A SWTOR Beta Top 4: Things To Know About Crew Skills (Crafting)

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A SWTOR Beta Top 4: Things To Know About Crew Skills (Crafting)

December 4, 2011 Geldarion

There are so many wonderful features of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I got the immense pleasure of playing the Beta this last weekend, and I want to share some screenshots and opinions. I will be putting out a series of posts with the Top 4s of the many things I got to try, including the classes, the PvP, the systems, and the experience in general.

Crafting has always been one of my favorite facets of MMOs. The mod crafting system from Knights of the Old Republic 2 was a brilliant design, incorporating the ability to modify lightsabers, weapons, and armor that the first game had into a system that was in-depth character progression. The difference here is that the classes are not unbalanced when it comes to crafting ability, unlike in KOTOR.

Here are the top 4 things to know about Crew Skills (crafting) in SWTOR!

They are somewhat grouped
There have always been relationships between gathering professions like mining and crafting professions like blacksmithing. This game is no different. Here are the six main groupings I would say are advisable, coming straight from the Codex (the in-game encyclopedia) and a little experience with the Armstech crafting Crew Skills.
You can only train one Crafting Skill at a time, though any combination of Mission Skills and Gathering Skills is acceptable. Both Mission Skills and Gathering Skills have missions that you can send your companions to do, but the Gathering Skills also have nodes in the world itself that you or your companion can gather. Also, all Gathering and Mission Skills have missions for Companion Gifts that you can use to raise affection in your companions.

All of the Codex entries are screenshotted at the bottom of this post. Here are the main groupings:
- Crafting: Armormech (non-Force-users armor)
  -Gathering: Scavenging
  -Mission: Underworld Trading
- Crafting: Armstech (blasters, force-pikes)
  -Gathering: Scavenging
  -Mission: Investigation
- Crafting: Artifice (lightsabers)
  -Gathering: Archeology
  -Mission: Treasure Hunting
- Crafting: Biochem (medpacs, stimulants)
  -Gathering: Bioanalysis
  -Mission: Diplomacy
- Crafting: Cybertech (droid items, earpieces, mods, grenades)
  -Gathering: Slicing or Scavenging (I recommend Slicing, as it unlocks recipes for Cybertech in particular)
  -Mission: Underworld Trading
- Crafting: Synthweaving (Force-users armor)
  -Gathering: Archeology
  -Mission: Underworld Trading
You can use materials out of your ship’s cargo hold
This is a fantastic addition to the Companions-crafting-for-you idea. No more carrying materials around in your bags out in the field. All of the mats in the ship’s cargo hold are available for use in crafting.
Reverse engineering items grants new recipes
Most equipable items (including mods) can be reverse engineered to get back materials and even new recipes. The really nice thing about this is that it encourages you to make items that you already have to see if you can discover a new recipe. Items created from the new recipes can also be reverse engineered, which has led to some really cool items being reported, such as a reusable medpac from Biochem. Mods can be crafted to higher and higher quality using this system.
Crafting can be done without you
This is really kind of cool, since I love crafting, but also love questing. If I am going to be doing a lot of waiting around, I’ll send my companion to go craft. You automatically get a droid valet with the ship, which functions as a in-ship only companion that can be constantly on missions while you are out with a combat companion. That means a steady flow of materials. The time it takes to craft something is 3-6 minutes at level 10-20, which is just about perfect for a space combat mission. You can even craft while logged out. I can see a crafting app for smartphones in the game’s future.