Artisan Archive

Really, I do

I have no idea how to collect resources in this game, so i thought I would beg here for some advice on the subject. As a master medic, I was able to grind up the medic tree by buying resources off the bazaar. Now I want togo Doctor and figure I should figure out how to get my own resources....

1) Is it even possible for me to do this? I have no artisan skill and recieved the message I couldn't use the resource scanners. Thats seems like a pretty big problem trying to locate resources

2) Is it worth it? Would I be better off just buying the resources like I am currently doing?

3) Can someone give me a quick rundown on what is involved in running/maintaining a harvester. Seems very complicated to someone that hasn't used one at all.

Thanks

Ok, here's the quick and dirty. You must have novice artisan in order to Survey and Sample (use a survey device) the artisan survey line improves the amount you sample (survey1 and 3) and the area surveyed (2 and 4). Surveying will tell you where large deposits of resources are located so you know where to place your havesters. If your Low on skill points and can't afford to spend them on novice artisan you can buy resource harvesters (flora farm, mineral extractors, ect...) and place them any where on the map.When you open a harvester (operate machinery from the radial menu) and select which resource to mine you will see a list of availible resources this is just like using a survey device but takes a lot longer and you must have a 'Lot' free before you place the harvester.

2) Is it worth it? Would I be better off just buying the resources like I am currently doing?

Really depens how much your in game time is worth to you. Finding decent resources in a large enouph deposit can be VERY time consuming. As a matter of fact without novice artsan this will be impossible to do alone. But, harvester maintance on a ~60% deposit will give you a nice 1cpuprice tagafter you factor in power. Meaning more of the cash you make on meds will go in your pocket rather then the guy your buying the resoucres off of. So, to sum it all up Yes, if you have enouph time and the skill points for novice artisan and prolly the surveying line it will be worth it. But, if you'd rather play at being a doctor rather then runnning across the galaxie looking for resources you'll be better off buying the resources.

3) Can someone give me a quick rundown on what is involved in running/maintaining a harvester. Seems very complicated to someone that hasn't used one at all.

Someone else will have to handle this one my hands are tired

Glum_Moonfist I was a master surgeon (4/4/3/2 doc) before retiring and I found buying and maintaining harvesters well worth the money, especially if you are using a factoryto make your meds.However, I have excess time on my hands so I was not too worried about the time committments and yes, it involves a lot of work. Here was my set up and I found I could keep up with all my medical demands.

I had 2 wind power generators, 2 floral farms, 1 mineral, 1 chem, 2 water, 1 small house. That's all 10 lots as the house uses 2. I would also swap outharvesters for my Food/Chem factory. I put 1 floral farm on Dantoine and 1 water on Talus so I could make Adv. Liq. Susp. The others I put on my home planet. The hard part about this is finding high quality materials to gather. As a doc, I wanted max healing with min. time and that means that quality matters! Check the schematics for the particular traits that matter to item you are crafting then gather those itemsthat have the highest attributes. Now if you are like me, then you may have to travel to various planets to find the best quality items. This can mean more travel and therefore more expense and less time. Yes I kept my Surveying 4 because this was extremely handy when resources shifted and it seems to take for ever to get to lvl 4.

In order to keep the harvesters running, you have to supply power and maint. I never checked the reqs. for these but they seem to vary with the type of harvester with the wind being the most expensive. I found that to get the quantities necessary for using my factory, I had to place harvesters, otherwise I couldn't afford to make my meds. Anyways, I hope this helps. Good luck.