How do schematics work?
As you gain in crafting skill, you gain access to new schematic types. You have a limited capacity for schematic types, so you may have to give up crafting certain types of things as you advance. These schematic templates allow for experimentation; for example, a blaster schematic may call for a barrel, but you can put any blaster barrel into the schematic to see how it affects the potential item to be crafted. Once you have put all the components in the schematic, you then work with the prototype to try to maximize its potential. Once you have finished, the schematic is “burned in” and becomes a manufacturing schematic. This means it is now a commodity item, and can be used to manufacture from (when placed in a factory) or can be traded, bought, and sold. It also now will forever call for exactly the components that were used–so if that type of blaster barrel is no longer available, that burned in schematic is useless.
