EDO Engineering feedback from a 5k hrs veteran player

You say that as though they're everywhere, they certainly weren't when I was trying. If I'm looking for mission rewards, I wouldn't think to look for a different reward type to guarantee that I'd find some Push there. The game certainly doesn't tell me that.

I do also try to avoid surface POI missions because I don't do combat on my main character, and as bad guys turn up and start shooting you there's often no way for me to get the mission item in time, let alone look for extra loot.
I've been offered 2 larceny missions almost every time I look through the board.
TBH I haven't seen any scavs at a PoI for some time now, certainly not at the smugglers caches where I take my time to grab everything not in a yellow container.
It seems only the downed ship (Crash site/ Distress signal) attract scavs now and I can generally grab stuff lying around and be back in my SRV before they show up, only if I'm stopping to cut the panels on the ship am I likely to get caught.
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
They used to send me to about 5-6 different systems in that area
The layouts were varied enough and had the full range (military, agri, tourist, high tech, extraction and ind) of settlements
And i did picked a lot of missions not only restores - salvage, fetch/deliver, defense, assassination missions plus the mandatory thefts and heists for unlock while alternating with doing CZ for Hero.
Basically i picked any mission that offered good material rewards as long it didnt hit the local player anarchy faction that was ruling that area

It really didnt felt repetitive.
Especially not when considering that i did almost everything (except CZ ofc) in a G3 maverick using a g3 p15 and a g3 aphelion.
Yeah, same here. I feel the best approach to gather materials is through missions primarily and then loot on the side of those if you can: Make sure you have the EDO material helper tool to focus on your wish list and pick the missions with the right rewards. Negotiate with mission givers to increase mat reward numbers if possible. Missions will take you to a variety of settlements under a variety of states and planetary conditions, and a variety of activities that help with eliminating repetition. If you can also prioritize missions related to your BGS gameplay even better. Changed my base system a few times as well. On occasions where missions with reward mats I needed were not available I also decided to raid certain settlements where those mats had a good chance to come up. Etc. I actually enjoyed a lot the process of gradually improving my gear and profiting from the results in subsequent missions etc.

Over a year of this kind of on foot gameplay (nothing particularly massive in terms of time since I also play other games) I got 2 Maverick, 1 Artemis and 2 Dominators at G5. Also around 7 weapons at G5.

Elite is an MMO with character progress based on activity and time played, and like any other MMO, there is going to be grind. Weather the current grind is too much or too little is anyone´s opinion and feeling. Ultimately it is up to FDEV to decide and act accordingly to increase it or reduce it but, whatever they do, there will always be players that think it is too much when others think the opposite 🤷‍♂️
 
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TBH I haven't seen any scavs at a PoI for some time now

Yea, i'm starting to think that Irregular Markers POIs (the ones with 3 containers, at least) are bugged and not spawning any Scavs.
I've relogged in a number of them, sometimes intentionally, sometimes because the mission item was not spawn, and never got any Scavs.

Same for Distress beacons (landed Sidewinder or Eagle) but iirc these dont have Scavs.

But Impact Sites (Satellites small or big), Minor Wreckage (broken-down SRV), Crash Sites (Crashed ships like Sidewinder or Eagle) - these have their fair portion of Scavs with subsequent reinforcements.
 
Yea, i'm starting to think that Irregular Markers POIs (the ones with 3 containers, at least) are bugged and not spawning any Scavs.
I've relogged in a number of them, sometimes intentionally, sometimes because the mission item was not spawn, and never got any Scavs.

Same for Distress beacons (landed Sidewinder or Eagle) but iirc these dont have Scavs.

But Impact Sites (Satellites small or big), Minor Wreckage (broken-down SRV), Crash Sites (Crashed ships like Sidewinder or Eagle) - these have their fair portion of Scavs with subsequent reinforcements.
If true people should be busy getting SDPs while the bug's shining. Distress beacons had scavs, I remember camping an Eagle for PRs a while ago....
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
I just thought I should say I was trying to collect things about a year ago. I've not tried since.

The game is old school in that instead of pointing you directly at everything it expects you to explore and figure stuff out for yourself; some might even call that playing the game. This is neither good nor bad. It simply is. With the internet you can find out everything anyway. Of course, Frontier did put a Codex in the game, if only they knew what that actually meant, instead of putting in silly exploration checklists for every sector.
But in the ship game, it actually gives you a clue where to find things. In the on foot game, it doesn't
 
  • The complete lack of information regarding sourcing the materials
Agreed. This mainly affects assets - most goods and data are available as mission rewards, but if there's a pattern to what kind of economies/states cause certain goods and data to be offered, I've yet to determine it. The engineer unlock materials are particularly obscure, settlement defence plans in particular.
  • Permanent modifications on weapons and suits, absolutely discourages experimenting with different loadouts. This was a lot of fun for ship engineering.
GOD, THIS. It seriously discourages experimentation. Some weapons don't come into their own until around G3/4 which means you can't really test the efficacy of a mod without grinding a weapon up to a decent state, so the sunk cost if you find you don't get on with it isn't just the materials for the mod itself, but all the materials you spent on upgrading a weapon that now has a wasted mod slot you'll never get back.

As an example, silenced weapons need to be able to finish off a target before they can get a shot off themselves if you really want to be effective, so at the very least they need to be upgraded to the point where they can kick out enough damage to do that. The oppressor, for instance, is not worth silencing as it doesn't reliably kill fast enough. To give another example, the L-6 is another weapon that you might want to use at long range. It's not really a sniping weapon but it's effective from across a settlement, so maybe you might be tempted to put a scope on it - unfortunately, the L-6 scope mod offers barely any magnification over the mk1 eyeball, making it a poor use of a mod slot.

Mods being permanent also backs the devs into a corner with regards to balance tweaks too - if they were to nerf one of the existing mods, everyone who has that mod will scream and gnash their teeth because they now need to grind up a new weapon from the ground up if they want to swap it out for something else. If they want to add any new mods to the game then that'll also lead to complaints because, again, everyone who wants to try out the new mod has to ditch all their existing gear they've sunk time into upgrading. Likewise, it they were to, say, give the L-6 scope a buff to the point where it's actually worth using, maybe someone would wish they hadn't spent their last slot on reload speed or whatever.
  • The drop rate of some materials is absolutely ridiculous
The fact that there's RNG at all as a hard barrier to progress is horrible. You can be doing literally everything right, and the roll of the die says no which leads to an incredibly frustrating experience. Or maybe we're not doing everything right and there is a correct way, but we have absolutely no way of knowing that because of the first point I quoted.
I'd much rather have a near-guaranteed spawn of specific materials in highly specific circumstances over... whatever it is we have now. Just spitballing, settlements that are pending a war or civil war could attract missions to steal settlement defence plans, for instance, allowing players to abandon the mission after they've got the goods and just give them to Hero Ferrari instead if they don't actually want to take the mission reward itself.
 
I just thought I should say I was trying to collect things about a year ago. I've not tried since.


But in the ship game, it actually gives you a clue where to find things. In the on foot game, it doesn't
Yes, I agree. The Codex doesn't know what it wants to be. Where stuff can be found should be a basic function of the Codex. The game is schizophrenic.
 
The people that don't know how to play the game complain the most.
I quited the on foot upgrades cus of this... I dont know how to play, and while i dont expect from some sort of sandbox game to hold my hand, i do expect the game to at least tell me where (even as a reference not specific locations) i can find all this mats required for upgrading. So i agree with op, should have some sort of info on how you find mats while playing the game, instead of watching endless Youtube vids or third party tools by the hours, outside the game(i want to time sink ingame not spectating outside of it) . And i dont think that not knowing to play a game (that doesnt give you some helpful tool that provides that very chance of learning) makes the complaints less relevant. I guess the number of people watching those yt vids and complain ( Aka not knowing how to play the game) are a good evidence that the actual system needs a change.
 
I quited the on foot upgrades cus of this... I dont know how to play, and while i dont expect from some sort of sandbox game to hold my hand, i do expect the game to at least tell me where (even as a reference not specific locations) i can find all this mats required for upgrading. So i agree with op, should have some sort of info on how you find mats while playing the game, instead of watching endless Youtube vids or third party tools by the hours, outside the game(i want to time sink ingame not spectating outside of it) . And i dont think that not knowing to play a game (that doesnt give you some helpful tool that provides that very chance of learning) makes the complaints less relevant. I guess the number of people watching those yt vids and complain ( Aka not knowing how to play the game) are a good evidence that the actual system needs a change.
Not at all. I never watched any youtube to learn how to play. I went and discovered it for myself. What videos did the youtubers watch to learn how to play I wonder? Did they go back in time to make videos for themselves to watch so they would know how to make videos in the present, Terminator style? Do we need to send John Connor back to destroy them so Youtube doesn't take over our lives in the future? Is the future a dark road where people don't know how to do anything unless there's a video of it?
 
Not at all. I never watched any youtube to learn how to play. I went and discovered it for myself. What videos did the youtubers watch to learn how to play I wonder? Did they go back in time to make videos for themselves to watch so they would know how to make videos in the present, Terminator style? Do we need to send John Connor back to destroy them so Youtube doesn't take over our lives in the future? Is the future a dark road where people don't know how to do anything unless there's a video of it?
I am glad that you had the time and the will to do that, however that doesnt change the fact that there are other people too who doesnt feel or play the game same as you do ..but applying such a filter as you did with "the dark road" its utopic i think (otherwise why yt and third tool party exist at all??) . The number of visualisations of these kind of vids shows that there are people who needs some more tools to learn the game. I say why not in game? I guess that the level of Time investment we both are prepared to invest is different and opposed. I totally respect you for grasping where, for this instance, the upgrade mats are to be found, but i prefer a tool that gives me an indicator where i might gameplay to find them, rather than spending time to exploratory search them. Upgrading is a goal not a journey for me.
 
I managed to engineer a few things upto G3 since coming over from Xbox.

I got bored farming 10 opinion polls, they don't even show up on mission boards so it was jumping in and out of a settlement hoping RNG was good, took about a day.

FD can atleast add every material to have a chance to spawn on mission boards.
 
Upgrading is a goal not a journey for me.
A question I tend to ask, what is the reason for upgrading? What do you need to accomplish that the upgraded stuff is a necessity for?

As has been pointed out many times, bought G3 gear is generally good enough for most activities, and mats can be collected as you go along, allowing the enjoyment of the game and not grind. And one day, having had a lot of hours of enjoyment, you will reach your upgrading goal.

A further note, I strongly believe that, depending on your main focus playing the game, only one suit is required (often a Maverick) and a couple of decent weapons. Grind much reduced.

Steve
 
I managed to engineer a few things upto G3 since coming over from Xbox.
Were you aware that G3 gear can be bought, saving lots of time and materials. Locations of found items are posted on another thread.
I got bored farming 10 opinion polls, they don't even show up on mission boards so it was jumping in and out of a settlement hoping RNG was good, took about a day.
There is plenty of information available as to where materials can be found. Think of those sources as stuff you researched at a station or picked up chatting in the bar.
FD can atleast add every material to have a chance to spawn on mission boards.
Some material types are tied to specific missions/locations etc. Much is available as mission rewards.

Steve
 
A question I tend to ask, what is the reason for upgrading? What do you need to accomplish that the upgraded stuff is a necessity for?

As has been pointed out many times, bought G3 gear is generally good enough for most activities, and mats can be collected as you go along, allowing the enjoyment of the game and not grind. And one day, having had a lot of hours of enjoyment, you will reach your upgrading goal.

A further note, I strongly believe that, depending on your main focus playing the game, only one suit is required (often a Maverick) and a couple of decent weapons. Grind much reduced.

Steve
You are questioning the game resources and goals then, not why the players are doing it.... Why is it there to begin with then, i may ask.... Its a sandbox therefore everyone has the right to play as they see fit, especially if its there.... I only ask for some more tools, not why is it in the game, and questioning the way i have acces to those resources instead of counting to peoples mentality of playing the game...
 
While I agree with all points I want to focus on few critical issues IMO:
1. lack of engaging gameplay to collect needed mats and forcing players to ride settlements.
2. lack of material trading for all mats and expecially data (that will solve a lot of grinding)
3. impossibility to transfer modules
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
Yes, I agree. The Codex doesn't know what it wants to be. Where stuff can be found should be a basic function of the Codex. The game is schizophrenic.
The ship game doesn't need to use the Codex either. Every material in game has a description, and it tells you in there where it can be found.
Odyssey has no in game descriptions for the materials.
 
1. lack of engaging gameplay to collect needed mats and forcing players to ride settlements.
Nothing is forcing you to ride settlements.
I got 4x G5 suits fully modded and 6 G5 weapons without raiding a single settlement.
I just settled in the nice neighborhood and did a lots of missions, but NOT a single one that require me to raid a settlement or to shut down a settlement

Check my post from the first page.
They used to send me to about 5-6 different systems in that area
The layouts were varied enough and had the full range (military, agri, tourist, high tech, extraction and ind) of settlements
And i did picked a lot of missions not only restores - salvage, fetch/deliver, defense, assassination missions plus the mandatory thefts and heists for unlock while alternating with doing CZ for Hero.
Basically i picked any mission that offered good material rewards as long it didnt hit the local player anarchy faction that was ruling that area

It really didnt felt repetitive.
Especially not when considering that i did almost everything (except CZ ofc) in a G3 maverick using a g3 p15 and a g3 aphelion.
 
The ship game doesn't need to use the Codex either. Every material in game has a description, and it tells you in there where it can be found.
Odyssey has no in game descriptions for the materials.
Exactly. Info is spread everywhere. The point of the Codex should be to concentrate the info so everyone knows where to look. That's why I suggested it in the first place when I noticed the information spread was getting out of control, if only they actually understood that when they took up my suggestion.
 
Objectively forcing players to choose the criminal path, which allows for more efficient mats gathering
No forcing here... Lawful play is less fun, by a wide margin!
It's way faster to power up and loot a settlement then to fight your way and then deal with bounties
I disagree, I can get to notoriety 10 very quickly...
This is absolutely one of the best things about Odyssey for me - it actually has criminal activities be at least comparably efficient to the equivalent legal activities
Adding that they are much more fun, for me, so many Lawful settlements, so many mats...
 
Well, for the Quieter Footsteps mod, apparently I need 5 pieces of unicorn poop Settlement Assault Plans. It's getting annoying.
 
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