Engineers Easier said than done.

Jabezz

J
....Im talking about avoiding the material grind.

Having done a bit of grinding in the past, the net result is usually negative with the eventual boredom with the game. So I stay well clear of doing it...usually.

However it is apparent now that it is absolutely unavoidable in certain parts of the game. Take my recent quest for the fabled Polonium. TFI now in the bag. I hope I never have to search for that again because you can not hope to find that playing casually and just wait to stumble across it whilst doing something else during your normal game playing routine.

It took me about 10 hours of specific prospecting play. Now I'm not saying it should be easier, if you want an L5 FSD upgrade then you should have to earn it, but a mini-grind is the only way really for that specific material.

Of course now I have to face the Engineer wheel of fortune to see what type of FSD upgrade I get. I hope it doesn't end in tears.
 

The_Quasar

T
Jabezz said:
....Im talking about avoiding the material grind.

Having done a bit of grinding in the past, the net result is usually negative with the eventual boredom with the game. So I stay well clear of doing it...usually.

However it is apparent now that it is absolutely unavoidable in certain parts of the game. Take my recent quest for the fabled Polonium. TFI now in the bag. I hope I never have to search for that again because you can not hope to find that playing casually and just wait to stumble across it whilst doing something else during your normal game playing routine.

It took me about 10 hours of specific prospecting play. Now I'm not saying it should be easier, if you want an L5 FSD upgrade then you should have to earn it, but a mini-grind is the only way really for that specific material.

Of course now I have to face the Engineer wheel of fortune to see what type of FSD upgrade I get. I hope it doesn't end in tears.
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It really depends on what you want from the game. You don't HAVE to have a L5 FSD, no one does. However, if you do want the advantages it offers, which I agree are considerable, you have to earn it. It is difficult because the benefit is considerable.

What would be the point if they were just given away without any work involved? It would be pointless.

Now you have done it, and got your reward, you say you wouldn't do it again. Of course not, you've already got it, but if there was another advantage you could obtain (or if you get a poor roll)? You'd probably do it again, as you already know you can.

Doing a bit of work has always been a part of any game in this way. Players often don't get the choice whether to do things like this which require repetitiveness or not; but in E: D, we do get a choice. No one HAS to have any L5 upgrades, or any other engineer upgrades for that matter, you can do without, if necessary. However, if you want an advantage, or don't want to get left behind, you have to do it. Your choice.

Now FD could always take away the L5 updates, and the requirements for them... however, imho, that would detract from the game. You have already made your choice by going for it, when you could have left it alone. So why knock it?
 

Ursula_17

Ursula_17
Any hints on what type of planet you found the Polonium on..... ????? :( Not looking fowards to looking for this one....
 

Jabezz

J
I agree with most of your response there, as I said I don't want to make it easy to obtain the higher level upgrades not at all BUT I think having to earn something by just relentlessly grinding for it by simply endlessly driving on the surface of a planet shooting at rocks, checking to see what other bits of rock pop out of it, it's just lazy design, come on that's not challenging is it?

I don't know. Make it challenging in a better way, make it where you have to use your skill, not just who has sufficient stamina for driving around a featureless planet bored.

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Ursula_17 said:
Any hints on what type of planet you found the Polonium on..... ????? :( Not looking fowards to looking for this one....
Click to expand...

I got one from each of Wonneriti 2 and Shinrartra Dezhra A1 although I would say Wonneriti 2 was better because I found one within the first 2 hours. Not a very big statistical sample to base that on I know but I have heard others say it is one of the better places!

Good luck.
 
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subhuman0068

S
You can get Polonium from mission rewards. You can get the strange wake scans as well from them. Infact, you can get a lot of really rare materials now doing missions. You won't get any single kind of material fast, but if you know which ones to pay attention to you will get all sorts that you will need past your immediate upgrade plans. Take some time and make a list for all the best upgrades you will want down the road so you don't pass up missions that are worthwhile.

The refresh on the missions seems slower now, but you can still check different modes. The time you have to complete missions is pretty long now as well, 24 hours minimum for things like data delivery it seems and other types you can have a whole week timer. So you can grab a few, check the stations they lead to for more missions, grab the ones there as well.. before you know it you have a whole list of things to accomplish for some hard to get materials. I grabbed a few Polonium today from missions and I wasn't even trying to get them, I just knew it was foolish to pass them up.

Alternatively I had much better luck farming Yttrium from barnacles than the regular way, you could check the spreadsheet floating around for barnacles that include Polonium maybe.
 
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Lheim

Lheim
Everybody always comes back with the rejoinder: "All grind is self-imposed".

That's bull. Somebody at Frontier said "A player should have to work X hard if he wants to have Y bonus." - so the only person imposing a grind is the designer.

Now, it's actually true that we as players can choose not to engage with the designed systems. That's true, and in that sense, it is indeed self-imposed pain. It's kind of a self-defeating point; I'm certain Frontier would love it if players would actually WANT to engage with the new content.

I gotta ask folks: how much of this game, how much of all post-launch content, which is almost universally over-grindy, do I have to actively choose to ignore if I don't like grind? Let's add engineers to the list: powerplay, synthesis, higher navy ranked ships..

How is that tolerable? If all a game ever updates with is yet another grindathon, isn't the game better off uninstalled? I mean, I've played the 'original game' for a year and a half. That's enough to get out of it what I've gotten out of it. If Frontier is never going to add content FOR ME, then I gotta go eventually, right?
 
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