Resources

Resources are gathered from the environment through either sampling (using a survey tools) or through harvesters. These include minerals, chemicals and gas extracted from the ground, flora materials gleaned from the surface, creature resources harvested from hunted creatures, water collected from the air, and various forms of energy.

Resources are located through the use of Survey Tools that allow the tool user to Survey Resource (Ability). A small sample can be obtained using the Sample Resource (Ability), also a survey tool function. Large amounts of resources require the use of harvesters, such as mineral harvesters, chemical harvesters, or solar collectors (a type of energy harvester).

Resources are automatically stored in resource containers. Each container can hold up to 100,000 units of a single named resource and takes up one inventory slot.

Resources are used by Traders and other characters to create items. Most items in SWG are crafted and then used by the crafter or sold to other characters for their use. The schematics used by crafters to make things specify the general or specific types of resouces needed and their desired characteristics.

Resource Types
Resources are roughly categorized in the following tree. Within each category, there many specific types (e.g., ferrous and non-ferrous metals, copper and aluminum) Space Resources (Asteroidal)
 * Inorganic
 * Mineral
 * Chemical
 * Gas
 * Water
 * Organic
 * Creature resources
 * Flora
 * Energy

As an example, the Lubricating Oil resource is a type of Inert Petrochemical, which is a type of Chemical, which is an Inorganic Resource. A lubricating oil may be used in any schematic that lists it specifically or lists any of it's including categories.

Resource Characteristics
Each specific type resource has one or more characteristics that determine how good it will work in a specific application. These affect a crafter's ability to experiment with the product in an effort to improve the result. If a producted can be experimented on, there will be a list of the product properties and the resource characteristics that affect each one.

A resource type may have one or more of the following characteristics:


 * Cold Resistance
 * Conductivity
 * Decay Resistance
 * Entangle Resistance
 * Flavor
 * Heat Resistance
 * Malleability
 * Overall Quality
 * Potential Energy
 * Shock Resistance
 * Unit Toughness

If a resource has a particular characteristic, it will be a value between 1 and the maximum for the resource (usually 1000). For a given schematic, the higher the value of the characteristics used for experimentation, the more valuable the resource to the crafter. For instance, the Lubricating Oil resource has the Overall Quality (as do most, if not all, resources) and Decay Resistance characteristics.

Some resources have caps, and these caps follow what is generally known about the elements. For example, copper has a higher conductivity than steel, and aluminum has a higher conductivity than iron. Some resources also have minimum values; polysteel copper will always have a high conductivity. Duralloy steel will always have a high unit toughness, etc. A complete guide to resource caps was compiled by Lunariel at SWG Craft.
 * Lunariel's Guide to Resource Caps

Resource Names
At any time, each planet in the galaxy has a number of specific instances of a few resource types available for collection; some, like meat, are always available, others, like Kelsh Copper, are only available some of the time on some of the planets.

Each instance has a name that uniquely identifies its characteristic values for all time; for instance, as I write this, Tatooine in the Kettemoor galaxy has two types of Lubricating Oil: Liogefif (DR=343, OQ=335) and Omniflodao (DR=682, OQ=527).

If a crafter buys containers containing the same named resource (e.g., Omniflodao) from several people, the samples are always identical and can be used interchangably (and combined into one container). This is important when using factories, since the factory instructions are created by the crafter from the schematic for a specific set of named resources.

There are also a couple of loot drop only schematics that allow a trader to create Chemical, Creature, Flora, Metal, and Ore recyling tools. These will allow you to combine multiple subtypes of resources into a single resource stack. The result won't be as good a quality as harvested resources, but for grinding xp or using up "scraps", they might be useful.

JTL Resource Changes
JTL has introduced several different ground resources. These are; Crystalized Bicorbantium Steel, Hardened Arveshium Steel, Perovskitic Aluminum, Conductive Corbactic Copper, Gravitonic Fiberplast, Unstable organometallic gas, femnionic siliclastic ore. Unlike other resources, these resources have no caps (and no mins). Most of these are used in starship crafting, and after the CU some were also incorportated into Armorsmithing (much to the dismay of old school smiths). These resources spawn for longer periods of time, and 21 day spawns are not uncommon. Additionally, Femnionic siliclastic ore can spawn in high concentrations, making this the ideal ore to harvest for grind quality/architect type uses. These resources spawn only on one planet and they are always in spawn.

Trials of Obi-Wan Expansion Resource Changes
There are two major changes to resources since the addition of Mustafar; the introduction of new resources spawning on mustafar, and the introduction of the "conductivity bug".

Mustafar resources are all generic resources; there are no specific ores, irons, etc. Mustafar resources usually are high in SR, UT, HR, CR, PE. The OQ is variable, but usually above 500. No harvesters can be placed on Mustafar, and extraction of these resources is only possible through hand sampling. Nevertheless, Mustafarian radioactive has found a niche market in the construction of ultra fast starship engines. Some crafters also gain access to these resources through the procurement of a crate of free resources.

The addition of Mustafarian resources introduced what is known as the "Conductivity Bug". For old players, this is not so much a bug as a return to the way things were pre-jtl. However, for those who crafted in the window of time after JTL and before Mustafar, the CD Bug has decreased the experimental potential of many resources. An explanation by way of example may help clarify. When crafting, say, starship engines, 66% of reactor energy drain is dependent on conductivity. Iron, Steel, Aluminum all have conductivity and are resources required for building an engine. The cap of conductivity for iron is 500. Pre Mustafar, if you were using a kammris iron (it would have to be Kammris) with a conductivity of 499, then this would yield an experimental % of 499/500 or 99.8% (before averaging with other resources). Post Mustafar, a conductivity of 499 yields an experimental % of 499/1000 or 49.9% (again, just taking the iron by itself without averaging it). So as a result of the conductivity bug, the reactor drain on engines was increased, even while using the same resources. It is not known at this time if there are plans to address the conductivity bug in some manner; some crafters do not think it has had a major negative impact on most items because of the appearance of high CD JTL steel and high CD JTL aluminum. Most servers have had spawns of both.

NGE Resource Changes
The NGE has changed several aspects of gathering and using resources. Foremost among these are the greatly decreased availibility of creature resources. To address this, the developers have decreased the amount of hides used in armorsmithing. However, the cost of high quality hide has doubled on most servers and continues to rise. It is one factor in the escalation of the price of a suit of armor. Another change includes organic resource useage. Pre-NGE there existed a market for almost every type of harvestable resource. However, because of changes to foods and the removal of bioengineer from the game, most resources in the category of creature resource: creature food are not in demand (insect meat being an exception).