How will I know if I reached a maximum allowed number of learnt schematics? Is there a message or something?

 

I am asking because I am trying to RE some very low level items (biochem) and nothing pops up after a large number of tries. This situation is now for a few weeks.

For anything you can RE, you will see a tooltip stating what your chance for successfully REing the item is. If you can learn no more schematics from a crafted item, that tooltip will say "No Research Available."

 

The other way to tell to to check your schematics. Items that start from a "green" base schematic will RE to a "blue" schematic. For you, as a biochem crafter, all of your green stims and medpacks will generate one blue schematic, and REing items from that blue schematic will generate one purple schematic. Implants, on the other hand, RE to three different blue schematics (with a prefix added to the name of Critical, Overkill or Redoubt) and those three can RE to a total of fourteen different purple schematics (five for Critical, five for Overkill and four for Redoubt). So, if you check the names of the schematics, you can get a sense as well before even crafting an item of whether you can learn something new from REing it.

 

The tooltip always works, though. If you're not getting new schematics, make sure you check the tooltip. If it says No Research Available, you've been wasting your time and mats. If it still lists a chance for success, then you have a chance to learn something new.

 

... and if you've crafted and RE'd over 100 items with research still available with no hits? Welcome to the club. It's not broken, it's just RNG crap.

I think you are explaining the max number of schematics form one item. I know all that (but thx anyway). What I meant is this: I read somewhere a statement form Bioware dev that there is a global, maximum number of schematics that one character can learn. And knowing the quality of coding in TOR, it is entirely possible that there is no message to the user when he reaches such number and the tooltip still shows 'Research Available' Or were you referring to this situation?

I don't recall ever seeing mention of a cap to the number of schematics you can learn. As far as I know there isn't one.

I don't recall ever seeing mention of a cap to the number of schematics you can learn. As far as I know there isn't one.

 

Yes the Devs gave a somewhat "hard" number. I believe it was close to the patch 1.2 release, possibly in the Q&A part.

Yes the Devs gave a somewhat "hard" number. I believe it was close to the patch 1.2 release, possibly in the Q&A part.

 

Now, if that were the case, that would totally take the cake for stupidity.

 

And given the state of crafting in this game, I would not put it past them.

 

As it is, I've calculated that in order to get all the prefix schematics in Armstech starting with Base items that are Premium quality, it would take about ten years of crew member time. Yes, I am serious: ten years. If your luck is average. Now, since the devs are forcing monumentally stupid items on us like scatterguns with shield chance as a stat, the idea that such schematics would count towards some fixed cap lower than what is mathematically possible and, therefore, possibly taking slots away from more useful schematics in some sort of sick game of musical chairs ... that would be intolerable.

 

So, if Allison Berryman is out there reading, I think you owe the community an answer on this: is there a fixed number of schematics we can learn that is lower than the number mathematically possible for our crafts?

 

If that is the case, I think BioWare owes the community an apology and an explanation as to why such a limit exists when you include useless schematics such as the scatterguns I mentioned in the game. Like I said, the RNG grind is insulting enough as it is to any serious crafter out there who wants to learn the best schematics out there based on the builds that make sense for classes and companions in terms of the amount of time it takes and the cost in money and materials to get them. Forcing useless schematics on us because the crafting system mindlessly squeezes us through some sort of matrix of possible outcomes and then blocking us out after a certain number of schematics are learned regardless of their utility or lack thereof would be the ultimate slap in the face.

Yes the Devs gave a somewhat "hard" number. I believe it was close to the patch 1.2 release, possibly in the Q&A part.

 

Just to provide some context, the devs made that statement as reasoning why there aren't more craftable items in the game for certain tradeskills (defensive mods for CT's, specifically).

 

I don't know of anyone who has ran into a limit given the available recipes in game... if so, Houston, we have a problem.

That said, he also wanted to mention that there are some players with very large numbers of schematics. In the future, we will need to do some work with the UI to make it easier to handle large numbers of schematics without having performance problems and to make it easier to view and manage them.

 

Cool, I'm getting through a lot of paper and pens recently, but having all 6 crafts at 400 with tons of prefix finds does that to your stationary collection

May I suggest those guys working on it go have a look at Ask Mr Robot website for some ideas? I'm not being rude or sarcastic here, the way they have laid our all possible crafts is excellent, especially their drop down menus from the original item to show all prefix discoveries. It's incredibly well laid out, very neat and tidy

I spoke to Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer), and he said that there isn't currently a maximum number of schematics. It is likely you're having a run of bad luck, or you may be attempting to RE an item that doesn't have any schematics available for you.

 

That said, he also wanted to mention that there are some players with very large numbers of schematics. In the future, we will need to do some work with the UI to make it easier to handle large numbers of schematics without having performance problems and to make it easier to view and manage them.

 

That's good to know on both counts, thank you for the quick reply.

 

I would suggest that removing pointless schematics from the game might be as good an option. Going back to the example I mentioned: scatterguns with shield chance. Not only do smugglers NOT use shields, but even if they could scatterguns and shields are both off-hand items. There is no reason whatsoever for there to be schematics for scatterguns with shield chance. That's just one example of a pointless schematic.

May I suggest those guys working on it go have a look at Ask Mr Robot website for some ideas? I'm not being rude or sarcastic here, the way they have laid our all possible crafts is excellent, especially their drop down menus from the original item to show all prefix discoveries. It's incredibly well laid out, very neat and tidy

 

You are right, I just checked out Ask Mr Robot at it's awesome for finding specific schematics. Here's some links:

Crafting Search w/ filter for all Cybertech. Use the links on the side to change between crafts.

Crafting Search w/ filter for Armormech medium armour gloves for a level 33 player.

I spoke to Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer), and he said that there isn't currently a maximum number of schematics. It is likely you're having a run of bad luck, or you may be attempting to RE an item that doesn't have any schematics available for you.

 

That said, he also wanted to mention that there are some players with very large numbers of schematics. In the future, we will need to do some work with the UI to make it easier to handle large numbers of schematics without having performance problems and to make it easier to view and manage them.

 

Hmm. This actually goes against something we were told some time back. One of the reason we were given that we couldn't break down every armor piece in the game in order to potentially learn a Custom Schematic of the item was because characters had a limited amount of schematics they could know before Bad Things Happened(TM.)

 

Has this changed, or are you just saying that, with the current available schematics, you won't hit the cap, but if they were to add a bunch more, it would be possible to run out of room?

Thanks for the answer! Even though, as WulfSolaris already said, it is different than what we heard few months ago

Hmm. This actually goes against something we were told some time back. One of the reason we were given that we couldn't break down every armor piece in the game in order to potentially learn a Custom Schematic of the item was because characters had a limited amount of schematics they could know before Bad Things Happened(TM.)

 

Has this changed, or are you just saying that, with the current available schematics, you won't hit the cap, but if they were to add a bunch more, it would be possible to run out of room?

 

for WulfSolaris:

That remark about the "limited amount of schematics" was later clarified to say the "limited amount" was about 20 times larger than all the schematics currently in the game.

 

for the Devs:

I hope when the UI for schematics is revamped they will add a much-needed secondary sort: alphabetically by "normal" item description. For example, my Armormech currently has 17 schematics for level 13 heavy armor. I usually sort by level; that groups all 17 schematics in the same spot, then secondarily sorted alphabetically like this:

 

Ballistic Shield Belt

Critical Ballistic Shield Belt

Hardened Assault Vambraces

Heavy Military Leggings

Overkill Ballistic Shield Belt

Overkill Heavy Military Leggings

 

The problem lies in trying to find if I've already learned schematics for improved versions (blue/purple) of an item. Then I have to search one by one in other areas instead of having ALL the versions of a particular item AT A SINGLE GLANCE. In the example listing above, all the Ballistic Shield Belt versions (green/blue/purple) are scattered in the listing, not grouped.

 

The culprit is the "secondary alphabetical sort" uses the first letter of the first word for sorting (which is the adjective common to many schematics) instead of alpha sorting on what is AFTER the adjective: the normal item name.

 

So, with the first sort being by level, and the secondary sort being alpha AFTER the adjective, we would have:

 

Ballistic Shield Belt

Critical Ballistic Shield Belt

Overkill Ballistic Shield Belt

Hardened Assault Vambraces

Heavy Military Leggings

Overkill Heavy Military Leggings

 

which I find easier to use.

 

Even better would be to place the Critical/Overkill/etc. item adjectives AFTER the normal item name. That would result in:

 

Ballistic Shield Belt

Ballistic Shield Belt, Critical

Ballistic Shield Belt, Overkill

Hardened Assault Vambraces

Heavy Military Leggings

Heavy Military Leggings, Overkill

 

which easily tells at one glance which items have reached full research and which can yield further research.

 

Thanks for the feedback chance.

for WulfSolaris:

That remark about the "limited amount of schematics" was later clarified to say the "limited amount" was about 20 times larger than all the schematics currently in the game.

 

Hehe, yeah, that sounds like the response from a developer. "Oh, yeah, it's just a smallint variable, so it's really not unlimited. I guess I should have mentioned that gives you over 32k entries. Sorry for the confusion."

 

for the Devs:

*snip*

 

The culprit is the "secondary alphabetical sort" uses the first letter of the first word for sorting (which is the adjective common to many schematics) instead of alpha sorting on what is AFTER the adjective: the normal item name.

 

*snip*

 

Very nice idea! Great suggestion!

I spoke to Damion Schubert (Principal Lead Systems Designer), and he said that there isn't currently a maximum number of schematics. It is likely you're having a run of bad luck, or you may be attempting to RE an item that doesn't have any schematics available for you.

 

That said, he also wanted to mention that there are some players with very large numbers of schematics. In the future, we will need to do some work with the UI to make it easier to handle large numbers of schematics without having performance problems and to make it easier to view and manage them.

 

Good to hear that crafting window is getting a revamp, it's an unorganized mess right now.

 

Tip: let us select favorite recipes for starters; allowing to just view a list of those favorites for rapid access to commonly crafted goods by ourselves.