Cult Citizen

[icycalm]

Crafting Guide: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/c ... play-Guide

It's a modest start to the system but if you check the roadmap section at the bottom, it gets impressive.



And I have to say the fabrication unit itself is very cool. I've seen people install dozens of them in rows in their hangars and it looks industrial as hell. And it's just the first, smallest machine. Amazing also that you can just chuck it around anywhere, on a ship, in a cave, you can prolly use it floating in space too. Unlike in Rust with its strict placement rules.



Looking forward to getting acquainted with the system and figuring out cool things to do with it. We might even end up needing a Fabricator Spec.


P.S. I wish they would resolve the fabrication/crafting terminology. In the run up to the release over the past couple of years they were using the correct terms, but these latest materials are mixing them up and it bothers me. You don't craft vehicles or buildings dammit.

[icycalm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0vJ8lTpEdA

00:00​ Intro to crafting
00:55​ How to get a fabricator
01:15​ Crafting UI
01:40​ Crafed item bonuses
02:00​ Dismantling items
02:43​ New mining guide
03:01​ Mining deposit changes
03:35​ Where to find iron aluminium and hephaestanite
04:13​ Mineral quality chances
04:29​ Higher minimum quality in Pyro
04:46​ Surface mining signature scanning
05:18​ Signatures not showing in scan mode
05:49​ How to know mineral deposits from range
06:02​ Where to find Iron and Ouratite
06:32​ How much ore do you lose when refining
06:43​ How to craft a buffed weapon
06:53​ How to get blueprints
07:03​ How to craft volt weapons
07:24​ Where to get VOLT weapon blueprints
07:54​ Where to get Palatino blueprints
08:03​ How to get P8-SC smg blueprint
08:23​ Do shared contracts award blueprints
09:00​ How to know what contracts award what blueprint

It is the best crafting system I have seen by far, easily beating Rust's. Not in the variety of things to craft, Rust wins there because its base-building is far more granular. But if you look at mining in the two games as a prerequisite to crafting, SC's mining is an order of magnitude more complex. Or blueprint acquisition: again order of magnitude difference; in SC you have to beat entire FPS level megadungeons with puzzles and boss fights to acquire BPs. Nothing like that in Rust.

It's a terrific system and it's just the start!

Too bad that crafted item bonuses don't persist across patches for now, so for now crafting itself is kind of pointless outside Operation Breaker Stations where you have to fabricate the laser lenses, BUT apparently the blueprints do persist, so we have a new category of item to begin amassing: blueprints! Perfect reason to become acquainted with all types of missions across all three solar systems and build our blueprint library so that when crafted bonuses start persisting, we can begin mass fabrication of god-tier gear for the Cult Spec.

Also I suppose we can also start stockpiling 800+ quality materials, which also persist.

Just an insane array of tasks to get done in the verse in 2956. And we haven't even completed all the event missions yet, or dealt a lot with Wikelo, or outfitted our vehicles with upgraded components... Crazy crazy level of breadth and depth. And base-building isn't even in yet!


P.S. And I just love the fabricator model (and extra upcoming skin!), UI, and operating effects. Everything is so large and heavy and slick and futuristic: the exact opposite of Rust's post-apoc DIY aesthetic. Which is still great, don't get me wrong, but after a decade of it we can certainly use a change.

P.P.S. I wonder if we can come up with a Fabricator Spec...

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... e_my_first

Ok, so what is important about the component?

Depending on how high quality the materials used were, it increases component HP and the number of power pips it provides.

This video warms my heart. The animation as the fabricator opens up with the smoke coming out of it is the coolest crafting experience in any crafting game ever. And the whole crafting loop is so complex that, two months after crafting was added, we still haven't made anything lol.

It will be glorious when we're ready to dive into these mechanics.

For now though, let's keep growing our blueprint library.

[icycalm]

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/co ... g_crafting

I spent ~15 hours on the quality mining → crafting loop. I like the idea, but the payoff wasn't there

I've been wanting to try the whole "mine good ore, craft good gear" loop, so here's how it went for me.

First I got the P6-LR blueprint, which took about 4 runs in Pyro. Then I went back to Stanton, jumped in my Prospector and started mining.

The mining itself was fun at first. The mechanics are kind of addicting. The problem is finding high-quality ore and gems. It's so RNG-heavy and so rare that in roughly 12–15 hours I didn't see a single ore above 900 quality. I found so little of the stuff close to 900 that by the end I had enough for exactly one LR.

My routine was to fly fast over planet surfaces, ping and scan nonstop, get close to anything promising to check its quality, and now and then pull out the SABIR. I wanted a 900–950 quality LR that I could sell for around 2 million on the player market. The best I managed was one at about 820 average quality, and people offered me around 500k for it. That's nowhere near worth the time I put in.

After a while the constant searching got really boring. It's also a very active playstyle. You have to be at the keyboard and paying attention the whole time. Hauling is different: you can put a video on and relax. Prospecting never felt relaxing, and it didn't feel rewarding either.

That's a shame, because I think this loop has a lot of potential. I'd love to be the small craftsman who supplies the 'verse with rare, high-quality gear. That's exactly the kind of role I want to play.

I think the search part needs a rework. Keep good ore rare, but let players invest in finding it faster. For example, a better ship or specialized scanner components could let you sweep much larger areas and get a wider view of what's around you. Rarity is fine as long as better gear and better skill make the search go faster. Right now it's mostly flying around hoping.

I won't try this loop again until it gets some balancing, but I really do want to come back and be that guy.

Anyone else tried the quality crafting grind? Did you have better luck, or is this everyone's experience?

Long time Rust player here, I am fine with the wipes and even sort of fine with the felt like a job aspect, like the grind and the roleplay. However this felt like working in McDonald's. Hard work shit pay.

All of this could be fixed if we could simply refine low quality into higher. The very meaning of refining.

It would take more volume/time for low quality to create higher quality but you can still get there.

So you'd still have the grind but it would still be rewarding.

We've already seen the pain of crafting being time-gated. (I.e. you can't log out or even go afk while waiting for the fab to make a 30-minute job.)

Shipboard refining would surely be a similar PITA if they time-gate it. Fill up your Arrastra? Fuck you, you can't log out for an hour... No CIG, just no.

Pair this with the pain that is material quality being locked to what you find on the rock and...

This could all be solved if refining became a fast process with some kind of skill-based minigame that determines output quality.

No more time gates, less tedious searches for 999q rocks, boom, Bob's your uncle.

If you could secure rare ore much faster than that, it would quickly become... Not rare.

I am with this last guy. Not saying mining and refining can't be improved and balanced better. But I think that a weekend of work to create a significantly improved version of your main battle rifle or favorite ship's shield or whatever is a fair workload. Imagine how happy you'd be every time you took that rifle or ship into battle?

Want all your gear and ship components at such high qualities?

Then work for it for a year. Or make the money some other way and pay dedicated fabricators to make them for you (and their prices will rise to justify the work, so the current low prices are temporary while the market adjusts).

This guy seems to want to produce a bunch of 999q rifles in a weekend and open a megashop all on his own. I am glad this isn't possible in the current balance.