You have a Fleet Carrier so I doubt you could possibly understand my experience but to me your question is paradoxical. I can't know what I don't know, so what do you even mean?
Looting: In most games loot early on isn't all that important or valuable. Also without Limpets, it's painful and time consuming to loot in ED. So yes, I skipped some loot in my travels especially early on. Excuse the HECK out of me guys.
Also how was I "rejecting" heap-ways to go about something that I just learned about??? This is such an unfair way to phrase a question. Why would you phrase it like that? I knew about Engineers vaguely but I assumed it would be something introduced to me organically. This seems anything BUT organic. No player has ANY reason to trade for materials before Engineers, so why should I be expected to having been accomplished at trading for materials in advance of said Engineering???
See, this is what I meant, in my previous post, about the need for a bit of humility and to avoid getting frustrated.
It seems as though you're a victim of the way FDev has escalated earnings, in ED, to the point where a player can skip most of the game's progression.
Three or four (or five) years ago, you'd start off in a Sidey, scrape together enough to buy a Cobra and then, maybe, buy a Viper or Type 6 while spending most of your time in your Cobra... for months.
When you were doing that, and doing missions that paid Cr250-odd, you'd naturally travel around, looking for better ways to earn credits.
You'd also be more likely to look at engineering when you could upgrade, say, a pulse laser to do more damage instead of just buying a beam laser which cost a couple of weeks' earnings.
It also meant that you'd learn about engineering while flying, say, a Cobra or Viper, which don't have as many slots and, thus, don't require as many mat's to upgrade all the modules.
If you've been doing a limited selection of things, and enjoying them, I guess it's time to broaden your horizons and see what else you might enjoy doing.
Almost every activity in ED can provide mat's, either by finding them or as payments for missions.
As I already said, tell us what you've been doing and what you enjoy doing and people will offer suitable suggestions for gathering mat's.
As for unlocking the engineers, you're just going to have to bite the bullet on that one.
Almost every engineer can be unlocked with a couple of hours play, though. Less if you get help from another player.
About the only engineer who requires significant effort is Professor Palin, who wants you to travel 5000Ly (IIRC) to unlock him.
Again, though, find a cooperative FC owner and you can achieve that overnight, without even trying... and if you're flying a Sidewinder you can instantly explode yourself home again afterwards.
