Architect Archive

thanks for the feedback. i didn't know abou the artisan experimentation being the deciding factor for novice architect schematics. interesting

no offense intended, but why does everyone assume that the functionality of crafting stations is broke. based on that one guys post two weeks ago? i'm sorry to say, but his methods weren't very scientific. specifically, his sample rate was way too low to draw any conclusions.

it is funny to me that a rumor that this is broke based on someone's poorly done tests has becomefact for many people.

i know i get better results - it is obvious to me. i have no details to back it up (i don't have that kind of time). so yes,it is my subjective opinion. but until someone shows me proof that they don't work, i am not going to run around telling everyone the sky is falling.

again - no offense meant - everyone is entitled to their opinion, and that is just mine

I'm not saying its broke... I'm saying there's absolutely nothing... other than some other peoples "feelings" that they get better results... to show that is does something.

by your logic, why would you say it works based on other people feelings that it works? you have no testing to show it matters, you have nothing from the devs to say its supposed to, you have an arbitrary number that has started to appear after a patch, thats all.

don't take offense, its not meant that way, as I stated in another thread, there is just too much potential for fraud here when in reality no one has a real understanding one way or the other on this.

no offense taken

i find it interesting to discuss this. i see your points, but my assumption it works is based on the fact that stations and tools *do* have a functionality rating. my logic is why would they have a rating at all if it had no affect on the product?

so by my reasoning, they have pretty much shown us that this is the way they are supposed to work by adding the functionality rating to the examine window, yet many people are automatically assumiing they are broke? weird.

should i assume the min/max damage on my pistol is not accurate either?

good points, i agree with what you're saying, let me throw out a few examples in the opposite direction.

You can experiment on durability for just about anything you make as an architect and create some really nice numbers. they mean nothing.

the only testing that anyone has documented (and I agree it wasn't very detailed, but its all anyone has done) shows that there was little to no difference between dramatically different stations.

sure, a lot of people have a feeling they get better results, but i've done a lot of crafting at various quality stations as have several of my friends who said they were getting better results initially. when i asked them to track results for a bit, they found that in reality, over a period of time, they really weren't seeing much if any difference from the better numbers.

I'm all for having something that we can distinquish ourselves on. Now, I'd prefer that it matters that I'm a master arch, not a master artisan, because right now, even if the numbers do make a difference, i'm still in the same competition with every other novice architect out there who's a master artisan and if i give it up I would lose out on competing for an architect Item because I'm not a master artisan? doesn't make a lot of sense.

yeah - good point there in the last paragraph. i am already regretting this profession since there is no way to distuinguish oneself. i had fun with the crafting stations for a while, cause i was making the best in my galaxy, until i started getting lowballed by people making ones close to mine.

so, i am taking the money i have made before the economy started dropping of for arch's and i'm having fun with combat.

one last thing in defense of my subjective opinion - i still get a few (5% maybe) good successes these days, and a few amazing successes (5%). but the vast majority of my experiments are great successes (90%). i can not remember the last time i got anything less than a good. that is not the same results i used to get with my -15% station. i do not have the numbers, but i would bet my swg bank account that these work. i used to regularly get failures and critical failures when experimenting

hehe, well, I'm still building, not as much as I used to since I don't dicker prices anymore, no biggie for me, if they want to pay my price they almost always have it within the hour. I've been playing around with some combat stuff myself to pass the time. I make enough selling 5 or 6 large items a week to be able to keep the harvesters running and have some fun doing something different.

I just wish we could get a response on this.... it doesn't seem like it would take that long for a dev to say yes or no.

I can see both arguements for and against a crafting station Functionality Rating having any effect and because no conclusive data is available I am fairly nuetral on this issue.

If anything, the one thing that sways me to the positive side is that the devs said in those patch notes that stations would now show their functionality rating. It seems that whether or not the FR does have an affect that it actually is INTENDED to have an affect by the DEVs.

Thoughts?

There is an input hopper tab when you are crafting, you can find your 'missing' resources there.

As for me, the better my tools become and the better my stations becomes, the worse off I am crit fail wise. Seems to have no difference or even hurts me. That is just my experience. Shame too, cause these things are easy to make.

What is everyone else's experience?

My experience has been the same. I craft at 2 friends houses (can't afford to spare the lots for my own house), and have stations at each. One is -11, the other is +34. I've crafted EXTENSIVELY at both (hundreds and hundreds of items), and have noticed absolutly no difference at either of them.

-Phal

Prerequisites: Master Architect, Master Artisan, Novice Droid Engineer

Ok – there are lots of people who ask me this, and I’d like to share what have learned. Much of this information applies to all general crafting as well. And it is valuable information for the end consumers also, imo, since knowing the right questions to ask will make you a better customer.

Let’s look at the schematic (all 4 crafting station schematics are the same).

400 units of metal
50 units of mineral
Optional – 2 control units
Optional – 2 micro-sensor suites
Optional – 5 droid storage compartments

Experimental durability – 100% decay resistance
Experimental effectiveness – 100% conductivity

So we are looking for high functionality crafting stations (you can determine the functionality of a crafting station by examining it – it is clearly listed in the examine window). High functionality in the end product comes from high effectiveness.

So we care about high conductivity (“cd”) metal and mineral. Which means copper. Copper as a rule is going to have the highest conductivity. Copper is a metal, and it is also a mineral, so we can use it in both slots. So how to find the highest conductivity copper? www.swgcraft.com is an excellent reference web site. If we look there, on Intrepid (my server) we find that the highest conductivity copper ever is in the current shift. It is “Trigiasiate” polysteel copper, with a cd of 996.

What about the durability? It wants resources with high decay resistance. Well, since only weapons, clothing and armor seem to decay in SWG, we ignore experimental durability in favor of a high functionality – something that does matter.

So pull out your trusty general crafting tool and make a crafting station with trigiasiate copper and you get a -6 functionality. What gives? Well, you need to experiment on the station to get the best results. You need to use a structure crafting tool (a specialized tool), standing in front of a structure crafting station to experiment. You need to be a master architect to have the most experimentation points available. It does not matter if you experiment the whole bar at once, or one box at a time, you will get the same results in the end. When you start your experimenting, you will see that using a high cd copper has got us up to 29% already on experimental effectiveness. If you are a master architect, and you get all great or amazing successes when experimenting, you will get a station that is 14.88 functionality. That is experimenting on effectiveness up to 99%.

Not bad. But we can do better. What about these option components? Well, using high-quality optional components in your crafting station will increase your functionality even more. Control units are one of the optional components. If you look at the schematic for control units, you will see to get a really good experimental quality, we need resources with high overall quality (“oq”).

To make the micro-sensor suite optional component, you first make the sub-components: a control unit, an electronics gp module and an energy distributor. The sub component schematics all mention 100% oq for best experimental effectiveness/quality. So we can make these sub-sub components just like we made the control unit above.

But the micro sensor suite schematic says for experimental quality, it wants 66% oq and 33% cd. So we need resources that are high in both oq and cd. Here is an example - if I had a resource that was 900 oq and 600 cd, it's effectiveness to use in a micro-sensor suite would be:

900 * 0.66 = 594
600 * 0.33 = 198
----------------------------
add 594 + 198 = 792

www.swgcraft.com will even let you search for resources like this. Try this: on the find resource screen, choose metal for a resource class and type 66 in the oq box and 33 in the cd box. It will even tell you what the resource’s “rating” is, which means the web page already did the math shown above for you.

Ok, so what about these droid storage compartments? Well, they do not effect functionality. What they do is allow you to store resources in your crafting station when you make one with these optional components. True, right now that storage is bugged. But it will be fixed, and when it is, many crafters will want to use this optional feature. So you should ask if your architect is making his crafting stations with droid storage compartments, if this is important to you.

If you find the right resources and follow the directions above you will get very good results. Using the best resources I can find on my server, I have gotten crafting stations with 38+ functionality.