Doctor Archive

Okies ive read the board religously for awhile now and I havent found this information anywhere so i guess ill ask it.

1) When you experiment on an stim pack you have a set number of experiment points. Ive noticed that if i experiment in smaller amount 2 or 3 times im more successful than experimenting 1 time with all my points. Is this a placebo effect or is that a technique to getting higher success rates. Ive also noticed that if i use say 3 of my 5 points for effectiveness and get a good experimental result, its probally better to not use the rest of the point on the same characterstic again, since i have a chance to lose all the good results i already recieved?? My question is what technique do you all use to get better results on your experimenting.

2) I like alot of you, are running into skill point problems, I dont have enough to do everything I want. What branches of Doc would be the most useful to me if i wanted to craft my own items and use the best doc buffs?? Or is there a balance somewhere where I could still use the buffs but not have to get master doc, I dont necessarily need the best of each buff just to be able to do them prettywell is ok with me. Im guessing the medicine use tree and crafting tree are a must??

What about the other two branches do I need them to do the things I mentioned above?? How would they effect me if i didnt learn them?

3) What exactly do the extra charges experimentation do to the end product Stim pack. Does it effect the over extra charges of say a Stim C?? Would you reccomend experimenting on the effective or charges of a BEC??

Thanks in advance to all you experts out there.

Asvim Master TK, Novice Doc

Ok, let me give these a try...

First of all, when experimenting, you can choose to spend a lot of points at a time or just a few. If you experiment with a lot of points, you run a greater risk of failure. (Note that using resources with high malleability ratings lowers the chance of failure.) Let's take a quick example.

You've got 6 experimentation points to spend. You could spend all 6 at once or you could spend 2 points 3 times. First of all, let's say we spend all 6. If you geta great success, you've got an enhancement of 42%, which isn't bad at all. If that experiment fails, however, we have an enhancement of 0% and we're out of experimentation points.

Now, let's spend 2 points 3 times over. Spending less points reduces the chance of a failure, but, by the same approach, you're experimenting more times which increases the chance that1 of those experimentations might be a failure. So, let's say that we experiment 3 times and all are great successes. That's an increase of 6*7 = 42%, which is exactly the same result as we saw before. However, more often than not, you're going to see a failure in there (or something less than a great success). Let's say that one of those 3 experiments was a failure. That means that we wasted 2 experimentation points and we're left with an increase of 4*7 = 28%. Not as dramatic as when we failed using all 6 points at once, is it?

So, by spending your points in smaller bunches, you're regulating the final product. You won't have as many failed results, but you won't have as many outstanding results, either. It'sa nice approach, though, when you don't want to have much waste.

It's important to remember, though, that every time you experiment, you raise the complexity by a point. That means it will take longer to craft the item. That usually isn't a big deal for a single item, but if you multiply that difference by 100 or more when making the items in a factory, you might be talking about a great deal of time. If you're going to do a long factory run, it's sometimes best to go for a big score on a single experiment to keep the complexity low (and your fabrication times down, as well).

Ok, so what skill points do you need to be a doc? Well, if you're really crunched for points, I'd recommend going 0/4/3/0. That will give you the ability to revive and buff and enough med knowledge to use the biggest enhancement packs. What will you be missing? Well, you won't be able to cure poison or disease (those skills are found in the wound treatment speed tree) and you won't be able to craft anything on your own (you'll be buying all of your meds). It's a cheap way (skill point - wise) to get most of the benefits of being a doc. If you have some more points, you might want to invest them in crafting so you don't have to buy everything.

Finally, what does the experimentation on charges do for you? Simple - it increases the number of charges on the final stimpack that you produce. A basic Stim B made with basic subcomponents will have 18-20 charges to start with. By experimenting on charges, you can increase this to 24-26 or maybe more. That means you'll be able to use that stimpack that many more times before it's used up.

When it comes to BEC's, I always experiment on charges first and power second. BEC's are the only subcomponent that can add charges to your final stimpack so take advantage of it. A BEC won't add nearly as much power to your stim as a good LS so use the BEC for charges and the LS and CRDM for power.

I hope that helps.

That actualy answers exactly what I needed couple follow up questions if you dont mind.

1) If im making Stims one at a time then doing the experimenting one by one is probally a good way to do it, i.e. once I get a successful decent amount of success move the other points somewhere else. If I fail on a differnt characteristic of the stim does it effect a succesful experiment in another characteristic. For example if i have great success on charges then fail horribly on Effectivness does it negate my charges success??

2) If I could learn 3 trees I could then craft my own stims right. And the only thing I would be lacking was ability to cure disease and poison?? Which isnt a big deal for me personally being a TK and meditation takes care of it in a few min, but curing others that would be a pain.

Thanks again for the expert reply.

Asvim-- Intrepid

Meant to add to follow up 1. If I was crafting for personal single stims then the method we talked about is probally a good one agreed?? But if Im making a schematic then I would be best to experiment all points and once till I get exactly what I want then make a schematic??

Actually, I've found that having a critical failure in one area can impact the successes you've had elsewhere although not much. For example, I've crafted stims in which I've maxed out the effectiveness (and ended up with a Stim B that heals for 350, for example) and then gone to spend my remaining experimentation points on charges. If I have a critical failure, I'll notice that my charges go down the tubes (as I expected) but my effectiveness also take a bit of a hit - maybe dropping the base heal to 340 or so.

All in all, however, you're going to have much better results spending your experimentation points so don't be afraid to use them. You're going to succeed more often than you fail (but the failures will happen, believe me).

If you want to be able to make your own medicines, you're going to need to spend some points in doctor's medicine crafting. It's just that simple. However, if you're interested in making Stims, you get Stim D's at Master Medic, which is probably all you'll ever need. If you want to make your own buffs, you'll have to climb the entire med crafting tree and you'll still be missing the ability to make the best buffs for the secondary attributes.

When you're looking to make a schematic, complexity becomes a factor. You want to keep it as low as possible because your factory will take roughly 8 sec * Complexity to crate an item. So, using the same example I used earlier, if you experimented just once versus 3 times, you'd find that the first item would take 16 seconds less to fabricate. This may not seem like a big deal, but multiply that by 100 or so and you've got 1600 seconds, which is almost a half an hour longer to make those items.

A quick caveat to this, though, is that I would discourage you from trying to experiment in more than one area at a time (for example, experimenting on effectiveness and charges at the same time). This usually results in poor experimentation success and just isn't worth it, in my opinion.

A lot of it also depends on your medical crafting skill. When I was first working my way up the medic tree - if I put more than a point or two of experimentation in at a time, even with good components, I found I had a significant chance for failure. So I would do it one or two at a time to reduce my chance of failure per episode.

Now that I have master medical crafting in the doctor tree, I can throw all 10 points around and have no more than a 5% chance of failure - so I do it that way usually.

Orin Scrivello, Imperial Master Surgeon, The Haven, Radiant

Great stuff guys thanks. Clears up alot of the fuzzy math inSWG...

Asvim-- Intrepid