In today’s feature, we bring you a very in-depth write-up on armorsmithing by the illustrious armor crafter Demiurge. In this article, Demi outlines what it takes to be a successful armorsmith on Empire in Flames as well as give insight into the changed systems you’ll find, some best practices, and tools of the trade to help any aspiring crafters become the best they can be and in his words, “knock him off of his pedestal”. Thank you, Demiurge!

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EiF Armor Crafting 101

Artwork courtesy of AgentOrangeJuice

Introduction

The purpose of this guide is to explain how armor crafting works on EiF and demonstrate how it is different from any other server you might have played on.  I intend to explain every important aspect and consideration in order to teach you how to craft armor with the exact same stats that I am able to currently make.  I have been making armor continuously on our server for the last three years.  In that time, due to the among of sheer work I’ve put into it, I believe I have become the dominant armor crafter here.  I hope to teach and inspire you to be able to match what I am capable of, and ultimately to surpass me.

For those of you who have experience crafting armor on any other SWG server, a good bit of this will be familiar or previously understood the content.  But what makes armor different on EiF is the usage of armor cores.  The purpose of an armor core is to allow all types of armor to be of similar or equal stats.  A core consists of up to three armor segments, with each segment containing zero to nine armor layers.  Armor on EiF requires one to five armor cores, depending on the armor type.  This means that, unlike other servers where specific segment types are required for its corresponding armor type (composite or advanced composite segments to go into any piece of composite), the same armor core can be used in ANY armor type.  This modification to the system allows basically all armor types to be craftable within a very tight range of stats between one another (I will explain further below) and opens the door to a wide array of looks, styles, and viable options.  You won’t just see people running around in RIS or Composite.

Before I break down layers, segments, and cores further, it is important for you to understand how a piece of armor gets its stats.  On EIF, 95% of the stats provided to a final, crafted piece of armor comes from the armor core itself.  The remaining 5% are derived from the final assembly resources that are specific to a type of armor.  For example, crafting a piece of RIS would require (among other things), a specific resource like Platinite Copper, while a piece of Bone armor would require a generic resource such as “metal”.  This fact alone allows Bone armor to have a much wider array of possible resources to satisfy that requirement.  This is critical because all resources have min and max possible stats in several key areas that are very important to armor.  Plantinite has a less advantageous range of stats than many other types of metal, such as steel, iron, or even other types of copper.  This deviation in final assembly resource requirements is what allows a range of 1-5% variance between what you might see on the final crafted product (speaking specifically on the final types of damage resistances).  The maximum craftable resist per damage type is a theoretical 55%.  If perfectly sliced by a Smuggler, this value can reach 60%.

Halyn, and sometimes in conjunction with various staff members, has made numerous design decisions that set EiF apart from how things are done elsewhere.  In an attempt to completely eliminate spawn camping, the team has removed the ability to use looted components from various mobs as augments to crafted armor pieces.  Items like Janta Hides, Rancor Hides, etc, are not used in armor crafting here.  Therefore, the essential factors that determine your final product are:

1. Your resources – This is the single most important factor in determining armor’s final quality.
2. The crafter – Are you a 12 point smith, fully taped for assembly and experimentation?
3. Your crafting tool – The stats of your crafting tool matter (while the stats on the crafting station itself does not).  The maximum stat of a crafting tool is a 15.0
4. Food/Drink – Foods such as Pyollian Cake will offer a decent assembly bonus to your crafting roll, helping your chances of crafting an amazing assembly.  Drinks such as Bespin Port will do the exact same thing for each of your experimentation rolls.  Experimentation is the more desired buff of the two (though both can be utilized at the same time).
5. Where you perform the craft – Crafting in a player city is always the most desirable way to make something.  A level 5 player city gains the ability to set a “city bonus”.  Two of these (Manufacturing Center = Assembly bonus, and Research Center = Experimentation bonus) grants bonuses to every craft that occurs within its city limits.

These are the five factors to keep in mind when you craft something.  Other factors, such as a crafter’s current battle fatigue or wounds do not factor into the crafting equation!  With this in mind, let’s look at the single most important factor in your crafting process: the resources used.

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