[After patch 9.99 the guide will need a heavy re-write fyi]

My combined craft, BPs and fine woods notes into one...

Keep getting asked for them. Thought I'd share for all players. Also Keep in mind that any future wipe will not effect your current rank or craft level as its tied to your STEAM account Name and not your character creation. So maybe Craft Level at this point in time should be a prime focus if any...


Three Parts...
1. Whats the best (quickest)way I can Craft Level up?
2. BPs whats the best way to find them? Breaking ships etc?
3. Fine Woods, I cannot get them anywhere...!


These are just road maps or general guide. PvP EU may through up very different obstacles compared to PvE, and again so too for PvP US. Also additional patches will skew numbers. So check your sums...

1. Whats the Best way I can Craft Level up?



Focus solely on building BASIC trader Lynx. I suggest out of Oak log. Oak log is used in several productions for the materials you'll need. Use NA Craft website or the outdated last copy of my excel workbook on steam and in the forums but NA Craft is up to date.


http://www.navalactioncraft.com/craft-ship/traders-lynx


The build I won't bore you or the other readers with. However you need to notice a couple of things, well three things actually. All other builds incorperate Carriages which any crafter will tell you suck the life out of labor hours. So both Cutter and Lynx Trade ships have this unique feature NO GUNS.


Build BASIC versions and you don't need to add the Grade Note. This grade note dosent seem much of a job to do. Go look at what it takes in labour hours to make. You earn something like 1 only XP point. So sucks up labour Hours for no reward.


Finally because you are only making BASIC versions you don't need Fine wood types. Again sympton of supply shortages avoided....


Now the BASIC Trader Lynx, Labor Hours spent to Craft points earned is the lowest ship ratio of all (from last checked). And thats the Key to the whole strategy. You plan build Trader Lynx in units of 20x. Use Production buildings etc... Try to buy as little resources as possible. (easy to say, but get the idea).


Q. Norfolk, WTF do I do with 20x BASIC Trader Lynx's ? who's gonna Buy them ?

A. You Dismantle them. Use the parts to add to a new future build run.


Officer Perks: Here use Royal Shipbuilder when constructing the Trader ship. Reduce LH costs by 10%. Costs 2pts. Foreman 2pts cost. This increases LH generation by 20%. Reset the perks when fighting missioning or anything else other than crafting.

2. BPs whats the best way to find them? Breaking ships etc?

This strategy will work but I'd advise never building lower quality than I mention or dismantle ships for the primary hope of a BP drop. Plan one build always Except'l never lower and always have the Officer Perk "Gifted" on. The drop is automatic 100% this way in the long run quicker and cheaper. DO NOT do it on the cheap building M'crft it won't drop all the BPs in one go. Pick Your builds in this order...

1.Except Brig
it will drop in one build Mercury, NavyBrig, MotarBrig and Rattlesnake.

2. Except Murcury
it will drop in one Build Niagara, Surprise, Renommee

at XP 25 you will get an auto Frigate BP. Better to build Renomme than the frigate

3 Renommee Exceptl
will drop in one build Belle Poule, Le Gros Ventre

4 Exceptl Belle Poule
will drop in one build Le Gros Ventre, Ingermanland, Trincomalee, Essex and the Constitution

you can work out the rest from there...
Build 4 exceptional ships only, and you get 12 BPs...


Officer Perks to use. The primary one is "Gifted". This increases the Chance of drop rate by 100%. Then the rest of the Perks as above.

3. Fine Woods, I cannot get them anywhere...?

This is a re-write of a number of asked questions on this topic.

This is the main issue with the above strategy "2". You will need depending on TRIM base upto 227x of the "Fine" of the Main wood used. And of the six trim choices an additional Fine wood type of upto a total of 227x is needed from Build Str, Planking, Stiffness etc...


If we wanted the builds done at the same time then collecting this many fine woods would seem an up hill struggle. We need to ask what we want from the four exceptional ship builds?
1. The BP drops is the primary reason.
2. To sell on or use or don't care?

The secondary choice here needs thought. Choose Build strength and you'll need extra fine oak and compass wood or pick Stiffness and you'll need fine Teak and Compass Wood as well! However try Crew Space. Apart from the extra Fine Base wood needed, you'll also need Rum and Food Supplies. Now which is easier to get hold of 200 extra fine teak or 200 rum plus food supplies.....


Now we've already stated above Oak Log resource is used in several material builds present in all vessels. Planks and Carriages are just two examples here. If using Oak as the base TRIM you'll need 702 logs. The fine wood drop rate is not fixed, and also could drop compass wood instead of the Fine base wood. The extra drop expected is about 8% of the harvested load at level 3 grade building.



So One level 3 Grade Oak Log building will produce 642 Oak Logs every 3.33 Real Life days. Expect 8% drop rate, 51.8units of either Fine Oak or Compass Wood. Build maxium buildings of five equates to 3,210 Oak Logs and 258.9 in extras. The chance ratio now of Fine Oak to Compass Wood is the challenge. If 1 out of the 5 buildings produce CW thats great, but what if 4 produce CW...!!!


From Experience 2 buildings would drop CW. So expect 155 fine Oak. Players have screwed around with drawing down the storage early not leaving it till the end. In all honesty I haven't tested this for efficiency as yet. For all four ship builds you'll need 227 Fine Oak. This means two complete harvests or just under 7 days RL.


This seems more workable....

UPDATE : from patch 9.97 fine woods were dropped as part of the crafting chain. I've left this section for reference. I beleive they will return in the future but not in the same way across all build classes. Maybe just SoLs or for extreme builds like super extreme fast... you get the idea.

Unfortunately players didn't really try to use part 3 in order to get the fine wood. But used a system of chasing prices, opening under valued sealed bottles leading to even more frustrations. We must set better objectives... One area I don't cover is very specific build. This is for another time and lecturer series involving warehouse management as well. If you'd like to see these ELITE clan notes let me know in the comments box below....

Conculsion


The problem with crafting is sticking to your prime objective. What is it you want? Crafting XP or BPs. Main problems arise from chopping and changing the objective in mind. Jumping from leveling to then trying to get the next new ship. In my case Modules was my distraction.

What I suggest is stage plan. And stick to the plan. First Target is level 35 XP. Once acheived go back get the BPs. Then 45 XP, BPs then 50 XP.

Players sometimes get caught building something and getting stuck with materials needed, this is piss poor planning 3x Ps... Crafting is not easy and for some not fun. It is a game and sometimes Crafting seems a slog. Make it a basic run routine around Oak logs and Trader Lynx. Stick to your goals.

One last last thing. Usually players blame the game mechanic first before themselves. If something isn't working, STOP, think what do I want from this? Try and work it out. Ask the community. Don't go down the easy route first....

I hope I haven't bored you too much. If you think its rubbish then tell me. And if know a better way like wise...



Kind Regards



Norfolk nChance.

Thursday 20th April 2017



It seems I'm spring cleaning wrapping up some threads. This was my first real attempt at a NA guide and Im still proud of it. Nothing in the league of Collisters Three Guides though. After the wipe and from what Ive done on the testbed this Guide will be obsolete...

However just like an old girlfriend who hangs around a bit too long she's still got one last hurrah. Read my lmao NA Sale thread I did earlier today and you'll find I bgt my first NA ALT. So after fours hours lets have a look at what I did with "Norfolk nWay"...



Labor Contracts & Routines....

Since the announced wipe I stopped Crafting. Norfolk nChance on PvE officer perks overseer and foreman for 2,500 LH wallet and a 25% drop in generation time. Giving mods away and stuff this morning I had 23LC in kingston (not K/PR)

Start game, log in to PvE convert to LCs, restart on PvP(2) US. Finish game log back in to PvE and then close down. Just this little routine produces and produces...




Dev's told me to get XP on all servers...


Norfolk nWay I immedately setup PvE GB Nation. This is to work off ELITE and nChance's wealth from its hyper inflation. NO PvP or angry AIs to bother me so this guy is doing Crafting. I do a quick one off mission just to get the XP remember...

PvP(1) EU GB Nation do a quick mission. PvP(2) US I set him up as french. This is my main PvP arena. So having nChance GB and nWay French you can see dual boxing coming to build up Rank XP... Do a quick mission....

Lastly TestBed Server, again setup as French. I beleive "we are trying out how 1 server really works". We got too much info from Admin and the others on Test then wipe then the heavily predicted delay... We'll probably be on Test longer than you think and actually I don't mind it at all... and i do a quick mission...



Back to the Plan....

Outpost at Kingston so nChance can pass over his LCs. K/PR is ELITEs Clan Warehouse. So read the guide what do I want? I don't want Blue Prints all I want is Craft 50XP oh and 2 Officer Rank Points. Oh nChance gave me 80mil in gold the tight B@stard.... Can't do that on the other servers...



Warehouse Prep...

K/PR nWay's Warehouse, I look at NACraft.com guide. Put in Trader Lynx Oak and Stiffness BASIC. I then add to an empty floor in order Coal Fir through to the Stone Blocks. Then I get at least 1 unit of Materials and put that in the "Proposed Build Order" from Ballast down to Iron fittings.

Excel, turn 1x Trader Lynx into a 20x Build. I now know what sizes I'm targeting. From 800 Oak Frame Parts to 180 Iron Fittings(remember to build the ingots first) to 1,280 Planks. Dockyard I have 5x empty FLEET Slots and 5x empty slots at K/PR port. So 2 cycles of 10x units at a time.




Problem with Money...

In the CW we've still hundreds of tonnes of materials and I could have easily populated my Warehouse. However you lose out on every craft oppertunity from Iron Ore to Iron Fittings etc. The Guide talks about about buildings etc. Ive no time and have cash so BUY Coal, BUY Lignum at inflated prices.. time is the money now...





1. Pre-Start Review and final Check....

The piles and piles of resources and materials all laid out for just over a 20x build. Main UI Home screen Officer tab, Pick "Light Shipmaster" 1pts. This reduces LH costs by 30%. Trader Lynx BASIC will cost 152 Labor Hours. Using the Perk 107 Hours only.

I T/P to Kingston and use 2x LC 1,000 hours allowance with 0 XP.





2. Production Line starts....

I roll out Trader Lynx's 5x. Then move them to Fleet then 5x more. I STOP. Go to Officer Perk reset change Light Ship for GIFTED instead 2pts. It helps with drops for BPs but I find also I get more materials from Breaking and Grade notes etc.





3. Breaking....


Break the 10x T. Lynx's which auto adds to your stock piles in order. Also NO crafting hours are used when breaking. When all 10x are gone restarty at 1. again... and again...





NO Labour Hours, Tidy up & stop....



Finally ran out of Labour Contracts. Time to go find [BLACK] for some Rank XP, but first this...

go to K/PR and look in the SHIPS tab. Ships for sale. I put one 10x round of Trader Lynx's up for sale for you to see my builds. From todays start Norfolk nWay is still a Midshipman with 475/500 Rank XP with a Craft Level of 26 XP. Target next day or so if I can get the LCs is 35 XP.

Oh extras in the warehouse 5x Brigs T/N/Ords Blue Prints and 16x Low Grade Notes....




Conculsion...

You've still time to get your crafting up. It will be easier to do it now than after the wipe...
With that I will finally close the Crafting Guide down. Hope its given some of you help.... any questions just PM ingame...o7




Norfolk nChance
[ELITE]