Topic: MK2 CTs need adjustments
What follows is based on my firm belief that no rare finds/drops in an mmo should be completely worthless. They can be worth very little (bad luck on the loot table roll), but not worthless. If you disagree with that, you will disagree with everything else that follows.
As things stand there are two fundamental problems with the MK2 CTs, one big one and another small one.
The first and biggest is that 25% CTs are completely worthless. Once we got past the initial rarity of CTs in the first few weeks, every artifact hunter had a dozen+ in storage and many just destroy them now on getting them (that's often the advice in the trade channel to a noob who just got their first one). Two things contribute to this situation. 1) they are too expensive to build. 2) there are more than enough 50% and 75% CTs out there (relative to the number of manufacturers actually building MK2s) that there is no need for almost anyone to actually build off them.
I'm not suggesting that the drop rate be reduced (nerfing loot drops is never a good thing) or that CTs be upgraded (25->50, 50->75, 75-90, or just 25s ->50's) as I've seen a few people suggest. That's no sloution as it would flood the 50% market more (it's already flooded) and make 50's worthless. Best I can think of is to either make them researchable for manufacturing info (at more than a normal kernel and less than an observer kernel) or allow them to be combinable (e.g., perhaps 3 25's to make 1 50). This would put a floor under the 25's (the value of the research). It doesn't have to be a lot, but at least its something, so that hairy run into a bunch of NPCs to get at the Sci artifact at least got you something for the trouble.
The second and smaller problem is that industrial MK2 CTs (even 75s) are worth very little. The reason here is that the bonus on almost all MK2 industrials isn't worth the added cost to build it. Yes, there are some people who say that they are worth it (look at the threads from right after the patch that introduced them). But the market never lies! These things just don't sell! In other words, people who are spending their own nic (as opposed to their corps) don't think they're worth the cost. The best way to fix this is tweak the bonuses (e.g., more cargo space maybe for hauler, higher mining/harvesting bonus (maybe 2% per level) for miners & harvesters.
I'm sure others can come up with other options. I just think both these things need a fix.