How are you getting on with the mat' traders?

[Stealthie]

I was really expecting them to offset the extra grind of engineering but it isn't working out like I thought it would.

Thing is, G5 mat's are (usually) pretty hard to find so you want to hang on to them for engineering.
There are some G4 mat's which are common as grass in a field and they can be traded for other stuff but, cos I'm still hunting for G5 mat's, I tend to just pick up low-tier mat's as I go - which means there's nothing I can really trade G4 mat's for which I'm short of.

I suppose, if you were really desperate, you could swap 60-odd G4 mat's for 10 G5 mat's to get a mod' done and get a ship finished.
In that case, though, chances are that you've been doing a heap of other mod's too, you've probably planned what G5 mod's you need so you've hunted for those mat's and probably accumulated all the lower-tier mat's in the process.

In another case, I suppose you might have all the G4/G5 mat's you need but you don't have a low-tier mat' to allow you to rank-up a mod'.
In that case, though, chances are that the mat' is pretty easy to find and if you're going to hoof across to a mat' trader, you might as well just hoof across to wherever that mat' can be found in the wild.

I don't mean this as a moan about the extra grind of engineering.
Fundamentally, I seem to be finding that I just collect up all the other mat's that I need as I'm looking for G5 mat's.

Whenever I go to do a mod', I've always got 200-odd of the lower-tier mat's and it's only when I get to G5 that I'm ever looking for mat's specifically to complete a mod' so, in practice, nothing has really changed except that I'm collecting up a heap of extra mat's that I wouldn't have collected before and then using them on a heap of extra mod's which I wouldn't have done before.

All a bit of a non-event IMO, for better or worse.
I suppose I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it though.

Your thoughts?

 

[zombieapocalypse]

Given the current exchange rates, I can't see myself using them much, other than when I'm desperate.

 

[Good Death]

I think it's okay for the occasional trade but mostly I'm still gathering mats like a madman. I've kind of sort of made it my personal mission now to fill up my material list and I promise I won't complain one bit about a grind. Though I would like to see some more rares in the mission boards for the lone wolf. Especially when I'm allied with every faction on the board.

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

They are a godsend. My home base has an Encoded Trader - very handy.

Other times I have spent 5 minutes jumping to another system to a Raw Trader instead of driving around like an idiot for 2 days looking for Tellerium.

 

[Stigbob]

I like them, really useful decide on your upgrade use inara to calculate roughly how much you need then traders can usually supply it all. If I need something that trades down at a daft percentage, I filter missions by materiel or just go track it down myself instead. The advantage of the remote workshops being you can do that when and if you feel like it later without returning to the engineer, as long as you pin the blueprint and add any experimental effects you want. Grabbing everything from a kill whilst BH'ing has the double advantage of topping up your mats and letting your shields recover.

However I don't do huge fleet all at once engineer grind, so the old system wasn't painful for me either. Can't understand all the fuss really.

 

[Kingston@#]

seems ok to me, saves having to go looking for matts when they are needed. especially when time is an issue to complete a mission.
though i do like to travel around in my srv.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

I think it'll work itself out given more time.

The amount of extra storage we have is enormous and it'll take a while to fill it up enough for the trades up to feel less exorbitant, and just part of the natural flow of not letting them fill up.

 

[Borko]

Love them. Have hundreds of 3’s and 4’s (data and raw mostly) after that last Colonia CG. With the MTs, G5ing my new mining vette took about an hour. Bye bye, weeks of hunting for HGEs! The new system is great for me!

 

[khaos526]

Since it seems many of the new Effect use materials that I never had a need for now, I can easily trade down to get some of those materials I had always tossed away and never saved (and never looked for either). So I have done it in those situations, but usually it's not that often.

Another way I use it is my Grade 1 mats if I'm finding I'm nearing cap on them, I'll just trade a bunch up at a crappy exchange rate for those old materials I've never used to have some in stock just in case. Since those easy to get mats are, well, easy to get, I figure I'll just be capping back up in no time. So in those cases it works for me...

 

[Drunkenmonk]

Yeah at first the 1 gained for 6 traded for the next lvl seems rubbish-but what else are you gonna do when you have maxed your 300/250/200 cap low lvl easy find mats?

Might as well trade 60/120 to the next tier,or else be unable to pickup more-it all adds up...

 

[C64Fan]

They are a great addition to the game - and a big time saver in the long run.

 

[Red Anders]

Used them a couple of times when I needed some low-grade stuff for an experimental effect, just because I've got about 90 military supercapacitors that I don't really need and trading down from G5 to G1 or G2 even across material families still gives a decent amount.

They have done nothing, not one thing, to alleviate the combination of tedium and frustration that is playing the G5 HGE USS lottery, due to the exchange rates from G3 and G4 up to G5 and the cross-family trade rate at G5 being appalling.

For anything that can be gathered on planets I'd never need to bother trading anyway because I never have significant problems collecting them.

So basically they saved me a bit of time looking for some low level mats but that was only because I happened to have a large stock of high grade mats that I don't need. That's not a normal situation for me, nor will it last. If traders didn't exist I wouldn't have had any problems obtaining the stuff I did trade for the old-fashioned way.

Oh yeah and I used them to get some abnormal compact emissions data after spending way more time than would be reasonable scanning for them with no success. To do that, I had to trade virtually all my other G5 data thanks to the ludicrous exchange rate for G5 to G5 transfers.

So overall, they go down as a missed opportunity for me, the opportunity in question being to eliminate some of the incredibly frustrating parts of material collection which are based on pure RNG, in particular the multi-layered RNG of HGE USS hunting and the equally fail-infused ship scanning.

 

[Stealthie]

Another way I use it is my Grade 1 mats if I'm finding I'm nearing cap on them, I'll just trade a bunch up at a crappy exchange rate for those old materials I've never used to have some in stock just in case. Since those easy to get mats are, well, easy to get, I figure I'll just be capping back up in no time. So in those cases it works for me...

Interesting point there.

Actively managing your mat' collection has become a thing.

Regardless of what I'm doing, if I start to see those "Item full" messages, I'm immediately thinking I need to get to a trader and swap the full mat' for something so I don't waste any more opportunities to collect even more of that thing.

I guess the smart thing to do, if possible, is to spend the mat's on upgrades rather than trade them at a continual loss, though.
Fortunately, I've got quite a few ships I want to re-engineer, so there's plenty to spend mat's on.

 

[Electric Kite]

I used them a lot initially as i had a load of mats stockplied to trade.

Now? I find myself resorting back to the old methods of crying at my keyboard while searching USS,s.

Though at least now even if i dont find the one i specifially need i can trade that for it.

[knocked out]

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

NPC Anacondas and higher drop decent amounts of G5 mats now.

When I need manufactured mats I just go to High Intensity Combat Zone with a 10 limpet Corvette. They stack up fast.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

Interesting point there.

Actively managing your mat' collection has become a thing.

Regardless of what I'm doing, if I start to see those "Item full" messages, I'm immediately thinking I need to get to a trader and swap the full mat' for something so I don't waste any more opportunities to collect even more of that thing.

I guess the smart thing to do, if possible, is to spend the mat's on upgrades rather than trade them at a continual loss, though.
Fortunately, I've got quite a few ships I want to re-engineer, so there's plenty to spend mat's on.

Actually, trading up is the best use you'll get out of most level 1 and 2 mats unless they're used for Synthesis.
You only use a few rolls to get through those grades on a new module, so unless they also get used in higher grade mods, the amount of storage we've been given for them is not really needed.

That's also another thing with the new limits.
Just do Synthesis to use them up, you don't need to balance what mats you keep any more.
Darn! Why the hell am I still buying Limpets!

 

[Faybs]

Pretty great. My biggest gripe with materials is that when you go looking for X, you end up with maybe 2 of them but 100 of Y and Z. Which in the old system you'd usually throw out. But with the new system, I can trade all the inconsequential crud I pick up for the stuff I do want. So yes, I'm a happy camper.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Given their absolutely horrid exchange rates, I've made extremely poor experiences with them.

With the worst cross-trade ratio of 7776:1 (haha *lol*) - but only a 1:87 back, we're almost looking at a completely insane 90:1 imbalance in favor of ripping the Player off at the poorest Exchange rate.
But even with closer Tier exchange rates, they remain a pure rip-off right now.

Basically they're a supermassive black hole for Player Materials. Alot goes in - very little comes out.

The numbers I'm seeing basically tell me that none of the Persons responsible for putting them in place a) cares and b) have ever actually played the Game nor remotely understand what those number relations actually do to the Game.

To make things worse, many Elements or Materials can at least be farmed in quite large numbers.
However, Data is the absolute killer for me, since the maximum possible rate of acquisition even under optimal conditions is by several orders of magnitude lower by design.

As a result of this experience, I've basically canceled almost all my limited Re-Engineering plans. It simply makes no sense, insane amounts of effort for very little benefit.
Plus, the whole process seems 100.0% Ultra-pure hardcore grind now. Fun factor zero point zero.
My current Combat Ship now carries more Active Collector Limpets than my heaviest Mining Rig back at home *lol*, that's how bad it is. And that still doesn't cut it.
Can't gather 30 Units of Data (any) with Collector Limpets after all, no matter how many I'm kitting.

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

Now? I find myself resorting back to the old methods of crying at my keyboard while searching USS,s.
[knocked out]

The higher the system population the more likely you are to see High Grade USS's.

I needed Imperial Shielding the other night - I went to the Imperial Capital system population 16 billion. I had 40 in 10 minutes.

Google will tell you the exact Superpower allegiance & State ie: War, Famine, None, Civil Unrest etc... that is needed to find a given mat. Go to the biggest population systems.

 

[Electric Kite]

The higher the system population the more likely you are to see High Grade USS's.

I needed Imperial Shielding the other night - I went to the Imperial Capital system population 16 billion. I had 40 in 10 minutes.

Google will tell you the exact Superpower allegiance & State ie: War, Famine, None, Civil Unrest etc... that is needed to find a given mat. Go to the biggest population systems.

Will do.
Cheers.