Just want to make sure I have this correct because I'm having trouble squaring the upgrade price and total value columns on the Weapon Improvement Tables (PC pg 267) and the Improving Equipment crafting rules (PC pg 236-7).
So simple version first. If I want to buy a Commercial Starfall pistol that will cost 30 creds. If I want to buy a higher grade Starfall pistol that will cost the Total value of the Improved item plus the base price. So, 380 (350+30) creds for a Tactical Starfall pistol and 1030 (1000+30) for an Advanced Starfall pistol.
Now, if I wanted to craft an Advanced Starfall pistol per the rules of PC pg 197 "You must supply raw materials worth at least half the item’s Price" so that would be 515 creds of material. Then, after a successful crafting check you can create the item, either by immediately using up materials equal to the remaining price or working multiple more days to reduce that remaining cost (based off of the Earned Income Table PC pg 187).*
Upgrading an item, rather than making it from scratch uses the same crafting process, except as noted.
1) The original item provides raw materials equal to its price.
2) Craft Check DC is based of item level of the finished item
3) You do not need the formula, but if you have it you can work multiple days improve an item by supplying UPB equal to half the difference between the two items.*
That means that for our Starfall pistol example, the Commercial price is 30 creds, and the Tactical Total Price is 380 creds. The difference is +350, the value listed in the Upgrade Price Column (PC 367). Likewise, the difference between and Advanced (1030) and a tactical is (380) Starfall pistol is the +650 creds listed in the table.
So far so good. But now we get to the part where I'm lost. PC pg 237 has a sidebar titled Skipping Grades In Crafting. Now, based of the process described earlier the cost to improve a weapon from Commercial to Advanced should be the difference between their total costs. From Commercial to Tactical that should be +1000, but the sidebar says "Chk Chk could improve his commercial painglaive into an advanced painglaive in one day with a DC 19 Crafting check and 650 UPB". I'm not addressing the cost reduction piece cause that makes sense, but what I don't understand is why that extra 350 credits in cost vanishes.
Typing this out, I've kinda rubber ducked the problem, and the conclusion I've come to is that the sidebar is just wrong, since it's inconsistent with the process it's supposed to be giving an example of, but I'm gonna post this anyway so other people can check my logic and tell me what they think.
*Side Note: In the crafting rules (PC 197) it says nothing about needing a formula to reduce crafting costs by spending more time, however on PC 236 it says "You do
not need the formula to improve an item ... but Crafting without a formula means you will have to provide raw materials equal to the item’s price." and "If you have the formula for the item you can improve an item by supplying UPB equal to half the difference between the two items, but you must work multiple days to reduce the materials needed to complete the item as usual with the Craft activity."
Am I reading this correctly that I would need the formula to UPGRADE a common weapon at reduced cost, but not to CRAFT the higher-grade weapon from scratch at reduced cost? Does this bother anyone else? It seems like inconsistent rules for what a formula does.