Research breakthroughs in Colonia

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Mel Brandon has announced major breakthroughs in engineering of Thrusters and Shield Cell Banks. With the assistance of hundreds of pilots visiting The Brig and providing the necessary research materials, he is now able to offer Grade 5 Thruster engineering and Grade 3 Shield Cell Bank engineering services to pilots - blueprints previously only obtainable at those levels from much more secretive engineers. He believes that further breakthroughs may still be possible for Shield Cells, and has begun a new research programme in this area.

Commander Marcelo Zimmerman, speaking to the Universal Scientist, said "This is excellent news - more competition might convince Palin to drop that silly 5,000 LY requirement of his. Where's this Brandon guy? I need to pay him a visit." Lori Jameson was unavailable for comment, though a new storage building has been spotted by recent visitors to her facility. Rumours that she is stockpiling ale in case of a drop in business have been denied by her staff.

Research into a wide range of blueprints continues with the support of independent pilots, and generous funding from the Colonia Council. Etienne Dorn expects to be able to provide Grade 4 life support modifications soon, while Petra Olmanova is developing strong armour modifications - expected to be the region's second Grade 5 blueprint - among other support for ship defences. Meanwhile, pilots who wish to customise their material collection tools further may obtain Grade 4 collector controllers from Marsha Hicks.

A Colonia Council representative, speaking off the record, noted that ever since the Far God fiasco had exposed the Federation's lack of support for academic freedom, it had never been easier to attract researchers to the region. Both the engineer bases and the Tir Research Labs have many well-known names now working there.
 
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Jethro49

Jethro49
Great, that's good news. Has there been any change in the way the stuff we bring to them influences their research capabilities ?
 

Speedcuffs

Speedcuffs
Great stuff.

If I have blueprints pinned, will the levels available automatically change?
(All Colonia engineers unlocked, all maxed).
 

Nadreck

N
Good work! I'm heading that way myself. As I'm a trader/explorer with little interest in combat (Novice), Lori Jameson is well beyond my reach, so Etienne Dorn could soon be useful for life-support.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Jethro49 said:
Great, that's good news. Has there been any change in the way the stuff we bring to them influences their research capabilities ?
Click to expand...
It's a lot more effective than it was in 3.2, certainly.

So far as I can tell, you get 1 point for a G1 roll, 2 for a G2, 3 for a G3 and presumably 4 for a G4.
Then it's approximately 3000 points to make G2 upgrades available, 7500 for G3 (including the 3000 already in for G2), about 19,000 for G4, and I'd guess based on that pattern somewhere a little under 50,000 for G5.
(If you're intending to stick in a few hundred rolls personally to help fast-track it, G2 is usually the best compromise between time spent collecting materials and time spent rolling them, but some items have an easy G3 blueprint or two to speed it up further.)

It would be very expensive and time-consuming to test if pinned blueprints or experimental effects gave points, so I haven't tried - I'm assuming that as they don't give rep they probably don't give research points either.

The news article at the engineer base updates each time you open it and has 5% resolution ... upgrades are available immediately but you may need to relog to see them personally.

Speedcuffs said:
If I have blueprints pinned, will the levels available automatically change?
Click to expand...
Yes, your pinned blueprints will automatically upgrade as well.
 

Speedcuffs

Speedcuffs
Ian Doncaster said:
It's a lot more effective than it was in 3.2, certainly.

So far as I can tell, you get 1 point for a G1 roll, 2 for a G2, 3 for a G3 and presumably 4 for a G4.
Then it's approximately 3000 points to make G2 upgrades available, 7500 for G3 (including the 3000 already in for G2), about 19,000 for G4, and I'd guess based on that pattern somewhere a little under 50,000 for G5.
(If you're intending to stick in a few hundred rolls personally to help fast-track it, G2 is usually the best compromise between time spent collecting materials and time spent rolling them, but some items have an easy G3 blueprint or two to speed it up further.)

It would be very expensive and time-consuming to test if pinned blueprints or experimental effects gave points, so I haven't tried - I'm assuming that as they don't give rep they probably don't give research points either.

The news article at the engineer base updates each time you open it and has 5% resolution ... upgrades are available immediately but you may need to relog to see them personally.


Yes, your pinned blueprints will automatically upgrade as well.
Click to expand...

\o/
 

Myou

Myou
Ian Doncaster said:
So far as I can tell, you get 1 point for a G1 roll, 2 for a G2, 3 for a G3 and presumably 4 for a G4.
Then it's approximately 3000 points to make G2 upgrades available, 7500 for G3 (including the 3000 already in for G2), about 19,000 for G4, and I'd guess based on that pattern somewhere a little under 50,000 for G5.
(If you're intending to stick in a few hundred rolls personally to help fast-track it, G2 is usually the best compromise between time spent collecting materials and time spent rolling them, but some items have an easy G3 blueprint or two to speed it up further.)
Click to expand...

Wait you're telling me this is actually done by a CG like counter for them to get better, rather than fdev orchestated? Well damn, maybe its time to make the very inconviently long trip to help them out. Since they have a whole bunch of really low grade stuff i always ignored them (that and them being so very inconviently located...)


Speaking about being secretive though, i dont think those are any better to unlock than quite a few of the bubble engineers, they still have dumb requirements and that ONTOP of the long travel distance.

IndigoWyrd said:
"The silly 5000 Ly requirement", from an engineer 20K Ly away....

We may have just overdosed on irony.
Click to expand...

Exactly this.
 
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Vedmo

Vedmo
Myou said:
Wait you're telling me this is actually done by a CG like counter for them to get better, rather than fdev orchestated? Well damn, maybe its time to make the very inconviently long trip to help them out. Since they have a whole bunch of really low grade stuff i always ignored them (that and them being so very inconviently located...)


Speaking about being secretive though, i dont think those are any better to unlock than quite a few of the bubble engineers, they still have dumb requirements and that ONTOP of the long travel distance.



Exactly this.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's a matter of time before they are grade 5's all around, which will make the Colonia area the easiest place to engineer a ship. With just 4 spots all close to each other to add experimentals, if one already has the right stuff pinned from the bubble it is already more convenient to engineer a ship there (other than the fact you'll be engineering a bunch of B Modules at best if they are 4 or higher and you're outfitting it all there).

Thanks for the update Mr. Doncaster, and good job to all working towards it.
 

Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
Note: I've had no Luch with the Luchtaine A1 megaship. Just lots of distress calls from Eagles with no fuel. I bought a fuel transfer drone for this, and they leave without saying "thank you". :(

And, yes, I *did* use a DSS on the planet, oh learned ones. Another wasted slot. Igor can get his body parts from someone else.

The nice thing about Luchtaine is that HGE's show up here. Lots of other mats too. So, a not-entirely-wasted trip.
 

Amargosa

A
Ian Doncaster said:
more competition might convince Palin to drop that silly 5,000 LY requirement of his
Click to expand...

Is that supposed to be a joke? In order to visit that other engineer, you need to travel way more than 5000 ly, like over 4 times that much, haha. If anything, Palin could increase it to 10k and still come out better.
 

voodoochile73

voodoochile73
thats great timing. 2 days ago i very nearly paid over 100m credits to bring my ship with g5 thrusters to Colonia. I wanted to sacriice 4ly jump range for top speed before meeting up with DW2. It'l save me a fortune -or a long trip back to bubble shoulod i decide to swap.
 

biohazard15

B
Interesting.

I wonder if FD patch Lori Jameson to include G5 life support and G4 (and possibly G5) SCBs. Otherwise, it would be kinda pointless to unlock her.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Myou said:
Wait you're telling me this is actually done by a CG like counter for them to get better, rather than fdev orchestated?
Click to expand...
Yep, all fully automated. It's interesting to see which modules people are actually engineering.

Myou said:
Speaking about being secretive though, i dont think those are any better to unlock than quite a few of the bubble engineers, they still have dumb requirements and that ONTOP of the long travel distance.
Click to expand...
Other than the long distance, they all have really easy unlocks
- you get told about them by a basic engineer (this is what I meant by "less secretive" - you find out they exist very early on)
- either an easy Pilots Fed rank requirement, or being Friendly with a faction, to get the invite
-- 100k in bounties for Brandon
-- 50t of Progenitor Cells (several high-tech stations nearby) for Olmanova
-- 10t of Osmium for Hicks (very common in metallic and metal-rich rings)
-- 25 escape pods for Dorn (would be a pain if the Luchtaine distress call wasn't there, though you can use the Unauthorised Installations instead)

Compare that with "get to Dangerous rank" or "deliver 50t of Bromellite to a permit locked system" or "get X Fed/Imp rank" and they're much easier. But even the bubble-based "2nd line" engineers tend to be slightly tougher: Lei Cheung needs 200t of Gold, Selene Jean wants 10t of Painite (and 500t mined total), Hera Tani wants 50t of rares, etc.
 
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