Sending companions out to gather

[Fhi]

Hi everyone,

I just picked up this game to play with a friend. We level together - she's a Sentinel and I'm a Shadow, level 17s.

I've read up as much as I can about crew skills, and have decided to forego crafting for now. I'm trying to not pick the same skills she did, so as to avoid having to fight for nodes out in the field. Right now I have bioanalysis, biochem and diplomacy, but am thinking of switching to scavenging, slicing and treasure hunting.

My friend has artifice, slicing and archaeology though. I know we can take turns for nodes in the field, but I would rather not do that. I was wondering if it's worth it to send companions out to gather slicing materials. The stuffs they bring back - are they worth more than the cost of sending them out, taking into account the possibility of failures? Or should I stick to bioanalysis instead of slicing? Or something else entirely?

[Valeron]

I always used to send my companions out for gathering mats. Just make sure it's not your active companion.

With how easy it is to make money in the game, the cost is not really an issue.

[Fhi]

With how easy it is to make money in the game, the cost is not really an issue.

That's what I read from other people's experiences, but I think it depends largely on the player. Some players just cannot seem to make money. I did okay in WoW, had about 200,000g. Not terribly rich, but it was enough for me to buy anything I want, with the occasional luxury purchases and alt-twinking. Never really played the AH game - most of my cash came from soloing Warbringers when most people couldn't.

I lost most of my credits between training, first speeder and going crazy on diplomacy missions. And inventory space. Normally I like crafting in RPGs, but only if they are useful while leveling. At this point, with my first character, having a stable finance is probably more prudent.

[Lovestar]

Slicing is absolutely a great use of companions — just make sure they're spamming Lockbox missions, not Sliced Tech Parts (which are worthless until the highest tiers).

At worst, you break even; usually, you make a modest profit and level Slicing "for free".

Any 'Gathering' skill that returns Blue-quality stuff is generally a waste of money at low levels, because those mats aren't needed to grind Crew Skills to max, so they have low market value (only used to create low-level higher-quality items, which no one cares about).

This means Archae, Scav, and Bioanalysis are all valuable / worth the cost (just avoid any missions that return blues or generic vendor white crafting mats). Slicing materials are not, but the Lockboxes are break-even/profitable, and high-level Slicing produces valuable components, so Slicing is also good for leveling.

Underworld/Investigation are pretty much junk. Underworld gets better at high levels, Investigation is usually crap from start to finish due to its products being very low-demand. Diplomacy & Treasure Hunting are hit-and-miss, since the Companion Affection items can sell okay and sometimes Treasure brings back nice stuff (usually not).

[RohanV]

Costs increase with the tier of crafting. If you move up tiers too soon, you can find yourself running out of credits. I remember on one of my characters not being able to afford training at one point. So just keep an eye on your costs, stick with the cheaper missions if you think you are running low on cash.

Finding one decent piece of orange gear that sells on the GTN will solve all your levelling money problems, though.

[Fhi]

I miss auctionator/auctioneer. lol. The manual posting is so tedious - having to search currently listings to see a fair price, and then multiplying in my head the per unit price. Any easier way to do it?

[Reavyn]

I miss auctionator/auctioneer. lol. The manual posting is so tedious - having to search currently listings to see a fair price, and then multiplying in my head the per unit price. Any easier way to do it?

I usually sort by unit price and multiply the lowest unit price (if and when I think it's a fair price) with my amount, which is usually 99.

Another great way to earn credits, is to buy out a few high-demand cartel market items from the current packs. The amount of stupid undercutting that takes place during this time is insane. I bought 5x Mira's Jacket for ~500k and sold 4 of 'm for 1.75-2 million a piece a couple of weeks later when the cartel packs were gone and the supply had dried out. That's close to a 5.5 million credit profit and my own cheap copy of Mira's Jacket to boot. And since every pack usually has those few items everyone and their grandmother wants, it virtually never fails to pay off. You just need a bit of patience, since it's not an instant cash cow.

Seriously, playing the (cartel) market is by far the easiest and most profitable way to earn credits in this game. I've actually stopped doing this because I have more credits then I could possibly spend for now by doing this. I *NEVER* buy anything off the cartel market. The cartel items are basically for free if you know what to do and when to do it. Seriously, I got all the outfits etc unlocked that I want without spending any more cartel coins then it takes to unlock them account wide. And my mothly CC stipend is enough to do that and still have CC left.

You only need 2 things to start this;

- ~1 million credits to start doing this on a small scale (piss easy to get in this game even without crafting)
- Patience and the ability to take advantage of the fact that a good portion of the player base doesn't have any.

[Lovestar]

Don't forget snapping up "cheap" stuff a month or two before the pack goes out-of-stock permanently, then waiting a month or two to relist the items you can't get any more. :p