So, you are saying that we should go ahead and put the highest level augments in *right now* so when the patch hits they will all be max level already?

 

I ask because I use a very low level piece of gear on my Jedi Sentinel (low level orange with augment slot) with the purple augment and the mods from my Battlemaster chest because it is one of the few pieces of gear I have found that look like something a Jedi Sentinel would wear.

Thats what it sounds like. Though I think you can just use any trash green 49 augment.

While I certainly do appreciate DavidHunt taking the time to come here and explain how it works and answer some questions, I can't say that I am pleased with the new system.

If I as a level 50 decide that I like the look of a particular level 20 orange item, I craft it, manage to beat the RNG and actually get a crit, you are telling me that the resulting slot it is useless unless I also make a Mk 6 kit and pay a 50k tax. There is no value in crits for items below level 49.

While I certainly do appreciate DavidHunt taking the time to come here and explain how it works and answer some questions, I can't say that I am pleased with the new system.

 

If I as a level 50 decide that I like the look of a particular level 20 orange item, I craft it, manage to beat the RNG and actually get a crit, you are telling me that the resulting slot it is useless unless I also make a Mk 6 kit and pay a 50k tax. There is no value in crits for items below level 49.

The value is in you getting a really cheap lvl 20 item that your LIKE the look of...

Your gear will have MK-6 slots. Here's how it works.

 

Existing augments will update to require a specific augment slot MK#. Any augmented item will have the greater of these two applied:

 

1) The crafted item's natural augment MK

2) The inserted augment's required MK

 

If you have level 10 items with level 50 augments, they will have MK-6 augment slots. If you have the same item without an augment inserted, it will have a MK-1 augment slot (same as if you crafted it after the patch).

Darn, there goes the idea of stockpiling pre 1.3 gear to sell post 1.3. One of the interviews had made it seem like pre1.3 gear would have the max augment slot, but I guess the interviewee just meant slotted gear with max augment slot would have the max augment slot.

A 50000 credit credit sink for the highest tier sounds a tad too expensive, especially for casual players that don't want to spend their limited online time grinding credits and instead do something fun instead. How much will getting an augment slot for a piece of cool appearance gear cost in the end? 50000 credits + cost of the kit + cost of the augment? That's may be well over 200000 credits per item on many servers. Considering many players struggle to even have that amount of credits, it seems way overpriced.

 

Currently, it's even hard for the casual player to keep up with repair and mod removal costs, let alone spend credits on anything else. I suggest you seriously reconsider and don't add another huge, unfun credit sink that punishes the casual player.

The game is tuned for gear without augments. Devs have said this a few times. No one needs to invest in them. If you don't like the cost, don't invest in the slots. You don't need to have them to participate in any of the current content.

And this is not a "casual = bad" message. BW is giving players who want to play the min/max end-game something, and it is not required to play. I don't see how it is punishment if you don't need to have it.

The value is in you getting a really cheap lvl 20 item that your LIKE the look of...

 

You missed my point a little. It makes no difference if I get the crit on a low level item or not - I stll have to pay 50k to get the Mk 6 slot that I need. In that sense the crit has no value to me.

The game is tuned for gear without augments. Devs have said this a few times. No one needs to invest in them. If you don't like the cost, don't invest in the slots. You don't need to have them to participate in any of the current content.

 

And this is not a "casual = bad" message. BW is giving players who want to play the min/max end-game something, and it is not required to play. I don't see how it is punishment if you don't need to have it.

While this is currently true, DavidHunt confirmed that augments will become part of our expected power level going forward - this will make getting aug slotted gear a necessity for the higher level content.

 

Augment stat distribution was indeed changed with the long-term expectation of gradually making them part of your expected power level.

When you say "expected power level," what type of content are you talking about? That you will expect players fighting end-game content to have them, or that you will expect people to have them when fighting the "trash mobs" in the open world?

Because to me, the former seems reasonable, while the latter does not.

Please be as specific as you can! There are many levels to content. Open world, heroics, flashpoints, operations, story mode, hard mode, etc.

Thanks!

Wait, so... augment slots can be added to WH relics, implants, etc?

Yikes. Here we go...

Any item.

You need to craft 10x equippable items from any skill in the same augment tier. In this case, that means any level 400 armstech weapon should suffice. In future tiers, it may be difficult to find cheap recipes. With the introduction of augment tables, all existing level 49+ gear is in the MK-6 augment category. At some point we'll introduce new augments levels that require MK-7, and at that time there probably won't be as large of a selection of items to RE to get them. As we introduce more items and tiers, the density of items you can RE to get MK-7 will increase, and MK-8 will eventually appear and continue along that cadence.[/color]

That brings other question - any lev 400 armstech thing will do? FOr example, will the reverse engineering of barrel 22, give same mats, as for example RE the "elegant assault cannon" lev 50 moddable orange?

You missed my point a little. It makes no difference if I get the crit on a low level item or not - I stll have to pay 50k to get the Mk 6 slot that I need. In that sense the crit has no value to me.

 

 

 

While this is currently true, DavidHunt confirmed that augments will become part of our expected power level going forward - this will make getting aug slotted gear a necessity for the higher level content.

Aye, I missed that then. Thanks for pointing it out. In that case, it depends on where the "expected power level" applies. Is it end-game raiding at a HM or higher level? Or is it all end-game content, to include flashpoints and daily quests?

When you say "expected power level," what type of content are you talking about?

New endgame tier content. I can't give you exact specifics as it's not defined yet. However, it's probably safe to say that by the time you're one or two sets past Campaign and we release a new set, the content for the new set will expect your Campaign +1/+2 gear to be augmented.

That brings other question - any lev 400 armstech thing will do? FOr example, will the reverse engineering of barrel 22, give same mats, as for example RE the "elegant assault cannon" lev 50 moddable orange?

Anything that could crit craft and get an augment. So you can't get the component from a stim or a mod.

Your gear will have MK-6 slots. Here's how it works.

 

Existing augments will update to require a specific augment slot MK#. Any augmented item will have the greater of these two applied:

 

1) The crafted item's natural augment MK

2) The inserted augment's required MK

 

If you have level 10 items with level 50 augments, they will have MK-6 augment slots. If you have the same item without an augment inserted, it will have a MK-1 augment slot (same as if you crafted it after the patch).

wow that is just stupid

with new schematic like elegant, custom-build and other orange...

YOU want that everyone CAN wear ANYTHING, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE they want

now with this update i cant wear good looking lvl 23 helmet because i cant insert my lvl 49 augment

once again you force us to wear your ugly design lvl 50 gear

well done sir, well done

wow that is just stupid

with new schematic like elegant, custom-build and other orange...

YOU want that everyone CAN wear ANYTHING, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE they want

now with this update i cant wear good looking lvl 23 helmet because i cant insert my lvl 49 augment

once again you force us to wear your ugly design lvl 50 gear

well done sir, well done

You misunderstand. You can wear the 23 helm AND get a 49 augment into it, you just need to have a crafter make you a MK6 kit and taking it to the table and paying 50k to have the slot "upgraded" to hold MK6 augments.

If it costs 5 million credits to add the augment slot for each peice of gear, crafters will still be useful

 

We have no way of knowing how the change will play out, yet.

plz tell me your joking?

this game is slowly becoming the black hole of credit sink.

Good answers, David, thanks!

It is looking more promising than we expected, it seems

A 50000 credit credit sink for the highest tier sounds a tad too expensive, especially for casual players that don't want to spend their limited online time grinding credits and instead do something fun instead. How much will getting an augment slot for a piece of cool appearance gear cost in the end? 50000 credits + cost of the kit + cost of the augment? That's may be well over 200000 credits per item on many servers. Considering many players struggle to even have that amount of credits, it seems way overpriced.

Methinks you protest too much. In my view, the proposed way that the slots change are a good way of "grandfathering in" existing end-game use of augments, while not creating artificial stockpiles of pre-augmented gear.

As for cash, for level 50 players, even those in high-40s greens and blues, 20-25 minutes is all it takes to do the Corellia dailies excepting the heroic, and that nets at least 65k in mission rewards, plus cash and grey drops, a bunch of greens and a couple of blues/oranges. The Belsavis non-heroics take about 45 minutes, and give another 120-160k. Similarly, the Ilum dailies give about 75k for about 30 minutes. Even for a casual player, that's in excess of 200k per day for 1-1.5 hours casual play. If you have gathering skills, you can pick up a fair bit of materials while doing these, and your inactive companions can be doing crew missions too.

On a server with an active economy (which, granted, will require the server mergers), the crafting materials, the blues and even some of the greens will sell well. In the grand scheme of things, the cost of putting in an end-game augment is pretty small.

Anything that could crit craft and get an augment. So you can't get the component from a stim or a mod.

Given this why can't biochem and artifice also make augment kits as they can make items that grant an augment slot on a crit? (I apologize if this has already been addressed elsewhere.)

Seems that the implementation will be like I feared: Every crafter (that can make the kits) will be crafting the exact same "augment adder", as every item uses the same kit (excluding making lower level kits). So instead of individual crafters having the chance to make, or at least slightly specialize in making certain augmented pieces, we'll all be making the same item now. Can't say I'm too excited about that. Critted oranges will likely become pretty obsolote, as people will want to pick the exact look they want - which itself is a good thing, don't get me wrong. I just wish the implementation for them to do that would have involved crafters in a bit more interesting way, say making specific augmenters for different items, or better, by allowing crafters to learn the recipes and distributing the augmented versions that way.

Can only hope BW gives us some new, good looking (=people want to buy it) gear to craft soon to give some variety.

@DavidHunt - Could you please explain the decision behind making Augment Kits (AKs) only craftable by Armstech, Armormech and Synthweaving. Doesn't this place the three skills at a significant advantage as everyone will be after AK's now?

Have you guys considered the option to have different augment kits for different types of gear and only the crafter who can create a specific type of gear can also create an AK for it?

thanks

@DavidHunt - Could you please explain the decision behind making Augment Kits (AKs) only craftable by Armstech, Armormech and Synthweaving. Doesn't this place the three skills at a significant advantage as everyone will be after AK's now?

 

Have you guys considered the option to have different augment kits for different types of gear and only the crafter who can create a specific type of gear can also create an AK for it?

 

thanks

Significant advantage? More like levels the play field, in my opinion.

Let's be honest.. Armstech, Armormech and Synthweaving weren't that useful except for the augments.

However, after these changes Artifice might fall behind a bit... I'm looking forward to seeing the crafting system evolve further

Anything that could crit craft and get an augment. So you can't get the component from a stim or a mod.

So am I to understand you can't get augment kit mats from RE'ing dropped gear and items? Only from RE'ing items that have been crafted? I assumed before that anything you could RE of the appropriate level range would get you the mats but now it sounds like that's maybe not the case?

Ok, I need someone to asnwer this one more time because Dulfy's sumnmary isnt correlating with what I'm reading in this thread. Granted that the posts in this thread are by a dev but Dulfy usually has it down so I'm considering the possibilty that I'm reading things all wrong.

So, question: A, for instance, level 23 custom shell can be "augmented" to carry a lvl 49 augment post-1.3? On Dulfy I got the impression that only those made prior to 1.3 and containing a high tier augment when 1.3 hits will be able to still do so post-1.3.