Mats Hunting ... after 2 yrs

[deckroid]

Hey all

I recently took advantage of the Fed Discount and Double Prizes to rank up and got a Corvette. The first thing I did was load up on A mods but then I wanted to engineer everything again. It was only then that I realized I had not done any serious engineering for years and as such I didn't everything I needed. So, I gathered up some limpets and went out to some CSS sights and am currently on the surface of a planet hunting some simple mats.

I realize that some people hate this part of the game but I completely forgot how much fun the hunt was. Running around in the rover looking for this or that was a huge throwback to 2016-2017 when I was hunting for mats to engineer every little thing I could. I find this part rather soothing. Rolling across the moon-scapes following the meter thingy... looking and looking then the joy of finding that the rock I found had the things I was looking for.

For those who really hate this... it's a valid point. I get it. I can feel your hate... it's almost palpable. Of course, everyone has their likes and dislikes... but I honestly keep forgetting parts of this game and how much I enjoyed them. I usually put on some music or podcast and just go off doing this n that.

See you out there... o7

 

[Marklar_]

It's a lot better than it used to be.

In case you don't know, Dav's Hope now has a data scan thingy that you can scan for things like MEF, you can relog and scan it over and over just as with the other mats in the area.

 

[Kissamies]

It's not that hard any more now that you can trade and don't need to hunt for specific materias. Raw is easiest, just land on geological site and shoot some needle crystals. For manufactured I have collector limpets in my PvE ship. Data I've had some problems with, but it's not so bad as long as I remember to scan things as I go about my business.

 

[Bloodsign]

Yeah, mats gathering isn't terrible, now that I have a PC that does more than 15 FPS on planet surfaces, hehe.

I've put together the optimal list for G5 raws, so that part is pretty easy for me.

The rest I get from combat.

 

[Macros Black]

Only break glass if you want easy raw mats.

Spoiler: Easy Raw Mats

Guide / Tutorial - How to fill all of your Raw Materials bins using Crystalline Shards.

How to fill your boots with Raw Mats using Crystalline Shards Some of us have discovered a new form of materials gathering that can, with a little effort, be used to gather every material needed to compeletely fill all of your raw materials bins. I have decided to share that knowlege here with...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Bloodsign]

Only break glass if you want easy raw mats.

Spoiler: Easy Raw Mats

Guide / Tutorial - How to fill all of your Raw Materials bins using Crystalline Shards.

How to fill your boots with Raw Mats using Crystalline Shards Some of us have discovered a new form of materials gathering that can, with a little effort, be used to gather every material needed to compeletely fill all of your raw materials bins. I have decided to share that knowlege here with...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Exactly. Max out your G5s and trade down in each category.

 

[Vandaahl]

I recently took advantage of the Fed Discount and Double Prizes to rank up and got a Corvette. The first thing I did was load up on A mods but then I wanted to engineer everything again. It was only then that I realized I had not done any serious engineering for years and as such I didn't everything I needed. So, I gathered up some limpets and went out to some CSS sights and am currently on the surface of a planet hunting some simple mats.

I realize that some people hate this part of the game but I completely forgot how much fun the hunt was. Running around in the rover looking for this or that was a huge throwback to 2016-2017 when I was hunting for mats to engineer every little thing I could. I find this part rather soothing. Rolling across the moon-scapes following the meter thingy... looking and looking then the joy of finding that the rock I found had the things I was looking for.

Funny, got the same thing this week. Having a flew, I had a week of doing nothing ahead of me, so I kind of did the same thing. Bought an old love (FAS), put some PA's and rails on it, some HRP's, a prismatic shield and boosters, military hull yes please, some other bits and pieces, and engineered everything to G5. Tried some packhounds too. They're fun, but not very practical.

I love the result, but kind of miffed because I'm done for now

 

[Bloodsign]

Funny, got the same thing this week. Having a flew, I had a week of doing nothing ahead of me, so I kind of did the same thing. Bought an old love (FAS), put some PA's and rails on it, some HRP's, a prismatic shield and boosters, military hull yes please, some other bits and pieces, and engineered everything to G5. Tried some packhounds too. They're fun, but not very practical.

I love the result, but kind of miffed because I'm done for now

Haha, yeah, that feeling of "back to the grind"

I've also found that pack hounds have limited applications. Every once in a while, I come up with a build where they are just a splendid fit, but it's rare.

 

[Vandaahl]

Haha, yeah, that feeling of "back to the grind"

To be honest, like OP I liked the whole process of [takes deep breath];

Unlocking one last engineer
Getting materials
Engineer vented C3 beams with Packhounds
Trying out the result (not liking it)
Getting some more materials
Buy other stuff
Engineer some more (focussed C2 PA's with C3 vented beams)
Trying out the result (liking it)
Remove beams, putting C3 PA's back in return
Buy C2 rails
Getting moar and moar mats and do another engineer loop
Trying out the result again (loving it)
Start mashing/boiling/shredding stuffs.

So I agree with OP, the whole gathering materials process, mats trading and engineering stuff doesn't feel much of a grind to me. Specially building towards something you like was fun, without knowing the end result up front that is. I can imagine though, if you know what you want already, and you know you will be working for days in order to get everything, it'll feel like a grind.

 

[deckroid]

Speaking of Mats...

Last night I went in search of the Guardian blueprint for the FSD booster. I have never had the need for one, so I just didn't do it. I mean, what is with the jump range of the Corvette? I had read about it being less than optimal but then the reality sinks in and you realize this ship needs some help.

I also figured that if these Guardian Sites were anything like the Thargoid sites, yikes, no thank you. But that was the past... and I needed more humph in the FSD. Now... I like to figure things out for myself. I know there are videos and guides and whatnot about how to do what's needed to get the end goal. But for me, I like to see what I can figure out.

That being said, I did cheat just a smidge. GalNet gave me 1 system... I looked for others that might be closer.

Once at the site, I started driving around and oooo! skimmers. I gathered up everything I could find, salvage or shoot and dislodge. I haven't looked at INARA yet but I assume there are uses for caskets and whatnot? Anyway, I didn't know what to do, but I figured it's an ancient burial site so like everything else in the ED universe, I shot it to activate it. Yup. It worked. Took me better part of 3 hours to figure all this out (slow learner here, but I got it... finally). Turns out I was missing 1 pylon thingy. Symmetry, dude... symmetry...

That was fun. I figure I have to go back if I want anything else Guardian as the broker at EZ Aquarii has a nice list.

As a side note... what is with shooting things to activate them? The first thing anyone did when they discovered Thargoid spires and barnicles? Shoot em! No scanning, no attempt to communicate... SHOOT IT! I admit I am more Aliens than Prime Directive when it comes to games, but it would be cool to have a communication option that gives nonsense as we can't understand them before we end up shooting things. Just my opinion.

So, yeah. Guardian Mats. Cool.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Speaking of Mats...

Last night I went in search of the Guardian blueprint for the FSD booster. I have never had the need for one, so I just didn't do it. I mean, what is with the jump range of the Corvette? I had read about it being less than optimal but then the reality sinks in and you realize this ship needs some help.

I also figured that if these Guardian Sites were anything like the Thargoid sites, yikes, no thank you. But that was the past... and I needed more humph in the FSD. Now... I like to figure things out for myself. I know there are videos and guides and whatnot about how to do what's needed to get the end goal. But for me, I like to see what I can figure out.

That being said, I did cheat just a smidge. GalNet gave me 1 system... I looked for others that might be closer.

Once at the site, I started driving around and oooo! skimmers. I gathered up everything I could find, salvage or shoot and dislodge. I haven't looked at INARA yet but I assume there are uses for caskets and whatnot? Anyway, I didn't know what to do, but I figured it's an ancient burial site so like everything else in the ED universe, I shot it to activate it. Yup. It worked. Took me better part of 3 hours to figure all this out (slow learner here, but I got it... finally). Turns out I was missing 1 pylon thingy. Symmetry, dude... symmetry...

That was fun. I figure I have to go back if I want anything else Guardian as the broker at EZ Aquarii has a nice list.

As a side note... what is with shooting things to activate them? The first thing anyone did when they discovered Thargoid spires and barnicles? Shoot em! No scanning, no attempt to communicate... SHOOT IT! I admit I am more Aliens than Prime Directive when it comes to games, but it would be cool to have a communication option that gives nonsense as we can't understand them before we end up shooting things. Just my opinion.

So, yeah. Guardian Mats. Cool.

Yup, shoot to kill....

The Firm - Star Trekkin

 

[Bloodsign]

Speaking of Mats...

Last night I went in search of the Guardian blueprint for the FSD booster. I have never had the need for one, so I just didn't do it. I mean, what is with the jump range of the Corvette? I had read about it being less than optimal but then the reality sinks in and you realize this ship needs some help.

I also figured that if these Guardian Sites were anything like the Thargoid sites, yikes, no thank you. But that was the past... and I needed more humph in the FSD. Now... I like to figure things out for myself. I know there are videos and guides and whatnot about how to do what's needed to get the end goal. But for me, I like to see what I can figure out.

That being said, I did cheat just a smidge. GalNet gave me 1 system... I looked for others that might be closer.

Once at the site, I started driving around and oooo! skimmers. I gathered up everything I could find, salvage or shoot and dislodge. I haven't looked at INARA yet but I assume there are uses for caskets and whatnot? Anyway, I didn't know what to do, but I figured it's an ancient burial site so like everything else in the ED universe, I shot it to activate it. Yup. It worked. Took me better part of 3 hours to figure all this out (slow learner here, but I got it... finally). Turns out I was missing 1 pylon thingy. Symmetry, dude... symmetry...

That was fun. I figure I have to go back if I want anything else Guardian as the broker at EZ Aquarii has a nice list.

As a side note... what is with shooting things to activate them? The first thing anyone did when they discovered Thargoid spires and barnicles? Shoot em! No scanning, no attempt to communicate... SHOOT IT! I admit I am more Aliens than Prime Directive when it comes to games, but it would be cool to have a communication option that gives nonsense as we can't understand them before we end up shooting things. Just my opinion.

So, yeah. Guardian Mats. Cool.

The Corvette's jump range is one reason it's best used as a combat ship. I never fly mine anywhere, it would take forever! I ship mine within one jump of wherever I'm using it for combat operations. Obviously the cost of doing this is high, so the operation has to be high priority.

Here's a tip to keep your outfitting costs/rebuy a bit lower. D-rated thrusters on the Corvette with G5 Dirty Drives have a performance that is only slightly worse than A-rated thrusters with DD due to the huge weight difference in those modules. I've got my Corvette kitted with the D-rated ones atm. I'll switch them out eventually, cost isn't a problem for me right now.

Also, I think I've been talking about G5 raws, silly me. I meant G4 raw materials, obviously, since G5s don't exist (yet)

 

[askavir]

I actually like collecting mats, it's probably my second most common activity in the game (after faffing about). The material traders helped a lot, as now I can stick with, my preferred methods of collecting mats and avoid the ones I disliked.

I mostly hunt mats in signal sources, mining as a by-product of mineral mining, and geo sites. It's funny as I always hated using the SRV to randomly search for mats using the scanner, but love going to go sites and use the SRV to gather mats. Feels much more like an expedition this way, and gets the complete randomness out of the equation. Alçso, all my ships carry at least a small collector limpet controller, so I nearly always pick some stuff up on my way to anything.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I too enjoy driving about the surface of a planet/moon to gather mats in the 'old fashioned' way, can happily spend a couple of hours driving around in the SRV
Res sites give my collectors some employment and data gathered by scanning everything I see and by doing even more SRV'ing following a list of installations publised on this forum a while ago which gives plenty of data to trade if not directly useable.

The Corvette's jump range is one reason it's best used as a combat ship. I never fly mine anywhere, it would take forever!

No it doesn't
I took my fully equipped Corvette from the bubble to Carcosa, extra 32t fuel tank, SRV bay and AFMU replacing the cargo racks.. (which also get removed for CZ's etc...) 30.05LY on a full tank and one of the nicest exploration ships I've flown... Not recommended if you are rushing though

 

[Ezren]

SRV work has greatly improved since the fix of the turrets not missing the resources you're targeting, especially on crystal shards.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Buggy is one of the prime experiences in the game. Too bad that just running on the planets doesn't get you anywhere with the stupid grind. No, for that you have to roll the dice for some emission instance that you fly 5 minutes to and hope you roll lucky again once to drop the right loot when you drop in. And then you roll again hoping for a decent progress bar while clicking countless time on the power creep juice-o-meter at the engineer.

I swear they had a fine thing at hand with planetary landings - then they just crushed it with a FTP-type looter grind from the MTX cookbook.

 

[Friedenreich Xante]

Now there are Jameson crash site, Bug hunter, Dav's Hope and Cristalline Shards, it's not that tedious anymore, and I also happend to enjoy it. When you don't plan to min-max everything, it's even better. But for those for which only a perfect ship is a perfect ship, I can feel the pain.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

It's a lot better than it used to be.

In case you don't know, Dav's Hope now has a data scan thingy that you can scan for things like MEF, you can relog and scan it over and over just as with the other mats in the area.

in less than a minute too!

but how did re-logging on/off become a part of the actual game... quite sad really.

 

[askavir]

For manufactured materials I find dav's hope to not be worth it, compared to farming HGEs in boom systems.

I fill a clipper/krait/python full of limpets and jump around systems in boom state (it's the most common state nowadays) collecting G5 mat from HGEs and quickly fill up in various G5 mats, and trade for the others).

 

[Requiem Mortis]

<SNIP>

As a side note... what is with shooting things to activate them? The first thing anyone did when they discovered Thargoid spires and barnicles? Shoot em! No scanning, no attempt to communicate... SHOOT IT! I admit I am more Aliens than Prime Directive when it comes to games, but it would be cool to have a communication option that gives nonsense as we can't understand them before we end up shooting things. Just my opinion.

So, yeah. Guardian Mats. Cool.

Please explain if we have any other mechanic bar ramming and shooting things that allows us to physically interact with our environment, or provide a means of energy transfer ????