Materials and Commodities - in-game information in how to find them?

[Micha]

EDIT:
I'm NOT asking for where to find stuff.

I'm asking where to find IN-GAME information on how to find stuff.
/EDIT


Hello fellow Commanders,

So I've not been long back to the Bubble and have been getting busy Engineering. I'm a little confused though, as far as finding stuff is concerned. For some required items, the Engineer tells me (in the description) where I have to go or what I have to do in order to find something. Other items I'm just told what I need, with no further information.

Am I missing something, or is the information just not available in-game at present? As in, do you have to literally just stumble across the item in question?

Thanks,
- Micha.

PS. I'm not asking about how to find anything in particular, I'm after how to find in-game information on how to find stuff. I'm well aware that all the information is available out-of-game.

So for some things you can actually click on the name and it tells you a bit about them and where to find them. Other things don't show up unless you already have them or they're part of a Blueprint.

For example Modular Terminals, if you have some, they show up in the Commodities Market, and when you click on them, you're told that they are Mission Rewards. But if you don't have any, how do you find out? There's no permanent entry in the Market for them.

Ditto for any Material which you may not yet have found. Are you just supposed to wander aimlessly across the Galaxy until you stumble across whatever it is you're looking for?

 

[Hacker#451563]

https://inara.cz/news/

[url]https://eddb.io/body
[/URL]

Both of these sites will help enormously with material, engineer planning, and locating stuff needed for all the ED unlocks.

 

[Micha]

...

Both of these sites will help enormously with material, engineer planning, and locating stuff needed for all the ED unlocks.

Reading the OP before replying kinda helps...:

I'm not asking about how to find anything in particular, I'm after how to find in-game information on how to find stuff. I'm well aware that all the information is available out-of-game.

But thanks anyway for all the other people stumbling across this and only reading the heading...

 

[askavir]

Hover over any commodity in the trading screen and it shows in the description what types of economies sell them, most of it is actually very intuitive as the vast majority of goods are sold exactly in the kind of economies where you would expect them to be sold. Also there's the trading tools in the galactic map.

 

[FNLWA]

As for materials you can look them up in the engineering screen. Tells you where to find them and which material trader trades them.

 

[Factabulous]

PS. I'm not asking about how to find anything in particular, I'm after how to find in-game information on how to find stuff. I'm well aware that all the information is available out-of-game.

What people are trying to tell you, by pointing out the external resources, is that there are no complete in-game sources for materials / cargo (Meta Alloys is a good example). You can either use the external resources (after all, this is an MMO), or you can wander around writing things down and learning for yourself (good luck finding Meta Alloys that way!).

Maybe the locations will be added to the codex in Q4, but I've seen no sign that this will happen - maybe.

Of course if you're really set on only using in-game resources ... maybe you should be asking this question in-game

 

[Jukelo]

What people are trying to tell you, by pointing out the external resources, is that there are no complete in-game sources for materials / cargo (Meta Alloys is a good example). You can either use the external resources (after all, this is an MMO), or you can wander around writing things down and learning for yourself (good luck finding Meta Alloys that way!).

Maybe the locations will be added to the codex in Q4, but I've seen no sign that this will happen - maybe.

Of course if you're really set on only using in-game resources ... maybe you should be asking this question in-game

The engineers do tell you where to find all the materials they need.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I think every material used by an engineer will tell you broadly where to find it in the description if you hover over it. Most of this information is accurate, if not necessarily complete.

The items required for unlocking engineers ... a lot of them have a clue in the name as to which system they can be found in or can be tracked down through the commodity markets.

Modular Terminals you can find out that they're a mission reward without having to already have some if the market has a demand for them (high-tech systems, in this case) ... or you can get lucky and see some as a reward on the mission boards, of course. Similarly for other commodities - I can't think of any which aren't an import or export of some economy type.

Are you just supposed to wander aimlessly across the Galaxy until you stumble across whatever it is you're looking for?

More systematic exploration would be more effective. But you can find a surprisingly large amount of them fairly easily by aimless wandering, yes.

The tricky ones - Soontill Relics, Meta-Alloys and Sensor Fragments - I think the engineers nowadays give you more hints than they originally did, but if not this probably will get a lot easier in 3.3 as they're quite a bit more likely to benefit from Codex backstory information and the surface-scan probes than a lot of others will.

 

[Camisade]

Collect manufactured materials from hunting (or attracting, which is easier) high-level NPC pirates in large-hull ships, and of course drop into every random HGE, Combat Aftermath, and Encoded Emissions USS you come across as you fly around doing whatever else you like to do. Doing those two things, even though I engineer a LOT, keeps all my G5 mats usually stocked at about 75% full, and I'm constantly having to visit material traders to trade G3 and G4 mats into other higher grades, because I keep maxing my capacity out. I *never* need to court boredom by flying around looking for specific HGEs any more (ugh).

When it comes to raw mats, browse the passenger boards and use the tourist mission destinations you find to build your stock of bookmarks for planets with ice geysers, lava spouts, or brain trees. You don't even have to take those passenger missions if you don't want; just note the destinations. Then periodically (say, during boring or low-profit CG weeks) go on a round-trip harvesting tours (once or twice a month). I find I never need to go driving around crater rims on HMC worlds anymore, hoping for benevolence from RNGesus (again, ugh). And, as above, I often have to visit raw material traders to trade my raw G2 and G3 mats into G4's, because I max out my capacities.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

EDIT:
I'm NOT asking for where to find stuff.

I'm asking where to find IN-GAME information on how to find stuff.
/EDIT


Hello fellow Commanders,

So I've not been long back to the Bubble and have been getting busy Engineering. I'm a little confused though, as far as finding stuff is concerned. For some required items, the Engineer tells me (in the description) where I have to go or what I have to do in order to find something. Other items I'm just told what I need, with no further information.

Am I missing something, or is the information just not available in-game at present? As in, do you have to literally just stumble across the item in question?

Thanks,
- Micha.

PS. I'm not asking about how to find anything in particular, I'm after how to find in-game information on how to find stuff. I'm well aware that all the information is available out-of-game.

So for some things you can actually click on the name and it tells you a bit about them and where to find them. Other things don't show up unless you already have them or their part of a Blueprint.

For example Modular Terminals, if you have some, they show up in the Commodities Market, and when you click on them, you're told that they are Mission Rewards. But if you don't have any, how do you find out? There's no permanent entry in the Market for them.

Ditto for any Material which you may not yet have found. Are you just supposed to wander aimlessly across the Galaxy until you stumble across whatever it is you're looking for?

See the item's description.

Location MIGHT contain a hint... seems the description also mentions something about mission rewards....

What's that description say again? "Advanced component used by factions in times of war. Known to be salvaged from signal sources.". Hmm... now what could that mean?

 

[Hank]

The way I find materials in-game is to use the system map for systems that have already been surface scanned; then go to the 2nd tab from the left with the 3 or 4 horizontal lines (iirc) and look at each landable planet and review which mats you need and what % there is on each body. I pick the planets with the highest percentages then drop in and do some surface prospecting.

If the data is not available you have to DSS them 1st. This may not be the best way, but its how I do it atm. I'm always open for more effective and efficient ways to find mats since I get very tired of driving the SRV in a short amount of time.

You can do the same process for ringed planets and system asteroid rings (iirc on the system rings). I know the ringed worlds work this way since I used to mine rings ... way back before limpets and other tools.

For commodities, I just look at the system maps and see what type of world it is (Industrial, High Tech, etc.). Most systems of a particular type, sell/buy basically the same stuff with some exceptions.

GL HF

 

[Factabulous]

The engineers do tell you where to find all the materials they need.

Looking forward to posts of the Sensor Fragment & Meta Alloy locations then - don't remember them being present before. Chop chop!

 

[jasonbirder]

I'm after how to find in-game information on how to find stuff. I'm well aware that all the information is available out-of-game

Why the desire to avoid OUT OF GAME reference sources???
I'm learning the F18C Hornet in DCS - I didn't complain when I was referred to the NATOPS manual...

 

[Konan]

It was an excellent question. I too, do not like to use external sources. Call me old school if you like I play on a console and it is immersive breaking for me to use a phone or a tablet to find info in the game (not to mention lazy game directing, imho). Hopefully the codex will solve this problem. For the record, I don't care if other players use external sources, it's just not what pleases me and I would hope that in future updates Frontier will make it where I don't have to leave the game to play the game.

 

[Wasp0]

I understand there is a certain section of the ED playing community who don't want to look outside the game for info on all things game related, i am not knocking these people, they play their way and who are we to say it is wrong or right! IMHO, the game is grindy enough with out having to solve in game puzzles of where to find stuff, but it is there, not in much detail, but i must admit i do prefer using any resource that is available.

I have always admired Christopher Columbus and Sir Walter Raleigh and their ilk, but for me give me a SatNav or Google Maps of the interweb in general to find out about places and Stuff!

 

[FrogsFriend]

It was an excellent question. I too, do not like to use external sources. Call me old school if you like I play on a console and it is immersive breaking for me to use a phone or a tablet to find info in the game (not to mention lazy game directing, imho). Hopefully the codex will solve this problem. For the record, I don't care if other players use external sources, it's just not what pleases me and I would hope that in future updates Frontier will make it where I don't have to leave the game to play the game.

While I can understand that, and even applaud the level of immersion, in the real world we happily use the internet to find out all sorts of things that we don't already know. Presumably there'll still be some sort of internet in the future and I don't think it would make sense for the Devs to try and create an entire alternative 'future-internet' just for the game, when we can use the one we have.

 

[Winterwalker]

While I can understand that, and even applaud the level of immersion, in the real world we happily use the internet to find out all sorts of things that we don't already know. Presumably there'll still be some sort of internet in the future and I don't think it would make sense for the Devs to try and create an entire alternative 'future-internet' just for the game, when we can use the one we have.

That being said the Devs have provided the info (and I think that's a good thing). Right panel, materials storage .. you can't dump materials anymore. Click the material and it gives good description of what it is and where to find.

 

[JetsonRING]

In-game information . . .

"In-game information" [squeeeee] Yer killin' me Smalls . . . [haha]

 

[Hank]

I use Inara all the time but the OP asked about in-game sources. Before I wrote this I went back to Inara (after the 1000th time) and it does not tell you exactly where to look for ... lets say Selenium for example. It only tells you it can be found via surface prospecting or rewards.

Afaik, the only place where there is a good chance a material for engineering can be found is to go to where Inara tells you, but then you have to do some research via the System Map (and DSS if needed) to find places where a high or low percent may exist. (keyword: may ... since you have to search for it).

Please, if I am missing something let me know. Landing on planets and driving around can be a lot of fun but I get tired surface prospecting - too much like work. I've been contemplating doing some ring mining again with all the new tools I did not have way back in the early days of mining. Maybe ring mining will be more fun now than it was.

GL HF

 

[Micha]

Thanks to everybody who responded (sorry, was away scuba diving ), really appreciate it!

Yes, I DO often use out-of-game resources; I'm not militantly against them. However, recently I started playing more in VR, and in VR it's more challenging to use out-of-game resources effectively.

Partially my question was in case I really had missed stuff, and partially it was to raise awareness to FDev that they need to improve their in-game hints and tips.

I do get the analogy of using the Internet IRL, but the Internet is *part* of RL. We're not leaving RL to some meta-existence to look up stuff about life. (Would be great if we could do that...) So IMHO a game needs to contain all the information necessary to play it. Fine to use out-of-game resources to expand on that, but the basics should be in-game.

----

So for materials (needed for Blueprints); yes, you can highlight them and they give you at least sufficient hints and tips of where to go looking for them. So no more quibbles about that.

But for engineer unlocks, sometimes the engineer gives you a hint, other times they don't. Soontil Relics, for example, I'm fairly certain the description told you where to go and get them. Meta Alloys and Modular Terminals they didn't.

Meta Alloys I had at least heard about because of GalNet articles so I knew they were Commodities (but someone watching my stream told me where to actually go to buy them; otherwise I was going to try to find a Barnacle site, and I'm not sure how to find one of those using in-game resources; my plan was to head to the Pleiades and snoop around the stations there; no idea whether that would have worked).

Modular Terminals I didn't even know whether it was a Commodity or a Material, but I did stumble across a mission offering them as rewards quite quickly. Still, there was no in-game clue beforehand; once I had some, the description was obvious that they are only available as mission rewards.

----

So yeah, I'm really hoping the Codex will add this type of information. Anything you come across in-game should have a brief Codex entry. Not necessarily containing spoilers, but just some background info which might contain some hints and tips. Ideal would be if you then find out more about it the Codex would expand.