HGE's Nerfed So Bad Why Engineer?

so I went out and hit about 60 systems in Outbreak and not only were there but a few HGEs I only found one system that provided an HGE with Pharmaceutical Isolators - just one That will surely kill anyone's desire to engineer their ship I understand we have Material Traders - good thing - but the ratio I just mentioned is ludicrous
 
Have searched for them a few times for the last weeks. Well, rare, difficult but doable - not to the extent of 1 of 60, more like 1 of 10 in my case. I doesn't look like as it has been changed anything in that domain.
 
then there are those HGEs that you see on the list when you pop into the system that are 15K out with 1:43 left on the counter - chaps my hide - and there are many (of the few)
 
They're not that bad. I was able to fill up in about an hour including search time. The bigger issue is how boring they are. There's got to be a better way. I still think it would be cool if we could spacewalk over to derelict ships and cut off high grade materials. Actually make our Maverick suit useful for Horizons gameplay.
 
so I went out and hit about 60 systems in Outbreak and not only were there but a few HGEs I only found one system that provided an HGE with Pharmaceutical Isolators - just one That will surely kill anyone's desire to engineer their ship I understand we have Material Traders - good thing - but the ratio I just mentioned is ludicrous
The spawn rates can vary, I was farming them not too long ago and found it was best to try to find a system with the correct requirements but also with only a few planets etc.. I would also check out the Encoded Emissions too as they turn up good mats and thought it was a good way to push the game into spawning new signal sources. Sometimes they were hardly spawning but there were other times where there were quite a few giving good enough quantities of Pharmaceutical Isolaters that it wasn't too much trouble to max out my storage.

Having said that, if you're looking to fill up in ten minutes or so then obviously you will be disappointed. I would hang out and use the FSS to scope out all the sources in the system and go from there. Treat it like a chill mining session.

But then, also, I enjoyed mining in Minecraft and found it very relaxing to do, my son doesn't enjoy it that much but it evened out as there were things he liked doing that I wasn't so keen on. Like mostly using my mined diamonds etc... :D Anyway, it's one of the reasons why I think all materials should be tradable between players in game - by using the fleet carrier trading buy/sell system and just letting people drop them from their inventory either on foot or from their SRV. It helps with the overall balance I think as it can allow different types of players to help each other when it comes to activities that one group is averse to but the other one is fine with.
 
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The rate of exchange at a trader may be 6:1, but when it is so quick and easy to fill up with things like imp shielding then why bother chasing unicorns?

Steve
 
PIs aren't too bad, you only need to scoop up 4 of them (for 12 engineering rolls) to get G5 dirty drives.

If you don't want to mat trade, there's always Anacondas in Haz RESs or incoming enemy alerts. More often than not they drop a few G5 mats.

Besides, even 3 rolls is probably enough to get about half way round the circle. Performance gain is minimal after that.
 
Seeing that they are only needed for the G5 dirty drives, it seems like it's not the end of the world if they are a bit uncommon to come by..
 
As the others say, just collect the easy to collect G5 mats and trade over. Also, as a general advice, just stopping after four G5 rolls saves you tons of mats. Completing G5 is not worth it most of the time except for satisfying ones OCD, and in the long run it makes a huge difference if you do four rolls, or - worst case - ten. On some engineering I even do only one G5 roll and be done with it.
 
I also today found it very hard to find HGE around the different systems so decided to do some stacked pirate missions in Ngalinn, here you get quite a few G5 manufactured mats dropped when you kill the pirates and then scoop them up between kills much easier.
 
I don't bother with pharmaceutical isolators as the outbreak dillutes the HGE chances way too much with other signals. I suggest just grabbing something more consistent like imperial shielding and trading it.
 
In the time it took to go to 60 systems in whatever state searching unsuccessfully for HGE’s, one could have had fun bounty hunting in any haz res. While doing so, one could have used collector limpets to get ample materials to trade for whatever is needed. Simultaneously he would be earning credits, increasing reputation, earning arx, and increasing combat rank, and possibly making friends in game to wing up with.
 
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There have been vids on collecting mats. Some listed the system allegiance/state etc and what HGEs would spawn.

I have a notebook and wrote the info down as a reference sheet.

Steve
 
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