Engineers Lack of direction on where to find each material = FRUSTRATION and BORING GAMEPLAY
- Thread starter fuub
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The googling doesn't help much with all the randomness too.
Sounds like this isn't the game for you after all.
Now that you have gained that precious bit of self-awareness you can find gaming bliss playing stuff with scripted goals and story-lines. Win! Think of the money you'll save.
I agree, or there should be some kind of locality.
You know, how it is in World of Warcraft, "Go to the f8rting cliff and kill zumpbeasts for 20 hours and bring me 12 dripping zumpbeast hides!" Elite Dangerous, slowly turning into everything I despised about World of Warcraft.
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Not arrow to tell us what to do, we want scanners to give us informations that's it.
Edit: and computers to stock it.
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Seeing requests for meaningful use of scanners and a little order to the random chaos of materials searching as '"THIS WAY!" cheery arrow towards the next plot point' is a little disingenuous. Nobody is really asking for lootboxes with hundred of materials and if they do they are in the minority.
I think some people are simply asking for rewarding gameplay which has some depth to it.
The current materials collecting system has no depth and offers no challenge.Yeah, I play Destiny and finding materials was made too easy; you have something called a ghost that can mark the materials on your HUD. I wouldn't want that in Elite, I want what makes logical sense in the galaxy, a surface scanner should give you can idea what kind of materials you can find on the surface not a waypoint you can fly and drive to to get the materials. I scan planet A2, it has deposits of tin, iron and arsenic and maybe a rough surface map of where I might find those items. If I don't need those items I can move on to planet A3, oh look this planet has mercury, titanium and polonium. Great I need one of those materials and my scanner says I might find outcroppings on the northern hemisphere currently sunward side. I land, start driving my SRV and do the usual prospecting.
This would be pretty nice. Keep some randomness but add some order to it.
I'm pretty sure the BGS already add materials to planets following some kind of logic. Like not adding Ice to Lava planets (only and example of what I mean). Some in-game tools to help with recognizing this logic would go a long way to remove the perceived 'completely random' scavenger hunt feeling.
I don't mind that - but there's a range of opinions on here and some do want it made much, much more direct.I think some people are simply asking for rewarding gameplay which has some depth to it.
There should be some hunt, there should be difficulty finding things - it's a damn large galaxy and each planet is HUGE - and I'm all for compromise but it's nothing like as broken as some suggest.
I got told where to find arsenic, my belly is now full of arsenic a few hours later.
Exactly.
Currently though, it's one planet after another, one POI after another without any seemingly obvious logic at one end of the spectrum or Google / an Obsidian Ant video telling one exactly which planet in which system to go and get something.
I want (like may others I'm sure) a middle ground, where in the course a single play session (2-4 hours) I can use information provided in game only (and my own brain) to zone in on what I'm trying to find with confidence and certainty but with no pointing arrows.
Perhaps this extra layer of functionality is comming similarly to how USS misssion locations have been made more intuitive. perhaps Frontier will deliberatly add this at a later date so the hard core unemployed/schoolchildren players can have a go first
I remember seeing this on a post:
Men, top men, are putting together detailed lists of what they find on each planet, there are some pretty useful lists. While useful, I would rather go prospecting with a scanner. Odd thing is I like the opposite with trading, I prefer to use EDDB.io to find trade routes and prices. I figure in the real world of trading you would use available resources to find the best place to buy and sell. If the NPC traders would give hints, even bad advice, where they find prices, I'd use that instead.
That's the best but about ED, you can ignore the bits you don't like and continue to play.
Problem is, there's lots of bits I don't like!!!
Engineers is not something I'll be partaking in, if I have to be at a disadvantage vs NPCs then so be it, but it kind of contradicts the "play your own way" message FD try to send out!
You got notes next to your pc that tell you where to find Tin? Please enlighten me for RNGesus keeps hiding it from me.
If I had known I'd need it this badly I'd have collected some back when it was so common that it was annoying the hell out of me -_- now I'm no longer coming across the damn stuff.
I've never felt that "blaze your own trail" promise to be true anyways. Yes you can do whatever the hell you want, but does it matter? Nope, you're just one random blip in the universe.
Even if you were to slaughter the police in a system for a whole month racking up millions of bounty and cause billions of property damage, you'd still be that random blip, just a wanted random blip now.
We can do what we want but there's nothing to feel like we're part of the galaxy, and until the game starts recognizing player actions on it's own, be them good or bad, am I calling on that blazing. (Hand picked/written GalNet stories do not count, they're nice but well, hand picked)
What I want is the game to show that we're having an impact, if one player were to wreck the police in a sector for a while, causing a lockdown state or something then I want the news in the nearby system to mention that, and with more than an entry in the Top Bounties. Depending on the severity of the havoc maybe even a galaxy wide news entry (though this would need some very smart filtering or it'd end up as a spam fest).
Anyways, as far as ignoring the bits I don't like goes, that'd retitle ED to "Test Drive: Interplanetary" xD
I like driving around alot, a little less though with the new annoying wheel collisions that sometimes feel like my wheel collide with invisible walls or sink into the ground but it's still one of the best driving physics I've played with.
And despite spending so much time on surfaces am I not finding any damn Tin, thanks RNG.
I seriously had no problem coming across that before 2.1 which is the real bother. Feels like they made Tin a G5 material now, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't even G3 before.
I honestly think that we are doing this all the wrong way. As we are focused "who gets the super MC at first", this creates a lot of stress. In the TS the discussions goes mostly about, "I know already 7 engineers", "I am at level x at this engineer" and so. This creates a lot of bad feeling and pressure for those who can't play 4-5 hours per day. And even for those you can afford to play intense, this goes way to long to get the materials...
So I did really change my approach. Enjoying Engineer, doing some missions, gathering materials where ever I can and now and then visit an engineer and see what can i buy with those materials. Of course try no to fly 100% blind, but to drop my ongoing exploration data to Elivra or Farseer - the bounty stuff the first time big to Todd etc.
But I don't participate to the race "who is the first" and really try to enjoy the ride this time...
This has consequences - PvP is probably different and difficult within the next weeks/months. Everybody expect to have those weapons and if you don't have them, probably you even bother not to show up at the CG. But we will see...
So I did really change my approach. Enjoying Engineer, doing some missions, gathering materials where ever I can and now and then visit an engineer and see what can i buy with those materials. Of course try no to fly 100% blind, but to drop my ongoing exploration data to Elivra or Farseer - the bounty stuff the first time big to Todd etc.
But I don't participate to the race "who is the first" and really try to enjoy the ride this time...
This has consequences - PvP is probably different and difficult within the next weeks/months. Everybody expect to have those weapons and if you don't have them, probably you even bother not to show up at the CG. But we will see...
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I am afraid I am in the same boat ... I really hope that Engineers will not be another PP or CQC upgrade for me (dead that is). And yes I have so many hours in it that this is NOT ranting, ED is the game I loved the most the last 30 years or so.
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I think some people are simply asking for rewarding gameplay which has some depth to it.
Damn Ant I allready repped you to death so a virtual +1
Here is my take on the material collection :
At the moment, you are forced into on activity to collect some of the components. For example, to get chemical distillery, you pretty much have to murder trade/mining ships.
Which sucks, because it is not what I would like to do, but the only alternative is salvage USS and collect those at a glacial pace.
And I bloody hate those firmware thingy, these are horrible to find :/
And : who the hell at FD thought it was a cool idea to lock an engineer being 50 tons of cigars (that sell 6t at a time) or 200 tons of lavian brandy (seriously).
If it was a bunch of different (but similar) rares (e.g. lavian brandy+pearl whiskey+indi bourbon+...) that would be bearable, but this... not doing it.
At the moment, you are forced into on activity to collect some of the components. For example, to get chemical distillery, you pretty much have to murder trade/mining ships.
Which sucks, because it is not what I would like to do, but the only alternative is salvage USS and collect those at a glacial pace.
- Missions rewards are just too random to be reliable, biasing them to what you pin would help a lot.
- For any material / component, there need to be at least two different ways to find them. E.g. yttrium and such from mining.
- The 600 limit is too damn low given the number of different types of materials. 1000-1200 would really help, and/or maybe split raw materials from manufactured stuff.
- Where the hell are the junkyards/hackers/data sellers where I can buy components/hacked firmwares/various data ?
And I bloody hate those firmware thingy, these are horrible to find :/
And : who the hell at FD thought it was a cool idea to lock an engineer being 50 tons of cigars (that sell 6t at a time) or 200 tons of lavian brandy (seriously).
If it was a bunch of different (but similar) rares (e.g. lavian brandy+pearl whiskey+indi bourbon+...) that would be bearable, but this... not doing it.
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All great games become boring to a certain point. You play it to death. And hope that there are random missions whatever the game.
ED is a lot slower for me, (mildly boring) as I solo and want to learn to play each part of the overall game. Except combat! I hate combat unless I have a bigger stick than the other guy.
STALKER series, Skyrim, Witcher 3, and of course tada ... Freelancer. I love them but I kick ass in those games because I am able to get the biggest stick in the universe.
So yes, they become boring to a point, but hey, go down the street and have a coffee. Or 3. You can sleep when ya dead!
ED is a lot slower for me, (mildly boring) as I solo and want to learn to play each part of the overall game. Except combat! I hate combat unless I have a bigger stick than the other guy.
STALKER series, Skyrim, Witcher 3, and of course tada ... Freelancer. I love them but I kick ass in those games because I am able to get the biggest stick in the universe.
So yes, they become boring to a point, but hey, go down the street and have a coffee. Or 3. You can sleep when ya dead!
I was finding tin on Eta Carina A 4 - Arsenic too, just as I was told I'd find there.
I don't think many people have had to prospect aggressively before and that's not helping at all. There is a system to it (the 5 ultracommons then a spread of 3-2-1 on the others per planetary body - find which type a material is on elite wiki) and it is persistent and it is semi-predictable by planet type and distance and area but not very.... but yeah if you need something just ask or search, people will have found it. The co-operative aspect of this kind of thing seems to be something Frontier are aiming for on purpose and it's great as it encourages community involvement
I've been finding those in surface POIs, crashed old style satellite type I think? I'll pay more attention next time I'm down
I reckon Ooogie's got it spot on. I think it'll be a shame if folk do turn up at the CG to fight in fully ramped up ships really, surely y'all want a challenge?
keep it fun, keep folk in open