Artifice

[ShadeKingSlayer]

As a new player I started the game about six months ago and am learning a lot about crafting in general and I keep coming across the fact that when they changed the artifice to no longer be able to craft the more popular crystals (black-red for example) they seem to have never taken the ability away from those that already had the ability to do so and my wondering is this: If the devs let some craft items that are popular and now rare because of this change and some who are just getting into the game are basically SOL because they did not get there in time how is this intended to be corrected? I mean if this were the matter of an event or even for instance a preorder exclusive etc no issues from me but why is it this ability was taken away with no recourse for the new players wanting to trick out their gear and now some of the best items for sabers blasters etc are literally locked because reasons? I would llove to hear from a dev on this thread just to answer exactly what the thinking is giving an older player an advantage literally none of the new player base will ever be able to bridge the gap for.

[exfell]

If I remember correctly the ability to re-engineer and craft ops drop crystals was never really intended even if it existed in the game for a good long while. Against that background it makes sense that they would have taken the ability away; probably not an easy question for them to decide if they wanted to take the schematics away from everyone or phase them out the way they did.

 

It is an interesting philosophical question what an elder player should be allowed to be able to do in the game that a new one can’t but it is the nature of mmos that if you were not there at the time you missed out on it.

 

If it is any consolation, crafting old crystals isn’t really that profitable compared to a whole lot of other things artifice can craft.

Edited August 5, 2017 by exfell

[Elessara]

I have no idea whether or not reverse engineering crystals obtained from operations was intended but if they did take those schematics away from people who already have them, you'd hear a lot of complaints - a lot more complaints than the ones who started the game later and didn't have them. Some people put a lot of time and credits into getting those schematics. It would likely be more of an issue than BioWare is willing to deal with.

 

Also, honestly, asking for those schematics to be removed is kinda selfish. You don't have them so no one else should have them?

 

Older players are almost always going to have an advantage over newer ones simply because they've been around longer and have had more time to accumulate things in game.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Elessara

[casirabit]

The one that would have better knowledge of this would be psandak. He has prepared countless guides for crafting so he would be the best person to ask.

[DWho]

I have no idea whether or not reverse engineering crystals obtained from operations was intended but if they did take it away you'd hear a lot of complaints - a lot more complaints than the ones who started the game later and didn't have them. Some people put a lot of time and credits into getting those schematics. It would likely be more of an issue than BioWare is willing to deal with.

 

Also, honestly, asking for those schematics to be removed is kinda selfish. You don't have them so no one else should have them?

 

Older players are almost always going to have an advantage over newer ones simply because they've been around longer and have had more time to accumulate things in game.

 

They did take away reverse engineered OPs grade schematics when they realingned Cybertech and Artifice. When Artifice lost Enhancements to Cybertech any reverse engineered OPs mods were lost. They did not go to your archived folder. Not a justification for taking away crystal schematics but it has happened before.

[Elessara]

They did take away reverse engineered OPs grade schematics when they realingned Cybertech and Artifice. When Artifice lost Enhancements to Cybertech any reverse engineered OPs mods were lost. They did not go to your archived folder. Not a justification for taking away crystal schematics but it has happened before.

 

Right but with that they completely removed schematics from the class and gave them to another class. Artificers can still make crystals.

 

Edit to add: One reason is probably because they completely changed the materials required and artificers could no longer craft the base components necessary to make the enhancements.

 

Edit #2: Also, it's unlikely (not impossible) that people will actually want to use those old enhancements. Colour crystals are more cosmetic even if they do have minor stats and people are much more likely to want to obtain them.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Elessara

[DWho]

 

Edit #2: Also, it's unlikely (not impossible) that people will actually want to use those old enhancements. Colour crystals are more cosmetic even if they do have minor stats and people are much more likely to want to obtain them.

 

This is true now but wasn't at the time it occurred (at that time, those mods were still better than the first level of new mods). Besides that, it took a lot of effort to get enough pieces to be successful at re-engineering those mods. At that time the RE chance was 20% (might have even been 10% on the OPs pieces. I don't recall) not the 60% it is now. As I said, I don't think they should remove the crystal schematics from the game but there is a precedent for removing RE OPs schematics.

[Elessara]

This is true now but wasn't at the time it occurred (at that time, those mods were still better than the first level of new mods). Besides that, it took a lot of effort to get enough pieces to be successful at re-engineering those mods. At that time the RE chance was 20% (might have even been 10% on the OPs pieces. I don't recall) not the 60% it is now. As I said, I don't think they should remove the crystal schematics from the game but there is a precedent for removing RE OPs schematics.

 

I know about the percent chances back then and how much it cost. I had all crafters at max level before any expansions were released and artificer was my main crafter. I also had quite a few ops schematics from REing them. When the change for enhancements went from artificers to cybertechs, I recall being annoyed but not outraged. And the OP is complaining about it now so I'm comparing it to now. BioWare didn't remove the crystal schematics from the people who had them when they removed the ability to obtain those schematics by reverse engineering. It's unlikely (but not impossible) that they will ever do so.

[Kyrra_T]

As a new player I started the game about six months ago and am learning a lot about crafting in general and I keep coming across the fact that when they changed the artifice to no longer be able to craft the more popular crystals (black-red for example) they seem to have never taken the ability away from those that already had the ability to do so and my wondering is this: If the devs let some craft items that are popular and now rare because of this change and some who are just getting into the game are basically SOL because they did not get there in time how is this intended to be corrected? I mean if this were the matter of an event or even for instance a preorder exclusive etc no issues from me but why is it this ability was taken away with no recourse for the new players wanting to trick out their gear and now some of the best items for sabers blasters etc are literally locked because reasons? I would llove to hear from a dev on this thread just to answer exactly what the thinking is giving an older player an advantage literally none of the new player base will ever be able to bridge the gap for.

 

The black-red striated came from the Wild Space Explorer's pack. None of the crafted color crystals have a color that is so unique it was not closely cloned in a color set available in a pack available for cc's. So, no, they aren't only available from artificers.

[Elessara]

The black-red striated came from the Wild Space Explorer's pack. None of the crafted color crystals have a color that is so unique it was not closely cloned in a color set available in a pack available for cc's. So, no, they aren't only available from artificers.

 

Black-purple and black-blue? I know I get black-purple striated from some kind of lock box in the mail when I make a new character but they're not on the CM. Is there another close equivalent? Not sure about a black-blue equivalent.

[wainot-keel]

I have no idea whether or not reverse engineering crystals obtained from operations was intended but if they did take those schematics away from people who already have them, you'd hear a lot of complaints - a lot more complaints than the ones who started the game later and didn't have them. Some people put a lot of time and credits into getting those schematics. It would likely be more of an issue than BioWare is willing to deal with.

 

Also, honestly, asking for those schematics to be removed is kinda selfish. You don't have them so no one else should have them?

 

Older players are almost always going to have an advantage over newer ones simply because they've been around longer and have had more time to accumulate things in game.

 

Reverse engineering crystals from ops drops and crystals extracted from weapons that were from end gearing vendors was intended.

 

What was kinda fishy and brought complaints was the fact one could reverse engineer other people's crafted crystals. Because of the way it was done it was argued it wasn't intended. I don't know if it was an exploit or not but it was certainly not kosher, lol

 

But that doesn't matter anymore. If the artifice trainer doesn't have the schmatic you can't get it from anywhere else.

Schematics for black red, black purple, black blue, magenta, cyan (?) are some of the colors that were attainable before the changes. My artifice have most of them I can still craft them.

[Tsillah]

Reverse engineering crystals from ops drops and crystals extracted from weapons that were from end gearing vendors was intended.

 

What was kinda fishy and brought complaints was the fact one could reverse engineer other people's crafted crystals. Because of the way it was done it was argued it wasn't intended. I don't know if it was an exploit or not but it was certainly not kosher, lol

 

But that doesn't matter anymore. If the artifice trainer doesn't have the schmatic you can't get it from anywhere else.

Schematics for black red, black purple, black blue, magenta, cyan (?) are some of the colors that were attainable before the changes. My artifice have most of them I can still craft them.

 

Magenta didn't drop from operations but from world bosses and in the black hole. They also changed the magenta crystals colour scheme but those schematics you can still use as they were not taken away.

[ShadeKingSlayer]

Reverse engineering crystals from ops drops and crystals extracted from weapons that were from end gearing vendors was intended.

 

What was kinda fishy and brought complaints was the fact one could reverse engineer other people's crafted crystals. Because of the way it was done it was argued it wasn't intended. I don't know if it was an exploit or not but it was certainly not kosher, lol

 

But that doesn't matter anymore. If the artifice trainer doesn't have the schmatic you can't get it from anywhere else.

Schematics for black red, black purple, black blue, magenta, cyan (?) are some of the colors that were attainable before the changes. My artifice have most of them I can still craft them.

 

I think this is what I was getting at, the devs have seriously taken away some of the best cosmetics from the game essentially making a gap for all the crafters that will never be gapped and for the time being will also make a market for those players that a new player can and never will be able to produce for themselves the idea is simple in this case: The devs have made an entire crafting schools' major focus (crystal crafting) widely less popular because of this nerf and it needs to be addressed to bridge the gap between older players and new to stop the ability for a player still making these crystals to make tons of credits in their own little market no one else can break into.