Engineers Medium Security Settlement List and Guide for Modified Embedded Firmware
- Thread starter Devari
- Start date
Eme Morris enterprise ++ Medium
Kokoto Terry Camp ++ Medium
Both dropped MEF for me an hour or two ago on my travels.
Be interesting to see if there are any significant variations in droprates corellating to base sizes, wouldn't need to large a sample size as I suspect they're quite high (I have a ~80% success rate at the ++ so far, 16 bases, very small sample size, either I'm very very lucky or it's 50%+... Been searching for more + Medium.). My Multicannons are very pleased indeed.
Kokoto Terry Camp ++ Medium
Both dropped MEF for me an hour or two ago on my travels.
Be interesting to see if there are any significant variations in droprates corellating to base sizes, wouldn't need to large a sample size as I suspect they're quite high (I have a ~80% success rate at the ++ so far, 16 bases, very small sample size, either I'm very very lucky or it's 50%+... Been searching for more + Medium.). My Multicannons are very pleased indeed.
And this is strange, however.
There were many occasions when I was obliged to interrupt my current datapoint scan chain. Last example - "ok, but this looks like a good spot to make a guide-style video" - abort, wait for timer to elapse, retreat, video "on" and restart again (I don't use "shadow" feature). And at the very beginning, when I just start to map settlements (and DP placement was not known) this was more a normal case than an exception. And if my first (n-th) attempt was a failure I have always an option to retry - so far with no exceptions.
One mystery is "compromised" datapoints. Two days ago I've encountered one (only 3rd in my recors of 600+ settlements) and find no difference (if FD have planned some "special" function for this they have failed).
Also, I think that I remember well this particular case, my first encounter was when I've tried (successfully) to map a M4H layout - med.size high-sec "civilian" - (one that must be assaulted first, and where you must not only "scan" datapoints in chain, but also shut down two generators and one constantly and fast respawning AGT turret on the way in case of significant gravity). I've succeeded only after 6 or 7th retries. And yes, one of the datapoints in that case was "compromised".
I can so far make the most probable assumption - you are trying to rescan CDT. CDT is not a part of datapoint scan chain (only have known influence due to the bug). Once scanned, it cannot be scanned again. But you can always retry to scan datapoint chain at any time. Wait for timer to stop (if not already), restart your scan (exclude CDT).
If my assumption is wrong then I'm really interested in the details of that case - where, what and in what exact conditions =)
Thank you for info, I have also an impression that may be the drop rate in MxM/SxM is very good. I'll on my way to add another "free-to-scan" 70 settlements to the "MEF candidates" list (mostly "not fenced" medium/small sizes medium security). But for checking real drop rates a volunteer is needed=)
At some point I've started to think if data drop rate/quality can be influenced by system/faction state, but rejected this idea.
About settlements you've noted - can you also supply layout code/name info? Can be checked here - "ED:H 2.1 BIG"
Last edited:
I believe Morris Enterprise was a civilian settlement and Terry Camp scientific.
If you give me a list of sites I'd be glad to help out (and collect a lifetimes worth of useable data LOL), I'll put a hanger in my Asp again. Yep concur on the unfenced! Why bother when a + can be scanned in less than a minute. I tend to be on in the morning, working nights atm.
If you give me a list of sites I'd be glad to help out (and collect a lifetimes worth of useable data LOL), I'll put a hanger in my Asp again. Yep concur on the unfenced! Why bother when a + can be scanned in less than a minute. I tend to be on in the morning, working nights atm.
So today I've added two bases you noted and a little bit less than 60 from my on database - not-fenced free-to-scan MxM/SxM layouts (filtered out S1M - small extraction medium-sec. as the one "fenced"). A bit surprised by the result - not so many passed this filter. Anyway I've also copied them to a separate sheet if anyone want to try calculate MEF drop rate. After adding them all to the full list we now have 120 free-to-scan entries. Bravo!
A little note to commanders(as we now have some interest in small-size settlements):
If in-game and in-system you see "tiny size" settlement on the system map (i.e. name doesn't contain any "+" signes) - look carefully and recheck the nav.panel. If the same settlement have security level mentioned with it's name (any) than in fact this is a small size settlement. A "tiny-small mystery" (TMS) as I call this issue - and was never commented by FDev.
Hello CMDRs
So i've scanned all the settlements at the following locations:
89 Leonis - 7D - Burgess Holdings
89 Leonis - 7D - Payne's Inheritance
Altair - 1 - Galvani Depot
Auschauts - A4 - Dummer Plant
Du Shas - A2 - Mouhot Plant
And I've not received a single MEF. I don't know if this has been changed at all or if i'm terribly unlucky, but has anyone advice on where I might more likely find some MEFs?
Many thanks CMDRs
So i've scanned all the settlements at the following locations:
89 Leonis - 7D - Burgess Holdings
89 Leonis - 7D - Payne's Inheritance
Altair - 1 - Galvani Depot
Auschauts - A4 - Dummer Plant
Du Shas - A2 - Mouhot Plant
And I've not received a single MEF. I don't know if this has been changed at all or if i'm terribly unlucky, but has anyone advice on where I might more likely find some MEFs?
Many thanks CMDRs
Yep, it'a a question of luck + RNG.
And I've added two new areas to my "ED:H BIG" mapping page - "Ships" (not finished yet) and "Data". Latter is for the "data" class material drops from given settlements.
This is actually quite typical from what I've experienced, I would run through as many as 6-8 bases in a row without a single MEF, then would get MEF drops from the next 2-3 bases, etc. It seems quite random at first but there are definitely patterns to the randomness and I suspect the data drop RNG is not very well optimized to provide truly random results. Esentially allmost all RNGs are really "pseudoRNG" systems that generate a "simulation" of random ouptput but this is rarely a truly random process. It might sound like a simple process to program a computer to do but it's actually quite techincally challenging to produce a truly random RNG as this relates to complex mathematical issues such as those involved in designing high-quality encryption systems. As a result it's quite common for MMOs to rely on an RNG that is not well designed and sometimes even uses on some type of "iterative" process where it seeds the next RNG input with the prior RNG output. This can sometimes give you really unusual results where you get no MEF over and over, only to see it start dropping in "clusters" again, in patterns that are not truly random, i.e. there are distinct patterns to the "randomness" of the drops. In some games you can even "overload" the iterative aspect of the RNG and cause it to give a long string of rare results by flooding it with rapid requests for output after getting the initial "rare" result. Similar issues were happening with the roulette wheel when rolling for upgrades when 2.1 launched where you would sometimes get statistically improbable "clusters" of expeirmental effects occuring far higher than the base rate over 10-20 rolls followed by 100-200 rolls with no expeirment results at all. I suspect they use a similar RNG program for all the "random" elements in the game, with FD simply reprogramming the input/output for different game elements. We can't be certain of this of course without the Elite game code (which FD is obviously never going to release for various reasons) but I have seen similar issues in many other MMOs so I usually have a pretty good idea of how well their RNG is programmed based on these types of patterns of "clustered" results. For MEF drops and roulette wheel experimental effects it definitely appears to be giving results that are consistent with a poorly-optimized "pseudoRNG" rather than a system that produces truly random results.
Last edited:
Looks like many of us passed this phase - including me=). I've noted this very fast, so that was not a problem. Problem is that actually doing runs just to check what data can be dropped results in 99% of my "materials" income to be simply discarded.
Grade 3 material "Modified Consumer Firmwere" - hmm... checking... - At least I've saw them in large low-sec industrial and extraction layouts (L1L and M5L) - as it is marked in my mapping spreadsheet (check DATA area on the "BIG" page), so Large low security confirmed. Cannot judge the drop rate - statistic is too poor since 2.1.05 - but it seems not very impressive. Other lines of layouts can be also possible candidates but I have no confirmed data.
So I'm not sure that large low-sec is the best method to search for this. However - by some magic, yes!=) - I have a ready to use list, containing this kind of settlements and some others - so you can peek some from there. You can find it in this thread - "micro helper for beginners: free to scan CDT's near Eravate =)"
Or wait a bit - maybe some other commanders can name some better sources of MCF.
My most successful method for finding MCF is from missions. I have not noted any conditions that make it more/less likely to be offered as a reward.
Thank you for your reply! I will give that a try as well as the other suggestions posted.
By the way, thank you so much for putting together all of this data. The imgur maps and spreadsheets were immensely helping me getting the 80 MEF I needed for my Anaconda and Python (got to min max those multi cannons).
Last edited:
MEF's at 89 Leonis - Excellent
I posted this in an old version of this thread, and djadjok suggested I posted it again in this latest thread. So here goes.....
A special thank you to Abil Midena (for his video), djadjok, and Devari. Take some +1 rep.
I've just replicated the video at 89 Leonis, and got 3MEF's at Paynes and 3MEF's at Burgess.
Here is a screenshot taken at the last DP at Burgess. Thanks to all other posters on this thread. Now of to LVL 5 all my multi-cannons.
Apologies to all who viewed it previously.
http://i.imgur.com/Lf6blYz.png
I posted this in an old version of this thread, and djadjok suggested I posted it again in this latest thread. So here goes.....
A special thank you to Abil Midena (for his video), djadjok, and Devari. Take some +1 rep.
I've just replicated the video at 89 Leonis, and got 3MEF's at Paynes and 3MEF's at Burgess.
Here is a screenshot taken at the last DP at Burgess. Thanks to all other posters on this thread. Now of to LVL 5 all my multi-cannons.
Apologies to all who viewed it previously.
http://i.imgur.com/Lf6blYz.png
Last edited: