Architect Archive
Thread: Guide for novice architects (part 1)
Some thoughts - since I saw the question elsewhere (and this reply would likely be buried on page 4 of that post) and especially since swgcraft.com is down for the moment, here's some practical advice for novice architects:
1.) SWGCRAFT.COM - do yourself a HUGE favor and go there. Check on this site every day - when it finally gets back up (if it does), it will provide every piece of information you'll ever need as a crafter of any kind. You might also check swgarchitect.com, but that's an "also-ran" site - not terribly useful at all.
2.) Money - if you're looking to make money to support yourself while levelling as an architect, sell the raw materials. An incomplete list of average prices that I saw on Corbantis for inorganicminerals (galaxy-wide search, but only the first600 materials, so takethis with a grain of salt) as of 18 Sep 03 were:
- 10credits per unit for Carbonate ore
- 3-5 cr/unit for Steel, Aluminum, and Copper
- Gemstones were dirt cheap (I wouldn't recommend mining)
- High quality "weapons grade" materials (e.g., Dolovite Iron) cost upwards of 10-15 credits per unit.
3.) Sales - for anything other than raw materials, forget it. The same folks who wouldn't even blink at paying 100k in credits for atwo handed sword(which requires either 66 or 79 units of material) will scream bloody murder about paying 125k for a heavy mineral harvester, which requires 27,700 units of material. Any sale approaching the pricing/unit ratio you get for raw materials would be a miracle. Save that buyer's name, because no one else will pay you that much.
4.) Gathering resources - get a novice level in Scout, and train to Survey 4 as quickly as possible. Note that there are sampling macros available (you need to sample to get survey XP - yeah, I know, makes no sense to me either), but since I did it the really slow, hard way (i.e., sampling manually), I don't know any. These should, however, allow you to get to level 4 within a day or so (a friend of mine used one to get to level 3 overnight while he slept). Either way, Survey 4 isVERY helpful in locating resource concentrations for mining.
5.) Leveling - two choices, as I see it - level quickly or level effectively. Either way, GET HELP if you can - even just one additional person depositing power, placing harvesters, and gathering resources can be a TREMENDOUS help for you. Without help, you're taking the slow road (like I did, for the most part).Also, I don't advocate using third party macros and have never used them, so this guide doesn't take that into account, but here are the two versions I use:
a.) Leveling Quickly - assuming you need no more harvesters, factories, or other buildings, crafting food & chemical stations (or any other kind of station) is the absolute fastest thing I've seen available in the entire architect field. I'm not a master, but I'm at 2/4/4/4, so I've seen a heck of a lot of it. At 400 steel and 50 metal (or just 450 steel), they are a slam dunk. Set up another button bar (or whatever they call that thing at the top), put 12 structure and furniture crafting units in quick bar slots 12-23 (aka [shift] F1 through [shift] F12), and set up the same macro (with slight variations) in slots 00-11. The macro is as follows:
/nextCraftingStage;/nextCraftingStage;/createPrototype practice no item;/createPrototype practice no item;/pause 1;/ui action toolbarSlot12;/ui action toolbarSlot12;/selectdraftschematic 17
Don't worry about the "failure" messages you initially get. The /nextCraftingStage; section of the macro tells SWG to finish crafting the particular schematic you're currently working on. The first time you run this, you probably won't be working on anything, so it'll give you an error but still keep working.
Note also that the pause is mandatory - otherwise you go faster than the system can keep up with.
/createPrototype practice no item; will put this in "practice" mode, so you won't actually create the item you're grinding with. In the event you actually DO want to create the item, replace this command with /createPrototype; (from what I've read - I haven't tried that part).
/ui action toolbarSlot12; tells SWG to select whatever is in the [shift] F1 slot - note that the slots are numbered 00 to 11 (F1 through F12) and 12 through 23 ([shift] F1 through [shift] F12). Note that the macro in F1 will reference toolbarSlot12, the macro in F2 will reference toolbarSlot13, etc. Realistically, you could set it up any way you wanted, but doing it in order will make things much easier.
Note that you'll have to experiment with the /selectdraftschematic 17; section - "17" happens to be a crafting station for me (if I remember correctly), while 64 and 71 are the projectile pistol barrel and projectile rifle barrel, respectively - both useful for leveling as a weaponsmith. However, from what I've read on the boards, everyone learns stuff in a different order, so this might be different for you. Go to [ctrl] D, look at "Draft Schematics," and you should see all the schematics you know - this will give you a visual guide as to which schematic is which, so that if you type in /selectdraftschematic 17 and notice that you're calling up something one position to the left of the one you want, just add one - use schematic 18.
Finally, note that you'll need a LOT of material to use this method - I can grind through perhaps 5,000 units of steel in a MINUTE.
b.) Leveling Effectively - assuming you want to level in a fashion which builds towards the rest of what you want to do, I'd suggest making harvesters. This is extremely slow, given that you typically need toharvest a LOT of materials. However, as you gain more harvesters, energy generators, etc., you'll gain materials faster, thus allowing you to build faster, in an ever-increasing cycle. Here are the exact requirements for each type of harvester, in order, so you can decide for yourself how to allocate your harvesters:
Note that "non-ferrous metal" includes copper and aluminum (I THINK- check your mineral survey tool to be sure), and "metal" includes anything - copper, aluminum, or steel.
Medium Mineral Harvester:
750 Low Grade Ore
720 Metal
517 Steel
500 Aluminum
250 Chemical
250 Copper
250 Carbonate Ore
200 Reactive Gas
150 Non-Ferrous Metal
20 Inert Gas
Heavy Mineral Harvester
15400 Low Grade Ore
7480 Metal
1540 Steel
1000 Aluminum
500 Chemical
500 Copper
500 Carbonate Ore
400 Reactive Gas
300 Non-Ferrous Metal
150 Inert Gas
Medium Chemical Harvester
6750 Low Grade Ore
3065 Metal
550 Chemical
500 Aluminum
400 Steel
250 Copper
250 Carbonate Ore
200 Reactive Gas
150 Non-Ferrous Metal
Deep Crust Chemical Extractor (Heavy Chemical Harvester)
13500 Low Grade Ore
5690 Metal
1500 Steel
1100 Chemical
1000 Aluminum
500 Copper
500 Carbonate Ore
400 Reactive Gas
300 Non-Ferrous Metal
Medium Natural Gas Harvester
6750 Low Grade Ore
3065 Metal
550 Chemical
500 Aluminum
400 Steel
250 Copper
250 Carbonate Ore
200 Reactive Gas
150 Non-Ferrous Metal
Medium Mineral Harvester:
750 Low Grade Ore
720 Metal
517 Steel
500 Aluminum
250 Chemical
250 Copper
250 Carbonate Ore
200 Reactive Gas
150 Non-Ferrous Metal
20 Inert Gas
Heavy Mineral Harvester
15400 Low Grade Ore
7480 Metal
1540 Steel
1000 Aluminum
500 Chemical
500 Copper
500 Carbonate Ore
400 Reactive Gas
300 Non-Ferrous Metal
150 Inert Gas
Medium Chemical Harvester
6750 Low Grade Ore
3065 Metal
550 Chemical
500 Aluminum
400 Steel
250 Copper
250 Carbonate Ore
200 Reactive Gas
150 Non-Ferrous Metal
Deep Crust Chemical Extractor (Heavy Chemical Harvester)
13500 Low Grade Ore
5690 Metal
1500 Steel
1100 Chemical
1000 Aluminum
500 Copper
500 Carbonate Ore
400 Reactive Gas
300 Non-Ferrous Metal
Medium Natural Gas Harvester
6750 Low Grade Ore
3065 Metal
550 Chemical
500 Aluminum
400 Steel
250 Copper
250 Carbonate Ore
200 Reactive Gas
150 Non-Ferrous Metal
Heavy Natural Gas Harvester
10190 Metal
7650 Low Grade Ore
1055 Chemical
1000 Aluminum
900 Steel
500 Copper
500 Carbonate Ore
400 Reactive Gas
300 Non-Ferrous Metal
Solar Power Collector (Medium Power Harvester)
1000 Aluminum
500 Steel
500 Carbonate Ore
500 Copper
480 Metal
400 Non-Ferrous Metal
400 Chemical
400 Reactive Gas
250 Low Grade Ore
Fusion Generator (Heavy Power Harvester)
11450 Low Grade Ore
5420 Metal
2500 Aluminum
1420 Steel
1250 Copper
1250 Carbonate Ore
1000 Reactive Gas
950 Non-Ferrous Metal
750 Chemical
75 Inert Gas
(NOTE - the fusion generator needs to be placed on a radioactive spot)
High Efficiency Moisture Vaporator (Heavy Water Harvester)
1790 Metal
1500 Low Grade Ore
1100 Chemical
1000 Aluminum
900 Steel
500 Copper
500 Carbonate Ore
400 Reactive Gas
300 Non-Ferrous Metal
I haven't built (or intended to build) any of the rest, so I can't give you the exact requirement for those.
As you can likely tell from this guide, the ratio breaks down approximately as follows:
Aluminum 6%
Carbonate Ore 3%
Chemical 4%
Copper 3%
Inert Gas 0%
Low Grade Ore 45%
Metal 27%
Non-Ferrous Metal 2%
Reactive Gas 3%
Steel 6%
Since "Non-Ferrous Metal" can be Copper or Aluminum, and "Metal" can be Copper, Aluminum, or Steel (you may especially want to note the Low Grade Ore or "LGO" as compared to Carbonate Ore), you can break it down in various ways. One method is suggested as follows, along with the number of harvesters, but you'll figure out your own:
Aluminum 9% 1 harvester
Carbonate Ore 49% 5 harvesters
Chemical 4% 1 harvester
Steel 33% 3 harvesters
All else - purchase
One further note on Carbonate Ore... At times, due to resource shifts (see below), certain materials will be harder or easier to find. At one point, I harvested 54k worth of Silicate Ore instead, since it was at a high concentration and Carbonate was not immediately findable (without a greater time investment than I was willing to make at the moment). THERE IS NOTHING WRONG with that.
The majority of what you will be crafting (at least insofar as installations, factories, houses, etc. are concerned) will be Structure Modules and Wall Modules. Ten Structure Modules are required for EACH Wall Module, and your average structure will require 6-10 Wall Modules (or 60-100 Structure Modules overall).
Here's the requirement for Structure Modules:
50 metal
200 low grade ore
(Note that Silicate Ore will work for this, in the absence of Carbonate Ore)
The requirement for Wall Modules:
300 metal
200 low grade ore
10 structure modules (500 metal, 2000 low grade ore)
So, overall - 800 metal, 2200 LGO to build one component
(Final part)
6.) Schematic XP study: note that I did a fairly extensive survey of the various schematics in the architect profession prior to deciding what to level with, and after quite some time compiling, computing, charting, and comparing, I made a decision. Then, after an hour or so of actual in-game experience, I completely ignored the chart I came up with and went with what (on paper) seemed to be the "worst" possible choice. Of course, now that I look at it again, I realize I based all my decisions on a typo. I originally thought that the Crafting Stations wereworth something like 98 XP/click, but realized I screwed that up. Anyway, here's the chart:
ItemLevel Rqrd Stages Clicks Resources XP XP/Click
Crafting Stations Novice11 450 900 900
Generator TurbineNovice1 7 14502900414.3
Manufacturing MechanismNovice2 11 19003800345.5
Deed for Moisture VaparatorNovice7 28 38657730276.1
ArmoireNovice1 1 125 250 250.0
Ore Mining UnitNovice1 5 595 1190238.0
Fluidic Drilling Pump UnitNovice15 585 1170234.0
Deed for Equipment FactoryNovice38 122 13430 26860220.2
Harvesting Mechanism Novice1 5 540 1080216.0
Deep Crust Chemical Extractor Installations 3 69 23524490 48980208.4
Large House Buildings 3117 361 37334 74668206.8
Wall Module Novice11 33 3000 6000181.8
Structural ModuleNovice1 3 250 500 166.7
Deed for Small Naboo House Buildings 113 423388 6776161.3
Small Structure Storage Module Buildings 11 2 130 260 130.0
Also, in the event you're tempted to use Generator Turbines for levelling, keep in mind that once you get to higher levels they/re worthless unless they come from a factory run (which gives no XP, by the way). Ergo, I would NOT suggest building too many of these except perhaps for a really brief time at start and only for a few minor structures that don't require the "identical" generators. Ditto with Manufacturing Mechanisms, Ore Mining Units, Fluidic Drilling Pump Units, and Harvesting Mechanisms.
The "two" components that can be used extensively in the heavy harvesters without requiring a factory run are the Structure Modules and the Wall Modules.
Aside from all this, can't think of anything at the moment, but if you're on the Corbantis server and have any questions, send a tell to Yukimitsu or Karballo, or email me at [email protected], and good luck to everyone!
Do I need to level furniture or construction in order to build heavies and mediums?
Do furniture first..... ( not like I did )
You will thank yourself later.
Great Guide btw. I think you should put this up on a website if you have not done so already.
I would like to add something regarding a great way for novice architects to both make money and get experience at the same time. I would recommend looking for a few master architects in the region to primarly reside and work out a business deal selling them wall modules.
Wall modules are the prime ingredient to most medium to large structure and their quality does not matter (yet). Keep grinding these for the experience then sell each for 6-9K to your local master architect. This will help you set up a repoire with them to get yourself some training, help you keep cash following into your pocket and gain needed experience to advance. This is a win for master architects as well for they are generally always in need of wall modules which is still grinding with or without a factory (with the factory bugs that you cannot use crates in factories, just making simply 10 wall modules in a factory requires repetitive clicking and moving of items from a crate to the factory.)
Just selling wall modules will remove your need to have a shop and factory (taking necessary lots) and allow you to use your 10 lots for running harvesters (7 on ore and 3 on metal). Further, wall modules can be made anywhere since, again, quality does not matter (yet). Taking a rest from hunting, you can makesome while sitting in a camp healing or waiting in the medical center/cantina.
This method will help you gring your way to Master where you can then make some high-quality finished products which should sell quickly for a fair amount of cash.
Just a suggestion.
Very helpful guide.
Out of curiosity, has anyone done the calculation as to how resources you need in total to complete architect?
Just wandering through the boards and noticed the responses... thanks, by the way.
In answer to your question, 1.4 million XP for master architect, which (unless I'm mistaken) is higher than ANYTHING else in the game (not counting prerequisites to gaining novice).
However, it's also (coincidentally) probably the EASIEST profession to master. If you use the macro concepts I've provided here, chain them all together, use crafting stations (450 units of steel, 945 practice XP), and have 700k+ steel to grind with, you should be able to grind to master architect in approximately one hour and ten minutes, not counting training time.
By comparison, weaponsmith (which I also mastered, though nowhere near as quickly) requires 896 thousand XP. If you just grind that (using projectile rifle barrels at 94 XP, if I remember correctly) and do nothing else, you'll make it in perhaps seven and a half hours (not including training).
All this is, of course, simply conjecture; it took me probably two months to get all the way through master artisan, architect, and weaponsmith, with most of that time spent building and maintaining harvesters to mine the steel to allow me to grind. Now that they've "patched" the game such that hopper sizes are drastically reduced, this time requirement will likely take even longer.
Don't know where you'd find it now, but the Black Sun guild (unsure what server they're on) posted instructions some time ago on how they and their group managed to build a PA hall in two and a half days from a standing start (i.e., all beginning characters from day one of game launch).
Makes for very interesting reading and provides a pretty good "how to" guide if you can manage to get some guys together who will cooperate with you.