ASPA - Aberrant Shield Pattern Analysis - none since 3.0. Not one...

[n13L5]

For this subject, the only posts I could find were ancient - from 2.3.
I read where you were "supposed" to get them back then:
Boom State systems with high population in either USS, Hi-Res or CZ by scanning ships.

But lets not talk specifically about ASPA's just yet:
The problem starts long before we even get to Aberrant Shield Pattern Analysis not dropping:


- Hi-Res: After about a 100 scans with about half as many kills (just to make it less boring - ship scanning is hideously boring) I got all of two items from scanning!

- CZ: I've scanned the entire lot of ships in a High-CZ twice (by jumping out and back in) - again, I got just two items from all these scans.
(In this system/CZ, I'm not allied to anybody and I hadn't picked a side - I know you wouldn't get anything from scanning allied ships)

- USS: Didn't try, as that seemed to be the least likely according to the older posts - besides, usually only a few ships in a USS.



So, since 3.0, with our material needs vastly increased, the drop rates from ship scanning seem to be way down..

So now, ANY drop is extremely RARE (~ one in a hundred) - and then ASPA's are the highest level of RARE on their own - multiply 100x100 for rarity and chances are you'll never get any this way.


Is there some new or alternate way to get these in 3.0?



PS: to those who will invariably show up and tell us how they're just scanning everything they see in super cruise:
How aimlessly do you play this game? Since you can't scan ANYTHING without loosing the lock on your destination, its rather annoying to scan ships in super cruise - unless you were just flying with no place you actually want to go?

This has yet to happen to me, that I just randomly un-dock. More likely that I'll randomly log off and go to the beach.

 

[metatheurgist]

I have definitely gotten these from ship scans since 3.0.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

For this subject, the only posts I could find were ancient - from 2.3.
I read where you were "supposed" to get them back then:
Boom State systems with high population in either USS, Hi-Res or CZ by scanning ships.

But lets not talk specifically about ASPA's just yet:
The problem starts long before we even get to Aberrant Shield Pattern Analysis not dropping:


- Hi-Res: After about a 100 scans with about half as many kills (just to make it less boring - ship scanning is hideously boring) I got all of two items from scanning!

- CZ: I've scanned the entire lot of ships in a High-CZ twice (by jumping out and back in) - again, I got just two items from all these scans.
(In this system/CZ, I'm not allied to anybody and I hadn't picked a side - I know you wouldn't get anything from scanning allied ships)

- USS: Didn't try, as that seemed to be the least likely according to the older posts - besides, usually only a few ships in a USS.



So, since 3.0, with our material needs vastly increased, the drop rates from ship scanning seem to be way down..

So now, ANY drop is extremely RARE (~ one in a hundred) - and then ASPA's are the highest level of RARE on their own - multiply 100x100 for rarity and chances are you'll never get any this way.


Is there some new or alternate way to get these in 3.0?



PS: to those who will invariably show up and tell us how they're just scanning everything they see in super cruise:
How aimlessly do you play this game? Since you can't scan ANYTHING without loosing the lock on your destination, its rather annoying to scan ships in super cruise - unless you were just flying with no place you actually want to go?

This has yet to happen to me, that I just randomly un-dock. More likely that I'll randomly log off and go to the beach.

I've gotten loads of these via random ship scans. I find its easy to gather them up when you're doing a massacre missions, as you're scanning a lot of ships anyway.

 

[n13L5]

I've gotten loads of these via random ship scans. I find its easy to gather them up when you're doing a massacre missions, as you're scanning a lot of ships anyway.

That begs the question: Are you scanning hundreds of ships or thousands?

If we we could define what "a lot of ships" mean to you, as a numeric range, it would be helpful.


Because I thought my scanning of over 200 ships qualified as "a lot of ships" and I didn't get much of anything (4 low grade data items dropped from two individual ships)



If - lets say - I'd have to scan a thousand ships before I'd have a good chance to get an ASPA, I'd have to admit that this is probably not the right game for me, as I completely fail to experience this as "fun".


I guess this might be, where I'll get someone remarking, that this is "Elite" and I shouldn't expect fun in a game is designed for masochists and people with Stockholm syndrome ;-)
It happened before, it'll happen again...

 

[Thebadmf]

Next and previous target allows you to scan ships in SC without dropping the station as target. I do it in SC all the time and have gotten double figures of the things, that said I do recall taking them as mission rewards.

GL

 

[n13L5]

I have definitely gotten these from ship scans since 3.0.

How many ships did you scan since 3.0..?

Or, if understandably, you can't think of a good estimate for the entire time, how many ships do you tend to scan during however many hours you ended up playing the scanning game on any given day's play session?

 

[nanite2000]

I've got 36 since v3.0 just from scanning various ships while in SuperCruise.

Try high population systems. Get yourself 1,000 LS away from the primary star (useful for spawning High Grade Emissions too!), turn and face the star, and scan every ship while maintaining a low SuperCruise speed.

The ships will refresh/respawn when you drop out of SuperCruise and re-enter ready for more scans!

 

[n13L5]

Next and previous target allows you to scan ships in SC without dropping the station as target. I do it in SC all the time and have gotten double figures of the things, that said I do recall taking them as mission rewards.

GL

Great info! Thanks a lot...

I've never seen the slightest hint, that next / previous target would somehow not affect your destination lock...

I wonder if you read that in some manual or if you just figured it out by testing stuff?

 

[n13L5]

I've got 36 since v3.0 just from scanning various ships while in SuperCruise.

Try high population systems. Get yourself 1,000 LS away from the primary star (useful for spawning High Grade Emissions too!), turn and face the star, and scan every ship while maintaining a low SuperCruise speed.

The ships will refresh/respawn when you drop out of SuperCruise and re-enter ready for more scans!

Thanks for the detailed info!

So I guess implicit in that is, that CZ and hi-res are not the prime locations to get those anymore...

 

[Marc_Hicks]

That begs the question: Are you scanning hundreds of ships or thousands?

If we we could define what "a lot of ships" mean to you, as a numeric range, it would be helpful.


Because I thought my scanning of over 200 ships qualified as "a lot of ships" and I didn't get much of anything (4 low grade data items dropped from two individual ships)



If - lets say - I'd have to scan a thousand ships before I'd have a good chance to get an ASPA, I'd have to admit that this is probably not the right game for me, as I completely fail to experience this as "fun".


I guess this might be, where I'll get someone remarking, that this is "Elite" and I shouldn't expect fun in a game is designed for masochists and people with Stockholm syndrome ;-)
It happened before, it'll happen again...

Around 20-30, certainly no more than 50.

 

[n13L5]

Around 20-30, certainly no more than 50.

Thank you for the answer!

Along with the others who replied about super cruise scanning, it seems that CZ and RES are simply NOT the places to get those anymore, but super cruise is..., only the system conditions seem to have stayed the same.

Much thanks to everybody helping out with info, I'll go super-cruising this evening ^^

 

[Friedenreich Xante]

I'm not consistently scanning ships (not more nor less than I did before), and I noticed a decrease in drop rates from scanning ships as well. Usually I didn't have to bother for such data as they were coming in on a regular base, but I got out of ASPA for the first time.

 

[nanite2000]

Thanks for the detailed info!

So I guess implicit in that is, that CZ and hi-res are not the prime locations to get those anymore...

It would seem so, but it's impossible to know for sure. The in-game description says:

"Collected during basic scan: frequently pulled from combat oriented vessels."

Since CZ's are populated by military vessels, as opposed to standard combat vessels (the distinction is not obvious, I agree), then they don't seem to meet the required criteria.

For what it's worth, I also (wrongly) thought that CZ's would have lots of combat vessels that would yield this data. I did get lots of other data though, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Interesting. Decided to test this more robustly tonight. I scanned about 10 ships, no ASPA. However, the minute I scanned a Dropship, I got that & another one I cannot remember.

 

[metatheurgist]

How many ships did you scan since 3.0..?

Or, if understandably, you can't think of a good estimate for the entire time, how many ships do you tend to scan during however many hours you ended up playing the scanning game on any given day's play session?

No idea sorry. I try and scan everything in supercruise, especially security anacondas. When I'm waiting for the fuel scoop, before entering the station, leaving the station, you get the idea.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

For this subject, the only posts I could find were ancient - from 2.3.
I read where you were "supposed" to get them back then:
Boom State systems with high population in either USS, Hi-Res or CZ by scanning ships.

But lets not talk specifically about ASPA's just yet:
The problem starts long before we even get to Aberrant Shield Pattern Analysis not dropping:


- Hi-Res: After about a 100 scans with about half as many kills (just to make it less boring - ship scanning is hideously boring) I got all of two items from scanning!

- CZ: I've scanned the entire lot of ships in a High-CZ twice (by jumping out and back in) - again, I got just two items from all these scans.
(In this system/CZ, I'm not allied to anybody and I hadn't picked a side - I know you wouldn't get anything from scanning allied ships)

- USS: Didn't try, as that seemed to be the least likely according to the older posts - besides, usually only a few ships in a USS.



So, since 3.0, with our material needs vastly increased, the drop rates from ship scanning seem to be way down..

So now, ANY drop is extremely RARE (~ one in a hundred) - and then ASPA's are the highest level of RARE on their own - multiply 100x100 for rarity and chances are you'll never get any this way.


Is there some new or alternate way to get these in 3.0?



PS: to those who will invariably show up and tell us how they're just scanning everything they see in super cruise:
How aimlessly do you play this game? Since you can't scan ANYTHING without loosing the lock on your destination, its rather annoying to scan ships in super cruise - unless you were just flying with no place you actually want to go?

This has yet to happen to me, that I just randomly un-dock. More likely that I'll randomly log off and go to the beach.

It's getting even worse when hunting Abnormal compact emission Data. I've read in the patchnotes that settlements drop x3 mats again so it should be worth checking out again. But atm i get one pack in 100 signal sources. Most data are full in my store.....except ACED. There i have just 2.

If settlements really drop x3 again, it should be worth hunting. In 2.4 we were able to get nearly everything from there, don't know if it's still that way. At the end it's still too less data from settlements as same as from basic ship scanning in my opinion.

 

[Dagwit]

No idea sorry. I try and scan everything in supercruise, especially security anacondas. When I'm waiting for the fuel scoop, before entering the station, leaving the station, you get the idea.

It's getting even worse when hunting Abnormal compact emission Data. I've read in the patchnotes that settlements drop x3 mats again so it should be worth checking out again. But atm i get one pack in 100 signal sources. Most data are full in my store.....except ACED. There i have just 2.

I'm currently collecting data on scanning ships in Hi-RESs and Hi-CZs. A ways from completion but so far I'm seeing a drop rate of one ship dropping data in a hair under seven scans. That's averaged over hundreds of scans.

ACEDs have been scarce in 3.0.3. After 3.0 I was stumbling over them in Encoded Emissions USSs and seeing them occasionally in random ship scans. In 3.0.3 they've vanished from EEs and I've had precisely one drop (in a CZ, none in Hi-RES) in what must now be well over six hundred scans.

We shall see if there's any change in 3.0.4

 

[n13L5]

I'm currently collecting data on scanning ships in Hi-RESs and Hi-CZs. A ways from completion but so far I'm seeing a drop rate of one ship dropping data in a hair under seven scans. That's averaged over hundreds of scans.

ACEDs have been scarce in 3.0.3. After 3.0 I was stumbling over them in Encoded Emissions USSs and seeing them occasionally in random ship scans. In 3.0.3 they've vanished from EEs and I've had precisely one drop (in a CZ, none in Hi-RES) in what must now be well over six hundred scans.

We shall see if there's any change in 3.0.4

Interesting.

Given that ACED are grade 5, dropping in Encoded Emission USS was probably unintended.

The trouble with that, is of course, that High Grade USS don't have data points to scan... So if they remove them from Encoded, you might suddenly end up with no place to get any...

 

[andy22]

Yes this is frustrating as heck, i suffered through those 50 rare material transport troll missions, yet after fighting 4 hours in a HRES and 2 hours of trying several SC locations and scanning like mad, i got a total of 10 ASPA.... Is it supposed to take 10 times longer than the other "give me 50 stuff" engineers? I also barely got lower shield scan's so i can maybe trade for 5 more.

So either the "known" sources clearly don't work as expected or they need to lower the requirement dramatically to like 10-15, so the time needed to unlock matches similar mid tier engineers.

Does anyone has a specific SC location scan tip or is any boom/high-pop the same, since i got like 2-4 ASPA in 2 hours of scanning like 200 ships.

PS: I also tried boom systems for missions and even after flipping, i never saw a single ASPA missions in roughly 400 missions offered.

 

[andy22]

oki finally finished the 50 ASPA, i did just sit at a HRES with a G3 wide-angle scanner and scanned the 5-15 ships that spawn, than i exit/reset the HRES. The droprate is about 1:70 so for the 50 ASPA you need to scan around 1000 ships.