I'd say the main reason why we only hear of people unlocking their slots after mastering a profession these days is because that's all people have been doing. Think about it. Before the first jedi came about, people had no real idea on what was completely involved. So people did master all their holo professions, on top of trying to do theme parks, visit planets, etc... But, these days, forget that. Everyone is so convinced that it is purely the professions that it is all they do. They grind through professions like there's no tomorrow. I'd say that would explain why we don't hear of other ways of unlocking the slot as often anymore.

My only concern with this theory is that, most of the time, unlocking your slot comes after mastering a profession. There have been cases where mastering a certain skill unlocked it but those are very rare. My question is that if you were at the point of trying to meet that last metric needed for you to unlock the slot, wouldn't the odds of achieving it be as high when you get trained for any skill in that metric as it would be to get it when you become a master of that profession? It would seem to me that that is the case. The only thing I can think of is that mastering a profession adds such a high amount to your metric that it really increases the odds of unlocking it when you master.

Just some thoughts.

Benny, that is my thought too.  Like the last mastery pushes you over the top. 

But if this theory holds true, it should not matter which profession you do in the Crafting tree if you need to satisfy exp in the Crafting Metric.  You should be able to ignore the holocrons altogether even if they tell you Merchant, etc.  You should be able to do Architect instead.  I dont think anyone has done that although I recall people have tried.

It's really hard to know ANYTHING right now... I haven't unlocked yet, but I had holos go silent after two, and only mastered two before that. I DO think that profs are the key (very heavily weighted) in the metrics... but the devs have stated that the "casual" player can get FS, but it would take them longer than the power gamers... this may again be indicative of a metrics requirement, or perhaps the devs believed that casual gamers would eventually do enough profs to hit the right ones? Again... metrics fit more neatly into that statement than prof grinding.

BTW, I've been an avid player since 1 week after game launch... back when Vibro Knucklers could beused by a Novice Brawler =)

Of course, the 4+1 theory May be entirely correct, and the differing "actions" that lead to FS unlocking could be easily explained by other means. For example, perhaps the FS checking only occurs every so often, or is keyed to certain events... could be delayed by heavy server traffic, etc.

All I know is, I'm going to do a LOT more grouping (I've always looked at mobs as a challenge to handle them all by my lonesome), and focus my attention on Social profs. Here's why:

1. Mastered Artisan

2. First Holo - Armorsmith - Mastered

3. Mastered Marksman while working on:

4. Holo 2 - Merchant - Mastered

5. Silent Holo Treatment.

6. Mastered Entertainer, Scout, Brawler, and Medic

Now, using the metrics theory, I am making some assumptions based on profs and game style. I've killed a LOT of stuff, and been a Scout, Artisan, and Marksman FOREVER. So, I think my crafting metric was high, but now filled. Same with Combat Metric, and probably same with Outdoors, as I spent DAYS at a time doing nothing but gathering Hide, bone, and meat previous to holocrons (I dabbled in Armorsmith, BE, and Medic). I've also been a crature handler for a long time, just to have some company... =) I've also done a LOT of healing, made alot of Stims, and did BE for quite a while (Science Metric).

So my thinking is that I PROBABLY am lacking in social metrics, and I'm going to focus my attention on those profs, and see what happens =)

Prances, let me ask you this:  What would be the metric I need?

Marksman

Commando (mastered after I used my first holo but before I mastered my first Holo prof)

Image Designer (Holo 1)

Merchant (Holo 2)

Medic (Holo 3)

Silence is golden.

Mastered Scout.

The real question is whether the Holos just continue to give you requirements in a metric you need or just randomly tell you what you need).  For example, did I get Merchant because I had completed everything in my Social metric or is there more to accomplish? 

Where do you think I should go next? 

If Combat, Social, Science and Crafting have been done, should I try an Elite profession off of Scout? 

Taelo wrote---> The fact that the profession mastery badges are not retroactive should be a CLEAR indication that they were not monitoring what professions you master. That leads me to believe that only 1 profession mattered. The other professions it gave you were just to get you up to par on their "metric" scale. That could explain while some people had to do 20+ professions while others had to do 6.

I still laugh at the holo buyers,..lol

_________________________________________________________________________________________

TH responded to this and stated that even tho badges were not given retroactively rest assured that the professions required for your fs slot have been marked off if completed prior to this patch.  You need to read dev tracker more often.

Uninformed, I think you are exactly correct in assuming (if this theory has any validity) that what you lack is in the Outdoors metric. That pretty much leaves you with Ranger and CH as profs I would personally master next. Squad Leader (according to the skill box notification) is Combat based, so I would probably rule that out.

What I see from your Holo professions is:

Since you mastered Marksman and Commando, you fulfilled your Combat metric, whether the requirements or high or low. The problem here is that we don't know if your first holo would have given you Marksman or commando. Either way, I'd say you're good on this part.

Image Designer - Elite prof = High Social Metric - Social is probably fulfilled.

Merchant - Same as ID... High Crafting Metric - Probably fulfilled

Medic - Base prof = Low Science Metric - Probably fulfilled.

Which pretty much leaves you with Outdoors metric profs. Since Scout didn't unlock, we could reason that your Outdoors metric is obviously higher, hence you need Ranger or CH to fulfill it.

I'm not saying that either of these should unlock your slot, but I'm guessing that if you master both, it probably will. Again, this is all assumptions, and we won't know for sure until people actually have some success with this.

My fingers are crossed for you =)

This is, so far, one of the best theories I've seen.  The biggest reason being, it explains where some of the other 'non-profession'  theories floating around came from, i.e. the skill box theory.  Also, remember the NPC that gives the quest for the badges like altruism, etc, perhaps those badges give extra exp toward those metrics.  My guess is that the reason you see a lot of people unlocking directly after mastering a profession is that actually mastering a profession gives a bonus toward the metrics.  Just using wild numbers here, but if a metric requirement is, say, 10000, and mastery an elite profession gives a bonus of 2000 toward that metric, then it makes sense that people would unlock shortly after finishing the elite profession.  Also, in another thread someone reported using a holocron, but then just before mastering that profession, he used another holocron, and it was silent.  This theory would explain why that happened.  By just getting to that point, he had earned enough XP in that metric. 

The devs have said all along that people would unlock different ways.  Profession mastery seems to be the quickest, but this theory allows for those other methods.  Kudos.

Hey Prances,

Very interesting theory and detective work.  I like it a lot!  It feels right given the info that I've read.

Just one comment right now...  I believe you said Squad Leader was Combat metric?  I'm looking at my log and it's saying Outdoors (I was qualified for Novice Squad Leader, though I've never been one).  So either 1) You simply misspoke or 2)it's different on mine than yours, which seems unlikely.  It is a little odd though that SL would be Outdoors.  Not too much of a stretch, but I woulda guessed combat.

Oh well, thanks for sharing your theory....I'm going to think about more as I read through other FS's paths.

--Djibutyyl

Bleh! You are correct Sir! SL IS Outdoor metric, so is BE... I need to pay more attention....

/kowtow

BTW, I've also noticed something else that may lend a bit more weight to this whole deal. Medic was my last master, and after going back to check which metric SL fell into, I stumbled across a list of EVERYONE I'VE HEALED, THEIR WOUND TYPES, AND AMOUNT HEALED!

Now why do you suppose it would be keeping track of that? =)

Wow, that is very interesting (also means I've been pretty outdoors heavy...oh well, I AM  a wookiee).  OH, I just had a thought...  Have you ever cross-referenced this theory with what Species a character is?  Such as, perhaps, a Wookiee would be more outdoors-oriented, a twilek social-oriented, Mon Calamari science-oriented, zabrak combat-oriented, etc, etc....

Yeah, this is just wild conjecture on my part, but it could be interesting.  I may look into it over the weekend once I get some time.  I'm just a dabbler in the whole FS quest (no holos, just mastering what seems fun) but I do find it interesting.

Well, what do ya think? or have you thought about this already?

--Djibutyyl

Sidenote:  I do check the dev tracker and did read what TH said...which was a one-liner concerned more with not having retroactive badges more than clues to opening FSCS.  I'd find it hard to base or discount a theory based on that comment in its context.  But that's just me

Although I'd love to believe in this theory, I simply cannot.

Reasons:  Thunderheart told us that "When Raph told me the FS requirements, I couldn't believe that it was so simple."  Now correct me if I'm wrong, but explaining how each profession falls into a certain metric and that each metric has a different xp monitor on it and that if a character was able to attain the exp in all five specific metrics then they would unlock.... That doesn't seem all that "simple" to me.  HOWEVER, "All a player has to do is master 5 professions that were randomly chosen for them when they created their character" seems VERY simple to me.

Furthermore, the ONLY people who unlocked by doing ANYTHING other then mastering professions were people on the weekend that they flipped the switch.  In the first week, I believe that 2 people unlocked doing things other then professions.  The 4+1 theory wasn't even suggested yet, everyone was betting on a combination of profs, declaring residence, faction alignment, planetary travel, blah blah blah.  Yet even in that first week when 20 or so unlocked by doing professions NOBODY since then has opened any other way.

     Monika got hers killing a picket.  Now, the act of killing the picket didn't do it, it was the fact that the system credited her xp points for whatever skill she used to kill the picket, WHICH CAUSED the system to look at her professions and thereby open her slot (all five were mastered).  If you think about it, this happens every time you go back to using accumulated experience from another class.  If I give up marksman and have 10,000 extra xp left, the first thing that happens when I train marksman again is the notice that "You now qualify for blah blah blah"  THAT is the point where the server makes the checks, verifies the lists and so forth.  From a programming standpoint this makes TOTAL sense because you wouldn't want the server to CONTINUALLY be checking gained xp versus "necessary" xp.  The bandwidth usage would be through the roof!

All of this being said, something that happened during the dev chats back in beta always sticks with me (2 things actually)  First, Raph said that they had a totally dynamic system in place for Jedi and that they had to scrap it because it was to "intensive" to run.  Secondly, they said that if they saw the Jedi population growing too rapidly that they could and WOULD change the requirements necessary.  If they change the 4+1 professions to something else, all the grinding will be for nothing.  But, IF they did this, I suspect that a great majority of the grinders would leave the game, an unwise move for the developers to do.

If you need further proof, go look at the jedi registery and see that there have been people who have unlocked with 5 starters and one person who unlocked by mastering 5 and only 5 profs.  It makes total sense that the holocrons would tell you 4 of your 5 professions randomly, leaving the 5th one to chance. 

Now, I WOULD place some stock into your five random professions being derived from a seed based either on race or starting profession.  So now maybe its "one of the professions trainable from your starter city" and four random other ones, and you could apply your metrics as a seed for random generation as well.  When it comes down to it, until I see people currently unlocking by doing things other then profession mastery I'm putting all of my faith into the 4+1.  The day that there is unlocking from some other way, I would bet that NO ONE would unlock doing 4+1 again, indicating a system change.