Etienne Dorn?

[EMM4]

I was curious.

Before I set out on this 22,000LY journey, can anyone tell me what is so special about Etienne Dorn?

I just need to know if this will be worth my time or a waste of it. 22,000Ly seems a bit excessive just for an Engineer. Especially if you need to hop around the Bubble just to engineer your ship enough to just make it out to him only to discover you can get what you wanted by just hopping around the Bubble in the first place.

Seriously, he's so far out I can understand why he would want 25 Occupied Escape Pods just to unlock him. He wants the company of those people in those pods and he could use those pods for scrap.

I'm just curious about it before I set out on this endeavor.

 

[Vasco Sapien]

22Ly ......

 

[EMM4]

Sorry. I forgot a few zeros.

That was supposed to be 22,000LY.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

22Ly ......

Suspect it's actually 22 Thousand Light Years

OP: I think he's just one of the new Colonia Engineers. No need to unlock if you're in the Bubble unless you're serious about Pokemoning it.

 

[Factabulous]

inara can tell you all about him. Probably best to plan on unlocking the other 3 while you are out there.

 

[EMM4]

The only thing I can see on Inara is he works with more mods than any other Engineer. I was just wondering if there was anything other than that that made him so special that would make a trip that long worth it.

I can make that trip and clean up with scanning systems on the way there and back.

I'm looking at the map and I can see the potential of this trip being a bit of a pain by having a TON of stretches where I would have to stop and search for a fuel star within range and then recalculating the trip rather frequently.

 

[Codger]

He's the only engineer that can do G5 life support. Explorers like him for the lightweight mod.

 

[War Eagle]

EDEngineering makes everything about engineering easier.

There is a stand alone version too.

 

[SpaceScania]

I can't bring myself to unlock him. It's just too creepy having to provide him with occupied escape pods. I don't know why Frontier has to be that dark and creepy for unlocking a Colonia engineer when Colonia is kind of supposed to be a more idealistic place where they are striving to leave the conflicts of the bubble behind. I'm actually pretty bugged about it if I am honest.

I am working on my first ever alt pilot and the aim is to send him to Colonia once I am ready and to base him out there. I won't be unlocking Mr. Creepy though, even if the mods he has are highly sought after.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

The only thing I can see on Inara is he works with more mods than any other Engineer. I was just wondering if there was anything other than that that made him so special that would make a trip that long worth it.

The only modification he has that you can't get in the bubble is Life Support
Grade 5. If you're not doing a lot of combat, he also therefore has Life Support
Grade 4 which you'd otherwise need to see Lori Jameson for, and if you also h
ate mining or the Alliance so much you refuse to unlock Selene Jean and Bill Turner he's the only way you're getting a Life Support modification at all.
(High-grade life support modifications are really only needed for extreme-range exploration of the galactic rim)

Primarily he's useful if you're planning to stay 22,000 LY from Sol and want to engineer things without going all the way back to the bubble, as are the other three (Brandon, Hicks, Olmanova) nearby. You probably want to make sure you have the conditions for those three as well before you set off...

Secondarily the four of them can be useful back in the bubble as sources of extra pinned blueprints - for example, Selene Jean is the only bubble engineer to offer G5 Armour or G5 HRPs, so if you want both Armour and HRPs pinned, you have to visit Petra Olmanova for the other one.

I'm looking at the map and I can see the potential of this trip being a bit of a pain by having a TON of stretches where I would have to stop and search for a fuel star within range and then recalculating the trip rather frequently.

Fuel stars shouldn't be a problem - both the general density of stars and the number of scoopables is pretty high all the way in. So long as your jump range is at least 20 LY it's not a problem, especially after you get the first 5000 LY or so and after the inter-arm void.

Maximum plotting range is 20,000 LY so you will need one intermediate point to re-plot: I'd recommend Gandharvi system as it's a convenient place to stop about mid-way and you can repair your ship, or there's a whole chain of stations about every 5,000 LY if you want to take a slightly more indirect route.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I can't bring myself to unlock him. It's just too creepy having to provide him with occupied escape pods. I don't know why Frontier has to be that dark and creepy for unlocking a Colonia engineer when Colonia is kind of supposed to be a more idealistic place where they are striving to leave the conflicts of the bubble behind. I'm actually pretty bugged about it if I am honest.

There are potentially non-creepy explanations.

Colonia basically entirely forbids slavery. There is nowhere in the entire region which sells either slaves or imperial slaves. If you wanted to experiment on people, there would be considerably more convenient places to do it, and it's unlikely anyone specifically invited by the Council would be involved in that.

Many of the things he researches - Life Support, Power Plants, various types of sensor and scanner - would be very useful for building better escape pods and finding them quicker in future. Seeing how the current models work - or don't - in the field is crucial data for making improvements.

It's quite possible that he just spends too much time in the lab and doesn't realise that he needs to explain slightly more about why he needs escape pods.

 

[Codger]

I can't bring myself to unlock him. It's just too creepy having to provide him with occupied escape pods. I don't know why Frontier has to be that dark and creepy for unlocking a Colonia engineer when Colonia is kind of supposed to be a more idealistic place where they are striving to leave the conflicts of the bubble behind. I'm actually pretty bugged about it if I am honest.

I just did this recently, and it didn't bug me much in the context of the game. That's because I had to first rescue these poor abandoned escape pods from a damaged megaship, where they would have stayed forever unless I opened that hatch to get them out. I then took them over to Etienne, who kindly took care of them for me. I assume any living people inside would be treated properly, and set free to go on about their business, but I actually didn't ask. Most of them were probably dead, though. No telling how long they'd been in that megaship.

So there's some head-canon for ya

 

[elginn]

Here's the problem I have with Colonia Engineers.

Frontier added 4 (why only 4 I don't know) engineers to the Colonia area (I've been exclusively in the Colonia region for over 2 years now), GREAT!

While not mentioning the immersion lag and half-baked feeling of having only 4 so that while 90% of all engineers handle 2 to 5 improvements, these 4 all have over 10 just to stuff it all in so to speak...

The biggest problem is that all of them require an invite from 22000ly away.

So, while this might make a good tease to bring new folks out this way, for us that live out here, this basically means that we wont be engineering and eventually this will render Colonia much less dynamic and organic than it should be.

Frontier has committed to spending the next block of development for bug and game-play fixes, so I'm hoping that by the next update someone in the over 9M population in the Colonia region has been made aware of the magical engineers in their backyard, so I don't need to keep shuttling 44000ly for each introduction.

Yeasus!

This post addresses the really exciting possibilities as well as the issues and overlooked gems in the idea of Colonia. shortcomings of the Colonia region.

Engineers in Colonia isn't enough

 

[CMDR GRAEME COWELL]

I flew out to colonia (via the neutron highway) basically on a whim, discovered after arrival that there are engineers out there "oh cool that'll save me having to go back" nope all require unlocking via fu#@ing about with other engineers, personally think Colonia Region would be nice as a stand alone kind of thing, would fit with the general feel of the place

Edit: un-engineered jump range 35ly ... so lots of FSD wear and tear

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

I dislike the only G5 life support is out there though. If you're serious about maximizing jump range on EVERY ship, it's a crucial trip to make but it makes no sense why we don't have it in the bubble.

 

[CMDR GRAEME COWELL]

I dislike the only G5 life support is out there though. If you're serious about maximizing jump range on EVERY ship, it's a crucial trip to make but it makes no sense why we don't have it in the bubble.

Agree it's almost like FD are using it to force players to make the trip, also given how buggy pinning blueprints is at the moment, having to do a trip to the bubble or colonia just to re-pin a blueprint is a major pain

 

[Bigmaec]

1) jump into sidewinder
2) get yourself blown up
3) chose your starter system
4) get a budget hauler or DBX, engineer some fsd and stuff
5) ???
6) profit!

Voila, you just skipped 22000 ly of your journey.
Running the neutron highway in a ~ 60 ly dbx (which you can get easily by engineering some stuff)
takes roughly 3-4 hours. People made it even faster.

It's not that bad. Oh, and if you're out there for 2 years, get a guardian FSD booster for that sweet extra range.
The guardian stuff is beautiful to watch and explore too. Very scenic.

 

[Rubbernuke]

There are potentially non-creepy explanations.

Colonia basically entirely forbids slavery. There is nowhere in the entire region which sells either slaves or imperial slaves. If you wanted to experiment on people, there would be considerably more convenient places to do it, and it's unlikely anyone specifically invited by the Council would be involved in that.

Many of the things he researches - Life Support, Power Plants, various types of sensor and scanner - would be very useful for building better escape pods and finding them quicker in future. Seeing how the current models work - or don't - in the field is crucial data for making improvements.

It's quite possible that he just spends too much time in the lab and doesn't realise that he needs to explain slightly more about why he needs escape pods.

Or, just like the Pirate King people come in.....delicious tasty burgers and better life support comes out. All we do is turn the handle

 

[MPL3D]

I recall when occupied escape pods were found floating in deep space as USS signals while exploring, now they are on planet surfaces only, and they are hard to find.
Another reason to hate those complaining players who find the game too difficult for them.

Now I'm my way to meet Dorn with just ten of these escape pods in my cargo, and the megaship trick as the only solution to meet the requirements. Random USS was more fun to me.

As for the luck of those inside the pods, there is no reason to think about a bad end.
Perhaps it is for rescue purposes only. Maybe Etienne himself was trapped inside one of those escape pods in the past, and now he wants as many as possible to be rescued.

 

[Speedcuffs]

I recall when occupied escape pods were found floating in deep space as USS signals while exploring, now they are on planet surfaces only, and they are hard to find.
Another reason to hate those complaining players who find the game too difficult for them.

Now I'm my way to meet Dorn with just ten of these escape pods in my cargo, and the megaship trick as the only solution to meet the requirements. Random USS was more fun to me.

As for the luck of those inside the pods, there is no reason to think about a bad end.
Perhaps it is for rescue purposes only. Maybe Etienne himself was trapped inside one of those escape pods in the past, and now he wants as many as possible to be rescued.

Some of the 'Pirate Activity Detected' POIs have escape pods.