Gathering stuff for engineers

[Alpha November]

I'm not participating in the beta though I have read various threads about it. I am concerned by the time/effort required to find stuff for the engineers but I'm not sure I've understood (out of the welter of disagreement) what the scale of the challenge is. I understand that in the beta the stuff required and its quantity is much simplified and reduced.

My question then is; does anyone have an idea as yet as to the actual diversity and quantity of stuff that will be required when 2.1 goes live? Has it been indicated somehow in the beta or did a Dev talk about it and I missed it?

If, for example, I want to upgrade my FSD on my Corvette - how much running around will I have to do to get the best possible FSD?

Thanks all

 

[Kicks]

I think you'll find out when 2.1 hits what the actual requirements are.

Then you can make the judgement call on whether to pick that stuff up as you play normally, or head out and do specific things in specific places to get them that way.

One thing I will be doing will be gathering enough for 3 rolls of the dice.

 

[Alpha November]

I think you'll find out when 2.1 hits what the actual requirements are.

Then you can make the judgement call on whether to pick that stuff up as you play normally, or head out and do specific things in specific places to get them that way.

One thing I will be doing will be gathering enough for 3 rolls of the dice.

I've done my best to gather at least a few of each material and I've gathered some bounties, combat bonds and exploration data (about 5M of each). Is there any other prep I can reasonably do? Help appreciated.

 

[Ian Skippy]

The best possible will take a long time, as you have to find the engineer and get a max reputation. But its the best, noone should expect the best to come rapidly. Lower-grade upgrades are much easier to attain.

Engineers is supposed to be a ling-term addition to normal gameplay. Dont freak out about wanting everything to be perfect in a short time and you'll be fine. Just do the new missions, enjoy the new combat AI, go watch the improved planetary graphics and you'll automatically gain materials to be used by engineers.

2.1 is great, but a nightmare for compulsive grinders.

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I've done my best to gather at least a few of each material and I've gathered some bounties, combat bonds and exploration data (about 5M of each). Is there any other prep I can reasonably do? Help appreciated.

No, commodities/materials are new in 2.1. And seriously, slow down.

 

[Alpha November]

The best possible will take a long time, as you have to find the engineer and get a max reputation. But its the best, noone should expect the best to come rapidly. Lower-grade upgrades are much easier to attain.

Engineers is supposed to be a ling-term addition to normal gameplay. Dont freak out about wanting everything to be perfect in a short time and you'll be fine. Just do the new missions, enjoy the new combat AI, go watch the improved planetary graphics and you'll automatically gain materials to be used by engineers.

2.1 is great, but a nightmare for compulsive grinders.

Well, there you have me. I just can't leave that sort of thing alone. I have to grind, grind, grind until my fingers bleed.

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No, commodities/materials are new in 2.1. And seriously, slow down.

Isn't the stuff you get from rocks you blast on the planets called materials? I'll have to go and look.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Well, there you have me. I just can't leave that sort of thing alone. I have to grind, grind, grind until my fingers bleed.

Then I am afraid you're going to hate the Engineer part with a fury... what you can do is gather the documentation abkut mods, specials in the beta forum so you can plan what you want.

But still, good luck...

 

[Father Cool]

What's the rush, running around is part of the game. It is the game. I can't understand why are people so obsessed with having to have things instantly to get to an end game that isn't there?

As simple analogy that seems to be the mindset of people in general these days is this. True story, my son likes to draw pictures, he gets his pens out and doodles for a bit then brings me his drawing to look at. It's a basic outline with no shading or colour added, basically a concept sketch.

I say to him "Thats a good start, are you going to add some depth to the shapes now and maybe some colour to make it pop?"
He replies "No it's done."
I say "Why not, it would look way better with some definition and colour. We could then frame it and put it on the wall."
"But that's going to take ages to shade it and colour it all in." He replies with his moany teenager voice.
I roll me eyes "Well yes but if you do it, it will look great, and the fun is in 'doing' the art isn't it? You draw because you 'enjoy' doing it, surely the time taken to do it is irrelevant because after you are done with the picture you will just draw another one."

The moral to the story is, you play a game to play the game. If the game involves hunting for stuff then the hunting is 'the game'. What do you want a top range FSD Corvette with nowhere to go?

 

[Alpha November]

What do you want a top range FSD Corvette with nowhere to go?

Well, I do have places to go in my Corvette and a top FSD would get me there quicker. A true answer though is that I want the top FSD because it is the top FSD.

 

[Kicks]

What's the rush, running around is part of the game. It is the game. I can't understand why are people so obsessed with having to have things instantly to get to an end game that isn't there?

As simple analogy that seems to be the mindset of people in general these days is this. True story, my son likes to draw pictures, he gets his pens out and doodles for a bit then brings me his drawing to look at. It's a basic outline with no shading or colour added, basically a concept sketch.

I say to him "Thats a good start, are you going to add some depth to the shapes now and maybe some colour to make it pop?"
He replies "No it's done."
I say "Why not, it would look way better with some definition and colour. We could then frame it and put it on the wall."
"But that's going to take ages to shade it and colour it all in." He replies with his moany teenager voice.
I roll me eyes "Well yes but if you do it, it will look great, and the fun is in 'doing' the art isn't it? You draw because you 'enjoy' doing it, surely the time taken to do it is irrelevant because after you are done with the picture you will just draw another one."

The moral to the story is, you play a game to play the game. If the game involves hunting for stuff then the hunting is 'the game'. What do you want a top range FSD Corvette with nowhere to go?

That's really nicely put.

 

[Father Cool]

Well, I do have places to go in my Corvette and a top FSD would get me there quicker. A true answer though is that I want the top FSD because it is the top FSD.

Well yes the nowhere to go was the analogy there though. I meant nowhere meaningful to go in game because the grind was too easy. I understand that you want the best because it is just that but that's no reason to dilute the experience of getting it. If you want it and it takes 6 months to grind for it then do that. If you are happy to pick up the necessary things at a slower pace and do other stuff too then that's also fine. In fact it's a big open sandbox world where it's all fine. Being a compulsive grinder you will of course do that and get what you want, but it should be hard work, such is life. You gotta grind flour to make bread!

 

[CMDR Mr S]

What's the rush, running around is part of the game. It is the game. I can't understand why are people so obsessed with having to have things instantly to get to an end game that isn't there?

[...snip...]

The moral to the story is, you play a game to play the game. If the game involves hunting for stuff then the hunting is 'the game'. What do you want a top range FSD Corvette with nowhere to go?

Because:

1) NPCs instantly have the mods. In the initial deployment of 2.1 NPCs had INSANELY powerful, combined mods. like a plasma mini cannon. And even without the insane weapons / shields / etc... they got the upgrades instantly after 2.1 rolls out and we have to grind for days, weeks to get a tier 1 upgrade. Fair? I think not.

2) The game rewards time spent in the game vs skill. That is, players who spend all day playing the game will get to the upgrades considerably faster. It's NOT skill based. It doesn't matter if you are a good player or not, you just have to hang around places long enough for the materials to show up. How is that a rewarding game mechanic? You are basically rewarding who spends more time in the game, regardless of what they are doing. I could understand that if FD was making us watch adverts while in game... but as it is is just senseless grind. Not even knowing where to go to get the stuff is even more frustrating. I don't mean I want a glowing light pointing me at where I need to go, but for example give me chance to buy a 'programmable scanner' that can point me at a material I choose the signature for.

I keep coming back at this game because I have a lifetime pass, otherwise I would have left ages ago, the design decisions have been THAT bad. I think I might leave altogether and go to Star Citizen, and come back at some point when 4.0 or 5.0 rolls around...

 

[Father Cool]

As is the case with pretty much all MMO games these days. The people who play longer get more XP and get more gear. Take destiny for example, all you do there is kill wave after wave of enemies gaining XP with each you kill. Eventually this leads to gaining access to better gear. Do this over and over and over to progress. No thought or problem solving involved. I'm not saying that ED is any more mentally taxing but it's not as though every other game you play these days doesn't do the same thing. If you obtained weapons mods super quick without the hunt etc to gain parts and rep you would just end up with the game before 2.1 dropped but with different guns.

 

[CMDR Mr S]

As is the case with pretty much all MMO games these days. The people who play longer get more XP and get more gear. Take destiny for example, all you do there is kill wave after wave of enemies gaining XP with each you kill. Eventually this leads to gaining access to better gear. Do this over and over and over to progress. No thought or problem solving involved. I'm not saying that ED is any more mentally taxing but it's not as though every other game you play these days doesn't do the same thing. If you obtained weapons mods super quick without the hunt etc to gain parts and rep you would just end up with the game before 2.1 dropped but with different guns.

Ok, so you are completely ignoring my point about NPCs getting the stuff automagically. BTW... are the Bi-weave shields still there? Can't remember seeing them. Back at the second point, yes, I get it, but in the way it is organized now the game rewards ONLY time investment. What reward do you get for getting to, for example, beagle point? Or killing off an anaconda with a viper? Zero. To be fair, you get the marginal payout fo the discovery of new systems, or the bounty, but that's it. It would not take into account that you have killed a big ship with a small one or whatever.

Do we want to talk about long range smuggling?... Gone.

Just because something it's not a problem for you, it does not mean it is not a problem for the others. Be mindful of people that might have different wishes and expectations about this game, above all if said expectations are generated by something that has been arbitrarily taken away (bi-weave, long range smuggling...) because 'we said so' and 'it is not a problem to me so deal with it'.

I paid for this game, about 200 USD, and I feel like I want to be able to express my point of view, and would like for it to be listened to.

One thing is for sure, a year ago I would have (and have, in fact) advised friends to buy Elite, today I am telling people to stay the hell away from it until it matures.

I am on the verge of requesting a refund. But in the end, I might as well leave for a year or so, and come back when the game, the designers, and the comments are a bit more mature.

 

[Father Cool]

Well as of the last update NPCs have now been stripped of engineers upgrades so no worries there. However as an answer to them 'automagically' getting them I don't see how you can actually judge that, ok you 'know' that they have because they are NPCs and the update has only just landed but the point is that you have to assume that in the Elite universe there is nothing to say that this hasn't always been there and the NPCs of course represent other commanders in the universe so why would they not have worked to get the upgrades just like you can. It's about putting yourself in the game and not just playing the mechanics. If you approach this game as a min/max playing the mechamics only attitude then you will get dissappointment and miss completely what the game is about. I assume that you have done just that and as such have become 'dissapointed' as you have expressed. I understand that people have different expectations to what a game should be and I respect that but I can't help but feel that short cuts to goodies because either a)You just want them to play with and can't bothered with the work to get them or b) Because you feel 'entitled' to good stuff because others be it NPCs or CMDRs have them leads to a 'more' shallow game where we all have everything cheaply with no emotional expenditure to get them and nothing you do with them once you have them because everyone has them.

I just find it hard to believe that people scream for added content and depth and when some comes along and actually gives people longer term goals and things to work for FD get slated for adding gameplay. I certainly wouldn't like to be in FDs shoes.

On the other notes, I believe Bi-Weaves are back (I still had mine on my FDL anyway) and I think smuggling is still a thing just not from Robigo at the moment. I hope smuggling stays though as it was great fun.

 

[CMDR Mr S]

On the other notes, I believe Bi-Weaves are back (I still had mine on my FDL anyway) and I think smuggling is still a thing just not from Robigo at the moment. I hope smuggling stays though as it was great fun.

Noted. I disagree with everything you said. Have a good night.