get up to like skill 30-40, but once i was over 30 in crafting, i wasn't crafting anything i wasn't going to somehow use - either to get a better recipe i needed or to equip a companion.  And i wasn't even selling stuff, just making for myself.   Meaning, after skill 30, i stopped making "1 of everything" and just made what i needed and it gave me plenty of skill upgrades.  By the time i actually made my blue level 17 sniper rifle, i my skill was already over 100 and i would have been able to make level 20 stuff if i wanted to (but i didn't need to yet, since i was only 16)

Originally posted by Wizardry

Crafting in SWTOR is incredibly stupid and done chjeap to get it in the game as fast as possible.They elininated al lthose nodes ,eliminated 3d animations and crafting tables.Just a quick thrown together idea.

Your companion doesn't craft he actually does nothing at all.It is just a script and a 2d window that pretends to do things,pretends to send your compaion off and pretends to craft.There is no real crafting process just a more of that same EVE online crap that has windows that open .I call it spreadsheet gaming,takes any possible immersion out of a game and is a super cheap design.

 

 

Ever send your companion to craft than head to your ship? Ooh.. look at that, the companions.. crafting, at a crafting station...

Originally posted by Wizardry

Crafting in SWTOR is incredibly stupid and done chjeap to get it in the game as fast as possible.They elininated al lthose nodes ,eliminated 3d animations and crafting tables.Just a quick thrown together idea.

you sound angry.  how much crafting did you actually do in TOR?  because nodes (and node gathering) still exist and crafting tables still exist and your companions stand at them and craft.  

If you'd actually got a decent amount of crafting done, you would see this.  The system is simple to use, but is actually a lot better than most existing games.

Then again, i always thought that standing by a table and swinging a hammer for an hour without actually contributing any skill to the activity was retarded and did not partake in that kind of crafting.  Pretty much the only game where i previously enjoyed crafting was SWG and that game had factories and things, the complexity was in finding components and deciding on them, not in standing by a crafting station.

THe feeling of making your first puple item after getting it researched in TOR is pretty awesome and a lot more immersive than the feeling of buying a rare crafting component in eq2 and hammering together for your "rare" crafted gear.

During this last weekend beta. I spent most of my time crafting to get a better feel for it. The crewskills I choose were Biochem, Bioanalysis, and Diplomacy. Before the crafting glich i was 84 biochem, 141 bioanalysis, and 40 diplomacy. Crafting is attached to your lvl. I was unble to do 25-36 mission becase my lvl was at 20. It seems BW has put in place a system that does not allow to gather mats outside your current lvl range.

I was not one of those individuals that ran out of credits. If i remember currectly I had 15,000 credit before I logged off last night. Its of my opinion that crafting is not as easy as it seems. Its a very costly and its a credit sink. Some thought has to be given on why and when you should accuire a new recipe. Just because its available does not mean you should obtain the recipe at that time. Using your compainion as the only means of gathering will only break you. Your compain should only be used to gather hard to find items. 

Also, inventory seems to post a problem in this game. If your a crafter, your must send your compainion out regularly to sell your grey or trash items in you bag. Remember to purchase your first inventory upgrade ASAP when you have enought credits. This will allow you to carry more and sell more trash items. 

Originally posted by Soopaman

During this last weekend beta. I spent most of my time crafting to get a better feel for it. The crewskills I choose were Biochem, Bioanalysis, and Diplomacy. Before the crafting glich i was 84 biochem, 141 bioanalysis, and 40 diplomacy. Crafting is attached to your lvl. I was unble to do 25-36 mission becase my lvl was at 20. It seems BW has put in place a system that does not allow to gather mats outside your current lvl range.

Hrmm.. that's interesting.  Perhaps the reason i was eble to make level 20 stuff at 16 was because level 20 is technically in the same "range" as level 16.   It sucks if this is true and there is a limit.  It should really be just based on your Crew Skill, not on your character level.

Originally posted by Mightyking

Originally posted by Benedikt

huh? companions can have different crafting/gathering skills then your char? up to now everything i know (didnt played and not sure if i ever will) pointed to the fact that your selected 3 crew skills are only skills you or your companions can use.

does it mean that teoretically between all the companions you can have all crew skills?

No all your crew members have the same 3 crew skills. He's talking about alts.

To have everything covered you gonna need 6 alts, as there's 6 crafting skills. Also it would require you to level all your alts, seeing how the missons are bound to character level.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's bound to your crafting skill level.  I'm slicing 42-50 level boxes(and missions) and have done so since lvl 37-ish.

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Originally posted by arieste

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Originally posted by Soopaman
During this last weekend beta. I spent most of my time crafting to get a better feel for it. The crewskills I choose were Biochem, Bioanalysis, and Diplomacy. Before the crafting glich i was 84 biochem, 141 bioanalysis, and 40 diplomacy. Crafting is attached to your lvl. I was unble to do 25-36 mission becase my lvl was at 20. It seems BW has put in place a system that does not allow to gather mats outside your current lvl range.

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Hrmm.. that's interesting.  Perhaps the reason i was eble to make level 20 stuff at 16 was because level 20 is technically in the same "range" as level 16.   It sucks if this is true and there is a limit.  It should really be just based on your Crew Skill, not on your character level.

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Sorry for not clariftying my last statement. I dont know if you can craft beyond your current lvl. But you can only run crew skill missions within a lvl range. The first crew skills mission range is 10-16 and the second crew skills mission range is 17 to 24 if i'm not mistaken. During the last beta i out leveled the 17-24 range and was unble to do any missions in the next range.

Here is a little crafting write up i found. Hope it helps.

SWTOR Crafting Guide

Hi Guys! I'm not sure how much interest there is around here in SWTOR, but I figured since I spent quite a bit of time in my short beta weekend and more time in the week since reading every piece of info I can get my hands on about the crafting system, I would share some information. If people are very interested in becoming a Jawa (the new goblin!) I'll try and keep things updated as I hope to explore more of the skills in the next beta weekend.
Crew Skills

Professions in SWTOR are called "Crew Skills" as your companions and ship droid (your crew) do much of the heavy lifting for you. You can have up to 3 professions per character, but only one of those professions can be a crafting profession . In as much as I've tested, there are no "levels" to crew skills. That is, once you learn it you do not have to go back to a trainer to learn rank 2 of that profession to keep leveling it once you reach a certain level (i.e. no "grand master archeology"). You do need to return to crafting trainers to learn new recipes, however. Crew skills fall into one of three catagories:

Crafting Skills (you can only have one per character)
- Armormech - Creates armor aimed at +AIM and +CUNNING players (so Trooper/Bounty Hunter and Agent/Smuggler)
- Synthweaving - Creates armor aimed at +STRENGTH and +WILLPOWER players (so Knights/Warriors and Consulars/Inquisitors)
- Armstech - Creates blasters/rifles and the modifications associated with them - primarily +AIM and +CUNNING
- Artiface - Creates color crystals and modifications for lightsabers
- Cybertech - Creates droid modifications, earpieces, grenades, bombs
- Biochem - Creates serums (like flasks), medipacks (health potions) and stims (attribute potions)

Gathering Skills
Each crafting skill has an associated gathering profession that you will need to level it through it's basic progression.
- Archeology - Find Artifacts, Power crystals, and Color Crystals from nodes on the ground
- Bioanalysis - Find genetic material from dead animals (skinning) or plant nodes on the ground
- Scavenging - Collect droid parts from dead droids or from damaged technology nodes
- Slicing - Hack into secured computer terminals and lockboxes to gather lockboxes (containing gear, credits, or rare schematics)

Mission Skills
Mission skills are a bit different from crafting professions (which you level by crafting) or gathering professions (leveled primarily through gathering from mobs/nodes) as it is only leveled by sending a companion (either your active one or one that is on your ship) on a mission to gather materials of your choosing. It's worth noting that you can also level gathering professions this way, but as missions cost credits to perform, the return on investment was very low for the gathering professions (at least in the last build) - recently Mission Skill missions were buffed and now the profits are much better. Most of these allow you to either increase your "reputation" in some way (either your Light Side / Dark Side or your Affection rating with your companion) and can provide the materials you need to create prototype (blue) and artifact (purple) quality gear. As far as I can tell you should be able to level the crafting professions without this, but you would be unable to craft any non-green items without visiting the Auction House.
- Diplomacy : You can use this to increase your light side / dark side points and to gather Medical supplies for Biochem
- Investigation : Possibility to find rare schematics and Compounds for Armstech recipes
- Treasure Hunting : Find gemstones used for rare Artiface recipes. Can also find mission boxes with credits
- Underworld trading : Find Metals for Armortech & Cybertech and Cloth for Synthweaving

Learning new recipes:
There are several ways to learn new recipes. Primarily, there's the trusty trainer. The vast majority of these recipes are green quality (though the green quality gear *is* good for leveling in SWTOR). At lvl 50 there are some artifact (purple) quality recipes on the vendor as well. The rarest schematics are from slicing and investigation (I have yet to see these, but some rumors are that these are sellable). The easiest way to get blue and purple recipes is a mechanic called "reverse engineering" (think disenchanting). Whenever you obtain an item in the class you can craft (so say light armor if you are a synthweaver) or craft an item, you have the option to break this item back down into some of its components (very similar to salvage if you played RIFT). Each time you do this, you have a chance to learn a rarer version of that recipe. So if I RE a green robe, I have a chance to learn the pattern for the blue version with has the same stats as the green plus a bonus stat or modification slot. Similarly, if I RE a blue version that I craft, I have a chance to get the purple version. These blue and purple versions of the gear are very good for their level. Best thing is if you have a stack of 5 items you would like to RE, you can do so in a single click

Modifications :
I've mentioned modifications a few times so far, so that's worth noting. In addition to crafting gear, you can craft modifications that go into specific slots in some gear to change the stats of the gear. You can think of these similar to gem slots, but on the best items, it's not that you are adding stats to the item, but you are completely creating the stats on the item from the modification. For example, the lightsaber you start off with is a fully mod-able item (not all items have mod slots) - if you take all the mods off, you have pretty much a metal case in your hand that is worthless. For a lightsaber, you can craft hilts, color crystals, focus lenses, emitter matrix, and power crystals which each change the stats of the item. Modifications are removable (at a cost that scales with level), but currently removed mods are Bound to you (though you can still use them on a companion if you would like). One interesting thing for modifications is that since *every* stat of the item is tied to the modifications, say you have some ugly heavy armor as a bounty hunter and get a really cool robe you want to wear. Since the robe is light armor, you would rarely want to use that as a tank, but you could remove all the modifications out of your current heavy armor piece and slide them into the light armor and now you are a bounty hunter in a robe. No promises this will make it to release, but it does imply that high-quality mods will be important to the game similar to how enchants/gems are in WoW.

I like Credits, but I don't want miss any personal bonuses!
This is one part of the professions I'm basing very heavily on datamined data, so forgive anything that turns out different at launch. It does appear that each of the crafting professions (and some others) give specific bonuses beyond just crafting to your character. It's unclear to me current if any of these are really long lasting bonuses to the class or more quality of life bonuses, but I'll give a run down of any I know of.

Armormech - At 50, there are purple quality items that are BoP to the crafter. It's unclear how these compare to heroic/raid drops.
Slicing - In previous builds, slicing was the "if you take slicing you're rich, if you don't you're poor" profession. The lockboxes you gather from nodes often contain large sums of credits with minimal effort (while leveling). That said, it seems like that latest build lowered the spawn rate of these, so it's unclear how amazing this will be at launch.
Armstech - ??? - I didn't play this much and the datamined information shows no obvious endgame BoP items.
Artiface - Level 50 relics (think trinkets) which are 1 slot modable.
Biochem - BoP Craftable implants which are 1 slot modable at lvl 50. Also most medpacks, stims, etc, have an epic craftable version that are only useable to Biochems. These give the same effects as the green quality version, but are not consumed (so think alchemist potion from Wrath).
Cybertech - Similar to biochem, but they have unconsumed grenades/bombs. As well as BoP epic earpieces. Also, they can craft ship upgrades and mounts. In the current datamined data, the mount is BoP
Synthweaving - *Lots* of BoP crafted epics at 50. It seems like nearly every slot.


Suggested Pairings :
This is my list of suggested pairings in order of Crafting/Gathering/Mission. Note that if you are completely uninterested in blue/purple crafting while leveling, you can always drop the Mission skill for Slicing or take 3 gathering professions for maximum profit.

Synthweaving / Archeology / Underworld Trading
Armormech / Scavenging / Underworld Trading
Artiface / Archeology / Treasure Hunting
Biochem / Bioanalysis / Diplomacy
Armstech / Scavenging / Investigation
Cybertech / Scavenging / Underworld Trading

I tried out the crafting experience this weekend, armormech to 80ish, scavenging to 145 and underworld trading to 95. I was very happy with the way it all worked out, got my spaceship which made it much easier as you get a worker drone before that you kind of need your companion as extra dps.

Scavenging is very easy lots of nodes and a lot of droids you or anyone else kills can be done, a nice touch if you have 2 close together you can tell your companion do do 1 while you do the other.

Armormech you craft from basic recipe(green), i generally reverse engineered which if you were lucky gave you the next level of recipe(blue) as well as mats, if you craft and get a crit you get an extra augment slot, re these apparently gives a better chance of a better recipe, i managed to upgrade to a purple on my 1st blue re, probably lucky didnt really re many blues after this, so your basic green had 2 stats the purple had 4 stats both equipable at lev 9.

This leads me onto Underworld trading where my experience was not so good, you can choose companion gifts or metal and fabric quests. I wanted to make my purple belt so spent a lot of credits sending out my minion.You will get blue metal or fabric from your missions unless it crits which is when you get the purple mats required, after roughly 40 missions for craft goods i ended up with 23 fabric and 6 metal epics as i didnt find a use for the fabric this did not seem a very efficient method but i am unaware if you can find these metals any other way except the galactic trade network which will be pricey.

So i invested roughly 40k credits for 3 lev 9 epic belts which i doubt will sell for more than 2-3k as noone will have much money and will outlev the starter zones quite quickly. I was unlucky with the procs but it gives you an idea.

I also did the companion gifts as the higher your companion likes you the better chance of critical sucess you have so more epic mats. you need 10k for the big blue heart at lev 20 my companion was at 1600 with only a few gifts a blue awards 95 if you choose the right one.

So from my experience which i really enjoyed i wouldnt bother going too hard into the more expensive mission skills for mats as your not likely to get your return back, the companion gifts are much cheaper missions i would store them till you get a companion with the right skills you require then get them to love you for max crit  on mission skills at max lev for hopefully your bast return.