Artisan Archive
Thread: Survey Missions (Im I an idiot?)
Freaking edit button.....
It's NOT a very intuitive system.
LudvigRogan wrote:
I go to an Artisan mission terminal, select survey mission, get a mission that request some sort of mineral and the name of the guy making the request. Heres where I think Im an idiot. Unlike the crafting missions, survey missions dont have a waypoint. Where do I go? Also, when I've collected the "Samples" where do I take them? Good thing I'm staying close to the big cities, I'd make good Bantha fodder. Thanks.
Actually, you don't even need to sample it (unless they changed this in the past month or so since I've done a survey mission). Get the mission, travel at least 1024m away from the terminal (grabbing a couple of these before shuttling to another city is a great way to subsidize travel costs), then survey for any resource that is under the type in the mission details. If the mission just asks for "metal", you can search for steel, aluminum, copper, iron, or "unknown metal". If the mission asks for "reactive gas" you can search for Irolun, skevon, etc.
Another important detail: you have to actually be standing on a spot with a concentration greater than or equal to the amount in the mission. So if you're looking for a 60% concentration, if you survey and you get a waypoint to a 65% spot but you're standing on a 59% spot, that doesn't count. Move towards the waypoint at the 65% spot, survey again, and you'll get the reward.
Message Edited by sciguyCO on 03-18-2004 11:31 AM
Yup, just make sure that you've got your best weapon equipped when you select your missions(s). Then, make sure that you're 1024 m away from that mission terminal.
The best way to make money as a starving Artisan, is to go get 2 missions forInert Petrochemical, jump a shuttle to another city, and survey. Then, get 2 more missions forInert Petrochemical, and jump a shuttle to the next city. With your best weapon equipped, make sure that you always get the highest payout available...which I think maxes-out at 1800cr.
Why Inert Petrochemical? It's the most-abundant resource that I've seen, and surveyable in almost all of the NPC cities on Tatooine at 70%+ nearby (or right-on) the shuttleport.
You can try other things, but be careful. Sometimes, the terminals will give lucarative missions for resources that don't even exist on your planet. Also, survey missions for ore are plentiful and may pay well...but that's because you almost NEVER find a cache of 70% concentration for ANY kind of ore. Maybe, you might get lucky out in the boonies on an adventure planet. But still, if you want to make a quick buck, not worth your time.
As a side note, if you are shuttling between two cities... you can survey in city 1 to find out what isavailable above about 60%, then shuttle to city two, survey and find out what is there, then take two missions for the resource you foundin city 1, shuttle back, etc... that is, you can find out ahead of time what kind of mission you should take, by what is close to the shuttleport in the other city.
But really, delivery missions pay almost as much as survey missions, and are much easier to perform. So why choose to do survey missions? It's not like you get any experience points for it. Just do two deliveries each time you shuttle, and choose the two cities that are farthest apart on the planet to accept missions to. (You can tell where a delivery is goingby viewing the mission details screen, and match that up with the locations of distant cities on your planetary map. If the direction and distance are the same as a distant city, chances are the delivery will be in the city limits...) The neat thing is, after you find out the distance between two cities, the prices are almost always the same, so for instance, a delivery from Mos Eisley to Mos Entha is always within 20cr of 700. You don't even have to look at the destinations... just accept two jobs with prices around 700cr and they will both be going to whichever city you are not standing in. And distances on other planets are greater, which means higher priced missions. I have made 10k in an hour or so using this method.
sciguyCO wrote:
Actually, you don't even need to sample it (unless they changed this in the past month or so)