High grade signal source & material collecting: I'm missing something, please help....

[Vanquish383]

Just go run missions, those give you a reason to be on the move, hit the nav beacon in every system you drop into, then that will tell you what every single signal source is, look for high grades and detour to them. It doesn't really matter too much WHAT g5 materials you get from the HGE's you stumble upon as you were just in the area doing something else anyways, so the mats are a bonus, and can be PX'd at a material trader.

Whereas if you go seeking out the perfect alignment of system allegience, bgs state, pending states, distance from star, and go specifically hunting for a particular mat, its going to feel like it took you longer to get there, and will lead to frustration if the HGE spawns the wrong material.

Since you are looking for HGE's, you are obviously on the look out for materials, best doing cargo delivery missions. I'd suggest you fit out a combat capable python cargo delivery ship with collector limpets, dirty drive thrusters, 6c biweave shields, collector limpets in the smaller module slots, cargo racks in everything else. Weapons, very subjective choice, frags and railguns is what my mission runner is carrying, but its up to you.

Go stack half a dozen delivery missions, but because you are in a 180t cargo python, you can only carry one at a time, and theres a reason for doing it this way. Since you very often get pirate NPC's targetting you, moments after you get message from mission giver with "incoming enemy alert" and a bonus to kill them. The enemies are of course the ubiquitous Elite Anaconda* - so go 4pips shields and fly rings around them, frag the frack out of them, and with report crimes on you'll get cops drop in to help you, and strangely enough other hostile NPC's from other missions you've stacked, even though that cargo is still at the originating station. So you end up with this surreal little mini personalised CZ with two or three elite NPC conda's on one side and you plue a few cop vipers on the other.

Those little mini CZ's that develop with multiple mission related NPC's and the NPC cops are actually quite fun, and when the dust settles, theres a tonne of materals for your limpets to feast on, and you pick up a couple of million credits between the bounties and mission bonuses. Then theres the mission hand in which can often offer materials, take them. You probably haven't got what you wanted, but you will have ample mmaterials to swap out at a material trader to get what you were after, and you've had fun playing the game rather than getting bored and frustrated finding HGE's.

Another good source for G5 manufdactured materials is "pirate lord" assassination / wing assassination missions, those are nearly always Elite Federal Corvettes, and when those things die they leave behind core dynamics composites.

Thank you for the tips. I've tryed the mission way to, but it seems they only give Biotech conductors and Exquisite focus crystals.

Passenger mission is a good tip, I'll eventually try this the next time I'll do those missions.

Still however I would prefer to have a more reliable method to farm directly those tons of different materials. Overwhelmed how things are complicated and not enjoyable.

 

[Vanquish383]

They toss everything in the galaxy, we figure out how it works. No hand holding, no flashing arrows or glowing objectives. It's been made more "user friendly" over the years, but it still will not give you the generic video game experience if that is what you are looking for.

I'd offer advice on material gathering, but I would only be parroting some excellent advice you've already gotten here. I rarely specifically hunt materials, but I do put an emphasis on not passing them by. Through my normal game play I make weekly to biweekly trips to material traders just to get rid of some maxed out stuff, and once or twice a month I buy and engineer a ship just to dump materials.

Yes, it must be this way. From my point of view, I simply do not enjoy having to waste hours and hours just for collecting 1232 materials without any clue. I simply have no fun (just a personal opinion). From my point of view, ok make it time consuming, but at least provide something that not relies just in "luck". There is no ability or fun in that (at least for me).

It could just be done as laser mining is done: you have your surface scanner, you find the spot (In which you can go whenever you wish) mine for an hour, collect from 200 to 400 millions credits (depending on the LTD value) and you are good for weeks.

 

[Ayho]

Thank you for the tip. How I can know if the faction is in "Outbreak" from the system map (despite the system is already reported as Outbreak. Because now I'm using that kind of systems and I find no pharma isolators)? and if a system has more that a faction?

First i use eddb or edsm for finding the right system state. After that i jump to that system and scan the beacon. Search and select a hge. You will get info in what state that hge is. Most annoying part for me is the spawning of the hge signals and that the faction in outbreak state spawns the hge signals.

And some examples:
This one will not give you pharma. Even if it is in outbreak state. Somehow high time limit hge will spawn crap.

https://imgur.com/a/9clUTmu

Source: https://imgur.com/a/9clUTmu


Mats spawned:

https://imgur.com/a/JIXtATi

Source: https://imgur.com/a/JIXtATi


Another one. Hge outbreak low time limit. This one spawned with 15 minute limit.

https://imgur.com/a/7jJoGba

Source: https://imgur.com/a/7jJoGba


Mats spawned:

https://imgur.com/a/cdzYj6z

Source: https://imgur.com/a/cdzYj6z

 

[Vanquish383]

First i use eddb or edsm for finding the right system state. After that i jump to that system and scan the beacon. Search and select a hge. You will get info in what state that hge is. Most annoying part for me is the spawning of the hge signals and that the faction in outbreak state spawns the hge signals.

And some examples:
This one will not give you pharma. Even if it is in outbreak state. Somehow high time limit hge will spawn crap.

https://imgur.com/a/9clUTmu

Source: https://imgur.com/a/9clUTmu


Mats spawned:

https://imgur.com/a/JIXtATi

Source: https://imgur.com/a/JIXtATi


Another one. Hge outbreak low time limit. This one spawned with 15 minute limit.

https://imgur.com/a/7jJoGba

Source: https://imgur.com/a/7jJoGba


Mats spawned:

https://imgur.com/a/cdzYj6z

Source: https://imgur.com/a/cdzYj6z

Thank you so much for reporting this guide. Have you got any other suggestions for other materials? Thank you!

 

[Greasetrap42]

I was collecting G5 materials trough mission too. But it seems they only provide Biothec conductors and Exquisite focus crystals

Honestly I don't know what the mats were that I got from trade missions. I just blindly accepted them. I also never rarely evaded an NPC interdictions. Blindly scooping up the blown up bits gave me lots of mats but dunno what kind though, especially those missions where anacondas just keep interdicting me. And yes, I learned to run away sometimes too!

 

[Ayho]

Thank you so much for reporting this guide. Have you got any other suggestions for other materials? Thank you!

Well core dynamics and imerpial shielding are the easy ones.
Just find federation or imperial system and farm the hge signals. Max both of it and go to material trader and trade in for other grade 5 stuff. Thats actually faster

 

[Vanquish383]

Well core dynamics and imerpial shielding are the easy ones.
Just find federation or imperial system and farm the hge signals. Max both of it and go to material trader and trade in for other grade 5 stuff. Thats actually faster

Thank you for the tips.

I'm still of the idea that it is all overcomplicated and too much luck dependant. It just cold be exactly as laser mining mechanism. I hope that someday FDev will introduce a quality of life improvement (at least for long time players) like the

1. ability to synthesize
2. to manufacture them via a special FC module
3. the ability to trade 1:1 (at least for Elite Traders... why exactly I'm an Elite trader if I have not advantages at all?)
4. introduce "junk shipyards" on landable planets with your SRV you can mine all the manufactured materials you want.

 

[Red Anders]

This was what I feared. I usually organize a "Farm day" in which I collect things that I may want in future. So When I need them... I have. So frustrating, many compliments to the designer.



.... is this some kind of a joke? So a game that relies on grinding, instead of making that activity enjoyable and funny, makes it the most frustrating possible forcing to rely only one strategy... luck?

G5 materials in general are quicker and easier to find than ever, you can easily pick up 150+ an hour. Just collect what's there by running around the high grade emissions sources you find with a ping of the nav beacon, then trade any G5s you don't need for those that you do need at a material trader.

One thing the guides you're looking at presumably aren't stressing is that under the old system, you could only find HGEs at all by flying around the system praying to the RNG gods for one to spawn. Even in the right kind of system, in deep space, flying around very slowly, I think my record without a single HGE spawning was over 40 minutes. Finding them now is trivial - drop at the nav, scan and check your contacts - there they are! If there's none present, jump to another system and repeat, which takes about 90 seconds.

It is incomparably quicker now than it used to be (i.e. when the old guides were written) with the ability to find HGEs quickly and using material traders to trade for hard-to-find materials.

 

[Vanquish383]

G5 materials in general are quicker and easier to find than ever, you can easily pick up 150+ an hour. Just collect what's there by running around the high grade emissions sources you find with a ping of the nav beacon, then trade any G5s you don't need for those that you do need at a material trader.

I do not find funny using the material trader. Just for the fact that to collect 100 materials, you need to collect 600. Too much reasonable time.

There is, however, the log-off and close game to the desktop trick. That they have reported is not cheating.... but this is not fun at all. I have to quit the game to grind an HGE? at this point, should not be better to introduce a better system to grind those materials?

One thing the guides you're looking at presumably aren't stressing is that under the old system, you could only find HGEs at all by flying around the system praying to the RNG gods for one to spawn. Even in the right kind of system, in deep space, flying around very slowly, I think my record without a single HGE spawning was over 40 minutes. Finding them now is trivial - drop at the nav, scan and check your contacts - there they are! If there's none present, jump to another system and repeat, which takes about 90 seconds.

It is incomparably quicker now than it used to be (i.e. when the old guides were written) with the ability to find HGEs quickly and using material traders to trade for hard-to-find materials.

As reported in the first post, it is not a reliable method and it is overcomplicated (and I think that many would agree. I've also suggested some methods to relieve log-time player from this). I've traveled for two hours not finding what I need.

From my personal point of view, to make it more enjoyable, I would have preferred a much reliable method... As already happens for raw materials (The Outotz LS-K d8-3 system, in which each of its planets provides specific materials) and LTD mining. From my personal point of view: You organize a farm day, take those materials once for all and you will be good for a while so you can better spend your time performing your things (like tuning or testing ships or whatever).

 

[Vedmo]

I've traveled for two hours not finding what I need.

You could have maxed out 2, maybe 3 easy to find G5 materials in 2 hours, then traded them to get 50 of whatever you need. I'm not saying you have to like it, but it is the reliable method. Filter your map by Allegiance (Fed & Imp only), use the population slider to remove populations not in the millions, set it to economical and pick some high pop system as far away as you want to stray. Drop in and scan each nav beacon. Enter super cruise and check your left panel for all the HGEs. Go to whatever you feel is reasonably close. Repeat until bins are full. Go trade down to what you are short on or can't easily find. For strait G5 mat I want it now farming, that is the best you can do, and it is a very reliable method.

If you just play the game and grab materials as they are available from a multitude of activities, you will rarely find yourself even having to specifically set out to farm HGEs, but of course this is playing the long game, and I understand wanting to have what you need now.

 

[Red Anders]

I do not find funny using the material trader. Just for the fact that to collect 100 materials, you need to collect 600. Too much reasonable time.

There is, however, the log-off and close game to the desktop trick. That they have reported is not cheating.... but this is not fun at all. I have to quit the game to grind an HGE? at this point, should not be better to introduce a better system to grind those materials?



As reported in the first post, it is not a reliable method and it is overcomplicated (and I think that many would agree. I've also suggested some methods to relieve log-time player from this). I've traveled for two hours not finding what I need.

From my personal point of view, to make it more enjoyable, I would have preferred a much reliable method... As already happens for raw materials (The Outotz LS-K d8-3 system, in which each of its planets provides specific materials... I will never thank enough who discovered this system relieving from grinding those materials too) and LTD mining. From my personal point of view: You organize a farm day, take those materials once for all and you will be good for a while so you can better spend your time performing your things (like tuning or testing ships or whatever).

Whatever mate. I'm just telling you point blank that no matter how much better it could be, it's way better now than it used to be.

There's nothing particularly complicated about it now at all - forget what system should give you what materials and spending ages searching the galaxy map for a Federation system with a high population and a particular state and then gambling that if you go there and find a HGE, it will also belong to the faction that is in the state that you need. Literally just fly round high population systems and pick up what's there.

I can guarantee you that using traders, even with with the 1:6 exchange rate, is a lot faster than it used to be, because even if you went to a system that should have exactly what you needed, it could take ages for the game to spawn you a signle HGE to collect that stuff. There are systems now that will throw you six or seven HGEs up from a nav beacon scan which you can then fly round in 15-20 minutes. Collecting between 3 and 5 drops at each of those (i.e. between 9 and 15 units of material) you can get stuff way faster than we ever used to be able to.

Could it be better? Sure, most things could be better, but if you think it's a pain now, you'd probably have quit the game with how it used to be

I'll give you one tip here - when you're choosing systems, don't pick binary systems. If you can find a few nice compact systems with high populations, a single star and no planets further than about 2,500 ls from the star, all the HGEs will spawn within about a minute's flight time of each other which makes it very fast to collect them and also reduces the chance of them timing out before you can pick them up.

As someone already pointed out, if you've spent two hours on it then you could have had 50+ of whatever materials you actually need sat in your material store now doing it the way I said. That's without using the gamey re-logging crap either, which I never do.

 

[Chaparral]

Been filling my bins over the last few days so I can give you a few tips.

1) It is all about the mat traders. Use Inara to find the required mat trader near you. Always farm G5 mats (G4 for raws).

Raws
2) Crystal forest for raws except selenium. Trade down rinse repeat.
3) Use EDDB to find a system with Selenium and look at the individual body to make sure there is volcanism. Surface scan, crystal fragments for Selenium.

Manufactured
4) For Manufactured there are a few steps.
a) Go to a high pop Imperial system with a manufactured material trader, and planets close to the single main star.
b) Bring a ship like a Krait or Python with big cargo and the ability to run 4 limpets.Fill up on limpets.
c) Go to the nav beacon. Scan it. Set menu 1 to filter only for signal sources.
d) Pop into super cruise.
e) Find a HGSS with a 20 minute plus timer.
f) Drop in scoop Imperial shielding.
g) Quit game.
h) Launch game.
i) Super cruise with throttle at 0.
j) Select first USS, and drop in. It is the Last HGSS you visited.
k) Scoop, rinse repeat.
l) When full trade down and across at mat trader. Imp shielding is most consistent G5 manufactured mat.

Data
5. Go to Jameson Cobra
a) Scan beacons. Log out. Login Scan beacons. Rinse repeat. Adaptive Encryptions bin full.
b) Go to data mat trader. Trade down and across. Rinse repeat.

Thargoid
6. Go to Active mothership site. Kill scavengers in SRV, scoop mats. They respawn. You need these mats for Palin, and goid tech. Also can get meta alloys from these sites for Farseer. Kills also count toward combat rating.

This is FDEV approved mid game game play. Don't get me started on Guardian stuff...

 

[Shir]

Robigo passenger missions are excellent for grade 5 mats as well. You can either do them for cash or mats.

 

[Vanquish383]

Been filling my bins over the last few days so I can give you a few tips.

1) It is all about the mat traders. Use Inara to find the required mat trader near you. Always farm G5 mats (G4 for raws).

Raws
2) Crystal forest for raws except selenium. Trade down rinse repeat.
3) Use EDDB to find a system with Selenium and look at the individual body to make sure there is volcanism. Surface scan, crystal fragments for Selenium.

Manufactured
4) For Manufactured there are a few steps.
a) Go to a high pop Imperial system with a manufactured material trader, and planets close to the single main star.
b) Bring a ship like a Krait or Python with big cargo and the ability to run 4 limpets.Fill up on limpets.
c) Go to the nav beacon. Scan it. Set menu 1 to filter only for signal sources.
d) Pop into super cruise.
e) Find a HGSS with a 20 minute plus timer.
f) Drop in scoop Imperial shielding.
g) Quit game.
h) Launch game.
i) Super cruise with throttle at 0.
j) Select first USS, and drop in. It is the Last HGSS you visited.
k) Scoop, rinse repeat.
l) When full trade down and across at mat trader. Imp shielding is most consistent G5 manufactured mat.

Data
5. Go to Jameson Cobra
a) Scan beacons. Log out. Login Scan beacons. Rinse repeat. Adaptive Encryptions bin full.
b) Go to data mat trader. Trade down and across. Rinse repeat.

Thargoid
6. Go to Active mothership site. Kill scavengers in SRV, scoop mats. They respawn. You need these mats for Palin, and goid tech. Also can get meta alloys from these sites for Farseer. Kills also count toward combat rating.

This is FDEV approved mid game game play. Don't get me started on Guardian stuff...

Luckily I've already all the Guardian stuff I need (booster, shield reinforcement, gaus cannon, ...)

Thank you for reporting the guide, but actually what I find very weird is the g) and h) point.

As I've pointed in my previous replies, I find no fun in this procedure and the point g) and h) (as reported previously) are worsening the situation. Is anyone having fun doing this? Are you having fun? There are many other space games in which material grinding is just simple and fun. Why here has to be overcomplicated if, at the end, no one appreciates it?

For me, it is ok that material-gathering has to be time-consuming.... but what it has so boring and tedious and, worse of all, to be efficiently done it forces the gamer... to quit the game?! Is any Game designer reading this? Have you designed this on purpose? Is this your real job or just a hobby?

I, once again, say that this mechanism has to be reviewed. As already happens for other game mechanisms, this kind of material should be farmed in a more efficient way (as it happens for raw materials in Outotz LS-K d8-3 system and LTD diamond in Borann). It cannot rely on "luck" or weird logout-login mechanisms.

Are "quality of life" updates even considered by Frontier game designers? at least for long time players? Why I get the rank of Elite trader if I do not even the benefit to trade materials 1:1?

 

[Vanquish383]

Robigo passenger missions are excellent for grade 5 mats as well. You can either do them for cash or mats.

Yes, however, as pointed earlier, they only provide Bioconductors and Focused crystals. The point of the thread is... why there isn't any efficient way to gather the rest of materials? Why it has to be so overcomplicated? 1232132 materials, only few of those can be grinded efficiently, you can however trade what you find for a rate of 6:1... but pay attention because you can carry only 100... so 1231231 runs from the material trader... and do not forget! if you login-logout you can exploit the same HGSS! Execellent! Great design!

I simply fun this mechanic too much time consuming and no fun at all. Is anyone enjoying that? Why it cannot be enjoyable?

 

[Chaparral]

Luckily I've already all the Guardian stuff I need (booster, shield reinforcement, gaus cannon, ...)

Thank you for reporting the guide, but actually what I find very weird is the g) and h) point.

As I've pointed in my previous replies, I find no fun in this procedure and the point g) and h) (as reported previously) are worsening the situation. Is anyone having fun doing this? Are you having fun? There are many other space games in which material grinding is just simple and fun. Why here has to be overcomplicated if, at the end, no one appreciates it?

For me, it is ok that material-gathering has to be time-consuming.... but what it has so boring and tedious and, worse of all, to be efficiently done it forces the gamer... to quit the game?! Is any Game designer reading this? Have you designed this on purpose? Is this your real job or just a hobby?

I, once again, say that this mechanism has to be reviewed. As already happens for other game mechanisms, this kind of material should be farmed in a more efficient way (as it happens for raw materials in Outotz LS-K d8-3 system and LTD diamond in Borann). It cannot rely on "luck" or weird logout-login mechanisms.

Are "quality of life" updates even considered by Frontier game designers? at least for long time players? Why I get the rank of Elite trader if I do not even the benefit to trade materials 1:1?

Fun? Who said this was fun?

This is the gate to the fun which is build theory crafting and testing.

Look, FDEV needs log in time.

This is the most optimized method to reduce log in time.

There is no way they would change the game play to reduce log in time, unless they felt that from player log in feedback that players weren't playing because the gate was too onerous.

They want to optimize the total number of player logins and the greatest duration of those log ins. They want a grind level that achieves those goals.

If anything, they are more motivated to cancel log-in logout time optimization strategies (like they did with board flipping, mission stacking, or all the previous gold rushes) than they are to actually increase accessibility to progression. It is their design philosophy.

We're just luck so many other parts of the game are good.

Right now I'm grinding Imperial rep at Ngallin to get "permission" to buy a Cutter so that I can uber grind LTDs before Borann goes away. The only fun in this process was crafting up a big jump range high speed dolphin to get to Ngallin and run the courier missions with alacrity.

 

[Vanquish383]

There is no way they would change the game play to reduce log in time

For me, login time for the material grinding time could take even 10 times it actually takes now. I just would like to actively play using a more funny and reliable method.

I find overwhelming how unreliable and unfunny it is now. Furthermore, if to be done efficiently now it requires to login-logout method?

I would prefer to travel to different planets, visiting some sort fo "junk yard" in which I have to extract from derelicts the materials I need using a special SRV. Every junkyard could have only special ships (Imperials, Federals, Medicals,.. and so on) from which you can extract only specific materials.

So gathering all the materials would require visiting several planets, so it would require a lot of "login time" and the player can actively do something rather just launching limpets, gather, logout, and login (if you are lucky enough to find what you need).

Would be it funnier with more consistent gameplay rather than "login-logout" or trade at an insane trading rate that the only thing that adds to the gameplay is... boredom?

In a while they will introduce FC... that clearly are for long time players. Why they cannot have a module that improves quality of life? Like a material manufacturer? That craft manufactured from raw materials (that are more easily grindable from the Outotz LS-K d8-3 system)?

 

[ocflyer]

Been filling my bins over the last few days so I can give you a few tips.
2) Crystal forest for raws except selenium. Trade down rinse repeat.

@Chaparral How do you find the crystal forests? The only search hits I found mentioned several sites that are on the edge of the galaxy - of no use for those in the bubble.

 

[Chaparral]

@Chaparral How do you find the crystal forests? The only search hits I found mentioned several sites that are on the edge of the galaxy - of no use for those in the bubble.

They are all more than 1000 ly from the bubble. Lame.

There are a couple of workarounds.

1) Do the Guardian grind first, and get your Guardian FSD booster. Use a lightweight dbx with an srv. The go to the crystal forest. If you have farseer unlocked, you can easily build a 60+ ly dbx. Makes the trip out and back quicker. On a starter commander I usually do this in conjunction with a 5kly trip to unlock Palin.

2) Use EDDB and find high percentage moons with the G4 Raw mats and geologic (volcanic) features. You don't need a long range ship. Don't pick one less than 4% for the desired mat. You surface scan the moon, find the geologic sites. Land at the geologic site, run around in your SRV shooting off all the crystal thingies fro the fumaroles, geysers, etc. You'll pick a bunch of low and mid tier mats along the way. Make sure you composition scan the features. It adds to your logbook, gives you rewards, and I think exploration progress. This is not as fast, but it is more varied and interesting IMO for a starter commander. You still do the Mat trader trade down loop. BOOKMARK your favorite moons. Don't forget to edit the bookmark tag with something like "Polonium sweetspot".

Those G4 mats are
Antimony
Polonium
Ruthenium
Technetium
Tellurium
Yttrium
Selenium

Remember - this is slower. The resource nodes on the geologic features don't respawn with logins and log outs, so you have to hop about between the geo feature points of interest on the planet.

 

[Chaparral]

For me, login time for the material grinding time could take even 10 times it actually takes now. I just would like to actively play using a more funny and reliable method.

I find overwhelming how unreliable and unfunny it is now. Furthermore, if to be done efficiently now it requires to login-logout method?

I would prefer to travel to different planets, visiting some sort fo "junk yard" in which I have to extract from derelicts the materials I need using a special SRV. Every junkyard could have only special ships (Imperials, Federals, Medicals,.. and so on) from which you can extract only specific materials.

So gathering all the materials would require visiting several planets, so it would require a lot of "login time" and the player can actively do something rather just launching limpets, gather, logout, and login (if you are lucky enough to find what you need).

Would be it funnier with more consistent gameplay rather than "login-logout" or trade at an insane trading rate that the only thing that adds to the gameplay is... boredom?

In a while they will introduce FC... that clearly are for long time players. Why they cannot have a module that improves quality of life? Like a material manufacturer? That craft manufactured from raw materials (that are more easily grindable from the Outotz LS-K d8-3 system)?

Oh I totally agree. I think there is all kinds of gameplay possibility with mats. Have cargo ships carry mats that you can pirate. Have asteroids with cores made of mats. Have passive mining stations that you deploy and farm (and hope someone doesn't steal your loot!). They have the physical models for all of this, it's just not what they want to do.