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Last Of The Crew Skills Revealed on SWTOR.COM!

Published by under SwtorCrafter on Aug. 20. 2011.

Sitting here last night playing the beta of the Neverwinter heroes facebook game, I happened to do my nightly stroll across the swtor.com web page on crew skills before I went to bed, just to check on my pretties you understand, when I saw that the rest of the blanks had been filled in.  I have been waiting for this day and still it took me by surprise.

Somehow they slipped it under our radar, we weren’t vigilant enough to notice it the second it happened like SWTOR fans do usually.  That always cracks me up how we as fans of this game notice the things they do immediately.  Well now I don’t have to sit and wait with all the crew skills information hidden away in my pocket because now they are revealed and now I can finally talk about them!

If your new to the crafting/crew skills game and you ask,  “Just what are crew skills?”

(info taken from swtor.com crew skills page)

The Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ galaxy is rich with valuable resources, high-tech schematics, and intriguing opportunities, but what hero has time to devote themselves personally to so many pursuits? That’s where your crew comes in. The Crew Skills system allows you to take advantage of everything the galaxy has to offer without getting in the way of your adventure! You’ll assign your crew of companions to gather resources, craft useful and valuable items, and even to undertake their own missions, bringing you and the rest of the crew a variety of benefits and rewards. Crew skills keep you in the action while you take advantage of all the galaxy has to offer!

Crew Skills are…

The Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ galaxy is rich with valuable resources, high-tech schematics, and intriguing opportunities, but what hero has time to devote themselves personally to so many pursuits? That’s where your crew comes in. The Crew Skills system allows you to take advantage of everything the galaxy has to offer without getting in the way of your adventure! You’ll assign your crew of companions to gather resources, craft useful and valuable items, and even to undertake their own missions, bringing you and the rest of the crew a variety of benefits and rewards. Crew skills keep you in the action while you take advantage of all the galaxy has to offer!

Your Starship is home base for you and your crew. While you’re exploring the galaxy and progressing through your storyline, you can relay orders back to the ship. You’ll be able to assign tasks to your companions to gather resources, to craft items at the ship’s workstation, or to embark on special missions. Based on their personal backgrounds, some companions will be more proficient with certain skills, and the higher their opinion of you, the better they’ll perform across the board.

You will be able to select three Crew Skills for your team to train in from among these main categories:

GATHERING SKILLS:

As you explore planets in the galaxy, you’ll discover a variety of exotic resources and valuable pieces of information. With the right training, you and your crew will be able to scavenge for raw materials, slice computer systems, and track down valuable artifacts. The resources and information you gather can be sold on the open market for a profit, or your crew can use them to craft useful and valuable items. If you like, you can select Gathering skills for all three of the Crew Skill slots available to your team.

Gathering Skills include:

  • Archaeology – the ability to seek out imbued items like Lightsaber crystals and ancient artifacts
  • Bioanalysis – the practice of collecting genetic material from creatures and plants
  • Scavenging – the art of recovering useful materials and parts from old or damaged technology
  • Slicing – a skill in accessing secured computer systems and lockboxes to acquire valuable data and rare schematics

CRAFTING SKILLS:

Whether your team gathers resources or you acquire them through other means, they’ll be the cornerstone of crafting. Depending on how you choose to specialize, your crew will be able to construct armor, weapons, implants, or other types of useful items and gear. You can use these items yourself or put them up on the open market for
profit. You’ll receive Crew Skill reports even while you’re away from the ship, and if one of your companions returns with the schematics for a valuable item, you can assign someone else to start crafting the item right away on the ship’s workstation without having to return to the ship!

Crafting skills are very specialized disciplines; for your three Crew Skills slots, you’ll be able to select one Crafting skill for your crew to master.

Crafting Skills include:

  • Armormech – the ability to work with hard metals and electronic shielding to construct all types of personal armor
  • Armstech – the skill of constructing blasters, blaster rifles and upgrades
  • Artifice – the delicate work of constructing Jedi and Sith artifacts
  • Biochem –the engineering of performance-enhancing chemical serums and biological implants
  • Cybertech – the technical expertise to construct gadgets and components for Droids and high-tech armors
  • Synthweaving – the art of creating lighter outfits and armors that are imbued with supernatural qualities

MISSION SKILLS:

Mission skills are a unique addition to the Crew Skills system. With these skills, you send companions from your crew across the galaxy on various missions to recover information, hunt down loot, or complete other goals to bring you rewards. When you use a mission skill, you’ll select a companion, choose a mission from an
ever-changing pool, and send that companion out after the prize. You can choose from a variety of mission skills – is your crew into conducting research? Participating in diplomatic missions? Trading in illicit goods? There are many options, each with their own set of benefits and rewards. Some can even earn you light or dark side points.
As with the other skills, your companions complete these missions on their own time and bring the rewards back when they’re done. Any number of your Crew Skills can be a Mission skill, so get ready to put your team to work!

Mission Skills include:

  • Diplomacy – the art of conducting and managing negotiations
  • Investigation – the skill of examining evidence and following clues to discover valuable secrets
  • Treasure Hunting – the ability to track down and recover valuable items by investigating a series of clues
  • Underworld Trading – expertise in the trading of illegal goods and services
Now that all the cards are finally on the table I can finally report on them.  It has been hard keeping this info under my hat.  Info was scavenged from the intrernet about the remaining mystery crew skills about two months ago and I have been sitting and contemplating on their meaning all this time.  Me and my friend Daelda on twitter have been the most vocal that I have seen constantly calling for moar crew skills info!  Maybe now we can begin the cycle of tearing apart each to determine their hidden meaning, maybe now we can begin to develop the strategies we have in our heads about the hidden synergies they have in relationship to one another.
With them finally revealed I am able to ask my most burning question I have had about these all this time,  “Just what the heck is underworld trading????”
More speculation to come, but for now feast on this information and begin to think upon which direction you will take your character.  Remember you can only have three per character and only one of them can be a crafting skill. 
Do you see the ways they interact with each other?
Do you see the inherent synergies they have built into the system?
Thanks for reading more dissection on these and speculation coming soon!  🙂 

 

22 responses so far

22 Responses to “Last Of The Crew Skills Revealed on SWTOR.COM!”

  1. Daeldaon 20 Aug 2011 at 10:05 pm

    Let’s see what we can deduce by looking at the clues:

    1) Armormech – the ability to work with hard metals and electronic shielding to construct all types of personal armor – Relies on Scavenging (seems pretty straightforward).

    2) Armstech – the skill of constructing blasters, blaster rifles and upgrades – Scavenging (again – fairly straightforward).

    3) Artifice – the delicate work of constructing Jedi and Sith artifacts – Relies on Archaeology (again, seems pretty straightforward based on the description).

    4) Biochem –the engineering of performance-enhancing chemical serums and biological implants – Relies on Bio-analysis (again pretty straightforward).

    5) Cybertech – the technical expertise to construct gadgets and components for Droids and high-tech armors – This one is slightly trickier. I might have gone with Slicing, as that deals with computers – but Slicing deals with DATA…not actual components. I could go with combining two different Gathering skills and including Slicing as one of them, but so far it seems to me like it is one Gathering skill per Crafting Skill – so I am going to go with Scavenging again. You need the parts to construct the gadgets and components.

    6) Synthweaving – the art of creating lighter outfits and armors that are imbued with supernatural qualities – Now here I am *very* tempted to go with Scavenging again, except that one thing jumps out at me: “that are imbued with supernatural qualities” – now most items are not supernatural in nature and most Classes in TOR don’t wear light armor. But who does? Jedi and Sith. AND they are supernatural in nature. What Gathering skill is most likely to gather “supernatural Jedi and Sith Artifacts”? – Archaeology of course.

    Now…this leaves one problem…the gathering skill of Slicing has been unattached to any Crafting skill if I am anywhere close to right. So what is it for? Slicing is basically the Star Wars version of Lock-picking. You find a Data Terminal, Slice into it get whatever is inside – data, money, etc. Maybe you transfer money to your Credstick, or you find a Recipe, or maybe there is something else. In KotOR, you could slice locked containers that would contain items, and money – so maybe we will encounter some of those same things in TOR. Maybe Slicing will allow you to take “shortcuts” in Flashpoints or Operations, like Lock-picking does in WoW? I don’t know, but that seems to be what it did in KotOR and so it would be fairly natural for that to carry over to TOR in a similar manner.

    It is possible that each Crafting Skill actually requires TWO Gathering skills…but I think that just complicates the system further than BioWare wants, *plus* it would make it impractical for a Crafter to have anything but 1 Crafting Skill and 2 Gathering Skills. They would have no way to choose a Mission skill without relying on outside help to Craft – and I don’t think BioWare is going in that direction.

    ********

    Now, on to Mission Skills – these are MUCH harder to pin down because they don’t seem to necessarily rely on any of the other skills, so you only have their wording to use as a guide for what they do:

    Diplomacy – the art of conducting and managing negotiations. – Well, we know that this one can get you Light and Dark Side Points. Can it get you anything else? Possibly Tribute/money from a grateful or scared Noble? Faction Points with specific other Factions in the game (like the Voss, Mandalorians, etc)? There are a ton of ways this can go and I can’t really say which one this is taking.

    Investigation – the skill of examining evidence and following clues to discover valuable secrets – This one is hard to pin down. My best guess is perhaps rare Recipes?

    Treasure Hunting – the ability to track down and recover valuable items by investigating a series of clues – Jedi/Sith Components/Artifacts. Possibly rare gear.

    Underworld Trading – expertise in the trading of illegal goods and services – Daniel Erickson has confirmed that it is possible to leave the Slave Collar on Vette (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YibE7jtHC6E – approx 5:53), so that leaves the possibility open for many things. Is slave-trading allowed in TOR? I doubt it, but it is always possible. What about Spice or other proscribed items? Slaves and Spice are both well-known elements of Star Wars Lore, but would the ESRB and/or PEGI allow them to be in at a “T-Rated” game? If Kessel were a confirmed planet in the game, I would be more confident. Of course, Nar-Shadda IS in…so who knows? Possibly this is a way to earn Faction with the “less than above-board” Factions (like the Hutts)?

    These are my guesses, based on how things are worded. I am sure that I am *completely* wrong in several areas, but I think I am pretty close in several.

  2. Zlattoon 20 Aug 2011 at 10:17 pm

    What about treasure hunting ….. are rare mats a treasure or are we just finding trinkets to get into our companions pants and things to sell?

  3. Swtorcrafteron 20 Aug 2011 at 11:07 pm

    Holy crap Daelda you are the man!

    got to get a sandwich to read this reply 😉

  4. Zlattoon 20 Aug 2011 at 11:53 pm

    Maybe Slicing is an ‘opt’ out of crafting? A way to generate credits in gathering, generate schematics that you might not use so maybe just selling them off also?

  5. swtorcrafteron 21 Aug 2011 at 1:47 pm

    underworld trading and investigation are the two that are piquing my interest the most right now.

    Investigation: Your gonna have to be able to find gifts for your companions somehow in this game and I really don’t know where else to put that so I am gonna stick it under this one as loot from companions running these missions, I also think that this will be the way that we will see the schematics enter the game, possibly some rare crafting components too.

    Underworld trading: wow what could this be? man there are so many possibilities with this one. has to have something to do with a black market of some sort I would think. Probably going to be able to acquire rare crafting components this way, other than that I just don’t know what to say, I have so many guesses but not enough facts! 🙂

  6. Jackmaneron 21 Aug 2011 at 4:00 pm

    I’m thinking that Slicing might give you better results in Mission skills. Like in investigation the companion you send might be able to crack more infos. Or in a Diplomacy mission by reprogramming a protocole droid, or maybe too in treasure hunting by hijacking the personal journal of another hunter. Could basically be the gathering skill for people who don’t want to craft with a certain character so they’d go Slicing, Diplomacy and Treasure Hunting.

  7. Xaberanon 21 Aug 2011 at 4:22 pm

    Props for discussing crafting theory.

    I’ll keep an eye focused on this matter: can Diplomacy grant crafting materials/schematics in addition to Dark/Light side points? For a crafter, it would seem a wasted choice if it is the latter case.

  8. Rockhurston 21 Aug 2011 at 5:42 pm

    Brings so many questions to mind. Will I stock up on crafting & gathering skills with my companions or mix in the other interesting skills? Specialize in one crafting or utilize all?

    Now, aren’t these skills tiered? (lvl 1, 2, 3 armormech)? If so, it brings to mind a question…if I recall correctly, I thought the player has to create the recipie (schematic & parts combination), but the crew actually builds it? If that’s the case, then it would lead me to think that the player specializes in a more generic schematic skill or there’s NO crafting skill for the player. Otherwise, if the player can only specialize in armormech, what good is having crew skills in anything else?

    Also, I wonder how the bonuses certain companions have will play out. Will it be easily apparent who is good at what? Will all player classes get companions with the same bonuses or in order to get the companion with the right bonus do we need to be a certain class?

  9. Swtorcrafteron 21 Aug 2011 at 7:28 pm

    @ Jackmaner, Xaberan, Rockhurst, thank you guys for taking the time to share your thoughts with us on the subject of crew skills. I appreciate that for sure.

    @jackmaner I like your ideas about slicing. I could be happy with a synergy like that.

    @xaberan I bet it does. I know we will sometimes get loot drops from diplomacy missions and I bet we get schematics as well sometimes. or hoping anyways.

    @rockhurst I bet companion loyalty bonus will factor in some in the decision you make regarding which companions you use for crew skills more often than not. they have said in the past that they wanted to keep the bonus smallish so that you wouldn’t always favor one, or be gimped by your companion choice.

    they have changed so much about the companions here lately though, and we do know that companion gifts plays into some of the loot drops we will see from various crew skills so I am thinking it may be more of a bonus than what was designed for initially, now that companions are a more integral part of the game.

  10. Daeldaon 22 Aug 2011 at 12:53 am

    Custom avatar

    From a Darth Hater Interview: http://darthhater.com/2011/08/21/gamescom2011-gabe-amatangelo-interview/

    Gabe Amatangelo: “Speaking of RPG elements, inside some of the Flashpoints you’re going to find things. For example, if you have Archaeology, then you might find a secret door or a secret lever for another hallway wrapping around in a Flashpoint. If you have Slicing, then you might find a broken droid that you can slice and it can then assist you farther in the dungeon.”

  11. swtorcrafteron 22 Aug 2011 at 6:00 am

    ohh nice find Daelda! To be able to use my crew skills inside flashpoints for opening up new options? sign me up for that indeed! 🙂

  12. Shinorahon 22 Aug 2011 at 1:34 pm

    I’ve been brainstorming a lot on this as well, though my husband pointed out something too. Synthweaving may be similar to tailoring in WoW in that not *every* profession has a pre-ordained gather profession. Many do, but that could be an example where weaves just drop and you only need certain periodic components from archaeology to craft?

    I’m also stumped on the mission skills….But intrigued to hear more about them and how they fit in! I hope they do have some real, tangible utility – otherwise I think you’ll just see players picking up two gathering skills for either crafting support or profit, rather than picking up a mission skill for slot #3. So definitely hoping they make these mission skills really pay out in terms of ability to get otherwise locked schematics and such, to make it worthwhile to pick them up.

  13. Scheloson 23 Aug 2011 at 4:41 pm

    My own 2 cents:

    Armormech Crafting:
    – Needs Scavenging on all levels, for materials.
    – Needs Cybertech for higher levels.
    – Needs Slicing and possibly Mission skills for rare recipes (schematics)
    – MAY need Bioanalysis.

    Armstech Crafting:
    – Needs Scavenging on all levels, for materials.
    – Needs Slicing and possibly Mission skills for rare recipes (schematics)
    – MAY need Cybertech for higher levels.
    – MAY need Bioanalysis for uncommon/rare items.

    Artifice Crafting:
    – Needs archeology.
    – MAY need Slicing and Mission skills.
    – MAY need Bioanalysis.

    Biochem Crafting:
    – Needs Bioanalysis.
    – LIKELY needs Slicing and Mission skills.
    – MAY need archeology for special/rare formulas that affect Force-users.

    Cybertech Crafting:
    – Needs Scavenging on all levels, for materials.
    – LIKELY needs Slicing and Mission skills.
    – Possibly includes granade-crafting. In this case, might have synergy with Biochem or Bioanalysis.

    Synthweaving Crafting:
    – Needs Scavenging on all levels, for materials.
    – Needs archeology.
    – MAY need Slicing and Mission skills.
    – Likely needs Bioanalysis (for cloth, hides, leather, etc…).

    Diplomacy Mission:
    – Likely to bring Lightside (LS) Points or Darkside(DS) Points (not sure WHAT these will be usefull for, mechanics-wise).
    – Likely to bring reputation with some faction.
    – MAY bring money.
    – MAY bring items.
    – Unlikely (but possible) to bring schematics/formulas.

    Investigation Mission:
    – Likely to bring items.
    – MAY bring Schematics/Formulas.
    – Unlikely to bring money.
    – May give Reputation.

    Treasure Hunting Mission:
    – Likely to bring items.
    – Likely to bring Schematics/Formulas.
    – Unlikely to bring money.
    – May give Reputation

    Underworld Trading Mission:
    for those who are confused, these usually include (in real life, at least) fencing stolen goods, smuggling, slave trading, and other unsavory-but-fun stuff. May also include information trafficking, not only drugs.
    – Likely to bring money.
    – MAY bring items.
    – MAY bring schematics/formulas.
    – MAY bring reputation (particularly with Hutt Cartels).
    – MAY bring LS- or DS-points

    Gathering skills:

    – Slicing will be VERY usefull durning a quest/flashpoint/operation. It has been stated in the official forums it helps with unlocking boxes and stuff. there you get items, and schematics/formulas. MIGHT boost some investigation missions.

    – Scavenging will definetly help Mech and Tech, and MAY help a bit with other crafting skills.

    – Bioanalysis will definetly help Biochem, possibly Synthweaving, and MAY help get some rare-mats for other crafting skills. MIGHT boost some investigation missions.

    – Archeology will most likely help Artifice and Synthweaving. Unlikely to help on other crafts, but MIGHT boost underworld trading missions (on the first setting-trailer, the smuggler was busteed smuggling Sith-Artifacts).

  14. Aldricon 25 Aug 2011 at 4:19 pm

    I glad they released all these finally. I’m no theorist, but I think I’ll probably go with Armstech, Scavenging, and Investigation. That just sounds fun to me. ;P

  15. Swtorcrafteron 25 Aug 2011 at 7:57 pm

    @schelos man thank you for your thoughts on this I appreciate that!

    @aldric hey bud nice to see you here! Glad you are going with armstech that will be one less person that will be going for what I want to do. 🙂

  16. bobon 26 Aug 2011 at 12:05 pm

    This reminds me of Fallen Earth’s crafting, which is I think the best crafting in an MMO.

  17. Swtorcrafteron 26 Aug 2011 at 2:19 pm

    @bob omg I wish, fallen earth has to have one of the best crafting systems out there today for sure. If SWTOR doesn’t take advantage of the mobile market like Fallen Earth tried to they are seriously crazy.

  18. WeBeastinon 28 Aug 2011 at 6:18 am

    Im watching the Iron Man movie, and Tony Stark uses crew skills to create his suit. Just saying…

  19. Xaberanon 28 Aug 2011 at 10:02 am

    Here’s a new from PAX, no crafting bonuses from companions:

    DE: We realized that was a dumb feature and cut it. So crafting bonuses, I believe, are well on the way out. Everybody had the same response to that one, which was we really don’t want to do anything that is going to stop you from using a companion. If I’ve got a companion with me who happens to be my favorite companion and happens to be the guy with the biggest bonus towards the mission skill that I use for crafting, so I don’t use him. That is fail. That’s the first part of the question, the second part (about neutral companions) is, kinda. And, plus, there are some secrets

  20. swtorcrafteron 28 Aug 2011 at 11:11 am

    @xaberan ohh man are you serious? please give me a link to where you saw that at.

    thank you for the heads up I missed that I sure did.

  21. swtorcrafteron 28 Aug 2011 at 11:22 am

    @xaberan nvm I found it thank you for pointing this out to me that is something that I am not sure how I feel about. I kinda feel I dont like the fact that they took it out but then again without trying it first hand I am not sure if I would have liked it or not.

    the min-maxxer in me though bucks at the idea because when you take away the ways in which I can find ways to have advantage over others in the crew skills system then I am not happy.

    not sure how I feel about this idea actually.

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