Crew Skills in Game Update 1.2

I think that perhaps your reading too much into the blog:

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.

It clearly states "orange" which is referring to the moddable type of item that is already in the game.

The blog is doubling up on what it says. Which seems to be the norm these days for bioware's patch notes.

Sadly, you're right. This debate won't lead to anything consctructive until we get an answer from the devs themselves. I sometimes have a feeling blog posts are written by more than one person, thus making them messy and unclear.

DEVS ?

I think that perhaps your reading too much into the blog:

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.

It clearly states "orange" which is referring to the moddable type of item that is already in the game.

The blog is doubling up on what it says. Which seems to be the norm these days for bioware's patch notes.

And when EVERYONE is able to craft the same item, AND crit it, then what happens?

I'll give you a moment to think about that.......

Here's a clue:

Imagine a whole pages of identical clothing, all the same colour, all the same design, all with the same number of slots (4 of them).

No, being a crafter ISN'T a "niche". Why? Because there are lots of other crafters, all making the same thing to the same level of quality, with the same colour. NO variation at all. ALL ways of creating variation (both in aethetics and stats) are put into the hands of those who buy the items. Not those who make them.

And for those crafters who aren't raiders, tough schnitt. Because they can never offer items for sale that are competitive.

In short:

• There is no "supply and demand" for particular items, when said items are never given reasons to be taken out of the economy. In other words, they are never actually "consumed".
• There is no variation in aethetics, when a "colour matching" system is implemented that puts the power to change the colour of items into the hands of the user, not the crafter.
• There is no variation in stats of crafted items, when users have the power to exchange those stats at will.

Thus every crafter resorts to trying to sell "empty" moddable items and mods to go in them. With much much variation in stats and NO variation in aethetics on any one particular model of item.

No, you're still not getting it. The empty moddable items ARE different. That's where you find your niche.

Let's say I want the Trooper armor from the Maelstrom flashpoint. I like the look of it. If I'm not a crafter, I can go and get that armor anytime I want, but it won't ever have an augment slot in it.

Now let's say I'm a crafter. I think the armor looks cool and there's a market for it. I go run the flashpoint and get it to drop. I RE it and learn the schematic. Cool, now I can make that exact appearance as much as I want. And I can sell that on the GTN.

The incentive to buy this from a crafter is high for the non-crafter, because they can't get that item otherwise. They can only run the FP and get the non-augmented version.

This is where the variation comes in. You're selling appearances. There are a bunch of different orange armors in the game, all with unique appearances. And yes, the color matching will limit this somewhat, but you still need to have the right color on your chestpiece in order to get the appearance you want.

So the life of a crafter will be hunting down the orange versions of these armors, and REing until they learn the schematic. Then learning the schematic until they crit and selling that. That will be a BIS piece with a unique appearance that they can sell to other people who want to look that way, but don't want to put the time and energy into tracking down each appearance in order to RE it and learn the schematic themselves (and they'd also have to have the requisite crew skill and mats to make it).

This gives crafters them the option to make a BIS version of every single orange item in the game, if they put in the time and energy for it. That's a TON of variety, not the same item over and over again. There's going to be a market for that, especially from the people who are sticking to Biochem/Cybertech.

And you're still wrong about raiding. I have several orange schematics right now that don't require any raiding materials. These will be able to crit when 1.2 goes live and make BIS pieces.

My english sux sry but what are you trying to say?

Yes it will create a moddable item but its not an schematic, you will not be able to create an endless amount of those pieces just by reverse engineering 1 original. If i am wrong why do they call it an empty shell and not a schematic?

If i am wrong why do they call it an empty shell and not a schematic?

What I'd really like to see is the ability to make a moddable version out of any Premium Quality piece of loot or better. These armors exist in more color variations than there are Moddable patterns. Some of them I really like the look of and would be able to keep wearing by outfitting them with better quality modifications as I level up. I think it would be nice if you sold "dyes" or some other process that would let players choose between the various color variations that are seen on any given armor model.

Also, I'm confused about being able to remove mods and set bonuses from Raid armor and craft new moddable versions (for critting). The dev post says it can be done for Tier 2 armor. What about the existing Tier 1 armor? If it won't work on the Tier 1 armor we already have, I will be quite disappointed.

If I remember reading somewhere else that the "color-matching" option for gear is going to be reinstated, not sure if it locked to chest color or whichever piece you pick though.