I had multiple instances of getting 3 or more(at least once I got 5) RE successes in a row, at the old 20% chance. And under the new 60% chance I had something like 15 successes in a row, followed by 7 failures in a row. Random number generator is random. Confirmation bias is especially bad for RE'ing(especially the 4.0 system, with only one possible result for a success), because once you succeed you don't need to try any more. So you spend less time succeeding than you do failing, so the failures "weigh" more in your perception of events.

For armorings, besides set bonus there is no difference between the two, they have the same stats. For mods, there is, for instance, Versatile Mod 42, Versatile Mod 42A, and Versatile Mod 42B. One will have more Mastery, one will have more Endurance, and one will have more Power(or Defense, for the tanking mods). Which one you want depends on your spec, but you almost never want the one with more Endurance. (I don't know which version corresponds to which stat being highest off the top of my head.) For enhancements, there are many more different types than there are armorings or mods(which now only have Versatile for DPS/Heals, and Resistive for Tanks). All enhancements will have Endurance and either Power or Defense, and then one of Accuracy, Critical, Alacrity, Shield, or Absorb, and every spec has a different mix of those that they want. Since the purple crafted gear has static stats(and no set bonus, the biggest drawback to it), it is very unlikely that those stats will be optimized. The token gear, on the other hand, is more likely to have optimized stats in the first place, and even if it doesn't, you can swap modifications around so it does. Plus it has the set bonus.

Some of the archived stuff can still be RE'd to learn schematics, albeit at the old 20% chance. And strangely enough, some of my artificer's green-quality color crystals from Archives can be RE'd at the new 60% chance, and the new blue-quality schems go into the regular color crystals section with everything else instead of into Archives. It's weird.

I have gotten several schematics from UWT and TH missions since 4.0 hit, so they're definitely still in there. As to the specific ones he's looking for, I couldn't say, as I haven't gotten those since then. OP, if you're on the Harbinger, feel free to hit me up on my Sentinel, Zel'eena. She can make almost all the Synthweaving orange shells. (Except for PvP and Ops gear.) Definitely the ones you're looking for, though.

You do get these from Underworld Trading missions, but only the level-appropriate missions(for these in particular I believe it's Grade 1, but I'm not 100% sure of that), and only randomly. You have a random chance to get a crafting schematic on any particular mission, and then that schematic has a random chance to be the one you were looking for, from a fairly large pool(something like 6-8 Synthweaving schems and 6-8 Armormech schems per grade). You're probably better off checking the GTN from time to time. Some pieces are very expensive, but people will often put up rare schems for a few credits because they don't know what they have.

Yeah, Synth has the DPS/heals high-Mastery armorings and Armormech has the high-Endurance tanking armorings. Not to mention they make entirely different augments.

They already had paid time on their account, in which case if you add a subscription, it doesn't start charging you until your currently paid time runs out.

They might "fix" it, but FNS costs 10 credits each at the vendor; for the mission to be worth it, it would have to return 30 or more FNS. TGS, on the other hand, is 50 credits at the vendor, so for that Rich mission to be worth it, it only has to return 6; it almost always returns more. So, yes, it's mildly irritating that you have to find a Crew Skills vendor for your FNS, but there's one on the Fleet and another on every planet but the starters and possibly a couple of the 50+ planets, and that mission as it works now is much better than it would be if it worked properly.

Just ran a new Agent through Hutta, still no Red Blade codex, unfortunately.

To get the schematics for these, you had to get the operations drop and reverse engineer it with the standard(at the time) 20% chance to learn the craftable version. I don't think you can do that anymore, but anyone who had already learned the schematics should still have them.

With Surge being rolled into Crit, and the introduction of "Super Crit"(with your crit chance being converted to crit damage for auto-crit abilities) and all mods and enhancements offering Power(the ones that DPS or heals would be interested in, anyway), mostly these days you want to use Crit augments(and color crystals) rather than Power or Mastery. Check the class forums for the actual theorycrafting for specific specs, but Crit is much, much more valuable than it used to be.

You probably already know the schematic for the MK-8 Kits, it's just sorted differently than the others. Look through your list of Augment schematics, it should be in there, but at the beginning of the list instead of with the other kits where you would expect it to be. Or sort Alphabetically and it will be with the other kits.

No, they will in fact let you reverse engineer them for the recipe.

Not Artifice, Synthweaving.

Reverse engineering Absorb Augment 25 teaches you Advanced Shield Augment 25, and RE'ing Shield Augment 25 teaches you Advanced Absorb Augment 25.

Armormech. All Force classes are Synth, all Tech classes are Armor.

Yeah, if you want any other skills on your boosted 60, you'll have to unlearn the ones they give you and train them up the hard way.

This one isn't really bugged, it's just tricky to find exactly the right spot to scan to get the codex entry to pop. Just keep trying and you'll get it eventually.

All boosted 60 force classes get Synthweaving/Archaeology/Underworld Trading, and all tech classes get Armormech/Scavenging/Underworld Trading.

Since 4.0? 'cause before 4.0, yeah, you'd lose Affection if they disagreed, but now you still get at least 50 Influence when they disagree; it should be impossible to lose Influence now.

You do also get quite a lot of influence from conversations. 50 for "disapproves", 200 for "approves", 400(?) for "greatly approves", regardless of current influence rank or character level, and that's not taking into account the legacy bonuses. Not as useful for the new companions as the old ones, and purely in terms of time spent gifts are going to be better, but certainly something to keep in mind. Starter companions especially can be boosted by running the solo mode of Black Talon/Esseles.

None of them. Insta-60 Force users get Synth/Arch/UT, and Insta-60 Tech users get Armor/Scav/UT.

The problem with "Crafting for Conquest" was that guilds packed with a million alts could all queue up the max number of companions crafting the max number of items the night before the conquest changed, then in the morning everybody logs in and their guild earns millions of points for doing essentially nothing, and other guilds who couldn't do that would have zero chance of ever catching up. PVP or GSF 'til your eyes fall out actually requires an investment of time, rather than letting you literally sleep through dominating Conquest every week.

Not the achievement unlock, I know about those. I'm talking about the companion Presence buffs in your Legacy, the ones you get for doing all of a companion's dialogues. The ones in the "Imperial Classes" or "Republic Classes" categories. Not to mention those achievements were purely for 10,000 Affection, and had nothing to do with whether or not you did any of their conversations.

I've done all the conversations they had available, but they haven't unlocked their Legacy buffs and neither has any more to say. I finished all of chapter 3.