Jan 4, 2012

Posted by | 7 Comments

Breakdown: Crew Skills 102 – Synergy!

Breakdown is designed to to fill that stressful void while Star Wars: The Old Republic is down for maintenance. Each Tuesday morning, we’ll look at a topic and try to break it down to the basics. In the end, we hope to educate, entertain, and prevent you from having your own Breakdown!

For this edition of Breakdown, we’re going to dive a little deeper into the crafting system, otherwise known as Crew Skills! The crafting system in TOR can be a bit different from other MMOs, and so here in part 2, we’re going to help you get started! If you haven’t read part 1, please go back do so here. If you are looking for more advanced crafting subject matter, please check out Zlatto’s Bazaar.

This edition of Breakdown will be formatted in a slightly different way in order to be used as more of a handy reference sheet should you wish to print it out or bookmark it for your crafting needs. If you bookmark it, I have thoroughly linked it for your ease of use.

Also please note: Armormech and Synthweaving can make fully modable gear, but the armoring mods (which give them rating) come from Cybertech.

Armormech

Produces: Medium and Heavy armor for Non-force users: head, chest, wrist, body, waist, legs, and foot slot

Gathering Skill: Scavenging   Mission Skill: Underworld Trading 

Armstech

Produces: Assault Cannons, Blaster Barrel mods, Blaster Pistols, Blaster Rifles, Misc (melee weapons that aren’t lightsabers, but does include vibroswords, et al.), and sniper rifles

Gathering Skill: Scavenging  Mission Skill: Investigation 

Artifice

Produces: Color Crystals (for all weapons), Enhancement mods, Lightsaber hilt mods, Modification mods, and Wieldable: shield generators, offhand focuses, relics, and lightsabers (at skill level 400)

Gathering Skill: Archaeology  Mission Skill: Treasure Hunting 

Biochem

Produces: Adrenals (which boost things like power, and surge), Implants, Medical, and Stimulants (which boost things like strength, and endurance)

Gathering Skill: Bioanalysis  Mission Skill: Diplomacy 

Cybertech

Produces: Armoring mods, Droid parts, Earpieces, Grenades (useable), Modification mods, Ship parts, Speeders, and a group member summoning tool Transport Beacon

Gathering Skill: Scavenging  Mission Skill: Underworld Trading 

Synthweaving

Produces: Light, Medium, and Heavy armor for Force Users: head, chest, wrist, body, waist, legs, and foot slot

Gathering Skill: Archaeology  Mission Skill: Underworld Trading 

So which crafting skills do you want for your character? He’s a quick and simple breakdown!

All Characters: Cybertech, Biochem

Jedi (all)/Sith (all): Artifice, Synthweaving

Bounty Hunter/Trooper/Smugger/Agent: Armstech, Armormech

And if you are just looking to make a buck by selling resources on the Galactic Trade Network, check out these great skills: Treasure Hunting, Scavenging, Slicing, and Underworld Trade. They provide some of the best bang for the buck you can get out of a non-craft skill.

That’s all for this latest issue of Breakdown! I hope this simple guide gets you started for all your crafting needs. Do you know of any other great Crew Skill synergy? Give us your input in the comments below! As always, I hope I’ve helped educate you on more of the basics, and I hope you’ll join me next week when the servers are down for another Ask A Jedi: Breakdown!

Read More
Dec 27, 2011

Posted by | 13 Comments

Breakdown: Crew Skills 101 – Gettin’ Your Craft On!

Breakdown is designed to to fill that stressful void while Star Wars: The Old Republic is down for maintenance. Each Tuesday morning, we’ll look at a topic and try to break it down to the basics. In the end, we hope to educate, entertain, and prevent you from having your own Breakdown!

This is the first edition of Breakdown since Star Wars: The Old Republic officially launched. So while many of you now have hands-on experience with some of the game systems and how they work, we still get many questions. In particular, the Crew Skills system seems to solicit the most, possibly because it’s one of the more innovative features in the game. So, In this edition of Breakdown, we thought we’d take the opportunity to cover the crafting system! This article is actually part 1 of this 2 part Breakdown, there’s just so much to cover! Oh, and if you’re already a crafting guru, you might want to spend some time over at Zlatto’s Bazaar – that Toydarian will show you what it really means to be a merchant!

Basic Training!

First off let’s start with defining some terms. Some of these may be familiar to you or similar to other games, and some are unique to TOR.

Resource Node: A resource node is an object in the game world (which varies by the type of gathering skill you have) that you or your companion can interact with to get extract materials used in the crafting process.

Schematics: This is the general term for the instructions on how to craft a specific item. You buy schematics from your chosen crafting skill trainer. There are also other ways to obtain schematics, such as rewards for missions, purchased on the GTN or through reverse engineering, explained below. Once you know a schematic, you never need to buy it again.

Crew Skills

Crew Skills Management

Crew Skills Management

In TOR, this is what the crafting system is called. Why? Because you won’t be the one doing the work! Your companions create all of your items back in the workshop on your starship (even before you have it, somehow!) By default when you right click on a resource node in the world, your companion will mine it. You can shift-right click and you will harvest it yourself. You can have up to 3 Crew Skills on a single character, only one of which can be a crafting skill. You can access your Crew Skills interface by pressing the ‘N’ key, or clicking the icon that looks like a diamond in the upper center menu.

Read More
Sep 21, 2011

Posted by | 1 Comment

Breakdown: Questing In The Old Republic

Breakdown is designed to to fill that stressful void while SWTOR.com is down for maintenance. Each Wednesday morning, we’ll look at a topic and try to break it down based on what we know, and what we can expect. In the end, we hope to educate, entertain, and prevent you from having your own Breakdown!

For this edition of Breakdown, we thought we’d try and distill the various types of quests we’ll encounter on our way to saving/destroying the galaxy. First, let’s start off by defining what we know based on information officially released so far.

Please note, if you’re Game Testing, you might be tempted to jump in and add to or correct some of this, but please refrain from doing so… those comments have to be flushed! Onward…

Class Quests

This is interchangeable with “personal story.” There are 8 of these in the game, one for each class (advanced class choice does not affect your story in any significant manner). Each class story is completely unique, and while you may share some side quests or bonus quests with others, your class story is your own. This content is soloable, but you can bring your friends along as well. If you do, any dialog choices you make are all yours, and other players can’t affect it. This would be considered “required” content. If you don’t keep up with your class story, you will not be able to properly advance your character, such as being able to get a starship or missing the chance to get a companion. Also, choices you make can and will in some cases affect your character later in the game… it remains to be seen specifically in how much or in what ways.

Read More
Sep 14, 2011

Posted by | 8 Comments

Breakdown: PvP Rewards In The Old Republic

Breakdown is designed to to fill that stressful void while SWTOR.com is down for maintenance. Each Wednesday morning, we’ll look at a topic and try to break it down based on what we know, and what we can expect. In the end, we hope to educate, entertain, and prevent you from having your own Breakdown!

If you follow the official SW:TOR forums at all, you’ll see more than a few threads repeating themselves trying to clarify some of the basic features of SW:TOR. Here in Breakdown, we’ll try to present all the currently known facts about how the game works in an easy to read format. Hopefully, we can clear up a few misconceptions, and answer a few questions; maybe we’ll even fill you in on something you didn’t know.

For the first edition of Breakdown, we thought we’d cover the topic of PvP rewards. Without further adieu, let’s get started! There are a few different types of PvP rewards that we’ll cover: Open World PvP, Instanced PvP, and Valor.

First off, let’s start with defining what we know:

Commendations: The PvP token/badge used to buy PvP rewards.
Valor: PvP experience points.
Valor Rank: PvP level (the higher the level, the more experienced in PvP).

Instanced PvP: Grant Warzone Commendations and Valor.

  • Alderaan – Republic vs Empire
  • Huttball – Republic vs Empire, Empire vs Empire, or Republic vs Republic
  • Voidstar – Republic vs Empire

Open World PvP: Grant Mercenary Commendations and Valor.

  • Ilum – Republic vs. Empire (2 bases where factions fight for control).
  • Other Planet PvP/Open World PvP not yet announced – Republic vs Empire.

And of course, you can defeat enemy faction players in the open world on PvP servers. This would net only Valor, as Commendations are for objective based goals.

Read More