Technicly gathered su (source units) & psu (potential source units) are not universal. When a person deposites su of a given type (farming/hunting, mining or herbal) that person's account is credited the amount deposited. Supposedly there is a stockpile of different types of su that when one withdraws some su to refine it that one recieves the material one desires to have refined. (real word example: I go to the bank and deposit 500 pennies. Shortly thereafter I withdraw 60 nickels. The pennies still sit within the bank, they did not get magically transmuted to nickels.) This is only possible because the empire has a big enough stockpile of resources to support thier guild bank system.
Some tribes do not have access to a given material. Also the natives do not have this materials stockpile to exchange materials with.
Sometimes pc's can find su that must be used for refining a particular item. For example the lumber. The lumber has a value of either 20 or 8 su and must be refined into wood only. It cannot be banked and it must be refined immediately upon turn-in to logistics (vault ingame). Why is this? The tag is yellow so the item must be turned in before the end of the event or be lost. Ingame perspective: It seems that for whatever reason the vault manager refuses to accept this resource in this form. This resource in this form will rot into unuseability if not refined before the end of the event. Out of game perspective is simply that the mechanism to effectively track su that can only refine into a single given material has been deemed to be overly clunky to use.
Technicaly psu is never deposited in the vault. It's supposed to be registered though so its gathering/depletion can be tracked. In other words the psu never left the spot it was found from until it becomes su.
Normally 2 Psu can be converted into 2 su by expending one production pool point. The converted material (now su) can then be placed into the vault. Then more production pool points must be spent to refine the su into units of a material. Doing this does not require having a refinement skill just having production pool (of the right type) to spend.
Not to well known is the ability to create 2 psu by expending one point of refining pool. It refered to as improving a site. Doing this does not require having a refinement skill just having production pool (of the right type) to spend.
Expending one point of Karma will refresh one point of production. My character refers to it as pushing his luck/rushing the process. Others refer to it as "Burning the karmic chainsaw." Scott refers to it as "Being a pain in his ass."
Here is an example comparing the refinement of steel through psu's & su's.
Fred, Ned & Jed are all apprentice base metal miners. They each wish to make two units of steel.
Fred is fairly lucky he has 10 mining su in his vault account. He spends two points from his mining pool to refine those 10 su into two units of steel.
Ned isn't so lucky, he has 11 units of psu available to him. He spends 5 mining pool to convert 10 of that psu into su. Then Ned spends 2 more mining pool to convert those 10 newly converted su into two units of steel.
Jed is just shit out of luck, he has a mining site with 1 psu in it. Jed first has to improve his site by spending 5 mining pool to generate 10 mining psu. Then Jed has to spend 5 more pool to convert those psu into su. Then Jed has to pause catch his breath and spend 2 karma points to refresh two of his production pool. Then Jed spends two mining pool to refine the 10 su into two units of steel.
To get two bars of steel
Method used........Pool Points Spent
Using Su...........2
Using Psu..........7
Improve site/psu...12
Btw a longsword takes 7 units of steel(metal) & 1 unit of wood(or bone) to make. If made by an apprentice without maintainence lasts only two events.
Being a master refiner would reduce the number of pool that would be need to be spent since less su would be needed to get the final refined product. If Fred, Ned & Jed were master miners then the numbers would change
If master refiner
To get two bars of steel
Method used.........Pool Points Spent..leftovers
Using Su.............1.................5 mining su
Using Psu............3.................one mining Su
Improve site/use psu.7.................1 mining su, 1 mPSU
Not to confuse people but there is a substep that is part of the refining materials process that while used the semantics of it allow "scraps of su" to exist to the beggining of the next event. I'll try to explain the substep of "available su" another time when I have the patience.
I normally try to ignore that substep and my refining efforts try to avoid remainders so
I don't have to acknowledge it.
Mario
-Starn-
"And they say my money can't protect me!" Starn says while putting on his silver helmet & loads his bone inlayed silver hand-cannon with golden bullets...
