Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: Mechanism Quality: What does it do? When does it matter?
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Zorkk
Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:50 am
#1
Hey all,
I'm been a MDE for about a week now, and I still am unsure about what "mechanism quality" number means on some of the components. Take for example a Droid Brain. With the crappy res i have at the moment, I get one of these to craft with a -6 mechanism quality. I can then usually experiment, and get that number up to 5 or 6. How does this fit in with the crafting of the rest of the droid? Does it matter in any way shape or form? Would a -3 quality module do the exact same job as a +6 quality module? (other than the combat/harvest/med/storage modules, those ones make sense, i'm specifcally asking about components that have a mechanism quality, and nothing else, droid brains, manipulator arms, movtive systems, etc)
On things like the actual craft of the droid deed, It seems all that matter is upping the droids HAM. Why do they have durability rating when it has no visible effect? Does it make the droid last longer? not eat as much power? anything?
Lastly, I understand that resources have the different qualities, and for us DE the CD, and OQ are the 2 most important, but what i'd really like to know, is how does the game calcuate when your using resources with different values. If i put a 739CD/911OQ copper into the spot for 35, and then a 466CD/809OQ steel into the spot for 5, does the game take those ratios into account? Does it avg out the numbers? Or is it say certain resource spots effect only 1 part of the experimenting? Along with this, say for the experimental effectiveness, you need CD, and OQ on an item. I stick Fiberplast which only has an OQ into the chem spot, all the other spots have a CD/OQ metal. WHen the game calculates (i don't know the word for it) the 'build?' does it count the fiberplace even tho it doesn't have a CD??? Or does a resource need to have both the experimental qualities to be counted in the 'build'
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me on these questions.
Z
RasalTheWise
Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:35 am
#2
Mechanism quality by itself doesn't seem to matter in the least, at least not with my experience. Only when the mechanism quality is linked to other characteristics of the device you are crafting, like with parts for the repair kits.
I don't think the ratio thing matters, but I'm not sure. All I know is that if a device requires a resource, the sum of the stats it asks for determines the percentage you can experiment with.
For instance, if characteristic needs 50% from the CD and OQ stats of a single given resource, the magical number to hit is 1000 (1000+1000/2=1000) for 100% experimentation room. If your resource stats are CD600/OQ950, your magical number is 775 (600+950/2=775). So, 1000/775=.78, which is 78% experimentation. Then if there are multiple resources to determine one characteristic, just add the magical numbers from all the resources to get your percentage.
And if a given resource doesn't have the stat the device asks for (like CD for a chemical), it is my experience that it does not count against you.
I don't think the ratio thing matters, but I'm not sure. All I know is that if a device requires a resource, the sum of the stats it asks for determines the percentage you can experiment with.
For instance, if characteristic needs 50% from the CD and OQ stats of a single given resource, the magical number to hit is 1000 (1000+1000/2=1000) for 100% experimentation room. If your resource stats are CD600/OQ950, your magical number is 775 (600+950/2=775). So, 1000/775=.78, which is 78% experimentation. Then if there are multiple resources to determine one characteristic, just add the magical numbers from all the resources to get your percentage.
And if a given resource doesn't have the stat the device asks for (like CD for a chemical), it is my experience that it does not count against you.
Malitevv
Fri Jul 23, 2004 1:12 pm
#3
RasalTheWise wrote:
And if a given resource doesn't have the stat the device asks for (like CD for a chemical), it is my experience that it does not count against you.
That is my experience as well. I'm pretty sure Rasal has it right for the most part. I've worked out a formula for how I think it works in a spreadsheet and have tested it many times. It always correctly predicts the max experimentation percentage that the resource will get you. The only thing I would add to what Rasal said is that you don't sum his "magic numbers" directly. You take a weighted sum of those magic numbers where the weights used are the quantity of each resource.
So, for example, if the item required 50 steel and 30 copper, and the stats that matter are OQ and conductivity, calculate the "magic number" for the steel and for the copper as Rasal said, but instead of adding the magic number together do this:
( 50 * steels_magic_number + 30 * coppers_magic_number ) / (50+30)
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