Karrywryar�s Guide to Weaponsmithing v1
I looked around, didn�t see one, and decided one was needed. Given the combat-orientation of SWG, and the fact that pretty much every character in the game is, in some way, using weapons to further their profession, they all need a place to get the best equipment, and that makes Weaponsmithing one of the most critical trade skills in the game.
- Dancers can dance without fancy clothes.
- Not everyone needs droids.
- Not everyone needs a house or a factory.
- But nearly everyone needs quality weapons.
As with my other guides, I�m going to assume that you�ve worked your Artisan/Engineering up to level IV and also hope that you�ve pushed your Surveying to IV as well, because you�re going to need it.
Every planet has trainers for the �elite� professions, though not every city has one. Consequently, finding the Weaponsmithing trainer might take a bit of diligence, but once you find them and pay your tuition, you will be a Novice Weaponsmith. You have to train this at the NPC trainer as players are not able to teach novice skills.
Where to start
Before I go into the details of making weapons and working your craft, I want to begin by discussion one of the most important aspects of weaponsmithing�resources.
Resources
Every resource has specific attributes, and those attributes dictate the quality of the end-product of your crafting. The qualities that are relevant to Weaponsmithing are Overall Quality, Conductivity, Shock Resistance, and Heat Resistance.
As you make various items and components (not just in Weaponsmithing), you�ll note in the bottom right corner a box that lists the attributes of what you will be making. If you scroll down in this box, you will find out how the different attributes of the raw materials will effect the end product. For example, it might list under Experimentation Efficiency that it�s 50% Conductivity/50% Overall Quality.
What does this mean? It means that 50% of the quality of the Efficiency of the product will be based upon the Conductivity of the materials used, and 50% will be based upon the Overall Quality. In Weaponsmithing, Efficiency means the HAM (health/action/mind) costs of the item when special attacks are used.
It is imperative, therefore, that every crafter, (again, not just weaponsmiths,) understand what they are making and ensure they are using the best materials possible for that item to ensure the highest quality. Many times, the Overall Quality of the material is irrelevant because it has no impact on the end product, (as with many projectile weapons,). And the best material is often not the most logical one, (for example, copper is the best material for the early firearms, not steel or iron,) so investigation is the crafters only assurance that they�re using the best possible materials.
The more common materials exist on all worlds and are relatively easy to find in decent quantities. The rarer, higher quality (and by quality I don�t necessarily mean Overall Quality) materials are harder to find as they only exist on certain worlds and tend to come and go. This means that, while it may only exist on Dantooine, it isn�t always there and you�ll need to be diligent in your searching. My recommendation is to form survey groups with your peers or Player Association and task people to do quick surveys as they travel, looking for specific ores you might need. This reduces both the time and credit cost to you of having to travel to each world multiple times, in search of the more elusive resources.
Every good crafter should have a database of the materials available in their galaxy, including all of the attributes of those materials, and where they can be found. This allows them to sort on specific criteria and make sure they are using the absolute best for the specific item being crafted. Eventually, I�m sure there will be web pages everywhere with this information, but until that happens, it really behooves the crafter to collect this data themselves.
Making your tools
OK, so you�re a Novice Weaponsmith and have read my brief dissertation on resources, now you�re ready to start making stuff. Your first step is to make yourself a specialized crafting tool, as most weapons can not be made with the General Crafting tool. Now, I the following process might seem a bit odd at first, but take it from me�the extra steps you take at this point will be worth it down the road in your profession.
On Crafting Tools
There are four types of crafting tools: General, Specialized, Public Crafting, and Private Crafting.
- The General Crafting Tool is just that�general. It is designed to make your basic tools and is not focused on anything of any real quality.
- The Specialized Crafting Tools are more focused in their scope and have more options available to them. The quality of the output is also significantly better.
- Public Crafting stations are large consoles in every town. Standing near one of these and using a crafting tool (General or Specialized) allows not only a higher level of quality output, but also allows the crafter to experiment on the results (more on this later).
- Private Crafting stations are just like the Public ones except they are player made and �cleaner� because less people use them. Consequently, not only is the quality higher but there are also some of the more advanced items that can only be made when the crafter is near one of them. For example, Bowcasters can only be made by Wookie Weaponsmiths that are near Private Crafting stations.
As a Weaponsmith, it is imperative that your crafting tool be of the highest quality, as it will effect the results of every weapon you make. Additionally, it is very advantageous to have more than one Weapon crafting tool, as each item you make takes time to be created, and instead of sitting there and waiting before making the next piece, you can simply have multiple tools running at the same time, which cuts down on your downtime. I personally have four Weapon crafting tools running at the same time.
In town, find the General and Weapon Public Crafting station and stand near it. Bring up your General Crafter and create a Weapon Crafting Tool. When prompted for the materials, check the right hand bottom box, see what material attributes it is looking for (Overall Quality, Conductivity, etc,) pick the best materials, and fill up the schematic screen. Assemble the item. If the assembly was not a �great� or �amazing� success, follow the prompts and destroy the item as you�re trying to make a high-quality tool.
Otherwise, follow the prompts until the box pops up offering �Create the item�, �Create a schematic�, and �Experimentation�. Select �Experimentation�.
Experimenting
Experimentation is only available at Crafting stations and allows the crafter to fiddle with the building of the object in hopes of making it better. Depending upon the item being built, various things can be experimented on: damage, range, durability, efficiency, experimentation, etc. In the case of making a Weapon Crafting tool, all we�re interested in is Experimentation.
The number of points you have to spend on Experimentation is based upon your skill relative to the object being made. Given that this is a crafting tool, and you have Engineering IV, (a requisite of Weaponsmith,) you have the maximum points available. Put as many points as you can into Experimentation and run the experiment. If you get anything less than �amazing� or �great� success, continue with the process and destroy the item, since we want your tool to be the best possible. If you have more points than there are slots to spend them on, simply fill the slots, run the experiment, then fill it again if there are any empty slots remaining. If there are none, move on and accept the prompt to discard unused experimentation points.
When you are complete, you should have a Weapon Crafting tool with the highest possible experimentation success, which will help you down the road in making weapons.
General notes on Experimentation:
- 2 points once is better than 1 point twice. This means that putting 1 point in something, experimenting, and then putting another point into the same thing will not get you better results then putting 2 points in originally.
- Experimenting on 2 things at once will always fail. One point in damage and one point in efficiency will fail both. Only experiment on one thing at a time.
- Spend all your points on every experiment. The points you have are for that experiment alone and do not carry over to other experiments, even on different components of the same item. Spend them all.
- Don�t be afraid to trash items of poor quality. If the assembly was moderate or below, or any experiments were poor, the end result will be poor and there are enough people peddling trash on the streets as it is. Forgive me if this sounds elitist, but I take great pride in my profession and would like my peers to do the same.
- The higher your Experimentation skill is, the more points you have to spend. This means that, while you don�t get any new schematics for taking up Weapon Technology, you do get more points to spend on experimentation, as well as raising your Experimentation success skill, which improves the quality of the weapons you make. People who focus on the product skills and neglect experimentation make sub-quality weapons.
Now that you have your crafting tool, you�re ready to start making guns.
Weaponsmithing
For the record, CDEFs are not weapons�they are toys. They are made using the General Crafting tool and generate General Crafting Experience, (any Engineer can make them,) so they are not something a Weaponsmith tends to make. That said, a properly experimented CDEF can sometimes rival what Novice Weaponsmiths can make, especially with the right materials.
However, making CDEFs will not advance you in your trade, so even though you might make some quick cash making and selling them, my recommendation is to focus on the weapons you can make: DH17�s, DLT20a�s, and Swords.
I�m going to assume you have the materials you need on hand and not go into how to acquire them, as there are guides out there for that, be it harvesters, self-sampling, or purchasing.
Crafting weapons is just like crafting any other advanced item�you make the sub-components first, and then you assemble them with a few other resources. With weapons, the components tend to be the same basic things: Power Handler, Barrel, Ammo Feed, Stock, and Scope. As with any other advanced crafting, the experimentation on the sub-components contributes to the success and quality of the end result.
In the beginning, the Novice Weaponsmith only has one point of experimentation to use. It is my recommendation that this point be used for Efficiency wherever possible. While many Weaponsmiths come into the profession from the crafting perspective, I, (like my master before me,) came into it from the Marksman profession, out of a need to have a superior weapon available to me. I was a Master Rifleman and unable to find a Weaponsmith that could make decent weapons.
I would ask the smiths on my server what they had and they would show me the guns they had made. The weapons had great damage, but their HAM costs were through the roof. When I asked about this, the smith explained that �real� marksmen didn�t use special attacks, and that specials were only used by newbies who didn�t know what they were doing. I was obviously appalled and tried to explain that every marksman used specials, and the higher up they went in their profession, the MORE often they used them. The smith just laughed and thought me foolish.
Spending your one point of experimentation on damage may give you a 5-10 point edge over a �default� weapon of the same type, but its HAM will be such that the marksman using it will literally be killing themselves every time they pull the trigger. This is 100x more important if the marksman is also interested in PvP because that is when the specials truly come into play. And, if the marksman�s opponent sees his target losing action every time he fires, you can be guaranteed that he�ll switch to his low-HAM carbine and start action-shooting your customer until he�s dead.
Consequently, it is ALWAYS in the best interest of the customer to spend points on Efficiency over Damage. This is especially true when you realize that many specials do 2x or greater damage than a regular shot. So, those ten extra damage you squeezed out of the gun by experimenting on damage are lost in the math when you add up the fact that, with a huge, inefficient HAM, they can only fire specials a handful of times before they are out of action. With ten less damage and 1/2 the HAM�s, the aggregate damage out of the weapon is far superior.
You may find marksmen that don�t understand this, but I would not worry about them overly much. They won�t be around long, won�t be advancing very fast, and won�t have the cash on hand to make selling to them worthwhile. The superior marksmen will recognize the quality of your weapons, pay more for them, and come back when they need a new one.
Crafting the weapon
Select a weapon you want to build, like the DH17, and look over what it needs. It needs a Blaster Power Handler, a Blaster Pistol Barrel, and a Scope (which is optional, but recommended). Select the Blaster Power Handler and review the types of materials it needs�it is looking for Conductivity and Quality. Looking over the resources available, you will find that Copper is the best material to use in building these beginning blasters. I realize that, logically, we might think Steel or Iron, but we have to work within the requirements of the schematics, and those requirements call for a high conductivity, and no other metal in SWG has a higher conductivity than Copper.
So, you build the three components of the best materials each calls for, then build the actual pistol. Add the components and materials and assemble the pistol, hoping you don�t get a critical failure. In the event you get a critical failure at this point, you have lost all the materials AND the components and have to start over from the beginning.
Critical failures seem to be random but do go down in frequency, based upon your skill relative to the item you�re fashioning. If you�re low level then expect a few. If you�ve picked up a few levels in firearms and are trying to build a DH17 (basic pistol), then expect a lot fewer. If you�re an Expert and trying to build a Power5 Pistol (a higher level pistol), then expect a few more. In any event, they�re as unavoidable as they are unpredictable and frustrating, and simply a part of the reality that is crafting.
Expert and Higher
Once you reach Expert firearms/Melee weapons, (or at Novice for Wookies trying to build Bowcasters), you will start to see your requirements becoming more specific. For example, where an Intermediate schematic might call for Metal, Non-Ferrous Metal, or even Aluminum, an Expert and higher schematic might call for Chromium Aluminum or Quadranium Steel. These rarer metals are usually the hardest to find, which means you�ll be searching planet to planet or talking to peers in the hopes that someone has discovered where this metal pops up. These materials tend to appear and disappear on some sort of schedule which, (at least as far as I can tell), has nothing to do with who�s sampling it or has harvesters on it. It does mean that, just because you checked Tatooine yesterday morning for Plumbum Iron and didn�t find it does not mean it�s not there this afternoon.
Even more unfortunately, it is rare that these specific materials are the best ore for the job, looking at attributes alone. This means that you�re taking a quality hit in using them, but have no other choice as they are required, so it is imperative that you spend your experimentation points wisely to overcome this disadvantage. I have made Intermediate Firearms weapons that have vastly outperformed Expert Firearms ones for this very reason.
It is for this reason that I recommend Weaponsmiths take up their Technology at least as high as their Firearms so they have as much experimentation available as possible when they get to Expert.
Schematics
Some of the Expert and higher schematics (including the Bowcaster) require �factory machined parts.� When you make two Power Handlers, even if you used the exact same materials and got the exact same results from every phase of creation, they are not the same. They have different serial numbers and subtle differences between them. Given that weapons like the Bowcaster require two Power Handlers, they must be absolutely identical, which means they must come from the same factory crate.
The first thing you�ll need to do this is a factory. If you plan on making Weaponsmithing a true career, I highly recommend you buy one from an Architect and do your own machining, because factories are very expensive to run and anyone who will let you borrow theirs will need to recoup their costs. If you can�t do this, then you must find someone willing to let you use theirs when you need it. In either case, try to bring enough resources with you to make 100 of whatever you�re making because it costs the same amount of credits, (2000 I believe) to run the factory whether you�re making 100 protocol droids or 1 Exo-protein wafer. Consequently, you want to get as much for your maintenance costs as possible.
Once you�ve secured a factory, you need to build a schematic. Go through the item creation process at a Crafting Station, (a Private one, preferably,) and after you�ve done your experimentation, you come to the box that offers you two options: �Create a Prototype� or �Create a Manufacturing Schematic�. Choose �Create a Manufacturing Schematic�, and a schematic for the object will appear in your datapad.
It is important to emphasize here that every item you make with this schematic will be exactly like it, so it is imperative that the schematic be as superior as possible. This means discarding all attempts that are not amazing assemblies and amazing successes in your experimentation. If you�re going to spend the cash and resources to get a crate of Power Handlers, they should be the absolute best you can create.
Once you have the schematic, you take it to the factory and put it in. You then fill the input hopper with enough of the EXACT SAME materials that you used in the schematic to make the desired number of the item. Turn the factory on and it will slowly crank out crates of your item. If you are building finished firearms, then you must put crates of the components into the input-hopper, not hand-made ones. Again, everything in the input hopper must be absolutely identical to what was used to make the schematic, and the only way to get absolutely identical components is to get them from a factory crate.
Moving your Product
There are three basic ways to move product in SWG: Word of mouth (hawking), the Bazaar, or a Vendor.
Word of mouth is the easiest but also the least rewarding, as it means you�re only selling product when you�re online. This is basically sitting by the crafting station, shouting what you�re making and taking orders ad hoc. The good side to this is that you get to sell your weapons personally and talk to how you made it, espousing on all the wonderful advantages there are to buying your products.
The Bazaar has the advantages being visible when you are not online, and being visible on a galactic scale. The downsides here are that you lose the �personal touch� as well as it puts you in competition with Weaponsmiths from other planets who might be charging significantly less than you. There is also the minor concern of the 100 credit fee to put anything on the Bazaar.
Vendors have all the aspects of the Bazaar, without the 100 credit fee. They do, however, require you to spend valuable learning capacity on the Business tree to get one, and even more on the Merchant tree if you want the larger advantages of your vendor showing up on the overhead map.
My personal preference is the Bazaar for a number of reasons:
- I don�t have the time to hawk my wares. I�m flying planet to planet, finding the rare ores and best materials to make my products.
- For me, the primary disadvantage of hawking is that people are standing over my shoulder, either asking �Is it done?� or trying to get my attention because they want to order something too. Making firearms is an arduous process with many components and different resource types and it is made more difficult in a mob.
- My goods move whether I�m there or not. I log in, check the bank, and have credits. I check the Bazaar stock, see what I�m short on, retire to my house, quietly crank them out, return to the Bazaar to replenish my inventory, then go hunt or survey.
What do I charge?
This is a tough question, and one that�s frequently a topic of debate. Speaking as someone with a great deal of sales experience, as well as someone with an advanced Business degree, the answer is quite simple�as much as you can.
My master and I had this debate one evening while we were making weapons. He was harried, distracted, and very busy, while I was quietly making weapons and typing with friends. He asked me how much I thought he should charge for an amazing E11 Carbine he�d made, and I suggested 12,000 credits. He sputtered, explaining that that was WAY too much, to which I replied �I disagree. I sell my FWG pistols for 8000 and the E11 is a much more advanced weapon.�
His reaction was even more flustered when he explained that he sold FWG�s for 2000 credits, and asked how I could get away with selling them so high. We then compared notes on how we were operating.
- He spent all his time panicked, trying desperately to fill orders, while I simply made what I wanted, put the Bazaar and they quietly vanished.
- He had LOTS of customers that he could not possible make guns for and spent a great deal of time explaining why he hadn�t finished one person or anothers� gun, while I had a small group of customers that I kept up with well enough, and did not sell to the vast population for the simple reason that I couldn�t possibly succeed if I tried�it takes too long to make guns and I would much rather see the other aspects of the game.
- We both had about the same amount of money for our efforts, though he spent 3x more time than I did making guns.
Making anything takes time, and your time is valuable. You can sell 10 guns for 2,000, or you can sell 1 gun for 20,000 and have 9 guns worth of free time. Those are extremes obviously, but hopefully you see your point. If your weapons are of such a superior quality that only the highest level marksmen want to buy them, then coincidentally only the highest level marksmen will be able to afford them and you�ll see them faster than you can make them.
My recommendation on determining a price is follow these simple steps:
- Listen to see how much others are selling theirs for, examine their wares, and price yourself comparatively�if their HAM�s are atrocious, make that your selling point and charge more.
- Check the bazaar and see how the same weapon is selling there on other planets. Again, compare their quality to yours and price accordingly.
- If neither of the above are possible (you can�t find anyone selling it), then add up the total number of units of materials in the gun and multiply it by 10. This will give you a starting number to use because most resource agents will charge that much on the Bazaar if you chose to buy your resources instead of sampling/harvesting them yourself.
This last option only works on the lower level weapons, because the higher level ones require about the same amount of materials but are a lot more complex. When you see a Master Weaponsmith selling goods for 25,000 credits, you have to keep in mind that he spent near 50,000 credits getting trained to that level as well as a great deal of his time traveling, (at exorbitant ticket prices,) from planet to planet, trying to find the materials it takes to work his trade. That, and a good weapon that is properly maintained will allow you to make at least that much plying your trade.
I hope this Guide helps.
Karrywryar/Terretes
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