I was going through BFK looking for what the lowest a component can go when improved by the poor/good/best craftsmanship as outlined on pgs. 17-19.

Unfortunately I couldn't find it. I couldn't find out if the components bottomed out at 0. -1. or even in rare cases start to give you power and space back.

The question in an example is; say you have a Best Murder-Servitors. Power -1, Space -1 normally, would they now become Power 0 and Space 0?

Or would they retain the Power -1 and Space -1 as they have to still take up power and space?

Thanks

Cited from page 17:

"Note that a modifier cannot take any orignial value to zero; should this occur the modified value becomes 1. Even the most well crafted Components need power fo function and space to occupy. However if the original Space or Power requirements were zero, Craftsmanship does not increase these requirements (even in the case of Poor Craftsmanship). No matter how shoddy the armour plating on a warship, for example, they still do not require Power to operate.

In addition, although Poor Craftsmanship Components reduce Ship Point cost by 1, this can only be reduced to a minimum of 1."

That should just about answer your question. Even components of best craftsmanship will always use up at least 1 power and space (unless it didn't use any from the start) and even poor craftsmanship will never reduce the cost in ship points below 1 (unless it was zero to start with).

I was reading through the same thing and noticed it says "note that a modifier cannot take any value to zero; should this occur the value becomes one."

And then I thought of lances...

Poor Craftsmanship Lances

-1 STR
-1 DMG
-1d5 morale (not permanent)
-1SP, minimum 1

So on a Starbreaker I get it for 1sp its strength stays at 1 and damage is 1d10+1 instead of +2, meaning about 6.5 damage on a hit with the same crit chance and the morale loss is temporary.

THAT is not a bad deal...but it makes me think Lances should use Table 1-4 not 1-5 as its a bit funny you can nerf a lance by makin git POOR Craftsmanship and NOT change its performance much.

Well, while it's not directly forbidden by the rules, a GM should not allow players to choose a modifier for poor craftsmanship that will be ignored (such as reducing the strength of a lance weapon from 1 to 0 and therefor still 1). And if you think that, say, one less damage for one more power is not enough of a change, check the weapon statistics. You'll find it quite reasonable.

Also I just realised that only the morale modifiers from table 1-4 are mentioned to being temporary. Can't say whether that's by purpose or an errata.

Probably is.