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The stated purpose of said component BPs was "to allow players to skill in attachments more easily." While it's a noble cause, it's ABSOLUTELY FUCKING USELESS when players can just craft EP4 for 102% markup output. As always, crafters will be limited to crafting mining gear, or EP. It's a goddamn waste.
EP is a mechanical engineering skill it's useful to a lot of professions. As long as these BPs give you domain-specific skills in attachment or weapon crafting that you can't get from EP you're statement is off the mark.
Since the tech gizmos are in weapon and attachment crafting they'll be welcome for people who want to craft in an MMO, not just play virtual slots. I suspect most of what you're thinking of (most players anyways nothing personal) when you say 'mining equipment' is probably actually 'attachments'.
Most people that craft ep4 don't sell it for mu. They turn around and tt it to rinse and repeat. Sure some will manage to but it's a minority as most don't want to wait for it to sell. Also yes you can increase your profession levels in attachments using ep4, but it is also slow extremely slow.
100% right and clicking EP Can help you with general skills and some unlocks (just like repairing) but it can't get you to the upper levels in an unrelated profession.
These new bps seem to be a way of getting skills for the stated profession more easily like how ep4 allows easy way to skill component profession. This will make skilling crafting skills cheaper, instead of having to pay 1ped or more per click for the lower blueprints. Now it seems like they are opening crafting up to people with less ped...crafting always was an expensive profession to start. I don't think these blueprints were intended to fix ep4 though....thats your assumption and was never stated by MA.
The most basic component widget I is for electronic engineering. but it's pretty close to 1 ped (TT) per click.
Most of it is nanocubes but it uses three old-school crafted components from different professions, Mechanical Engineer, Metal Engineer, and another electrical engineer Then it adds muscle oil and sweat, and a bunch of nanocubes.
All of the other levels of widget and gizmo build off of this one and add various oils, and fragments and pieces from the prior levels.
It's not cheap or easy though even once the BPs will be common. I understand drops are tight (2 drops of new BP ini about 8 - 10k clicks so far) right now for some traditional MA markup action but leaving them rare would completely defeat the supposed purpose of their existence.
I'm glad to see them, but it's a bunch of work, several layers of markup, and a variety of skills/professions required that I think just won't be attractive to the straight gamblers that already have EPxx BPs. It will definitely help anyone that wants to become a productive crafter in the areas of crafting that are still most alive (i mean profitable) in-game.
It's definitely not crafting 2.0. But I'm happy to see it and it seems others are too.
