Since 3.0 I've been having fun with the vastly improved engineers and as such I've spent a lot of time hoarding, some may say grinding for, as many materials as I can get my hands on, and I've even found the process not too onerous, dare I say fun. Yes, there, I said it.
However I've hit a bit of a wall with Encoded Firmware so I decided to give data point scanning at bases a go as the mission boards don't seem to be offering any kind of sensible time/reward missions for the materials I want.
So, base scanning... as far as I can tell, not been touched since it went into the game. It is very simplistic yet quite frustrating at the same time. Not knowing how many data points I need to scan was annoying, a simple 1 of N, 2 of N ... etc as you scan them would be an immediate improvement. I was at a higher security base having done a low security one previously and assumed three was the number I needed when it was actually five.
Also finding the darn data points in the first place can be a nightmare and very time consuming, especially at the bigger bases, particularly if there is one 30 meters up in the air on a platform with no obvious route to get up to it. It would be good to be able to pin these to your contact panel so once you have completed your recce of the base you can then plan your run between all of the data points rather than have to remember where they all are.
I know "mini-game" is a dirty word but I think it would be good if scanning the data points was just the beginning, hacking into the system with some sort of "lets see what I can grab before they lock me out" game once you have gained access, maybe this could be based on how much time you have left on the countdown for scanning the data points so a quick clean run between them would afford you more time to grab better stuff. Taking it further perhaps having to download each firmware takes a set amount of time; low grade are small files and download quickly and higher grades are larger and require more time thus requiring quick decisions on what to grab.
Anyway I'm just going way off into theorycrafting land now but FD have tried to make megaships a more interactive experience so I don't see why they couldn't try a similar thing with the bases because as they are now they seem a bit neglected.
Also, does anyone know if there is a way of shutting off those red barrier force fields?
However I've hit a bit of a wall with Encoded Firmware so I decided to give data point scanning at bases a go as the mission boards don't seem to be offering any kind of sensible time/reward missions for the materials I want.
So, base scanning... as far as I can tell, not been touched since it went into the game. It is very simplistic yet quite frustrating at the same time. Not knowing how many data points I need to scan was annoying, a simple 1 of N, 2 of N ... etc as you scan them would be an immediate improvement. I was at a higher security base having done a low security one previously and assumed three was the number I needed when it was actually five.
Also finding the darn data points in the first place can be a nightmare and very time consuming, especially at the bigger bases, particularly if there is one 30 meters up in the air on a platform with no obvious route to get up to it. It would be good to be able to pin these to your contact panel so once you have completed your recce of the base you can then plan your run between all of the data points rather than have to remember where they all are.
I know "mini-game" is a dirty word but I think it would be good if scanning the data points was just the beginning, hacking into the system with some sort of "lets see what I can grab before they lock me out" game once you have gained access, maybe this could be based on how much time you have left on the countdown for scanning the data points so a quick clean run between them would afford you more time to grab better stuff. Taking it further perhaps having to download each firmware takes a set amount of time; low grade are small files and download quickly and higher grades are larger and require more time thus requiring quick decisions on what to grab.
Anyway I'm just going way off into theorycrafting land now but FD have tried to make megaships a more interactive experience so I don't see why they couldn't try a similar thing with the bases because as they are now they seem a bit neglected.
Also, does anyone know if there is a way of shutting off those red barrier force fields?
