In this dev blog, it was said "Armormech crafters may now reverse engineer almost any modifiable outfit into an empty custom (orange) shell of the same name and appearance..." as well as "Modifiable weapons and armor can now be reverse engineered and researched into empty, custom (orange) shells..." It's been my experience that we didn't get new schematics from anything outside of the new 1.2 endgame armors. Was this just an oversight? There seems to be many armors simply missing from the game. (ie. Titanium Power Upgrade set) Can we get a clarification on what is meant by the quotes above and the current state of attaining custom schematics?

I know you probably realize analogies aren't always the best way to explain things, but I thought I'd chime in. To me, the situation we have would be if Toyota had the 100mpg car, and sold it as the "only car with 100mpg" (at a premium price). Then, Toyota (the same company) comes up with another car that is 105mpg for cheaper, but still sells their 100mpg car as "only car with 100mpg". Technically, they're correct because 105 is not 100, but how can you trust a company that does this?

Some businesses, particularly those that value a good relationship with their customers, don't use technicalities as a means of getting out of promises they made or things they led us to believe. (Off the top of my head, Valve, Blizzard, Trion, and a number of Indie companies do this) It's about creating a good relationship with your customers, where they can believe you when you make a claim. The next time BioWare says "Hey, purchase this to get an exclusive in-game item!", do you really think people are going to trust what they say? Accepting it as "Oh well bioware is a business and all businesses like to cheat their customers" doesn't make it okay. I, for one, will not accept this type of behaviour. Maybe you're willing to let them treat you like that, but I am not. They have broken our trust and good faith in them. They need to earn it back. I'm not trying to start a flame war on the company; I'm trying to get them to see the fact that they have disappointed many customers by their shady tactics.

The thing that really gets me is just the stance of it being "technically" different; it leaves a sour taste in the mouth because it's come down to a technicality. While not necessarily dishonest, it's not entirely honest either. If we have to differentiate them in terms of subtracting 29 red bits and adding 8 blue bits on a 255 bit scale, we're splitting hairs. I would like, in the future at least, for BioWare to operate more from a position of the spirit of good faith rather than a position of technicalities.

That is how it works when you want someone to buy a premium piece of hardware/software in games like this. That's why the DDE/CE purchasers got what they did.

Well as I pointed out, the nature of the acquisition of the Razer crystals means they need to have, imo, a "cooler" look because it requires more to get. The Rakghoul crystal I can get by standing at the pvp vendor for a couple hours. The Razer crystal is part of a justification for spending the rather increased costs of one of the devices. It's not a "better than you" attempt at all, and having that mindset is what starts the fights. It's a "more desirable item for more effort". The same vein as the DDE/CE players having the cooler looking mount/pet/etc. That's the way I look at it anyways.

I would be okay with this. Swap the two colours as they stand would be okay. There's a couple issues, I think, here that we need to address. Firstly that by the nature of the way the crystals are acquired, the Razer crystal needs to be more desirable looking. Secondly, the colours as they stand are too close to properly differentiate between them during normal gameplay. The vibrant neon glow is much more in line with what I think of the "Razer" look. The almost sickly look of the current Razer crystal would be more in line, in my opinion, with the idea of the Rakghoul plague. I certainly think swapping the two colours would work. Alternatively, make the Razer crystal as vibrant as the Rakghoul one, but swap it to Green-core with Black outside. I'm not sure how that would look but it's a thought. I'm sure there's plenty of ways they can tweak the colours to make them more aesthetic. In the end, the two points I think we need are Razer is more desirable loking The two crystals are obviously distinct from eachother.

Very much this.

This would be another example of spurious logic. We're not talking about a colour-wheel, we're talking about green vs. green. They are both green. They don't even use a different word for the type of green. Green is green. Apparently that's kinda hard to grasp for some people. As far as my "cherry-picking", I would say the same to you. You seem to like to claim ad-hominen on everything, how about hypocrisy? Once again, not unique or exclusive.

Actually he's got a point. There are two facets to the desirability of the crystal. The uniqueness of the colour, and the stat boost it provides. Since the stat boost is identical completely, that is a non-issue. The issue is, therefore, the colour. Since the colours are clearly minimally different at best, it would clearly fall in the realm of infringement, were this a legal case. You can claim that your opinions are facts all day long, but that doesn't make them true, either. You haven't refuted anything, yourself. It's clear you're unwilling to consider the position of the other side, so what's the point of talking to you?

Look dude, I'm not gonna bother explaining stuff to you over and over again. The long and the short of it is I, and many other people, have a problem with this. If you don't have a problem with this, that's up to you, but don't tell us we're wrong. Let the devs deal with us, since they're the ones that give the rulings. If you can't even see how we could have a problem with this, then you're unwilling to have a proper discourse on the matter, and feel free to leave the conversation.

Once again you are wrong. You just prove my point. Depending on lighting and proximity and what else is in the area, they look identical. Even outside, they look similar enough to be a slap in the face. Just because you're drinking the kool-aid doesn't mean it's not happening.

Here's another shot. Their similarity all depends on lighting and proximity. They're identical enough for it to be a slap in the face to Razer owners. That much is clear to anyone.

Sorry but the difference is indeed insignificant. The problem is they're both clearly black-green. They're both called black-green. They look the same, enough that some people are confused. What's worse, is that you're apparently okay with this type of bait-and-switch tactic. Do you think they could get away with this if it was a PvP-only crystal? Of course not!

You can argue semantics all you want dude, you're still wrong. Green is a colour description, not a categorical classification. Your denial doesn't make it any less true.