Artisan Archive

I have been playing for about a week now. My starting profession is Artisan. I came to these forums to see if I could find some tips and after an hour of scouring through threads I have found quite a few but Ithought it would be cool if there was a post of just tips for new Artisans. So if you've been around for a while maybe you could post here some of the things you wish you had done when you first started out.

I'll go first. These things may seem silly but when I discoveredthem I laughed outloud at myself:

You can take 2 missions at a time from the terminals. I didn't know this at first. I was happy to find out that I could take 2 missions, say crafting, and double the profit and experience I could get. Just look where the mission destinations are. You could take one that ends 2400m NW and another that ends 2250 NW. You visit the local NPC's and get the schematics and materials, head to a shuttleport and buy a ticket to the destination city, craft the items while your waiting for the shuttle or while you're running.

The first time I took a surveying mission I ran 1024m away from the mission terminal and started looking for the material. Only to find that the trail to the most abundant resource was leading me back toward the city and the mission terminal and putting me less than 1024m away. I found that the easiest thing to do was jump on a shuttle and go to another city. Then you can just head a little ways out of that town and start surveying. This really cuts down on running.

Make use of burst running. It's not only useful for getting away from creatures but also for getting from one side of a large city to the other.

Looking forward to seeing some other tips.

~Cherimoya

I am a master armorsmith so I make plenty of money, but before when I started I did lots of survey missions to get cash. How I did it was go 1024 meters away from the terminal and check all the different resouces till I found one with a concentration of at least 70% where I was standing. Then I would go to town and get 2 missions for that type of resource. Long runs back and forth, but no shuttle waits. In a few weeks mount prices will come down, so that will help the running.

Good luck

Owako

Just a few things I've discovered along the way:

* If you have tailoring skills, make clothes that are black. People snap 'em up. One of the best clothing moneyspinners I've discovered is the Simple Shirt (in black) and Hide Boots (again, in black.) I can't keep up with demand for them.

* If you're making CDEF guns, rifles and carbines are a better moneyspinner than pistols. Most classes start with a pistol, but riflemen and carbineers need to get their guns from somewhere...

* Use the best quality resources you can if you're going to sell the item. The final quality of the item you're making is dictated by what goes into it, so always try to use higher quality "ingredients" when you have them. This is especially true for pharmaceutical items.

* Don't worry too much about mining your own resources. Most can be found on the bazaar and in the short term, it's as easy to buy them as it is to extract them for yourself.

* Just like in real life, be kind to your customers. Wolfbane on Eclipse offers a warranty with any gun purchased from him, plus a "tell a friend" discount on purchases. As a result, I tell everybody I know to go and see him. There are also many tailors who offer a full refund on any item you buy (providing it's not damaged) if you don't like the look of it on the model. Again, that motivates people to recommend them and gets repeat business. I've also had dealings with other vendors who weren't so generous and I don't use them again or recommend them.

- Tyl

If you've got the Scouting skill too, then once you've Surveyed around to find your resource, always set up a campsite around you before you start Sampling. This gives you a number of benefits, first of all Sampling and Camping are two skills that take ages to grind up, whilst needing almost minimal interaction from you while you're carrying them out, so stick on a video or get a book out and look up at the screen every now and then to check if one of those questions has come up. Secondly your recovery rates are slightly higher in a campsite so you should spend less time sitting around waiting for your Action stats to recover.

If you're standing around waiting for a Shuttle or Space trip, don't just wait. Almost every Shuttleport has a range of public crafting stations right beside, so you can get crafting. Or pull out your survey tools and get sampling, you'll normally find that some resource has concentration above 50% within about 80m of teh shuttleports, so get sampling. Even if you don't want to keep the results you can always right-click-destroy them and you've got llits of nice XP that you didn't have before.

- If/when buying Harvesters, be sure to examine the 'Base Rate' stat on the deed carefully. All harvesters are not created equally, and one with a Base of 4 will dig out four times as much resource than a Base 1, for the same maintenance and power. (Manufacturers, use the best materials and experiment lots on these if you intend to sell or use them)

- If intent on getting through Artisan to one of the Elites as fast as possible, get to Engineering III first, then make Harvesters. Assuming you can keep in stock with the resources, these offer the best experience per item, which can then be spent on Engineering, Domestic Arts or Business, as needed.

- If only concerned about XP, use Practice Mode. While not giving you an item to actually sell or use at the end of it, it does give a 5% XP bonus unstead.

Hi everyone,

Some good stuff getting put on here. Last night while playing I found out something else I wish I had been doing all along. I get a surveying job and when I get on a high concentration I start sampling. While I'm sampling I open up my crafting station and start crafting items to sell on the bazaar. Bam I'm getting crafting experience and survey experience at the same time.

~Ch3rimoya

P.S. Increased Range is Saaaaweeeeeet!!

This is if you always seem to lack something for harvesters.

Droid, Weapon and General Crafting tools are awsome EXP, I made it to Engin 4/Domestic 4 faster than with anything else. Just have alot of patience... and don't do like I did and make lots of wrapped skirts.

- Just to clarify: Crafting Experience is generated by making items, and is 2 * (Quantity of Resources Used). Quality of Materials, Complexity or Experimentation add no extra XP, although do make items more saleable. This xp can be spent on Engineering, Domestic Arts or Business. (Meaning you can learn better cooking by making Bone Armour...odd, but there you go.)

(N.B. - Contrary to the manual, people doNOT need to use your items for you to get XP. Simply making them is enough. However, you will need to earn money somehow.)

- Surveying Experience is separated to the other three disciplines and is gained by 'Get Sample' only. You earn no experience for 'Survey'

- Items That Seem To Sell: Ranged Powerups,Harvesters, some Basic Clothing, Bone Armour Pieces. (Always experiment fully if you want to sell an item.)

- Pricing Items: Low-Average Grade Resources seem to universally sell for 3 credits per unit on most Bazaars. In effect this means your Cost-To-Make for an item is 3 * (Number of Resources Used). You should resist price dump matching and try to at least make this cost back, even if you use Harvesters. Be patient and these items will eventually sell. If you can add more to reflect usefulness, time spent crafting, and experiementation, then so much the better.