Pharmaceutical isolators
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Bob Lighthouse
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Get BTC and EFC from passenger sightseeing missions and trade them for the PIs.
Uhuh.
Due to the new BGS (both in terms of the fact it is "new" and the fact that the new BGS affects HGE spawn-rates) HGEs containing PIs are harder to find.
An issue compounded by the fact that the BGS is currently as broken as a betamax VCR that somebody's thrown off the top of a mountain, run over with a tank and then set on fire, which means it isn't doing a lot of the stuff it should be doing at all.
Now I'll summarise the rest of this thread, in a nutshell:-
"Go and collect some other mat' and trade for PIs"
"Don't Grind"
"Just do whatever upgrades you have the mat's for"
"You're playing the game wrong"
"No, you are"
"You suck"
etc.
Sorry I can't be more helpful. [sad]
Due to the new BGS (both in terms of the fact it is "new" and the fact that the new BGS affects HGE spawn-rates) HGEs containing PIs are harder to find.
An issue compounded by the fact that the BGS is currently as broken as a betamax VCR that somebody's thrown off the top of a mountain, run over with a tank and then set on fire, which means it isn't doing a lot of the stuff it should be doing at all.
Now I'll summarise the rest of this thread, in a nutshell:-
"Go and collect some other mat' and trade for PIs"
"Don't Grind"
"Just do whatever upgrades you have the mat's for"
"You're playing the game wrong"
"No, you are"
"You suck"
etc.
Sorry I can't be more helpful. [sad]
The HGE (High Grade Emissions) mechanic is broken after the last update, possible due to the BGS (Background Simulation) mechanic being broken. In these conditions, the best approach is to get any grade 5 material usually found in HGEs and trade it at Material Traders (look at inara.cz for a list of Stations that have manufactured Material Traders).
There are still 3-4 grade 5 manufactured materials that are now usually found in HGEs. Just keep enough room for them (keep like 40 out of the 100 and trade the surplus) and simply jump from system to system (populated and in boom, war or civil war), scan the NAV beacon, go back in supercruise and check the list for HGEs. Farm whatever they have and move to another system.
As an alternative, equip a Python or even a Type 6 with economy cabins and take sightseeing adventure missions from Robigo Mines outpost. Many of them have Biotech Conductors or Exquisite Focus Crystals (also Modified Embedded Firmware) as a reward. With a prepared Python you can get to 100 of each in 2-3h. Use the nearest Material Traders and repeat...
The exchange rate is 6 to 1, but even in these conditions you may be able to get what you need, like 10 units per hour or more.
There are still 3-4 grade 5 manufactured materials that are now usually found in HGEs. Just keep enough room for them (keep like 40 out of the 100 and trade the surplus) and simply jump from system to system (populated and in boom, war or civil war), scan the NAV beacon, go back in supercruise and check the list for HGEs. Farm whatever they have and move to another system.
As an alternative, equip a Python or even a Type 6 with economy cabins and take sightseeing adventure missions from Robigo Mines outpost. Many of them have Biotech Conductors or Exquisite Focus Crystals (also Modified Embedded Firmware) as a reward. With a prepared Python you can get to 100 of each in 2-3h. Use the nearest Material Traders and repeat...
The exchange rate is 6 to 1, but even in these conditions you may be able to get what you need, like 10 units per hour or more.
I'm sorry to say it, but these people saying to get them from combat are not giving you good advice. It will work, but not quickly or effectively.
I do all kinds of combat in this game, and the chance to see G5 materials from a dead anything (vette, conda, T10, t9, etc) is about 1 in 5 in the first place. IF you want a good chance to get pharma isolators, again you need to do combat in a system with an outbreak state to increase the chances.
Please don't try to do that, you'll just end up more frustrated. See what I wrote in your other thread. Just farm any HGE USSes and trade. At least it's reliable, you can predict how long it will take you to get something, rather than going ot a CNB or HAZRES and waiting (ages) for the right kind of ships to spawn only to find they don't give you what you want.
Frankly I'm stunned that anyone would give the advice to farm manufactured G5 materials from combat. I can't htink of a more time consuming, less reliable way to get G5 materials. You'll find these people are the kind that engineer one ship every 6 months and therefore believe that 6 pharma isos per 50 ships killed is reasonable. I engineer a ship every couple of weeks if not more often, and there is no way I'd farm manufactured g5s from combat.
I do all kinds of combat in this game, and the chance to see G5 materials from a dead anything (vette, conda, T10, t9, etc) is about 1 in 5 in the first place. IF you want a good chance to get pharma isolators, again you need to do combat in a system with an outbreak state to increase the chances.
Please don't try to do that, you'll just end up more frustrated. See what I wrote in your other thread. Just farm any HGE USSes and trade. At least it's reliable, you can predict how long it will take you to get something, rather than going ot a CNB or HAZRES and waiting (ages) for the right kind of ships to spawn only to find they don't give you what you want.
Frankly I'm stunned that anyone would give the advice to farm manufactured G5 materials from combat. I can't htink of a more time consuming, less reliable way to get G5 materials. You'll find these people are the kind that engineer one ship every 6 months and therefore believe that 6 pharma isos per 50 ships killed is reasonable. I engineer a ship every couple of weeks if not more often, and there is no way I'd farm manufactured g5s from combat.
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Great post, OP.. listen to this.
I think I did say you can get G5 from combat - I wouldn't recommend it as a grindable source unless you do a lot of missions (have you seen my biowaste ticket, I've been doing a lot of missions
)OTOH I wouldn't recommend HGE at the moment, they are insanely rare & unreliable, whereas I was spotting Pharma maybe 1 in 3 combat kills (i.e. ~9 units per trip).
I'm presuming there is a bug raised about the HGE? I wish they would pin it to show that they are aware & prioritising...
Glad it wasn't just me thinking that.
I'm all for farming USS/RES/CNB for mat's but the really juicy ships don't show up anything like often enough to make it a rewarding pursuit if you're looking for G5 mat's.
Deadly/Elite annie's regularly drop decent quantities of G4 mat's but G5 mat's are rare enough to allow me to award myself a hobnob when I get them.
Agreed - because (as you stated) it's now more difficult to use the HGE drops - content (now unpredictable) / location (100k ls away) and rate (1 per system mostly) are now all worse than previously. The only thing improved is findability, but with the other three nerfs ...
I think I did say you can get G5 from combat - I wouldn't recommend it as a grindable source unless you do a lot of missions (have you seen my biowaste ticket, I've been doing a lot of missions
OTOH I wouldn't recommend HGE at the moment, they are insanely rare & unreliable, whereas I was spotting Pharma maybe 1 in 3 combat kills (i.e. ~9 units per trip).
I'm presuming there is a bug raised about the HGE? I wish they would pin it to show that they are aware & prioritising...
It definitely is a valid method, but in light of the OP complaining already about the reliability of getting what he's actually looking for that this advice might actually make him more frustrated. IF you are a player who has already bought and engineered a fleet they are happy with and therefore, engineering is done in dribs and drabs, I can definitely see that person giving the advice to just pick up what you get from combat and you'll get a bit of everything, no argument. But nowadays engineering is so integral and so important, that people need to be able to do it in a reasonable time frame.
I totally agree that targeted HGE USS farming is in the worst place its ever been, but it's a LOT more reliable than combat farming. At least you ave the traders. An HGE has on average 9 G5 materials. It can have only 3 or up to 15 (18s are always mixed with G4s). Lets say 9 is the average. Let;s also say that you need 16 of any G5 manufactured material to fully G5 two items. Right now you have a metric that you can use. You know the trade ratio of one G5 to another is 6 to 1, so you also know that you need 100 random G5 materials to make your 16 pharma isos.
Personally, my HGE method is pretty simple, I just cruise around the small bubble of high tech core fed systems around Sol...
Sirius, TZ Arietis, EZ Aquarii, Altair, Kruger 60, 61 Cygni, and I also thrown in Vega and Eta Cassiopiae, as they are industrial military systems and sometimes throw out a couple.
You will find one or two HGEs in most of these systems. So let's take worst case and say you are getting about 9 g5 materials per system. You need to do one full lap of all those systems (then revisit the most effective two) and you'll be ready to trade for your pharma isos. Ignore USSes with less than 5 mins on the timer (in case you get interdicted) and ignore ones more than 50kls out (they'll just slow you down overall, better to go to the next system and look for closer ones, then revisit the other system later).
As often is the case with this game we can apply Ockham's Razor - Is it a cunning plan by FDev to make the game more complex and fulfilling, or is it a bug? Answer is always : Bug
True, juicy (elite/deadly/dangerous) pirate anacondas drop manufactured g5. No need to do solo in hazres, same works with cops' help for highres. Make sure you get into instances with the ships (just relogin if you see that the instance does not spawn anacondas).
As often is the case with this game we can apply Ockham's Razor - Is it a cunning plan by FDev to make the game more complex and fulfilling, or is it a bug? Answer is always : Bug
Ain't that the truth
One problem is that HGEs have become very rare. Another problem is that the minor factions within the system have multiple states: most of the USSes, including High Grade Emissions, are from minor factions within the system that don’t match the state of the controlling faction.
It’s kind of jarring going to a Boom system, and finding countless conflict zones, War USSes and military checkpoints. The controlling factions are oddly silent. It feels to me like a puzzle that hasn’t been completed: the pieces are all there but you can’t see a picture.
It’s kind of jarring going to a Boom system, and finding countless conflict zones, War USSes and military checkpoints. The controlling factions are oddly silent. It feels to me like a puzzle that hasn’t been completed: the pieces are all there but you can’t see a picture.
I can't believe this is working as intended.
Unfortunately one of fdevs biggest failings is releasing untested changes and then failing to communicate about it
A quick fix (after a letting us know if it's intended) would be to adjust the side trading ratio for g5 to 1 - 1 until it gets fixed. If I remember correctly it could be done server side at the next tick or Thursday server reboot.
A quick fix (after a letting us know if it's intended) would be to adjust the side trading ratio for g5 to 1 - 1 until it gets fixed. If I remember correctly it could be done server side at the next tick or Thursday server reboot.
I think it was on purpose Fdev adding grind to the game a bug cough cough!! So you trade for mats cause you have no other choice at 6 to 1 if you trade grade 5 for grade 5 cough cough that's fair isn't it. If you would like to know just how hard it is to find Pharmaceutical isolators check out Down to Earth Astronomy youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFhiACeJUBE this should give you some idea on what you will need to do to get them
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