ENGINEERS ARE RIDICULOUS

[MadDogMurdock]

Ouch. That's what i was afraid of. The way I've been collecting my MEF/Biotech/Exquisite Focus Crystals is from becoming allied with a faction that always offers wing Assassination Missions and then I just solo them. I can get five of one kind or another, the mission is fun and only takes about twenty minutes round trip, maybe a little less.

Yup, I've testing playing it DBOBE's way by only taking one-way missions as an itinerant drifter around the bubble and frankly it sucks.

One-way missions (data, transport, and passengers) are the least rewarding, both financially and materials-wise.
Because you don't stay anywhere long enough to be any more than cordial with anyone, the mission offerings are poor.
You more often than not don't have market info on your next destination because you haven't been there before.

So whatever we've supposedly missed by not playing that way frankly isn't worth it.

 

[Broon]

How long are the passenger missions?

The ones I am currently running are the 2 to 3 stop tourist geyser/fumarole/lava spout trips. At each stop I am landing (when possible) and taking a short 10-15min SRV cruise in the immediate area for the mats that spawn near the beacons. I am getting good stuff that way as well including Technetium, Yittrium, Molybendum, Germanium, Ruthenium and other 'Um's along with other common mats.

I can actually thank the forums for this current play format as I never knew that mats spawned at the beacons until I read that in a thread.. I would always just scan the beacon for completion and fly away. Now I get to break up the flight with SRV runs.

I have even been new places where the terrain is very challenging for the SRV and have gotten some nice screenshot views to boot.

I'm playing vs grinding for stuff though. Others mileage may vary.

 

[jasonbarron]

The ones I am currently running are the 2 to 3 stop tourist geyser/fumarole/lava spout trips. At each stop I am landing (when possible) and taking a short 10-15min SRV cruise in the immediate area for the mats that spawn near the beacons. I am getting good stuff that way as well including Technetium, Yittrium, Molybendum, Germanium, Ruthenium and other 'Um's along with other common mats.

I can actually thank the forums for this current play format as I never knew that mats spawned at the beacons until I read that in a thread.. I would always just scan the beacon for completion and fly away. Now I get to break up the flight with SRV runs.

I have even been new places where the terrain is very challenging for the SRV and have gotten some nice screenshot views to boot.

I'm playing vs grinding for stuff though. Others mileage may vary.

That's a bit more interesting, as I didn't know about the material spawns around beacons. How long does it take you to complete the full mission, approximately?

 

[C64Fan]

I often get grade 5 materials from simple transport missions too, and even bulk passenger missions. Also often from sight seeing missions that only have 1 or 2 destinations, and you get good money for it too.

Check the mission highlighted (just a random example and not rare).

 

[khaos526]

The quickest and easiest way I found is to do bulk S3M settlement scans. It's the fastest and easily base that drops a good amount of data (usually 2-4, though sometimes rarely 1). But many times you'll get MEF's in there. Beats doing the Passenger or surface scan missions time wise if you don't care about credits. I finally tested out base scans again after 3.0 to see how they were and found it's a lot better now doing it that way. Got a ton yesterday just farming a S3M base...

 

[Dimensions]

I seen MEF 3-5 offered for Conflict zone massacre missions. Need to to have full rep with faction for the one with 5 MEFs and kill about 102 ships. That can take some time even with a good ship and setup. If you know how to play CZs it makes it faster. Pity you can't stack these any more, then you would get a decent number and make it worth the time. Otherwise you have to do the base hacking game (beat time limit to get RNG data including MEFs).

 

[Herbrand]

Ouch. That's what i was afraid of. The way I've been collecting my MEF/Biotech/Exquisite Focus Crystals is from becoming allied with a faction that always offers wing Assassination Missions and then I just solo them. I can get five of one kind or another, the mission is fun and only takes about twenty minutes round trip, maybe a little less.

In Shinrarta i used to be able to get transport missions in the 180-300T range that yielded 3-5 grade 5 mats

 

[Broon]

That's a bit more interesting, as I didn't know about the material spawns around beacons. How long does it take you to complete the full mission, approximately?

That's a hard question to answer since I really have never timed it. I also frequently don't do the whole run in a sitting because of RL.

But right now I'm running a 38.5Ly Orca. An average trip could be 3 jumps, SC 1-3000ls, land. Cruise around shooting crystals for a bit. 5 more jumps, SC time, land. More cruising. 6-9 more jumps, SC time and land. RNG spawns more crystals than you can count. Joy ensues! Half an hour spent here! 8 jumps home.

I dunno. Maybe an hour? Hour and a quarter/half? The trip could pay 6 to 15 million, give you 5 good mat rewards plus whatever you scoop on the surface. And if you are not searching for some particular mat you are never disappointed in your haul

But I will tell you that when play time is getting short and you really need to get to bed because that 3am wakeup for work will come sooner than you want it too, the trip will take all too much time.

 

[Broon]

Typical mission boards with MEF's as rewards. Shots taken like just a few minutes ago.

4-5mil Cr. 4-5 MEF's. Two stops. Easy run.

Spoiler

10mil Cr. 3 MEF's. Four stops.

Spoiler

 

[Spacecat]

Did I miss the memo where Engineering suddenly became mandatory?

Only for pvp, and nobody does that.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

I often get grade 5 materials from simple transport missions too, and even bulk passenger missions. Also often from sight seeing missions that only have 1 or 2 destinations, and you get good money for it too.

Check the mission highlighted (just a random example and not rare).

https://i.imgur.com/U75JEgm.jpg

The key there is that you're Allied.

 

[the source 0179]

Did I miss the memo where Engineering suddenly became mandatory?

Well not mandatory but I'd say advised as the game doesn't distinguish if your ship is engineered or not when it comes to npcs and other cmdrs being engineered.

 

[Broon]

The key there is that you're Allied.

Being Allied is the key to ANY of the best mission offerings in this game. Repping up gets better stuff from the engineers. Climbing the ladder with two of the superpowers gets access to their special ships.

Getting anything good, whether in this game or in real life, requires a bit of effort put in. Silver platters do not abound throughout the galaxy.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Being Allied is the key to ANY of the best mission offerings in this game. Repping up gets better stuff from the engineers. Climbing the ladder with two of the superpowers gets access to their special ships.

Getting anything good, whether in this game or in real life, requires a bit of effort put in. Silver platters do not abound throughout the galaxy.

I'm aware. However, DBOBE's expectation that we are itinerant drifters is contrary to every reward mechanism in the game encouraging us to stay put.

 

[Riverside]

I'm aware. However, DBOBE's expectation that we are itinerant drifters is contrary to every reward mechanism in the game encouraging us to stay put.

I don't imagine his vision included maximising profit particularly

 

[MadDogMurdock]

I don't imagine his vision included maximising profit particularly

I'm not convinced his vision included many things that are now the core of the game.

 

[Broon]

I'm aware. However, DBOBE's expectation that we are itinerant drifters is contrary to every reward mechanism in the game encouraging us to stay put.

And like in the Western TV/movie genre we drift into town, make friends, get what we want (the girl, the bad guy or few free drinks) and then move on to the next town. If you don't marry the girl it's easy to pick up and leave.

I don't have a "home port" so to speak. Instead I have numerous places all over the bubble that I have repped up for various reasons. When I get tired of a town I move on to the next one, or sometimes even go someplace new and work them up. But I rarely stay in one place for very long, drifting around.

So you could say that I am a living example of DB's itinerant drifter theme.

 

[Riverside]

I'm not convinced his vision included many things that are now the core of the game.

The Core feature is just flying a spaceship around the Milky Way, then secondary to that is a bunch of stuff to do while you are flying your ship around. Doing one of those things maximally is at least tertiary, certainly not a core feature imo.

How do you define 'core'?

 

[Jex =TE=]

The Core feature is just flying a spaceship around the Milky Way, then secondary to that is a bunch of stuff to do while you are flying your ship around. Doing one of those things maximally is at least tertiary, certainly not a core feature imo.

How do you define 'core'?

You would think the game revolved around your ship but they've not really done much in the way of developing that much further. How long did it take to be able to name your ship? What major updates added to our ship - none of them! Yes we had engineers but that was just a-e rated all over again with some random effects.

Just think, instead of CQC we could have had external cameras added that you could look through from the bridge. Also, an internal camera for the cargo bay and they could have added in an animation of the cargo loading which also starts working on the ship interiors.

Personally, working in that direction would have gone massively further for the game than adding in PP, CQC and Engineers.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

You would think the game revolved around your ship but they've not really done much in the way of developing that much further. How long did it take to be able to name your ship? What major updates added to our ship - none of them! Yes we had engineers but that was just a-e rated all over again with some random effects.

Just think, instead of CQC we could have had external cameras added that you could look through from the bridge. Also, an internal camera for the cargo bay and they could have added in an animation of the cargo loading which also starts working on the ship interiors.

Personally, working in that direction would have gone massively further for the game than adding in PP, CQC and Engineers.

I agree that CQC was a mistake, but I don't think replacing it with cutscenes would have been an improvement.