Artisan Archive
Thread: Surveying Methods
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XxSOLSTICExX
Thu Oct 07, 2004 10:04 pm
#1
I'm pretty new to the whole crafting thing,and I must say, I'm really enjoying it (especially surveying :smileyhappy
. What is a good method to survey for the best concentrations of resources? Is it just a matter of luck or just loooong hours of scouring the entire surface of the planet 
?
. What is a good method to survey for the best concentrations of resources? Is it just a matter of luck or just loooong hours of scouring the entire surface of the planet ?
Kryxal
Thu Oct 07, 2004 11:19 pm
#2
If you don't have a speeder, get one. Then get used to driving for 10-20 seconds, hopping off, surveying, and hopping on.
Aomircko
Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:28 pm
#3
I've done this but put it into a macro and use that
Firstly open the survey tool you want to use and survey once for your resource, now press ALT so that the screen disappears and get on your speeder. Keep you speeder targetted and have the following macro stored somewhere.
/dismount;
/pause 2;
/survey;
/pause 2;
/mount;
now all you need to do is stop, and start the macro (and to see what concentration you are at, Press ALT to bring the survey screen back up)
HTH
LadyGrey
Sat Oct 09, 2004 5:22 am
#4
Get to know the topography of the planets. It does you no good at all to survey in mountains, for instance. So if a vein seems to wander off into a mountainous area, just consider it a lost cause and stop following it. On some planets, this can save you several hours of frustration. I have regular routes that I follow on each planet. Keep track of what you find, by labeling the waypoint with the percentage you have found. Then you can look at the overhead map and figure out the next likely spot to head towards. If you are doing concentric circles around a central spot, like the mining outpost on Dantooine, this keeps you from "discovering" the same spot twice. If you are surveying for someone else, always have an open lot, and carry a spare harvester, so you can "measure" the area, verifying that you have green, and that there is sufficient open space for however many harvesters they want to put down.
PaladinX333
Sat Oct 09, 2004 10:38 am
#5
I use a dismount/survey/mount macro like the other guy suggests. The only problem is that your mind pool tends to get drained pretty fast this way. If you are really doing some power surveying you should find a master dancer for a two hour mind buff. You can use mind foods as well, but that can get expensive.
When you are going to drop a harvester you need to remember that lairs create a temporary "no drop" zone. Many times I have had to kill off a creature lair in order to be able to get onto the highest concentration. There was also the unfortuante incident with those hermits... that'll teach em to spawn on a 93% concentration of high OQ minerals...
LadyGrey
Sat Oct 09, 2004 2:23 pm
#6
PaladinX333 wrote:
When you are going to drop a harvester you need to remember that lairs create a temporary "no drop" zone. Many times I have had to kill off a creature lair in order to be able to get onto the highest concentration. There was also the unfortuante incident with those hermits... that'll teach em to spawn on a 93% concentration of high OQ minerals...
I think we should be allowed to burn down houses and player cities that are built right on top of good concentrations of high-quality resources. Could be part of our game content and immersion. Come on, devs, throw us a bone here! hehe
Jjiaah
Sun Oct 10, 2004 2:29 am
#7
LadyGrey wrote:
PaladinX333 wrote:
When you are going to drop a harvester you need to remember that lairs create a temporary "no drop" zone. Many times I have had to kill off a creature lair in order to be able to get onto the highest concentration. There was also the unfortuante incident with those hermits... that'll teach em to spawn on a 93% concentration of high OQ minerals...
I think we should be allowed to burn down houses and player cities that are built right on top of good concentrations of high-quality resources. Could be part of our game content and immersion. Come on, devs, throw us a bone here! hehe
LOL Now that would be priceless! :: Gets mental images of Helios in flames reminiscent of biblical quotes ::
But you know them Devs.... make buildings flamable, and Archs will be able to install sprinkler systems. Make an acid that corrodes the sprinker pipes, and DE's will be able to make plumber droids. Make a restraining bolt weapon to stop the droids, and armorsmiths can make forcefield high-intesnsity light-based shields for them.Make an armor-piercing weapon that can penetrate that type of shield... and you have a landscape littered with dead Jedi crying that saber block isn't working. No, you fool Jedi! It's working... you just need to get the devs to make a better glo-stick!
It's all about the combat balance. 
Jjiaah
Thu Oct 14, 2004 11:03 pm
#8
Dpjarrett wrote:
- The "/target (;" line is the main line that usually confuses people.This line targets an actual mount. The reason for the "(" is that I have several different mounts and this command targets any of them since all pet names start with a "(". (You do name your pets, right?
Just for giggles, I tried /target (; /mount; on my droid. He didn't appreciate it....
Nice little macro system though I'm gonna have to start trying something like this next I'm out surveying.
Dpjarrett
Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:06 am
#9
Jjiaah wrote:
But you know them Devs.... make buildings flamable, and Archs will be able to install sprinkler systems. Make an acid that corrodes the sprinker pipes, and DE's will be able to make plumber droids. Make a restraining bolt weapon to stop the droids, and armorsmiths can make forcefield high-intesnsity light-based shields for them.Make an armor-piercing weapon that can penetrate that type of shield... and you have a landscape littered with dead Jedi crying that saber block isn't working. No, you fool Jedi! It's working... you just need to get the devs to make a better glo-stick!
It's all about the combat balance.
/cheer Okay, that's just about the funniest thing I've read on the forums today.
I just wanted to add a little something that I find very helpful to this discussion. I actually have two macros that I make use of while surveying. I'll list them and then explain what they do.
Macro: Survey
/dismount;
/pause .25;
/survey;
/pause .25;
/macro mount;
Macro: Mount
/target (;
/pause .25;
/target Speederbike;
/pause .25;
/target AV;
/pause .25;
/mount;
Okay, so the first macro is pretty much identical to the macro that someone else listed earlier. The only difference is that instead of just having a /mount command in the macro, it has a command that makes a call to the Mount Macro. The mount macro is essentially there because as I'm surverying, if I see a large group of hostiles in my path, I like to target them to make sure it's not a group that's going to kill me as I pass through them. Looking around like this is fine except that you no longer have your vehicle targeted the next time you stop and therefore you have to retarget your speederbike before your survey macro will work.
Enter the mount macro. The mount macro automatically cycles through various potential mount targets and then has the character mount whichever target is found. For those not familiar with macros I'll explain the important command lines.
- The "/target (;" line is the main line that usually confuses people.This line targets an actual mount. The reason for the "(" is that I have several different mounts and this command targets any of them since all pet names start with a "(". (You do name your pets, right? )
- The nexttwo "/target" commands are pretty self evident. I have 3 different vehicles and this macro simply cycles through them. I don't have a "swoop" command because the full name of the swoop is actually "Speederbike Swoop" so the "/target Speederbike;" command works for both my Swoop and my regular Speederbike.
- The "/pause .25;" commands are basically there to make sure the macro doesn't trip up on itself. My experience with macros tells me that even the simplest macro can skip steps and not function properly if you don't have some short pauses in there to break up the flow a little bit and at .25 seconds per pause this makes my total survey macro take only 1.25 seconds. Basically, not enough that you're ever going to notice it.
The mount macro I actually use even when I'm not surveying. I have it in my toolbar so that whenever I pull any mount/vehicle I just hit the hotkey and I'm automatically thrown into whatever mount I've chosen. The only times that I have any problems with this macro is if there are alot of other people around with their vehicles out. In that case the macro will sometimes target someone else's vehicle/pet and you'll have to manually mount your vehicle. That's why I have my AV-21 listed last. Generally it's the vehicle that I'm using andsince it is the last thing to get targeted and they are much less common than speederbikes, there's less chance for the macro to target someone else's vehicle.
Message Edited by Dpjarrett on 10-14-2004 03:08 PM
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