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Newcomer / Intro Having problem finding engineering mats
- Thread starter Krodah
- Start date
32 consecutive though can become repetative
No need to turn around. If they're regular wannabe pirates, they will come to you and hover in fromt of you to scan you.
It's only the mission related adversaries that will shoot you without scanning first.
Of course you decide how you play the game. Don't take my little rant too seriously. Having said that, you do admit you are rushing engineering. There's no need for that you know, you can do the 5000 ly in an unengineered ship if you want [1]. It just takes a little longer but you'll see a lot more.thank you for all of the advice and the helpful links!
For those warning me to to rush, I'm only rushing to get through engineering, as I'm not a huge fan of the ground game. I want to get back to exploring and doing combat missions as quickly as possible.
Once I get my drive with rank 5 bonus, I'm heading out to see if I can find a system noone has discovered yet.
I've become quite concerned about new commanders suddenly wanting to rush forward in the game. Over the last 6 months I've seen two starting commanders I met in-game, burn themselves out. They wanted a fully engineered (combat) ship and they wanted it NOW! They used these "get <stuff> fast" YT videos and similar reddit/forum articles. They poured all their game time in it. I could not convince them to stop grinding and join me to have some fun. After a few weeks of grinding both quit the game.
[1] An Asp with A-rated FSD and D-rated everything else can do 34 ly.
Yeah that happens, but these were nice guys not trophy hunters wanting to "win" Elite Dangerous. I was thinking that maybe me flying with them in my engineered ships is what triggered them into wanting an engineered ship asap. I told them I never rushed engineering my ships because it's quite a lot of work that should be approached as a project not an odd job.
I've become quite concerned about new commanders suddenly wanting to rush forward in the game. Over the last 6 months I've seen two starting commanders I met in-game, burn themselves out. They wanted a fully engineered (combat) ship and they wanted it NOW! They used these "get <stuff> fast" YT videos and similar reddit/forum articles. They poured all their game time in it. I could not convince them to stop grinding and join me to have some fun. After a few weeks of grinding both quit the game.
Something I try and keep in mind, having purchased ED a couple of months ago, is how the game has developed over time. When new content has been released, the "old hands" already had months/years of enjoying the game under their belt. People were out exploring far from home before Engineering was even possible. New players have more options now and it's easy to fall into the trap of reading about, for example, having a longer jump range and thinking "I need that first".
My first trip out into the Black was in an Aps X with a jump range of a little over 30ly. Just playing the game and scaling the learning curve meant that, when I did go and unlock the first Engineer, I already had a lot of the materials needed. Using the Traders and realising that fitting a wake scanner would provide a lot of the missing materials has meant I've recently been able to engineer a lvl 5 range upgrade for my exploration ships FSD, without ever feeling like I was grinding. I can now jump around 52y at a time, but it hasn't made a big difference to exploration, unless I have a specific destination in mind.
My Elite mantra is now: "Never fly without a rebuy & enjoy the journey as much as the eventual destination" - Oh, and "Try and log off before 2am to avoid being cranky the next day"!
Update: I made it back from my 5k trip and I discovered over 100 systems! I guess there really are some left out there I'm currently doing more engineering unlocking until that bores me then I'll do some more exploration. I tried doing some combat missions, but they all went the same: I get the other guy low, he drops his cargo and runs off and I can't stop him. Need to figure that and mining out and I should be good to go. Exploration is definitely my favorite.
Thanks again for all the helpful links and advice.
I'm currently doing more engineering unlocking until that bores me then I'll do some more exploration. I tried doing some combat missions, but they all went the same: I get the other guy low, he drops his cargo and runs off and I can't stop him. Need to figure that and mining out and I should be good to go. Exploration is definitely my favorite. Thanks again for all the helpful links and advice.
Update: I made it back from my 5k trip and I discovered over 100 systems! I guess there really are some left out there
Thanks again for all the helpful links and advice.
Good to hear you're enjoying exploration and well done for bagging over 100 new systems (and a nice payday too!)
Combat: It's not something I do much of, but if your target jumps out of the system, you can use a "Wake Scanner" to see where they went and follow them.
Mining: It's not especially expensive to get started with laser mining if you fancy giving it a go. I also love the fact that, if you buy a module but don't use it much, you get a full refund when you sell it. That game mechanic really encourages experimentation, in a way other games don't (cough GTA Online cough)
Have fun o7
Is your ship is too slow so they fly away or is your DPS is too low to finish the fight before they jump?
Personally I like cannons for finishing off fleeing targets. Cannons do a lot of hull damage over large distances (when engineered also against shields) and they hardy draw power from the distributor. Aiming them takes some practice though. Very satisfying to see a fleeing pirate blow up in the distance after a few cannon salvos.
DPS is definitely too low. Not sure how much of that is my weapons (came with the ship) and how much is my lack of skill. I haven't really played a flying game since Star Wars Galaxies shut down, so I'm rusty.
I'm really enjoying exploration, but I know 2 of the engineers I need to open up require combat bonds, so I will need to figure it out eventually. So should I just go cannons once I get the engineer vs shields or a mix of pulse lasers and cannons?
I'm really enjoying exploration, but I know 2 of the engineers I need to open up require combat bonds, so I will need to figure it out eventually. So should I just go cannons once I get the engineer vs shields or a mix of pulse lasers and cannons?
FDev, I hope you're following this 'sad story'
There's this guy only been playing a week and he already understands it's about grind... not gameplay to access the stuff he needs to access top level kit, kinda sad isn't it, the gameplay is missing so the grind is seen to be the important part of the game.
There's this guy only been playing a week and he already understands it's about grind... not gameplay to access the stuff he needs to access top level kit, kinda sad isn't it, the gameplay is missing so the grind is seen to be the important part of the game.
The weapons that come with the ship are just 2 small pulse lasers. If you didn't change them that explains a lot. Fighting againt NPCs it works best to have a mix of lasers and kinetic weapons. In the case of your DBX for instance one large pulse laser[1] to bring down shields and two medium cannons to destroy the hull (or multicannons). Or the other way around: 2 medium pulse lasers and one large cannon can also work. Try what you like best. You'll probably like gimballed weapons better than fixed weapons initially (no auto target tracking) but try what you like best. Or try something completely different.
Don't forget to upgrade your power distributor to the best you can afford.
[1] Beam lasers are very power hungry. They work best engineered for efficiency in combination with an engineered power distributor.
The only grinds have been Imp faction and engineering. I could just have played the game and acquired those things as I was doing my normal play, but my choice was to grind the faction because it also earned me about 100 million credits. I'm failing in my grind of the engineers because the ground game sucks imo. I can only take so much before I have to do something else. I find their concept of engineering to be unimaginative and a bit boring, albeit necessary for things like high end pve and pvp. If it weren't basically required, I wouldn't bother. Honestly, if I hadn't learned what I learned in this thread, I would probably be at https://swglegends.com/ right now working up my Pilot rankings.
I think the biggest failing is most of the info needed to play effectively isn't found in game, but a lot of other sandbox games have that problem (including SWG and its various reincarnations)
I got EDdiscovery installed and hooked up with EDSM and Inara while I was doing my 5k run and that has helped a ton.
The default weapons on the ships are biowaste - usually the smallest pulse lasers.
What kind of weapons you should get on your ship depends, to a point, on your ship and on your piloting capabilities. ED has various types of weapons with different damage types - thermal, kinetic and raw. In general, kinetic weapons use ammo, but only little energy. Thermal weapons don't need ammo, but a lot of power. Raw weapons usually use ammo and power. Depending on the weapon type, you also have different shot speeds - lasers are hitscan (hit where you aim at), kinetics take their sweet time to fly from your gun to the enemy. Mixing weapons with different shot speeds makes aiming harder. All weapons have a certain maximum range, and a falloff beyond which their effect is reduced. SOme weapons shoot when you press the trigger, others have a charge time or need to spin up. And finally, Engineering can change all that - you can turn a kinetic wepon into a thermal weapon, or add kinetic damage to a thermal weapon, etc.
So much for the details - but you can keep it simple, too. The basic general purpose loadout uses gimballed multicannon (think rotary machineguns) in the larger slots and fixed pulse lasers in the smaller slots. You're not going far wrong with that configuration, at least not unless you have unlocked the weapons engineers and gained a bit of experience with combat in ED.
Some ships (Eagle, iCourier, Vulture, Clipper) need (or work better with) specific loadouts due to their weapons placement (Eagle, iCourier, Clipper) or power limitations (Vulture). Other ships are simply more fun with specific loadouts:
The weapons that come with the ship are just 2 small pulse lasers. If you didn't change them that explains a lot. Fighting againt NPCs it works best to have a mix of lasers and kinetic weapons. In the case of your DBX for instance one large pulse laser[1] to bring down shields and two medium cannons to destroy the hull (or multicannons). Or the other way around: 2 medium pulse lasers and one large cannon can also work. Try what you like best. You'll probably like gimballed weapons better than fixed weapons initially (no auto target tracking) but try what you like best. Or try something completely different.
Don't forget to upgrade your power distributor to the best you can afford.
[1] Beam lasers are very power hungry. They work best engineered for efficiency in combination with an engineered power distributor.
I'll try that and see how it works, thanks!
yeah I'm D on everything but Frame Drive and Power supply for jump range. I did get a big payday from that 5k run so looking at picking up a vulture or chieftain to run combat missions with. I'll do a mix of weapons and should have some engineering recipes soon enough to improve them. I'm not having issues with shields at the moment, so I'll probably make the highest dps weapon(s) kinetic and the lower the laser.
Is there a way to target modules (engines, etc..)?
The Vulture is fun, but power limited. Without a high rank power plant engineer, dual Multicannon are probably your best option - or dual frags (Pacifiers if you do PowerPlay) if you can keep real close to your target.
Yes, you can target modules - left side HUD. Once you have targeted a ship, a further tab to the right becomes available that lets you select subtargets.
There's also a binding available under Options to cycle through all subsystems "target next/previous subsytem" or so. Current selection is shown in lower left of HUD.
cool, since the vulture is power limited, I'll probably go with the chieftain and get the vulture later when I have better engineering support.
I'm gonna watch the gun ship video and see what I can glean from that. Are missiles not very good in ED? I don't see many people recommend them.
I thought they were pretty good in original elite.
I'm gonna watch the gun ship video and see what I can glean from that. Are missiles not very good in ED? I don't see many people recommend them.
I thought they were pretty good in original elite.
Missiles are specialised in damaging external modules (weapons, utilities, thrusters). They can be very effective for disarming your target during the fight. I use dumbfires a lot because they do more damage, have more ammo and you can fire instantly (no lock-on like seekers). Their speed is 750 m/s which isn't much slower than a cannon projectile so aiming similar to cannons.
Note: if you destroy all weapons on a target they will jump away.