Odyssey altered planetary terrain and the distribution of mineable nodes so much that Surface mining became even more tedious in the best of cases, and in many cases, essentially futile. It was distressing, but at least we could still log in to horizons to grind raw mats. Now I have to do a bunch more engineering to add AX builds to my fleet, and it was only after flying 1700 light years out to HIP36601 that I realized I was going to be here anywhere from 50% to 200% longer than I had anticipated. FDEV once created a thread asking why we thought Engineering was too tedious, and then didn't show any signs of listening (or even following the thread). I SINCERELY hope that the upcoming changes to gameplay mechanics include the big corps and the superpowers teaming up with the engineers to make improved components more readily available. The absolute last thing any of us were asking for was MORE MINDLESS GRINDING.
I just realized the split between 4.0 live and 3.8 legacy means no more reverting to Horizons for more effective surface mining...
- Thread starter mtfatboy3006
- Start date
Maybe you want to look up this thread (including coordinates for Odyssey) !? It doesn't take longer it's just a bit different...
I'm currently doing it right now at those same hotspots listed in the article, which were also favorites in Horizon. I'm actually finding it faster... no need to relog if you deplete the site but still need more mats. I just keep on driving (in the region) and finding new patches.
The key is to set the Surface Scan heat map to "Crystalline Shards" and then land in the blue areas.
The key is to set the Surface Scan heat map to "Crystalline Shards" and then land in the blue areas.
Yes. It only took about 45 minutes of driving in a crystalline shard blue area to find a hot spot of polonium. I spent over two hours driving around in the relevant blue area looking for Ruthenium and only filled up about halfway. It helped when I recalled my ship, took off, and landed in a differnent spot on the heatmap, but it will help much more to now know the coordinates.
Thanks! This will help a ton with my current situation! It doesn't do much about all the ordinary planets in the galaxy, the general broken-ness of surface mining in 4.0, and the severe need to rebalance ship engineering, but it will definitely get me what I came out here for!
... On the other hand, steering to coordinates is still quite a bit more time consuming than locking onto a signal.
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You did NOT had to relog since a depleted Shards site will stay depleted for quite a while - in Horizons i mean
Precisely, it would have been nice if they could add some POI markers to those bigger patches of shards - makes much faster than flying/driving to coordinate.
Hahaha yeah Ok, you got me there...
And as I'm the type "I don't use any external direction pathfinding overlays I can do it by myself"...
...it took me some time on the first planet to get a hang on it and to fly in the correct direction.
On a sidenote: I confused the coordinates from two planets, went there and actually found a shard forest there, too...
...aand wondered how anybody could consider that mess of spikes and valleys a "good spot"...
But in the end even that site did it's duty and my hold was full without even having to relog at any time
It goes even faster if you skim the ground in your ship and don't land until you see some crystal shards.
The only problem I had was one planet (don't remember which one) where shards, fumaroles, and geysers overlapped. I had to take off and land again before find a good spot; after that no problems
That's not how I remembered it, but it's been awhile. Regardless, they will respawn NOW if you relog. I logged out for dinner in the middle of patch that I was 75% finished with. When I logged bag in, all the shards had mats again. Elapsed time was about 2 hours.