The one I found earlier was in a state of civil unrest and in low sec system. It was from a HAB during a restore power mission.
Does System Status Matter for Opinion Polls?
- Thread starter KingTurtle
- Start date
I gave up on Bedi Inn after 7 runs (42 HAB ports checked with 0 OP/SCP), and then just ran random tourist sites with same pattern (6 bungalow, best one for dataports) until I got one which did drop them (Coumbassa Sanctuary at Ailuremowo). However hit an enormous dry spell again and had to get the last OP from another Cmdr.
I have to say this is the most soulless grind I've encountered in Odyssey yet. The sheer randomness and unpredictability of "dry spells" is extremely frustrating. 13 empty runs in a row, that's really something else even for Elite.
I have to say this is the most soulless grind I've encountered in Odyssey yet. The sheer randomness and unpredictability of "dry spells" is extremely frustrating. 13 empty runs in a row, that's really something else even for Elite.
Looking at my logs at the time I farmed this the player faction was in boom state:
Code:StationFaction":{ "Name":"Race Marshalls", "FactionState":"Boom"
According to Inara they are currently in Civil Unrest. If that does turn out to make a difference, maybe it's worth trying a different anarchy tourist settlement currently in boom:
INARA
The community site for Elite: Dangerous, Starfield with the game databases, information, gaming news and other handy content...inara.cz
Great stuff, thanks - I'll try that after a couple more runs at Bedi Inn.
Is there way to check the building pattern / settlement layout in advance? I too much prefer the 6 bungalow layout.
Shareholders are happy though.
Bedi Inn has been unpowered for 3 days... I've been busy but have done several restore missions and checked the settlement, none of which yielded any Opinion Polls. The Restore Missions were pretty fun, though - another mission type that I enjoy in Odyssey.
Do not forget that when you see these missions that you do not have to take them, just visit and slap in a spare power regulator from your inventory.
Steve 07.
I will if I ever have a spare to spare. 
I hear you! Got my first one from a mission only yesterdayI will if I ever have a spare to spare.
Even rarer than OPs dare I say it. I have 5 polls now but taking a break from trying to find them - the grind is losing its allure. I don't mind working for something but the continuous rinse and repeat with very little to show is quite frustrating.
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Yup. I traveled there to see if I just picked bad RNG tourist settlement and still got the same result of 0 opinion polls on the 10 runs I did.
You know where I found my 4th Opinion Poll? Doing a freaking kill contract at an anarchy Military base (2 HAB buildings). It's like the damn game is purposefully checking to make sure I am not just looking for it.
Bedi Inn is finally out of Civil Unrest... and I get my first Opinion Poll the next trip.
So weird how it keeps doing that.
Deleted member 182079
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I managed to score 7 OPs in short succession (yesterday and today). Today's session was in system Kipsigines, planet A1 has a couple of mining outposts that are in Expansion state, not sure if it had any effect or whether it was just pure luck. Ended up doing rounds of the EXT, STO and HAB dataports and all had some - one even two at once.
thanks will try later.
Folks if you still need Opinion Polls come to Kipsigines ASAP!
Thank ObiW. It might just be that Expansion is the key to getting more to spawn. I managed to get 2 in just 1 run at the Federation Mining Facility. Again this is Federation so you will be wanted if you get caught.
Deleted member 182079
D
Glad it worked. I was wondering whether it was just a fluke or whether it could be reproduced. I do also wonder if Fed + Expansion/Election (both applied in that system, for different factions iirc) is the winning combo or whether that system was pure chance.
I'm not sure even finding "2 in one run" is evidence of any form of statistical correlation though.
The issue is too many different types of data can be rolled for. If you pick any one of the types you need from Habitat Data ports, you'll find a similar low hit rate. It just so happens that Opinion Polls data is one of those we need a specific amount of that's pretty high. I can't prove this but my feeling was and always has been that FD did not apply some sort of clever logic to this at all and I think it's just a random loot table dependent on the type of data port. If you assume every item on that list has an equal chance to appear and you only ever get a maximum of 4 results, the chances of seeing Opinion Polls is low.
Factabulous spent a lot of time collating some data to hopefully prove some correlation and it does seem to suggest that there is some correlating evidence but if you consider the variance shown for OPs specifically, then look at the sample sizes for each "system state" and finally you consider that the total list of possible values is very long... A sample of 4/106 suggesting Dictatorship states are a bad location to go compared to 11/67 suggesting Feudal is a very good place to go... That's an integer variance of just 6 across a sample variance of just 49, where the total list of possible values exceeds 70+
For me, there are only two logical approaches to collecting Opinion Polls:
1) Grind it hard at the location where you have the highest volume of Habitat data ports (Tourist sites) and lose some of your soul and hate the game whilst you do it
2) Opt to complete this specific requirement at a later time because it's not a stress to complete it immediately and check every Habitat Data port in settlements as you go - there are more than you think (as Factabulous has highlighted very well in the linked post of theirs). You can get up to 4 in a single Extraction site (they're not only located in HAB buildings). It's a given that we must get things like Ionised Gas and Microelectrodes and other things by scavenging or stealing them from settlements. You must, until these can be bought from carriers, get a ton of materials from settlements that also have several Habitat Data ports. So just check every single one as you go and you will get the 20 you need long before you've gained all the materials you need to fully upgrade two suits and 5 weapons (I know this because I had 27 by the time they changed the requirements from 40 to 20 and I still haven't finished upgrading all my stuff).
I think grinding this specific requirement, just to unlock an engineer, is so inefficient given you still then have to spend a ton of time afterwards at the very places you need to go to get the OPs in the first place. I do recommend applying some bias to your chosen locations to get stuff (I choose between 2-3 specific types of settlement because I know certain items appear in those locations) and opting for the larger settlements gives you more data ports, in almost all cases. I just think attempting to narrow down a "better chance" of a dice roll across about 80-100 possible values just so you can go grind it anyway without doing anything else is pointless.
If all you're going to do is grind it, just find any active 8 port tourist settlement and knock yourself out. Even assuming 6/106 and 11/67 are meaningfully comparative results (I don't think they are considering the possible outcomes exceed the sample size of one of those results, so it's entirely possible a second test of the same sample size would result in wildly different results), you're not going to notice that by the time you've gotten 20 OPs mindlessly resetting a tourist site.
The issue is too many different types of data can be rolled for. If you pick any one of the types you need from Habitat Data ports, you'll find a similar low hit rate. It just so happens that Opinion Polls data is one of those we need a specific amount of that's pretty high. I can't prove this but my feeling was and always has been that FD did not apply some sort of clever logic to this at all and I think it's just a random loot table dependent on the type of data port. If you assume every item on that list has an equal chance to appear and you only ever get a maximum of 4 results, the chances of seeing Opinion Polls is low.
Factabulous spent a lot of time collating some data to hopefully prove some correlation and it does seem to suggest that there is some correlating evidence but if you consider the variance shown for OPs specifically, then look at the sample sizes for each "system state" and finally you consider that the total list of possible values is very long... A sample of 4/106 suggesting Dictatorship states are a bad location to go compared to 11/67 suggesting Feudal is a very good place to go... That's an integer variance of just 6 across a sample variance of just 49, where the total list of possible values exceeds 70+
For me, there are only two logical approaches to collecting Opinion Polls:
1) Grind it hard at the location where you have the highest volume of Habitat data ports (Tourist sites) and lose some of your soul and hate the game whilst you do it
2) Opt to complete this specific requirement at a later time because it's not a stress to complete it immediately and check every Habitat Data port in settlements as you go - there are more than you think (as Factabulous has highlighted very well in the linked post of theirs). You can get up to 4 in a single Extraction site (they're not only located in HAB buildings). It's a given that we must get things like Ionised Gas and Microelectrodes and other things by scavenging or stealing them from settlements. You must, until these can be bought from carriers, get a ton of materials from settlements that also have several Habitat Data ports. So just check every single one as you go and you will get the 20 you need long before you've gained all the materials you need to fully upgrade two suits and 5 weapons (I know this because I had 27 by the time they changed the requirements from 40 to 20 and I still haven't finished upgrading all my stuff).
I think grinding this specific requirement, just to unlock an engineer, is so inefficient given you still then have to spend a ton of time afterwards at the very places you need to go to get the OPs in the first place. I do recommend applying some bias to your chosen locations to get stuff (I choose between 2-3 specific types of settlement because I know certain items appear in those locations) and opting for the larger settlements gives you more data ports, in almost all cases. I just think attempting to narrow down a "better chance" of a dice roll across about 80-100 possible values just so you can go grind it anyway without doing anything else is pointless.
If all you're going to do is grind it, just find any active 8 port tourist settlement and knock yourself out. Even assuming 6/106 and 11/67 are meaningfully comparative results (I don't think they are considering the possible outcomes exceed the sample size of one of those results, so it's entirely possible a second test of the same sample size would result in wildly different results), you're not going to notice that by the time you've gotten 20 OPs mindlessly resetting a tourist site.
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Deleted member 182079
D
Welcome back
The only thing I will say with regards to my personal experience is, I played the game fairly regularly in recent weeks, almost obsessively so I will add, but have only come across 3 OP's during that time as part of regular, non-grind gameplay, where I was focusing on other mats. So I can't even remember where I got those OPs from.
When I stumbled across that system over the weekend, I figured "now or never" because of that poor drop rate over weeks/months of playing "normally". Why? Because this stupid mat and its ridiculous drop rate prevented me from accessing two engineers, which I needed for specific mods I want to add to my gear. I realise most of the mods they offer can be had from other engineers, but there it's even worse (SDPs awol, Velasquez not unlocking most likely a bug). It was quite a bottleneck in my progression path and am relieved it's done I have to say. Was it fun? Nope. But I never have to worry about OPs again thankfully.
ThanksWelcome back
The only thing I will say with regards to my personal experience is, I played the game fairly regularly in recent weeks, almost obsessively so I will add, but have only come across 3 OP's during that time as part of regular, non-grind gameplay, where I was focusing on other mats. So I can't even remember where I got those OPs from.
When I stumbled across that system over the weekend, I figured "now or never" because of that poor drop rate over weeks/months of playing "normally". Why? Because this stupid mat and its ridiculous drop rate prevented me from accessing two engineers, which I needed for specific mods I want to add to my gear. I realise most of the mods they offer can be had from other engineers, but there it's even worse (SDPs awol, Velasquez not unlocking most likely a bug). It was quite a bottleneck in my progression path and am relieved it's done I have to say. Was it fun? Nope. But I never have to worry about OPs again thankfully.
So it's defintiely recommended to bias your chosen "play areas" if you want to get OPs, as I suggested in the post above. Entirely random play won't net a lot of OPs.
When I needed ionised gas, weapon components or circuits, I'd go to a large extraction site that could have about 0-4 ionised gas per run. These sites have 4 Habitat data ports (One in each HAB building and two in the STO building). That's 50% of the total habitat data ports that you can find in the best "grindy" tourism site. It's still the same RNG. It's still entirely possible you'll not see a single OP in several runs. But it still gives you 4 rolls per run through (and each port can have up to 4 rolls, of course)
The alternative is to go get your ionised gas from several other settlement layouts that only have maybe one single Habitat Data port. And there you will limit your chances a ton.
I'm just saying there's little point to attempting to decipher some statistical coda if the intent is to just grind it out. If the intent is to grind it out, any active 7-8 port location will do. You won't notice any difference across the time it takes you to get 20 OPs that way, not when we're dealing with a possible outcome list that's dozens in length. The story is a bit different with Smear Campaigns, it seems. As it looks like these are only available in anarchy? But we're talking about OPs here so I'm limiting the scope of what I'm saying just to that alone. But then, if you go to an anarchy extraction site as mentioned above, you kill that bird with the same stone too
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Deleted member 182079
D
Funnily enough, I hit a similar streak with Smear Campaigns the week before. To unlock Navarro I had to do the 10 reactivation mission requirement, and I tried 69 G Carinae (spelling?) without even reading up on requirements - I only knew it was a anarchy system from past BGS work there, and luckily there were lots of outbreak reactivation missions at tourist sites.Thanks
So it's defintiely recommended to bias your chosen "play areas" if you want to get OPs, as I suggested in the post above. Entirely random play won't net a lot of OPs.
When I needed ionised gas, weapon components or circuits, I'd go to a large extraction site that could have about 0-4 ionised gas per run. These sites have 4 Habitat data ports (One in each HAB building and two in the STO building). That's 50% of the total habitat data ports that you can find in the best "grindy" tourism site. It's still the same RNG. It's still entirely possible you'll not see a single OP in several runs. But it still gives you 4 rolls per run through (and each port can have up to 4 rolls, of course)
The alternative is to go get your ionised gas from several other settlement layouts that only have maybe one single Habitat Data port. And there you will limit your chances a ton.
I'm just saying there's little point to attempting to decipher some statistical coda if the intent is to just grind it out. If the intent is to grind it out, any active 7-8 port location will do. You won't notice any difference across the time it takes you to get 20 OPs that way, not when we're dealing with a possible outcome list that's dozens in length. The story is a bit different with Smear Campaigns, it seems. As it looks like these are only available in anarchy? But we're talking about OPs here so I'm limiting the scope of what I'm saying just to that alone. But then, if you go to an anarchy extraction site as mentioned above, you kill that bird with the same stone too
So the only perceived grind was to do 10 of those missions, the SCs were a bonus. Sometimes the stars can align, and I feel I have been extremely lucky in recent days, but it's really poorly designed in terms of progression unlocks. I had more than enough SCs before even having anywhere near the required OPs, and you need those first in the engineer path.