I figured I might as well make a thread to sum up which materials are impossibly hard and/or 'unfun' to gather in 2.1. Asides from making it easier for developers to find this information, I was also hoping to create a place where people could share some tips for finding specific materials. I'll start with my current area of expertise: the materials required for FSD upgrades, and prospecting. Also, some thoughts on base runs later. Lastly, just as a quick aside: I only am gathering materials for the FSD upgrades at the moment, so I have absolutely no idea how the other types are fairing. I desperately need some help with those if this list is ever to be completed.
Material: Any wake scan related material but atypical disrupted wake echoes
Material: Chemical manipulators.
Material: Elements
Material: Mission only materials (any type)
Material: Firmware. Indirectly: data that can be gotten from signal sources.
Material: Any wake scan related material but atypical disrupted wake echoes
Gathering: The best way to currently get the materials is to hang above a surface port.
Time: It takes about 30 minutes to an hour to get 2 strange wake solutions that way, depending on luck.
Ship: The best ship for the job currently would be either the viper, the imperial eagle or the courier for their enormous speeds (the courier might be best in case a fight breakes out because of its shields).
Problem: 'unfun' gathering process, and extreme rarity makes this specific type rather unbalanced and way too hard to find, grade 3 materials in particular, like the strange wake solutions (see the gathering process above)
Severity: High
Proposed solution: Decreased rarity of the materials, and possibly a significant increase in outgoing traffic at nav beacons and stations for an increased number of wakes.
Time: It takes about 30 minutes to an hour to get 2 strange wake solutions that way, depending on luck.
Ship: The best ship for the job currently would be either the viper, the imperial eagle or the courier for their enormous speeds (the courier might be best in case a fight breakes out because of its shields).
Problem: 'unfun' gathering process, and extreme rarity makes this specific type rather unbalanced and way too hard to find, grade 3 materials in particular, like the strange wake solutions (see the gathering process above)
Severity: High
Proposed solution: Decreased rarity of the materials, and possibly a significant increase in outgoing traffic at nav beacons and stations for an increased number of wakes.
Gathering: Obtained by destroying high level haulage vessels or from Emissions USS. The best way to gather is currently to find a RES site or nav beacon with Type 9's in an anarchy system (so cops and bounties don't bother you), and murder all of the large trading ships there. Then jump out, and back in. Alternatively, you can attempt to locate a 'seeking' waypoint, and murder all the Type 9's there over and over.
Time: When in a RES, in optimal conditions about 30 minutes for one of them, but it's more likely that it'll take a lot longer and they may even not drop at all. Nav beacons are quite a bit better (but I've been having trouble finding them there lately), but the best is the 'seeking' method: with it, it'll take about 30 mintues to gather 2-4 of them.
Ship: Any decent combat ship, but you'll probably want a Vulture at the very least. Those Type 9's have quite the sting - don't underestimate their weapons capability.
Problem: They're currently way harder to get than other rare manufactured materials, resulting in the 'seeking' method being the best currently.
Severity: Significant (enough)
Proposed solution: increased drop rate of this specific material in the Type 9, Type 7 and Type 6 in any location (except probably and then in Haz RES's in particular. The 'seeking' method is arguably an exploit, but it's also less fun and engaging. Having RES miner 'farming' (it's actually less easy than it sounds with the new AI) be a viable option would gathering this material and others like it a lot less of a chore.
Time: When in a RES, in optimal conditions about 30 minutes for one of them, but it's more likely that it'll take a lot longer and they may even not drop at all. Nav beacons are quite a bit better (but I've been having trouble finding them there lately), but the best is the 'seeking' method: with it, it'll take about 30 mintues to gather 2-4 of them.
Ship: Any decent combat ship, but you'll probably want a Vulture at the very least. Those Type 9's have quite the sting - don't underestimate their weapons capability.
Problem: They're currently way harder to get than other rare manufactured materials, resulting in the 'seeking' method being the best currently.
Severity: Significant (enough)
Proposed solution: increased drop rate of this specific material in the Type 9, Type 7 and Type 6 in any location (except probably and then in Haz RES's in particular. The 'seeking' method is arguably an exploit, but it's also less fun and engaging. Having RES miner 'farming' (it's actually less easy than it sounds with the new AI) be a viable option would gathering this material and others like it a lot less of a chore.
Gathering: From planets. The best way is probably to pick a system (preferably about 100-200 ly outside of the bubble to avoid trouble with NPC's), and then fully prospect the area around it using the systems you see in the navigation tab in the chosen system as a reference point to scout systems in a roughly 15ly radius of it. It's likely that won't be enough, so be prepared to pick another one near it later on. For full details on how to prospect, go here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=228645 . Note: the 3-2-1 rule is based on the old material rarity grades. See their section 'The basics' for that list. Note 2: You don't actually need to prospect yourself, but it's nice to have your own little bubbles of resources (in my opinion). Apperently Shinrarta Dezra is a good place to get materials too, if you have the permit for it (last time I checked).
Time: It takes about 30 minutes to get 2 of the very rare materials from metallic meteorites. Anything less than that well take significantly less long to obtain.
Ship: Probably the Asp for its maneuvrability combined with huge jump range (it's just awesome, take my word on it). The courier won't be that bad either once you have its jump drive upgraded, maybe even better because of its ability to survive very hard 'landings'. Techically any ship with a vehicle hangar and scanner should do, but I can't really see anyone gathering materials from planets in a Fer De Lance or Vulture while still having fun.
Problem: None. This one actually is great fun, in a trading sort of way, and the key factors determening rarity can be manipulated in such a way (finding good planets) that it isn't an issue anymore once located.
Time: It takes about 30 minutes to get 2 of the very rare materials from metallic meteorites. Anything less than that well take significantly less long to obtain.
Ship: Probably the Asp for its maneuvrability combined with huge jump range (it's just awesome, take my word on it). The courier won't be that bad either once you have its jump drive upgraded, maybe even better because of its ability to survive very hard 'landings'. Techically any ship with a vehicle hangar and scanner should do, but I can't really see anyone gathering materials from planets in a Fer De Lance or Vulture while still having fun.
Problem: None. This one actually is great fun, in a trading sort of way, and the key factors determening rarity can be manipulated in such a way (finding good planets) that it isn't an issue anymore once located.
Gathering: missions. Higher level missions seem to give out better material grades on the whole (but that might just be my imagination), so gaining rep could be useful. There's a large pool of materials though, so if you find something you want (with the emphasis on 'if'), act quick, or you may have to wait a long time before you find it again. It's best not to wait for the mission board to completely refresh, so jumping from system to system will be necessary.
Time: Completely depends on chance.
Ship: Anything that best suits the missions types you are prepared to do, but a jack of all trades will probably be best. Just don't take combat missions if you value your life in any way, they don't give any different materials as far as I could tell.
Problem: The overabundance of material types. Even materials that aren't listed as rewards for missions can be gotten from them. Even something that is as common as Carbon, Iron, etc. This makes specific mission materials or commodities impossibly hard to locate once you actually want them.
Severity: Low to Significant, depending on material (some you only need as a one-off to progress, like Modular Terminals)
Proposed solution: Reduce the amount of available mission reward types, but mainly the very common materials. I first expected only the materials or commodities listed as a possible reward for missions should be gotten from them, but then again, having such rare materials as strange wake solutions or firmware appear as mission rewards is actually quite handy. The same can't really be said for Carbon, which actually is way, way easier to obtain outside of missions than with them.
Time: Completely depends on chance.
Ship: Anything that best suits the missions types you are prepared to do, but a jack of all trades will probably be best. Just don't take combat missions if you value your life in any way, they don't give any different materials as far as I could tell.
Problem: The overabundance of material types. Even materials that aren't listed as rewards for missions can be gotten from them. Even something that is as common as Carbon, Iron, etc. This makes specific mission materials or commodities impossibly hard to locate once you actually want them.
Severity: Low to Significant, depending on material (some you only need as a one-off to progress, like Modular Terminals)
Proposed solution: Reduce the amount of available mission reward types, but mainly the very common materials. I first expected only the materials or commodities listed as a possible reward for missions should be gotten from them, but then again, having such rare materials as strange wake solutions or firmware appear as mission rewards is actually quite handy. The same can't really be said for Carbon, which actually is way, way easier to obtain outside of missions than with them.
Gathering: Can be gotten from data points. That's about it.
Time: Really, really high.
Ship: Any, really.
Problem: Really, really, really, really, really hard to obtain. Not only do they hardly ever 'spawn' in data beacons in signal sources, those signal sources themselves take very long to locate. This combined with the railgun vipers making almost all baseruns impossible, and the low chance of a surface POI spawning a data point makes for a big mess (I haven't exactly gone out of my way to find the POI's though, so please correct me if I'm wrong about that). It is, however, fact the the only time I've gotten this firmware is if I happened to find it as a mission reward. I got one firmware from data point, but it was a very common type.
Severity: Severe (I think; again, please correct me if I'm wrong, since I've only checked signal sources so far)
Proposed solution: It would be a start if the materials that can be gotten from simply scanning ships in supercruise, at nav beacons, res sites, etc. (like unexpected emissions data) got removed from the data beacons in signal sources. As a long term solution something may need to be done about the system security patrols at the bases, but a 'munch' and spawn rate increase for the rarer materials would probably be a way easier and less controversial solution.
Time: Really, really high.
Ship: Any, really.
Problem: Really, really, really, really, really hard to obtain. Not only do they hardly ever 'spawn' in data beacons in signal sources, those signal sources themselves take very long to locate. This combined with the railgun vipers making almost all baseruns impossible, and the low chance of a surface POI spawning a data point makes for a big mess (I haven't exactly gone out of my way to find the POI's though, so please correct me if I'm wrong about that). It is, however, fact the the only time I've gotten this firmware is if I happened to find it as a mission reward. I got one firmware from data point, but it was a very common type.
Severity: Severe (I think; again, please correct me if I'm wrong, since I've only checked signal sources so far)
Proposed solution: It would be a start if the materials that can be gotten from simply scanning ships in supercruise, at nav beacons, res sites, etc. (like unexpected emissions data) got removed from the data beacons in signal sources. As a long term solution something may need to be done about the system security patrols at the bases, but a 'munch' and spawn rate increase for the rarer materials would probably be a way easier and less controversial solution.
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