I would like to make a suggestion as to an alternative approach to handling augmentation in Patch 1.3. While I think augmentation is a great idea that breathed new life back into some crafting skills I feel the approach that was discussed in the interview at Inquisitor's Roadhouse is not considering all the potential ramifications. For those that are unaware of what I am referring to it was mentioned during an interview that if you craft, for example, a level 39 piece of armor and get a crit on it the augment slot will only be able to accept augments up until that tier so level 49 augments can't be placed into it unless an augmentation kit is bought. Here are the problems I see with this approach:

a) The demand and market for low level materials will almost disappear. Right now on my server Eralam crystals will sell for 400-500 each and anything above Eralam will run about 1,000. If you want Xonolite for armor making as an example it will take days before you can find someone selling them for less than 1,500 per piece. This demand is fueled in a large part due to crafted custom armors. Who is going to spend 50,000 on 99 Eralam crystals unless they're trying to craft augmented pieces? Opila crystals priced at 1000 credits each would just disappear within hours. This demand is helpful to low level characters and people who want to material gather for credits but if orange crafted armors and weapons with an augment slot still need an augmentation kit to get a high end augment the incentive to produce these items disappears along with the demand for materials to make them.

b) Market prices may actually increase. Currently, Upari crystals and Primeval fragments will sell regularly at 1,000 credits each; sometimes more. If augment kits can only be made with high level materials then the demand for high level materials will increase. As I'll need 10 items to get an augment kit then I can assume I'll need 60 Upari crystals and 40 fragments as an example to get the kit. Selling that kit for less than 100,000 credits would be pointless as I could make more credits selling the unfinished materials. If the material prices rise the costs will rise as well and instead of having the demand spread out among a variety of tiers of materials it will focus nearly exclusively on the top tier driving up prices.

c) It doesn't do anything for any crafts other than Synthweaving, Armormech, and Armstech. The augmentation kits will be interchangeable from what I read. While this means that those three crafts will still have a very lucrative market it doesn't do anything for the other trade skills.

Here's my suggestion

a) Make it so crit crafted armors and weapons can handle any augment that's put in it. The demand for those items is still going to drop but as they require, on the average, 5 times the materials needed to make one item, as opposed to 10 times the material to make one item for an augmentation kit they will still be cheaper overall. Some people may prefer a different appearance over the craftable orange gear but there will still be a market for augmented armors and weapons if they don't require an augmentation kit for the top end augments. It will also make crit crafting an orange piece of armor or weapon a fortunate thing as opposed to being of very little value.

b) Have the augmentation kit only affect items that that trade skill can craft. Synthweaving and Armormech get armors, Armstech gets weapons, Biotech gets implants, Artifice gets lightsabers and generators, etc. This ensures that every trade skill can take advantage of this new feature instead of only a few skills reaping the benefits.

As I said before, I think augmentation is a great thing for trade skills but the approach I read about in the interview would hinder the market; not make it more viable and get more action. The current proposed course of action would severely reduce the market for orange weapons, armors, and low level crafting materials and concentrate the action nearly exclusively in top end materials which new players couldn't access while I think the suggestion above would increase the liveliness of the market instead.

Don't have time to read it all atm.

but as a response to your

a)

The market for low lvl materials will be ruined, and the prices will be mor apropriate for the lvl range.

Is this not one of the big ideas about it all?

After this change, new players can get into the market and get the low lvl items they need at a reasonable price, and the higher lvl stuff will be higher in price.....

The market should not be made for those with at least 2 lvl 50's and plenty of credits, so they ruin the start up experience for new players....

/signed

completely agree with everything - I've posted about your suggestion (b) in the suggestion box. I didn't even considered the material side of things but allowing on three crafters to produce the AKs seems like a huge advantage to those skills over all others.

Thanks for the responses and input. In response to the low level market point made two posts above the course of action proposed by Bioware will do more to make the market the domain of level 50s and less possible for low level characters. A friend of mine in the last month made hundreds of thousands of credits selling sacred artifact fragments as these are used by some of the popular armors. He would get prices of 1,500 to 2,500 credits per fragment for an item that takes him about 50 to 100 credits to produce just because higher level crafters didn't have the time to gather them themselves. That's a level two item that any character with level two archaeology can gather. That helps any low level character wanting to earn extra credits.

As an example of how this helps take speeders. Their price is static as its an in game vendor item. A low level character now can gather some materials, sell them, and then buy the speeder and I would argue Tatooine and every other world thereon in is big enough you need a speeder. With the proposed change using the sacred artifact fragments as an example if I only need 12-18 (4-6 each per piece) artifact fragments as opposed to 60-90 or more (20-30 each on the average per piece of augmented) to make a set of armors for the market why would I buy them? Low level characters would lose their ability to participate in the market as they would not be able to produce anything other characters want. Right now they can gather materials high level characters want and earn money that way.

Currently, the market is too small for low level characters who will outstrip any use they have for a low level item in a few levels anyway and the returns are too small as well. I cannot see anything in the proposed change that benefits low level characters or makes the market more lively; on the other hand if augmented armors and weapons have the maximum level augment slot then they can sell something for which there would be a market. The augmentation kit idea is a good one that will help out character customization but if it does so by removing the ability for crit crafted armors to have top end augment slots then it will make the market less active.

I agree on this. The current state for the 1.3 augmentation table seems to benefit way too much to 3 skills only....

And please format the last post.....

a) The demand and market for low level materials will almost disappear. Right now on my server Eralam crystals will sell for 400-500 each and anything above Eralam will run about 1,000. If you want Xonolite for armor making as an example it will take days before you can find someone selling them for less than 1,500 per piece. This demand is fueled in a large part due to crafted custom armors. Who is going to spend 50,000 on 99 Eralam crystals unless they're trying to craft augmented pieces? Opila crystals priced at 1000 credits each would just disappear within hours. This demand is helpful to low level characters and people who want to material gather for credits but if orange crafted armors and weapons with an augment slot still need an augmentation kit to get a high end augment the incentive to produce these items disappears along with the demand for materials to make them.

Sounds like the prices are absurdly high, and are pricing "at level" crafters completely out of the market. You know, people SHOULD still be able to buy/sell lvl 20 or whatever pieces of gear that level 20 people will want to buy at prices they can actually afford. So yeah, seems like this will fix that situation nicely.

b) Market prices may actually increase. Currently, Upari crystals and Primeval fragments will sell regularly at 1,000 credits each; sometimes more. If augment kits can only be made with high level materials then the demand for high level materials will increase. As I'll need 10 items to get an augment kit then I can assume I'll need 60 Upari crystals and 40 fragments as an example to get the kit. Selling that kit for less than 100,000 credits would be pointless as I could make more credits selling the unfinished materials. If the material prices rise the costs will rise as well and instead of having the demand spread out among a variety of tiers of materials it will focus nearly exclusively on the top tier driving up prices.

You're a fool if you're making chest, head, or leg pieces to RE for the agument mats. Make bracers (and belts, I think?) 20 Upari, 20 fragments = 1 augment. 40k in mats. (at those prices. Substantially less if you aren't paying those absurd prices.. Seriously, who exactly is buying things for that much off the GTN? I'm sure they sell or the prices would have dropped, but it's easy enough to get the mats yourself for far cheaper... I just don't understand it... though you craft greens so much faster than oranges/blues I'll admit it'll probably be somewhat hard timewise to keep yourself fully stocked.)

I'll agree though that all crewskills should be able to make augment kits, ONLY equipment (i.e. no mods, or consumables) should be able to be RE'd into augment mats, and augment kits should be slot dependant based on crewskill.

There is no market for 'at level' crafters by 'at level' people and 'at level' people don't need augmented armors that they would replace in three hours of game play anyway. Nobody produces low level augments either as there's no market for them and the augment would be obsolete in a short period of time. The market is for the top end where the majority of the population and credits are. If you can't see the advantages in low level crafters being able to sell items that higher level characters would want then I guess you just can't see it. Right now 'at level' crafters can participate and if their ability to produce goods and items that people would want disappears their ability to participate goes as well.

In addition, the crafters who pay those prices, and there are quite a few, are those who don't have the time to log in five to six times per day to get enough materials to make items for the market. Do you really have the time to log in eight to ten times per day to get the 90 Opila crystals needed to manufacture one set of augmented orange armors that need Opila crystals especially since there are only two level three missions in archaeology that have a chance of getting them? That 90,000 credits which is about forty five minutes of dailies for a max level character makes a huge difference in the quality of life for a low level character who wants to sell materials.

As well, if there isn't enough financial incentive for people to sell the materials then people stop selling them and then since it's so much harder to make the items the scarcity forces the prices up. If the market shifts to exclusively high end materials as with the proposed change then the prices go up unless a bunch of people join the supply materials market which they won't unless they can make a good profit and are interested in doing so; currently as there aren't that many people in the Upari selling market at 1,000 per Upari crystal I'm assuming not that many more will be interested unless prices go up even more. If the market is spread out among a wide variety of materials instead of one or two materials then there is a livelier and less expensive overall market. If demand is concentrated only in a small section then only those in that section can participate. If you can't see how this is counter productive to the goal of increasing activity on the trade network then once again I guess you just can't see it. Personally, I'd rather have a market everyone can participate in if they so choose instead of nearly all the activity being concentrated in a few segments.

So, basically you're saying it's perfectly acceptable that lvl 20 (or whatever) characters can't buy/use crafted equipment for their level because the price to buy the mats to make the equipment is out of their reach.

Sorry, but that's broken. lvl 20 equipment should be priced such that lvl 20 characters can buy it.. having the lvl 20 mats overpriced because lvl 50 characters are wanting the mats too is simply broken.