Augments are broken, this game is broken.

[AnAcuteAngle]

Hey guys, here's some quick insight as to why I'm writing this article. I'm a huge MMO fan, played WoW for about four years, Rift for a year, and I've been playing TOR for about six months. As you know, there's always some sort of gearing customization in each individual game (Gems for WoW, this worked incredibly well, Enchanting, and whatever it was that came out with Cata that allowed you to relocate certain stats; Rift had augments, different system... it failed).

 

Now we have augments in TOR. At first glance, it's a really cool system. Ideally, it should work, but BioWare never seems to let that happen. If you didn't previously know, here's how it works.

 

There are six different levels of augmentation kits. There are roughly twenty two levels of augments. Level 22 augments require the highest level of augmentation kits, but level 21 augments can use either level five or level six.

 

So, suppose you were using some level 21 augments with a level 5 augmentation kit (the highest you can go with level 5's) and you wanted to upgrade. First, let's factor in the cost of these augments.

 

On my server, level 21 augments are roughly 14,000 credits. The level 5 augmentation kits are maybe 40,000 credits, and to purchase the slot (using up the augmentation kit) it costs 15,000.

 

So, 69,000 Credits for 14 of a stat bonus, and 10 Endurance.

 

Now to the upgrading.

 

Level 22 augments would be roughly 22,500 credits. Level 6 augmentation kits are 55,000 credits. The final slot is 30,000 credits.

 

So, if you purchased a level 5 kit, bought the slot for it, and bought the augment and then decided you want to upgrade, you will be spending a total of:

 

176,500 Credits for one piece of gear.

 

I'm speaking of the blue augments here, people. Recognize that. For 16 of any stat, and 10 endurance, you're paying 107,500 credits if you hadn't spent any previously.

 

That is absolutely ridiculous that previous augments, kits, and slots don't count towards the cost of what you're paying for. The fact that it is 107k regardless of what you've previously paid for, is absolutely absurd.

 

After playing around with augments, my character (whom just got a total of roughly 1.2mill) went bankrupt, and I'm not even geared with decent augments yet.

 

It's sad and pathetic that Bioware would inhibit players from test playing by making augments and such so ghastly over priced.

 

And don't try to tell me that it's 'supply and demand'. Maybe there would be more supply if Bioware didn't rework the entire crafting system every patch. I'm sorry, but I don't feel like I should constantly be punished for choosing Biochem as my crafting skill.

 

News Flash. This is why 400k players unsubscribed. It's not getting any better, only pissing off veteran players who actually care for the numbers of this game.

 

Oh, wait. This game is about story. My bad.

 

/Thread

 

And inb4 some writes 'LOL, NOOB. YOU BOUGHT MK-5 AUGMENTS.'

 

Of course I did. I'm sorry I don't claim to be omniscient when it comes to content released within the last week or two.

 

I give up. I'm done with this game. This thread will probably be locked anyways.

[Gyronamics]

You made a mistake you wasted credits.

 

It looks embarrassing to see someone complaining about it and ranting that their mistake means the game is broken.

 

There's been a ton of money sinks put in the game recently and with the ease you can get credits (200k+ an hour is perfectly doable without doing something mind numbing) there was reason for it.

 

So anyway, money sink.

 

Your money really is meant to be sucked in and lost forever to get it out of the economy.

 

Research more before spending money you consider to be significant. It's all out there and has been for ages.

[juliandracos]

You should never buy anything but a MK-6. You should also never put an augment slot on any pre-lvl 50 gear that is not orange.

 

It would then run anywhere from 60k-100k to get both the augment slot and augment for an item. This is actually going to be substantially less than buying many orange crit items pre-1.3.

[AnAcuteAngle]

It's still poorly designed, regardless of what you try to argue.

 

Money sinks are pathetically useless. It's almost cynical that they would introduce such a flawed system such as this.

 

I'm tired of being punished for not playing the game as 'The flavor of the month'. This is the least balanced MMO I've ever played, and it's just awful.

 

Anywho, I just unsubbed. Peace.

[ShawnFish]

Why did you buy the Mk-5 again?

 

Also Biochem has a TON of advantages that my main BH armormech does not have - access to reusable consumables, adrenals, etc.

 

You may want to consider playing an alt for awhile and leveling another crafting profession while enjoying another class story.

 

You understand the basics of economics don't you? The sellers on the GTN pick the price of an item, not Bioware.

 

To illustrate - - - I craft level 22 blue augments - - A few days ago, the blue Reflex Augment 22's were going for around 9500 on the GTN. So I crafted 3 blues and looked at the GTN and there were NO blue Reflex 22 Augments - sooooo . . . I CHOSE the price - - and you know what I set the price at?? 35,000.

And people still bought the augment.

 

Also, 400k people didn't unsub because of the price of augmentation kits - - what would you have BW do? Not create anything new for end game crafters to craft? Remain at the status quo because it suits you better? If you don't like new content and change (albeit all the changes are not always for the better) maybe you shouldn't be playing an MMO.

[AnAcuteAngle]

Why did you buy the Mk-5 again?

 

Also Biochem has a TON of advantages that my main BH armormech does not have - access to reusable consumables, adrenals, etc.

 

You may want to consider playing an alt for awhile and leveling another crafting profession while enjoying another class story.

 

You understand the basics of economics don't you? The sellers on the GTN pick the price of an item, not Bioware.

 

To illustrate - - - I craft level 22 blue augments - - A few days ago, the blue Reflex Augment 22's were going for around 9500 on the GTN. So I crafted 3 blues and looked at the GTN and there were NO blue Reflex 22 Augments - sooooo . . . I CHOSE the price - - and you know what I set the price at?? 35,000.

And people still bought the augment.

 

Also, 400k people didn't unsub because of the price of augmentation kits - - what would you have BW do? Not create anything new for end game crafters to craft? Remain at the status quo because it suits you better? If you don't like new content and change (albeit all the changes are not always for the better) maybe you shouldn't be playing an MMO.

 

I know it depends on the sellers, but when BW makes the augment ingredients so expensive, it drives the price up. Also, BW controls the price of implanting the augs, tho that is trivial.

 

Biochem is pretty broken now. I can craft 2 items that help me in PvP, compared to 28, which also help in PvP.

The warzone adrenal is, for a fact, broken.

 

And I bought the MK-5's because I couldn't afford the MK-6's at the time, and figured that it would count towards the MK-6's anyways.

[AnAcuteAngle]

You made a mistake you wasted credits.

 

It looks embarrassing to see someone complaining about it and ranting that their mistake means the game is broken.

 

There's been a ton of money sinks put in the game recently and with the ease you can get credits (200k+ an hour is perfectly doable without doing something mind numbing) there was reason for it.

 

So anyway, money sink.

 

Your money really is meant to be sucked in and lost forever to get it out of the economy.

 

Research more before spending money you consider to be significant. It's all out there and has been for ages.

 

Oh, here's this too.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=494473

 

You must have been one of these people

[Owdpub]

Buying all the augs and kits from GTN is bound to be expensive. Aug kits are created by Synthweaving, Armourmech and Armstech.

Maybe create some alts to do your own crafting.

I have done this with my chars.

 

Augments aren't broken.

[AnAcuteAngle]

Yeah.... but it's too late for all of that now.

 

Oh well. Time to find a new game anyways >.>

[uniz]

it is really really sad to see someone who listened to people on these forums, took biochem or slicing with all gathering and now are complaining how much they are spending on augments and kits.

 

the game isn't broken nor is it biowares faults. it is just clueless people that made a poor decision to buy kits and augments as they level for all pieces. then they are stupid enough to post it for everyone to see and ridicule.

 

really dude REALLY:eek:

[Legolose]

 

Hey guys, here's some quick insight as to why I'm writing this article. I'm a huge MMO fan, played WoW for about four years, Rift for a year, and I've been playing TOR for about six months. As you know, there's always some sort of gearing customization in each individual game (Gems for WoW, this worked incredibly well, Enchanting, and whatever it was that came out with Cata that allowed you to relocate certain stats; Rift had augments, different system... it failed).

 

Now we have augments in TOR. At first glance, it's a really cool system. Ideally, it should work, but BioWare never seems to let that happen. If you didn't previously know, here's how it works.

 

There are six different levels of augmentation kits. There are roughly twenty two levels of augments. Level 22 augments require the highest level of augmentation kits, but level 21 augments can use either level five or level six.

 

So, suppose you were using some level 21 augments with a level 5 augmentation kit (the highest you can go with level 5's) and you wanted to upgrade. First, let's factor in the cost of these augments.

 

On my server, level 21 augments are roughly 14,000 credits. The level 5 augmentation kits are maybe 40,000 credits, and to purchase the slot (using up the augmentation kit) it costs 15,000.

 

So, 69,000 Credits for 14 of a stat bonus, and 10 Endurance.

 

Now to the upgrading.

 

Level 22 augments would be roughly 22,500 credits. Level 6 augmentation kits are 55,000 credits. The final slot is 30,000 credits.

 

So, if you purchased a level 5 kit, bought the slot for it, and bought the augment and then decided you want to upgrade, you will be spending a total of:

 

176,500 Credits for one piece of gear.

 

I'm speaking of the blue augments here, people. Recognize that. For 16 of any stat, and 10 endurance, you're paying 107,500 credits if you hadn't spent any previously.

 

That is absolutely ridiculous that previous augments, kits, and slots don't count towards the cost of what you're paying for. The fact that it is 107k regardless of what you've previously paid for, is absolutely absurd.

 

After playing around with augments, my character (whom just got a total of roughly 1.2mill) went bankrupt, and I'm not even geared with decent augments yet.

 

It's sad and pathetic that Bioware would inhibit players from test playing by making augments and such so ghastly over priced.

 

And don't try to tell me that it's 'supply and demand'. Maybe there would be more supply if Bioware didn't rework the entire crafting system every patch. I'm sorry, but I don't feel like I should constantly be punished for choosing Biochem as my crafting skill.

 

News Flash. This is why 400k players unsubscribed. It's not getting any better, only pissing off veteran players who actually care for the numbers of this game.

 

Oh, wait. This game is about story. My bad.

 

/Thread

 

And inb4 some writes 'LOL, NOOB. YOU BOUGHT MK-5 AUGMENTS.'

 

Of course I did. I'm sorry I don't claim to be omniscient when it comes to content released within the last week or two.

 

I give up. I'm done with this game. This thread will probably be locked anyways.

LOL !!! ~~~Is someone mad~~~ *Said in his best baby voice*, here have a freakin cookie and stop complaining geez they are only trying to make the game better, every MMO this young have its problems from the start but damn dude really your cry over stuff that will be fixed, damn dude you are so freakin impatient Oh well what are you going to do ????

 

 

it is really really sad to see someone who listened to people on these forums, took biochem or slicing with all gathering and now are complaining how much they are spending on augments and kits.

 

the game isn't broken nor is it biowares faults. it is just clueless people that made a poor decision to buy kits and augments as they level for all pieces. then they are stupid enough to post it for everyone to see and ridicule.

 

really dude REALLY:eek:

Here !!! Here !!! :D:D Edited July 8, 2012 by Legolose

[DPKennedy]

Augments are not broken. Not one bit. In fact they have done great things for me. First let's address your comment about "I played wow for 4 years..." That's the problem. You realize that when WoW was the same age as SWTOR is now it really sucked! You realize that for the age this game is they have done a lot of things really really well?

 

No this game isn't as polished at WoW and nor should it be right now. They are working on it. Take LFG. It took wow YEARS to implement that and SWTOR has it in the first year.

 

Augments are great if you apply them correctly and get the right ones. It also helps to be in the RIGHT guild. You know where guildmates help each other. I have made dozens if MK-6 kits and given them to guildies. I have made dozens of Purple 22 Augments and given them to guildies. The game is not broken...your sense of how to manage your equipment is broken.

 

Lastly, for a good MMO to work correctly they need to maintain an economy. For an economy to work they need to have credit sinks so people don't get stupid rich and so prices don't get out of hand. You maky be a level 50 with a butt load of credits but the new player leveling will get quickly discouraged if everything on the GTN costed 6 figures or more.

 

So you have two choices. 1) give your head a shake and realize the game is still new. or 2) go away

[DeltaEkotte]

augment ingredients so expensive

 

I make my own augments/ augment kits, each augment (blue) costs about 4k to make getting mats myslef, (purple) costs about 5-10k to make. MK-6 kits cost about 5k to make myself, you get around 330k from dailies so thats AT LEAST a full set of augmented gear. PER DAY.

 

PS

Broken would be if they didnt give stats correctly, they CAN just cost a lot.

Edited July 8, 2012 by DeltaEkotte

[xGBox]

Augments are not broken for endgame purposes. However, I don't see any practicality for the MK-1 to MK-5 augment kits. None of the content while questing will ever justify the need for them. MK-1 to MK-5 augment kits and Grade 2 to 21 augments are and always will be a credit sink, which is something the game seems to need less of. Edited July 8, 2012 by xGBox

[evanfardreamer]

Augments are not broken for endgame purposes. However, I don't see any practicality for the MK-1 to MK-5 augment kits. None of the content while questing will ever justify the need for them. MK-1 to MK-5 augment kits and Grade 2 to 21 augments are and always will be a credit sink, which is something the game seems to need less of.

 

The lower tier augment slots are great for people to stick on a purple they spent two days REing for that didn't crit. You won't keep it forever, so it's a waste to do an mk-6 augment, but you may want to eke a bit more out of the gear, so it will last you to the next tier.

 

Most of these threads seem to use custom gear as the default assumption, and should remember that isn't necessarily the case.

[Cleet_Xia]

So you misspent your money, & it's somehow the game's fault? LOL

 

Augments are not broken for endgame purposes. However, I don't see any practicality for the MK-1 to MK-5 augment kits. None of the content while questing will ever justify the need for them. MK-1 to MK-5 augment kits and Grade 2 to 21 augments are and always will be a credit sink, which is something the game seems to need less of.

 

There really isn't any reason to even use any modable gear while leveling. But it will be nice when they give us a "

add appearance slot" item. So we can make our characters look however we wish.

[Legolose]

I know this is a bit off topic but here goes, I want to make Augments "not" the Kits but just the Augments and I asked around what crew skill makes them so they said one of them was Armstech so I took that on a alt and went to the trainer and looked though the list and didnt see any augments on there what so ever so my question is where is the skims. for them are they random drops or do you get them from the trainer later on.

[Pearasite]

Yeah.... but it's too late for all of that now.

 

Oh well. Time to find a new game anyways >.>

 

Good riddance.

 

I'd take your thread seriously but you say Augments are broken and then give no real evidence. Game mechanics and balancing will never be broken because stuff is too expensive.

 

Buying those upgrades is part of the gear grind. Stuff isn't gonna be handed to you!

 

Your "article" is just a bunch of whining. Serious endgame raiders find ways to make the augments happen and really, it doesn't require any real skill.

[momokan]

I know this is a bit off topic but here goes, I want to make Augments "not" the Kits but just the Augments and I asked around what crew skill makes them so they said one of them was Armstech so I took that on a alt and went to the trainer and looked though the list and didnt see any augments on there what so ever so my question is where is the skims. for them are they random drops or do you get them from the trainer later on.

 

augment schematics are from slicing missions.

[Legolose]

augment schematics are from slicing missions.

Ok thanks

[shadowgnome]

It's still poorly designed, regardless of what you try to argue.

 

Money sinks are pathetically useless. It's almost cynical that they would introduce such a flawed system such as this.

 

I'm tired of being punished for not playing the game as 'The flavor of the month'. This is the least balanced MMO I've ever played, and it's just awful.

 

Anywho, I just unsubbed. Peace.

 

You just do not know how to play, lean the Auction house. I can make over 1.5m credits a day from just sitting at the ah for maybe an hour and see whats selling or planning ahead. Dailies take about 2hrs to do on there own which I do not even do minus the BH dailies for the comms but that's only once a week. It is nothing to do with the Design of the game compared to the players playing it. the PLAYERS make the prices on the AH not the Devs. If I want to sell something for 1m credits I can. Does it mean it will sell? No. I can sell mk-6 augments for 50k a pop now further increasing the amount I can make. This is not the Devs doing its the PLAYERS doing.

 

Instead of complaining pick up a crew skill that can makes augments and augmentation kits or 3 gathering skills and sell the major items that sell for $$$$. Mando Iron sells for usually around 20k a pop and also if you spend a hr doing space missions you can make money by doing them plus every 2 days you can buy a grade 8 box from the fleet comm vendors and sell those grade 8 mats for a ton of credits too.

 

You also said you played WoW... are you sure? SWTOR has augments but JC was just as bad in terms of pricing. I would know I capitalized on it. Or just because you did not have to pay to socket its different?

 

The Devs are trying to combat the ah with money sinks so a thing called inflation doesn't happen. If every player on this game had 10M credits plus guess what prices would go higher so they added perks that costed 2m like the rocket boots.

 

Another note I happen to make a bunch of augmented custom sabers pre 1.3 that are now useless without a mk-6 kit but you don't see me complaining to how its not fair I spent the effort tot get them and now I have to put more effort into it.

 

Just get new crew skills or find out what makes money with yours that's all t comes down too, if you don't play as much you shouldn't make as much as others and thats common sense and the same thing in the real world.

[VigDiath]

My main toon is my Shadow with Artifice. My Alt is my Guardian with Synthweaving. Both are 50. My next 50 will be my Commando with Armormech who is currently a level 31. I have no issue getting the mats needed for Augments. If I only had my Shadow I would but I wanted to try as many classes as I could and as many skills to get the best results. Hence my Shadow has almost everything equipped with an Augment slot. This includes pvp gear and pve gear.

 

My Sage produces my stims for me lol. I could go on and on. Even if I hated my Shadows class, story, inabaility to fight in WZs or all around squishiness, theres other classes and possibilities to achieve what I came to achieve in this game. And that's have fun and live out my Jedi/Sith or Smuggler/Bounty Hunter fantasies. Everything else comes second. PVP, OPS, Augments are only a small fraction of what this game is. If Augments are you main concern, you came to the wrong game. Maybe they should make a game called Augments instead and then you'd be happy.

[AnAcuteAngle]

Lol.

 

Everyone who says that I'm wrong, I redirect you here:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=494473

Edited July 9, 2012 by AnAcuteAngle

[Aricus]

You just do not know how to play, lean the Auction house. I can make over 1.5m credits a day from just sitting at the ah for maybe an hour and see whats selling or planning ahead. Dailies take about 2hrs to do on there own which I do not even do minus the BH dailies for the comms but that's only once a week. It is nothing to do with the Design of the game compared to the players playing it. the PLAYERS make the prices on the AH not the Devs. If I want to sell something for 1m credits I can. Does it mean it will sell? No. I can sell mk-6 augments for 50k a pop now further increasing the amount I can make. This is not the Devs doing its the PLAYERS doing.

 

Instead of complaining pick up a crew skill that can makes augments and augmentation kits or 3 gathering skills and sell the major items that sell for $$$$. Mando Iron sells for usually around 20k a pop and also if you spend a hr doing space missions you can make money by doing them plus every 2 days you can buy a grade 8 box from the fleet comm vendors and sell those grade 8 mats for a ton of credits too.

 

You also said you played WoW... are you sure? SWTOR has augments but JC was just as bad in terms of pricing. I would know I capitalized on it. Or just because you did not have to pay to socket its different?

 

The Devs are trying to combat the ah with money sinks so a thing called inflation doesn't happen. If every player on this game had 10M credits plus guess what prices would go higher so they added perks that costed 2m like the rocket boots.

 

Another note I happen to make a bunch of augmented custom sabers pre 1.3 that are now useless without a mk-6 kit but you don't see me complaining to how its not fair I spent the effort tot get them and now I have to put more effort into it.

 

Just get new crew skills or find out what makes money with yours that's all t comes down too, if you don't play as much you shouldn't make as much as others and thats common sense and the same thing in the real world.

 

Yes players make the price but they do not change fundamentals. In fact only when something new is introduced in the market does the market fundamentals changed. Before Augments were implemented I was like you, making 1.5mil with 30mins to and hr time. But my market was in custom crit orange gear. But now Augments undermine the custom gear and each week the price of augments drop which means the price of my custom crit gear drops.

 

So once again players have control of prices but not fundamentals... Only BW has control of fundamentals and they royally screwed up crafting this time.

Edited July 9, 2012 by Aricus

[AnAcuteAngle]

Thank God someone actually sees eye to eye with me.