Since 3.3 burned the rulebook for collecting G5 Manufactured mats, there have nevertheless been a fair number of the old rules you could still rely on. In particular, if you flew round a number of high population Independent/Alliance systems in Boom, you would be guaranteed a respectable number of HGEs containing Proto Heat Radiators, Proto Light Alloys and Proto Radiolic Alloys.
Well, today that guarantee ran out for me. I've done this trip numerous times, and for the first time returned home more or less empty-handed (usually I have to stop in the middle and go to a material trader to unload excess PHRs).
I got a total of two HGEs, both with only three drops, and one of those was PIs from a faction in Outbreak - under different circumstances I might have been pleased to see those, but not when I'm not getting what I need.
Once I realised there was a problem I started checking the states of individual factions in the systems. Usually, the controlling faction was in state Boom - this is what eddb records - and the rest were in state None. Hence, I presume, the lack of HGEs. One system was in Blight, which was fair enough, eddb isn't always completely up to date, but eddb can't be blamed for the way in which the states of the controlling factor are not widely shared.
I'm guessing this is a result of the latest messing with the BGS by the introduction of Blight - which for a brief moment I imagined might actually improve the availability of G5 mats. But apparently not.
Whether this situation is the result of malice or incompetence I don't know. Maybe the devs just don't want us to have too easy access to G5 mats, though these days I have to admit that incompetence is the default assumption.
Either way, my game has been disrupted (again!) for the sake of the BGS. While I want BGS players to have an interesting game, for every BGS player I'll bet there are five or more who just want to be able to collect mats reliably and get on with their game. Once again, our play has been spoiled by BGS fiddling which, give or take the odd unexpected PI, does the majority of players far more harm than good.
Well, today that guarantee ran out for me. I've done this trip numerous times, and for the first time returned home more or less empty-handed (usually I have to stop in the middle and go to a material trader to unload excess PHRs).
I got a total of two HGEs, both with only three drops, and one of those was PIs from a faction in Outbreak - under different circumstances I might have been pleased to see those, but not when I'm not getting what I need.
Once I realised there was a problem I started checking the states of individual factions in the systems. Usually, the controlling faction was in state Boom - this is what eddb records - and the rest were in state None. Hence, I presume, the lack of HGEs. One system was in Blight, which was fair enough, eddb isn't always completely up to date, but eddb can't be blamed for the way in which the states of the controlling factor are not widely shared.
I'm guessing this is a result of the latest messing with the BGS by the introduction of Blight - which for a brief moment I imagined might actually improve the availability of G5 mats. But apparently not.
Whether this situation is the result of malice or incompetence I don't know. Maybe the devs just don't want us to have too easy access to G5 mats, though these days I have to admit that incompetence is the default assumption.
Either way, my game has been disrupted (again!) for the sake of the BGS. While I want BGS players to have an interesting game, for every BGS player I'll bet there are five or more who just want to be able to collect mats reliably and get on with their game. Once again, our play has been spoiled by BGS fiddling which, give or take the odd unexpected PI, does the majority of players far more harm than good.
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