Stations
A station or workbench is a place that every crafter, no matter what the trade, needs in order to craft items. There are two workbenches for each trade and these tables are exclusive to that profession only. There are also two names for each station, but you need to really only concern yourself with the name on the top: Refining or Finishing. The Refining station is used for crafting base components that may be needed for items to be crafted at the Finishing Station.
Another station is the Assembly table, these are typically used to combine materials from different trades. For example, an assembly table is used to combine outfitter sails and rigging to a carpenter mast to make a fully functional mast assembly.
The amount of items you may bring to a workbench is driven by either your refining or primary trade skill. Every 100 points of skill allows you to bring one more item to the table. These items can be either materials (wood, stone, etc.), catalysts for recipes, or utilities.
Using the Workbench
Once you select the workbench you will be able to choose from the list of known recipes you have acquired. You will then be prompted to add items to the workbench via a table setup window. Simply left click each item from each category you wish to add to the table. Items you have selected will appear in a box below this setup window. If you forget to add an item and discover this in the middle of crafting the recipes, there is nothing you can do but cancel the crafting process. This will unfortunately result in the loss of any materials you used.
Progress and Quality
Getting started with the crafting process means learning this window and all of its functions.
Every recipe or work order has a number of Action Points(AP) associated with it. The basic goal of crafting is to increase quality as high as possible while completing progress through all stages before running out of AP.
Each recipe is divided into stages and each stage is further subdivided into one or more steps. To complete a stage, you must gain 100% progress. Each stage must be completed in order, although you can complete a step within a stage in whichever order you choose. For example, in the image on the right, numbers 2 & 3 make up Stage 2 of the crafting process. You must complete both 2 & 3 in any order to fully move on to Stage 3. This is important to know as you begin to advance. When you are faced with a two step stage, as on the right, 50% of the progress will be gained from #2 and 50% will be gained from #3.
Higher level recipes have more steps (and thankfully more AP) per stage. If this was a three step stage, it would have changed to 33% progress for each step.
Complications
During the course of completing a recipe, complications will occur. The likelihood of getting a complication is driven in large part by your station action skill.
Complications have a random chance of occurring during each action. In general, you should expect to see 3 or 4 per turn. If you have a high station skill, you may only see 2 per turn. On the other hand, you may see as many as 6 or 7 per turn if your station skill is low. Since complications occur randomly per action performed, you should do as few actions as possible during a recipe. In other words, try to perform the highest AP cost action that won't waste AP by providing more progress than would be needed to complete a step.
There are three boxes to the right of the crafting stages that will appear when a complication starts. Moving your mouse over the complication will describe how many turns it will last and its nature. Some cause subsequent actions to cost more AP, some cause progress loss, others quality loss. Some complications are actually beneficial and will increase quality or progress. Bad complications tend to be red, orange complications are detrimental but can probably be ignored, whereas green complications are beneficial.
When you select a complication, a list of your currently known resolutions will appear. These resolutions can be tool, utility or station based actions. Your ability to remove a complication is derived primarily from your problem solving attribute and secondarily from the appropriate process skill (utility, tool, etc) for the chosen resolution.
Not all complications are bad, some provide beneficial gains, others are merely annoyances that can typically be ignored. Learning the difference will be extremely important as it can mean the difference between production of an A grade and B grade item.
Here is a good example:
- The complication Minor Friction lasts 5 turns and causes a 33% increase in AP cost. You could choose to ignore it and do a 100 point AP progress action instead, but this would result in a 166 point deficit (33% of 5 turns * 100pt). If instead you applied the lowest cost (35 AP) resolution 3 times, you would only lose 140 AP. (3 * 35pt action is 105AP +35 AP due to increased cost from complication). If you clear the complication, you save 26AP but may be in a position to simply complete the recipe. You could also decide to do only low cost actions while the complication is active to further mitigate the cost to your AP pool.
Some complications cause progress loss that can affect steps you have completed within the current stage. When this occurs, the previously greyed out step will relight and you will need to return to it to complete the stage. Complications will not cause you to return to a previous stage.
There is no harm in completing a recipe with an active complication and it is not required that they all be removed. However, the last step you complete is affected by any current complcations that are active.