General Easy fix to the engineering material grind

[Dan Sher]

Increase the drop rate of materials and the activities they drop from, you get no materials from asteroid core mining or planet scanning for example and that is a huge missed opportunity

Another suggestion is to make every engineering grade only require a single roll to 100%, just like experimental effects already are, making engineering use a lot less materials and be predictable

 

[SlickPBW]

Another suggestion to make the game easier

 

[Dan Sher]

Another suggestion to make the game easier

I think the word you're looking for is "fun"
Because in the current state the best way to get materials being tens of hours grinding using questionable game mechanics that literally involve restarting the game is simply bad game design

 

[SlickPBW]

I think the word you're looking for is "fun"
Because in the current state the best way to get materials being tens of hours grinding using questionable game mechanics that literally involve restarting the game is simply bad game design

Nope. I used the correct word. Thanks though. Making the game easier would not be fun for me.

 

[varonica]

There come a point where things get made so easy there's no point to the process anymore is what SlickPBW is thinking here. If you get all materials easy and only 1 roll to max a level then you can do everything in a few minutes, so why bother wasting peoples time at all, just give everyone everything they want right away......that's how mobile games work, only they monetise it, you can spend a small amount of time grinding to get upgrades, or just pay them a couple of dollars to have it done immediately.

It's a bad business model, and I am not saying it doesn't work and doesn't make the game makers money, there's bad as in doesn't work and bad as being addictive and bad for players mental health. Having at least some effort required for achievement on the other hand is good as long as that effort isn't impossible, I think FDEV are on the right level at the moment, any easier and it would be pointless, any harder and it becomes annoying.

 

[Dan Sher]

There come a point where things get made so easy there's no point to the process anymore is what SlickPBW is thinking here. If you get all materials easy and only 1 roll to max a level then you can do everything in a few minutes, so why bother wasting peoples time at all, just give everyone everything they want right away......that's how mobile games work, only they monetise it, you can spend a small amount of time grinding to get upgrades, or just pay them a couple of dollars to have it done immediately.

It's a bad business model, and I am not saying it doesn't work and doesn't make the game makers money, there's bad as in doesn't work and bad as being addictive and bad for players mental health. Having at least some effort required for achievement on the other hand is good as long as that effort isn't impossible, I think FDEV are on the right level at the moment, any easier and it would be pointless, any harder and it becomes annoying.

Well if people would much rather relog and grind the materials than do the intended gameplay, whatever that is at this point, then the FDEV are clearly not at the right level
"Everything is fine, change nothing"
Meanwhile the active player numbers keep on dropping

 

[metatheurgist]

I think the word you're looking for is "fun"

There is no common state of "fun". I like games that don't hand everything over on a platinum platter, others think that's like getting cake. People have different tastes, that why we have different types of restaurants (and different games). There is no right or wrong here (except maybe playing the wrong game, like going to the wrong restaurant).

 

[Dan Sher]

There is no common state of "fun". I like games that don't hand everything over on a platinum platter, others think that's like getting cake. People have different tastes, that why we have different types of restaurants (and different games). There is no right or wrong here (except maybe playing the wrong game, like going to the wrong restaurant).

I like how you, or the two people before you, didn't even respond to the best method to get manufactured materials being restarting the game at HGEs or relogging at crashed cobra for encoded mats, what's your solution to those questionable game design choices?

 

[SlickPBW]

In my opinion, the fastest way to destroy this game is to make it easier. In fact I believe that there are areas that should be made harder. There already are easy things to do, and this is necessary for newer players to learn. However in an open world sandbox game, if everything is easy, it will be: “ok, I did everything and I’m done. Set ya, bye.” Being Elite needs to mean something, specifically that you did a lot of hard things - and in its current state, elite ranks don’t really mean this, we should prevent further erosion. There are lots of easy things to do fin this game or fun, teamwork and relaxation. There should be more hard things, or VERY hard things. This is because in an open sandbox game, with no equivalent of a final boss or final quest, that’s really the only thing that provides longevity and avoidance of that feeling that makes people move on, and that feeling is “I’ve done everything so many times that there’s no fun left for me”.


Edit: on the specific complaint about the “grind “ for engineering:

Engineering has already been made easier by at LEAST the 3 following:

- the original total cap of 1000 materials was changed to have individual bins for each mat

- the random aspect of original engineering was changed to force a predictable, positive improvement with each “roll” in contrast to the randomized method where it could take literally hundreds of roles to “max” out a component.

- picking up a mat now gives 3 items instead of the original 1

So be happy you never experienced these.

 

[Dan Sher]

In my opinion, the fastest way to destroy this game is to make it easier. In fact I believe that there are areas that should be made harder. There already are easy things to do, and this is necessary for newer players to learn. However in an open world sandbox game, if everything is easy, it will be: “ok, I did everything and I’m done. Set ya, bye.” Being Elite needs to mean something, specifically that you did a lot of hard things - and in its current state, elite ranks don’t really mean this, we should prevent further erosion. There are lots of easy things to do fin this game or fun, teamwork and relaxation. There should be more hard things, or VERY hard things. This is because in an open sandbox game, with no equivalent of a final boss or final quest, that’s really the only thing that provides longevity and avoidance of that feeling that makes people move on, and that feeling is “I’ve done everything so many times that there’s no fun left for me”.

HGE game restarting, crashed cobra relogging, what's your response to those being the best methods to get materials?

 

[SlickPBW]

HGE game restarting, crashed cobra relogging, what's your response to those being the best methods to get materials?

My response is that spamming HGE’s is nowhere near the best method. AND you shouldn’t be complaining about a crash that you got while clearly using a relogging exploit. I am done here.

 

[Dan Sher]

My response is that spamming HGE’s is nowhere near the best method. AND you shouldn’t be complaining about a crash that you got while clearly using a relogging exploit. I am done here.

So what do you think is faster than HGE game restarting? Also the fact that you interpreted "crashed cobra" as game crashing and not the Jameson's crashed cobra encoded material farming method just shows that you know nothing about the game

 

[SlickPBW]

you know nothing about the game

CMDR SlickPBW - ranks | Elite:Dangerous | INARA

The companion site for Elite:Dangerous with the game database, market data, trade routes, outfitting, engineers, blueprints, crafting, Thargoid war, squadrons, logbooks, galleries, galaxy information and much more...

inara.cz

CMDR Dan Sher | Elite:Dangerous | INARA

The companion site for Elite:Dangerous. The game database, market data, trade routes, outfitting, engineers, blueprints, crafting, Thargoid war, squadrons, logbooks, galleries, galaxy information and much more...

inara.cz

 

[metatheurgist]

HGE game restarting, crashed cobra relogging, what's your response to those being the best methods to get materials?

Personally I'd love it if they made those one and done. I have never relogged on a HGE, I have visited Jameson's Cobra twice, once for the lore, second...can't remember, maybe for happy snaps. Dav's Hopeless is something I thoroughly despise (also a one'er for me, lore gain).

 

[varonica]

Personally I'd love it if they made those one and done. I have never relogged on a HGE, I have visited Jameson's Cobra twice, once for the lore, second...can't remember, maybe for happy snaps. Dav's Hopeless is something I thoroughly despise (also a one'er for me, lore gain).

Same, people who relog over and over then complain about the grind, well they are the ones creating the grind, not FDEV, and while I don't want to be in a position of telling someone how to play the game, if they aren't enjoying their self imposed grind, why are they doing it?

 

[Dan Sher]

Same, people who relog over and over then complain about the grind, well they are the ones creating the grind, not FDEV, and while I don't want to be in a position of telling someone how to play the game, if they aren't enjoying their self imposed grind, why are they doing it?

Well, you get barely any materials from other activities, I'd much rather spend tens of hours grinding and moving on to fun aspects of the game than grinding for hundreds of hours like you do
Relying on players having no life outside the game and just putting up with whatever bullcrap is thrown at them is not good game design

 

[metatheurgist]

It's actually only just a little bit slower to get mats without relogging in Horizons (this is not the case for Odyssey). And tbh, I get more fun and enjoyment from flying around exploring new systems while looking for HGEs than just finding one HGE and logging it. It feels more like I'm actually playing the game (and living in a galaxy) than doing some kind of artificial chore; I only wish Frontier leaned more towards this than encouraging relogging by validating places like Dav's Hopeless (and crystal forests).

Edit: Oh, before the Mods get too excited - my use of the Term Davs Hopeless is not me insulting Dav, he's a fine fellow. I'm just making clear my opinion on places like Dav's Hope.

 

[Factabulous]

Fdev should just double the relog time for every relog. 'encourage' people to play the game rather than game the game. For the players own good.

 

[varonica]

Well, you get barely any materials from other activities, I'd much rather spend tens of hours grinding and moving on to fun aspects of the game than grinding for hundreds of hours like you do

What the heck, who said I've been grinding for hundreds of hours, in fact I am the antithesis of grinding, I never grind, you're the one doing all the grinding and complaining about it, I have thousands of hours in the game and can't recall ever relogging once just to collect mats.....don't think everyone thinks the way you do because we don't.

 

[St0rmFury]

I was one of those who followed youtube guides on how to grind for mats a couple of months into my career. I did grumble a bit due to how reliant on RNG some of those mats are. I got the rest of the mats that I couldn't get by farming HGEs from stacking massacre missions with my squadron, choosing the G5 rewards and trading for them.

I'm kinda glad I spent that short amount of time farming HGEs (about 2 weeks of casual relogging) because I didn't have to worry about mats anymore after that. Only my combat ships are G5, my other ships are typically only G3 - 4 or guardian'd. In fact, my mats are now mostly being used to synthesize ammo so I don't have to rearm at the nearest FC/station when doing combat CGs (I'm trading mats for time, which is a more valuable resource ).