Bio Engineer Archive

Ok, granted I haven't been able to get out and sample mutant rancors and all the rest of those big ones because I'm alone and reluctant to try it without backup.

I have sampled some fairly decent things (elder snorbals and such) and then put them into lower level templates to sample back. The only results so far are dna it's not even worth trying to experiment on. I've tried making all sorts of different critters to sample back and all I get is junk dna.

The only good thing I've made so far came from prepatch gurreck samples. I'm about to give up because each critter I make just makes the dna worse. Yes, I am careful to put the right qualities in all the right slots, etc and I've read everything on the boards, trying to figure all this out.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong or should I just give it up? Thanks in advance for any help.

The old system of creating clones to sample to make the desired creture is dead, it no longer works like that.

You should be making creatures now by carefully selecting DNA from wild creatures that have the stats you are lookign to get into a clone. You should not be using wild DNA to make clones to sample to make creatures.

You will still end up sampling clones you create but now you have to be more systematic about it. If you get a clone that has the right resists you were looking for or the right specials you wanted but the CL and the HAM is way off where you want it to be then save that clone and sampe its DNA to mix back in with wild DNA to get the desired results.

For instance, if your clone got the specials you wanted but came out 5 CL too high then use a sample from it in Agression and Physique (to preserve the specials) and mix in some more wild DNA in the other slots then experiment on the Phsychological to bring the CL down some more.

Another thing to consider is that you DO NO want to mix together lots of diffent wild dna samples to make you clone. The worst thing you can do is to combine 5 differnt dna samples from 5 different animals with different vulnerabilities. One of the prime genes that carries over is "vulnerability" so if you combine an animal that has 60 kinetic and vulnerability to energy with an animal that has 60 energy but vulnerable to kinetic you are assured to get an animal that is vulnerable to both energy and kinetic, no resists to either. I have had very very rare successes where a vulnerablity has disappeared (maybe once or twice out of 300-400 attempts) and that may have been just an error in recording the information and the vulnerabilty didnt exist in any of the samples I used.

As far as sampling tough creatures, Go for it! I have the minimum maskscent myself (just have exploration 4) and I wear no clothing so I dont have any bonuses but I still go out there and successfully sample from the tough creatures. If you are having problems with being detected then try this. Say you have 3 delirous mereks standing around that you want to sample from, when you get to about 70-68 meters from the closest target move to walk (hold down shift while moving forward) when you get to 63-61 range of that creature, that usually means you are safe to move at normal rate until you reach that same range of the enxt closest creature. Then you want to walk again.

For example delirious merek aveneger 1 is at 75 meters delerious merek 2 is at90 meters and toxic merek is at100 meters. move normally to delerious 1 until you reach 70 meters. Hit shift and walk til you reach within 60 meters of it and then hit tab to your next closest target. Delerious1 is now at 60 meters, delerious 2 is now at 75 and toxic is now at 85. Move normally til you are at 70 meters of second delerious then shift walk to 60. You are now close enough to the toxic that you can shift walk to within 60 meters of that. You are now 35 meters from first delerious 50 from second and 60 from the toxic. Now you can run up to any of the three to within 16 meters so you can get a sample. (keep an eye on the radar in case you see any other reds pop up to worry about getting their attention. If they break your maskscent at any point then you want to back up to outside of 70meters of the first one and try again. If they continually break maskscent even with walking then try going prone and crawling through the perimeter for each.

Patience is a virtue
Other things I myself do is try to get in the middle of such a group and then rotate the sampling around. Sample from 1, sample from the next, sample from the third, then back to the first. Waiting about 10 seconds after you get the message of whether you got the sample or not seems to help also for tough creatures. If the question mark appears over their head , even if maskscent doesnt break I leave the outer perimeter reapply maskscent and reenter slowly. Get an idea of which creatures dont mind being jabbed over and over again with the needle and which do. Arachne hatchling I can usually sample steadily, arachne webmaster almost always notices after the first or second attempts unless I go outside perimeter and reapply maskscent.

The info about the mixing dna samples is empirically valid. The maskscent info is my ritual and what works for me so take it for what you will

Thanks for the tips! I've read this board faithfully and even made charts of what affects what stat, etc. until I'm feeling a little burned out by it all but hearing your additional comments is helping me sort through it. I will give the dangerous creatures a try with that method and see what happens. Thanks again for your help!

/BUMP for excellent info

The thing to do with arachne webmasters is when they notice you, stand still. Don't move or sample any more. After 5-10 seconds, if you don't move, they will lose interest and move a couple steps away, then you can just walk right back to them and sample away again...works well even with maskscent breaking as long as you stay still, with the obvious exception of them aggroing as soon as it breaks...also works with mereks...

Another question, if you don't mind. Is there a list somewhere that will tell me where to find all these creatures you mention? I have heard Dathomir mentioned a lot. Are they all there?

Heh... I'm on Sunrunner... and I live in New Suntir with you

Anyway... check out swg.warcry.com They have a nicedatabase of creatures and what planet you can find them on.