Architect Archive

I have heard that the optional items now work in the crafting stations. Is this true? And if so does it seem to help anything? Does it raise the efficiency of the station (all other factors being equal)?

I've heard that if your optional components are top quality, they raise the station's rating past the 15.0 mark.

I actually tested this a week or two ago. Without the components, I was only able to get a 13.xx rating on a station. Using the same copper (high cond) and the optionals (not even the greatest quality optionals) I was able to get it up over 25 rating. They definitely make a difference in the quality of the station.

With high quality components and experimentation, I've gotten stations up to 31+.

Yes, but what does a higher functionality rating *do* ?

I've beenmaking30+ rated crafting stations for a good bit now, but the big question is why they cost more than a regular station.

The highest rating I've been capable of producing thus far is a 33.8 that I created last night. This higher the rating, the lower your chances for critical failure will be. I've also heard that it will affect experimentation a bit, but I've yet to see proof of that with my own eyes. As for optional componenets functioning, they're not from what I can tell, besides affecting a Crafting Stations rating.

As an experiment, I produced the 33.8 I mentioned by focusing on maximizing the efficiency of every component used in the station, making sure to have a Master Droid Engineer make the components from that profession. The next station, I utilized the same materials and kept durability/efficiency of every component about even and came out with a 24.0. I have yet to create a Crafting Station where every component utilized has 90%+ efficiency, I've got a feeling the high end will be somewhere around 45.0 to 50.0.

I'm currently trying to pin down exactly what qualities are needed in the material used to create every item used for an enhanced Crafting Station at 90% or higher (and break my thus far record of a 93% Efficiency Crafting Station.)

Crafting Station Info

The better the conductivity metal you use in the final combine the better the functionality rating
The more subcomponents you use the more functionality rating you get
The better the resources you use in the sub components and the higher they are experimented the higher the functionality rating

The functionality rating increases the frequency and quality of experimentation attempts and reduces experimentation failures. A factor generally lost on architects but of critical importance to other crafters.

The reason they are more expensive the higher the rating is

1) The quality of the resources required means that they are rare and highly prized. Essentially weapons grade materials need to be used.
2) The effort required to create them is higher as all components must be fully experimented and possibly run in a factory. Again think weapons crafting.
3) Simple market forces. Most people cannot seem to break 30+ that means the supply of 35+ is that much less. Low supply means higher prices.
4) Crafting stations are the only item architects make that even hints at what kind of prices you can charge when you can differentiate your product like weaponsmiths and armorsmiths can. These things are not like a factory or an extractor, effort on the part of the maker is critical and these devices are highly prized and necessary for other crafters. Thus their prices are not cheap.

The best so far I have created is about 37.7

Still no documentation from anyone that these numbers make a lick of difference... i'm still using my crafting station with a negative functionality rating and I have yet to crit fail anything above a small house.... ever....

yes, i've been lucky to a certain extent, but until someone shows me proof it affects crit fails and/or the devs confirm this to be true, I'm not messing with it. when people ask me if it makes a difference, i tell them what i've seen... and what i've heard... and let them decide if they want me to try to upgrade it.

/shrug

up to you all to decide i guess

Yeah, I'm getting pretty good at making these things now... My best station now, is rated at 42.477654, and is a food/chem station.

I'm currently charging 30k for these but am thinking of raising my price on it. I've not seen anyone else on the server getting too close to my numbers.

What do you guys think I should be charging?

-Loserwan Ka'newbie
Tarquinas, Naboo

I've hit 41.39 functionality. I literally cannot keep them in stock at 20k a pop and have a largebackorder list of people wanting to buy 1-7 stations each from my next and final batch of 41.39's that I can make before I'm out of key resources. It seems certain I could have charged 30-50k for the stations without any reduction in the demand but I figured that'd be bad to piss off customers because eventually better stations WILL appear as better resources become available. The copper is only 969 conductivity and the polymer is only 919 quality so there's definitely room for improvement towards the +50 stations that I suspectare the theoretical maximum.

These stations are to crafters what a nice weapon is to a combat type. They want the best and they'll pay a nice premium to get it and travel across the galaxy to pick it up.

What's been surprising to me is I sell almost as many structure stations as I do the others. With experimentation being pretty useless for architects I figured most would just build their own.

Btw... here's the stats on the components for a 41.39 station

Station; uses 969 conductivity copper

Droid Storage Compartment 99%

Energy Distributor 96-97% I forget exactly

GP Modules 97%

Control Unit 96%

Micro Sensor Suite 84%, this part is a huge pain to get high

Btw, I think I just figured out the formula to tell you what your station will come out. This assumes the range is -50 for a really bad station with 0% components and using a metal with 0 conductivity while +50 for perfect components and 1000 conductivity copper.

Station uses conductivity and is1 slot

2 control units count twice because 2 parts

2 micro sensor suites count twice because 2 parts

.969 + .96 (control unit) + .96 (control unit) + .84 (micro sen) + .84 (micro sen) = 4.569

Divide 4.569 by 5 because of 5 parts = 91.38

Bottom of range is -50 so add 91.38 which gives 41.38 which is curiously darn close to the 41.39 stations I've produced. Seems likely the 96% control units or 84% micro sen suites are calculated to more digits than shown by the game which would account for the slight difference.

If my calculations and speculations in the above post are correct then due to the difficulty in getting micro sensor suites to 90%+ will mean that even with perfect control units and copper that +46 stations or better will be avery long time coming unless some amazing steel pops up. Even hitting +45 will be extremely hard.

+48-49 stations will be a godly "I'm gonna sell this sucker on Ebay when I quit" item.

What conductivity is the copper and what quality is the polymer and inert gas that you're using to hit +42 stations? Obviously higher than what's available on my server. Or perhaps you've got an absurd steel with 950+ qual and 900+ cond for the micro sensor suites...

Golden question is; Do they make a difference?

Considering they are the Only thing an architech makes at this time that resource quality and experimentation affects directly.