SWTOR: The Color Orange
It's taken a few examples and some forum research, but I've come to understand (I think) the intricacies of orange-quality items in SWTOR, and they're... interesting.
There's already the standard hierarchy. Gray items are most sellable, white items are basic no-frills stuff with no stat enhancements beyond armor/damage, green items start to have stat modifiers on them, blue items have a few more points than their green counterparts at the same level, and purple ones even more (and perhaps a slot for an sugmentation). All of them can be found, though white-quality armor/weapons pretty much disappear after the first half dozen levels. Crafting patterns you buy are for green quality, but you have a chance to learn blue versions of the patterns by reverse engineering green items (and purple from blue as I understand).
Then there's orange items.
Orange items have modification slots and the stat benefits of orange-quality items are entirely based on those mods. If you plug a higher-level barrel mod into a blaster (or hilt for sabers and armor for armor pieces), it actually changes the "base level" of the item, bringing its base damage/armor up to what's appropriate for that level though the mod itself doesn't explain that. The other slots don't have as large an impact, but can be filled in with mods that you want. You can pull mods out of items for a fee to swap around, if you desire. So if you find an orange item you like the look of, you can keep it, upgrade it with mods as you level up, and you won't "outgrow" it (as you would with the other types). So here's a way to stick with a set look that doesn't make "gearing up" obsolete, because you're on the lookout for suitable mod upgrades instead of gear pieces.
Opinions will vary, I'm sure, but that seems like the best of both worlds to me.
There's already the standard hierarchy. Gray items are most sellable, white items are basic no-frills stuff with no stat enhancements beyond armor/damage, green items start to have stat modifiers on them, blue items have a few more points than their green counterparts at the same level, and purple ones even more (and perhaps a slot for an sugmentation). All of them can be found, though white-quality armor/weapons pretty much disappear after the first half dozen levels. Crafting patterns you buy are for green quality, but you have a chance to learn blue versions of the patterns by reverse engineering green items (and purple from blue as I understand).
Then there's orange items.
Orange items have modification slots and the stat benefits of orange-quality items are entirely based on those mods. If you plug a higher-level barrel mod into a blaster (or hilt for sabers and armor for armor pieces), it actually changes the "base level" of the item, bringing its base damage/armor up to what's appropriate for that level though the mod itself doesn't explain that. The other slots don't have as large an impact, but can be filled in with mods that you want. You can pull mods out of items for a fee to swap around, if you desire. So if you find an orange item you like the look of, you can keep it, upgrade it with mods as you level up, and you won't "outgrow" it (as you would with the other types). So here's a way to stick with a set look that doesn't make "gearing up" obsolete, because you're on the lookout for suitable mod upgrades instead of gear pieces.
Opinions will vary, I'm sure, but that seems like the best of both worlds to me.
Creative. I highly approve. It's a step up from GW2's Transmutation Stones, I think.
ReplyDeleteYeah... From what I understand of the stones, they might be a more permanent version of WoW's current transmogrification system. Taking the appearance of one item and overwriting that of another to keep the stats is... functional. I suppose your could argue the benefits that it helps keep the quantity of items down while allowing you to choose appearance, but it feels inelegant to me. This way feels more interesting to me. I picked up a long coat for my Agent that I like (at least I haven't seen anything I prefer yet) as well as a blaster rifle (that I'm not as attached to, but it serves fine). Working on/thinking about upgrading them makes me feel more invested in those specific items than overlaying their appearance on something else.
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