Game Guides Archive
Thread: The Ultimate Decay and Repair Guide v1.0
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rodav
Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:45 am
#1
We are gonnasee howDecay and Repair works.
The Decay Guide
All weapons/armors/clothes have a condition value.
example: 857/1000 (current_value/original_value)
Some miscellaneous items (like crafting tools and crates) also decay and may be broken.
The current value decrease with time due to different factors:
- death (armor/cloth/misc)
- taking damage (armor)
- using (weapons)
- repair failure (armor/cloth/weapon)
This is called the decay.
The original value decrease when you repair an item.
How to limit decay
general
- insure your items (uninsured items decay 5% per death, insured ones decay 1%on non-factionnal death+clone and don't decay on factionnal death+clone), it costs 100credits per item to insure
- don't clone, try to get resurrected by a Doctor if you can there won't be decay and your items will still be insured
- if you die+clone, insure your items again
- be carefull about the triple incapacitation (3 times incap in less than 10min)in PVP, it's considered "normal" death even in PVP and lead to decay
- use storage droids, the items inside are "decay proof" (very usefull when you clone in the corvette to prevent items that lost insurance or are simply uninsured from decay), you can have up to 5 droids with a max a 10 items storage per droid
- repair items only when they need toAND make it done by someone experimented in repair
armor
- use a high resist armor, the more it resists, the slower it will decay. (using a PSG might prevent up to 50% of your armor normal decay during the PSG life time) Typically a hit cause 10% or so of the "going through armour" damage, that's why a 90% resist armor decays 2 times slower than a 80% one and 3 times slower than a 70% one. (example: a 1000 damage hit on a 80% resist armor with the same AP/AR would let 200 damage go through cause 20 points of decay).
- resist-sliced armor decay slower because of the higher resist
- dispatch decay on different parts using a full suit in PVE
- if the armor reach less than 25% condition its resist will diminish until repair so decay will accelerate from there
cloth
- clothes don't decay unless you die
- they are still weareable and workingwhen reach 0 condition (even attachements that were socketed on still work)
weapon
- sliced weapons decay faster (superior to the bonus provided)
- power-uped weapons decay faster (equal to the bonus provided)
- slow weapons decay slower but the also hit slower, it's up to you to make your choice
- using specials highly increase the decay of the weapon
- if the weapon reach less than 25% condition its damage/speed will go the bad way until repair
The Repair Guide
You cannot repair the miscallaneous damaged items. You can only repair armor/cloth/weapon. In order to do so you will need either a:
- armor repair tool
- clothing repair tool
- weapon repair tool
Each has 5 five uses max and can be found in crates of 25 max.
Repair possible results:
- the item is repaired with only minor blemishes (MB, 5% max condition decay)
- the item is repaired, but the max condition is reduced (RBR, 20% max condition decay)
- the item is only marginally repaired, and the max condition is reduced (MR, 35% max condition decay)
- the item falls apart in your hands (F, condition goes to 1/1)
- the item is repaired, but the max condition is reduced (RBR, 20% max condition decay)
- the item is only marginally repaired, and the max condition is reduced (MR, 35% max condition decay)
- the item falls apart in your hands (F, condition goes to 1/1)
How to Repair your Items
get a good tool
- the tools have an efficiency value maxed at 100 but you'll find more easily 99.8 or 98.9 tools.It's said not to influence the repair from user experience but eh, would you throw away even a 1% chance of success when you repair? I wouldn't.
get rid of you Battle Fatigue (BF)
- anull battle fatigue always helps to prevent "critical failures" and encourage "minor blemish" events.
get the Force Sensitive Repair skills
- you can grab up to +20 FS (general) Repair
get repair attachements
- you can get up to +25 in repair, armor repair, clothing repair, weapon repair (some say only repair works but eh even if the others don't, why not hav them on you "just in case")
loot armor/cloth/weapon problem
- it's a fact: it's harder to repair them
- slicing a loot greatly enhance to difficulty to repair the item (slice wisely your loot)
do not repair too early
- repair has the same results on a badly injured (but still over 25% condition)item and on a brand new one
- repair is harder when item is under 25% condition meaning you will get more "critical failure" and less "minor blemish"
- as a result, onlyrepair when the item is around 26% of its original condition
be carefull with complex items
- complex armor/cloth/weapon are said harder to repair (but it seems a very minor factor)
look for a professionnal
- master armorsmiths have a hidden armor repair bonus
- master tailors have a hiddenclothing repair bonus
- master weaponsmiths have a hiddenweapon repair bonus
- master tailors have a hiddenclothing repair bonus
- master weaponsmiths have a hiddenweapon repair bonus
standing before a crafting station
- it is said to give a little bonus to stand in front of a good crafting station (legend or not i guess it's not bad to be near a 44+ crafting station)
- it is said to give a little bonus to stand in front of a good crafting station (legend or not i guess it's not bad to be near a 44+ crafting station)
- be sure it's a armors crafting station if you repair armors
poweruped weapons
- NEVER EVER REPAIR WITHOUT REMOVING THE POWERUP FIRST, or else ..... (try it on a CDEF pistolto understand) your basic weapon stats will be reduced forever!!!
My Experience
I'm not artisan, +20 FS repair, +22 repair, +9 armor repair +7 weapon repair and the only repair I sometimes fail is sliced-looted weapons when I forget to heal my BF. Ask me for a repair (IGN: Excalibur on Chimaera)
Final Word
I Hope this will help you a little, I can't edit my post so if revisions are needed I'll repost a new one.
Snappz
Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:17 am
#2
First
five stars excellent post. I was wondering how this worked as far as the repairs go. Thanks for the info.....
Espo99
Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:40 am
#3
first off, great guide...I am a bit confused though as many, many master weaponsmiths and armorsmiths swear that they have no bonuses to repairing items...is there a thread posted by SOE stating that they do?
second, has anyone ever successfully repaired an exceptional weapon? I am very leary to try this even with +12 in weapon repair
thanks!
DAVCRE
rodav
Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:56 am
#4
The profession bonus as been confirmed 2 times by the devs if my memoryis correct.
About exceptionnal weapons i never did but i can tell you 1 thing that's sure: the "repair" bonus is more efficient than the "weapon repair", the "armor repair" or the "clothing repair" ones. Those 3 are said not working. I only collect them as a talisman just in case they add even 0.1%.
DustusNavar
Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:49 pm
#6
Any tool will decay on death, too. Although they have no ###/### rating they will decay and can also be insured.
Jedi Padawan
Rebel Colonel
Terrantal
Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:46 pm
#8
rodav wrote:- you can get up to +25 in repair, armor repair, clothing repair, weapon repair (some say only repair works but eh even if the others don't, why not hav them on you "just in case")
No repair attachments currently works, not even the regular repair one... The "why not have them on you just in case" is quite easily answered with: "because its a waste of your money to buy them in the first place". Other than that, nice guide, gave you 4 stars.
rodav
Thu Sep 30, 2004 4:04 pm
#9
Here's my own experience:
i never failed a repair when i was with 0 BF even when I "only" add my +15 "regular" repair prior to FS quests.I repaired more than 500 items since then. No failure with 0 BF.The numbersseems self talking IMHO.
I was failing 1 to 3 items every 10 repairs prior to having attachements. It definitely does something. I'm not talking about someone else words but my own "on the ground" experience.
By the way if you are on chimaera feel free to offer me repairattachements 
owako
Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:58 am
#10
What the DEV's say and what is actually happening often are two very different things. Armorsmiths have done many extensive tests repairing armor, and our success rate is no better than any other classes. We were supposed to get repair bonuses, but they do not work at all.
Just plain and simple, armorsmiths cannot repair armor any better.
Just plain and simple, armorsmiths cannot repair armor any better.
rodav
Thu Oct 07, 2004 1:07 pm
#11
I repair a lot of items and have a strong experience in Repair. I'm also a developper. I know that even if a program is done to do something, it may do something else. The more complex the program is the more it may happen. Nobody has a perfect coding. That's why dev statements are usefull but must be investigated to see if it works as intented. That's not always the case.
Some circumstances in the game make items like weapons decay faster (time related) than they should do in a "normal" use. That's my own experience and also the one of other people that reported me that too. We may be wrong. I'll try to do a little testing about that to get some raw data.
I never said weapon decay on death did I? Where is the error then? Stop free flaming smart one.
I said slicing a loot weaon is hugely enhancing failure chances of repair. I should add a comment about normal weapons too. I will in v1.1. Good idea.
Betatoxin
Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:55 pm
#12
rodav wrote:I repair a lot of items and have a strong experience in Repair. I'm also a developper. I know that even if a program is done to do something, it may do something else. The more complex the program is the more it may happen. Nobody has a perfect coding. That's why dev statements are usefull but must be investigated to see if it works as intented. That's not always the case.Some circumstances in the game make items like weapons decay faster (time related) than they should do in a "normal" use. That's my own experience and also the one of other people that reported me that too. We may be wrong. I'll try to do a little testing about that to get some raw data.I never said weapon decay on death did I? Where is the error then? Stop free flaming smart one.I said slicing a loot weaon is hugely enhancing failure chances of repair. I should add a comment about normal weapons too. I will in v1.1. Good idea.
This is not a flame, just me trying to get to the bottom of a game mechanic with multiple contradictory sources of information.
You are correct, you did not say weapons decay on death but you omitted weapons as an exception to your rule. You are saying this is an ultimate guide, just trying to help you make it as precise as possible. This game has way too many rumours, speculation and superstition surrounding the mechanics. So like I said, an error of omission. as it implies all items decay on death. I thought it would be worth mentioning that there are exceptions to the rule.
On the usage decay issue. Do you have anything more than anecdotal evidence that decay is increased via slices or decay to contradict the devs?
Having met GreenMarine personally he is on the ball, definitely one of the best developers SWG has. Being a developer and system architect myself i have worked with a lot of people on many large and complex projects I am a good judge of software design, as well as devs.
Having said that this is an extremely complex game, and design often does not mesh with implementation in SWG. It would be foolish to say that even the best devs do not make mistakes, especially if they themselves did not write the code. Often the only way to know for sure is to experiment in the black box style that players have access to. I was hoping you had a source already, and hence my post.
Again this is not a flame, I just want to get to the bottom of this one way or the other.
So far though what I found in my research is there are people saying there is a decay increase with not much more than anecdotal evidence, a developer through TH saying there is no decay increase, at least on slicing, and to add further confusion a manual that says there is a decay increase due to slicing. Going over the Sept 14th thread as well I have not found any response that specifically mentions powerups one way or the other, yet the Artisan Corr things that there is no increase of decay from powerups, and their FAQ says so, with a great deal of certainty.
In the end I do not really care who is right, I just want to know one way or another what is the current situation in the game. If the current implementation is found to be contrary to design, well then we have a bug and I will bug it.
What it is looking like though is that I am not going to find out unless I actually devise an experiment, execute and post the results.
Betatoxin
Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:23 am
#13
How do you reconcile your claim that slicing increase weapon decay when thunderheart as recent as Sept 14th stated that slicing only effect chance to repair? This was after he asked GreenMarine about this specific issue.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=238968&highlight=decay+powerup+weapon+proof#M238968
Also your comments on powerup decay appear to be at odds with statements in the Artisan faq.
What proof do you offer that powerups and slices increase decay? In the case of slices the evidence appears to be strongly against slicing decay. For powerups I have not found yet any statements by developers, or compelling experiments by players to convince me either way. I have to date only found anecdotal evidence and broad claims with nothing to back them up.
Also weapons do not decay on death, and are not insured, an error of omission in your guide.
Also from the same tuesday tip you should add that slicing significantly decreases the chance to successfully repair a weapon. So say the devs anyway.
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=game_guides&message.id=238968&highlight=decay+powerup+weapon+proof#M238968
Also your comments on powerup decay appear to be at odds with statements in the Artisan faq.
What proof do you offer that powerups and slices increase decay? In the case of slices the evidence appears to be strongly against slicing decay. For powerups I have not found yet any statements by developers, or compelling experiments by players to convince me either way. I have to date only found anecdotal evidence and broad claims with nothing to back them up.
Also weapons do not decay on death, and are not insured, an error of omission in your guide.
Also from the same tuesday tip you should add that slicing significantly decreases the chance to successfully repair a weapon. So say the devs anyway.
Message Edited by Betatoxin on 10-07-2004 12:24 PM
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