Okay, I just checked, and Mel Brandon is on my list of engineers but still locked. It says I need an invitation from The Colonia Council, it looks like I'm all set, thanks a bunch to everybody for the help, you guys are a priceless asset, and I can't express enough how grateful I am.
-
Greetings Commander, want a more instant approach to your questions and need for help? Check out the Galactic Academy Discord server!
Feel free to join the Galactic Academy Discord server by clicking here!
Newcomer / Intro Grade 4 access with an engineer but can't get beyond grade 3
- Thread starter 0threeleven
- Start date
Whilst you’re in Colonia, and if you have knowledge of the Colonia Engineers given via the Bubble based ones, it would be well worth your time unlocking them all. The time it takes is negligible, the biggest issue you’ll have is whether you have enough materials to G5 something with each of them to unlock their full potential and pin a blueprint.
I took a new save Cmdr out there a month or two back and managed to do just that despite not having the materials. Between mission rewards, HGEs and material traders it’s really not too hard.
I find Etienne Dorn, unpleasant as he is, very useful for G5 Life Support as he bypasses having to reach the combat rank of Dangerous and Elite in one of the ranks just to get access to Shinrarta for Lori Jameson and her G4 life support - very useful if you’re wanting to explore more than shoot stuff. Others may disagree and find another G5 rail gun pin more useful for example.
Good luck making your choices
I took a new save Cmdr out there a month or two back and managed to do just that despite not having the materials. Between mission rewards, HGEs and material traders it’s really not too hard.
I find Etienne Dorn, unpleasant as he is, very useful for G5 Life Support as he bypasses having to reach the combat rank of Dangerous and Elite in one of the ranks just to get access to Shinrarta for Lori Jameson and her G4 life support - very useful if you’re wanting to explore more than shoot stuff. Others may disagree and find another G5 rail gun pin more useful for example.
Good luck making your choices
Hopefully I'll find a derelict megaship on the way back and stock up on life pods. Ya, I'll spend some time bombing around the "new" bubble in my Krait Phantom and see if I can get in trouble. Maybe kill some NPC interdictors, I hate those guys.
Edit: Oh no, I forgot my limpets
Last edited:
If you're still in Colonia there's a great way to get the escape pods there. When I did the Colonia Unlock Tour I was able to get through the other engineers no trouble on my own, but I was prepared to accept that I would leave Dorn locked, since there was no way I was going to hunt for escape pods in the wild, hoping to find one here or there is a USS.
I wrote a thread about it off-site at SimHQ. No one's actually ever commented on it haha.
Unlocking Colonia Engineers -- SimHQ
But before I left with just three engineers unlocked I ran a search here on the Frontier boards, and stumbled across C64 Fan's 'life saving' thread. See what I did there?
Guide: Fast way to find Occupied Escape Pods near Colonia
And with that I was able to get Dorn done too.
This is a colourful shot of my mining Krait, Twin Reverb, attempting to fish out the last pod to hit my 25.
What happened next was not my finest moment. From that thread...
Right next to Mel Brandon's base in Luchtaine is a distress signal. In there you find a cargo ship that has been disabled. By using hatch breakers, escape pods can be ejected and collected, no crime. So after leaving Mel Brandon's I had to fly back to Jaques in Colonia to get a hatchbreaker limpet controller. In retrospect I could have or should have mounted this before flying to unlock Marsha Hicks, and if anyone follows my plan could save a couple jumps by doing so. The distress signal is just a couple of light seconds from the Brig.
I dropped in to the distress signal with 60 limpets and followed the directions in the post I linked to. Scan the cargo ship, then locate hatch 3, scan the hatch, sub-target the limpet attachment point and fire a limpet. When it does it's thing, all sorts of stuff pops out. At first I was letting the limpets go free, but soon I began selecting limpet targets to get the escape pods and not all of the other junk. That burns through limpets but gets the right ones. I had to leave the signal source to reset it a couple times before I had all 25. When I had 24, there was one escape pod left that the limpets could not pick up, just kept circling it since it was in tight to the ship, among some superstructure. I thought I could wedge my Krait in there and scoop it manually, but the parts of the ship extending away from it prevented me from getting quite close enough. I then had the brilliant idea to shoot it. Maybe I could send it spinning to where I or the limpet could grab it. Of course this immediately made me wanted and the cargo ship started lobbing missiles at me. I quickly retracted the cargo scoop and boosted away and flew back to Jaques to pay the fine, one escape pod short!
After paying the fine I returned to grab the last remaining pod and flew to Los, where I unlocked Etienne Dorn. I applied charge enhanced and super conduits to the power distributor which got me to grade 5 access. Four up and four down. I pinned overcharged power plant, which is also pinned by Hera Tani. I will swap her over to G5 probe radius. And that's it, all Colonia engineers unlocked to G5 access and blueprints pinned. Somewhat easier to do than I might have guessed really. The hard part is getting here.
Good hunting commander.
I'll check out those threads, thanks for the info. I wonder what he wants with life pods, it must be some nefarious experiment like Alian: Resurrection, pretty dark corner of the game.