Thank you to those of you who have been adding input to the many threads regarding armor variations. Despite all the trolling I've done, I'm still left with pretty basic questions. Thank you in advance for your considerations.

 

Can Armormech's craft Orange items?

 

If so, are those schematics acquired through reverse engineering and/or crew skill missions?

 

Although it is open for debate, do you find keeping Orange armors and adding mods to them more viable than acquiring completely new armors as you level?

Yes you can craft orange armor. Schematics drop from Underworld trading missions

Yes you can craft orange armor. Schematics drop from Underworld trading missions

 

Plus world drops as well.

The silly thing is that those oranges (the ones I've learned, at least,) are still blue on the list, and don't appear when you filter your craft list to only show "Only Moddable" schematics.

 

Personally I find this irritating, but those are my two cents... and my head's up to you to not freak out when you learn an orange schematic and can't find it on your list.

Yes it is like the GTN, Custom is grouped with Prototype. Unfortunately in the list the colors are also blue instead of orange. Hopefully that at least is a bug.

I suspect orange armour will dominate the end game players who will have the resources to get the best mods and the desire to have a visually particular look.

 

You can function with orange armour and mods at lower levels but more upkeep and cost is required.

 

I did so for awhle, and will do so again, but in between great orange pieces that drop or I craft, I craft myself some RE'd purple schematics and so far they are vastly better.