If you missed his blog post on the official forums, Principle Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller had a very interesting post that talks about the changes in Patch 1.1.5. Basically, he gives the players a look into changes to the economy coming soon and how this will affect us. He provides it in-context and also with some lore. (He’s always been great at the story-telling.)
Here is a piece of what he said in the blog post about colorcrystal changes:
It’sbeen reported that Operatives of the Republic Strategic Intelligence Servicehave recovered several new variations of color crystal prototypes during adaring raid on a cutting edge Imperial Science Bureau outpost on Ilum. Amongthe items recovered are a number of rare, purple-hued color crystals, usuallyexclusive to Imperial-held worlds.
Republicscientists are confident that they will be able to reverse-engineer andpotentially replicate the captured Imperial technology, including the colorcrystals, in a matter of weeks. While most of the prototypes are still beinganalyzed, it has been confirmed that the Imperial Science Bureau’s “ProjectExpertise” at the Ilum outpost scored a major breakthrough in the crystalcutting process. While information on the new technology has been kept tightlyguarded, we know that the process can create several variants of existingcrystal colors which improve the crystal’s natural properties.
Patch 1.1.5 is available on the Public Test Serverright now if you want to check it out.
