Pilot Archive

A mass guide would be very helpful to some of the new pilots as well some of the veteran pilots. I would like to use this thread to compile some information that we can put into a larger post and sticky at the top of the forums or what not.

Here's the little bit of information I can provide.

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1. Why you need to learn to manage your mass?

Each ship has its inherant advantages and no one ship is better then another in most circumstances. Each type of pilot, whether they be Freelance, Imperial, or Rebel, each have a stand array of fighters, each limited by its mass. The fast fighters are the Dunelizard, Tie Advanced/Interceptor, and the A-Wing. Each of these figheters is deadly effective with the proper mass managed equipment. Mass management will allow you to pack a bigger punch in a smaller package.

2. Reverse Engineering Rules of Thumb

(Here's where I'd like to see some of the pilots who are great at scrounging up parts to post what is worth RE'ing and some strategies. Should we be stockpiling every component we get, or should we just be looking for the best components in each class? What level should we be stockpiling? Is it worth just keeping level 9s and 10s? With each ship, what is the best level of components to put in it for mass? How should we manage the fine balance between selling our loot and keeping it to RE? Should we go out searching for master shipwrights to RE for us if we don't have an alt? What should we look for in a shipwright?)

From psikobunny:

1) Even numbered levels are where it's at for Capacitors. 2,4,6,8,10. Pretty much ignore 1,3,5,7,9 unless you're a feeding a shipwright in a quest for the KSE. The Rule of Even Levels can hold for Boosters too, some other parts aren't as cut an dry, but theses two are pretty much set.

2) Just because Armor decays, doesnt mean its not worth REing. The highest M/E ratio in JtL can come from a good piece of armor. I have REd some that provide as much protection as Level9 heavy crafted armor, but with less than 1/3 the mass.

3) Hawk the bazaar. I set the bazaar for Galaxy wide, and sort by name. After a few days, you learn what part names are interesting, and stand out as being of good levels. It's much harder to get good finds with this than it used to be. I hate the Chassis Broker sales, and a lot of shipwrights have caught on, but you can still catch bargains. I was frustrated with the Chassis Broker sales, since they made a huge effort to prep the bazaar for JtL, then killed it in one stroke. It was a thriving market, and still would be today, alas.

Every L6 reward [engine] is in the top 1% for speed for L6 engines. Chances of beating it are slim, and pointless to use in RE since that's its best feature. Mass can easily be lowered below 10k, and PYR improved to the 70 range. Keep this in your mind when seeking mates for your [L6 reward] engine.

Level 7 Reactors-
I have looted a 39k power (RE to 41k) and last night got a 30.8k that should RE to 33k.

Ridiculous power, reasonable mass. Many times low level ultra light crafteds are more than adequate, but these are the level/item that seems to be dropping Exceptional on a good basis.

Another Rule of Thumb for RE scavenging.

When collecting shields, watch for naturally unbalanced shields. This is similar to the manufactured inequity that the old Rebel program did before it was fixed. That was used to create much more powerful RE shields than should have existed, but can't be done now. However, natural loots are a perfectly legit way to get an RE product with more hit points than normal. If you find a shield that is 30% heavy on the front, and then find one 30% heavy on the back, and RE the two, it would have a lot more hit points than an even shield. The key here is to watch the loots, and DO NOT USE THEM IN A SHIP. Loading them automatically balances them, and negates the advantage before you RE. I use this when making L5-6 RE jobs for use in Awings and Interceptors. Light shields with better HP than expected.

From MWJ:

First lesson of hoarding parts:
If you plan to make a set of high level parts, don't Re them together as soon as you get 10 Tier 10s. Wait until you have at least 2 or more extras, so you don't waste those really good parts as filler.

Different types of ships have a bias when they drop loot, in my experiences.
Last 20 Hours in Deep Space, about 200-300 loot pieces. This is what I have noticed

Rebel ships:
Corvette: No loot. Ever.
Gunboat: Armor, Guns, Shields
B-Wing: Guns, Shields, Droid Interfaces
Y-Wing: Guns, Reactors
A-wing: Booster, Engines
X-wing: Shields, Capacitors
Z-95: Capacitors, Boosters, Droid Interface

These ships will drop other components than what I have listed, but this is what I have found them to drop the most.

Special note: The B-Wing is the only ship so far I have seen drop the Aramek Elite Ion Cannon, a very nice Tier 10 weapon. I currently have 3-4, one with 2500-4300 Damage, another with 42000 mass. These vary in stats widely, but tend to have at least one good attribute each.

From Halyn:

Don't use heavy reactors. Level 1s, 2s, and 3s are usually enough. If you're careful, you can RE a heavier lvl 2 or three with a higher-recharge of the same level. You can also run your ship a bit in the "red" on power without problems, and reactor overload is always a useful program. As a plus, with low-level reactors there is less to fear by running Reactor Overload 4 and decaying it a bit, as it can be easily replaced.

From Durik_Lakmor

Know your ships advantages/disadvantages when considering what to put where.

Just because you can squeeze a level 8 gun on an A-wing doesn't mean you should if it means sacrficing speed.

I'd like to add that on weapons, dealing with not so much mass as other, refire rate > damage imho.

Also consider having 2 sets of equipment for an all-around fighter such as the x-wing, i have higher firepower for dogfighting but more defense for capital ships and such that i swap between.

From Caile Sathinor,

Managing mass is incredibly dependant upon you knowing your preferred style of flying. One person may prefer a lightly armed, fast, maneuverable ship to a heavily armed, less maneuverable ship. Others may like a balance between the two. Maybe another likes heavy shields and armor, but less weapon power. It's completely dependant for style of flight.

Using myself as an example, I prefer 2 different configurations:

Configuration A - Heavy weapons, powerful engine, light shields and armor, powerful booster. This is a good solid strike ship, capable of doing insane amounts of damage in a quick amount of time. Examples of chassis I'd use: Krayt Gunship or TIE Oppressor.

Configuration B - Light weapons, powerful engine, heavy shields/armor, powerful booster. This is a good "distraction" craft. You're the sucker who runs in guns blazing to confuse the person you're attacking with your weak ineffectual laser fire while your Config A buddies come in and pound it to dirt.

Tip on reactors:

Fit your reactor to your loadout. Don't fit your loadout to your reactor. Load your ship up the way you want, then try to fit a reactor to it. Leave leeway in power output for programs like cap/weapon/engine overload, but try to fit it as close as possible. A 16k mass 37k reactor is just waste in something the size of a Dunelizard.

3. Example Ship Configurations
(Put example ship configurations here for all the frequently, or unfrequently flown ships in each of the three fleets.)
From CNevyn,

B'wing Parts list
Reactor: 19.9 Mass 16.2 Gen Mark IV, lvl 7
Engine: 24.7 Mass, 1.5 Drain, 73.4 PYR, 92.9 Max. RE'd.
Shield: 24.3 Mass 2.0K drain, 2.5 F/B, 13.58 Regen. Lvl 8 - RE’d
Armor: Ft: 4.7K mass, 612 HP, 612 AP. Mass. lvl 5
Rear: 6.0K mass, 1320 HP, 1320 AP. lvl 6. RE’d
Cap: 28K mass, 1K drain, 1.1K cap, 46.5 regen. RE'd, lvl 8
Boost: 8.1K, 491 drain, 1.8K energy, consumption rate: 156.1,
recharge: 48.7, Accel: 38.5, top bost: 29.2, lvl 6 RE’d
DI: 1.36K mass, 476 drain. 12.8 speed, lvl 9
Weap 1 14.6K mass, 2.4K drain, 13.8-2.8K damage. .72 vs shield, .24 vs armor
23.5 energy/shot, .34 refire *crafted* troco
weap 2 14.6K mass, 2.3K drain, 13.8-2.8K damage. .24 vs shield, .72 vs armor
23.5 energy/shot, .34 refire *crafted* troco
weap 3 25.6K mass, 2.2K drain, 2.5-3.87K damage, .66 vs shield/armor
13.4 energy/shot, .37 refire, lvl 8 RE’d
weap 4 4.0K mass, 1.8K drain, 940-1325 dam. .65 vs shield/armor
24.7 energy/shot, ..4 refire, lvl 4 RE'd (threw this on jus' 'cause it was handy)
Ord 1 MK III Concussion, 5.6K mass
Ord 2 MK III Proton, 6.4K mass
Mass: 200861 / 239304 38.4K available
Engine and Cap were RE'd previously. This round I did the shields (YAY!), booster, weapon 3, and tossed that RE'd lvl 4 on in place of a junk lvl 3. I was shy on loot armor as well as weapons. Generally I like to get 3-6 more parts of the same level for a set before having them RE'd, so I have a better selection. I got impatient on the lvl 8 gun, only had 7 of them, but I had a good set so traded for the 8th. I intend to upgrade weap1 & weap2 as I aquire more lvl 8 guns. In the mean time I'm light enough now I can add heavier armor and/or trade out the missile tubes for a pair of space bomb launchers. (which was my origional intention.)
I shaved off 26K in mass RE'ing the shields, boosters & guns, even while upgrading a few comps.

From Vegitaa's Screaming Vengence post,

Here are the stats on Screaming Vengeance
TIE Intercepter
Flown by Captain Vegitaa Gaiden
Lieutant in command < Money Makers > ISS Squadron

Main Reactor
KUAT RE'ed lvl 4
Mass 3689.1
Generation Rate 12287.5

Engine
Level 6 reward (Not RE'ed yet)
mass 13765.9
Top Speed 79.0
YPR 63.2

Shield
Level 7
mass 14642.7
Front/Back 10000.0/1734.8
recharge rate 12.0

Front armour
level 2
mass 1042.9
armour 162.5/162.5

Rear armour
level 1
mass 890.3
armour 102.3/102.3

Capacitor
Level 4 RE'ed
mass 3254.5
energy 1000.0/942.2
recharge 40.2

Booster
level 4 RE'ed
mass 3245.6
acceleration 34.5
top speed 26.0

Droid interface
level 1 re'ed
mass 433.4
speed 16.4

TomoRaider's PVP Ship (Taken from Vegitaa's Post),

Anyway, to get sorta back on topic, here's the Interceptor I have set up for PVP and helping people on missions, the Scalpel I:

Reactor: 1040 mass, 11524 energy
Engine: 8708 mass, 95.9 speed, 67.2/66.4/67.5 PYR
Shield: 14140 mass, 1786 HP front/back, 11.46 recharge
Armor, front and back: 968 mass, 278 HP
Capacitor: 1548 mass, 980 energy, 39.5 recharge
Booster: 1041 mass, 850 energy, 27.7 accel, 32.5 speed
Droid Interface: 494 mass, 15.1 speed
Weapon: 14667 mass, 1987-3072 damage, .620/.540 effect, 19.8 energy/shot, .310 refire
Missile Launcher: Mk II Image-Rec, 5594 mass, 2643-6069, .430/.430, 5 shots
Countermeasure: Chaff launcher, 905 mass, 12 shots

Totals: 50074/50333 mass, 11104/11524 energy. I crafted the reactor, shield, armors, booster, missile launcher, and countermeasure specifically for this ship, which occasionally meant dropping unnecessary performance (in the case of the reactor, for instance) for the sake of a small but critical amount of extra mass.

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If you guys can think of putting anything else in here, be my guess. I'm only good at the basics of mass management, and have yet to really figure out the secrets to finding good RE components. As of now I just stockpile cert 10 components because I can't sell them for much of anything.
When this post is full, I will be moving things to an 'official guide' thread.

Message Edited by Ratape on 02-25-2005 07:36 AM

Message Edited by Ratape on 02-26-2005 06:33 AM

First lesson of hoarding parts:
If you plan to make a set of high level parts, don't Re them together as soon as you get 10 Tier 10s. Wait until you have at least 2 or more extras, so you don't waste those really good parts as filler.

I'll add more info as what to look for on parts as I go. I have become sort of a parts manager for my guild, so I will look through what I have.

Message Edited by MWJ on 02-23-2005 11:45 AM

After reading this post I realized I'm using the level 6 reward engine in my X-Wing (didn't realize it was the reward, but I wondered why the best engine I've ever run across was so low level). How would you suggest I RE it? Should I be looking to reduce the mass, or up the top speed or ypr? Not sure about the last two, as I have yet to see an engine with a better top speed or ypr (as I've stated in other threads, every piece of loot I get is junk).

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CNevyn wrote:

Psikobunny,

didn't quite follow that.. how did you get such a high ratio/low weight on your example piece of armor?

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know your ships advantages/disadvantages when considering what to put where.

Just because you can squeeze a level 8 gun on an A-wing doesn't mean you should if it means sacrficing speed.

Also consider having 2 sets of equipment for an all-around fighter such as the x-wing, i have higher firepower for dogfighting but more defense for capital ships and such that i swap between.

i'd like to add that on weapons, dealing with not so much mass as other, refire rate > damage imho

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CNevyn wrote:

What I've been looking for is a good guide for min/max values on parts for each level, to make it easier to identify what's junk or filler, and what's gold. (Really didn't want to input my inventory into an excel spreadsheet...)

Psikobunny,

didn't quite follow that.. how did you get such a high ratio/low weight on your example piece of armor?

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I'd love to see a max/min list for looted parts myself. I know there are some of you out here who catalogue your parts. If you use Excel or what night mind doing a bit of data parsing to get a list of max and min values? We'd all love you for that! If no one here does that, I will try the shipwright forums. I know some of those guys catalogue everything! I might start recording every part I get in Excel... that might make things a bit easier on me.

I also have a quick question. Does mass work the same when in terms of REing a component? For example if I am REing a cert 2 component with 500 mass, and one with 700 mass, will the finished component have 500 mass + the 2% bonus to stats?

That is correct, mass works the same as any other stat.