Star Wars Galaxies: Crafter to be introduced with Vehicles?

Forum member [font color=lime]Bajeezus[/font] asked if there was going to be a vehicle crafter profession along with the introduction of vehicles. JustG came by the forums, and responded with the following.

Amazing insight :-)
Vehicles will not be introduced with a new profession, and there will be three base models.
But down the line, who knows... they are architected to be extensible.

Here was [font color=lime]Bajeezus[/font]'s full post

Here we are just one week from the big update that will bring us two-thirds of the big features that were cut from the initial release feature list, mounts and player cities. I've had a look at both of these on TC, and it looks like the devs have done an amazing job with them, and I am happy to finally being so close to playing the game as it was intended and designed to be for release. Now, I start to look forward to the final third of those features cut from the initial release... ...VEHICLES.

To me, the implementation of simple vehicles, serving as nothing more than faster versions of mounts, along with adding an integral feature of Star Wars atmosphere, yet adding no new gameplay to SWG would be an enormous waste of opportunity. The arrival of player cities brings with it the first additional profession, the politician, and with vehicles the devs have the opportunity to introduce a second new profession, the Vehicle Engineer.

In Vehicle Engineer, the devs have the opportunity to give many players the chance they have been dreaming of, creating new vehicles, customizing them, and playing sci-fi-grease-wookiee with a hydro-spanner. The devs have the chance to introduce a new loop in the ecomony with expendables, including fuel and parts, allowing the Vehicle Engineer to operate as a viable profession all the way from novice to master.

Let me introduce my four proposed disciplines within the Vehicle Engineer profession:

Chassis Design:
1: build Swoop frames. Add color and design customizations.
2: build Speeder Chassis. More color and design customizations.
3: build chassis parts that can be used in repair and replacement of worn or damaged parts. More color and design customizations.
4: build performance chassis parts that can be used to increase performance, protection, and storage of the speeder or swoop. Higher speeds, better armor plating, bigger storage compartments.

Drive and Control Design:
1: build Swoop drives and control systems.
2: build Speeder drives and control systems.
3: build drive and control repair and replacement parts
4: build drive and control performance enhancement parts, greater speed, greater durability, better handling, greater fuel efficency, heavier load bearing repulsors for high storage capacity vehicles...

Fuel Cell Engineer
1: Build fuel cells, refill fuel cells for swoop bikes
2: Build fuel cells, refill fuel cells for speeders
3: Build fuel cell capacity modification units, increase amount of fuel stored in each cell.
4: Build fuel cell efficiency modification units, increase performance gained from each unit of fuel.

Vehicle Mechanic and Assembly
1: Swoop Bike Assembly: Simple assembly of frame, drive, controls, and fuel systems.
2: Speeder Assembly: Simple assembly of chassis, drive, controls, and fuel systems.
3: Repair Mechanic: Able to repair damaged parts, to use replacement parts to repair worn or damaged vehicles.
4: Performance Mechanic: Able to install high-performance chassis, drive and control parts into vehicles.

Notice the goal of the design, to allow at every level, a player to have an integral part in the construction of a desireable end product, without having to compete with much superior products from players higher up the advancement ladder. A player only interested in making swoop frames can do so at Chassis 1, without needing to climb any higher to ever make better frames. A player with Vehicle Engineer at 1, 1, 1, 1, would be fully able to construct his own swoop. Still, at every skill box, new valuable skills and craftable items are introduced to give the player a great sense of advancement as he moves up.

Within each discipline, you get to the ongoing replacement of expendable parts, chassis parts damaged by MOBs, engine parts damaged by wear, and fuel cells used to off-set the enormous advantages of the speed granted by vehicles. As a stand-alone profession, mechanic-assembly business would be viable, as a player could purchase parts and run a repair shop.

I hope these kinds of considerations are built into the design for vehicles, as it would provide a great deal more gameplay than just another mode of transportation. I'd be interested to know how far along the devs are in designing a vehicle crafting profession and whether they consider it necessary to implement alongside vehicles or if it is something they feel can be patched in later. IMO, once you launch vehicles without damage, wear, and fuel requirements, any attempt to do so later would be viewed as a nerf, and without those requirements, viable vehicle crafting is really not possible.

Thanks, may the force be with you.