Since Beta, we've been told that appearance customisation would be achieved through the modification system and orange armor. We were told that every armor in the game would be available as an orange variation. When the game hit, this wasn't the case.

 

We were told that in 1.2 that this would be rectified. That most orange armor would be REable for a schematic, that most armor in general would be REable to an orange schematic (I'll admit that I can't find a quote on this second point) and that there would be new orange schematics available from UWT. This is not the case.

 

Why haven't we heard anything on this issue? I know that myself and several others asked questions regarding this in the Q&A. Is it stuck in whatever patch contains ranked warzones? The feature was advertised in the same trailer as ranked warzones. I'm not going to claim that this is as big of a deal as ranked warzones not making it (clearly, as there aren't hundreds of threads on the issue), but this was a pretty big deal to both crafters and those who had a specific look in mind for their characters.

 

So, I ask you Bioware: Where are all those orange armors that you've been promising since beta?

 

Edit: To clarify, when I say no new schematics, I mean no new Armormech/Synth schematics. There are multiple orange armstech schematics in the game.

 

 

Some sources:

 

This blog post, specifically:

(Note: recipes for those orange appearances are discovered through Underworld Trading missions.This allows us to have a truly large number of those recipes without overwhelming the crafting trainer inventory. As a side effect, this opens up class quest green armor appearances from other classes as well as long as you fulfill the armor requirements.)

 

Edit: Also,

Partially moddable premium (green) items were removed as they essentially lied to the players: an item missing a mod slot would never be able to match a high end non-moddable item. Instead, to compensate for the loss of diversity, orange versions of all green armors was created and given to the crafters. So, yes, if you see a green armor you really like, you still can have that appearance until end level. It does take a bit of work - you either need to become a crafter yourself, befriend one or trawl the GTN.

 

I'll add here that I think randomly aquiring recipes from UWT is silly and frustrating, at best.

 

This blog post about crafting in 1.2, specifically:

Armormech[/synthweaver] crafters may now reverse engineer almost any modifiable outfit into an empty custom (orange) shell of the same name and appearance, which may now gain an augment slot when crafted with critical success.

 

and

 

•Modifiable weapons and armor can now be reverse engineered and researched into empty, custom (orange) shells with the same name and appearance, adding a wide variety of new outfits to the game.

 

This thread contains numerous crafters with ranging levels of dissatisfaction on the issue.

 

Edit: Apparently this thread was moved.

 

Edit for 5/5/12: This from the most recent Q&A:

 

Nyjin: Greetings, Ware of Bio! In a Dev Tracker for upcoming crew skill changes in 1.2, it was mentioned that new schematics were going to be put into the game in order to allow for more customization. These schematics were supposed to be of lower-level armor and be obtained through Underworld Trading and Investigation missions. So far, nobody on the forums, myself, or my server have seen any new schematics. Can we get a confirmation on whether or not these made it into the game?

 

David: We’ve been gradually adding more customization-related schematics to various places in the game. Most of these have been for Custom (orange) armor, but some of them have also been for color crystals. Underworld Trading provides several sets of orange armor – you have a chance to get one of these when you have a mission success. Those schematics already cover a substantial portion of the low level appearances we have available now, but we’re looking for places where we can put more. For the specific 1.2 schematics, the investigation schematics are for new Armstech weapons. There’s an empty orange version of every weapon type except for the Lightsabers. In both cases, there’s a level 20 version (“Custom-built”) and a level 50 version (“Elegant Modified”). Treasure Hunting has the Lightsaber versions of these schematics for use in Artificing.

 

There’s a major update to Underworld Trading schematics in 1.3 – it’s possible that the upcoming crew skill change was actually referring to that, the gradual introduction of more orange armor sets or other steps being taken to opening up more armor to be viable in 1.2 and 1.3. We’ve added a whole bunch of orange waist and wrist schematics to Underworld Trading in 1.3 We’ve wanted to open this up to players for awhile, especially because some outfits really need the belt in order to look right.

 

I'll let someone else do a proper dissection, because that confused me a little. Is he saying that new orange armour schems have been slowly added since launch? Since 1.2? That no new orange armour schematics in 1.2? That there are more schematics in 1.2, but we simply haven't found them yet?

 

Either way, I think we can discern one thing from this: don't ever trust Bioware to release acuurate information, even about major patches.

 

Edit for 12/05/12's Q&A: Finally, an answer to our question! Even if they were answering someone else's, considerably different question.

 

I’d like to allow any gear to reverse engineer for discoveries, but there’s a limit to how many recipes players can acquire. We’re looking at ways to improve that and apply systems more universally, but it’s not currently possible. Only Campaign can be reverse engineered because if we make both a Campaign and Black Hole a reverse engineering recipe, they will be the same result with different names but they will both count against the upper limits.

 

So, yeah. They've never actually had the tech to allow us to craft all armour designs, despite what they led us to believe. At least we (finally) have an answer, albiet an unwelcome one.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Thaed

As an avid crafter I too would like to know the answer.

 

(well laid out post btw!)

Agreed, they told us we'd have lots of things coming our way in 1.2; but apparently all we got were a couple weapon recipes and basically that was it.

Mandalorian Weapons (Investigation 10-16) yiedled a Custom-built Techstaff schematic, an orange moddable weapon. People might simply not be getting lucky or something might be off with the decimal point in the wrong spot. Edited April 28, 2012 by terminova

<- lvl24.....UWT under lvl50, had 3 synthweaving patterns, 3 armourmech and 1 cybertech orange pattern so far.

 

random is random i guess

Mandalorian Weapons (Investigation 10-16) yiedled a Custom-built Techstaff schematic, an orange moddable weapon. People might simply not be getting lucky or something might be off with the decimal point in the wrong spot.

 

 

<- lvl24.....UWT under lvl50, had 3 synthweaving patterns, 3 armourmech and 1 cybertech orange pattern so far.

 

random is random i guess

 

Did either of you actually read the OP?

that most armor in general would be REable to an orange schematic

 

AFAIK This was never stated or even implied by a dev, though numerous other people said it without ever citing a source. (probably because there was none). Even your quotes don't back this up.

 

 

The two places where what they said doesn't match up with what they gave was the bit about all modifiable outfits researchable to learn the orange, if you include "custom" stuff under the group of "modifiable stuff".

 

This place is sort of debateable, as they did fairly quickly clarify that to mean only the new tier 2 stuff. Even your very first quote illustrates that that isn't how they intend schematics from orange (custom) stuff is obtained. Which brings us to the 2nd place what they said doesn't match up.

 

All those supposedly new schematics available from UT are missing.

 

I think EVERYBODY will agree that that was promised, and as far as I know, nobody has yet found a single new outfit schematic from UT.

Issues:

 

- Augment slots: crit crafting is temporary, they are creating a new way for us to attach augments to anything

- New armor recipes need to be created for every model and colour scheme (at least for the chest)

- Set bonuses not transferring on the older armor

- Insane cost of changing an outfit (over 600k to completely remod an outfit)

- Dealing with over 30 item modification switches to change your outfit

- Extremely slow development done in multiple "stages"

 

All this to semi-compensate for the fact that Bioware does not want to create an appearance tab system. It is their choice, but they are going to lose when new MMOs come out.

 

Character customization is one of the reason I have stopped playing my 4 level 50s. I'm sick of looking at their crappy gear knowing I can't transfer the mods without losing the set bonuses.

 

I'm tired of knowing that when my alts do hit 50, I have to go through maybe 3 tiers of PvP and 2 tiers of PvE gear just to customize my look and retain the set bonuses. If I can not enjoy the look of my character (BIG RED COMBAT TEXT SPAMMING THE MIDDLE OF MY SCREEN IS ALSO RUINING THIS FOR ME) then I'll just pack up and move out the first chance I get.

 

You do not have long Bioware, maybe a couple months at best.

Edited April 28, 2012 by illgot

something might be off with the decimal point in the wrong spot.

 

+1 for the Office Space reference

Did either of you actually read the OP?

 

Yes...and he's not properly quoting the blog and adding stuff that wasn't said. Further, he then pointed to some other thread which was claiming no schematics were put in in 1.2.

 

I'm also pointing out there are new orange moddable schematics that were put in with 1.2, and pointed out there might be an issue with the coding dealing with orange moddable items.

AFAIK This was never stated or even implied by a dev, though numerous other people said it without ever citing a source. (probably because there was none). Even your quotes don't back this up.

 

This part from the official blog still seems to imply just that:

Armormech crafters may now reverse engineer almost any modifiable outfit into an empty custom (orange) shell of the same name and appearance, which may now gain an augment slot when crafted with critical success.

 

The mention of 'almost any' does not sound like 'only the new endgame sets' to me...

 

I have a Synthweaver and Armormech at 400, but apart from the pre-1.2 recipes I haven't seen any modifiable outfit that allowed me to RE it into an empty custom shell of the same name.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Danakar

Yea, this issue is the only issue as far as I'm concerned. And if you've read all the dev statements and watched the guild summit prior to 1.2, and you are a reasonable person with average reading comprehension skills, the only conclusion you would draw is that we should now have orange schematics for most, if not all, green weapons and armor in the game. But even before the devs started talking about 1.2; way back right after launch, when they were talking about why they didn't have a color-match system in the game; they told is that we didn't need one because there was already a orange version of every green item in the game. Anyone remember the following quote shortly after launch?

 

"Partially moddable premium (green) items were removed as they essentially lied to the players: an item missing a mod slot would never be able to match a high end non-moddable item. Instead, to compensate for the loss of diversity, orange versions of all green armors was created and given to the crafters. So, yes, if you see a green armor you really like, you still can have that appearance until end level. It does take a bit of work - you either need to become a crafter yourself, befriend one or trawl the GTN.

 

Emmanuel Lusinchi

Associate Lead Designer"

 

The only conclusion I can draw , Bioware, is that you don't have a clue as to what actually is in your game. Where is the modable version of the reinforced mesh jacket/stealth jacket (This is a armormech trainer schematic)? Where is the modable version of gamorrean wraidskin boots? Where is the modable version of the Prototype Mar Tech Suppression Blaster? I'm sure I and others here could go on and on with items that are nowhere to be found in this game that, according to statements made by you, should be.

What I'd like to know is where all the non armor mission drops are, I'm maxed out 400 craft wise across the board for cyber, as a Bounty Hunter and every pattern I've got from a mission was either Armor, Bio or for everything not related to cyber. I have that many armor patterns, at least 12 of varing levels I've started a new alt to use them, same for Bio, I must have 10 or more of those in my storage.

 

I can't remember once getting a cyber related pattern from a mission or drop, am I not supposed to get speeder patterns or the like? How long do I play the game for in order to get a pattern related to my craft?

Edited April 28, 2012 by Gazzaho

It would be awesome if you could RE gear you find- I thought that was the intent to begin with, and frankly, I'd be fine with going through a dozen rare oranges to get to learn it.

 

It'd help if all set bonuses moved with the armouring too- so pre- WH/Campaign gear could be moved to augmented gear. Seems like customization is only there for top geared players though- whoopie.

Yes...and he's not properly quoting the blog and adding stuff that wasn't said. Further, he then pointed to some other thread which was claiming no schematics were put in in 1.2.

 

I'm also pointing out there are new orange moddable schematics that were put in with 1.2, and pointed out there might be an issue with the coding dealing with orange moddable items.

 

Straight copy/pastes, so I can hardly be adding anything that wasn't said in the quotes. I quoted the relevant information from those blogs. That's what you tend to quote; the relevant stuff. For those who would like to peruse the entire article, there's a link.

 

Also, on the orange Armstech stuff, thanks for pointing that out. I forgot to clarify that while there are reports of multiple new orange armstech recipes (I've got a couple myself), there have been no reports of new synthweaving/armormech orange recipes. If you would like to prove me wrong on that front, go right ahead.

 

Edit: Ah, thanks for reminding me of that quote Marek. I breezed right over it.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Thaed

Agreed, they told us we'd have lots of things coming our way in 1.2; but apparently all we got were a couple weapon recipes and basically that was it.

 

You'll find that the BioWare Austin team has a tendency to play a lot of word games and exaggerate things.

 

Being able to easily get the appearance that you want was a lie, folks. BioWare Austin has a reputation for totally missing the point.

If the "add an augment slot to any item" feature is coming in 1.3, then I don't care what happened in 1.2. If we have to wait a while longer than that, though, then I'll probably be a little upset.

You'll find that the BioWare Austin team has a tendency to play a lot of word games and exaggerate things.

 

Being able to easily get the appearance that you want was a lie, folks. BioWare Austin has a reputation for totally missing the point.

 

I also have noticed there is several times during press releases and such,That they will say one thing then when its proven to not be true. We get the Well we ran into complications and wasnt able to do that like we wanted. Knowing they didnt have the crap right to begin with but hey it made x amount of people resub or buy the game.

 

So whats a little white lie hurt right... Its getting to be a bad joke.

I'd like an answer to this as well.

 

All we want is more of the armour models to be produced as Orange specifically I have found a lack of boots.

I have been posting in the original thread that this ones OP brought it over from and it has gone 17 pages without a single dev response. They are completely ignoring that thread (as far as giving a response, there can be no doubt they have read it and know it exists) because they failed to deliver on what they promised regarding the ability to RE almost any modifiable outfit and the new schems being available through missions and don't want to admit it. Unlike other aspects which they claim people misread or took the wrong meaning from, they can't possibly deny the clarity of what those two statements meant (I won't bother quoting them as that has already been done, it says exactly what it was quoted as saying). As someone has already stated, they likely boasted about these new additions to pad the resubs, because if it's just a bug that we cant RE these modifiable outfits or find the new schems through missions then they would have ackowledged it in these threads or listed under known issues, neither of which has been done. Maybe they thought we would just forget about it and let it go at that. Bioware definately needs to get their act together and deliver what they say they will or this game has no chance of making the long haul. You can't tell folks you are going to do something and then when they ask where is it just ignore them and pretend it never happened.

Yes...and he's not properly quoting the blog and adding stuff that wasn't said. Further, he then pointed to some other thread which was claiming no schematics were put in in 1.2.

 

I'm also pointing out there are new orange moddable schematics that were put in with 1.2, and pointed out there might be an issue with the coding dealing with orange moddable items.

 

They definately implies there's be a lot more orange recipes in game by 1.2, whether that was a mistake in language or a mistake in what was actually happening in 1.2 who knows.

No use getting upset over something you can't change. This is just a game and there are plenty more just like it out there. And it's not the first game that has taken our money and then not delivered what was promised; in the real world, that's called fraud. What we need to realize is that everything to do with these games revolves around money. A dev's goal is to earn as much money as he/she can by creating games. The only reason it matters to a dev that anyone actually likes the game they create is that if no one likes it, the gaming company will lose money and the dev might be out of a job. The dev has to answer to the gaming company he/she works for, which has to answer to it's stock holders; and stock holders only care about profits. So the goal of the gaming company is to make as large a profit is they can before we all go away. As such, everything they do is weighed against their profit margin. They will continue to make promises and not deliver as long as we continue to complain but not go away. I'm about ready to go away.

We should sit here and chant "WE WANT A DEV" "WE WANT A DEV"

Honestly, my Sentinel is still running around in his class-quest robe from Coruscant - because it was the most quintessentially Jedi outfit I've seen, before or since. The rest of the slots come and go (this is why I was happy with the Unify to Chest color feature) but there's not a lot of draw for me, at least, to any of the appearances I've seen on any other slot. (Except the Head slot which I hide - really? Is my male Jedi a Gaelic princess?)

 

Mayhap if there are specific armors mentioned (I've only seen a few in the thread) that people are looking for, those with more database than us can point out how an orange schematic, if it exists, might be obtainable.

Disingenuous - that's the best word to describe how Bioware has been on this issue.

 

I've seen many statements, comments, Q&A, etc going back to beta explaining how the mod system / player crafting will allow players to customize both their appearance and their stats. And many statements alluding to players having the ability to use any appearance in game as their base.

 

Unfortunately, every implementation of the mod system / crafting system from beta to now has had issues with providing true and full appearance flexibility.

 

However, anytime a suggestion is made to separate stats from appearance such as through the use of appearance tabs or an appearance modification process, it has been ignored or answered with some vague comment about how the mod system will allow that same flexibility in some future patch.

 

So now we are months and patches into using the mod system and have no appearance tab or appearance morphing process, and we continue to find that the ability to use the mod system to customize an appearance is highly limited as we do not have schematics for many looks.

 

And sorry, but this vague ability to add augment slots to armor isn't going to solve the problem either. There will still be many looks that exist that do not have modifiable shells, either craftable or otherwise. None of the armor pieces without modifiable shells will become any more usable with an augment slot.

 

Why these devs cannot separate the stats from the mod process (e.g. appearance tab / appearance morphing) or just buckle down and add orange schematics for EVERY look in the game is beyond me.

Edited April 28, 2012 by DawnAskham