To begin crafting your faction must build a port research centre or ship research centre which provides the capacity to unlock either a line of ports (equipment and weapons) or a line of ships. With this research capacity the faction founder can choose an equipment line, ship line or weapon line to unlock. With the line unlocked any player in the faction can begin trying to find recipes within that line, and once found, is revealed and usable by the entire faction.
If you have surplus combat cards or are looking to gain more, the strategist skill allows you to merge four cards to generate a completely new card which is added to your deck. The cards you supply and your skill level influence what the outcome will be across a variety of metrics, so finding the right balance and cards to add is a learning experience with the skill.
To being crafting cards after realising the strategist skill, visit the crafting window, select craft and scroll down to the cards section. Clicking the "craft cards" link will open the card crafting window. From here you can choose up to four cards to add to the recipe and when you are happy, press the craft button to see what you generate.
Any cards created can be used in combat providing you meet any ship restrictions, just remember to add them to your deck beforehand.
Relying on trade to acquire structure components for building is not always viable, so fabrication can be undertaken by the faction to aid with this or sell the fabricated items for more than their constitute parts. To begin fabrication a faction must first own a factory, within this commodities can be placed and the factory can be instructed to refine the commodities into pure forms. These pure forms can be traded or multiple pure forms can be used together to create structure components. A structure requires several components to build, so this process can be repeated several times to fabricate all the structure components required. Both the components required to build a structure and the commodities required for the pure forms can be found in-game or within the blueprints section of this site, so you always know what to seek next.
Using the gastronomy skill you can create brand-new food and drink items the galaxy has never seen before to be sold at your faction amenity structures (like asteroid bars). Food and drink items when consumed temporarily buff your EIDOS statistics for a set period of time, as well as increasing the chance of charming wildlife, keeping them charmed and increased capture chance if the item is made from the wildlife in question.
To begin crafting food and drink items after realising the gastronomy skill, visit the crafting window, select craft and scroll down to the gastronomy section. You will require different wildlife parts in your hold to begin crafting and if you do a link labelled "gastronomy" will become available that when clicked will open the gastronomy window. From here you can choose up to four wildlife parts to add to the recipe and when you are happy, press the craft button to see what you generate. The parts you choose and your own skill level will determine success chance, quality and the outcome.
When you discover a new food or drink item it will be sold automatically at all of your faction amenity structures. Creating new items is a great way to leave your mark on the universe as well as generate passive income from passing players.
Ports include both equipment and weapons with equipment lines having 10 increasingly more powerful variants to discover and weapons lines having 40. Both can be a powerful addition to your faction with equipment providing benefits to ships, such as afterburners which can increase their speed, and each weapon line having a unique perk that can help in battle. Your faction must first unlock an equipment line or weapon line to start attempting to craft ports from these lines. This is done by the faction founder by visiting the command window, selecting research and technology and using the research options to unlock a line. To unlock a line requires research points which are accumulated by research centers, in this case port research centers. These centers will produce research points regularly.
To begin port crafting first visit a planet homing a faction armory and deposit your port parts into the armory's hold. Once that is done, you can open the crafting window and select the option for "craft equipment" or "craft weapon". This will open a recipe window, where you can place parts from the armory hold into a recipe in an attempt to find a viable outcome. A recipe consists of four different parts, and pressing the add button next to any part will add it to the recipe. Once the recipe has 4 parts, the "craft" button will become active and pressing this will tell you the outcome.
In the same manner as port lines, ship lines can also be unlocked by the faction founder for faction members to attempt to find ship recipes within. Each ship line has a specific purpose, from attack ships with damage increasing equipment to recon ships with extended scanning range. In total there are 30 different ship lines with each ship line containing 5 different marks of ship to discover. To being ship crafting first visit a planet homing a faction shipwright and deposit your ship parts into the shipwright's hold. Once this is done, you can follow the same instructions as port crafting but instead choose the option to "craft ship" initially.
As a specialist skill for creating high level weapons, the Weaponcrafter skill allows you to disassemble four exotic weapons with the chance of creating a completely new weapon.
To begin crafting high level weapons after realising the Weaponcrafter skill, visit the crafting window, select craft and scroll down to the Weaponcrafter section. You will require different exotic weapons in your hold to begin crafting and if you do a link labelled "craft weapons" will become available that when clicked will open the Weaponcrafter window. From here you can choose up to four exotic weapons to add to the recipe and when you are happy, press the craft button to see what you create. The weapons you choose and your own skill level will determine success chance, quality and the outcome. Any new weapon you create will be added to your hold.
The Weaponcrafter skill provides a great opportunity for high level players to attempt to tailor make custom weapons as well as leave their mark by adding a completely new weapon line to the universe.