CIF is 'standard', you know what that means...

MEF (presumably) can be traded in for 9 CIF. :p


Yeah it's pretty good considering. A single mission giving 3 MEF would be like 27 CIF's, really nice XD

xGvazOS.jpg


Wonder if it works to clean up the canopy
 
Last edited:
I've been thinking about this, but cif might become much less valuable in the new system.
No one will ever do xxxx G5 DD or PD rolls anymore.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
 
MEF (presumably) can be traded in for 9 CIF. :p

Really? It's so hard to find that I thought it was rare. I have a metric buttload of MEF I'm not using but I'm afraid to get rid of, so hooray for the data trader. W00t!

I wonder if the data trader takes dodgy anime? Last guy I got cracked firmware from was wondering if I had any involving some really biologically dubious stuff...
 
Really? It's so hard to find that I thought it was rare. I have a metric buttload of MEF I'm not using but I'm afraid to get rid of, so hooray for the data trader. W00t!

Yeah, I have kept all 'very rare' stuff, no matter how pointless. And this stuff gets better the more I think about it. Imagine a mission giving
'2 Improvised components'. Normally you'd say: who cares? I can only use it for a reinforced shield, and noone wants that unless you PvP and are paranoid about torps! Go away man!"

Now you say:"Huh, sure I'll take those three configurable components plus nine conductive components, thanks!"
 
I wouldn't count on it. Remember, they nerfed Dav's Hope to keep CIF rare.

Then again, engineering will be a new ballgame, so who knows.

It still highlights how the new system may allow us to get the mats we need without always needing to do the tasks required for them.

I probably spent a good 8 hours total managing my inventory back when I did engineers. All of the thousands of mats I destroyed to make room will now, potentially, be converted into mats I need.

I don't think this change is being given nearly enough credence by the beta predictors.
 
I don't think this change is being given nearly enough credence by the beta predictors.

Personally I suspect there are a fair number of people chuckling in silence and thinking of possible ways to approach the new system. Havent heard a lot from quite a few regulars who know what they are talking about. I suspect that after some youtube guides tell people which buttons to click at what time a lot of the panic will go away. ;)
 
Yeah, among all the doom and gloom and "oh my gawd, too grindly!" feedback, I don't think the Materials Traders are being given their due.

Materials Traders are great, but can you imagine all of the micro-management and upgrade clicking you have to go through in the new system?

Works fine if you are causally upgrading over time. Material Broker ensures you'll have the materials you need and you can upgrade at outfitters.

For experienced build experimenters (trying different builds), it will be a hassle.

Key example, FSD increased range. Once you unlock G5, no reason to have any lower grade FSD.
 
Materials Traders are great, but can you imagine all of the micro-management and upgrade clicking you have to go through in the new system?

Works fine if you are causally upgrading over time. Material Broker ensures you'll have the materials you need and you can upgrade at outfitters.

For experienced build experimenters (trying different builds), it will be a hassle.

Key example, FSD increased range. Once you unlock G5, no reason to have any lower grade FSD.

It'll definitely be a lot of micro management but we have that already right now (hours spent reviewing your inventory to destroy trash mats to make room). The key difference is that the traders will be micro management with a positive/beneficial outcome.

The majority of micro management comes from the sheer volume of mats and upgrades and, most significantly, because we don't have an in game way of seeing what we need outside of the engineer's base.

I think the blueprint pin system should be overhauled so we can pin any blueprint we like (much like the favourite list on Inara). This could be used to highlight all materials shown in the game (in space, on planets, in the inventory, on the target panel and on the trader) to quickly tell us how many pinned blueprints each material is needed for, including prerequisite blueprints (now that they're always required).

As an example, you pin all the g5 blueprints you want to do. Then, when you see, say techetium in space, or your inventory, or at the trader, it displays two numbers like this:

Techetium (9) [8-5]

That's 9 currently owned, 8 used in your pinned blueprints and 5 used in prerequisite blueprints. When you select the material in your inventory, these numbers could be expanded on so it's clear what they mean.

This would quickly allow us to know what we need, what we don't need and what we have a surplus of, at a glance.

We should also be able to view all blueprints we've unlocked, at any time, on the engineers screen, so we could plan without needing to minimise and use Inara or spreadsheets.

It's a pipe dream of mine... But, ignoring that, the trader is going to require a similar level of micro management to what we currently have with the 1000 storage limit... But every minute we spend using the trader will result in a positive outcome where mats will be created without the need to go find them; that time spent is time saved, no matter which way you look at it. And, once we're used to using it, it should become second nature to plow through all your mats that you commonly swap out.

All we have right now is micro management where the outcome is destroyed trash and there is nothing positive about that time spent.
 
Last edited:
Materials Traders are great, but can you imagine all of the micro-management and upgrade clicking you have to go through in the new system?

Yeah, it will be a hassle, but not much different from rolling up a pile of weapons with special effects in the current system. Except that the mats will be a lot easier to get.
 
This is amusing; rarity of material has no bearing on it's drop rate. It would be unwise to presume distribution will remain the same in the new system.

CIF is very rare, today, despite being an 'uncommon'; but may become like Sulphur given blueprints are changing. Frontier created a 'rarity' model (ie the grade) and then almost entirely ignore that for distribution, and instead tag it more against the grade of the engineering blueprint. Consistency, Frontier are genuinely allergic to it.

Yeah, it will be a hassle, but not much different from rolling up a pile of weapons with special effects in the current system. Except that the mats will be a lot easier to get.

I would not presume Frontier hasn't touched the distribution and drop rate of materials; in fact, this is something I would be inclined to believe would almost certainly have been done. Because that's all complicated and interesting and exciting, and they love that.

They want this to be meaningful; which is Frontier code for "excessively time consuming busy work", followed by "not working as intended, even though we intended it so we'll un-intend it by gutting it again" in 18 months time.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom