Barnacles are the best way to get mineral type materials. They drop all the minerals the planet has. Basics like iron and sulphur is very quick. Even arsenic comes relatively easy, if you are on the right planet.
FDevs does everything have to be a grind?
- Thread starter worsin
- Start date
Barnacles are the best way to get mineral type materials. They drop all the minerals the planet has. Basics like iron and sulphur is very quick. Even arsenic comes relatively easy, if you are on the right planet.
Doing something out of your own 'free will' while you'd rather stop is compulsive behavior. Not sure why that is funny to you, in extreme cases it has resulted in very negative medical consequences. Games should be fun. If they arent to you you shoukd stop. If you cant stop you need help.
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I posted well back. Mining in a ring, any ring will give you iron. In quantities that you'll soon be throwing it away, regardless of how much you want for synthesis or engineers.
If anything. There is a problem with finding the right information on how to get the grade 5 mats you need. Once you've found the right guide G5 mods are even too easy to get, which makes people roll the wheel hundreds of times, even when 10 are most of the time enough to get a good result.
And about what you said? Having rare mats be only available from long distance exploration would generate so much whine. Exploration is repeating the same sequence of moves thousands of times - for some it's the worst type of grind there is in the game.
And about what you said? Having rare mats be only available from long distance exploration would generate so much whine. Exploration is repeating the same sequence of moves thousands of times - for some it's the worst type of grind there is in the game.
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Its also on every planet, everywhere.
so its anywhere on planets and in space in huge quantities.
Whether you call it grind or gameplay, you can't really deny that FD seem to have tunnel vision when it comes designing the mechanics.
Pewpew or moving stuff from A to B seems to be the limit of their vision.
Thargoids reappear after yeas of wait, and what do we get? "move stuff from A to B so you can Pewpew them!
Personally I do use my imagination with this game. I am currently imagining my Commander is parked up in a touristic station somewhere and is currently on an extended holiday until something interesting occurs to get him back out into space.
Pewpew or moving stuff from A to B seems to be the limit of their vision.
Thargoids reappear after yeas of wait, and what do we get? "move stuff from A to B so you can Pewpew them!
Personally I do use my imagination with this game. I am currently imagining my Commander is parked up in a touristic station somewhere and is currently on an extended holiday until something interesting occurs to get him back out into space.
Ah the lines have been drawn between the 'Grind' and 'No Grind' factions, will either see the other's point of view.
But let's back track a bit and look at the actions the OP thinks are 'grind worthless'. Can anyone proposed an alternate way to achieve these goals:
Faction Rep - Reputation, as the saying goes, is always earned, never brought. How else could one get the required rep with a Faction unless you work towards their goals for a finite amount of time?
Elite - Well this one doesn't kind of make sense, the Elite rank is the pinnacle, it shows to all that you have become proficient at either Trade, Exploration or Combat. It doesn't mean you are better than others, it means you have put the time in to achieve the level required.
Engineer Resources - If the items the Engineers require were easy to get, everyone would have immediately flocked to the Engineers and we would all be having the identical systems again. I like that some of these items are hard to get, means I might have something marginally better than someone else as a reward for the work I put in to find the core components. If I didn't put the effort in, I only have myself to blame.
Getting Good Stats on Modules - Is this a grind or a personal necessity to have something the best and perfect. No one is making you re-roll, it is only your personal paradigm that is driving this.
Power Play - Can't really comment on this because I chose not to get involved in the whole Power Play thing but I think the thing to understand is that you are a very small player in a galactic wide political epeen competition.
Getting Synth Resources - Again, you only need to get them IF you want them, you won't be disadvantaged if you don't bother with them right!
So fellow Commanders, what do you think could be done to alleviate the 'grind'. And please, don't say 'make it fun' cos for a lot of us it is already
But let's back track a bit and look at the actions the OP thinks are 'grind worthless'. Can anyone proposed an alternate way to achieve these goals:
Faction Rep - Reputation, as the saying goes, is always earned, never brought. How else could one get the required rep with a Faction unless you work towards their goals for a finite amount of time?
Elite - Well this one doesn't kind of make sense, the Elite rank is the pinnacle, it shows to all that you have become proficient at either Trade, Exploration or Combat. It doesn't mean you are better than others, it means you have put the time in to achieve the level required.
Engineer Resources - If the items the Engineers require were easy to get, everyone would have immediately flocked to the Engineers and we would all be having the identical systems again. I like that some of these items are hard to get, means I might have something marginally better than someone else as a reward for the work I put in to find the core components. If I didn't put the effort in, I only have myself to blame.
Getting Good Stats on Modules - Is this a grind or a personal necessity to have something the best and perfect. No one is making you re-roll, it is only your personal paradigm that is driving this.
Power Play - Can't really comment on this because I chose not to get involved in the whole Power Play thing but I think the thing to understand is that you are a very small player in a galactic wide political epeen competition.
Getting Synth Resources - Again, you only need to get them IF you want them, you won't be disadvantaged if you don't bother with them right!
So fellow Commanders, what do you think could be done to alleviate the 'grind'. And please, don't say 'make it fun' cos for a lot of us it is already
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It takes a few minutes with the srv. I have literally no clue what you could even be doing wrong, assuming you know the wavescanner.
Well, to be honest, I do what you do, only I do it where I know I'm going to get a result (and iron is the second easiest mat to farm after sulphur)...
I HATE surface prospecting. As a result, I have become rather good at it (cos I want to get it over quickly), so here are my tips.
Tip 1) Go to Deciat. There are around 12 landable high metal content bodies, and almost all requirements are covered, especially some of the more difficult grade 4s (tungsten, cadmium). Also, the system map already contains details of the content of all of these worlds without scanning them (may have to buy map and trade data, I can't remember). Although these aren't the highest content percentages that you will find on EDDB.io (they are still very good though), I have realised that some planets just spawn more nodes, so it's not the actual content that is the most important thing. The planets at Deciat spawn a LOT of nodes in my experience.
Tip 2) Where to land... In a giant crater, generally, the bigger the better. Either near to the inner edge of the crater, or near to its central mountain (the ones that have a central mountain). The reason for this is that it seems to be more unusual to find good nodes on flat land, particularly gold flavoured outcrops tend to favour an incline.
Tip 3) Always dismiss your ship, it creates a blockage on the scanner from GREAT range.
Tip 4) Choose a compass direction. Ideally as you are landing, you will have an idea either which way around the inner perimeter of the crater you will go, or perhaps steadily head towards a smaller crater within the big crater. Don't wander aimlessly, when you don't see a node on the scanner, return to your original direction and keep going til scanner pops. This forces the game to create new spawns for you and means they sometimes come in clusters (3 or 4 nodes all visible from one another, jackpot).
Tip 5) If you're looking for prospecting nodes, remember that ALL prospectable nodes show waves on the BOTTOM half of the scanner. Anything in the top half is man made.
Tip 6) The right nodes for the right materials. Bronzite Chondrite will give you mostly level 1 mats (iron, sulphur, whatever, based on the planet's content) and sometimes 1 or two of the rarer elements that are present. Mesosiderites are very good for rares (grade 4 mats and occasionally grade 5) but don't usually drop many fragments. Outcrops come in two flavours and in my experience are the most important ones, they come in a dirty brown flavour which usually drop a large amount of grade 1s (this is going to be your best source of iron), and gold flavour, which usually drop everything the planet has, skewing toward the higher value stuff. I always know I'm going to be happy when I see a gold outcrop. Lastly, and arguably best, but also rarest, metallic meteorites, usually have at least one G5 (technetium, ruthenium, etc).
Bonus Tip) Try to favour high G planets (0.6+) it makes it much faster to collect the materials and much easier to drive the SRV.
Bonus scanner wave descriptions) Bronzite Chondrite - a thin wave at the bottom of the scanner with two thin bands. Metallic Meteorite - a thick wave at bottom with single band. Outcrop - a thick wave at the bottom with 2 bands. Mesosiderite - a thin wave at the bottom with a single band. All metals make a clicky noise of varying tone.
I never have to farm more than an hour to get 25 of any metallic element I need and even more rarely have to look anywhere else except the first 4 landable bodies in Deciat.
Good luck.
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The worst part is the thing with destroying progress. Bugs, obscure mechanics or intentional mechanics.
Like rank progression. Playing a month every evening and frequently taking on missions for a power should progress you, no? Nope, it doesn't and the game doesn't tell you.
Like rank progression. Playing a month every evening and frequently taking on missions for a power should progress you, no? Nope, it doesn't and the game doesn't tell you.
But there are also missions that aren't low paying and dull, but high paying and fun. Why did you chose to play the wrong missions? I am allied with lots of factions and I never grinded, I just played the game. So no, a grind is not necessary for rep. BTW, the only reason you need faction rep is when you want to buy a rank locked ship, which is completely optional. You could just buy a Python or Anaconda instead of Cutter and Clipper. Just like I said, you are picking the wrong goals.
Devils advocate...
So in order to obtain certain levels or certain ships, or certain engineered mods, you must play the game (grind) to find the materials you need or play the game (grind) to do mission upon mission to get ranking. So the casual gamer who plays a few hours a week can look forward to what? Not having the time to put into a grinding game to obtain all aspects of it? And to those who say, things like some want things given to them or they miss out obtaining everything easy...isnt it up to them to enjoy their style of gaming and no one else plastering their style of game play on them or criticizing.
Devils advocate off.
Now for me, I started slow and did tons of BH to move up to different ships. It took me just about 10 months to get into an Anaconda. Now I admit I tried mission stacking with the skimmers once, but didn't like the constant board switching. So I went back to doing BH and CGs. It's been over a year now and I haven't even begun to get into fed ranking. I'd love to have a corvette, but I don't see the time available to grind that out. And as for engineering, I get on and play the little time I have doing what I love to do in game, explore or BH. There is no time to hunt material for this gun or that drive. So what does the player who has maybe a couple of hours a week do...enjoy the part of the game they love and hope new easier avenues open up for progress. Those that don't include exploits.
So in order to obtain certain levels or certain ships, or certain engineered mods, you must play the game (grind) to find the materials you need or play the game (grind) to do mission upon mission to get ranking. So the casual gamer who plays a few hours a week can look forward to what? Not having the time to put into a grinding game to obtain all aspects of it? And to those who say, things like some want things given to them or they miss out obtaining everything easy...isnt it up to them to enjoy their style of gaming and no one else plastering their style of game play on them or criticizing.
Devils advocate off.
Now for me, I started slow and did tons of BH to move up to different ships. It took me just about 10 months to get into an Anaconda. Now I admit I tried mission stacking with the skimmers once, but didn't like the constant board switching. So I went back to doing BH and CGs. It's been over a year now and I haven't even begun to get into fed ranking. I'd love to have a corvette, but I don't see the time available to grind that out. And as for engineering, I get on and play the little time I have doing what I love to do in game, explore or BH. There is no time to hunt material for this gun or that drive. So what does the player who has maybe a couple of hours a week do...enjoy the part of the game they love and hope new easier avenues open up for progress. Those that don't include exploits.
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If you want the best in ED, the grind is significant. If you are happy with just decent stuff, it's almost completely avoidable.
ED is not very friendly to specialists or players that work towards a single goal. It's very hard work.
If you on the other hand play the game at a slow pace and have multiple small goals at the same time, things come by them self.
The game is friendly to those that try a bit of everything and take progress as it comes. If you like that style, the game is excellent.
If you really just want that PvP Corvette, it's probably horribly annoying.
GAH!!! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!
This. But I never saw Elite as anything but the cliche 'han solo simulator'. You do a bit of this, you get a bit of that, you move on. Star Wars would blow if, after needing that engine for the race, he proclaimed:"oh no, I have to grind for 22 minutes for that!"
In a sandbox game people have considerable freedom, but that doesnt mean everything will be fun, and certainly not to everyone.
This is one of the things I never understood. I mean surely some old King of empire has died and left his Cutter for his children and they in turn want to sell it in some far away Federal system. Or some gambling man lost his Cutter in a round of poker and the winner is willing to get some cash. Is the Imperial Navy able to stop the transaction? Everywhere in the galaxy? Do the Feds adhere to Imp laws? Why don't Anarchy systems have used ship dealerships complete with cracked firmware?
But no grind you shall, Anarchies and Feds obey Imperial law to the letter.
Not only is the forced grind dull as h311, it is also is a major immersion breaking factor.
I don't get it... What you call grinding is what I call playing the game. I do missions, fight against pirates, make friends with factions, find interesting places, improve my ship, etc. For me that's the very essence of the game, it is the game. If this is all annoying to you and you only do it to get into a highly engineered Corvette, what are you going to do in it? The game itself clearly isn't fun to you, so what comes after the grind and why do you do it?!
@OP
First, people will say, "You don't have to grind for anything if you don't want to," because this is true. Even if you want a Cutter, or to experiment with builds, there are alternatives to grinding. With the exception of fast tracking powerplay commodities, grinding is a choice, and IMO it's a poor one. There are alternatives to grinding everywhere, the only question is whether you're willing to recognize them, and use them if you do.
First and foremost, you need to recognize what you enjoy doing in this game, and what you don't. If you keep on doing what you love in this game, and avoid doing what you loath repeatedly, you will have fun. I love manipulating the BGS for fun and profit, loath mining, wish there was more to do while exploring, and can tolerate combat only in small doses. Guess what I spend the bulk of my time doing for fun and profit?
I also enjoy racing, so I do that a lot too. Completely unprofitable, but a lot of fun. I just make sure that when I race, I keep within a budget, so any unfortunate crashes are easily recouped.
Second, pursue goals in parallel, not serially. I cannot tell you how many people play this game with the following strategy:
When I play the game for fun and profit, I combine all those steps in such a way that I'm working towards at least two of my current or future goals when I undock, and keep my eyes open for additional opportunities. If there's something I need that requires something I don't enjoy very much, I'm going to make sure that when I do so, I'm working towards at least three on my list, and that its something I finish quickly.
I need to mine 500 tons of frelling ore to unlock an engineer who is the sole of source of grade 2-5 armor upgrades. I don't enjoy mining, so on those rare occassions when I do mine, it has too tick off these three boxes:
In the mean time, I make do with grade 1 armor upgrades. Carbon is plentiful, so for a few rerolls, using stuff that I would normally toss out, I can get the equivalent of a grade three armor upgrade that has grade one penalties.
Third, and I hate to say this, learn the game. Seriously. Develop the skills necessary to accomplish your goals, especially in areas you don't enjoy. From the sound of things, you don't know how to read a wave scanner or drive an SRV at speed. This is why it takes you so long to find iron or sulfur, which are so abundant on any world except metal rich ones, that you need learn how to filter out their signal sources from the signals of metallic meteorites.
As I said, I don't enjoy mining, so on those rare occassions I do mine, you can be sure that I've done my homework on the subject. I know what type of rings to find materials in, I've got a couple worlds bookmarked with pristine rings, and that my ship will be loaded for painite and pirates.
Finally, waiting is always an option. I know, waiting isn't sexy, but this game is in its second year of a proverbial ten year development cycle. The way the game is today isn't the way it'll be next year, let alone eight years down the line. As Frontier fleshes out this game, everything becomes easier.
Sometimes it's because they flesh out a mechanic, adding new options to the menu, which might make something you don't find fun tolerable, and what was tolerable fun. Sometimes it's because they realized the balance wasn't right, and they alter that balance to make things easier. Sometimes its because they added a NEW mechanic, and suddenly your goal can be reached through something you find fun. And sometimes, it's your fellow players, and not Frontier, that might shift an activity in the fun direction.
I'm looking forward to 2018, not in the least because I'm hoping the changes to mining might make mining into a tolerable activity. I want stronger hulls for my exploration ships, and while I can get grade three equivalents via Liz Ryder, Selene Jean has the good stuff. Even better would be another engineer who has those mods.
First, people will say, "You don't have to grind for anything if you don't want to," because this is true. Even if you want a Cutter, or to experiment with builds, there are alternatives to grinding. With the exception of fast tracking powerplay commodities, grinding is a choice, and IMO it's a poor one. There are alternatives to grinding everywhere, the only question is whether you're willing to recognize them, and use them if you do.
First and foremost, you need to recognize what you enjoy doing in this game, and what you don't. If you keep on doing what you love in this game, and avoid doing what you loath repeatedly, you will have fun. I love manipulating the BGS for fun and profit, loath mining, wish there was more to do while exploring, and can tolerate combat only in small doses. Guess what I spend the bulk of my time doing for fun and profit?
I also enjoy racing, so I do that a lot too. Completely unprofitable, but a lot of fun. I just make sure that when I race, I keep within a budget, so any unfortunate crashes are easily recouped.
Second, pursue goals in parallel, not serially. I cannot tell you how many people play this game with the following strategy:
- Grind to rank up in the Empire
- Grind to get the credits for a Cutter
- Grind to unlock all the engineers
- Grind for the materials necessary to engineer the modules
- ???
- Profit, I guess?
When I play the game for fun and profit, I combine all those steps in such a way that I'm working towards at least two of my current or future goals when I undock, and keep my eyes open for additional opportunities. If there's something I need that requires something I don't enjoy very much, I'm going to make sure that when I do so, I'm working towards at least three on my list, and that its something I finish quickly.
I need to mine 500 tons of frelling ore to unlock an engineer who is the sole of source of grade 2-5 armor upgrades. I don't enjoy mining, so on those rare occassions when I do mine, it has too tick off these three boxes:
- It is a mission for an Imperial faction I'm supporting
- The rewards include rare materials for engineering
- The amount I need to complete the mission can be mined in under an hour
In the mean time, I make do with grade 1 armor upgrades. Carbon is plentiful, so for a few rerolls, using stuff that I would normally toss out, I can get the equivalent of a grade three armor upgrade that has grade one penalties.
Third, and I hate to say this, learn the game. Seriously. Develop the skills necessary to accomplish your goals, especially in areas you don't enjoy. From the sound of things, you don't know how to read a wave scanner or drive an SRV at speed. This is why it takes you so long to find iron or sulfur, which are so abundant on any world except metal rich ones, that you need learn how to filter out their signal sources from the signals of metallic meteorites.
As I said, I don't enjoy mining, so on those rare occassions I do mine, you can be sure that I've done my homework on the subject. I know what type of rings to find materials in, I've got a couple worlds bookmarked with pristine rings, and that my ship will be loaded for painite and pirates.
Finally, waiting is always an option. I know, waiting isn't sexy, but this game is in its second year of a proverbial ten year development cycle. The way the game is today isn't the way it'll be next year, let alone eight years down the line. As Frontier fleshes out this game, everything becomes easier.
Sometimes it's because they flesh out a mechanic, adding new options to the menu, which might make something you don't find fun tolerable, and what was tolerable fun. Sometimes it's because they realized the balance wasn't right, and they alter that balance to make things easier. Sometimes its because they added a NEW mechanic, and suddenly your goal can be reached through something you find fun. And sometimes, it's your fellow players, and not Frontier, that might shift an activity in the fun direction.
I'm looking forward to 2018, not in the least because I'm hoping the changes to mining might make mining into a tolerable activity. I want stronger hulls for my exploration ships, and while I can get grade three equivalents via Liz Ryder, Selene Jean has the good stuff. Even better would be another engineer who has those mods.
I said the same on Reddit and ended up -11 on the down votes. I don't care about the votes, but I do wonder about the mental state of people who do something they hate when it's supposed to be enjoyable. It's like an electronic form of self-flagellation.
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