CUEmu - Thread Posts

Xanda

Fri Feb 20, 2004 6:47 pm

Update for Patch 6, February, 2004

By popular request, this version has been updated and is entirely possible due to the combined talents of the BE community. We are awed and intrigued by this most mysterious and powerful profession. Grinding won't show you the nuances of the profession or how challenging and fun it can be. This is a tough profession in which to level, so if you can stop the macro once and a while and experiment, you'll probably see how rich the content of BE is and why we enjoy it so much. But if it's not your play style, please tread lightly on our boards. Thank you.

Overview

Unlike other crafting professions, you will only be able to complete 3 of the 4 skill trees through crafting. The fourth skill tree, DNA sampling, is very time consuming and is difficult to macro AFK since each DNA sample is unique and cannot be stacked. Thus, your inventory fills fast and will need to be emptied often. Sampling DNA is dangerous, and the frequency of aggro is highest at the lowest skill levels. Also, sampling DNA will rapidly drain your Mind bar (particularly for us Zabraks) and that means that you will either need to buy lots of spice or chef foods in order to sample continuously.

Crafting Part 1: What to Grind and How

From Novice BE, grind Constrictor Cloths until you get Tissues I. In practice mode they will offer you 110xp per cloth. Then, grind Micronutrient Supplements up to Tissues 3 (same XP, but less meat required); requires a food & chemical crafting tool. Finally, grind Broad Spectrum Nutrients or Scent Camouflage from there until Master; requires sitting in front of a crafting droid or personal crafting station (not a public one).

Note: when you grind the supplements, use FLORA for slots 1 and 2, and use meat only for slot 3. If you double click on the meat first, it will fill slot 1 and then slot 3; meat is by far the more rare and expensive resource, so double click on it ONLY after the other two slots are filled with the flora.

The total amount of resources is (approximately) 80k meat and 175k flora (this is not exact, but a good estimate). The meat gets very expensive very quickly. Save money by buying the worst meat and flora you can: the macro below prevents critical failures, so quality will not be important. The total XP required to complete all three crafting trees is 510,000xp. Average CONTINUOUS grind time >12 hours.

Crafting Part 2: Macro

I will openly admit that I did not write this macro. What follows for the remainder of this section is a macro written by someone else anonymously. I have used it and found it is outstanding. But, you MUST follow it to the letter. I have posted a couple of quick comments about errors and issues throughout the text. Please read this carefully and fully. I cannot provide support for the macro, but if you read the directions COMPLETELY, it works. Really. To whomever wrote this: thank you.

First, the macro file itself. Go to your desktop (i.e., exit the game). Open up notepad or MS Word and create a text file called "macros.txt" (or any other filename you want as long as you accordingly update future references to macros.txt to your file's name). Copy everything BETWEEN Start File and End File below directly into your blank text file and save.

----- START FILE-----

AutoCraft1: /ui action toolbarSlot00; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /AutoCraft2;
AutoCraft2: /ui action toolbarSlot01; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /AutoCraft3;
AutoCraft3: /ui action toolbarSlot02; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /AutoCraft4;
AutoCraft4: /ui action toolbarSlot03; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /AutoCraft5;
AutoCraft5: /ui action toolbarSlot04; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /AutoCraft6;
AutoCraft6: /ui action toolbarSlot05; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /AutoCraft7;
AutoCraft7: /ui action toolbarSlot06; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /AutoCraft8;
AutoCraft8: /ui action toolbarSlot07; /selectDraftSchematic 158; /pause 5; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /nextCraftingStage; /createPrototype practice no item; /createPrototype practice no item; /pause 2; /ui action toolbarSlot08;

-----END FILE-----

Everything in between the markers beginning with "-----" goes into the file. Note that:

1) There should be no "space" at the end of any of the lines; all lines should end with a carriage return right after the semi-colon
2) There should be no space between lines
3) Capitalization matters! Do not change the capitalization or the macro will not work

Now, save the file. Put this macros.txt file in your StarWarsGalaxies directory, usually C:\Program Files\StarWarsGalaxies by default.

This file creates what are called "aliases". Aliases are sort of like macros...only they aren't stored as macros in the CTRL-A actions list. Aliases are just a way of naming a group of individual commands so that you can then use the alias name itself as a command. If that's confusing, don't worry: it's not important to know that in order for this to work.

Once the attached file is in your SWG folder, you now have to load SWG. Once in SWG, you need to type:

/load macros.txt

If you named your file something else, then replace "macros.txt" with the file name you used. Capitalization matters. Incidentally, I'll go to the Ctrl-A area and create a macro called "LoadMacros" with /load macros.txt so that I don't need to remember this little command in the future).

If you take a look at the contents of the text file, you will see that there are 8 aliases created, Autocraft1 through AutoCraft8. Those "AutoCraft" commands will get your macro working. But just loading these aliases isn't enough...there's one more step.

Here's how to get it all working:

1. Create 8 crafting tools of the type you want to use for grinding. You can modify this process to use fewer, but you may have to adjust the pause lengths so you don't catch up to a crafting tool that hasn't finished the prototype from the last go around.

2. Go to one of your blank toolbars (using CTRL-F1 thru CTRL F6 to go through them).
The first toolbar slot of a toolbar is always referred to in macros as toolbarSlot00. The 12th one is toolbarSlot11. If you show 24 slots on your screen, then they continue on the second row up through toolbarSlot23. Keep this all in mind if you go about modifying the macro file.

3. Drag and drop one crafting tool into each of the first 8 toolbar slots on the top.

4. Create an actual macro by going to the actions screen, CTRL-A, and switching to the macro tab then creating a new macro. In the macro, put the single command: /AutoCraft1

5. Give this macro a name and then drag this macro from your macro list into the 9th toolbar slot (toolbarSlot08). This is critical for your macro to cycle!

6. At this point, you are ready to begin crafting with the macro. It is recommended to be in an uncrowded place to avoid lag, etc. Hitting any key between F1 and F9 will at this point begin the macro chain. The macro boots the crafting sessions and gives you 5 seconds to load all the resources. It will then do a practice session on the item for you. The macro as it is provided here, selects the 158th schematic in your datapad. This is the broad spectrum nutrients for me.

You can get a rough idea of what your schematic number is by opening your datapad, go to the "Schematics" tab, and change the view so the schematics are in a list. Then, count upward starting at ZERO for the first schematic. When you hit micronutrient supplement, that should be your schematic number. However, I've found that technique varies usually by one or two slots. Run the schematic with the new schematic number you found by counting. If making something other than micronutrient supplements, go back to your datapad and find the object the macro is crafting. Then count up or down from that schematic to micronutrient supplement. Add or subtract from your original schematic number accordingly and then correct your txt file. This works rapidly and saves too much trial-and-error.

To change the amount of time you have to select your resources, change the "/pause 5;" that follows the select draft schematic command. The lower you go, the more chance you will have of skipping a "beat" in the chain - but the chain continues. Another trick is to put all of your unnecessary resources elsewhere like in a backpack, so you only have the actual resources you'll be clicking on available in your inventory as you use this macro.

If you actually want to create the items, "/createPrototype practice no item;" needs to be changed to "/createPrototype;" But your inventory will fill fast, just so you're aware.

If you want to modify these things, here's some info on how it works:

The aliases AutoCraft1 - AutoCraft8 get loaded when you load the macros.txt file.

The first 7 of them call the next higher AutoCraft alias.

Each AutoCraft alias does the following steps:
* Clicks on its corresponding crafting tool on your toolbar.
* Selects the draft schematic
* Gives you time to select your resources
* Takes care of zooming through the rest of the crafting screens
* Gives a brief pause to allow things to settle down before moving on
The last step in each of the first seven aliases is to call the next one in line.

The 8th one, however, clicks on the 9th toolbar slot that should contain the macro you wrote which re-executes AutoCraft1 - starting the whole cycle over again. Trying to put /AutoCraft1; as the last command in AutoCraft8 will cause the game to display a message that says something like, "Alias Recursion Buster" stopped execution...which is to prevent an endless cycle of recursion in aliases. So the macro takes care of that.

--Xanda

Xanda

Fri Feb 20, 2004 6:49 pm

#2

[CONTINUED]

To halt the macro, type /dump during one of your resource selection breaks and it will dump the paused chain of commands.

You can Alt-Tab in and out of the game to modify the macros.txt file and then when you return to the game, you can reload the file using: /load macros.txt

That will overwrite the previously loaded aliases with any updated versions of them.

Okay...some other important things.

1. The macro WILL NOT load the ingredients for you. My limited understanding of the EULA is that this may violate SWG rules, and could result in banning. Doubt it could happen, but it is up to you if you choose to go that route. If you are interested in an AFK macro that will load the ingredients automatically, go to: http://swgguide.com/x340/ I have never used these, so I don't know how they work other than they are 3rd party applications.

2. You must double click on the ingredients to load them.

3. You will see the message, "Failed to craft item! Crafting Session Ended!" spammed on your screen while you are running the macro. Don't worry: this is normal and means the macro is working. To reassure you, you can see the timers above the crafting tools appear in succession and your XP will increase (but only if you loaded ingredients into the tool: the same message will appear even if you load nothing into the tool, but XP will be zero and there will be no countdown timer).

4. If you fail to double click on all the ingredients in time (particularly if you see a "Loading..." message in an ingredient slot), you may get an error that says "Schematic Failed to Load". Just click out of the box and continue on your way: however, you did not get XP for that craft, but on the other hand you didn't lose resources either.

5. To stop the macro, type "/dump"

6. Rarely, the macro will "catch up to itself" and you'll get a message that says "You are already crafting!" Click okay and move on.

7. This macro bypasses any potential for critical failures. You will NEVER crit fail with this, so it is exceptionally efficient and can be used for any crafting profession. However, it bypasses the ability to experiment, so be aware of that too.

8. If you want more XP, buy Ornachek from a chef: it will increase your XP for the next 20-odd crafts or so. Cool, eh?

9. Oddly, if you leave the macro running, you will not get logged out.

Also note that MANY people are reporting a crafting XP bug since Patch 6 came out where suddenly, randomly, you stop receiving XP. If this occurs, immediately log out and then back in again. Your XP should reappear or at the least should start re-accumulating. KEEP AN EYE OUT ON YOUR XP OR YOU'LL CRAFT A LOT, LOSE RESOURCES, AND NOT GET XP!

DNA Sampling Part 1: What to Grind and How

Be aware that there is no "practice" mode and that each successful DNA sample will be placed in your inventory. That really puts the kibosh on your sampling rapidly. Combat is likely as most critters get irritated after some time of being poked with a needle and will aggro. And, it seems that some of our needles are laced with InstaKill as many critters fall over dead after anywhere from 1-6 samples. Note that if you sample a critter to death, you CANNOT then extract resources from it. So, apparently the DNA needle also simultaneously sucks out all of the hide, meat, and bone from the critter. Go figure. I'd recommend several things:

1. Buy armor...But get it sliced because the encumbrance will ding your mind pool and you need that for sampling

2. Buy three vehicles for quick escapes when the critters aggro. You can then disengage them, return, and resume sampling. Right now all vehicles need to be called from camp, so buying crates of camps is a good idea to call vehicles as their maintenance is used up. However, there is a patch in the works that will relieve this requirement and the camps will no longer be needed. We'll see if and when that happens.

3. Get yourself some food or spice. Muon Gold has always been a staple for bolstering the mind for uninterrupted sampling. However, it has a nasty withdrawal and the chef food Smuggler's Delight is still buggy and doesn't seem to lessen the downer. Nowadays there is also Vasarian Brandy made by chefs: no withdrawal at all and can bolster the mind up to 300 points per serving (more or less). The problem is it's pretty expensive by the crate, so make a deal with a chef to provide them your tissues and they'll probably cut you a deal. Vagnerian Canap is also great since it bolsters willpower. Also, be sure to get some Ornachek as it can bolster your XP per sample for about 20 samples. Not too shabby.

4. Go up the Scout skill tree to Scout 4: mask scent is essential for getting higher level DNA samples (=higher XP), and the terrain negotiation can help you burst run (in case you can't remember where you parked your vehicle).

5. Have a MBE make you two tissues of something called Scent Neutralization. The combined bonus of the two tissues should be sewn into clothes; they provide a bonus to mask scent. However, that bonus caps at +25 no matter how many items of clothing with bonuses you wear! So, be aware of that.

6. To improve your DNA XP, use your sampled DNA and craft Generic DNA Templates but make sure it's in practice mode. It will give you 10% extra XP and will empty your inventory.

For whatever reason, there is no command in the Ctrl-A menu for sampling DNA. So, you'll need to create that first. The command is /sampleDNA. You cannot sample babies, pets, humanoid types (ie, the Nightsisters), dead critters, or creatures (in general) with >13k HAM (which usually are >CL70) (again, you may get the occasional sample, but for a grinder these will be too few and far between). The three major sampling techniques are:

* Outside cities, sample all the trash. It regenerates quickly. It's widely available. It's low risk. But, do remember that each DNA sample counts against your inventory, so your inventory will rapidly fill. XP is slowly accumulated (about 50-100xp/successful sample). Mirrl advises: If sampling "trash" get yourself a guard trained pet and use it. Don't bother trying to sample anything tougher than "trash" until you get to Sampling 2/3. Then I'd suggest Picket Longhorns on Dantooine. With longhorns always go for the non-females first as they are social and the females are not. In addition I'd suggest running over fighting. They don't DB and generally you'll waste less time being knocked unconscious than trying to kill a lair full. (They don't DB)

* Adventure planets, sample aggros. This is not recommended until you've made it to DNA Sampling 3 since your success rate will be lower in the beginning and your risk of aggro is much higher. Aggro equals decay now, so be cautious. There is a cap on CL sampling, though; avoid anything >CL 70 (and really, you shouldn't sample that until you have DNA 3). Death is common, but the reward per successful sample is great (>300xp/successful sample).

* Running missions is a third option that has become viable courtesy of creature mounts and vehicles. You get a lot more creatures to spawn at a consistent CL and get money as well.

DNA Sampling Part 2: Macro

WildWildMan suggested the following macro which I haven't used, but others state is very good. Verbatim:

/ui action targetSelf
/ui action cycleTargetOutwards
/follow
/pause 5
/sampledna
/pause 11

/ui action toolbarSlot11

Put this into top right box and leave char in trash dense area, like Theed outskirts. 2.5k sample xp per hour, just remember you have to clean inventory often.

=======================================================

Good luck and I hope this helps in some way.

Message Edited by Xanda on 02-21-2004 01:40 PM

--Xanda

Scorus

Fri Feb 20, 2004 7:17 pm

#3

One alternative to the usual food component grinding strategy: Make the lower Mask Scent item as soon as you can. Give backpacks of 50 of them at a time to tailors as long as they promise they will use them while you are online. Leave yourself online overnight and while at work (just make a macro to sit and stand if you have nothing better to do). It's fun to wake up and see that you made 20K xp while you slept, plus your stuff gets used and you build up great relationships with tailors. This works especially well with low level grinding tailors who are going to have to be making things by hand anyway. Usage xp is equal to 150% of the xp you get while crafting, for a 250% total.

Scorus

AsarAlubat

Sat Feb 21, 2004 2:35 am

#4

NICE guide, thx.

btw though, the Autocraft is completely pointless.

; is all you need to link to next macro line.

Autocraft does nothing a normal macro withoutit does.

Message Edited by AsarAlubat on 02-21-2004 01:37 AM

Message Edited by AsarAlubat on 02-21-2004 01:38 AM

_____________________________________________________________________
Jedi/Bounty Hunter/Medic/Spy/Content
- JKO -

CavemanGamer

Sat Feb 21, 2004 5:41 am

#5

"Running missions is a third option that has become viable courtesy of creature mounts and soon-to-be vehicles"

Youmight want to update that part.

Tal-N

Sat Feb 21, 2004 5:54 am

#6

Yes, I 1 starred you. I can give you your dues for making alot of effort to produce this guide but I don't think that encouraging grinding is actually a good idea. Last thing we need is more ignorant bio-engineer 'masters' around here.

Tal-N Chratk
Ahazi Master Bioengineer / Hunt Master / Rifleman
______________________
Tal'N Chratk
Shadowfire Bounterhunter / Commando

RexTTer

Sat Feb 21, 2004 6:17 am

#7

Just what I needed to know, thanks.

Rex

Huaracocha

Sat Feb 21, 2004 6:17 am

#8

Good to see this guide here again. Certainly worked for me.

U could look on the bright side Tal-n and consider that this guide helps get the inevitable grinders through the profession and on their way as fast as possible

IofeWavingrider

Bio-Engineer, Cloning Facility Patron - Flurry

Message Edited by Huaracocha on 09-30-2004 12:34 AM

Message Edited by Huaracocha on 10-03-2004 02:27 AM

~~Iofe ~ Ozymandius ~ Zeuss~~

Just another cancelled veteran

Xanda

Sat Feb 21, 2004 11:35 am

#9

Tal-N wrote:
Yes, I 1 starred you. I can give you your dues for making alot of effort to produce this guide but I don't think that encouraging grinding is actually a good idea. Last thing we need is more ignorant bio-engineer 'masters' around here.

So you'd prefer lots and lots of posts on our boards asking the same questions again and again? I worked on the post precisely so that we can keep our boards uncluttered and available to those of us who are very interested in the profession. 1-starring me doesn't stop people from grinding and what's more, this post is notan encouragement, endorsement, nor approval of grinding. Complain about the holocron system or that the devs made macros so that grinding like this can occur. But a 1-star because of something I worked on to help our profession?

*shuffles papers*

*looks quizically at post*

*one eyebrow raises*

Not sure you accomplished anything there but to be spiteful. And what's more, spiteful at someone who's not your target.

--Xanda

Xanda

Sat Feb 21, 2004 11:39 am

#10

CavemanGamer wrote:

"Running missions is a third option that has become viable courtesy of creature mounts and soon-to-be vehicles"

Youmight want to update that part.

D'oh! Done...thanks

...tried to update everything but forgot that one

.

--Xanda

ryshykk

Sat Feb 21, 2004 11:52 am

#11

The DNA sampling macro doesn't seem to work. Copy and pasted verbatim it will select yourself and do nothing else. The cycle target outwards thing mighta been "fixed"?

Barr1cade

Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:59 pm

#12

try sampling Sharnaffs on Corillia, 3-400xp, loads of them around too...make sure to have backup or a fast getaway planned if they aggro!

- Barricade (Farstar)
Bio-engineer Vendor at Subliminal City, North coast of Naboo

TyranAskield

Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:22 pm

#13

On my macro. I cant find the schematic for the item needed to grind the XP. It like skips it on the line up.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Space Cowboy

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Tyran Askield

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