SWGCraft Project

Savacc’s Guide to making +44.999992 Crafting Stations
For Advanced Crafters

Note: This guide is now obsolete. +45 is now the "cap" for all Crafting Stations. As of GU12 all of the "bugged" schematics have been fixed and can now be experimented to 100%. I have decided to keep this guide around, rather then delete it, as a testimony to what architects had to suffer under for the first 5 years of this game.

At one time, making “capped” Crafting Stations was considered the hardest crafting endeavor in the game. Now, making a complete “capped” Beast Master lab would be harder and making +35 Power Bits in the new RE process is more expensive and time consuming. Still this is among the most difficult things a crafter can attempt to do in this game. The reasons, besides needing several resources averaging 960 or better and the knowledge of how to experiment them, are two.

You need both a Master Engineer Trader and a Master Structures Trader
Every Schematic involved in making Crafting Stations is “bugged”

There are two different “bugs” plaguing Crafting Stations. The first only affects the Crafting Station schematics themselves. They should use “Structure Experimentation Skill” to experiment on them, but they don’t. They use “Artisan Experimentation Skill”. For a long time after the NGE, we could not make these “capped” Stations because Structures Traders only got 70 Artisan Experimentation Skill and 7 Experimentation Points. The fix, from SOE, was not, as one would expect, to make the Station use Structure Skill, but rather to give all traders 100 Artisan Skill and 10 Experimentation Points. So, if you want to use a “Crafting Suit” when making the Crafting Stations, use an “Artisan Suit” and not a “Structures Suit”.

The second “bug” affects every schematic involved in this process. It is a “rounding bug” that unfortunately plagues many schematics besides these. All of these schematics suffer in that they can not be experimented to 100% even with “perfect” resources. The best they can get to is 99%. However, we have found that there is a difference between a 99% arrived at normally, that is, it would be 99% even if the schematic were not bugged, and a 99% that should be 100%, if the schematic were not bugged. To understand this difference you have to know what happens when you experiment in normal schematics.

If you have “perfect” resources, 960 or better, then you will get an Assembly result of 29% (the “bugged” schematics get an Assembly result of 30%. We don’t know why). From this “starting point” we begin experimenting. There are only two acceptable experimentation results: “great” and “amazing”. Anything less will ruin the project. Fortunately a Master level Trader nearly always gets only “great” or “amazing” results. “Great” results add +7% per box experimented towards your final total, “amazing” results add +8.05. If you experiment 10 boxes and get all “great” results, you would add +70% to your starting Assembly result of 29% and get a 99% total. This is what I refer to as arriving at 99% “normally”. If instead, you get just one “amazing” result instead of any of those “great” results, you add 71.05% to your 29% and get over 100%. Or at least this is what happens in normal schematics. However in these “bugged” schematics this result, experimenting 10 boxes and getting nine “greats” and one “amazing”, will only record as 99%.

This is important - We have found that experimenting one of these “bugged” schematics to 99% “normally” (with 10 “great” results) gives us a part with a lesser value then one experimented to 99% and at least one “amazing” result (one that should be 100%). The difference seems to be a +99% and a +99.99% though they both record to us as 99%.

To review. All of these schematics are bugged and can only get to 99%. It is necessary to get at least one “amazing” success while experimenting them. The best way to do this is to experiment one box at a time till you get an “amazing” then fill in the remaining boxes.

To make a +44.999992 Crafting Station you must use all of the optional subcomponents. These subcomponents are made by Engineer Traders. They must use high quality resources, 960 or better in the experimental qualities, and experiment as described above.

The Crafting Station adds +14.999998
2 Control Units add +4.999998
5 Droid Storage Units add +4.999998
2 Micro Sensor Suites add +19.999998
For a total of +44.999992

The Micro Sensor Suites have subcomponents of their own. These are also bugged, must be made with high quality resources and experimented with at least one “amazing”.

The Micro Sensor Suites are the only place we need to worry about resource caps. They call for steel and need OQ and CD. The CD cap on steel is 650. So use either a Durally Steal close to 650 CD, or a JTL steel that could be 650 CD or higher.

On all of these schematics it is only the “Experimental Effectiveness” line that needs to be experimented. If there is a “Durability” line, it can be ignored.

The Control Units and Micro Sensor Units have a “rating”, the Control Units are -5 to +5, the MSS -20 to +20. These ratings are not accurate and should be ignored.

What About +45 Stations?
It was once possible to make +45 Crafting Stations. Back in 2004, for one day the crafting rules were changed. On that day, subcomponents for Crafting Stations could be made that were 100%. As long as the factory schematics made that day, and the resources they needed, held out these Perfect Crafting Stations could be made. There are not very many still being made today, though I know of a few crafters able to make them.

Trouble Shooting
If you are having trouble making a +44.999992 Station do this test:

Make a Crafting Station without any subcomponents. It should be +14.999998
Make a Station with just 2 Control Units. It should be +19.999996
Make a Station with just 5 Droid Storage Units. It should be +19.999996
Make a Station with just the 2 Micro Sensor Suites. It should be +34.999996

This will tell you which of your parts is not up to snuff. Take a closer look at the resources used on that part and replace the suspect ones, or experiment them again, making sure to get that one “amazing” this time.

Reserved for additions to the guide

I have decided to add some further details of what happens when you experiment on normal schematics. These details are inferable from what I have already said, but Ill add them anyway.

On a normal schematic, as I have already said, if you get ten "great" results you add 70% to your starting Assembly result of 29% to get 99%. On a normal schematic you will now get an option to spend an eleventh point to get to 100%. Obviously this does not happen on a "bugged" schematic since the bug is that it only gets to 99%, never 100%.
I have also stated how with just one "amazing" result you can get to 100%, on a normal schematic, with ten experimental points.
What I want to add, for completeness, is that if you get eight "amazings" (which is the max number of boxes you can experiment at a time) you can get to 100% in only nine boxes
8 x 8.05% = 64.4% (the eight amazings)
64.4% +7% = 71.4% (add in one great)
29% + 71.4% = 100% (added to the Assembly result)

To Review:
If you get all "great" results, you get to 100% in eleven boxes
If you get just one "amazing", you get to 100% in ten boxes
if you get eight "amazings", you get to 100% in nine boxes

Reserved for further commendations to Savacc

/target Savacc
/kowtow




/Zimoon

Extremely impressive!!! Way to go boss, i knew you were good for something, even though Z kept telling me you weren't

To quote a movie line

"EXCELLENT"

Uuuh , that was a blow beneath the belt
FUD is what it is, FUD

/Zimoon

Well done, one of the best (and simplest) explanations of experimentation results I've read, thx.

Zbig

Thankyou, I was, still am, concerned that what I wrote would be comprehended. I understand what I am saying, but will someone who has never made a Crafting Station understand it

Great guide /cheer Savacc

And yes, I think it would make sense to someone who doesn't understand the process. You're pretty thorough with the how's and why's.



For historical reference, "Crafting Day" was March 16 2004--the day the original publish 7 went live. It was reverted the following day.

Only other thing I do is that I use "Ore" in the mineral spot for the final combine -- it saves me 50 units each of copper, which probably isn't that big a deal.

Kind of a shame we couldn't take all these useful guides and put them into one downloadable manuscript.

It's called "Zimoon's Master Guide to all Things SWG" and its available on-line or in the bazaar for 99,999,999 credits. Or call 1 800 Hug Zimoon for your copy. I'm sure with all his spare time he's been working on it.

Seriously tho, I have mountains of notes on my desk, I can usually find things quicker on line. I'd never remember how things were categorized.

Zbig

I think it should be mentioned that the quality of the droid storage compartments does not affect the station, merely being there gives the bonus. I ran the troubleshooting test to check this and still came out with the best number even though the person who made them said he didn't think they were high quality.

I was about to just dismiss this out of hand, but decided I should test it, things change, bugs happen, maybe you are right. So I made some crafting stations tonight using my "uber" Droid Storage Units and some junk I had as well. The uber units came out to +19.999996, the junk to +10.5 something. So your friend must have made better Droid Storage Units then he thought.

Thanks for retesting it, you just saved me some time and resources cuz I was about to go buy some more droid strorage compartments from a low level crafter. I would have been kicking myself. I want to thank you for an awesome guide, it was very easy to understand and I was able to make capped stations on the second try. Although I think my character might have been a little tipsy after all that Bespin Port...

Was there another change this year?
On Gorath there is one trader who sells +45 crafting stations for 1.5 mil.
Is this possible meanwhile? There are still about 10 stations (weapons and clothing) in the vendor, so I don't think this is just an old stock someone found.