Shipwright Archive

I've been receiving a lot of questions lately about reverse engineering, and how it works, as well as what qualities people should look for in the items they want to bring to me for reverse engineering, and so on. I wanted to lay out some guidelines that would help both shipwrights and pilots pick and choose the best items to go into a reverse engineering attempt.

Firstly, if you currently have and are using a looted component in your ship that has not been reverse engineered, a shipwright can make it even better than it currently is through reverse engineering. 100% guaranteed with no chance of failure. You should be on the lookout for other items to collect in order to reverse engineer whatever component you're using.

Here's how it works. Each looted ship component has a Reverse Engineering Level stat. You need to have a number of components of the same reverse engineering level that is equal to the reverse engineering level of those components. Therefore, it requires two RE level 2 components, three RE level 3 components, four RE level 4 components and so on to reverse engineer down to a single component of that same type. When reverse engineering multiple items, you must have items that are all of the same type. Armor goes with armor, engines go with engines, and so on.

Any ship component has a number of different stats associated with it. When reverse engineering multiple components, only the best number for each stat is used. This really allows you to min-max your looted components through reverse engineering, especially with the higher level components, since having more components needed in the process allows you to pick components with more throwaway stats if they just have one really good stat.

Four stats that all components have in common are Armor, Hitpoints, Mass, and Reactor Drain. For this example, I'll be using those four.

For most stats, a higher number is better, and that's the case with Armor and Hitpoints. In the case of both Mass and Drain, however, lower numbers are better, as they allow you to put more things inside your ship. Let's say that we have two components that have these numbers in those four stats:

Comp #1 Comp #2
Armor 225.5 115.7
Hitpoints225.5 112.2
Mass 9876.4 3456.7
Reactor Drain 3356.2 1057.0

I've noted the best stat in each case by highlighting it. Now let's see how the base stats would be combined before applying the RE bonus:

Comp #1 Comp #2 Best of Stats
Armor 225.5 115.7 225.5
Hitpoints225.5 112.2 225.5
Mass 9876.4 3456.7 3456.7
Reactor Drain 3356.2 1057.0 1057.0

Once we've done that, then every RE attempt applies a % bonus that is tied to the Reverse Engineering level of the items in question. The exact formula to determine what % bonus gets applied hasn't been confirmed, but evidence seems to point to % bonus working out to be something like this (thanks to JohnHaines for doing the legwork on this):

RE Lvl 1 = Mark I = 1%
RE Lvl 2-3 = Mark II = 2%
RE Lvl 4-5 = Mark III = 3%
RE Lvl 6-7 = Mark IV = 4%
RE Lvl 8-9 = Mark V = 5%


So, assuming that this was a RE Lvl 2 set of components, since there's two of them, the final stats on this item would turn out something like this after the bonus is applied:

Best of Stats Final Stats w/ 2% bonus
Armor 225.5 230.0
Hitpoints 225.5 230.0
Mass 3456.7 3387.5
Reactor Drain1057.01035.8*

*(Note: There is currently a bug with Reverse Engineering on Reactor Drain for all components. The Component Analyzer readout will tell you that it has properly applied the RE Bonus as show above. However, the final value on the component will be equal to the best pre-bonus stat for the items being reverse engineered)

So, it's pretty clear that, through reverse engineering, we've managed to create a component that is better than either of our starting components. As you find components with larger differences between them in the same stat and of higher Reverse Engineering levels, you'll be able to create dramatically better components through reverse engineering. In order to prevent an neverending loop of reverse engineering better and better components from the same "seed" component, you're not able to reverse engineer something that has already been RE'd. So, if you find a high level component that has a great stat, you might want to set it aside for awhile and hang onto it until you find a few other components with equally great stats in different things. Using this guide, though, should allow you to pick and choose the items that go into your final component very carefully, in order to maximize your reverse engineering.

One other thing to consider, of course, is the way your ship is going to look when the whole thing is put together. For some people, style is everything, while for others, it's additional icing on the cake of a component with great stats. Some looted engines, boosters and weapons have custom models and textures when installed on a starship, as opposed to just having the default style. Weapons can also have specific sounds, and their blaster bolts have different colors and fX. So, the obvious question is how is this affected by Reverse Engineering? Obviously, RE Lvl 1 components will keep their custom styling and fX. When dealing with RE Lvls greater than 1 and multiple components, however, it's important to know that whichever component gets put into the Component Analyzer tool first will determine the styling and other fX that get applied to the final reverse engineered component. This first component will also decide the default name of the component, if the Shipwright doesnt supply a name. (thanks to Narcoleptic_LTD for this information)

Message Edited by Celedhros on 11-15-2004 10:02 AM

Each level gives the %..

Level 1 components give 1%
Level 2 components give 2%
Level 3 components give 3%

and so on..

cheers
Exi

I'm not certain that's actually the case as you get to the higher levels. I had originally thought it was, too, but I'm pretty sure I reverse engineered an RE level 4 or 5 component a couple of nights ago and only got a 3% bonus. I can check again tonight, just to make sure. If anyone can confirm or deny this by reverse engineering a higher RE level component (level 5 or 6), then posting your results, I'd be grateful.

well.. I only can reverse engineer up to level 3 atm.. but the numbers I listed fit perfectly to the components I was reverse engineering..

maybe 3% is the maximum at all

cheers
Ex

Edited to add the fact that you cannot use a previously reverse engineered component in another attempt to RE.

There are reverse engineering skills scattered throughout the skill tree. At novice you can make tools and do level 1 components. To do beyond RE level 1 you need to go higher.

Updated to include our current best guess based on evidence of the way %bonus is applied to get the final stats.

Updated to include information on preserving style and fX from looted components during Reverse Engineering. Thanks, Narcoleptic_LTD!

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johnhaines wrote:

I haven't tried enough high end RE attempts to check, but, is the % increase equal to the 'Mark' of the component?

Thus:

CL 1 = Mark I = 1%

CL 2-3 = Mark II = 2%

CL 4-5 = Mark III = 3%

CL 6-7 = Mark IV = 4%

CL 8-9 = Mark V = 5%

and so on ...

If I gather enough loot I will check this out later

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That seems to be right.

My RE-Level 6 Engine got from 92.2 to 95.9 or so, at least it was exactly a 4% increase.

Have to check that Level 5 Reactor i REd for exact numbers, will post them here then.

And it seems the bonus is NOT applied to Reactor Energy drain, all 3 parts i had made have exactly the energy drain of the lowest part that was used

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Narcoleptic_LTD wrote:

could you also include the information from my thread here? that would be great =) I'd like to see your guide stickied as well... as alot of people don't understand how RE works

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=pilot&message.id=11404#M11404

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Great info.

to those who still don't understand, just remember- if you mix a turd with another turd it will stink up your inventory