A few questions about crafting

[Kartik100]

1. Some components don't have quality mentioned (like shield emitter base). Does that mean any one will do or are there more expensive versions of these items on sale or found elsewhere that will make for a better final product?

2. Is it worth it to use high quality components for every piece of the product or should I be using a mix of high quality and inferior components? Asking because using all high quality components seems to require crazy high crafting skills (I gathered components for a shield that required like 150+ electronics to craft). Playing on Normal so I'm assuming these ultra high quality items are meant more for having a fighting chance on Dominating.
 
3. Are there any crafting feats that are must-haves?

[mephisto]

1. you can consider them as "base" material, like goggle frames, soles, etc. you can just use any, and those base materials are usually stacked in inventory, unlike quality materials which only use up 1 item slot per stack.
the materials that needs quality is the things that make it functional, like Plasma Core which stores energy.

2. based on my experience, the only reason i would want to use inferior quality material is to make something when my skill is not enough. e.g. last playthrough i wanted to make a high quality Emitter that needs 167 electronics but i only got 166 (with all the buffs i can get), so i had to use a lower quality for one of the materials, i keep using the highest Plasma Core i have, but i had to use a lower quality Modulator. well, you get the picture. but keep in mind that every material yields different outcome/effects, only use a lower material for something you wouldn't need. in my case of Emitter, i needed high energy, and both the Modulators' quality doesn't make a big difference, so i just used a lower quality one.

3. honestly, i literally never pick any of the crafting feats in all my 5 playthroughs. so i think the answer for this question will be different depending on the players.

[Kartik100]

1. you can consider them as "base" material, like goggle frames, soles, etc. you can just use any, and those base materials are usually stacked in inventory, unlike quality materials which only use up 1 item slot per stack.
the materials that needs quality is the things that make it functional, like Plasma Core which stores energy.

2. based on my experience, the only reason i would want to use inferior quality material is to make something when my skill is not enough. e.g. last playthrough i wanted to make a high quality Emitter that needs 167 electronics but i only got 166 (with all the buffs i can get), so i had to use a lower quality for one of the materials, i keep using the highest Plasma Core i have, but i had to use a lower quality Modulator. well, you get the picture. but keep in mind that every material yields different outcome/effects, only use a lower material for something you wouldn't need. in my case of Emitter, i needed high energy, and both the Modulators' quality doesn't make a big difference, so i just used a lower quality one.

3. honestly, i literally never pick any of the crafting feats in all my 5 playthroughs. so i think the answer for this question will be different depending on the players.

What difficulty do you play on? I'm just surprised by how much investment crafting requires. I was told it was important but I was thinking like around 100 points per craft would suffice, not 150+ like in combat skills.

[mephisto]

played on Normal 2 times, Hard 2 times, and now the 5th playthrough is on Dominating.
depending on your INT, i often left my INT at 7, with that, 100 crafting skill will get me around 125 effective crafting skill (without buffs).
and 125 effective skill will go up to 160+ with full buffs (crafting stations+hypercerebrix).
but that 160+ in skill mostly can only craft something with 130-140 material qualities, and honestly i haven't found a material that exceeds 151, which was the highest i can get (my skills wasn't enough, though), according to the wiki, the cap is 160.
i think it's still somewhat in balance, high attack skills will compensate low quality crafted weapons, while high quality crafted weapons will compensate your low attacking skills. so you can choose either one.
my tip is, don't bother increasing the crafting skills at least until mid-game onwards, because you can still find great unique weapons. approaching the late-game portion, you would most likely won't need anymore increase in Hacking, Lockpicking, etc. so you can dump the points you get into crafting skills. in late-game, you will start to get high quality materials to make equipments that are way better than the unique ones.

[Tamior]

Regarding crafting feats, check this thread out:
https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=5078.0

[Kartik100]

Regarding crafting feats, check this thread out:
https://underrail.com/forums/index.php?topic=5078.0

Thanks, that was a pretty informative discussion, both for crafting and psi builds (which I'm currently doing).

[Quidam Craft]

2. Is it worth it to use high quality components for every piece of the product or should I be using a mix of high quality and inferior components?

There is rare occasion where maxing a high quality components and a low quality one would be (slitglty) instresting. To be honest, it's no big deal and one won't really make a mistake to craft the best thing ever with the best mats.

I can think of two situations.

First it concern taser. You don't really care about damage done, what is important is the stun. Damage is based on the electroshock generator along with energy cost of the taser attack. You might want to have a relatively low electroshock generator with a high plasma core to have maximum number of attacks. But again ... You should not run out of power on your taser during a fight if bother core and generator match, so ... Why bother much ?

Second, it concern shield and again it's about better energy consuptions. Never did it myself, but already discuss with someone who planned acordingly. Let's say you have a big fat metal armor with high threshold, you don't really care that your energy shield is passed through if the remaining damage is less than your threshold. A stronger shield that stop 100% of the attack would be less efficient as it won't make a use of your threshold, then in that case, you might want medium quality emitter, smartly chosen, so that average foes will pass your shield just enough for your threshold to take the blow, saving energy in the process. In theory at least. Because once again ... there is a lot of unknown in this and it require advance knowledge of the game to know how much damage you will receive for a really small upgrade. Is it worth it ? Probably not.

Could anyone think of any situations similar to these ones, that at least, in theory, using lesser quality would be better ? With aluminum overcoat or strider to lessen the impact on sthealth, maybe ?

[Tamior]

Pretty sure higher quality circular wave amplifiers have increased both bonus AND penalty when used in energy shield.