Engineering Raw Materials collection : Either Wave Scanner spots OR Geological site spots but not mixing BOTH !

[Ijaa]

I tried some light Raw materials farming and came across something pretty problematic. Let's put some context :

Raw materials farming was, at first, done using the SRV Wave Scanner : You had to check the pattern on your wave scanner to move toward the type of spot yielding what you wanted (Bronzite, Mesosiderite, Outcrops, etc). Not very efficient and pretty tricky for new players.

Then came the exploration remake with the appearance of geological sites : No need for the Wave Scanner anymore, just landing on a geological site made sure you would get plenty of materials based on new spot types : Piecous Cobble, Cristalline shards, Cristalline Needles, etc. Very efficient and requiring almost no experience to fill up the reserves.

With Odyssey, geological sites completely disappeared from the navigation panel, we're back on the Wave Scanner, for the best of the worst, I can't say, but the spots from the geological site still spawn on the planet. Now why is it a problem ?

1. Piecous Cobble and cristalline spots have the same wavelengths as the old spots, making the hunt for those pretty confusing using the Wave Scanner.
2. Piecous Cobble and cristalline spots only yield IRON. Instead of materials depending on the spot type (in sites, Piecous Cobble was G1, Cristalline Shards was G2 or G3, Cristalline needle was G4, etc).
When you're looking for a specific spot for a specific grade of material, most of the time, it ends up on a useless iron yielding spot.

My suggestions here :

1. Either change the wavelengths for geo site spots (and restore the proper yields, Iron only is useless) OR remove them completely from planet surface and replace them by the original WS spots (mesodiderites, outcrops, etc).

2. Make a new use of the now-usless DSS filters : Make regions with site-type spot concentration and WS-type spot concentration with specific colors that can be spotted using the filters.

Material farming should be fun, take some time, but NOT be FRUSTRATING.

Note : I'll update this post (or not) upon further testing.

 

[CMDR Rabbit]

2. Piecous Cobble and cristalline spots only yield IRON. Instead of materials depending on the spot type (in sites, Piecous Cobble was G1, Cristalline Shards was G2 or G3, Cristalline needle was G4, etc).
When you're looking for a specific spot for a specific grade of material, most of the time, it ends up on a useless iron yielding spot.

Not always iron, but always a G1. Usually whatever is most abundant for that body although there can be regional variation. I've found both carbon and sulphur a couple of hundred Km apart.

All the crystalline stuff is dropping g1s, and that i, i think a bug.

Outcrops and meteors and such pop a few higher grades but not much considering the effort it takes to find them. The little i've done so far puts them most likely in the ejecta streaks around major craters. But that could be coincidental or confirmation bias on my part.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

and replace them by the original WS spots (mesodiderites, outcrops, etc).

Those never went away - and in Odyssey at least in some places the valuable metallic meteorites seem much more common than they were in Horizons.

 

[Ijaa]

Not always iron, but always a G1. Usually whatever is most abundant for that body although there can be regional variation. I've found both carbon and sulphur a couple of hundred Km apart.

All the crystalline stuff is dropping g1s, and that i, i think a bug.

Outcrops and meteors and such pop a few higher grades but not much considering the effort it takes to find them. The little i've done so far puts them most likely in the ejecta streaks around major craters. But that could be coincidental or confirmation bias on my part.

Thanks for the precisions. I only dropped Iron on my run. Either Iron only or G1 only, this is problematic for material farming.

Those never went away - and in Odyssey at least in some places the valuable metallic meteorites seem much more common than they were in Horizons.

Indeed. But they are still to few to make an efficient farm. And Wave Scanner signals are mixed up with piceous or crystalline, meaning you can go all the way straight to something that will only give you G1 materials.

 

[varonica]

Yeah the low value mats appear to be a bug, I have got both Sulphur and Phosphorus from one body, which topped my SRV fuel reserves nicely, I won't be needing any of that for a while, but I have had some quite good results from the other drops, mesidorites, meteorites and outcrops etc.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Indeed. But they are still to few to make an efficient farm. And Wave Scanner signals are mixed up with piceous or crystalline, meaning you can go all the way straight to something that will only give you G1 materials.

It may depend where you go - I've been dropping down onto non-volcanic rocky/HMCs and finding sufficient metallic meteorites that I've been getting raw materials faster than a Horizons volcanism site would have been.

More luck-dependent, certainly, but if you're visiting the planets anyway it evens out pretty quickly.

 

[varonica]

Thanks for the precisions. I only dropped Iron on my run. Either Iron only or G1 only, this is problematic for material farming.


Indeed. But they are still to few to make an efficient farm. And Wave Scanner signals are mixed up with piceous or crystalline, meaning you can go all the way straight to something that will only give you G1 materials.

Just to point out, the wave scanner signals for outcrops and etc are different from the wave scanner signals from mats on volcanic features, you can decide which ones you visit. In some areas vulcanism is plenty dense enough to use as a farming area, this particular area went in for 20klms+ and had far more volcanic features than the old areas;

And this area just had them everywhere, plenty to farm once they get the drops right, I expect we will soon enough get some sites listed once the drops are better;

Both areas had lava spouts, fumaroles and gas vents, there are places where the density is fine for farming, but it isn't the same density everywhere, you just need to pick the right spots.

 

[Distant Carrier]

I agree. You should be able to filter the scanner for what you are looking for.. ore, biologics, volatiles, etc. The internals panel already has room for a toggle like this too, doesn't it?