Close call

[Zacatac]

That's why I moved the armor to a usable character first, I was afraid of exactly what would happen, and it DID happen.

I would have combined a Cleric/Pal only, Tunare worshipping piece of armor with a Magician who worships Mith Marr, and I would have been stuck with an unusable, NO-DROP augment afterwards.

As quoted above, it's in the patch message that way, but if you don't remember every single line of every single patch message, you might forget that little detail (like I did) about the augments becoming no-drop forever, immediately upon insertion into armor.

[Bobaten]

Well, not only is it in the patch message that way, that exact text is in the description of attuneable on the in-game help window.
On the other hand, the in-game help also says you are not able to insert an augment that would create a no drop item that your character can't equip. So it does seem that this part does need to be fixxed for the cultural.

[Neebat]

Well, not only is it in the patch message that way, that exact text is in the description of attuneable on the in-game help window.
On the other hand, the in-game help also says you are not able to insert an augment that would create a no drop item that your character can't equip. So it does seem that this part does need to be fixxed for the cultural.

Thanks for posting the patch message, Boba. I'd forgotten that part.

So we were warned that it was... odd.

It still feels pretty arbitrary. I wish Tanker's response had been a bit more informative. His statement that "I can think of reasons why they did it (and so can you)" simply isn't true. I can't think of why attunable augs need to be no drop once inserted. They should become NO TRADE just like any other attunable item when equipped.

I have seen the dialogs you spoke of. When I was only 63, I found myself sticking a STR aug into a no drop weapon with required level 65. The dialog that came up prevented me from doing it because the resulting weapon would not be usable by ME and would not be tradable. (It ignored the fact that the weapon was already no trade and not usable.)

Why on earth would I want to aug a weapon I couldn't use? I don't like to destroy anything that I might use later and that includes LDoN stat augs. There was a time when I needed a lot of +STR augs, so I looted a lot of them. Now I have more STR than I can use. To store those extra augs, I tend to stick them into whatever odd, special-purpose weapons I have on hand. One of those banked weapons was a Bone-Hilted Claymore that I was saving for level 65. I assume it would do the same if I tried to aug a Staff of Elemental Mastery that I have for mage epic MQ.

Just to keep you from arguing facts...

Attunable augments become NO TRADE when inserted, and this is intended. I was the coder for that bit, and put it in as instructed. It is not a bug. I can think of reasons why they did it (and so can you), but have no direct knowledge of the thought processes involved.

As far as I know, no augmented item is currently tradeable, though an unworn Attunable item may become tradeable again after being augmented by removing its augments.

Just to clarify for both Tanker and Boleslav....

Attunable augs become no trade when inserted. I didn't intend to say that is a bug. It doesn't even feel like a bug. It's an unnecessary feature. Quite apart from that, I think there may be a real usability bug.

When an attunable aug is inserted, the dialog that pops up is incomplete. That dialog should warn you. You're not just inserting an aug that may be expensive to remove. You are ALSO attuning that aug. That part happens silently, without a hint that the aug is being permanently altered. We get a warning when we're about to attune armor, so why don't we get a warning when we're about to attune an aug?

To me it's not enough to include this information in a patch file and a help file. It should also let you know when you're about to mess up badly. Well, at least for consistency.

[Fudapuda]

I can certainly think of one reason why inserting an augment would render it no-drop, even if it is unequipped.

It would serve to deter scammers, who would augment items, advertise the higher stats that created, then remove the augment before trading the item. Sure, you are assuming an idiot factor on the part of the person receiving the item, if they don't check that they are getting the right item with the augment still on it, but then, this sort of thing use to happen all the time in the tunnel in EC.

This way, there is no incentive to run that particular scam.

It would also prevent players from buying a single augment, and then swapping it among their various characters as they played them, which helps SOE with their campaign to clear plat out of the system (though in all likelihood it is just changing hands, not disappearing).

Fudapuda
Bertox

[Neebat]

I can certainly think of one reason why inserting an augment would render it no-drop, even if it is unequipped.

It would serve to deter scammers, who would augment items, advertise the higher stats that created, then remove the augment before trading the item. Sure, you are assuming an idiot factor on the part of the person receiving the item, if they don't check that they are getting the right item with the augment still on it, but then, this sort of thing use to happen all the time in the tunnel in EC.

This way, there is no incentive to run that particular scam.

If I understand the hypothetical scam right, I can insert a GM symbol into a cheap peice of Journeyman's Armor. Advertise it with all those great stats from the GM symbol, then remove the symbol before the trade.

Just because the aug becomes no drop doesn't stop this. I have one GM symbol today and nothing stops me from inserting it into a dozen different peices of armor, finding a buyer and then removing it before selling the armor. The fact that I can't sell the aug doesn't change that, does it? Your scammer never actually intended to sell the aug anyway.

It would also prevent players from buying a single augment, and then swapping it among their various characters as they played them, which helps SOE with their campaign to clear plat out of the system (though in all likelihood it is just changing hands, not disappearing).

So hypothetically, someone gives an aug to alt, sticks it into some armor. Then they take it back out and repeat with a different alt. If they ever actually equip the armor, then the aug would be no trade. I don't see why anyone would go through all this trouble without equipping the item.

[Bobaten]

There are actually droppable augs that are not attuneable (well, at least 1). The 40 hp aug that drops in Mistmoore can be inserted, used, removed, and traded. However, items that are augmented with it are still no trade, just like any other augmented item. Also AFAIK, augmented items are no trade on FV.