I'm about halfway there, which means I am a few days from level 11

...
Anyway, reading on the forum got me curious and worried...
In order to craft a level 15+ item, for instance, the 360° arc beam, do I NEED the special Xindi Energy Weapons Officer crafting doff, or will any random purple VR Energy Weapons Officer do the trick?
Thanks!
CM
"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science." - Edwin Hubble
Comments
If you look at the dropdown in the top right of your crafting UI, there should be a "Filters" dropdown where you can select to "Show all tasks"... once you have done so, you'll be able to either mouse over the little icon for the necessary boff, or "Begin" and "Confirm" the "Item - Space Weapon - [Arc] Beam Arracy" project. This applies to all of the special projects within the Crafting Schools, though obviously not with the same project name.
TL;DR: Yeah, you need a special doff for the special projects (R&D: Beam Weapons in this case), in addition to taking a couple months to get to Crafting Level 15 and accumulating a decent stash of the appropriate Very Rare crafting materials, for a chance at the [Mods] you want. On the plus side, at least the quality on the special projects is either Very Rare or Ultra Rare.
I've gotten 2 Projectile Specialists, 2 Science Specialists, 1 Cannon Specialist & the Beam Weapon Specialist (that - yes - I did burn without noticing.)
The sad part is you're a 1/3rd there in reality. We'll get there all, in October.
It's kind of funny with the RNG involved in that +1000 and what means...the number in () is the boost from the rarity of the RLS DOFF.
Willard the Rat
Projectiles 10 - 226655/252000 (+15)
Shields 10 - 180000/252000 (+5)
Science 9 - 166000/180000 (+5)
Engineering 7 - 114000/120600 (+5)
Rave
Science 10 - 226836/252000 (+5)
Beams 10 - 182206/252000 (+5)
Shields 9 - 174000/180000 (+0)
Projectiles 7 - 117000/120600 (+0)
Mysk
Beams 10 - 228837/252000 (+5)
Science 10 - 185000/252000 (+5)
Shields 9 - 172000/180000 (+0)
Engineering 7 - 120000/120600 (+0)
Maal
Cannons 10 - 227842/252000 (+5)
Engineering 10 - 186000/252000 (+5)
Projectiles 9 - 173000/180000 (+5)
Shields 7 - 118000/120600 (+0)
Vegar
Engineering 10 - 226842/252000 (+15)
Shields 9 - 179000/180000 (+0)
Beams 9 - 171000/180000 (+0)
Science 7 - 118000/120600 (+0)
R'ebel
Beams 10 - 231840/252000 (+5)
Projectiles 9 - 185000/252000 (+5)
Engineering 9 - 172000/180000 (+0)
Shields 7 - 118000/120600 (+0)
Kopor
Cannons 10 - 226843/252000 (+5)
Projectiles 10 - 188000/252000 (+5)
Engineering 9 - 175000/180000 (+5)
Shields 7 - 118000/120600 (+0)
Nivuh
Projectiles 10 - 237834/252000 (+15)
Cannons 10 - 197000/252000 (+5)
Engineering 10 - 181000/252000 (+5)
Shields 8 - 124000/149400 (+0)
Venit
Beams 10 - 234830/252000 (+15)
Projectiles 10 - 194000/252000 (+15)
Engineering 9 - 175000/180000 (+5)
Shields 8 - 126000/149400 (+5)
Your current Energy Weapons Officer can't help you with the Omni-directional beam array. It needs to be either Drolid (if you want to have the +15 skill bonus for your crafting chances) or a random "R&D: Beam Weapons" doff from the R&D requisitions assignment.
Since I do not have the EC to purchase Drolid, the white R&D doff is better for crafting the omni beams than my VR Energy Weapons Officer?
Wow... Lovin' the new system...
Level 15 is 0% chance for UR. Level 17 is only 11%.
Wait, WHAT?? I had read that the Crafting system only leveled to 15; now you're saying it's open-ended?? Where does it really top out? :eek:
Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci
Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac
Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
Level 20 and 2,070,000 XP
At which point the level cap will be increased and you need to go back to grinding levels to be able to craft Mk XIV gear.
I wouldn't say "better" but your current VR Energy Weapons Officer doesn't have the required 'R&D Beam School' trait, so you can't use it to craft an Omni beam, although it will work just fine for any other crafting project in the Beams school.
It's like if there was a doff assignment that required the Telepathic trait; if your EWO didn't have Telepathic then you couldn't use it for that assignment.
Joined January 2009
But we have cats which come in +10, +25 and +50. Every 10 cat points is the same as one level. So max crafting is the same as being level 30 or a +50 cat is the same as being 5 levels higher.
Most Components require a Fabrication Engineer.
Dilithium Components require a Matter-Antimatter Specialist.
Beams
Beam Arrays and Dual Beam Banks require an Energy Weapons Officer.
Beam Consoles require a Technician.
Omni-Directional Beam Arrays require a R&D: Beam Weapons DOFF.
Cannons
Single Cannons, Dual Cannons, Dual Heavy Cannons, and Turrets require an Energy Weapons Officer.
Cannon Consoles require a Technician.
Wide Arc Dual Heavy Cannons require a R&D: Cannon Weapons DOFF.
Engineering
Impulse Engines require a System Engineer.
Singularity Cores require a Warp Theorist.
Warp Cores require a Warp Core Engineer.
Engineering Consoles require a Maintenance Engineer.
Ground Armor requires a Security Officer.
Aegis Hyper-Impulse Engines require a R&D: Aegis DOFF.
Conductive RCS Accelerator Engineering Consoles require a R&D: Engineering DOFF.
Ground Weapons
Blast Assault, Compression Pistol, Dual Pistol, Full Auto Rifle, High Density Rifle, Minigun Assault, Pulsewave Assault, Sniper Rifle, Split Beam Rifle, Stun Pistol, and Wide Beam Pistol require an Assault Squad Officer.
TR-116B Sniper Rifles require a R&D: Ground Equipment DOFF.
Projectiles
Torpedo Launchers require a Projectile Weapons Officer.
Mine Launchers require an Armory Officer.
Projectile Consoles require a Security Officer.
Particle Emission Plasma Torpedo Launchers require a R&D: Projectile Weapons DOFF.
Science
Deflectors require a Deflector Officer.
Science Consoles require a Deflector Officer.
Aegis Deflector Arrays require a R&D: Aegis DOFF.
Exotic Particle Field Exciter Science Consoles require a R&D: Science DOFF.
Shields
Space Shields require a Shield Distribution Officer.
Personal Shields require an Assault Squad Officer.
Aegis Covariant Shield Arrays require a R&D: Aegis DOFF.
Note: With Beam/Cannon consoles, you can make both the generics and specifics.
I believe the assignment at the academy takes 2 days to complete and you have to wait another 2 days before you can start it again, meaning you have a "chance" to get what you need every 4 days.
Other options would include opening hundreds of Xindi lock boxes for a "chance" to get the very rare special R&D doff you need, or you can possibly buy the doffs you need on the exchange. Considering the RNG to get even common doffs from the assignment at the academy, you're probably going to pay a lot for it.
Hearing all this "you have to have very special doffs, that take up roster slots and can *only* be used for crafting special items", and the way to get such doffs being so random and/or expensive, really pisses me off. It's bad enough we have to deal with random modifiers on stuff we craft and all we can do is hope we craft what we want. But forcing us to have to go through giant hoops just to get the doffs we need to craft anything special (like [Arc] weapons or the Aegis set for example) is the most asinine thing I have ever heard. Besides, most of my characters have full rosters and I'm not going to toss out any that I can use in regular assignments just for special doffs that have a very very limited purpose.
I am working on doing only the 6k XP projects to increase crafting school levels on my characters. I will continue to do that until I have a character maxed out at level 20 for all schools before I even consider crafting *any* items. I know it will take a long long time to get there, but hopefully by the time I do things will be improved.
No, I could still use the Doff, it just wouldn't lend any help to earning a "critical success" without the "Telepathic" trait, which is the source of my confusion. Traits are simply there to aide in critting. It's the career that allows for a Doff's use...
I am assuming that soon they will take the Xindi lockboxes off the drop-market, which will make the particular EWO Doff even more rare and thus more expensive... UNLESS the particular doff will become less rare by Cryptic creating more R&D doffs with each of the required traits in the future... Doesn't make sense to create only 6 separate R&D doffs and ONLY... After a while, no one would be able to craft ANYTHING because the doffs would cease to drop...
Oh, I'm so angry at this crafting system! As soon as I figure on waiting 103 days to reach level 15, now I have to spend 10M EC on a lousy Xindi doff! Now, there are those of you who say it's "easy to earn the 10M EC..." Well, not for a casual player who only gets to play for a while each week!!!
ugh...
CM
Earning 10mill a week isn’t that hard. I did it over 10mins a day at 70mins a week. Just pick a good STF or higher end event. I run CE every day for less then 10min a day. Earns money, dill ore and crafting mats. At 10mins per day I am very much a casual player.
EDIT: In 1 hour spread over the week you will get millions to spend, 600 to 1000 marks, 10,000 ish dil ore, 6+ crafting packs full of mats to sell or craft with (I open mine up to save spending millions on mats for crafting). You can convert the marks to extra dill. If you cannot do the same event 10mins per day then do 6 events in a row in one play session.
EDIT2: I don’t do this one myself. But can you run 6 missions, convert the marks to dill. Convert the dill to zen, buy keys and sell on market at over 2million per key?
First, how did you get to level 15 already without spending a fortune in DIL? The math just doesn't work out. At 6000 XP per day (24 hours since I can't hit it every 20), 7000 if I'm lucky, I'm barely at 150,000 XP and I've been running said project each day since the new crafting landed...
Secondly, I spend about an hour each day and I have no time to run an STF with the 5 toons each running DIL assignments with Contraband farmed with the KDF characters and shared across...
CM
If you were only doing the 6K (7K on crit) Crafting XP research projects it wouldn't be doable, but maybe if you've been...
- logging in
- picking up the completed set of 6K (7K on crit) Crafting XP assignments
- starting one or more hour long 600 Crafting XP item manufacturing project(s)
- running some PvEs, etc. for an hour
- picking up the 600 Crafting XP item manufacturing project(s)
- then starting your 6K (7K on crit) Crafting XP research projects
- logging out
... maybe it could be done, especially if you made a bunch of stuff during the Crafting weekend event, or crafted several of the 600 Crafting XP item manufacturing projects. I didn't care enough to bother with more than the 20 hour research projects, but folks that had could have gotten a Crafting School to 15 maybe? Just a thought, since I'm sure there are folks more enthusiastic about Season 9.5 than I. :PMostly run 4 mk X's in the morning, come home from work, run a few set of 4 mk vi's, before bed run 4 mkx's.
Only higher with the 20 hours when I know I'll be off for a day doing summat.
Example 1: Infiltrate the Orion Syndicate requires a doff with trait "Cunning". While this trait then also contributes to success (not critical success), it is not possible to assign a doff without the cunning trait.
Example 2: Telekinetic Science Methodology Development requires a science doff with the Telekinesis trait.
The project referred to by mightybobcnc does not allow any doffs without telepathic trait to be selected.. these type of projects are not that uncommon and i think they sometimes even give a boost to success based on the department instead of based on trait, but require a certain trait.
There will be more - the Xindi specialists were merely a matter of convenience. The Lockbox and associated DOFFs were being released alongside the new system so the Devs or someone in management (more likely the Devs) decided to tack new crafting traits on them.
There's actually already other races, but they're all whites and can only be obtained (that I know of) through the Academy R&D Support DOFF assignment - with the sole exception being the Ferengi Aeigis specialist that you were given if you'd managed to get to 1520 or whatever the experience score was in the old system.