The Future of Memory Alpha / Crafting
The Memory Alpha revamp is there. Theres a lot of critique going against it progress conversion rates, the nature of items available, the fact that Crafting is still limited to Federation players. But there can be no doubt that the changes have greatly improved the usability of the entire system and the flaws we see are mostly those that have existed before. But, going by the comments of the developers, the revamp was more than just an UI change the foundatings have been overhauled to make it easier and better to use, and further improvements are coming.
At this time, we dont really know what will be coming. At this time, even the devs might not have made all their decisions. So maybe now is the time to put some thought what might be possible in the future and how to integrate concepts that other players have expressed interest in.
Expanding the Available Items
This is a no-brainer, ultimately. The question is what kind of items to add? The ultimate goal or at least wish is probably the ability to craft any possible item, and upgrade every item you already have. But the way there is long, so it might not hurt to look at possible steps in between, and what potential downfalls this has.
Equipment for every Tier, of every type
There need to be ways to craft Mark X Phasers or Disruptors, for example. Otherwise, people are forced into certainlchoices if they want to craft items for themselves, and we want to promote variability.
Very Rare (Purple) Items
Everyone wants these, of course. So, they have to be added. My suggestion would be as long as we cant create every combination that is possible the items in the store should be different from what already exists in the Purple stores. This gives more incentive to craft and use the different ways to accesss purple items.
The question is if we can craft purple items at will, how much point is there still for the dailies? So one idea I would suggest here is that this type of crafting needs similar, daily restrictions. You can create only one purple item per day, for example. (Or maybe more based on your craft skill.)
The drawback of such a limit is that a fleet for example couldn't have a "dedicated crafter" that creates all the items for the fleet. Maybe there should be a way to actually awared this as a title in a fleet (A rank of "Head of Research & Development", and the person with this rank can create more items.
Unique Items
Everyone (well, every Federation player) loves their Efficient Impulse Engines. Unfortunately, most people will have to give them up eventually since they dont give the same speed and turn rates higher level engines give, and the extra energy doesnt cut it.
But The ability to craft such items would be intriguing. Of course, once they become craftable and available at every level (particular the endgame), some of these items might be broken. So I would recommend balancing pass before the unique items that can be gained in story missions. Efficient Impulse Engines might simply grant a skill bonus to the efficiency skills, for example, that could increase with the engines tier. This indirectly boosts power levels, but particularly only the low levels. Dual damage type weapons might need a cohorent and balanced way to stack damage boosting skill.
Making Crafting available for every Faction
At the moment, this means Klingons. In the future, it might mean Romulans or Cardassians. Lacking the ability to craft makes a faction less varied, and it might even cause drawbacks and imbalances in PvP (if not in actual numbers, certainly in perception.)
There isnt really much to say her, and going by what dstahl said so far, it seems it will happen eventually, but an ETA is not available. If I had any say in it I would suggest the debris cloud of Praxis as a location for the secret Klingon R&D facility
I listed this as second and not first because I think there is litttle to gain for the Klingons if they have access only to the current selection of items.
Expanding the Art of Crafting
Players expressed an interest in the concept of recipes (even as a possible commodity on the exchange) and reverse engineering, as well as a certain concept of ownership showing off what you build. So here are some ideas along those lines.
Recipes
A recipe describes the ingredients the anomalies and the base item required and what item will be crafted. Recipes can serve multiple functions
On a practical level, Recipes can help reduce the challenges of organizing the UI for the large amount of possible items that can be created. Instead of having to show the players every item possible, he can only see those for which he has recipes.
On a game level, Recipes are a trade good. If you know the secret to craft a Polaron Beam [CritD x3], you can sell someone else the recipe that is interested in such an item.
On a personal level, a recipe is a sign of achievement and ownership. You can craft an item due to your own work.
Reverse Engineering Recipes
Reverse Engineering is a way to learn a recipe. Pick an item you alredy own but is not bound yet, open up the Reverse Engineering Tab in the Crafting menu, and start the process. At the end, you will have a recipe that will allow you to create the item in question. Reverse Engineering can be tied to a Reverse Engineering skill level the higher your level, the higher Marks or the higher rarities you can reverse engineer.
Reverse Engineering is a powerful tool. It might be restricted in some way for example, you cannot reverse engineer more than 1 item per day, representing the effort required to reverse engineer unknown technology. This also increases the value in trading recipes.
Experimental Technology
Experimental Technology is another way to get to a recipe. It is an additional tier in the crafting skill tree. You put in any common item and a selection of anomalies and you get a random item based on that common item. There could be 3 skill steps in this section First for green, second for blue, and third for purple items. Experimental Technology creates an item that is bound to you only you can use it. But you can choose to reverse engineer it, earning you the usual recipe that you can then sell, or use to create more items.
Experimenting this way might also come with a 1 day cooldown the cooldown actually represents the time you have to invest to conduct your experiments. (The results will probably still come immediately, because any other method might be too complicated)
Some people ask for failable crafting I dont care for that concept, but I can agree that an element of uncertainity can be fun. Experimental Crafting is all about that, because you just dont know what will come out of it.
An alternative to random item creation would be to just combine possible ingredients and these always lead to the sameitem. But this makes trading recipes less interesting in game, as people can post workable recipes. For the random process to work, you have to add a lot of anomalies to the experiment (possibly multiple of every type). Those required by the recipe for the resulting item are consumed, the rest stay.
Trading Recipes
Trading Recipes is an obvious goal, but the implementation might not be quite as straightforward as regular item trade.
A player buying a recipe could create an item, and then reverse engineer it, and thus have full access to the recipe. So we might want a system to track whether an item was created by a recipe from you or by a recipe from someone else. One way to track this might be use the existing item binding system. A recipe you have researched yourself is not bound. But if you create a recipe for sale, a license it binds upon pick-up. Such a recipe might only create items that bind on pick-up, or there could be an additional state declaring it as non-reverse engineerable. Such a special binding state might also be useful for selling your own crafted items otherwise trading recipes and trading items created with recipes would be at odds with each other.
An additional gimmick could be that recipes and products created with them might carry your name - but that might be impratical to implement, as it would add a lot of extra data to every item. It might be fun to track the first discovery of a recipe by players and name the recipe after him. (This would almost certainly require daily reverse engineering limits, otherwise once the system goes online, a few select players might try to get their name on every recipe, which would make the system a little too gimmicky and not interesting in the long term. Alternatively, a player can have only one recipe named after him. But then, this might get us Your Moms Phaser Array MK VI (Acc, Acc) or CaPtianKork Grenade Satchel MK VIII.
A recipe trading system with these restrictions makes it particularly rewarding to experiment and reverse engineer you might be one of the players in the game that can build Resilient Shields [Cap, Reg x2], for example. After all, you couldnt just go to a shop to reverse engineer this either it was dropped (and thus not immediately bound to you), or you experimented and got this item.
Crafting á la Carte
This might be the holy grail of crafting being able to create any item that the game system allows. The current UI doesnt really seem suited for that, as we would get ridicilously long item lists. So I suspect this is still far off, and any such system would probably not be compatible with the above recipe-oriented system.
A way to implement this in the UI could be to have a crafting table. Drop a common item. In a drop-down box you set the rarity of the item (your available selection might be limited by skill and cooldown timers). This adds 1 to 3 additonal dropdowns, in which you select the modifiers you want (say, Acc or CritD for ship weapons). There could be still a concept of recipes for this system you have not recipes for entire items, but instead recipes for what modifiers you have available. Or you still need to have the full item recipes; the UI then offers only choices that suite on of your recipes.
Upgrading Items
Upgrading Items might work best together with an UI like the crafting á la carte suggestion. You drop your existing item, and some boxes are filled with the item existing properties. You just add what you want.
[Cont.] Unique Choices by Career and Faction
An interesting option might be to give every career and every faction a few unique item that only a member of that career can have, or a member of that faction can craft. This would make the gameplay experience for an Engineer different then for a Tactical Officer.
Faction specific items also help to highlight the differences between the factions- for example, Klingons might get a unique Disruptor weapon, Federation unique Phasers and so on. Romulans might have aunique, cloak-enhancing console. These items mnight have a unusual property - not an overpowered one, but just something that sets it apart. Or it could just be a unique combination of traits not available to other combinations.
Expanding the Reportoire
This is only tanget to crafting. Ultimiately, we will want new abilities for items to have, to keep recipe finding, crafting and item drops interesting. Currently, there are a few unique items in the game that are awared by missions that do not fit in the existing patterns. My idea would be to create such a pattern for them, so they can be craftable and will become balanced.
Variable Trait Cost
Currently, the rarity gives a normal item 1, 2 or 3 trait slots. Traits are things like [Acc] or [Pha] or [Rev] and so on. Ths is pretty straightforward. The next logical step could be to add variable trait cost - Traits that cost more than one slot. The trait slots are ultimiately a balancing tool, so more powerful traits should be more costly.
New Traits
There are a lot of possiblities, but here are some suggestions on what could be added.
Efficiency Trait (2 Slots)
This would basically replace and generalize the existing Efficient Impulse Engines
Shields: +2 per Mark Shield Efficiency Skill
Impulse Engines: +1 per Mark to all Efficiency Skills
Weapon: -20 % Energy Consumption (this probably doesnt need to scale)
Deflector: +2 per Mark Auxilary Efficency Skill
Dual Energy Trait (2 Slots)
Dual Energy weapons deal two damage types. I see an excessive damage output as a risk of these weapons if you just stack the skill levels, so maybe there should be some kind of fancy math to balance them. Maybe the higher skill level applies first, and then you add 25 % of the other skill level. Other benefits are that the weapon deals both damage types and has a 2.5 % chance for each proc suited for the energy type.
Accelerated Projectile Launcher (2 Slots)
Projectiles launched by this launcher move with +50 % speed.
Increased Proc Rate (2 Slots)
Weapons with this improvement increase their proc rate by 50 %.
Increased Proc Effect (2 Slots)
Weapons with this improvement increase the length (phaser, disruptor) or damage (plasma) of their proc effect by 50 %.
New Items
Again, a phletora of items is still possible. I will limit myself to a very few.
New Tactical Consols
Currently, the game highly rewards specialization, and anyone that would make the mistake of mixing weapon types and energy types well, is making a mistake. Tactical consoles that boost multiple energy types and similar combinations could address this. They would probably give slightly lower bonuses than regular focused consoles but not much. Maybe as if the item was one or 2 marks lower.
New One Shot Items and Devices
This is something that might not only be craftable, but also lootable and be added to the battery drops, making them more exciting. These shouldnt be useless but they still need to be restricted, so they probably should alll have a long cooldown timer in addition to usual cooldowns they trigger.
One Shot Weapons
The Torpedoes used against the Doomsday Device are a neat idea. We could expand on this. There could be one shot torpedoes for every type of torpedo. They would launch a High Yield I, II or III variant of a torpedo suitable to the owners tier. They would have a special cooldown similar to other batteries so that people dont stack too many of them.
For ground, these could give access to grenades, though the Experimental Power suggestion mentioned below might also work.
Deflector Modification
The Enterprise D tried to use this fighting the Borg, unfortunately Picards assimilating made them prepared. But would anyone else be prepared for such a blast?
This would essentially work like Beam Overload I to III (damage wise), but might drain shield energy instead of weapon energy, and takes the ships shields offline for a short time.Should probably also come with a knockback effect.
Unstable/Experimental Cloaking Device
Use this item and your ship is cloaked for a limited time. Should probably be Battle Cloak.
Experimental Power
Use this item to activate a power. This could come with Ensign, Lt. and Lt.Commander skills, but never higher than Tier II. The power itself uses the usual cooldowns for that power, plus a unique experimental power cooldown. This is definitely an item that works both on the ground and in space.
Crossposting from Engineering Reports for clarity.
I'm going to be honest. I'm spoiled ... and lazy.
I don't know if you've detailed anywhere exactly what direction you're planning on taking Memory Alpha ... but what I'm really "wanting" in a Memory Alpha Update is ... a la carte. I want to be able to pick my base item, and choose what mods to graft onto it ... once I've "mastered" that particular class of items, and that particular class of mods. I want a "free form" modification system that lets ME pick what I want to make, and it then calculates up the demands in raw materials for me.
The way I'd envision this working is going to get a little involved ... but there's no way around that if you're going to have a system with any measure of complexity in it whatsoever. So apologies in advance for WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU.
The in-game economy needs to have a way to "devour" or "crush" items to use as fuel for player priorities and initiatives. I propose that every basic common item in the game be "crushable" as a means for Players to "learn" that specific class of item. I furthermore propose that every modifier that can be put on items ALSO be "crushable" as a means for Players to "learn" how to add that specific modifier onto any item.
Example:
When "crushing" a Phaser Beam Array Mk IV [CrtH] for knowledge of these systems, a player could choose to advance (pick one):
Phaser Beam Arrays (Mk IV)
(Mk IV) [CrtH]
The number of "knowledge points" gained in from each "crushing" would be determined by Mk Number of the item being disassembled/destroyed for analysis/learning. Mk IV would mean 4 Knowledge Points.
In order to USE the Knowledge Points you gain from "crushing" items at Memory Alpha in order to craft/add a modifier to an item you need:
I would need to have 16 Knowledge Points in Phaser Beam Arrays ... and 16 Knowledge Points in [CrtH] modifiers. If I have enough Knowledge Points in both of these areas ... and the necessary Anomaly Data to "fuel" the crafting I want to do ... I can add the [CrtH] modifier onto a Phaser Beam Array Mk IV.
If instead, I wanted to take an uncommon (green) Phaser Beam Array Mk IV [CrtH] and add a second [CrtH] modifier onto it, I would need:
I would need to have 64 Knowledge Points in Phaser Beam Arrays ... and 64 Knowledge Points in [CrtH] modifiers. If I have enough Knowledge Points in both of these areas ... and the necessary Anomaly Data to "fuel" the crafting I want to do ... I can add a second [CrtH] modifier onto a Phaser Beam Array Mk IV [CrtH]. If I'd wanted to add a [CrtD] modifier instead of a [CrtH] modifier, I would need to have 64 Knowledge Points in Phaser Beam Arrays, [CrtH] *and* [CrtD] each in order to add that second modifier.
No item can have more than 3 modifiers crafted onto it (ie. purple).
The Knowledge Points system would "top out" at 900 (10 squared multiplied by 3 squared) for each class of item and for each modifier that can be put on those items. :cool:
Such a system would be "free form" enough that players would have every incentive to "specialize" in particular item classes and modifiers for those items ... since in order to craft 3 totally dissimilar mods onto any Mk X item would require 900 skill points in 4 different areas ... for a total of 3600 Knowledge Points ... which would equal 360 items (minimum!) be "crushed" to learn that level of knowledge (and crafting).
Crafting Greens is easy.
Crafting Purples is the work of "a lifetime" ...
The important thing is that knowledge gained from "crushing" items is never lost or rendered obsolete by level advancement. Even if you're at the Level Cap, you can still advance your crafting skill(s) by "crushing" Mk I items (albeit slowly). This will in turn place market pressures on ALL items which can be posted in the Exchange, since there's always someone somewhere who can find a use for something which you might consider "worthless" or unimportant. There will be a Supply and a Demand for items of ALL Mk Numbers and ALL Modifiers to fuel the "crafting economy" in ways which individual players can tailor to suit their OWN needs.
Which then brings up the question of whether these crafted items should be "allowed" back into the common pool of the item economy ... or if they ought to be Bind on Pickup?
I'm personally in favor of a Bind on Pickup rule for crafted items in STO ... simply because allowing players to craft and sell will, over time, skew the game's item economy in a "runaway" fashion towards Purple Inflation. That's because the Knowledge Points gained from "crushing" items would never "go away" ... and as the game ages and matures, higher levels of Knowledge Points would (necessarily) push the baseline expectation of "performance" from items further and further towards the Purple end of the scale as the number of "Purple Rated" crafters in the game only ever decreases when a player unsubscribes.
So for the long term "health" of the item economy in STO I think that a Bind on Pickup crafting model would pretty much have to be required.
A lot of text to read but still interresting. Most of these suggestions would surely make crafting a lot more fun but it would turn a skillbased game to a gearbased, unless you have to sacrifice a part of your baseskills to be able to use experimental gear.
Wall of Text unavoidable with this type of things. Omitting verbs nouns and articles for further condensation of information now.Couldalsoeschewpunctationandspacesiifdesired
Most of these suggestions would surely make crafting a lot more fun but it would turn a skillbased game to a gearbased, unless you have to sacrifice a part of your baseskills to be able to use experimental gear.
The idea still is that those modifiers are balanced, so it's more a matter of "do you want something exotic or tailored, or are the Exploration and Mark of Honor store purples enough for you." So, I see it more as an alternate part you can do in the game to enjoy it. Recipe trading is for people that like to craft. Item trade is for people that just want to shoot in space and on the ground.* A crafting system can support both. Even merely adding a few items - particularly purple ones - could already add to the game.
*) At least ideally, this wouldn't be the only types of game content people could enjoy. The diplomacy system that is supposedly in the works will probably work entirely absent of the existing powers, equipment or crafting.
Some very nice ideas here, I would prefer the a la carte, with many new item modifiers to play with. Unfortunately, Cryptic is busy nerfing powers and cooldowns atm.
Comments
Unique Choices by Career and Faction
An interesting option might be to give every career and every faction a few unique item that only a member of that career can have, or a member of that faction can craft. This would make the gameplay experience for an Engineer different then for a Tactical Officer.
Faction specific items also help to highlight the differences between the factions- for example, Klingons might get a unique Disruptor weapon, Federation unique Phasers and so on. Romulans might have aunique, cloak-enhancing console. These items mnight have a unusual property - not an overpowered one, but just something that sets it apart. Or it could just be a unique combination of traits not available to other combinations.
Expanding the Reportoire
This is only tanget to crafting. Ultimiately, we will want new abilities for items to have, to keep recipe finding, crafting and item drops interesting. Currently, there are a few unique items in the game that are awared by missions that do not fit in the existing patterns. My idea would be to create such a pattern for them, so they can be craftable and will become balanced.
Variable Trait Cost
Currently, the rarity gives a normal item 1, 2 or 3 trait slots. Traits are things like [Acc] or [Pha] or [Rev] and so on. Ths is pretty straightforward. The next logical step could be to add variable trait cost - Traits that cost more than one slot. The trait slots are ultimiately a balancing tool, so more powerful traits should be more costly.
New Traits
There are a lot of possiblities, but here are some suggestions on what could be added.
Efficiency Trait (2 Slots)
This would basically replace and generalize the existing Efficient Impulse Engines
Shields: +2 per Mark Shield Efficiency Skill
Impulse Engines: +1 per Mark to all Efficiency Skills
Weapon: -20 % Energy Consumption (this probably doesnt need to scale)
Deflector: +2 per Mark Auxilary Efficency Skill
Dual Energy Trait (2 Slots)
Dual Energy weapons deal two damage types. I see an excessive damage output as a risk of these weapons if you just stack the skill levels, so maybe there should be some kind of fancy math to balance them. Maybe the higher skill level applies first, and then you add 25 % of the other skill level. Other benefits are that the weapon deals both damage types and has a 2.5 % chance for each proc suited for the energy type.
Accelerated Projectile Launcher (2 Slots)
Projectiles launched by this launcher move with +50 % speed.
Increased Proc Rate (2 Slots)
Weapons with this improvement increase their proc rate by 50 %.
Increased Proc Effect (2 Slots)
Weapons with this improvement increase the length (phaser, disruptor) or damage (plasma) of their proc effect by 50 %.
New Items
Again, a phletora of items is still possible. I will limit myself to a very few.
New Tactical Consols
Currently, the game highly rewards specialization, and anyone that would make the mistake of mixing weapon types and energy types well, is making a mistake. Tactical consoles that boost multiple energy types and similar combinations could address this. They would probably give slightly lower bonuses than regular focused consoles but not much. Maybe as if the item was one or 2 marks lower.
New One Shot Items and Devices
This is something that might not only be craftable, but also lootable and be added to the battery drops, making them more exciting. These shouldnt be useless but they still need to be restricted, so they probably should alll have a long cooldown timer in addition to usual cooldowns they trigger.
One Shot Weapons
The Torpedoes used against the Doomsday Device are a neat idea. We could expand on this. There could be one shot torpedoes for every type of torpedo. They would launch a High Yield I, II or III variant of a torpedo suitable to the owners tier. They would have a special cooldown similar to other batteries so that people dont stack too many of them.
For ground, these could give access to grenades, though the Experimental Power suggestion mentioned below might also work.
Deflector Modification
The Enterprise D tried to use this fighting the Borg, unfortunately Picards assimilating made them prepared. But would anyone else be prepared for such a blast?
This would essentially work like Beam Overload I to III (damage wise), but might drain shield energy instead of weapon energy, and takes the ships shields offline for a short time.Should probably also come with a knockback effect.
Unstable/Experimental Cloaking Device
Use this item and your ship is cloaked for a limited time. Should probably be Battle Cloak.
Experimental Power
Use this item to activate a power. This could come with Ensign, Lt. and Lt.Commander skills, but never higher than Tier II. The power itself uses the usual cooldowns for that power, plus a unique experimental power cooldown. This is definitely an item that works both on the ground and in space.
I'm going to be honest. I'm spoiled ... and lazy.
I don't know if you've detailed anywhere exactly what direction you're planning on taking Memory Alpha ... but what I'm really "wanting" in a Memory Alpha Update is ... a la carte. I want to be able to pick my base item, and choose what mods to graft onto it ... once I've "mastered" that particular class of items, and that particular class of mods. I want a "free form" modification system that lets ME pick what I want to make, and it then calculates up the demands in raw materials for me.
The way I'd envision this working is going to get a little involved ... but there's no way around that if you're going to have a system with any measure of complexity in it whatsoever. So apologies in advance for WALL OF TEXT CRITS YOU.
The in-game economy needs to have a way to "devour" or "crush" items to use as fuel for player priorities and initiatives. I propose that every basic common item in the game be "crushable" as a means for Players to "learn" that specific class of item. I furthermore propose that every modifier that can be put on items ALSO be "crushable" as a means for Players to "learn" how to add that specific modifier onto any item.
Example:
When "crushing" a Phaser Beam Array Mk IV [CrtH] for knowledge of these systems, a player could choose to advance (pick one):
- Phaser Beam Arrays (Mk IV)
- (Mk IV) [CrtH]
The number of "knowledge points" gained in from each "crushing" would be determined by Mk Number of the item being disassembled/destroyed for analysis/learning. Mk IV would mean 4 Knowledge Points.In order to USE the Knowledge Points you gain from "crushing" items at Memory Alpha in order to craft/add a modifier to an item you need:
- (Mk Number)^2 * (Modifiers Added)^2 = Knowledge Points Required
So if I wanted to take a common (white) Phaser Beam Array Mk IV and add a [CrtH] modifier onto it, I would need:- (Mk IV)^2 * (1)^2 = 4^2 * 1^2 = 16 Knowledge Points
I would need to have 16 Knowledge Points in Phaser Beam Arrays ... and 16 Knowledge Points in [CrtH] modifiers. If I have enough Knowledge Points in both of these areas ... and the necessary Anomaly Data to "fuel" the crafting I want to do ... I can add the [CrtH] modifier onto a Phaser Beam Array Mk IV.If instead, I wanted to take an uncommon (green) Phaser Beam Array Mk IV [CrtH] and add a second [CrtH] modifier onto it, I would need:
- (Mk IV)^2 * (2)^2 = 4^2 * 2^2 = 64 Knowledge Points
I would need to have 64 Knowledge Points in Phaser Beam Arrays ... and 64 Knowledge Points in [CrtH] modifiers. If I have enough Knowledge Points in both of these areas ... and the necessary Anomaly Data to "fuel" the crafting I want to do ... I can add a second [CrtH] modifier onto a Phaser Beam Array Mk IV [CrtH]. If I'd wanted to add a [CrtD] modifier instead of a [CrtH] modifier, I would need to have 64 Knowledge Points in Phaser Beam Arrays, [CrtH] *and* [CrtD] each in order to add that second modifier.No item can have more than 3 modifiers crafted onto it (ie. purple).
The Knowledge Points system would "top out" at 900 (10 squared multiplied by 3 squared) for each class of item and for each modifier that can be put on those items. :cool:
Such a system would be "free form" enough that players would have every incentive to "specialize" in particular item classes and modifiers for those items ... since in order to craft 3 totally dissimilar mods onto any Mk X item would require 900 skill points in 4 different areas ... for a total of 3600 Knowledge Points ... which would equal 360 items (minimum!) be "crushed" to learn that level of knowledge (and crafting).
Crafting Greens is easy.
Crafting Purples is the work of "a lifetime" ...
The important thing is that knowledge gained from "crushing" items is never lost or rendered obsolete by level advancement. Even if you're at the Level Cap, you can still advance your crafting skill(s) by "crushing" Mk I items (albeit slowly). This will in turn place market pressures on ALL items which can be posted in the Exchange, since there's always someone somewhere who can find a use for something which you might consider "worthless" or unimportant. There will be a Supply and a Demand for items of ALL Mk Numbers and ALL Modifiers to fuel the "crafting economy" in ways which individual players can tailor to suit their OWN needs.
Which then brings up the question of whether these crafted items should be "allowed" back into the common pool of the item economy ... or if they ought to be Bind on Pickup?
I'm personally in favor of a Bind on Pickup rule for crafted items in STO ... simply because allowing players to craft and sell will, over time, skew the game's item economy in a "runaway" fashion towards Purple Inflation. That's because the Knowledge Points gained from "crushing" items would never "go away" ... and as the game ages and matures, higher levels of Knowledge Points would (necessarily) push the baseline expectation of "performance" from items further and further towards the Purple end of the scale as the number of "Purple Rated" crafters in the game only ever decreases when a player unsubscribes.
So for the long term "health" of the item economy in STO I think that a Bind on Pickup crafting model would pretty much have to be required.
Wall of Text unavoidable with this type of things. Omitting verbs nouns and articles for further condensation of information now.Couldalsoeschewpunctationandspacesiifdesired
The idea still is that those modifiers are balanced, so it's more a matter of "do you want something exotic or tailored, or are the Exploration and Mark of Honor store purples enough for you." So, I see it more as an alternate part you can do in the game to enjoy it. Recipe trading is for people that like to craft. Item trade is for people that just want to shoot in space and on the ground.* A crafting system can support both. Even merely adding a few items - particularly purple ones - could already add to the game.
*) At least ideally, this wouldn't be the only types of game content people could enjoy. The diplomacy system that is supposedly in the works will probably work entirely absent of the existing powers, equipment or crafting.