Lost in the bubble

[VR] optimal_909 · Jun 9, 2016

After being 5 months out in in the void, it was nice to get back to civilization.

Except that I'm a misfit. I'm struggling with combat (though I lost my FDL only once thanks to sheer stupidity) and somehow I just don't get all the stuff that is happening.
And I'm not sure I want to.

Currently my only goal is to upgrade the FSD of my FDL and Keelback to lvl 4 (both range and charging), but I just can't find any chemical distilleries. Tried to shoot Adders and T6s at nav beacon points and stopped by at 'degraded emissions', but so far nothing.

I can't wait to finish the business with the engineers, and fly out again. Are there anyone else in a similar situation?

Sysmon · Jun 9, 2016

Try to relax a bit, do missions or trading or mining or whatever. See if there aren't missions that reward you the mats you need.

I see a lot of people here making a grind out of things for themselves. It feels like they have gone straight into "MMO end-game" thinking and are now solely working on getting the best kit together so they can do whatever marvelous deeds they perceive themselves able to do with those upgrades. They wail at the randomness of drops they need, even if there are hints in the materials descriptions about where to look for things.

What exactly do they want though? No randomness at all? I had a game like that when I was a kid, a Pacman pocket game. I could win it without looking at the screen, and it was anyway going so fast towards the end that the screen couldn't update fast enough to see what was going on. You just had to know the button combo and be agile enough and the game could be won. That's the extreme end, though. And it would get boring real fast as translated to ED meant you'd be able to just go find what you needed somewhere with no other effort than looking it up. And you'd have your upgrades. Then what? Game is over.

On the opposite end of the scale is full randomness - everywhere and anything with the same loot table to roll on. That would be frustrating in itself as you'd just flow like water through the path with least resistance to a place where myriads of easy targets would drop what you needed. And you'd be frustrated that hundreds of other players were doing the exact same thing (if you are in Open, that is).

Truly the answer lies in between those two extremes, and I think FD is trying to find that sweet spot. They didn't help themselves by showing special effects for weapons as something akin to a roulette roll, granted. And it is also not helping that find mats, including via mining, ends up an RNG game anyway when you have found the right spot to look in. But doing away with the RNG is not the answer. It may rather be that we need an overlay to mining and prospecting on planet surfaces that reduce the RNG truly a bit of skill, a mini-game similar to finding points of interest, outcrops, bases and wrecks.

So try to relax a bit and play the rest of the game. If you get itchy feet and need to head out again before you got the level 4 upgrades, maybe be happy with level 3 upgrades?

S

Gramps · Jun 9, 2016

Must be a bit of a shock to find yourself back in civilization after 5 months, it's not very civilized by the way, we need to find another word to describe it.
Just a point if I may, reading your post suggests your thinking of upgrading the same module twice, if so you will lose the first upgrade when you do the second, only one upgrade can be applied. Sorry if I'm mis-reading your post.

Good luck Cmdr.

Sysmon · Jun 9, 2016

Dave c said:
it's not very civilized by the way, we need to find another word to describe it.

I've seen the term "meatspace" used. I like that term.

S

goemon · Jun 9, 2016

optimal_909 said:
After being 5 months out in in the void, it was nice to get back to civilization.

Except that I'm a misfit. I'm struggling with combat (though I lost my FDL only once thanks to sheer stupidity) and somehow I just don't get all the stuff that is happening.
And I'm not sure I want to.

Currently my only goal is to upgrade the FSD of my FDL and Keelback to lvl 4 (both range and charging), but I just can't find any chemical distilleries. Tried to shoot Adders and T6s at nav beacon points and stopped by at 'degraded emissions', but so far nothing.

I can't wait to finish the business with the engineers, and fly out again. Are there anyone else in a similar situation?

not similar, but ... i returned after 2.1. with a lot of exploration data and bribed my way into L5 access with fraseer.

outfitted a courier with anhanced thrusters for safety.

got the chemical manupilators for FSD 5 upgrade by shooting t7 and t9 in an industrial anarchy RES.

outfitted und upgraded my DBE.

most things you can also get via missions.

Alex Brentnall · Jun 9, 2016

I thought this was going to be a reflective thread with sentences like:

How can I tell which way I'm travelling when everywhere is ~25,000Ly south of Sag A*?
Why are the distances so short?

and

Why are there other ships flying around?

Inhabited is the word I tend to use... Or infested

iain666 · Jun 9, 2016

*shrug*

I got enough money for an ADS and an A-class FSD in January 3301 and I've spent a handful of hours in the bubble since then, mostly sat in a station selling data. What do I know?

Mengy · Jun 10, 2016

optimal_909 said:
After being 5 months out in in the void, it was nice to get back to civilization.

Except that I'm a misfit. I'm struggling with combat (though I lost my FDL only once thanks to sheer stupidity) and somehow I just don't get all the stuff that is happening.
And I'm not sure I want to.

Currently my only goal is to upgrade the FSD of my FDL and Keelback to lvl 4 (both range and charging), but I just can't find any chemical distilleries. Tried to shoot Adders and T6s at nav beacon points and stopped by at 'degraded emissions', but so far nothing.

I can't wait to finish the business with the engineers, and fly out again. Are there anyone else in a similar situation?

I'm in exactly this situation! I'm trying to get my Asp's FSD upgraded to as close to max level 5 as I can, after that I'm back out into deep space. Originally I wanted to mod all of my ships but I've decided to not do that for now, I'm hoping that FDev will soon tone down the grind factor and RNG focus of the engineers some, it sorely needs some knobs re-tuned.

I will admit though I've had quite some fun mission running. Not for credits or rewards but just for old fashioned the fun of it.

For chemical distilleries, I've been hanging out in anarchy nav beacons and blowing up cargo ships, they drop eventually but it takes a long, loonnnnggggg time. I do not know of any better way to grind for them though.

gooddoc · Jun 10, 2016

Iv now upgraded the FSD jump range on both my Exploration ships, one to lvl 4 the other to lvl 5, I then upgraded my other two ships with the same.

Chemical Distilleries are there, cos Iv collected 8 in all. As I don't do pewpew, Iv only been in USSs with a threat lvl 0. I found that they seem to more often come in pairs, but in a way it's just like collecting materials with a SRV (like Polonium) - It's the luck of the drop.

BTW - you say you want to upgrade both range & charge rate? forget that, it's one or the other! - a second upgrade on the same module will replace the first one - be aware!

[VR] optimal_909 · Jun 10, 2016

Sysmon said:
Try to relax a bit, do missions or trading or mining or whatever. See if there aren't missions that reward you the mats you need.

I see a lot of people here making a grind out of things for themselves. It feels like they have gone straight into "MMO end-game" thinking and are now solely working on getting the best kit together so they can do whatever marvelous deeds they perceive themselves able to do with those upgrades. They wail at the randomness of drops they need, even if there are hints in the materials descriptions about where to look for things.

What exactly do they want though? No randomness at all? I had a game like that when I was a kid, a Pacman pocket game. I could win it without looking at the screen, and it was anyway going so fast towards the end that the screen couldn't update fast enough to see what was going on. You just had to know the button combo and be agile enough and the game could be won. That's the extreme end, though. And it would get boring real fast as translated to ED meant you'd be able to just go find what you needed somewhere with no other effort than looking it up. And you'd have your upgrades. Then what? Game is over.

On the opposite end of the scale is full randomness - everywhere and anything with the same loot table to roll on. That would be frustrating in itself as you'd just flow like water through the path with least resistance to a place where myriads of easy targets would drop what you needed. And you'd be frustrated that hundreds of other players were doing the exact same thing (if you are in Open, that is).

Truly the answer lies in between those two extremes, and I think FD is trying to find that sweet spot. They didn't help themselves by showing special effects for weapons as something akin to a roulette roll, granted. And it is also not helping that find mats, including via mining, ends up an RNG game anyway when you have found the right spot to look in. But doing away with the RNG is not the answer. It may rather be that we need an overlay to mining and prospecting on planet surfaces that reduce the RNG truly a bit of skill, a mini-game similar to finding points of interest, outcrops, bases and wrecks.

So try to relax a bit and play the rest of the game. If you get itchy feet and need to head out again before you got the level 4 upgrades, maybe be happy with level 3 upgrades?

S

That makes a lot of sense.

I will try to hang around industrial systems and do some missions. Do crashed ships spawn on planet surfaces as random POI?

[VR] optimal_909 · Jun 10, 2016

iain666 said:
*shrug*

I got enough money for an ADS and an A-class FSD in January 3301 and I've spent a handful of hours in the bubble since then, mostly sat in a station selling data. What do I know?

With an Asp that's not necessary, but I hate that ship (so that's no option for me) and those on my driveway desperately need higher jumprange.

Jon474 · Jun 10, 2016

optimal_909 said:
Tried to shoot Adders and T6s at nav beacon points

Excuse me?

Adders...meh. T-6s...steady on, Cmdr.

Concerned.
Jon
T-6E

Freebird · Jun 10, 2016

Jon474 said:
Adders...meh.
T-6E

What you mean Meh!

I'll have you know my shiny white Adder is a very classy lady!

Jon474 · Jun 10, 2016

I am sorry for the slight, Cmdr. I am sure your ship is indeed a beautiful creature. I wish no harm to her at all.

It's just that if it came down to two ships but only one shot...the T-6 is the one I'd let go on its merry way.

Jon
T-6E

[VR] optimal_909 · Jun 11, 2016

Jon474 said:
I am sorry for the slight, Cmdr. I am sure your ship is indeed a beautiful creature. I wish no harm to her at all.

It's just that if it came down to two ships but only one shot...the T-6 is the one I'd let go on its merry way.

Jon
T-6E

Now imagine the guilt I felt when I blew up a Keelback, the fine ship that took me to BP. In combat it is lame duck indeed...

iain666 · Jun 11, 2016

optimal_909 said:
With an Asp that's not necessary, but I hate that ship (so that's no option for me) and those on my driveway desperately need higher jumprange.

Maybe I'll try an Asp one day. All that time out of the bubble has been in my trusty Mk III with stock jump range (and I've not been back to pick up an SRV to gather jumponium yet either).

Kalpa · Jun 11, 2016

After a load of hurdles, managed to get that lvl 5 engineering upgrade on the FSD of my Asp. Rolled very nicely with the important stats, and now my Asp has a jump range of 41 light years, not a bare-bones build.