[Updated] Casual Player Vs Material Gathering

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Update below!

How many of you don't get a long time to play each day/week...?

I'm one of those people who get maybe 5-10 hours a week, if I dedicate all my free time entirely to ED.

So, when it comes to hunting down materials, it can take up huge amounts of my free time to gather very little, or sometimes nothing at all (like yesterday, 1 hour, no arsenic).
The sense of progression towards my goal was basically zero. I spent a full hour driving around on a barren rock, only to find nothing I needed. It's very very demoralising.

This has always been my main issue with the material gathering . (Do not read as "Engineers", they're fine, but materials are used for synthesis too).
There's far too much of "nothing" or waiting in between finding what you need.

So, I offer a sort of solution...!
It's going to sound like a step backwards, but hear me out.

Increase All Recipe Requirements By 10x
"That's " I hear you say. And quite right. That by itself is just .

Let me explain further, by increasing a recipe so instead of 5 of something, you need 50, you now need to gather 10x as much.
Which means, the spawn rate can be increased even further,10x, 20x or even 30x. On the surface, this would mean rocks spawning all over the place. Spoilt for choice!
Same with USSs, make them more common (maybe not 20x +.. lol) and contain more materials.

Anyhoo, with a much higher spawn rate, you're more likely to collect at least some of what you need per session.
Even if you only get 10 of 30 of whatever, it's better than 0 of 3.
And even if you don't, you'll be no longer be wandering around waiting for a rock or USS to show up, before getting back to playing, you'll always be busy.

Of course, material storage would also need to accommodate this increase. No idea if that's possible.
And I haven't taken in to account material brokers at all.

So for casual players like myself, I can put in an hour's time, and still leave having likely worked towards my goal, rather than the current system, where I can spend an hour achieving nothing.

Does that make sense?

Update

So moving on, the other problem is actually the new material brokers. I don't like them, and I've yet to even visit one. Lol
They basically want me to gather random junk, them fly to then, wherever they may be, and exchange it for what I was looking for in the first place.
When it would be so much nicer to just find what you was looking for in the first place.

So, idea part 2
Remove the material brokers!
But keep the data ones, because I can't think of a better way to sort the data out. Lol
Instead transform the synthesis doodah on our ships in to a fully functional crafting system, and allow us to synthesise the manufactured materials, from elements (and maybe data?).
The rarer the manufactured material, the more elements you need. More or less the same as a broker, but onboard, and makes sense. Lol
That idea there is the basis for a fully fledged crafting system.
(You'd still also be able to find manufactured materials, this is just another avenue to acquiring them)
You can even gate it slightly behind needing a acquire a schematic to synthesise something. And schematics can be found, earned, and even the best can be behind permit locked area, another gate, and more gameplay.
Rather than a hotch botch of random elements, have a system like that, working together, and intertwined.

Thoughts?


CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[Dommarraa]

My suggestion if you have limited time (or even if you dont) is to just play your game, and collect as you go.
Sure, you probably want to fit a wake scanner and a collector with a handfull of limpets in your cargo, so your Uber Build is maybe not quite as Uber, but unless you (apperently) need 110% monster build for PvP, you really should not notice it.

 

[Vorxian]

Yeah I am the same, I work in London, up early, home late. Get a couple of hours in the evening before I'm too tired to do anything major. Those two / three hours are split between getting a shower / refreshed, eating, spending time with the Mrs.. invariably she's off to bed and i'm milling around for as long as I can stay awake.

Walls of grind do lock a lot of content for me. Engineers forget it, never touched them.

That fact is, you and I don't deserve / have any right to any of the cool stuff in ED because we're not putting in the hours to 'achieve' it. Well, as others will likely point out, we're part of the I WANT IT NAAAAOW crowd..

 

[Arthur Shappey]

Yes - I have limited time, roughly the same as you. Yes I have the same frustration - I spent a few hours searching for Pharmaceutical Manipulators and found just one (=3) in all that time.

But in 3.0 Arsenic should really not be a problem. With material traders: IIRC: arsenic is now only grade two which means there are three other higher grade materials that can be gathered instead and be traded for Arsenic. For instance, 3 polonium = 27 arsenic. I think mercury is also higher.

So find a planet with two or three of the materials that would be work and you should be quids in. I spent 30 minutes and then went to a material trader and ended up with 90+ arsenic.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Overkill. I already stopped playing because of engineers - there is no need to further put me off. Though it might deter others who are more thick-skinned than me.

 

[CMDR Carbo]

No, that sounds crazy to me.

Sandro said in a livestream that they value the players time. As a result they got rid of a big part of the RNG in module engineering.
Now they should stay true to their word and reduce the RNG in material gathering in a next step.

Somebody in another thread just wrote that they prefer NMS material gathering over ED, which got me thinking.

Material gathering would be much less a grind for me if it wasn't shooting blindly at rocks and hoping the right material would drop, or hopping in an USS and hope I get the right material.

E.g. raw materials could be marked as ore veins on planets, that can be scanned and similar to asteroids I get a guaranteed drop of the material that is shown in the scan results.
Maybe there are similar ideas for USS.
Just reduce the darn RNG in material gathering, makes it much less frustrating for the player.

 

[Arthur Shappey]

Overkill. I already stopped playing because of engineers - there is no need to further put me off. Though it might deter others who are more thick-skinned than me.

You stopped playing? Since 2.0? And you still come here? You still have an ED-related signature message?

I assume it was because you PvP? [otherwise this makes no sense, as you don't need to engineer to PvE].

You should try 3.0, I think engineering is fun - mind you - I liked it before - but I think it is a lot better!

 

[El_Hefe]

The best way in 3.0 to gather rare mats is to find a good spot to farm G5 materials of the three types,raw,data and manufactured. Then use the material traders to trade sideways to other G5 materials.

Using barnacle sites for raw is great. Distribution centres in famine systems for data and Davs Hope for manufactured. Then trade down or sideways. Also missions,missions give mats now.

The grind has been reduced,you just need to know where to look.

 

[kilvenny]

I am in a similar position, I have a really busy real life. The reason I got a lifetime pass was that I knew if I didn't I would look at every release and think what is in it for me and chew over purchasing. Very few of the releases other than planet landings have given me any more content, because I don't have the time that is needed for much of the content to be enjoyed.

I have done the odd community goal, but they only last a week, so most weeks I wouldn't make it to where they are more than once and that would be a good week. Powerplay, Engineers, Wing missions... all irrelevant.

I just play the game when I can, in the manner I choose. I have VR and a HOTAS so just flying from place to place is a joy.

I do think there are areas where FD could help, but sadly the game is built around the premise that time makes money, gives better ship makes more money. Nothing wrong with that, but if you are time starved you have to enjoy the game your way in a subset of content.

 

[lecorsobreton]

With the tech broker, they have the basis for all we need. Everyone is supposedly swimming in credits, so exchanging creds for mats would make a lot of sense. Lock Guardian/Thargoids stuff out, but the rest, I don't see why or how it would hurt the game. Make grade 5 mats worth a half a million a piece or something. FDEV has to do something about the grind. They lock so much content, it's Beyond™ frustrating. But I do enjoy the game, when I'm off doing anything else that doesn't involve mat gathering.

 

[Vorxian]

With the tech broker, they have the basis for all we need. Everyone is supposedly swimming in credits, so exchanging creds for mats would make a lot of sense. Lock Guardian/Thargoids stuff out, but the rest, I don't see why or how it would hurt the game. Make grade 5 mats worth a half a million a piece or something. FDEV has to do something about the grind. They lock so much content, it's Beyond™ frustrating. But I do enjoy the game, when I'm off doing anything else that doesn't involve mat gathering.

....and..... +Rep

Well said.

 

[BDelacroix]

I don't have a lot of time to play and yet I have found that rocks are appearing much more often than before. Several planets now.

 

[c00ky1970]

Rather than ramp up requirements and drop rates, it would be useful if you could "tune" your SRV scanner for Arsenic or whatever, this then skews the RNG to buff the drop rate of that whilst you prospect. Meaning you still have to search for it, but 50% of drops are what you are looking for....

 

[ADAMtheWELSHMANz]

With the tech broker, they have the basis for all we need. Everyone is supposedly swimming in credits, so exchanging creds for mats would make a lot of sense. Lock Guardian/Thargoids stuff out, but the rest, I don't see why or how it would hurt the game. Make grade 5 mats worth a half a million a piece or something. FDEV has to do something about the grind. They lock so much content, it's Beyond™ frustrating. But I do enjoy the game, when I'm off doing anything else that doesn't involve mat gathering.

Hell no. With the number of credit "exploits" that have appeared in the game buying mats should NEVER be an option

Why not try -

-Choosing missions that offer g5 mats as a reward
-Stop rushing from A to B and drop in the occasional USS
-Put aside one play session a week for gathering mats
-Do a modicum of homework on the traders and see if there's an easier option (see polonium to trade down to arsenic etc)

3.0 means even if you only get enough stuff for a few rolls a week you will ALWAYS be better off than before.......it's called progression, don't expect to do it all in one go and you'll find it isn't actually that hard a "grind" at all

Finally, there's a limit on modules now. Once they're done they're done. No need to roll 100's of times for a *possible* improvement. Now when a module is completed you NEVER need to do anything to it again

 

[Susanna]

How many of you don't get a long time to play each day/week...?

I'm one of those people who get maybe 5-10 hours a week, if I dedicate all my free time entirely to ED.

So, when it comes to hunting down materials, it can take up huge amounts of my free time to gather very little, or sometimes nothing at all (like yesterday, 1 hour, no arsenic).
The sense of progression towards my goal was basically zero. I spent a full hour driving around on a barren rock, only to find nothing I needed. It's very very demoralising.

This has always been my main issue with the material gathering . (Do not read as "Engineers", they're fine, but materials are used for synthesis too).
There's far too much of "nothing" or waiting in between finding what you need.

So, I offer a sort of solution...!
It's going to sound like a step backwards, but hear me out.

Increase All Recipe Requirements By 10x
"That's " I hear you say. And quite right. That by itself is just .

Let me explain further, by increasing a recipe so instead of 5 of something, you need 50, you now need to gather 10x as much.
Which means, the spawn rate can be increased even further,10x, 20x or even 30x. On the surface, this would mean rocks spawning all over the place. Spoilt for choice!
Same with USSs, make them more common (maybe not 20x +.. lol) and contain more materials.

Anyhoo, with a much higher spawn rate, you're more likely to collect at least some of what you need per session.
Even if you only get 10 of 30 of whatever, it's better than 0 of 3.
And even if you don't, you'll be no longer be wandering around waiting for a rock or USS to show up, before getting back to playing, you'll always be busy.

Of course, material storage would also need to accommodate this increase. No idea if that's possible.
And I haven't taken in to account material brokers at all.

So for casual players like myself, I can put in an hour's time, and still leave having likely worked towards my goal, rather than the current system, where I can spend an hour achieving nothing.

Does that make sense?

Got some more to add in a bit, so check back here. Work... Urgh. Lol

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

No frankly, that doesn't make sense, if you had loads of wavescanner signals you couldn't separate out the signals and know what you are heading towards - it would just be a jumble of wavescanner noise! As for a Zillion USS to target and scan, another nightmare in the making... I totally agree with you that the drop rates are ridiculously low! But this isn't the answer to that... We need better tools to find what we are looking for...

As for the wavescanner noise, I'm half deaf so that isn't much help as its drowned out by the engine noise already!

And finding USSs... I've been looking for Military Supercapacitors this morning - ALL MORNING! And well into the Afternoon! Like - the last 5 hours Flying around looking for HGEs! And how many have I found? Zero. Not one! Loads of Military Grade Alloys! 78 to be precise! But Zero MSCs....

What a Wonderful sense of Progression, Rewarded Effort and Game Satisfaction we all experience at such enlightening times as these ah! [down]

So yeah, the current RNG really sucks most of the time

 

[Pville_Piper]

I don't have a lot of time to play and yet I have found that rocks are appearing much more often than before. Several planets now.

Heh... The first night back I downloaded the update and went mat hunting. I selected a nice rocky planet with a 2.9% Arsenic and some other metals. I drove around for 15 minutes and never got a blip on the scanner, no rocks, no sounds, nothing. So I recalled my ship, and flew off to a new spot on the planet. Another 15 minutes of nothing. I logged out, recalled the ship, launched and went into super cruise. Landed and rode around for 5 minutes and still nothing on the scanner. Recalled, took off, flew for a bit while I went into the galaxy map to plot a new course and when I came out I saw a POI, but it was real small so I landed and immediately found an outcrop. Shot the thing and like 3 arsenic popped out along with a bunch of rare metals. Like hitting a piñata.

Then nothing for 15 minutes. Took off, found another POI, normal sized and landed. Another outcrop with a ton of rares including arsenic. Scooped up these and nothing else was on my scanner after making a wide circle, so I took off again and found 2 POIs. I landed and now I got tons of contacts on the scanner and things proceeded normally from there on out.

 

[lecorsobreton]

snip

If I want, say a Shock canon, I need 30 samples of Technetium, which is only available through surface prospecting and rather hard to find. Give me some options to enjoy your content FDEV, is what comes to mind.

As for your suggestions, I do chose mats/influence/rep over credits, I don't rush from a to b, I actually scan all my USS. I should never have to devote one session to gather mats. That's crazy, it's a game, not a second job. And I have checked the mat broker. That's how I managed to unlock one of the engineers that required 50 samples of whatever data he wanted.

I've never been in the min/max train of thoughts. I rarely roll more than 3 times for a given module, no matter the level. I'd rather have 2 medium rolls, than a godly one. I'm mostly happy with what I get, since a G1 will always be better than stock modules. It's just that if you want to experience the new content they create, their artificial barriers are way too far ahead.

But I see this will get nowhere. "The grind is in your mind" argument is just not convincing. I do like the game, I enjoy it, it's some aspects of it that are half-backed.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
There's far too much of "nothing" or waiting in between finding what you need.
…

That's your problem right there. You always find what you need in 3.0, the only difference how much you get of what you want.

Material traders are now an integral part of material gathering and they basically make looking for specific materials something of the past.

It wouldn't hurt if the amount of materials from one spot increases, but it certainly isn't that problematic as before 3.0.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

The thing is, I actually like looking for materials on the surface.

I love a good blast in the SRV, and i love finding odd things about the place.

I never really thought about it until now, but I don't actually like the material brokers. Lol

I don't want to have to gather loads of random crap, then fly to some starport somewhere, and exchange it for what I wanted in the first place.
I'd rather just find it. Lol

Anyhoo, OP update incoming...

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

You stopped playing? Since 2.0? And you still come here? You still have an ED-related signature message?

I assume it was because you PvP? [otherwise this makes no sense, as you don't need to engineer to PvE].

You should try 3.0, I think engineering is fun - mind you - I liked it before - but I think it is a lot better!

It was 2.1 - they say hope always dies last. I was looking for more stuff that would make use of the excellent vistas and views aka "exploration". I genuinely enjoyed 2.0 and planetary landings.

It wasn't PvP, it was a mix of gameplay elements that bothered me. The mess that engineers brought about was the tipping point - and no - I would need to engineer to PvE, because the bulletsponged AI that randomly spawns can't be taken down in reasonable time for reasonable rewards any more.

And the signature is a tribute to the great artwork done and the dedication of the people who play this game. This group like many others has provided a far larger motive to play than engineers ever did. Just my humble opinion.