In patch 1.3 augments are getting some love thanks to "kits" that will allow augments to be added to any item. My question is - are these kits exclusive? If I crit-craft an item with an augment slot, does the kit "overwrite" that slot if it is applied, or does that kit stack, providing me with an item that has two augment slots? This is a big issue for crafters - if the slots stack then there will continue to be a huge market for the best-in-class crit-crafted augment gear. If augment slots are overwritten by the kits then there will no longer be any incentive to burn materials trying to crit-craft augmented gear, and in short order everyone will be wearing min-level oranges with augment slots via kits. As an aside, I'm still on the lookout for orange wrists and belts that I can acquire for my companions. So far there's been no joy - are we ever going to see orange companion gear for these slots?

Actually IkeBohm it seems that virtually everyone knows a TROLL when they encounter one, and you qualify handsomely. Go and spread your discord elsewhere - your negative attitude is not welcome here.

@primediusx As stated previously - it's very unlikely that you'll be penalized for earning an additional level or two. The folks who are going to get hammered are the ones who spent many hours camped within AOE range of repub spawn points grinding massive valor.

Meh... I won't argue that BioWare has implemented some pretty messed up mechanics. Illum is definitely broken in its current form. I'm fairly certain that we all know they need to implement diminishing returns on PvP kills, isolate individual/group objectives, remove enemy location spam, etc. Give them time to do so. There are a few hundred "power-leveled-to-fifty" folks out there who are determined to proclaim the game broken-for-ever because it hasn't been tweaked to accommodate for their playstyles yet... Get over it. It's going to be months before solid balance between classes is achieved - players are clever and are *not* willing to expose their advantages to developers if they believe they have an edge over other competitors. Nobody is going to come out publicly and say "it's OK to nerf me". In time, the Devs will recognize the issues, address them, and balance gameplay appropriately. It's not going to happen overnight. Be patient.

@IkeBohm Yep. Troll. Bye.

@IkeBohm Actually, as to your comment about your *entitlement* in the manner that you respond... Yes, you *do* have to respond in a civilized, mature and reasonable manner to issues you take umbrage with. That's pretty much how we do things out here in the real world. Failure to do so labels you as a troll.

@IkeBohm I was *not* responding to you or your posts, hence the @. Why the hate?

@ LouisArmstrong Well I used a wallet analogy... Does that count? Look, what you are experiencing is a series of near identical analogies that are based on "how you are expected to behave in a civilized society". You are absolutely entitled to choose to disregard those expectations and do whatever the hell you want. But don't expect to be rewarded/accepted/respected for those decisions. It ain't gonna happen. If you choose to do things that others regard as unacceptable *social* behavior then you must accept the inevitable consequence of being unwelcome as a member of civilized society. You are *not* entitled to be a jerk. You are *not* entitled to be rewarded for taking advantage of an exploit that others chose to disregard as an error by the developers. You don't get a "get out of jail free" card by choosing to avoid taking responsibility for your actions. Proclaiming innocence after admitting culpability falls on deaf ears.

@gankatron I'm pretty sure that if you didn't actually make it to within AOE spamming of the rez/spawn point (and subsequently spent the next ten hours insta-ganking repubs the moment they arrived) then you're not going to be unfairly punished. Maybe lose a bit of that easy valor, but nothing more. I doubt anyone is raging against folks who gained a level or two while engaging in what could be honestly assumed to be "operating as expected" mechanics. Given the level of detail that BioWare logs events at, it's very likely that they'll be able to precisely target the individuals who were obviously taking advantage of exploitable mechanics. If, however, you do end up feeling that you've been penalized unfairly, I hope that you open a CS ticket with the same calm and well stated position you've taken here. Love the handle, BTW

@LouisArmstrong Theft as a consequence of opportunity is still theft. Saying "I took the wallet because it was there" doesn't make the act any less reprehensible. Proclaiming that this is "just a game" and that human ethical values do therefore not apply ignores the fact that you *are* interacting with other humans. This is RL, just mediated by a game. You are still subject to judgement by others for the choices you make.

@Loekii Please provide specific examples - a generalized proclamation is not a fact. It's just a troll.

@Loekii And you know for certain that these remedies were available because [a] you are a developer working on the game and understand how easy it would have been enact these changes or you are making broad assumptions based on absolutely no factual information from a position of complete ignorance? I vote for on this one.

So in an ideal world this is what's going to happen... SCRIPT - Check player data logs Total Valor Reduction = 0 --- for the period of time during which exploiting was possible check player events... ------ If the Player gained valor --------- And was within a fixed distance of opposition spawn point ------------ Add awarded valor to "Total Valor Reduction" Reduce Valor by "Total Valor Reduction" amount If amount of valor gained was above "X" then... --- Apply 24 hour ban-hammer If amount of valor gained was above "X" + "Y" and the total number of offenders is small then... --- Manually review player inventory and remove any awards/gear that are inappropriate But if there were a LOT of offenders... --- Write another script that can figure out what stuff was ill-gotten and wipe it This won't happen overnight. It might even take many weeks before these consequences are felt. That's because the scripts will need to be written, reviewed, tested, test run on the ENTIRE database for that period for EVERY server, the results of the test run scrutinized, authorization to take action based on those results approved, and then finally enacted. And even then, there will likely be some unfairly penalized players who will make polite requests for CS to review their cases, and where those players state their case calmly and rationally, it's likely that CS will actually pay attention to them. At any rate, that's how I'd handle it. For those folks out there who are whinging that it's BioWare's fault that the mechanics allowed them to take advantage of what was clearly NOT an intended mechanic, let me sum this up as an ethical situation in more concrete RL terms... If you were to discover that typing a special code into the keypad of a bank machine would dispense twenty dollars every time you enter it, would you do so? Would you do so KNOWING that a camera is recording you every time you do it? Would you do so if you had to insert you bank card (thus identifying yourself, with those photos of you confirming your actions)? Would you try to convince the police officers who would then come to your house that it's the bank's fault for letting you take that money from them? That you *deserved* to keep the money because you'd put in the time to acquire it? Get real. Spawn camping for valor farming is, in my mind, clearly an exploit, and a rather egregious one given that there were actual human victims who were unable to extricate themselves from the area without abandoning their characters until the situation could be brought under control. Saying "They should have shut down the servers/applied a patch/whatever vague assertion attempting to make the developer culpable" is a statement made from ignorance regarding the complexity of the server system and the fact that the MAJORITY of players were entirely unaffected - yes, folks, in reality the population of level 50 hardcore PvPers is pretty tiny compared to the vast majority of folks who are casually crawling their way to endgame. And by the way, it still doesn't justify patently unethical activities. So, for everyone who's going to see that big-chunk-o-valor vanish "real soon now", just suck it up. You'll still be able to brag to the newbies in a few years that you were there when the Valor-Vending-Machine incident happened, and maybe you'll have the screenshots to prove it. Meanwhile, let's cut the developers some slack - I lived through WoW from launch, and it was a much bumpier ride than this has been.

@Reaper Blue and green crystals are only usable by light 1 and above, and more powerful crystals also require a suitable character level. The same is true for reds, but they require darkside alignment rather than light. Check the tool-tip info on the crystals. You may be crafting crystals that are wrong-aligned or too high level for you to use. I've noticed that the light/dark requirements can be a bit confusing - sabers use "requires light/dark N or above" while crystals use "forbidden to light/dark N or above". This likely means that players who are trying for "neutral" alignment, while being able to use virtually any color crystal, are limited to a very small number of moddable hilts - all the hilts I've come across on the GTN seem to have light/dark minimums on them. Not necessarily a bug, but crafters would benefit from more non-aligned hilts for the market.

The r/g/b rare node spawns are fairly evenly distributed in my experience. It may be that red is just much easier to spot amidst the predominantly g/b worlds. I've got stacks of all three and they're within 10% of each other quantity wise, but I'm also an obsessive/compulsive gatherer so play with one-eye glued to the minimap. My guess is that the RNG gods are, entirely by coincidence, spawning red nodes with unfortunate frequency in your vicinity.