will orange gear become obsolete with 1.2?

I think you underestimate the powers of aesthetics.

Not sure what you are saying, but (weapons aside) you got:

AC
Mod
Enh

That's an OJ. I think 'everything' that is (again, not weapons) made by crafters that is 'armor' should have those. They should come filled with stuff that add up to whatever level they are currently at so they aren't just shells. You can then replace those with whatever you want.

I think, like they are planning, they should be able to make crit version that also have an augment slot.

Now, I think they should be able to 'reverse engineer' the critted item into a 'consumable that will add an augment slot to any existing piece of armor'. One use. I could then buy one of these from a crafter and add it, say, to an Indignation Chestguard (so that OJ that drops in the world is somehow not sub standard).

Finally, I think that 'all' armor should be slottable. Now, whether that means they 'add' slottable versions of all armor to the world or not is moot. Really, there should be no reason for 'green' or 'blue' or 'oj' armor. There should be shells, all fully slottable. Crafters can make 'em, they drop in the world. Crafters can create ones with augment slots, they can 'also' create consumables so you can apply them to existing armor (that obviously don't already have an augment slot).

Then if you feel the need to 'color' things to tell how awesome they are, color the things you put in the mod and augment slots. Green, blue, purple, orange, banana, whatever.

I guess that's about it.

These and other concerns are why we begged since before beta for a simple easy unobtrusive social tab; no mess no fuss no QQ. Instead whats likely gonna happen is min maxers are gonna figure out how to eek the most of the system; what they eek out is (going by the track record to date i assume from lack of internal testing) gonna be higher/better/more used than BW intended. BW will then proceed to nerf/remove/adjust whatever combo it was. And we'll all be back here in 3 mo. complaining about people looking the same again.

Min/Maxers will do this for any system regardless.

I don't think crits are frequent enough that non-crafter-orange gear will be obsolete. Even at level 50, it's probably going to take a while and cost a fortune to get all critted orange. Level Character unless they are armortech or synthweaving probably won't be able to afford it..

re-read, i believe you missed the point
EDIT hint soicial tab

Just as many have replied, the orange gear will become the go to gear which is how it should be. I LOVE the fact that my high level characters be rewarded by helping out my guildies in Flashpoints in the form of an orange drops that are unique and can be modded up to my level and that there are full sets to be found in the flashpoints. Some of the best gear will be found this way and it promotes players of all levels playing together.

Just to say, I wish that advanced crafting could have the ability to turn any piece of gear (looks wise) into a mod-blank Orange piece of gear.

There are so many low and intermediate level things that look good, better (to my eyes) than extant orange or endgame (which tend to suffer from too much from that modern design abomination of "spikey shoulderpad syndrome" for my taste).

I would pay good money to a craftsperson to be able to turn some of the old low level green and blue (but specific looking) armours that I like the look of, into Orange gear.