Newcomer / Intro My ED experience so far

[Flash_Baggins]

Nice to see you didnt give up

I once saw a comment which I feel describes Elite perfectly: Most games will handhold you to learn the basic mechanics, in essence give you water wings and put you in the 30cm deep end of the pool to learn to swim. Elite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of chucking you into the ocean with a couple of bricks in your pocket for luck. Its not the wrong way of teaching, but it isnt what gamers are used to nowadays

Elite punishes you for getting things wrong, which is its own way of teaching new players, however the forums are generally the best place to come for help, fly safe!

 

[bitstorm]

Question is who are this mysterious "Engieneers" and how do I find them?
You said its invite only? So I guss ill just keep gatering stuff hopeing one day ill get one.

You don't find them, they find you.

They send you an invite, so for example the explorer engineer will send you an invite when you done a bunch of exploration.

The engineer will use the materials.

Materials can also be used for synthesis as previously described.

Engineers are part of the dlc so you need Horizons to use them.

Engineers *tend* to be later game in that you'd work with the game a bit first before encountering them.

For me, I'd let the game play out a bit itself, like you've only just started, half the fun is in the discovery, the game unfolding as you explore it.

But if you want all the answers up front here are all the engineers, where they are and upgrade each one can do. The "meeting requirements" are how you get access : http://inara.cz/galaxy-engineers

 

[D.G.Cerberus]

A word of caution.
Engineer upgrades can consume both materials, Data and commodities. The first two sit in storage in your ship and seemingly take up no cargo room, however there are finite limits on how much you can tote around which you will be able to see in your inventory, Right hand HUD panel.
The last are commodities and, just like any other cargo, take up cargo space.

Be warned, should you decide to look at Inara.cz, and see that a particular upgrade requires, say 1x Modular terminals, microweave cooling hoses etc etc and you happen to see a mission that will reward you with these for when you get that engineer invite, do not then tool around the Galaxy with those 4 commodities in your cargo hold, hoarding them for the future. You will be interdicted much more for that cargo.
Instead, flog them. There will be other missions offering the ones which are unobtainable elsewhere, which you can do once you have the invite from the engineer and all the other bits and pieces for the upgrade.

 

[Ashnak]

Re: crafting - I'll try.

In ED, there are two kinds of crafting: one you can do on your own, in your ship or SRV, the other one you need a crafts(wo)man for, which, in ED, are called Engineers.

On your own:
on your right hand side HUD, the same place where you got the materials inventory, you also got a tab labelled "Synthesis". If you go there, you'll see a lot of receipes, some in yellow, some in red. The yellow ones are in principle executable in your current situation (i.e., you can only refuel the SRV when you're actually inside the SRV, you can only synthesize small calibre ammo if you are in your ship and have multicannons installed etc.). Next to the receipe type, there are bobbles showing which level of the receipe you can currently execute, depending on your materials storage. There's basic, regular and enhanced (or something like that), with increasing demands and improving quality.

So, if you want to refuel your SRV or load up your Multicannon with improved ammo, you go to that menu, select the receipe, select the level and go. That kind of crafting uses materials (from Sulphur to Polonium)you can find from either mining (in asteroid belts) or prospecting (on planetary surfaces). If you drive an SRV, be careful - this is also the only method to refuel your SRV or reload its gun, so collect some SRV refuelling materials first (fortunately, they're easy to find) before you run out of fuel or ammo.

Engineers:
the secobn type of crafting requires you to visit an Engineer. Again, on your right HUD, somewhere on the bottom on one of the tabs, there's a button labelled 'see Engineers'. Select it, and on the front HUD, you'll see a list of the Engineers you currently have an invitation from. Getting an Engineer to do something for you is a longish process.
1) Invitation: You can't just show up at an Engineer's base, even if you know where it is - you need an invitation. For some Engineers, the invitation comes immediately to every new CMDR, for others, you need a sufficient reputation with another Engineer or a specific faction in the game
2) Favour: Next, you'll have to show the Engineer that you appreciate his/her work and are worthy of receiving his/her masterpieces. So you need to either do some stuff (like having mined 500 tons of ore) or bring them some essential supplies (like 50 tons of Lavian Brandy). The requirements for that are specific for each Engineer, and some of them are rather hard to fulfil.
3) Reputation: the Engineer won't craft his best stuff for any , Tom or Harry. Only if he gets to know you, through an extended business association, he will build his best stuff for you. Engineers can (not all of them) craft mods up to level 5. But in order to get a higher level mod, you'll need to have bought enough lower level mods or done specific work (like selling exploration data or bounties to the Engineer).
So when you finally can get something modified by an Engineer, you'll need materials for that. And this is where all that shiny stuff you can plunder from ships or get as mission reward comes into play. In addition to cargo materials, each engineering receipe (=blueprint) requires a certain amount of materilas that can't be bought or swapped, like exquisite focus crystals or modified consumer firmaware.

HTH

 

[pipo zelvelder]

Sorry, you all lost me there. So there is something else next to engineers called synthesis? where in the rules or on the ship can i learn about that? Does this also come with the chance that your ship is blown to smithereens like carrying engineer stuff? (maybe that is why my ships keep being pestered with interdictions??)

 

[Chris Simon]

Sorry, you all lost me there. So there is something else next to engineers called synthesis? where in the rules or on the ship can i learn about that? Does this also come with the chance that your ship is blown to smithereens like carrying engineer stuff? (maybe that is why my ships keep being pestered with interdictions??)

Synthesis was there before Engineers. Since 2.0 last December.
It is accessible via the inventory tab on the right panel. It uses materials collected from outcrops and meteorites on the planets (So no special ingredients like the Engineers)

You can craft better fuel (single use), so your ship jumps further, you can craft better ammunition to increase your weapons' damage (or standard one to just refill the magazine without visiting the port) and some other cool stuff. Definitely check it out.

 

[bitstorm]

Sorry, you all lost me there. So there is something else next to engineers called synthesis? where in the rules or on the ship can i learn about that?

Well I posted a tutorial video above, the bit about synthesis is at the time I stated in my post.

 

[Winterwalker]

A word of caution.
Engineer upgrades can consume both materials, Data and commodities. The first two sit in storage in your ship and seemingly take up no cargo room, however there are finite limits on how much you can tote around which you will be able to see in your inventory, Right hand HUD panel.
The last are commodities and, just like any other cargo, take up cargo space.

Be warned, should you decide to look at Inara.cz, and see that a particular upgrade requires, say 1x Modular terminals, microweave cooling hoses etc etc and you happen to see a mission that will reward you with these for when you get that engineer invite, do not then tool around the Galaxy with those 4 commodities in your cargo hold, hoarding them for the future. You will be interdicted much more for that cargo.
Instead, flog them. There will be other missions offering the ones which are unobtainable elsewhere, which you can do once you have the invite from the engineer and all the other bits and pieces for the upgrade.

This ^^ is good advice .. I think as a new player, you should definitely look at Synthesis (right hand panel / under materials inventory) but my advice would be to work out how to make money, before worrying about Engineers too much.

Once you're able to make a regular profit, can cover your rebuys, fuel and repair bills, you can use credits to buy better modules in Outfitting (outfitting stations can be found in the info on System Map, they're very commonplace). You'll see a huge performance benefit without going near an Engineer by upgrading your modules.

Engineered mods, with the exception of some special effects, are basically marginal improvements that can add to your A rated modules .. because, if you engineer a D grade module and then decide to buy a better, A grade, you'll need to go back to the engineer again, to modify the new unit .. Worse, even your 2A module engineered will look weak, if you change to a ship needing larger, 3,4,5 size modules.

Visit an engineer for the sake of interest sure (and once you're settled on a ship you like, in-game activity you like, you've A rated the thing and can't improve it any more with bigger modules, then you can get that extra bit of performance from an Engineer) but whatever you do, don't let engineers frustrate you. Some need quite a bit of work to find the commodities to unlock them, and even though it's a recent and therefore headline feature, Engineers are definitely not compulsory to visit.

Having enough cash for insurance / rebuy though, is compulsory! So knowing how to make money is the best first step imo.

 

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

Don't also forget to watch the official tutorial videos.....available from the launcher by clicking on the appropriately named 'TUTORIALS' link :x:

Spoiler

[video=youtube_share;xlvm6ot8USc]https://youtu.be/xlvm6ot8USc[/video][video=youtube_share;vXiX0CYDpxM]https://youtu.be/vXiX0CYDpxM[/video]

Although you might have missed them as they were only uploaded at the beginning of June.

 

[pipo zelvelder]

This ^^ is good advice .. I think as a new player, you should definitely look at Synthesis (right hand panel / under materials inventory) but my advice would be to work out how to make money, before worrying about Engineers too much.

Having enough cash for insurance / rebuy though, is compulsory! So knowing how to make money is the best first step imo.

Yes, and that seems to be my problem. I am stuck on the making money thing. I still have the Clipper, but do not earn the money to fly it. I am still flying my ASP in order to get 10M to be able to pay insurance for my Clipper, but remain within the 4-8M range by dying once every ten runs, which put be back at 4M or worse... Tried to collect a few engineer stuff and got FSD 2 and Thrusters 1, but that does not solve my problem (neither money nor dying from an unlucky interdiction)

 

[[VR] Zakk]

If you keep repeating your mistakes, you will never get anywhere. You have received a ton of advice here on how to improve your play, but you refuse to accept it. That's not the game's fault.

 

[pipo zelvelder]

If you keep repeating your mistakes, you will never get anywhere. You have received a ton of advice here on how to improve your play, but you refuse to accept it. That's not the game's fault.

No, it is my fault, for not understanding the game or not understanding all this advice, i get it

 

[Ankor Grammaten]

ME is just another, in this case space-themed, shooter.

Wash your mouth out with soap! ME is not "just another" anything. I loved ME for its story lines, immersion, amazing "universe", and beautiful alien women (the blue ones). The original ending to ME3 was disappointing, but that was a nit compare to the whole wonderful experience.

That said, I agree with you, it's nothing like ED.

More on topic, the OP should treasure the experience he is having now, as the early days when you are finding out, and struggling with, and learning how everything works is, in my experience so far, the best part of the game. The trouble I'm finding is this sequence. Try something, fail, find out why, fix it, practice, get good at it, do it for a while (all fun so far), get bored, move on. The game is actually not that difficult, given that you don't bite off more than you can chew, and learn stuff a bit at a time. The problem I find is that, after I have got good enough at something to make a decent amount of credits, the question arises "what to do with the money?". I'm not at the stage where I'm actually bored with the game, there's still lots to explore, but I can see it looming ahead of me, and it worries me.

On the other hand, I keep reminding myself that ED is not to be judged as a finished product. It's an amazing framework that is just waiting to be filled in to become what could be the greatest game of its type ever.