Horizons Chemical Manipulators and murder

Valorin

Valorin
I recently gathered stuff to upgrade my FSDs to grade 5, and asked around where to get Chemical Manipulators, which are needed for the blueprint. First advise I got was "You can easily farm them in famine systems. Just go there and shoot refugees in T9s"

Aaaall right... Shoot refugees in T9s.

Hell NO!

No, because I am not a pirate. I mean, yeah, it's a game and all and I can find explanations for my roleplaying conscience, but still, no. For me, part of the fun in Elite comes from my pilot's identity, and that's not "Pirate" or "Cutthroat". Shooting at civilians is just something I don't want to be forced to do.
The problem is, it's incredibly easy to get those Manipulators if you don't care about this stuff and just shoot and collect. Other than that it's searching combat aftermaths, hoping for wanted T9s at nav beacons, for example, or looking for POIs on planet surfaces. I did that. For hours. Didn't find anything. I had 3 in my inventory, so I know it's possible to get these things by other means than piracy, but it's much, much harder to accomplish.

Those Chemical Manipulators are just an example, I guess. I bet there are more materials with similar farming conditions, and it would be awesome if there would be a way to get these materials equally easy without murdering people.
 

ick

ick
Every once in a while when I mine (or run SALVAGE missions) I stop at every "degraded signal source". Usually they have no enemy and you find a destroyed ship. Often there are materials... that will eventually be useful.

I deploy my collector limpets and gather whatever is not illegal salvage.

My miner and salvage ship are the only two configurations that I equip collector limpets. Works great for gathering these materials. Combat zone signal sources and shipping lane signal sources will give you different materials.

Eventually you will find a destroyed T9 and the material you desire.

You could play in open and grief players in T9s. At least that is a legitimate PvP reason instead of "just being a jagg-off". That will work until Frontier finally implements a legitimate crime-and-punishment system that is more than a YEAR OVERDUE.
 
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Valorin

Valorin
Yes. That works in the long run, and the materials I have are from those occasional stops. But murder is much, much more effective if you are trying to farm them. I would love to see a way of farming this stuff a bit more easy without committing murder.
 

Valorin

Valorin
Yeah, that's what I said. I spent a lot of time looking for Combat Aftermaths and all, but it's much, much slower than killing people.

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Mechanist said:
Yeah right...30 minutes later you're playing BF1, GTAV or similar and murder is fun fun fun [squeeeee]
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Of course that's different in other games! If I play HITMAN I kill people. I have no problem with that. This is not supposed to be a discussion about morale in computer games. :D
It's about the role of your pilot in Elite and that gathering a rare material is much more easy as a murderer than a pilot with an actual conscience. The difference is, that I can choose my pilots personality in Elite.
 

Clifra Jones

Clifra Jones
Just like in real life, crime is one of the fastest means to an end! Because really, who wants to work hard!

The game mirrors real life. WOW!

Cmdr. Clifra Jones
 

Codger

Codger
I understand where you're coming from, OP. I resisted the combat route for a while myself, for much the same reasons. But I have a lot of ships. Which means a lot of gathering. In the end I went with the RES site in an anarchy system, and killed Transport ships there. At least it's not against the law :)
 

Mechanist

Mechanist
Valorin said:
Yeah, that's what I said. I spent a lot of time looking for Combat Aftermaths and all, but it's much, much slower than killing people.

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Of course that's different in other games! If I play HITMAN I kill people. I have no problem with that. This is not supposed to be a discussion about morale in computer games. :D
It's about the role of your pilot in Elite and that gathering a rare material is much more easy as a murderer than a pilot with an actual conscience. The difference is, that I can choose my pilots personality in Elite.
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In my case it was murder vs. hours of grind.
When I had to farm manipulators I roleplayed that I'm in military simulation for weapons testing :)
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
I get my transport materials from combat in anarchy zones. Pick a fight against a dictator, but rather than going to the CZ zones I just slaughter ships from SC. Counts for the mission and I get my stuff. Alternatively, missions give them.
 

david6768

D
artificial game play boundary

My pilot lost his pilots license so I just want every money and item to be handed to me. After all I should be able to put any artificial game play boundary on myself and expect the game to cater to me.
Sounds reasonable and I don't see a problem here at all!
 

Topper

Topper
david6768 said:
My pilot lost his pilots license so I just want every money and item to be handed to me. After all I should be able to put any artificial game play boundary on myself and expect the game to cater to me.
Sounds reasonable and I don't see a problem here at all!
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wow, you missed the point entirely :eek:
It's not about how a certain material is 'unobtainable' and FD should make it easier to get it. The thing is, gettin' these materials is messing with our roleplay. So you either totally screw RP and get those mats by 'fragging imaginary pixels' , or you stand tall and just don't do it.
In my case, I buried the idea of having a grade 5 FSD. But that's only cause a grade 4 isn't that much worse, that 1-2 LY range less isn't going to kill me exactly.

But in general: I don't like it at all that FD is forcing me to play E:D in a way I don't wan't to play it, specially when it comes to 'must have' equipment.
 

ick

ick
I agree with this completely. The older I get the more I find my moral stands permeate all areas of my life... including video games.

No thanks to witchcraft, assassins, abuse, and all the other garbage that is the foundation to video games today. Quite distasteful. Not for me.

Have at it, but you reap what you sow... even if it is all virtual. You are compromising yourself.

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That reminds me. This is also why I didn't deface barnacles or vandalize ancient ruins.
 
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Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
ick said:
I agree with this completely. The older I get the more I find my moral stands permeate all areas of my life... including video games.

No thanks to witchcraft, assassins, abuse, and all the other garbage that is the foundation to video games today. Quite distasteful. Not for me.

Have at it, but you reap what you sow... even if it is all virtual. You are compromising yourself.

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That reminds me. This is also why I didn't deface barnacles or vandalize ancient ruins.
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Witchcraft? You have a moral stance on witchcraft? In the 21st century? :S
 

Pyrotiger

Pyrotiger
ick said:
I agree with this completely. The older I get the more I find my moral stands permeate all areas of my life... including video games.

No thanks to witchcraft, assassins, abuse, and all the other garbage that is the foundation to video games today. Quite distasteful. Not for me.

Have at it, but you reap what you sow... even if it is all virtual. You are compromising yourself.

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That reminds me. This is also why I didn't deface barnacles or vandalize ancient ruins.
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Hahahahaha that's hilarious, well done man.

...oh wait, you meant that?

You see, you almost had me going there! :)

Your game and you play it the way you want bud.
 

Valorin

Valorin
Well, everybody is totally allowed to have his/her own morale standing. Same as religion. So this isn't even discussable.
Back to topic now please?
 
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maxwelldemon98

maxwelldemon98
It is a moral dilemma. Are you willing to kill for an Engineer upgrade or grind for days/ weeks to get the same outcome. Will the upgrade mean more with the grind? Will you feel that you earned it? That's up to the player. The thing is that the Engineers are a bit off the grid themselves, so finding items to allow them to modify/ upgrade you ship will more than likely require some off the grid thinking.
 
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