It's the ghost of Warren Zevon wreaking havoc in the code. "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner?"

Actually, what I said is I can have two companions on one character that have extra crit on Underworld Trading, not a crafting skill. Since production of items that require purple UT mats is only throttled by their availability, this can be a big plus, in the rare event that every mission you get isn't a gift mission. A good deal of my income revolves around having purple UT mats and I usually keep two to three companions running these constantly. Considering that other factors come in as well, such as base chance and affection bonus, the crit rating isn't a huge deal, but it is significant over time. There's also the ability to buy more than one sensor. If I'm wanting to sit at my computer and run two toons on unending missions with the bonus crit I could do that. If I wanted to switch out for the +synthweaving crit one and make augments I could do that.

A better question, in my opinion, is why does any class have a companion with crit bonuses? If I want my main to be armormech, why should I have to take Trooper to do it instead of Bounty Hunter to get the crit bonus? If I want to be an armstech, why does the smuggler companion get crit for that and not some other class' companions? The ship droid's sensor that lets you choose its skill bonus out of a set group does a little toward this, but it also cuts the other way. Since I have the legacy and money to get it I can now have two companions on my Sith Assassin who can have crit bonuses on Underworld Trading (for example.)

I have over 1400 schematics on my armormech so far.

I agree that it would be more immersive. However, my idea of immersive in this case isn't the "this is cool" effect, it's more the way a sack full of unwanted kittens would feel immersed in a creek. It isn't my idea of fun to run out of the hangar, walk or ride through a spaceport, then go to inconvenient areas. Look at them. On Coruscant, everything's in a basement on the sides of the Senate Plaza. Everything. It's all cramped together in three areas down there too, in a place you'd normally find a gift shop, and about the same size. Now let's look at Dromund Kaas. It has everything again cramped up on one side (except the cantina which is 3/4 of the way across town...) Not to mention that it's all about 200 meters from the spaceport, which SOUNDS good- until you realize to get from the spaceport to this area you have to travel on a speeder path to the middle of the map then go on foot back most of the way because the speeder path stops outside of town.

I'm at 1400+ atm, and not at a wall yet.

237/1263 schematics to tries since 1.2. 18-19%. That's high enough of a count for me to make it seem right and still low enough to account for it not being 20% even. Related music:

I've noticed not having a full complement of returned missions as well. Notably it's been on slicing missions, where I send three out on rank 6 missions and one on a rank 5 (on a level 45) and only get the rank 6 ones back and no indication on the 5. (I've been running as many missions as possible, religiously, since I want all the schematics.) This has happened less than 5 times, though, from my reckoning, and doesn't happen every time.

Armstech uses Investigation for purple materials, not Underworld Trading.

Yes, it was much better when you had an undisclosed chance and your chance would be eaten up by a "You already know that schematic." And as for having 10 items to RE in your inventory, that only works with lottery tickets, not with the game. The real reason why it worked first time is that the moon had risen and was shining over your left shoulder. THAT'S what makes RE work. (Even the Monte Carlo fallacy makes more sense, "I wuz due!" than that.) Do like I'm doing. Track your RE's long-term. Granted, mine are still a small sample, even though I'm nearing 1k myself. I'll also add this for you to think about: I'm RE'ing items fully, meaning I'm getting EVERY prefix in purple- Anti-Armor, Commander's, Endowment, Exactitude, Expert, Fervor, General's Hawkeye, Leadership, Rampart, Supremacy, Tempest, Vehemence and Veracity. I doubt I'll go much further with this from what I've done, but it's clear to me that now when you've eliminated all other iterations you have a 100% chance to get the last on the next discovery roll. (I.E. when you RE something it will give a chance that you will learn something, where formerly you would get the message "you already know that schematic," now it will reroll the second chance to give you one you didn't have. For that alone everyone new to RE should be grateful. Mind you, I'd already RE'd heavy armor to Hawkeye and/or Overkill up to 30 in artifact and most to Endowment in medium in armormech, so I'd already paid the price on the chancy RE's pre-1.2. So I can say, "Back in my day we RE'd uphill- BOTH WAYS. ON HOTH!")

Then send it to me. If you saw a field full of money and knew there were no laws that would make you return it to its rightful owner, would you walk right by it and not pick it up because it was one dollar bills and not ten dollar bills?

Isn't that like saying, "I got strawberry ice cream when I only expected a cone for my money?" "But I don't LIKE strawberry ice cream!!!" While at the same time there are plenty of people getting returns of nothing, effectively a turdsickle who would LOVE your ice cream and at least get something from running the mission and selling the companion gift.

I started reverse engineering like a madman last week. I kept track of how many REs I did and how many schematics I learned. Between then and the patch on Tuesday I learned 73 schematics, taking 406 tries. That's about 17.98% Since Tuesday morning's patch, I've still been at it, and I was shocked to find that I've RE'd 407 more items (just off by one) and have gotten 74 schematics (again, off by one.) That's 18.18(repeating)%. I counted strings of failures, the first long one last night was 22 between discoveries and the second long one was 28. A couple were in the teens, but for the most part it's consistent with what I'd expect if the RE chance were 20%.

I figure the easiest way to level restrict the augment kits is to have them include the augment in them. As players level and want a better augment they can buy another kit instead of an augment. Also it would make it impossible to cheese the system by buying an augment for a level 11 item and put a level 49 augment in it. Further, it will not burden crafters by requiring them to list both the augment and the kit. Since we're still limited by 50 listings at a time, which is a major roadblock in the crafting world, it will have less of an impact if it's an integrated system.

Well, if you changed the boe/bop situation you would already have balance, and not need the rest. Which would be better, IMO. Do you know how badly plasteel armor chafes? There would be RAGEQUITS all over if everyone knew Synthweavers had comfy underwear and no one else did.