o7 all, is anyone having having trouble finding HGE's at all? Been whizzing around the sweet spot in a few systems for well over an hour and yet to find a single one
OP. It's like looking for love, the more you look, the more elusive....
My strat is to play the game "normally" and ENG my ship as and when the mats appear. I find it significantly less frustrating and don't feel I'm wasting my time.
Except that HGE are the only place to find certain materials, and only appear in certain states. If I want Imp Shielding, I can't just "play the game normally", because I normally kick around in Federal space. A billion random HGEs won't get get me what I need unless I go out of my way to find the right ones.
If everything was available, in decent quantities, from all kinds of missions. Maybe then we could engineer as we go. That's currently not the case. If you want to G5 something, you have to go hunt HGEs for hours on end.
To be fair it makes sense that you'd be more likely to find imperial shielding in Empire space. Plus you can use the material traders, so just collect the G5s you find and trade for them (albeit at a bit of a loss)...Except that HGE are the only place to find certain materials, and only appear in certain states. If I want Imp Shielding, I can't just "play the game normally", because I normally kick around in Federal space. A billion random HGEs won't get get me what I need unless I go out of my way to find the right ones.
If everything was available, in decent quantities, from all kinds of missions. Maybe then we could engineer as we go. That's currently not the case. If you want to G5 something, you have to go hunt HGEs for hours on end.
To be fair it makes sense that you'd be more likely to find imperial shielding in Empire space. Plus you can use the material traders, so just collect the G5s you find and trade for them (albeit at a bit of a loss)...
As an aside, has anyone else noticed a general scarcity of USSs? I still find them (inc HGEs) but not as frequently as I remember (before 3.1)...
Make it three tips: if you can spare a module slot, carry a small limpet controller to save time picking those bits up. [big grin]
Found one in a couple days of playing (few hours added up). So sick of the pointless grind.
Did you guys try simply running into a system with the required criteria and a hazRES and shoot some condas out of the sky? ... Normally anacondas always drop at least one G5 mat
While that's a far more engaging way of trying for G5 mats, and you can make some money while you're at it, you're still at the mercy of multi-tier RNG (something FDev seem to have an obsession with). RNG for a Conda to show up, RNG for if it drop a G5 and, seemingly, RNG what it drops. If you're after ~18 CDC to engineer a few HRPs, you're looking at dozens upon dozens of Conda kills to get what you want, and that's if you get an even distribution, which is, ironically, unlikely.
Why FDev can't design a system that doesn't involve RNG, let alone multiple tiers of it, is beyond me. I feel like the studio needs a gambler's intervention.
Trouble is people want the best ship with the best mods NOW!!, just chill and do it as it comes!