Experimentation is an essential element of Crafting in SWG. Experimentation allows you to improve the properties of the item you are crafting. To experiment while creating an item you must be using the specialized crafting tool for the item (not the generic crafting tool) and must be standing near the appropriate crafting station.
Experimentation[]
The draft schematic for the item you are creating may specify one or more properties upon which you can experiment. These include things like the base extraction rate or hopper size of a Micro Flora Farm or the number of hitpoints on a piece of Ship Armor. For each property, it lists which resource characteristics affect the value of the property and the effectiveness of your experimentation.
To experiment on the item, you must select the Experiment option from the Finish Crafting Screen on the crafting tool, which then brings up the Experimentation Screen. This screen shows the attributes and presents a horizontal line of boxes for each.
You fill each box with one Experimentation Point until you either run out of points or decide to experiment with the current configuration (as long as you have the points, you can continue to run experiments). As you add points, the experiment risk may rise above 0; the more points you use in an experiment, the higher the risk but the higher the amount that the property will be improved on success (the best items are made with one big experiment that has a critical success). (Note, experimentation on furniture items; couches, etc, no longer makes a difference).
Experimentation Results[]
When you run the experiment, the crafting tool determines the success or failure of the experiment. The experimented properties of the item will increase by percentage amount based on the level of success and number of points used or each. The percentage per point for a success or failure is:
| Result | Quality |
|---|---|
| Critical success | 8.40% |
| Amazing success | 8.05% |
| Great success | 7.00% |
| Good success | 3.50% |
| Success | 1.75% |
| Moderate success | 1.05% |
| Moderate failure | ? |
| Failure | -7.00% |
| Critical failure | -14.00% |
There are several factors that affect the success rate of an experiment:
- The risk of the experiment (this may be affected by the other factors here as well).
- Your skill modifier for assembling items (e.g., Artisan assembly or Clothing Assembly).
- The quality of your crafting tool and the crafting station.
- Being in a player city with a city experimentation bonus (the Research Center or Industrial Society city specializations).
- Inspiration Buffs given by entertainers specific to your craft.
- Consumption of Bespin Port
- Unproven, but speculation also exists that MA (malleability) affects experimentation results.
Experimentation Points[]
For each crafting profession you have skill in, you have an experimentation skill modifier (e.g., Artisan experimentation or Armor Experimentation, for example), which determines the number of experimentation points you have when crafting an item. Each 10 points in the skill modifier gives 1 expermentation point (for example, if you have an Artisan Experimentation value of 95, you have 9 experimentation points available to you).
As a master of your profession, you naturally get 10 experimentation points through the experimentation skill modifier increases you get with added skill boxes. For example:
- as a Novice Armorsmith you have a modifier of 10,
- Technique I, II, III, and IV give you 10, 15, 20, and 20 more,
- and as a Master Armorsmith you get the last 25.
You can improve on this by creating a "crafting suit" for each profession by adding Skill Enhancing Attachments to the clothing you wear when crafting for a maximum of skill modifier increase of 25, which at master gives you 12 experimentation points. Pre-NGE these SEAs dropped from NPCs, but now are made through Reverse engineering. However, extra points are for the most part not a requirement in making quality goods; resources are.
Humans have an inate Artisan Experimentation skill modifier of 15 and are the only race that can have a maximum of 14 experimentation points, when creating Artisan level items, as a Master Artisan with the appropriate crafting suit.
Crafting Suits[]
When building or buying a crafting suit, it is helpful to know the max stats are:
+11 Assembly, +8 Experimentation, +35 Luck
Of course you can get by with a lesser suit that still gives you the +2 experimentation points. For example, three +7 experimentation of shirt, armor, & weapon will give a +21 total, which equates to 2 experimentation points.
Here is a breakdown on the multi-use ones for shipwright:
Ship weapon suit: good for crafting weapons, missle packs, missle launchers, and chaff (packs & launcher)
Ship chassis suit: good for crafting chassis and ship armor
Ship advanced suit: good for crafting cargo holds, capacitors, and droid interfaces
Resource Characteristics[]
For each property that can be experimented on, the draft schematic lists which resource characteristics affect the value of the property and the effectiveness of your experimentation. If there are multiple characteristics, it shows the relative effect of each one on the experimentation. Some examples; in crafting theQuick Recharge Battery Mark I (Schematic) subcomponent used in capacitor crafting, the outcome of both recharge and energy is influenced 75% by conductivity, and 25% by overall quality. All other resource characteristics are not a factor.
Comparing two steels for use in the above example.
Steel X: OQ 900, CD 500.
Steel Y: OQ 700, CD 600.
Steel X looks like great steel, and may actually command a premium on the market, but because of the high weighting of conductivity, steel Y is actually better for this purpose.
X= 900*0.25 + 500*0.75 = 600
Y= 700*.25 + 600*0.75 = 625
These numbers are generated for you automatically by the crafting engine after you place the resource in the appropriate slot. They can be found at the lower right hand side of the crafting screen. Using the colored bars to check resources is ok for most uses, but those bars can be misleading when you are trying to max one particular aspect.
Another example; In crafting most foods, 66% of the nutritional value is influenced by PE (energy), and 33% by OQ. However, duration is influenced by DR (decay resistance) and OQ. Filling is influenced by FL (flavor). This example demonstrates that there are some schems where almost all of the resource characteristics are factored. However, even in these cases you must decide what your priorities are because resources with high stats in multiple characteristics are rare.
Here are several references to begin to study this in detail:
- Lunariel's Guide to Resource Caps
- Crafting Post-CURB (5.10.05 on) Link doesn't work anymore, as of August 4, 2008
- Mathematicians Guide to Armorsmithing (sections 1 and 2) Link doesn't work anymore, as of August 4, 2008
- Orske's [post-cu] Current Best Resources (a tool that shows the best currently harvested resources for each schematic and illustrates the calculation results).