Crafting and XP

[Lascivious Goat]

Does one earn more XP for crafting similar items depending upon the skill requirement of the items? Using the example of potions i.e. Metal Reaping I potion, Wood Reaping I potion, and Stone Reaping I potion: MR I potion requires minimum Alchemy skill of 30, WR I potion 70 and SR I potion 130 to make. Given that all 3 potions require the exact same number of components, if one were to make 100 items of each potion, would the XP earned for each type of potion differ according to their skill requirement? That is, is the XP earned for SR I potion > WR I potion > MR I potion?

[Tantalyr]

The more difficult an item is to craft--i.e. the higher its minimum and optimal skill level--the more experience points you will receive for making it. So yes, in your example the Stone Reaping potion would give you the most experience points per unit made.

That said, the equation gets a bit trickier when making multiple items with varying amounts of components. For example, if Item X gives you 100 experience points per unit and requires8 iron bars to make, and Item Y gives you 120 experience points per unit and requires 12 iron bars to make, with 100 total iron bars you will get more total experience making 12 of Item X (1200 xp) than making the 8 units of Item Y (960 xp).

[Varangaard]

As far as I can tell, teh crafting experience calculation is your required base skill versus the minimum required skill of the item. The lower your base skill and the higher the skill req, the more experience you will get. This is where boosting your current skill comes in: teched equipment, teched tools, attribute boosts and beginner/JM/expert crafting structures all boost your current skill which has no bearing on experience you gain. Find a form with the highest skill req that you are optimal at (for minimal resource consumption) and if you have several forms, choose the one with least resource usage.

Still, note the excpetion that Tantalyr described above. When there is a difference in resource consumption amounts, it is best to calulcate by hand and see if you should grind an item of lower difficulty instead.

[Tantalyr]

Without trying to give you a further migraine, Goat, the crafting efficiency xp equation gets even more complicated if you are also deconstructing the items you make to utilize the recovered resources to make more of the items.

The number of resources recovered from deconstructing an item depends on (a) the level of your salvaging skill, vs. (b) your efficiency at making the item. Without going into terribly complicated detail, the higher your salvaging skill and the higher your efficiency at making a particular item, the more resources you'llrecover when you deconstruct the item, up to a maximum of half the resources you used to make the item in the first place.

I confess that my mathematical skills (not to mention inclinations) are limited as I was a History and English major in college (our motto: "Will Think for Food"), so I haven't even attempted to work out the equation(s) for the most efficient use of resources in making and deconstructing items for maximum experience points. I'll leave that for the numerous much brighter luminaries on this board. [;)]

[Varangaard]

I'll add that be very, very, very careful with salvaging skill. Only few schools teach it, and it can ruin levelling other schools fast if you have high salvaging skill. This is because:

* Normally, item is deconstructed using the skill needed to build the item (ie, armorcraft for deconning armor).
* If you have salvage skill, and it is higher than the 'default' skill, salvage will be used instead.
* If your current school (ie, outfitter) does not teach salvaging, you get no deconstruction experience because you are using a skill that is not taught by your current school.

Deconning experience is about a third of your total grind exp at optimal skill levels, so this can hit you really badly. The only way to get the decon exp back (in schools that do not teach salvaging) is to gimp your current salvage skill by equipping a training salvage awl (skill cap: 50) every single time you deconstruct. And, since you need to equip the righ tool to construct again, this will slow down your work at the machine.

edit: You may ask what, then, is the intent of salvaging skill? Answer: it is used to decon items that you have no default skill to craft. For example, you can use salvaging to decon weapons even if you don't have weaponcrafting skill, and get the decon exp.

[Lascivious Goat]

edit: You may ask what, then, is the intent of salvaging skill? Answer: it is used to decon items that you have no default skill to craft. For example, you can use salvaging to decon weapons even if you don't have weaponcrafting skill, and get the decon exp.

I understand. It allows characters with no or very few craft schools to decon anything that can be deconned. The skill acts similarly to the same skill (also called 'Salvaging' skill) in AC1. In AC1, previously one could only 'decon' items if one's character had one of the crafting schools. The Salvaging skill was added to allow any character to decon any item for resources without having to pick up any crafting schools.

[Varangaard]

You might not be surprised to hear that David Bowman of Tulga used to work for Turbine on Asheron's Call games. [:)]

[Lascivious Goat]

I'd read somewhere (I think on one of his interviews) that DB was formerly of Turbine. I do believe, however, that he had left AC1 before the salvaging and crafting schema was introduced to AC1. Could be wrong though.