Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: DISCUSSION: Grinding through DE (sticky isn't enough) info & questions. Haters don't bother
The one thing I have already learned from grinding my way to novice DE is that you should make two macros, not one. Make the first macro called "start" and another called "finish". Place your crafting item in the first toolbar slot (00) and start and finish next to it (F2 and F2, 01 and 02)
The start macro should look like this:
/ui action toolbarSlot00
/selectDraftSchematic XX; (count left to right on the datapad and take away 1, that is the number)
The finish macro should be this:
/nextCraftingStage;
/nextCraftingStage;
/createPrototype Practice noitem;
/createPrototype Practice noitem;
/ui action toolbarPaneXX; (use this if you want to switch to the next pane #, I have 3 setup for this that cycle through so I don't have to wait on just one crafting item to finish)
If you do this right you can press f2, insert the items, press f3, and press f2 to start again. Add more toolbar pages with more crafting tools as needed if the items you are crafting take a while to be made so there is no wait. If you are going to be grinding specific items (for example I grinded personal mineral extractors for the gap from engineering 4 to novice DE) you might consider standing by a public crafting station of that variety. I dont know if this is the game's intention (seems like the wrong usage of it), but the craft will be the same as if you did it anywhere, but you won't loose your resources if the item assmebly is a critical failure.
Now for my questions -> Please contribute anything you can!
1. Are the MSE droids really the best way to grind to the second blueprints skill? We're talking about roughly 830 mouse droids for those two skills if my numbers are correct (I did the caluclations late last night, could be wrong) which seems a bit crazy. Resources needed aren't insane really, but definately will cost, an estimated 45,000 metal and 12,500 chemical, roughly 173,000 credits worth of resources on my server. All that just for two skill levels?
2. What after that? I'd like info on the recommended advanced frames, what they require in resources and how much exp they give would be a big help.
3. What do you recommend for getting resources quickly? 3cpu is a fairly high price it seems for someone in need of an estimated 550k resources?, and even junk resources cost around 2cpu on my server if your lucky enough to find someone selling them. Are there any good guides on noob harvesting? A quick search didn't really help out much, although I am not that good at searching. I hear that the large harvesters give an absolute max of 1000 units per day? But it seems that I could easily run a couple of 2k missions and buy 1000 resources and have them much faster. Should I do both?
I apologize that I didn't credit the original poster, I closed the window before writing down his/her name. A much more detailed list of grinding items, although there are still a few gaps to fill.1. Start with medical MSE's
-- Approximately 350 need crafted
-- Requirements and Exp unknown
2. R5's
-- Need 60 extrusive ore each (other requirements unknown)
-- Aproximately 60-70 need crafted
-- Yeild around 1k exp each with med modules in them
3. Advanced Droid Frames
-- Yeild 440 exp each
-- Require 150 steel and 70 fiberplast
-- Amount to grind unkown, most assuredly an insanely large number
Well basicaly most do the MSE droids becuase that way you dont need to track down extursive ore
Kamayyk
Master Droid Engineer
Master Artisan
I received Droid Engineer for my second holocron, and I am currently grinding through it. You are right, it ISNT fun to grind through that many MSE droids. Lord knows i've been at it a few hours now while watching the cricket, and i have yet to get blueprints I. However, that is the most efficient and cost effective way to grind through it. There probably are faster ways, and there are probably cheaper ways. However if you are looking to GRIND through the profession, without actually playing it - then that is the best way to do it.
I am just taking solace in the thought that when i hit blueprints II I will be grinding an item worth 400xp, and not a little over 100.
As far as the harvesting goes - I am lucky enough to be able to afford all the resources outright. However, since the latest architect changes there will be alot of architects with large base 10 harvesters looking to sell them at a cheap price. I would suggest you pick a few of those up, and mine the steel / fiberplast yourelf. You will save around 800K doing it this way, however it will take a longer time.
Good luck with the grind.
Sha'mad Conde.
I hate to say it, but the grinding really can't be helped. That's the profession and there aren't many ways around it. To answer some questions....
First, to get the second stage of blueprints, I personally did DZ70s. I don't know whether they are more experience per unit, but it was a change of pace, and after all the MSE droids I was seriously interested in changing my pace. The best you can do are R5s I believe, however the extrusive ore is indeed rough to acquire and just burn through, considering it'll be one of the ores that you would use in your actual sale droids for your whole career (although as a Holocroner you likely won't have a career, so it's a moot point).
As far as getting resources quickly, it's up to you. I personally harvested all my resources myself....was much cheaper that way, even though it required some time and attention. If you're filthy rich, of course you can just buy a load of crap Steel and Fiberplast and burn away. Remember, resource quality is a non-issue for us, *especially* when grinding Frames, so you may be able to get a discount on some particularly craptacular Steel out there.
kayxfour wrote:
Now for my questions -> Please contribute anything you can!
1. Are the MSE droids really the best way to grind to the second blueprints skill? We're talking about roughly 830 mouse droids for those two skills if my numbers are correct (I did the caluclations late last night, could be wrong) which seems a bit crazy. Resources needed aren't insane really, but definately will cost, an estimated 45,000 metal and 12,500 chemical, roughly 173,000 credits worth of resources on my server. All that just for two skill levels?
2. What after that? I'd like info on the recommended advanced frames, what they require in resources and how much exp they give would be a big help.
3. What do you recommend for getting resources quickly? 3cpu is a fairly high price it seems for someone in need of an estimated 550k resources?, and even junk resources cost around 2cpu on my server if your lucky enough to find someone selling them. Are there any good guides on noob harvesting? A quick search didn't really help out much, although I am not that good at searching. I hear that the large harvesters give an absolute max of 1000 units per day? But it seems that I could easily run a couple of 2k missions and buy 1000 resources and have them much faster. Should I do both?
Note: Only quoted the parts I'm responding to 
1: They are, but use the macro as posted, with 4 crafting tools, it goes by much faster. Depending on connection speed, system speed, and how fast you can click, you can get through those first two boxes pretty fast even with it only yielding 147 pts. per practice. I was on highspeed wireless, in a 2.0Ghz with 786 RAM, and being a computer geek for a profession I have a pretty good double click rate and was averaging about 60K xp per hour running with 4 crafting stations. If you don't wanna grind that long, run it for half an hour if you have the resources, should still get between 20-30K, then take a break and do something "fun" fora bit. Then go back to the grind for another half-hour. Should have BP 1 done and be started, possbily 1/3rd of the way into BP2 at the end of that grind. In order to reduce having to re-edit your macro, hold off on the training until you get close to the 'max' XP you can store, otherwise each box you train except for the refinement tree will will change the number of the schematic you are grinding on. One you get past the MSE's and start grinding the frame units, the grind goes a lot faster, and you're concern will switch to maintaining enough steel and fiberplast, which brings us to the next two questions.
2: Advanced Frames require 150 units of Steel and 70 Units of Fiberplast per. On practice mode, I get about 462 xp per practice, which seems daunting when you consider that you are looking at nearly 300K xp per tree, but they really are the best to grind unless you feel like making out a ton of other subcomponents first. I'm back on Dial-Up now, and the other night I went from Construction 1 (with 20K into Construction 2) all the way up to Construction 3 (roughly 130K xp gained) in less than 1 1/2 hours. Again, 4 stations running, and pausing to talk to friends from time to time. It doesn't seem like it could be done, but consider including load and click times roughly20 seconds per unit, at 467 xp per unit. That's roughly 84K per hour. Again, don't feel like grinding that hard, do it for half an hour, still netting roughly 42K xp, then take a break for a bit and do something 'fun', then come back to it.
3: Resources are going to be your biggest limitation on how fast you grind. You have plenty of control over how long you want to sit and do the grind, as well as how many stations you use to do it, so those two factors are null compared to having to get the resources. My grind times have slowed down because of shifting resources and running out. I have 3 Medium Harvestors with base rate of 7 running on ~60% Steel, and thanks to my wife letting me use some of her lots, 3 Personal Chem extractors (two with a rate of 3, and 1 with a rate of 1) and two deep crust Chem extractors (base rate 7) sitting on a roughly (for now) 60% spot of fiber. I also have a decent sized, very cool PA that is helping me with my grind some, almost every resources I used to get up to where I am now (3/3/0/4, all but 3 boxes done on MSE's!!!) came from PA members. I also have nights where I just sample resources by hand to supplement the extractors. I can on the same spot with survey 4 get units much faster than one of the medium extractors does, but I can't do it 24 hours a day like it does, so the extractors do earn their maintenance costs. Make some Probe droids when you get to BP 3 if you need to, or run missions to supplement your cash flow, but get some extractors down ASAP on the best concentration of Steel and Fiber you can find. You can also if you get a decent price buy the resources, but that's a hit and miss as far as finding them for sale.
Finally, as a note, I do DE not because a little blue glowing box told me to, but because it's what I wanted to be. Hopefully come January and February we'll find ourselves to be useful to more than just BH's, but time will tell. Good luck on the grind.
My biggest limitation definately is resources, the sticky esimate of 300k steel and 250k fiberplast is bit off but still in the same ballpark. From blueprints 2 on up you will need 379,650 steel and 177,170 fiberplast. On my server that comes out to a minimum of 3cpu / 1,670,460 credits. I see why people say DE is so hard, the grind itself is no big deal past blueprints 2 (I could probably grind out everying after that point in a good 4-5 hours w/6 crafting tools and the above macros) but the resources will come slow and painfully.
I appreciate you taking the time to search first. Cant answer all your questions away from my home PC, but MSEs to Adv Frames to MDE is THE way to do it.
Get medium extractors with Base Extracton Rate 10. You'll need like 6 mineral and three chem and a power harv (fusion is best). Put them on steel and fiberplast and wait for them to harvest your resources. Buying is too expensive.
One other thing to point out, it is actually much easier, at least IMO, to do the crafting with tools in spots F1-F4, and the lengthy macro as Sin posted it on F5. By the time you get done with the 4th tool and are ready to repeat the macro, you should be done with the item on the first tool, have about 4-9 seconds on the second tool, have about 19 on the third. This cycle will repeat until you type /dump, which, again, IMO, is easier than having to click extra F keys between crafts. Hope this info helps you some.
Let me break this down some more. Just to pass the info I calculated because hey maybe this will help somebody. My apologies if I repeat something above. I too am working DE but not because of the blue cube but because I have always wanted to try an artisan tree and DE to me sounded like the funnest thing to play. Remember I am no math major but the numbers are pretty close.
Blueprints 1 - 326MSE droids 17278 metal 4890 chem
Blueprints 2 - 457 MSE droids 24221 metal 6855 chem.
These first two do not take any special kind of metal or chemical (I used inert petro and aluminum/copper) I set up a macro for 10 crafting stations and the above took me roughly 3 1/2 hours to grind thru straight.
Next is the advanced frames. Good thing about these is instead of clicking 7 times per unit you only have to click twice. Bad thing is you can only useSteel and Fiberplast in the schematic. When practicing they yield 462 exp each and use 150 steel/70 fiberplast. Here is how I broke down things once you get to BP II.
Level I boxes - 104 ADF X3 boxes = 46800 Steel 21840 FIber
Level II boxes - 146 ADF X3 boxes = 65700 s 30660 f
Level III boxes - 186 ADF X4 boxes = 111600 s 52080 f
Level IV boxes - 228 ADF X4 boxes = 136800 s 66840 f
grand total of - 664 ADF - 360900 steel - 168420 fiberplast.
As you can see your going to grind less thruought the rest of the profession than you did in the first 2 boxes you master. Plus you are going to click less. Now this takes into account no failures - which your gonna do. So you would have to raise the amount a little bit to allow for that.
In closing the biggest hurdle your going to come up against is resources. If your like me, an ex BH, your not going to have extractors. Also I own a large house, not too good when it uses up so many lots but I will make use of the space for vendors later.So, your either going to shell out 1.5 - 2.1 million creds for the materials or your going to be waiting a while for your extractors to pick up the resources you need. Hopoe this helps some of ya I am looking foward to getting up in the skills and making some cool droids. Especially if they add even some of what they have promised in the comming months.
thank you for the post. You are right the sticky is NOT enough. I started DE last week cause I wanted it but the christmas holo has pointed me in the Combat Medic direction. Which I look forward to trying. I will come back to get DE though and this post will come in handy.
Just something I would like to add-
How come no one mentions that MSE needs a subcomponent of a module-
Waitaminute! It's OPTIONAL!!
DAMNIT! I was building all those- Why I-
Anyway- Thanks!
Tevin Stargunner
Radiant