BioWare made a pretty big point of saying that, with 1.2, we'd be better able to "live our Star Wars fantasy" and have our characters look the way we want them to. I think they fell short, particularly due to the lack of variety in orange gear at the moment. Of particular concern to me though is endgame gear and the BiS issue.

 

I suppose I am fortunate to play a Trooper since our 1.2 gear sets aren't quite as abysmal as some of the others. I was actually looking forward to gearing up with that new set. Unfortunately, part of being in a guild that likes to push hard on new PvE content is min/maxing and optimizing your raid to improve your odds of success. The bonus from having augment slots on all your gear is too large to ignore, especially over aesthetics. Still, when people tackle endgame content, they like to have something to show for it, and the visual nature of gear sets has always been the best way to accomplish that for developers it seems. This is where the disconnect occurs.

 

Here is how my character looked prior to swapping my mods: http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu311/cshouston/campaign.jpg

I was really liking the direction my toon was headed here.

 

Here is how my character now looks, with augmented gear: http://i659.photobucket.com/albums/uu311/cshouston/guttertrash.jpg

First off, I seriously could not find anything that looked better. Most of the orange gear I could craft looked far worse. The stats bonus from the augment slots, including my weapon, is pretty big and noticeable in combat. That's fantastic for the achiever personality type in me, but really leaves me wanting in the looks department. I look like I'm level 20 and just rolled out of a gutter.

 

Now, yes, they've given us the ability to reverse engineer our campaign gear for the appearance shell, so technically we could craft the visual piece (preferably with an augment slot) and be right back where we started from. Unfortunately, the % chance to learn the pattern is pretty crappy. I understand the nature of RNG, but when I reverse engineered all my campaign pieces, I didn't learn a single one of them. So now, I'm stuck with this appearance. To make matters worse, it will be quite a while before everyone else is geared up and we're giving this stuff away just to be REed.

 

What's the solution? I can think of three things off the top of my head. Either increase the chance of learning the pattern from REing Campaign gear (make the shells BoP if you have to, in fact that's preferable), or VASTLY increase the selection of orange augmented gear in the game. And preferably not a bunch of garbage and ONE nice looking set, because then you're really only providing the illusion of variety, as everyone will just go for the nice one and the "looking like clones" problem is still in effect. The final idea would be to allow crafted augment slots, as well as augments themselves. Something suitably expensive to manufacture, but which can be added to any piece of gear almost like an enchantment.

 

Anyway, I wanted to post this up to provide some feedback which hopefully will find its way passed along to the teams that can handle this kind of thing. If anyone has any constructive feedback or ideas to include, please feel free to bring them up here!

Edited April 22, 2012 by cshouston

I agree 100%. So far the crafting change that should have given me MORE choice, has forced me to use gear I don't like the look of.

 

I don't really see a good way out of this. If orange shells are BoE, everyone has access to the same looks, and there are no visual rewards for accomplishing anything in PvE or PvP. You can argue the point, but I think most would think that is a bad idea.

 

If orange shells are BoP, you're leaving anyone not able to craft armor with exactly the same problem you have now,

 

I am beginning to think that augment slots should be removed entirely, and "enchants" intruduced instead. You would still be able to shift mods around for looks, but you avoid the stat issues.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Grobluk

Well, I would think the majority of orange shells should be BoE. However, if they were to increase the success rate of reverse engineering campaign, perhaps make those shells BoP. That will help retain the exclusivity of the look, for the most part. People can still get Black Hole gear, but the end game tier looks won't be all over the GTN once the conditions are right to allow for that sort of thing.

 

The enchantment idea really is the best we've been able to come up with while brainstorming. You don't need to scrap augments entirely (although I would not shed a single tear if that happened). Just make them something you apply to a piece of gear instead of requiring all this reverse engineering nonsense.

 

Making them crafted keeps the professions involved. It also keeps them viable longer, and sustains a market. As it stands, once someone has an augmented piece of gear, they don't necessarily need anything else from the player market. If augments are crafted and applied to individual pieces of gear, then they're required every time someone upgrades or otherwise replaces a piece of equipment. This is healthier in the long run, imho.

At the moment its just a matter of waiting until crafters learn the Campaign armour design from REing, and then buying a crit-crafted one.

 

But yeah I agree, it's lame. And they realised - albeit a bit late as always Which is why they're working on a way of 'attaching' and augment slot onto existing gear.

 

Unfortunately I don't think we'll be seeing that for a while

 

I guess you could just wear your empty shells, and then switch to the fugly augment gear when doing progression raids. Not that it really solves the problem.

Luckily I'm not in a massively hardcore guild, so I may just keep my Campaign gear as it is until someone learns to craft the shells. Or possibly throw the mods into an augmented War Hero set. BH War hero set does look quite menacing.

I see your point, but for the crafting community this is a huuuuge boon.. Imagine how rare those augmentet recipies will be for a loooong time, and the first crafters will have something really special to sell. Something that has lacked in every other MMO that I have played.

Thus far due to wishing to retain my Rakata set bonus I have to wear custom chest, 4 piece Rakata gloves, boots, legs, head, 2x custom sabers.

 

I have itemization conflicts with my gear, due to them giving me a pair of boots and gloves with the correct might armoring in my campaign set. The remaining 3 are guardian armoring (heavy into endurance) So I won't be able to use my set bonus if I want the correct itemization, I'll need to make sure that I continue to wear 2 pieces (I.E. Legs, the most mismatched pants in the entire set which don't color match, and the helmet visor which I make invisible because I dislike the appearance.)

 

Essentially I grab the armoring from the vigilance set black hole helmet, put it into my Rakata headpiece. I grab the legs out of my black hole and put it into the Rakata legs. Boots, and gloves I can update to the new Campaign set.

 

But for all the customization of gear I'm being forced to micromanage my own appearance to an individual single set of gear. It makes me sad

I've never really understood why SWTOR has felt the need to shy away from a pure cosmetics system. The game I played before this was Lord of the Rings Online, and there you had a set of gear slots and a set of cosmetic slots. Whatever gear you pseudo-equipped in the cosmetic slots is what your character looked like; you had to own the gear to equip it, but the gear put a "ghost" of itself in that slot rather than preclude you from actually wearing it as equipment. You could also buy additional cosmetic tabs, which would tie in nicely with the legacy system and provide a credit sink for those who want to really play around with appearances.

 

Tying it into the crafting system the way it is now is a bit of a cop out, rather than making the crafting portion of the game consistently relevant. It also does nothing to fix the fact that most crafters are just using alternate characters to make their armor and weapons, because the raids don't drop top tier BoP recipes. Biochem is still the raider main profession of choice because of this and also because while stims aren't in a bad place, medpacs and adrenals need to be multi-output recipes or multi-use items in order to make their resource input viable for keeping a raid force stocked up through progression content(tanks especially).

 

There needs to be a diversity of reasons for having a variety of crafters, not one attempt to unify all reasons. Make BoP recipes drop in raids that are actually beneficial rather than substitutes for lower tier gear, maybe by making them single use recipes with an automatic augment slot or something. Add more BoP PvP recipes that are bought with Ranked WZ comms, require a certain valor level, and can't be traded, so that PvPers have their own motivations for having PvP active mains as various crafter types. Then for the rest of the populace that neither raids nor PvPs, give each profession one or two beneficial things they can craft for all player types(ie. augment enchantments or some type of situational shared CD consumable like grenades), and require them to be L50 and get the materials through FPs or daily/fleet comms.

 

As for Biochem, as I said before the solution lies in buffing the output of the BoE items, not continually nerfing the BoP items. A nerfed Absorb Adrenal I can rely on as a tank CD every fight is still better than the no adrenals I'll have otherwise because the cost of manufacturing 50 adrenals for one person to do progression content is grossly prohibitive. (Oh and if you still want a credit sink, how about making us repair our medpacs/adrenals/etc or buy charges for them? That'd make it so you can make and forget like all other professions yet still funnel money into it)

Edited April 22, 2012 by DeimosAmon

The only real solution to fix the entire visual part of gear without hindering minmaxing or other statpreferences would be to unattach the visual part from the actual looks on gear upto a certain level. Or in other words, create some kind of appearance interface wich lets you choose between all looks for each slot ( chest, gloves, boots, etc) from gear you once equiped and let that show instead of the looks from the gear you're wearing.

Seen it before in other mmo's, just dont know if it could work in the swtor engine.

 

Benefits:

- You can choose however you look but still have armor limits since you need to equip it. ( no heavy armor looks for inquis,consulars for example)

- People can collect all pieces of gear that drops or thats craftable to add the visual looks to their collection.

- Crafters are still wanted for gear with aug slots etc .

- The modding part on oranges and the need to swap/unequip things woudnt be affected all that much since people still got their idea on wich color crystals and stats they like most.

 

But I'm sure I'm not the first with this idea :-)

Edited April 22, 2012 by Lotharo

Great thoughts and feedback everyone. Keep it coming!

Great thoughts and feedback everyone. Keep it coming!

I agree completely. Appearance slots would be amazing.

 

Ultimately, what motivates most people is developing your character. It's 2012. Within reason, shouldn't we be able to look however we want to look?

I believe DCUO has an appearance system like many people are describing. You add equipment to your bag o options and don't need to be "wearing" it stat wise, in order to wear it for your appearance. If you find a piece you like early on, you can lock that slot and further upgrades effect stats but not visuals. My recollection anyways, could be wrong.

I vote for some sort of personal hologram generator device for character looks. The device is independently managed and has its own separate slot. There could be different kinds or upgrades to this device that allows you to change the look of your character, or even make you look like something else (e.g., a Bantha or something). There could be recipes and crafted upgrades, etc. For special looks or to be transformed into something else entirely, there would be special data items that could be available seasonally, for $$, or some other way. There should be at least two "modes" to the device - one that is permanent (e.g., for armor looks, etc.) and others that are temporary (i.e., for "novelty" looks). I agree that "appearance management" should definitely be part of the game in a much bigger way than "color matching"

 

Note on the above "temporary mode" - it could only be activated for a limited time and has a CD. Allowing players to completely change into animals, etc for more than say, 3 min on a 30 min CD would probably interfere with the game...

 

However, I do think that some sort of static quality must remain with your character. Making everyone in the game basically changelings would be terrible because players would lose the sense of identity of their characters.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Gomigakari

I think I recall Georg mentioning that you should be able to add Augment slots to pre-existing gear without having to crit craft it in a later patch (1.3?). Being able to add these augments to Campaign set items would fix this problem Edited April 23, 2012 by Valan

 

Now, yes, they've given us the ability to reverse engineer our campaign gear for the appearance shell, so technically we could craft the visual piece (preferably with an augment slot) and be right back where we started from. Unfortunately, the % chance to learn the pattern is pretty crappy. I understand the nature of RNG, but when I reverse engineered all my campaign pieces, I didn't learn a single one of them. So now, I'm stuck with this appearance. To make matters worse, it will be quite a while before everyone else is geared up and we're giving this stuff away just to be REed.

 

Woah, wait.

 

You mean that Campaign gear, which is extremely rare to obtain in the first place is not a 100% RE to schematic?

 

I'd like to know how we go from buying a box containing Battlemaster/War Hero schematics to ~20% RE chance to learn from an extremely rare raid drop piece? Obviously, the PvE schematics should have been in boxes on the vendor too but this is ludicrous.

I LOVE the look of my rakata gear, and prior to 1.2 was pretty happy w/ the way it looked.

 

Come 1.2, I obviously need gear w/ augment slots, so I had to crit craft some ****ty gear from level 15-20. What I was expecting w/ Bioware's announcements of "look the way you want to look" is to be able to crit craft rakata shells or at least add an augment to the one I have. And no, my rakata shells are not even RE-able, even tho I'm 400 synth.

 

So this was a major fail on Bioware's part for me, because they have achieved the exact opposite of what they set out to do.

I LOVE the look of my rakata gear, and prior to 1.2 was pretty happy w/ the way it looked.

 

Come 1.2, I obviously need gear w/ augment slots, so I had to crit craft some ****ty gear from level 15-20. What I was expecting w/ Bioware's announcements of "look the way you want to look" is to be able to crit craft rakata shells or at least add an augment to the one I have. And no, my rakata shells are not even RE-able, even tho I'm 400 synth.

 

So this was a major fail on Bioware's part for me, because they have achieved the exact opposite of what they set out to do.

 

I feel exactly as you do. I was hoping to be making critted versions of my raid gear and RE'ing various other heavy armors out there to get schematics. The only thing I've been making is Battlemaster/War Hero for guildies and the abysmal crit chance on that is about to frustrate me too. It's depressing to have 9 copies of non-crit Battlemaster gloves that cannot be RE'd without putting a low level armoring in it and they vendor for 1 credit. Even if I do put a low-level armoring in them and RE, I get back 1 to 2 durasteel or Zal Alloy (<5% material cost).

 

I'm about to just decline armormech orders and just sell my materials.

Edited April 23, 2012 by Raeln

Having the patterns for Campaign armor drop off of trash/bosses wouldn't be a bad idea. It adds a PvE gating mechanism, à la the Valor requirement on the crafted PvP gear, and actually makes it feasible to have augmented pieces with that visual style. As it stands, asking people to RE their (for now) precious drops is ridiculous. It would also probably be impossible to get your set until well after the new tier of content is released.

Having the patterns for Campaign armor drop off of trash/bosses wouldn't be a bad idea. It adds a PvE gating mechanism, à la the Valor requirement on the crafted PvP gear, and actually makes it feasible to have augmented pieces with that visual style. As it stands, asking people to RE their (for now) precious drops is ridiculous. It would also probably be impossible to get your set until well after the new tier of content is released.

 

I don't like the idea having to endure yet another loot lottery just to get schematics to make pieces that you want. Honestly, this is an area where WoW's faction system was handy. Do a raid long enough to get to a certain faction (reputation) level, then buy the schematics off a vendor. It proves you put some effort in.

 

At this point, put the recipes on a vendor but require a commonly dropped material that only drops from that raid instance. Considering the nature of how rare acquiring this material is, make the gear have a 100% chance to crit. I don't even think this is necessary because I hate being restricted from building the look I want, but I do understand that some people want to restrict certain armor appearances to content type.

 

I really cannot see how it is "fair" to put all the PvP schematics in a neat and tidy box on the vendor and not give the PvE guys anything in this area.

 

Having any percentage chance to fail RE'ing raid gear to a schematic is just beyond unbelievable. We might not even see that drop again for weeks and may not win it even then.

Being able to add augment slots to existing gear solves 95% of all the issues. The remaining issue is set bonuses being tied to shells (pre 1.2 set bonuses) and that is an issue that will slowly disappear over time as we move away from the tier 1 sets with new content.

 

In order not to screw over crafters when allowing people to add augment slots of existing gear, simply make the tools/items required craftable. For example, if a commando wants to add a +18aim/+12end augment to an existing piece of gear, then he has to buy an "Aim Augment Slot Kit" from an armourmech which will add the augment slot with an aim augment in it, and it only accepts aim augments. This will keep crafters in business.

Being able to add augment slots to existing gear solves 95% of all the issues. The remaining issue is set bonuses being tied to shells (pre 1.2 set bonuses) and that is an issue that will slowly disappear over time as we move away from the tier 1 sets with new content.

 

In order not to screw over crafters when allowing people to add augment slots of existing gear, simply make the tools/items required craftable. For example, if a commando wants to add a +18aim/+12end augment to an existing piece of gear, then he has to buy an "Aim Augment Slot Kit" from an armourmech which will add the augment slot with an aim augment in it, and it only accepts aim augments. This will keep crafters in business.

 

I assume the augment kits will be made by crafters and will come tied to armor type. It's too bad augment kits didn't make it in 1.2. I've spent a small fortune worth of materials making critted War Hero gear for a fellow guildie. I'm over 30 combines with only 3 crits. I guess I was relatively lucky with the sets the other guildies requested. I only needed to make 20 combines to get all 5 pieces critted for him.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Raeln

Being able to add augment slots to existing gear solves 95% of all the issues. The remaining issue is set bonuses being tied to shells (pre 1.2 set bonuses) and that is an issue that will slowly disappear over time as we move away from the tier 1 sets with new content.

 

In order not to screw over crafters when allowing people to add augment slots of existing gear, simply make the tools/items required craftable. For example, if a commando wants to add a +18aim/+12end augment to an existing piece of gear, then he has to buy an "Aim Augment Slot Kit" from an armourmech which will add the augment slot with an aim augment in it, and it only accepts aim augments. This will keep crafters in business.

 

This seems to be the most common point of agreement among everyone I've spoken to regarding this issue.

 

Also, now 0 for 3 on REing Campaign gear shells.