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My understanding (Based on PF2e Crafting) is that it is for less common items because GM's are not supposed to allow EVERYTHING to be bought at just any small port store, it is not at all meant to reduce costs (though I think you just proved it increases costs).
I have always found this frustrating too.
My understanding (Based on PF2e Crafting) is that it is for less common items because GM's are not supposed to allow EVERYTHING to be bought at just any small port store, it is not at all meant to reduce costs (though I think you just proved it increases costs).
I have always found this frustrating too.
Starfinder is even a bit weirder than PF2 because one of the main currencies are UPB are basically nano machine bundles of resources that can be nearly 1UPB/1credit converted from base form to completed product for all but the most specialized things. A crafter basically is somebody who has used money/rep to buy licenses/plans to fabricate an item. It is hard to make a lot of money on something because crafting for all but the most specialized thing just is not hard.
The main reason to be a crafter in SF2 is if you are on a ship traveling through the universe it is very useful to be able to turn your store of UPB into the weapon/armor/clothing/food/gaming systems you want/need at that time.
I forgot to note in SF1 they eventually added tools to grind up unneeded/unused loot so you could in the field get 20% of the cost of the item in UPB. This came in VERY handy when we were doing adventures in ruins on a planet in the vast. In a pinch we were able to grind up random resources/items we were getting and making necessities at one point including food as we were running low due to reasons.
Is crafting more cost effective than just taking income and buying the items you need? From my reading of the crafting rules, the best I can hope for is spending extra time and getting a 10% discount per day on the item.
That is approximately correct, yes. Crafting is not a wealth multiplier. You can generally get nearly the same income increase from doing other Earn Income tasks for those days of downtime as you can get as a discount on the crafting an item process.
There are ways to tweak the system to get a minor edge to put crafting above other Earn Income options. But that is a bit of a moot point because you can also tweak the system in similar ways to get that minor edge to your Earn Income tasks and make them have a minor edge over crafting discount.
Skill in crafting can be useful directly for adventuring. Repairing a shield is common in some party compositions. Crafting is used to identify Tech creatures (constructs?) and is used to appraise the value of items found. It can also be used in skill challenges.
Using Crafting in downtime for creating items is also useful when you don't have immediate access to a settlement. To use Earn Income, you have to have some NPCs who are willing to pay for your services.
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I think you're mixing up some numbers.
A) The earn income table on Lorespire for SFS is not the one you use for crafting. In Society play, you usually attempt to earn income using a task 2 levels lower than your level (It's possible boons to change this up may later become available like how faction boons can in Pathfinder Society). When crafting, you use your a job of your level to reduce the cost of the item even if it's a low level item. You also have 6-7 days to work at reducing the coat of said item, since it only takes 1-2 days before you get to make the check.
Let's use an example.
A 3rd level Mechanic in SFS who is an expert in crafting is deciding whether to buy 4 basic medpatches with cash they earn from earn income or craft them. They have a +4 Intelligence, so their bonus to crafting is +11.
If they use crafting to earn income, they attempt a level 1 task per PFS rules. Our Mechanic has a 5% chance to critically fail and earn 0 credits, a 10% chance to fail and earn 8 credits, a 50% to succed and earn 16 credits, and a 35% chance to critically succeed and earn 24 credits. A weighted average gives us 17.2 credits earned.
If our mechanic attempts to craft the medpatches, it conveniently has the same odds since they afe trying to craft a level 1 item. Let's assume they do not have the formula for medpatches because they are not sure they'll craft enough to justify the cost. So, if they succeed, they reduce the cost to complete the medpatches by 30 credits, and if they critically succeeds, they reduce the cost to complete them by 48 credits. If they fail, due to SFS rules they can't try again, but they can still use the remaining 6 days of downtime to earn income, averaging 12.9 credits. If they critically fail, they'll have to buy 1.5 credits worth of supplies per medpatch in the batch if they want to try again after the next adventure, but they can still use the last 6 days of downtime to try to earn income for that same 12.9 credits.
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You use the DC of the item's level and the value of your level. Which is great.
Earning Income, then buying four medpatches. A level 3 character spends 8 days of downtime on a level 1 Earn Income task (for Society; for a home game this is a lot more variable and the character probably can't always use their best skill). DC 15 to earn 2 credits per day. For eight days that's 16 credits, assuming a success. For a level 3 Expert with +4 Int, that's +11. 5% crit failure for 0, 10% failure for 8 credits, 50% success for 16 credits, and 35% crit success for 24 credits.
.05 * 0 + .1 * 8 + .5 * 16 + .35 * 24 = 17.2 credits on average. Then spend the 120 for a total spent of 102.8.
Crafting four medpatches. 60 credits spent to get started. DC 14, so same odds of success.
On a critical failure, you lose 6 credits, then spend your remaining six days earning income before buying the medpatches. .05 * 0 + .1 * 6 + .5 * 12 + .35 * 18 - 6 - 120 = -106.7
On a failure, you salvage your 60 credits, then spend your remaining six days earning income. 12.9 earned, 120 spent, total of 107.1 spent.
On a success, you continue Crafting for six days earning 5 credits per day. That comes to 30. You spend the remaining 30 (or you could shelve the project and come back to it later, spending an additional six days later to finish it).
On a critical success, you continue Crafting for six days earning 8 credits per day for a total of 48. You spend the remaining 12.
.05 * -106.7 + .1 * -106.5 + .5 * -90 + .35 * -72 = an average of 86.185 spent on your medpatches. A savings of about 16 credits over Earning Income.
This gets easier and thus improves your success rate the lower the level of the item. Of course, if you want items closer to your level it'll get harder. It'll still be better value on a success compared to Earning Income, but the failure chance will be higher. And the downside of Crafting is the worse failure effects.
If you get an Earn Income gig of your own level that uses a skill as good as or better than your Craft, it'll be better than Crafting an item of your own level. But an item of lower level probably still wins, assuming you want the item.
Looks like I get exactly the same numbers as Squark (a good sign they're correct), but I thought showing the work might help.
Where did the 10% come from?