Artisan Archive
Thread: How do I experiment?
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Maxtla
Sat Dec 20, 2003 8:21 pm
#1
Alright, I've been an Artisan, Medic, and Bio-engineer, and I haven't been able to manual experiment. Every time the experiment window popped up, its done it by itself. Yet I hear of people experimenting anytime they want to. Is there something special I have to do, or are their experiments random too?
Bndrsnatch
Sat Dec 20, 2003 8:29 pm
#2
Well if I am understanding you right, you have to be in the vicinity of a crafting station (either public or one in your house, guild hall, etc...). You might have to have a specific crafting tool as well, like a food and chemical crafting tool.
Gregmond
Sun Dec 21, 2003 2:41 am
#3
IF you wish to experiment the best idea is to use a Private Crafting station, and preferably one that is +10 or better.
The MUST's:
You MUST be near a Crafting station or have a Droid with the appropriate Crafting Module.
You MUST use a specific Crafting tool. Generic will NOT allow experimentation.
Hope this helps.
Gruntbacca
GriskGrizzno
Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:28 am
#4
Sorry for this real newbish question... but how do I experiment? The holocron says that experimenting can be done by "experienced artisans" and will lower the chance that you create the weapon. However the only experiment thing I see is after I assemble it, and I cannot seem to change those values at all. Is it automatic? If not how do I do it?
Asteroids
Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:33 am
#5
If you aren't already, are you near the corresponding crafting station. Depending on the complexity of the item you are crafting determines which can be used. A private station will give you access to all your available schematics and a public one a subset of these.
You'll notice them around town.
joined42904
Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:46 pm
#6
Great post, sciguyCo.
I remember when I couldn't figure out how to experiment either. Please don't think you are alone in having had this experience.
It would be nice if some text came up during crafting that said "you are unable to experiment on this item because you are not next to a XXXX crafting station" but which wouldn't slow you down.
Of course, I don't need that verbal warning now. But I would have liked it early on. Maybe those green helper droids can say that.
Beercules
Thu Jun 10, 2004 7:09 pm
#7
I'm not really new to the game, but I am sorta new to crafting.
My question: am I better off spending experiment points one at a time, experimenting over and over on the same item, or is it better to use as many as possible at one time (in the stat you are trying to improve)? What do you experienced crafters do? Thanks in advance for your help.
sciguyCO
Fri Jun 11, 2004 12:53 am
#8
It's not really that "advanced" of a skill, but more skills in artisan lets you spend more points for a better product.
1) Get a specialized crafting tool, the "generic" tool you start with isn't going to work. Use that tool to make a weapon/droid/general item too, food/chem tool, structural tool, or clothing/armor tool (whichever you're trying to make).
2) Stand next to a crafting station of the same type as your tool. These are commonly found around starports, shuttleports, or the "University" guild hall (the one with all the elite crafter trainers). These are "public" crafting stations, players can also get "private" crafting stations from artisans to place in their homes. You can also get droids with built-in crafting modules.
3) Assemble the item like normal. But now you should get an additional screen with three options: "Experiment", "Create Prototype" and "Create manufacturing schematic". Ignore the schematic option until you get a factory. Click "Experiment".
4) You now get a screen with the different "experimental categories" that are on the item, representing different areas you can choose to improve. For weapons, these will be things like "damage", "durability", "efficiency". Hovering your mouse over the category name should bring up the actual stats modified by that category (those are also listed in the draft schematic in your datapad, or on the screen where you pick resources).
5) On the left side of that screen are the number of "experimentation points" you have available to spend. These go up as you get more skills, and are based on your "Artisan experimentation" skill modifier listed on your character's skill sheet (ctrl-s with the default keymap). For every 10 in experimentation skill, you get one point to spend. Elite crafting professions (weaponsmith, droid engineer, architect, etc) have different experimentation skills, so Artisan experimentation won't help for items in those professions.
6) Put a point or two into a category you want to improve, and hit experiment. A random result will determine how well you do (or how badly you fail). The more points you spend at a time, the greater the chance of a bad result (represented by the "Risk" bar on the right).
Experimenting gets a little tricky, but play with it for a bit to get a feel for what it can do.
NOTE: right now, you can craft any item with a "Weapon/Droid/General item" tool, and experiment it when standing next to a W/D/G station. This is a bug being fixed in publish 9 (currently on test center) so while you can play around with anything you know how to make with that one tool now, eventually you'll have to get the right tools for the job.
CasualMaker
Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:50 am
#9
sciguyCO wrote:It's not really that "advanced" of a skill, but more skills in artisan lets you spend more points for a better product.1) Get a specialized crafting tool, the "generic" tool you start with isn't going to work. Use that tool to make a weapon/droid/general item too, food/chem tool, structural tool, or clothing/armor tool (whichever you're trying to make).
I would like to insert a clarification here. Use the Generic Tool to craft a Weapon/Droid/etc tool; it won't be great (probably negative quality), but you can experiment with it. Use your new crafting tool to make a better one, repeating until you don't get much improvement. Now use this advanced tool to create your other specialized crafting tools.
The public crafting stations are fine for medium-to-advanced complexity items, but you need private crafting stations to build the most advanced schematics. I understand that the public stations are 0.00 quality, like the free generic tool. One way to improve your experimental results is to find a player city that is a "Research Center"; any crafting done within city limits gets a bonus. Also, there may be private crafting stations that are accessible by the public in those cities. I have found them in Guild Halls, Medical Centers, and City Hall.
CasualMaker
Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:12 am
#10
Beercules wrote:I'm not really new to the game, but I am sorta new to crafting.My question: am I better off spending experiment points one at a time, experimenting over and over on the same item, or is it better to use as many as possible at one time (in the stat you are trying to improve)? What do you experienced crafters do? Thanks in advance for your help.
I throw all the points I can into a category, but then I have enough skill that the risk bar shows little if any reaction. At low levels, even 1 point can show a 20% risk. The more points used, the bigger the success or failure; and if a category drops to zero after an experimentation failure, it can't be experimented back up again. With each experiment run, the item's complexity increases by one. This will increase the time needed to make that item, either as a prototype or in a factory.
If you're making something that you can easily do over if the first one doesn't turn out right, I'd say to roll the dice with as many points as you can. If it's something you feel you can't take risks with, then take it slow. Don't put in enough points at one time that a critical failure could drop a category to zero.
MasterMind013
Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:55 am
#11
I'm not really new to the game, but I am sorta new to crafting.
My question: am I better off spending experiment points one at a time, experimenting over and over on the same item, or is it better to use as many as possible at one time (in the stat you are trying to improve)? What do you experienced crafters do? Thanks in advance for your help.
According to the dev's... and many other players, getting an "amazing success" can increase the min/max stat you can achieve with a resource. Making it so you can actually go slightly past what you could if you got all great succcesses. Even if you fill all the boxes. So... this being said, I feel that it is best to experiment one box at a time unless I really don't care how the experimentation goes.
For power-ups, I definately experiment one block at a time just because you have the chance to get more stats on it. I have had one power-up with 4 mods and a friend had one with 5.
On the other hand, getting a failed experimentation can actually decrease the max even if you get the bar filled. So you take more chances if you do experiment one block at a time. Though I have had many more successes than failures when I do one block at a time.
One last thing to remember... every time you experiment, it increases the production time in the factory. This can make a large run of items take significantly longer to make.
So weigh your options and available time and experiment as you see fit.
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