{"id":1432,"date":"2021-04-23T10:57:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T15:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.com\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2021-04-28T14:10:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T19:10:15","slug":"friday-feature-powerups-cornerstone-of-an-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/?p=1432","title":{"rendered":"Friday Feature! Powerups: Cornerstone of an Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s Friday Feature, Demiurge once again provides insight into another important aspect of crafting – powerups! So without further ado…<\/span><\/p>\n

—-<\/h1>\n

Powerups: Cornerstone of an Empire<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Last week, I wrote about Armorsmithing on EiF.\u00a0 This week I wanted to write another article to address questions, opinions, and concerns about crafting in general in SWG.\u00a0 Crafting comes in many forms in this game.\u00a0 More and more often, I hear people commenting on how it’s impossible to gain a foothold into it or compete with established players.\u00a0 This article is intended to specifically address that misconception.<\/p>\n

Most people who have played on EiF for any length of time know who I am.\u00a0 I am primarily associated with the crafting of armor, even though I also make weapons, artisan wares, some architect items, and every now and then clothing, BE, and medical items too.\u00a0 But here’s one of my biggest secrets: I make a large chunk of my credits crafting an item that a new player can make within a day or two of character creation… Powerups<\/span>.<\/p>\n

So just like with last week’s write-up, I will break down what it takes to craft them.\u00a0 As you might suspect, Powerups are one of the easiest items to craft in the game.\u00a0 There are no subcomponents and each craft takes a combined 10 resources: 6 minerals and 4 chemicals.<\/p>\n

Here are the essential factors that will determine your success or failure:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Your resources<\/em><\/span> – This is the single most important factor in determining a Powerup’s statistics.<\/li>\n
  2. The crafter <\/em><\/span>– Are you a Master Artisan?\u00a0 That’s all you need.\u00a0 No need for any extra tapes.\u00a0 No need to be anything other than a 10 point crafter.<\/li>\n
  3. Your crafting tool <\/span><\/em>– The stats of your crafting tool matter (again, the crafting station does not). You will want a Weapon, Droid, and General Item crafting tool.<\/li>\n
  4. Where are you performing the craft<\/span> <\/em>– Crafting in a player city is always the most desirable way to make something.\u00a0 As with other types of crafting, Research Centers are the best location to craft a powerup (as each individual craft will use a ton of single-point experimentation rolls).<\/li>\n
  5. PATIENCE<\/em><\/span> – I mention this one last, but it is really just as important as the resources you use.\u00a0 This is because it takes a tremendous amount of patience to craft, scrap a craft that isn’t exactly what you want, and try again.\u00a0 I have been known to scrap over a thousand attempts for a single one I like enough to turn into a factory schematic.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Food and Drink are irrelevant for crafting powerups, as are Skill Enhancing Attachments.\u00a0 They are not needed, and even without them, you will still be able to craft server-capped powerups. Please note: while it is not important to have more than 10 experimentation points for powerup crafting, having +25s to both assembly and especially experimentation will still be beneficial in the sense of improving each experimentation roll to help with its quality… but it is not mandatory. Before I get into the discussion on how to make a powerup, I would like to share an old website that has a lot of valuable information pertaining to the crafting of powerups.\u00a0 I will fill in the blanks as they apply to EiF, since the website’s data is not 100% accurate for us.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Agock wrote an excellent guide for its time, and I still reference it on occasion to remind myself what stat combinations are possible.<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/www.swgemu.com\/archive\/scrapbookv51\/data\/20070205033706\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

    What Exactly is a Powerup?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    A powerup is a simple crafted item that is added to any normal weapon you might want to use (heavy Commando weapons such as a flame thrower or acid rifle and a Bounty Hunter’s Light Lightning Cannon are examples of weapons that can not be augmented with a powerup).\u00a0 A powerup consists of a primary stat modification, and any number of smaller, secondary stat modifications (anywhere from zero to five, depending on the type of powerup crafted).\u00a0 The primary stat modification is the major upgrade.\u00a0 For purposes of example, please see the picture below:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    This is a basic, 4-stat melee powerup.\u00a0 The primary modification is the first stat listed (Attack Speed).\u00a0 The other stats listed below are secondary modifications.\u00a0 EiF has modified the “uses left” stat for our server.\u00a0 On any other server I’ve seen (including live), powerups each have 100 uses.\u00a0 Here, they last 10 times as long (1000 uses)<\/strong>.\u00a0 This is a major quality of life improvement for players because, for some end-game content (or PvP), it would be extremely easy to blow through those 100 uses and have to worry about placing another PuP (short for Powerup) on your weapon, mid-battle.\u00a0 As someone who has crafted them for years, I will also tell you that they still sell daily.. so it is not a market killer (as you simply sell them for more than elsewhere).<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    When you craft a powerup, the primary modification will be one of several different possible options, depending on the type you craft.\u00a0 I will go ahead and throw this out there… probably about 3\/4s of them are junk.\u00a0 95% of the time, on EiF, you will want to craft one of three different primaries:\u00a0 Speed, Min Damage, or Max Damage.\u00a0 On a rare occasion, you will have a crafted weapon that did not receive the slice you want, or you are experimenting with a new combination of stats.\u00a0 On those types of crafts, Action or Wound MIGHT be important enough to you that you’d want it to be your primary (such as if you have a high SAC cost speed weapon that receives a speed slice, making a speed pup undesirable), etc.<\/p>\n

    When it comes to the actual crafting part, as a general rule, you will want to use only a single experimentation point at a time.\u00a0 This is because while the primary modification is guaranteed on each craft, there are no guarantees at all with the secondaries.\u00a0 You may craft a pup where you spend each experimentation point, one at a time, and a secondary stat never manifests itself.\u00a0 This is why patience is so important.\u00a0 Each experimentation attempt has a chance to spawn a secondary stat (until you reach the max number of stats a particular type of powerup can have).\u00a0 Furthermore, each type of powerup can yield different primaries and secondaries!\u00a0 They are not all the same.\u00a0 So finding the right combination is key.\u00a0 I will share with you my own opinions and choices, as well as the logic behind them.<\/p>\n

    There are two very important things to remember when crafting a powerup.\u00a0 Firstly, you may run one experimentation (or even two) where you do not see the stats move at all!\u00a0 This is normal (although it’s also annoying).\u00a0 If it happens on the last experimentation point you have to spend, your craft may not yield stats as high as you know they can go.\u00a0 Scrap it and try again.\u00a0 Secondly, when secondaries start appearing, if the SECOND secondary (third stat overall) spawns on the powerup BEFORE the first secondary (second stat overall) reaches at least 10%, the first secondary will be stuck at its current level for the remainder of the craft.\u00a0 The BEST powerups are the ones where the third stat does not spawn until the second stat has reached or exceeded 10%, adding an even greater challenge to the craft.\u00a0 I will reiterate:\u00a0 this is why patience is arguably the most important part of this process!\u00a0 ANYONE can immediately be competitive when crafting powerups… but you really have to WANT to do it.<\/p>\n

    Making the Perfect Powerup<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    So what are the best powerup types to create?\u00a0 And what are the best stat combinations?<\/p>\n

    Let’s start with melee powerups.\u00a0 There is only one type to create:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    As you can see here, Overall Quality is the only stat that matters for power-ups (this goes for any and all types of them).\u00a0 A perfectly crafted, server-capped powerup will have a primary modification of +33.16%, with the highest secondary (the last one to spawn during the craft) capping out at 16.33%.\u00a0 This will occur if both the mineral and chemical you use have an OQ of 1000, and there were no crafting issues during experimentation (bad rolls or stats that did not move on the final experimentation).\u00a0 I could craft a hundred attempts, and this will always be the same.\u00a0 Where the challenge lies is in the remaining secondary stats.\u00a0 Is the first one above 10%?\u00a0 Are they in the most advantageous order?\u00a0 Did I get all of the secondaries I wanted to spawn?\u00a0 Am I OCD enough to even care??\u00a0 (Yes… yes, I am)<\/p>\n

    On EiF, when crafting a melee powerup, this is the closest I have ever gotten to absolute perfection (and I will explain why):<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    First… allow me to point out some key issues.\u00a0 If you will notice, there are SIX stats on this powerup.\u00a0 This was not possible back on Live, from what I understand.\u00a0 It is the result of a design choice\/mistake that was made by the SWGEmu team.\u00a0 Since our code is based on theirs, we have inherited the ability to make six stat melee pups (it is not possible to make a six stat ranged pup, I’m sorry to say).\u00a0 Secondly, my first secondary stat did NOT reach the 10% mark prior to the third stat spawning (point blank), so it got stuck at 8.39%.\u00a0 Also, I was not using resources that were capped at 1000 OQ (but as I am only .07% off, it was close.\u00a0 So with these problems present, why is this example so good?\u00a0 It’s because of the order of stats.\u00a0 This is the hardest thing to achieve when crafting a pup as it is totally random.<\/p>\n

    For a melee powerup, 99% of the time, Speed is king on the primary<\/strong>.\u00a0 Melee weapons tend to have lower accuracy mods on the weapons themselves (it depends on the crafting philosophy of the weaponsmith, so opinions\/results will vary).\u00a0 Because of this, both types of accuracy mods aren’t as beneficial as wound chance and the two damage types.\u00a0 So having accuracy as stats two and three is preferable.\u00a0 You could argue on an ideal craft, they should be flipped, with Point Blank second and Ideal Range third, and you would not be wrong.\u00a0 Again, this is the best order I have ever achieved.\u00a0 It is not necessarily the best.\u00a0 That’s the beauty of this…. you could get lucky and craft the ideal combination on your first try.\u00a0 It’s all luck!\u00a0 Wound chance being fourth is perfect.\u00a0 Wounds are extremely important in two situations: PvP and during boss fights.\u00a0 PvP is obvious, but it is important on boss fights because your group is likely attempting to break the armor of the boss (which results in their damage resists dropping by up to 50% of their original value).\u00a0 Finally, both damage types being the final two is critical.\u00a0 Everyone loves big sexy damage numbers on their weapons.\u00a0 Is min damage more important than max damage?\u00a0 If you are PvPing, yes; otherwise, no.\u00a0 But having min damage as the highest stat on the pup helps decrease the spread\/damage range of your weapon (min\/max) for more consistent damage.\u00a0 It’s not a deal-breaker either way… as long as the damages are the last two on the pup.<\/p>\n

    So what about ranged pups?\u00a0 I focus my efforts on only three types, because of the possible stat combinations available to them (please see the previously provided link in order to demonstrate what combinations are possible).\u00a0 The other types of ranged pups I do not talk about do not generate as ideal combinations as the three below I will illustrate.\u00a0 It is important to point out that NO ranged pup can produce 6 stats (they are all 4 or 5, depending on the type), and none of them has the same “perfect” combination that a melee powerup does.<\/p>\n

    They are:<\/p>\n

    GRIPS<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    \"\"<\/strong>You will want Attack Speed as your primary stat.\u00a0 Health cost is wasted on EiF (but it is a possible secondary on this pup type).\u00a0 Attacks cost action or mind, depending on the special used.\u00a0 The perfect Grip powerup will have Attack Speed as the primary, then Max Range, Wound, and finally Max Damage – in that order – with all secondaries over 10%.\u00a0 This is the perfect powerup for a slower, high-damage weapon, such as one crafted with an overcharged core, especially if the weapon also received a damage slice.\u00a0 It will make a speed pup essentially mandatory, and the one shown above would be the superior choice in such an instance.<\/p>\n

    SCOPE<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    A scope is the perfect powerup to use in the event you have a speed weapon (or a damage weapon that received a speed slice).\u00a0 A scope can only have four possible stats on it.\u00a0 The picture above demonstrates a craft that has all four present, but not in the ideal order.\u00a0 The ideal order would have been:\u00a0 Min damage, wound, action cost, speed.\u00a0 Keep in mind, a little OCD is involved here. Had speed turned up in the prime secondary spot, the difference MIGHT have been a -.1 faster speed, or maybe not even enough to have shown a difference at all (depending on what the original speed was, it might have been small enough to be in the hidden decimals category).\u00a0 Scopes are actually my personal favorite for ranged weapons.\u00a0 This is because I have a unique philosophy when it comes to crafting my ranged weapons.\u00a0 I then to prefer faster, more accurate weapons, with a lower SAC cost.\u00a0 So increasing the minimum damage helps tighten up the damage spread.\u00a0 If I am fortunate enough to get a very high damage slice on the craft, it just makes it all the better.\u00a0 Again… personal preference.\u00a0 There really is no wrong way to play.\u00a0 It is also, unfortunately, not possible for max damage to be a secondary stat on a scope.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    MUZZLES<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Finally, the third type of ranged powerup that tends to be very useful is a muzzle.\u00a0 Ideally, it will need a Max Damage primary, both Range mods second and third, with Min Damage being the highest\/final secondary (which the picture does not match… but you get the idea).\u00a0 It is possible to get different types of stats on all of these pups being shown, but their ideal configurations are what we are focusing on.\u00a0 Muzzles with max damage primaries are an excellent choice when you have a weapon that may have been crafted with a speed-enhancing capacitor on it, and it received a high speed slice.\u00a0 If the craft is one where no further speed reduction is necessary or desirable, this is an excellent way to go as it is the only ranged powerup combination where both min and max damage are present.\u00a0 This type of pup is the one that reflects the greatest increase in damage stats (not to be confused with DPS, which factors in speed… I am referring only to the base damage numbers shown on the weapon).<\/p>\n

    And that’s it!\u00a0 If you focus on these four types of powerups alone, you will account for 95-99% of all powerup usage (and if someone wants a custom powerup type made, you can easily do that on the side for them).\u00a0 For greater clarification, those remaining 1-5% custom crafts will usually revolve around a wound or action primary stat.<\/p>\n

    Gaining a Foothold on the Market<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    So you may want to say, “But I’m new to EiF!\u00a0 How can I possibly gain any foothold on the market at all?!”\u00a0 Well… let’s once again take a look at the Galaxy Harvester<\/a> website that I referenced previously in my armor write-up:<\/p>\n

    When you go to that site, and change the “galaxy” being viewed to Empire in Flames, it will show you all of the resources that are currently out there.\u00a0 Remember, OQ is the only stat that matters here.\u00a0 It is VERY easy to quickly locate a mineral and chemical that has an OQ around the 800 range for each.\u00a0 I wanted to simulate how easy it is to get into this market as quickly as possible.\u00a0 So I grabbed a mineral with an OQ of 798, and a chemical with an OQ of 813.\u00a0 Finding resources greater than these two is a very easy matter for even a new player.\u00a0 I spent five minutes crafting with a Master Artisan who has no tapes of any kind… both assembly and experimentation stats are 100.\u00a0 No food or drink was used.\u00a0 I crafted in a Research Center City only.\u00a0 I was able to do this in five minutes’ worth of attempts:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Because the OQ of my resources added up to 1611 (798+813), my maximum possible effectiveness is ~80.51% (which does not visibly round up to 81%).\u00a0 So it only took 9 of my 10 experimentation points to reach max.\u00a0 It really should have only taken 8, except I probably had a bad roll in there somewhere (or also likely, no amazing experimentation rolls).\u00a0 Regardless, I was able to craft a powerup that is within 6.5% of my server-capped primary and less than 3% off my maxed secondaries.\u00a0 This is with very easily obtained resources that a new player is likely to be able to exceed without much difficulty at all.\u00a0 Granted, the order of stats isn’t ideal or even complete, but that’s not my point.\u00a0 That’s where patience comes into the mix.<\/p>\n

    Halyn updated Galaxy Harvester yesterday morning (April 22).\u00a0 To prove a point, I went and took a look at what’s newly available:<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    and<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    …both spawned in yesterday.\u00a0 Their combined OQs equal 1674, which would yield a stronger sample powerup than what I just demonstrated for new players above.\u00a0 That doesn’t even take into consideration older resources that are still in spawn or that you may be able to cheaply get your hands on.\u00a0 Anyone can do this!<\/p>\n

    Bottom line:\u00a0 Powerups are one of the most overlooked, but necessary items in the game.\u00a0 They are incredibly easy to make, and with patience, easy to master.\u00a0 If you are looking for a quick way to break into crafting on EiF and be competitive from the get-go…. here’s your ticket!\u00a0 All it takes is patience, knowledge of what stats matter on EiF, and the desire to make it happen.\u00a0 Thanks for reading…<\/p>\n

    -Demi<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In today’s Friday Feature, Demiurge once again provides insight into another important aspect of crafting – powerups! So without further ado… —- Powerups: Cornerstone of an Empire Last week, I wrote about Armorsmithing on EiF.\u00a0 This week I wanted to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3612,"featured_media":1429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,8],"tags":[46,80,18,86,81,27,85],"class_list":["post-1432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friday-feature","category-news","category-skills","tag-crafting","tag-eif","tag-empire-in-flames","tag-pup","tag-swg","tag-swgemu-star-wars-star-wars-galaxies","tag-weaponsmith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1447,"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.empireinflames.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}