Join Now: Rare Materials Treasure Hunt! Data Needed!

*Update - 10/16/17*

At this point, we are simply looking for ANY high ranking mission that has ANY material reward.

**

There have been a multitude of threads lately (and longer) regarding rare materials and their apparent lack of availability. Unfortunately, the presence of any actual problem has been difficult to discern due to negative bias, inclusion of commodities/materials that are actually abundant (looking at you modular terminals, hiding in passenger missions) and general lack of detailed observstions or data. If there isn't a problem, great! If there is, FDEV may need detailed observations to isolate the problem.

For this exercise, we are looking for BioTech Conductors (BCs) and Exquisite Focus Crystals (EFCs). We need good data and are asking CMDRs to report in this thread on direct observations on where these are not found and where they are found. FDEV has stated that rare material rewards is driven purely by mission rank.

Submissions for verified sources should include the following: (assumes source is mission)
- material offered and qty
- system
- station
- mission rank
- mission type
- faction rep level

If multiple missions with same faction and/or station are available, provide total number of missions and qty of materials offered.

For the "not found here submissions", please provide number of boards where neither is observed being offered. Please include the following:

*EDIT*
It appears that there may be a problem with higher ranking missions offering material or commodity rewards at all, which is a potential root cause of the problem. In light of this, we're asking for:

- number of high ranking missions available
- number of high ranking missions with material and/or commodity rewards
- highest ranking mission with rewards

For non-mission sources, please provide:
- system
- location type/details
- quantity gathered

I will update this post with details of confirmed sources and summary of findings.

I know* that I saw lots of BioTech Conductors being offered for passenger missions but wasn't looking for them at the time, so I am on my way back tonight to dind the system and will post details as soon as I can confirm

*no proof

Please leave debate over definition of "rare", how the game should or should not be played, flame wars, etc in those other threads.

Thanks!

*UPDATE*

Still waiting on some additional data before posting first summaries, but so far we have hundreds of high ranking missions with not a single one offering material rewards, much less the ones we are looking for. No one has confirmed availability of BCs or EFCs.
 
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There is no hunt needed, the issue is that people are flooded with low rank missions even if allied with local facitons or high ranked in exploration / combat / elite.

That's why you can't find any rare mats on mission boards.
 
There is no hunt needed, the issue is that people are flooded with low rank missions even if allied with local facitons or high ranked in exploration / combat / elite.

That's why you can't find any rare mats on mission boards.

Great, thanks for that. If you could provide a count of the number of boards visted with neither available, that would be great.

Think of this as being similar to the beige planet issue. These mats are supposed to be rare, so not finding them on multiple boards is somewhat expected, as is a lot of complaining about not being able to find them. It may not be apparent that there is an actual problem until someone says "hey, we've had a handful of CMDRs hitting boards and reporting findings, and to date over 5,000 boards have been searched and not a single BC or EFC has been found. Oh, and
a). that includes 1000 high ranking missions or b). we also didn't find a single high ranking mission

Either of these would be useful.

Still, there are those that believe to have seen them since 2.4 but haven't been able to verify (myseld included).

This would also be useful.
 
I'm very interested in knowing if there is anyone who can show (via video or screen shot that includes the in-game date) that they've seen a normal mission since 2.4.02 that has offered the higher rank material or data rewards.

I think I saw one Biotech Conductor mission about a week ago and maybe an MEF, both on missions to Colonia, but know for certain that I haven't seen any EFC or CIF on the standard mission boards.
 
Great, thanks for that. If you could provide a count of the number of boards visted with neither available, that would be great.

Think of this as being similar to the beige planet issue. These mats are supposed to be rare, so not finding them on multiple boards is somewhat expected, as is a lot of complaining about not being able to find them. It may not be apparent that there is an actual problem until someone says "hey, we've had a handful of CMDRs hitting boards and reporting findings, and to date over 5,000 boards have been searched and not a single BC or EFC has been found. Oh, and
a). that includes 1000 high ranking missions or b). we also didn't find a single high ranking mission

Either of these would be useful.

Still, there are those that believe to have seen them since 2.4 but haven't been able to verify (myseld included).

This would also be useful.

I've done a fair bit of missions in the last 2.3 patch version, and the high ranked missions were spawning normaly (they were uncommon, but not THAT scarce either). Mats were awarded by pack of 8, 6 ,4 or 2 depending on their grade. For a Deadly / Elite mission, you could expect 4 CIF or 2 BC / EFC .

In 2.4, both mission spawning and mat reward calculation on high ranked mission don't work properly anymore, that's for sure. Something changed, and not in a good way.

I'm currently doing passenger missions, i need to do more of them to see if they're affected by these issues too
 
I've done a fair bit of missions in the last 2.3 patch version, and the high ranked missions were spawning normaly (they were uncommon, but not THAT scarce either). Mats were awarded by pack of 8, 6 ,4 or 2 depending on their grade. For a Deadly / Elite mission, you could expect 4 CIF or 2 BC / EFC .

In 2.4, both mission spawning and mat reward calculation on high ranked mission don't work properly anymore, that's for sure. Something changed, and not in a good way.

I'm currently doing passenger missions, i need to do more of them to see if they're affected by these issues too

Once you get all repp'd up, post the counts of missions by rank and reward (mat, com, mat+com) and, of course, if any have rare mats.
 
If you do say Quince Scan Missions you will get so many Exquisite Focus Crystals you won't know what to do with them...
 
Arrived in Quince.

I am triple Elite.

I am allied with 4/5 of the factions here.

I currently have 2 EFC and could use a few dozen as I need to do up a couple of distributors AND just yesterday I rolled a bunch of G4 Thermal boosters for some ships I was reworking because I haven't seen EFC since the payout nerf patch.

Using Open, Solo, and 1/2 dozen Private Groups.

First mission board has 7 missions available. Only 2 have materials available, both are junk.
Checking the passenger board, although I'm not in a passenger ship. 7 missions available. 0 materials.
Second mission board 9 missions. 2 Ranger, 1 Elite, 1 Deadly. 0 materials.
Second pax board 7 missions, 0 mats.
Third mission board 7 missions. 1 Elite. Two Aimless scan jobs have mat rewards, both junk.
Third pax board 5 missions, 0 mats.
Fourth mission board. 10 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Broker, 1 Dangerous. Two Mostly Penniless mining missions have mat rewards, both junk.
Fourth pax board 7 missions, 0 mats.
Fifth mission board. 9 missions. 1 Pioneer. 3 lower ranked missions have mat rewards, but all three are junk.
Fifth pax board 6 missions, 0 mats.
Sixth mission board. 10 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Dangerous. 2 mining missions have mat rewards, but they're junk.
Sixth pax board. 6 missions, 0 mats.
Seventh mission board. 6 missions. 1 Elite. 1 Aimless scan mission has a material reward, it's junk.
Seventh pax board. 5 missions, 0 mats.
OMG ABORT ABORT!!! I accidentally went into CQC instead of Solo... RUUUUUUuuuuuuuun
Eighth mission board. 10 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Dangerous, 1 Broker. 2 mining missions have mat rewards, but they're junk.
Eighth pax board. 7 missions, 0 mats.
Ninth mission board. 8 missions. 1 Elite, 1 Ranger. There's 1 Aimless and 2 Mostly Harmless missions that have mat rewards, all junk.
Ninth pax board. 8 missions, 0 mats.
Tenth Mission board. 11 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Dangerous. 2 mining missions have mat rewards, but they're junk.
Tenth pax board. 6 missions, 0 mats.

So that seems to be a trend.

I'm going to RUN some of these scan missions to pay for my trip up here. If I see anything outside of this trend, I will post.
 
Well, I made it back to where I picked up all of my MTs and swore where I also saw Biotech Conductors being offered, only to find the station in lockdown...

I went to one of the systems where a lot of the transport missions were going, and I checked 157 offerred missions (passenger and other) and found many higher ranking missions, none of whick are offering materials or commodities. Only low ranking missions are offering mats. More than half of the passenger mission are high ranking.
 
I checked a few more boards last night (up to around 500 missions total) and about 50% of those were high ranking, none of which offered material rewards.

I'm going to plant at my current location and start running missions to see if anything changes (maybe mat rewards will pop up as board changes?) Wondering if the percent of high ranking missions offering rewards is based on number of missions offered by a faction, so maybe as these are completed and replaced with new ones we'll see mats drop?
 
Ground out 100+ million in passenger missions over the weekend.

Not one EFC, no decent material rewards at all in fact, and I really need a few EFC.

I know you’re busy Frontier, but please fix this today. Give us more high ranking missions from allied and friendly factions. Give us more material rewards from those.

Please return the ‘fun’ to mission running, thank you so much.
 
Still looking...

I should have several hours available tomorrow for searching, but so far I've yet to find a BC or EFC, or ANY high ranking missions with ANY material or commodity reards.
 
Arrived in Quince.

I am triple Elite.

I am allied with 4/5 of the factions here.

I currently have 2 EFC and could use a few dozen as I need to do up a couple of distributors AND just yesterday I rolled a bunch of G4 Thermal boosters for some ships I was reworking because I haven't seen EFC since the payout nerf patch.

Using Open, Solo, and 1/2 dozen Private Groups.

First mission board has 7 missions available. Only 2 have materials available, both are junk.
Checking the passenger board, although I'm not in a passenger ship. 7 missions available. 0 materials.
Second mission board 9 missions. 2 Ranger, 1 Elite, 1 Deadly. 0 materials.
Second pax board 7 missions, 0 mats.
Third mission board 7 missions. 1 Elite. Two Aimless scan jobs have mat rewards, both junk.
Third pax board 5 missions, 0 mats.
Fourth mission board. 10 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Broker, 1 Dangerous. Two Mostly Penniless mining missions have mat rewards, both junk.
Fourth pax board 7 missions, 0 mats.
Fifth mission board. 9 missions. 1 Pioneer. 3 lower ranked missions have mat rewards, but all three are junk.
Fifth pax board 6 missions, 0 mats.
Sixth mission board. 10 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Dangerous. 2 mining missions have mat rewards, but they're junk.
Sixth pax board. 6 missions, 0 mats.
Seventh mission board. 6 missions. 1 Elite. 1 Aimless scan mission has a material reward, it's junk.
Seventh pax board. 5 missions, 0 mats.
OMG ABORT ABORT!!! I accidentally went into CQC instead of Solo... RUUUUUUuuuuuuuun
Eighth mission board. 10 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Dangerous, 1 Broker. 2 mining missions have mat rewards, but they're junk.
Eighth pax board. 7 missions, 0 mats.
Ninth mission board. 8 missions. 1 Elite, 1 Ranger. There's 1 Aimless and 2 Mostly Harmless missions that have mat rewards, all junk.
Ninth pax board. 8 missions, 0 mats.
Tenth Mission board. 11 missions. 2 Elite, 1 Dangerous. 2 mining missions have mat rewards, but they're junk.
Tenth pax board. 6 missions, 0 mats.

So that seems to be a trend.

I'm going to RUN some of these scan missions to pay for my trip up here. If I see anything outside of this trend, I will post.

Maybe the PAX missions never had them, I never looked at those at all as all I did was the Surface Scan missions and that's where I was seeing tons of EFC and had to start purging them. I'll be going back on my way back to Colonia and I'll stop by and get some scan credits going and see if I see any in the regular mission board at all...
 
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