Item Modifying and You: End-Game Gear Change

[murdoc]

My favourite part is this:

...in a very short time, you will all be able to test this on the live servers

[koro]

That actually sounds cool, but it really isn’t. Letting players extract the armoring mod from the purple items would trivialize end game gear progression and stop rewarding successful and dedicated players for their efforts.

This is what gets me. How does it trivialize gear progression? You still have to fight the boss and loot the gear; all you are doing is transferring its stats onto something that looks different. Plus extracted mods are BoP, so it's not like you can pass them around to people or sell them on the AH either.

And if the only raid-level mods you can get on their own are Armorings and Hilts/Barrels, then you still have to get the raid gear to pull out the other mods.

It still smacks of butthurt artists to me.

Edit: I mean, I get the part about "farming boots" for stuff, but it just seems like such a minor thing in the long run.

[Ingmar]

Why not just makes mod item-class specific?  This avoids the "farming the first boss problem."

They covered that earlier, there were just too many different mods then.

I have no problem with this solution, they're dropping mods for the people who want to use their old item, they have the epic type items for people who'd rather do that. Everyone should be satisfied.

[Amaron]

I'm somewhat mollified that they had an actual problem to worry about.   I'm not so thrilled with their solution of course.   We better be able to buy the mods with badges or something simple like that.   I'm glad we got to keep mods though instead of getting an appearance tab.   Mods feel like I'm using an actual item instead of just picking a costume CoH style.  I would of supported having both options of course.

This is what gets me. How does it trivialize gear progression?

It's like this.   Armor mods just had a simple "rating" and you could put them in ANY piece of armor to get full stats.   Which means you could get an entire suit of raid gear probably really fast since every single piece of gear that dropped would be equivalent to a piece you needed.

[Evildrider]

Why not just makes mod item-class specific?  This avoids the "farming the first boss problem."

They covered that earlier, there were just too many different mods then.

I don't know if anyone here tried crafting on the first beta weekend, but there was a shit load of crafting mods.  I mean like close to 8 similar mods, of the same type, with just points that were barely different.  Not only that but you got new recipes for these same mods after a few more levels.  I like the new system as he has it stated, and at least they are going to tweak it a bit more.   

[Shatter]

"- Item modding can now be done anywhere at anytime. No workbench required."

Wasnt the station only needed to remove a mod and not lose it? 

[Evildrider]

"- Item modding can now be done anywhere at anytime. No workbench required."

Wasnt the station only needed to remove a mod and not lose it? 

I don't even know, I never had to use the station.  I don't see losing the station as a big deal, if it remained being required, it would have been bitched about enough that it would have gone away eventually.

[Mrbloodworth]

And color.

[Draegan]

Essentially you need to create a system where killing the last boss in a raid zone is more rewarding than killing the first one.  Higher rewards for higher difficulty.

You need to keep the number of mods down, so you can't have:  Armor Mod Glove, Armor Mod Chest, Armor Mod Boot, Armor Mod Chest etc.  You need to just have Armor Mod.

This is essentially the only solution.  I can't think of a different way of doing things.  Perhaps each boss will drop Gear of type X Stats and Mods of type X Stats so you get the best of both worlds.  Hopefully they drop more mods than gear.

I also don't know how the loot system works.  How much loot drops etc.

There is going to be massive flexibility with the raids/operations as well.  3 different difficulty modes of both 8 and 16 man versions.  Hell 8 Man is essentially 1.5 groups at this point in our MMORPG terminology.  I've hear the the lowest level difficulty ratings are very easy, and I can quote the end-game dev that each operation should take 2-4 hours to clear on easy mode.

[luckton]

 I've hear the the lowest level difficulty ratings are very easy, and I can quote the end-game dev that each operation should take 2-4 hours to clear on easy mode.

 

[Furiously]

So I can run the level 50 zone with my friend at level 12 and mod my gear to insane levels?

[luckton]

So I can run the level 50 zone with my friend in level 12 gear and mod my gear to insane levels?

Fixed, and essentially, yes.

[Evildrider]

Mods have level requirements don't they?  Otherwise you could just deck out an alt on crafted level 50 mods.

[Ingmar]

Yes, they have level reqs.

[Der Helm]

 I would of would HAVE supported

[amiable]

The issue I have is the reasoning doesn't make sense to me.  "We don't want people farming boots" followed by "we will be adding mods to raid drops."

Isn't pulling the mod out of the boot functionally the exact same thing as adding a mod drop?  This implies to me that mod drops are going to be rare to the point that it will not be realistic for a single person to upgrade via mods, meaning everyone who raids is going to look the same anyway.  If they do have a high mod drop rate then there would be no reason not to let us deconstruct boots. 

I imagine the loot arguments over epic mods are going to be pretty intense, with many guilds using early mod drops to beef up tanks to make later content easier.

The whole thing doesn't make sense to me.  Just add an appearance tab and be done with it.

[Ingmar]

To me the implication is simply that the mod drops will be spread through the bosses like the regular ones. Result being, you can't simply farm the first easy boss for all your needs.

[Azuredream]

It feels like mods were originally supposed to be SWTOR's version of WoW's jewelcrafting, but somewhere along the way it started resembling an appearance customization system, and now they can't figure out which one they want it to be or a way for it to be both.

[Mrbloodworth]

To me the implication is simply that the mod drops will be spread through the bosses like the regular ones. Result being, you can't simply farm the first easy boss for all your needs.

Like every other game.

[01101010]

Game is not even released yet and I am already getting a bitter taste in my mouth.  

Let me guess what's next, new armor models with bigger shoulders!

edit: spelling/proper space bar use.

[amiable]

To me the implication is simply that the mod drops will be spread through the bosses like the regular ones. Result being, you can't simply farm the first easy boss for all your needs.

But that doesn't make any sense if we are using mods for gear appearance customization.  The only mods we are really talking about here are base mods (armor and dps mods).  So I guess they will just make these mods drop from end bosses only.

Maybe what they are doing is letting folks get access to "better mods" that are locked in a particular item type earlier in the progression and then later in progression allowing those mods to drop so you can freely customize gear?

That kind of makes sense I suppose.  But it just means you will have to look a bit wonky until you get the end boss on farm status and can start farming those mods for vanity reasons.

[kildorn]

It feels like mods were originally supposed to be SWTOR's version of WoW's jewelcrafting, but somewhere along the way it started resembling an appearance customization system, and now they can't figure out which one they want it to be or a way for it to be both.

They seem to clearly want it to be an appearance customization thing, but without wrecking the system by having 8,000 mods for various slots or making endgame content silly trivial.

I kind of like it when explained, as long as the epic damage/armor mods aren't rare as shit.

And the last stress test weekend we were all in, mods could be added/removed without a workbench. So that's been in, and is really nice.

[Amaron]

 So I guess they will just make these mods drop from end bosses only.

They could also let you buy them with badges.  You could still get the whole set from the first boss that way but it would take forever.

[Sky]

 I've hear the the lowest level difficulty ratings are very easy, and I can quote the end-game dev that each operation should take 2-4 hours to clear on easy mode.

4 hours isn't what I'd call casual.

[Ingmar]

Assuming week-long lockouts that's in the 'casual raider' zone. 2 nights of 2 hours isn't exactly catass territory. And that's the high end as described.

[Evildrider]

 I've hear the the lowest level difficulty ratings are very easy, and I can quote the end-game dev that each operation should take 2-4 hours to clear on easy mode.

4 hours isn't what I'd call casual.

I dunno 4 hours a week to raid isn't horrible.

[Morfiend]

How many operations are there? 4 hours each is actually quite a lot if there are say 3, and thats on "farm" status.

[Ingmar]

Presumably at the casual level we aren't going to be falling all over ourselves to do every raid every week.

[eldaec]

The most important answer we need is - are there decent light armour pants for Sith Assassins to wear that can be modded so they don't end up running around the place in a skirt all the time?

This is important because god DAMN those robes/dresses look terrible.

[eldaec]

And I honestly can't imagine repeating any raid more than a couple of times unless it is to help someone out or see alternate outcomes.

The entire concept of endlessly repeating content in supposedly story based game is fucking retarded. (as opposed to a normal mmog where it just absurd)

Shit like daily quests can fuck right off.

[tmp]

This is important because god DAMN those robes/dresses look terrible.

Banking all my hope on one of the consular screenshots that has her wearing pants, and that "Hope" trailer. (the title suddenly gets a new meaning)

Because yes, horrible

[eldaec]

Seen a bunch of videos with assassins looking like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzzLHyvpuPs

so I imagine we're ok.

[Fordel]

The Butt Capes!


Trooper armor uses those.

[Sky]

I dunno 4 hours a week to raid isn't horrible.

4 hours in one sitting is.

[Fordel]

Whose doing that in one sitting though?



The weird thing for me about the Mod system, is how items without mod slots become virtually useless to me. Might as well be grey vendor trash items. I used to just toss them all onto the AH every time I went back to train, but since they moved those off the planets, they literaly ARE just vendor trash now.