Engineers Medium Security Settlement List and Guide for Modified Embedded Firmware
- Thread starter Devari
- Start date
Ok thanks, I've visited about 8 of these and only 1 MEF so far, I guess random number generator hates me.
By the way, Gallun's Progress at Calhuacan is low security, not medium. At least it was last night.
Edit: I just realized that sounds a bit like I'm complaining. I appreciate the good work you and others have put into this. I only have 1 MEF drop so far but it's probably 1 more than I'd have without this. This engineers thing is starting to feel like Pokémon Go.
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![[HJ]-RedRaven](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/67/67389.jpg?1553527112){kind=avatar}
Awesome.... never realised you could scan the data points from outside the 'naughty area'
Also, I love how the buildings have seemingly well-placed ramps and platforms that you can climb/boost/launch off to get to other parts of the complex in the SRV.
Shades of Grand Theft Auto stunts indeed
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Thank you, commander, settlement has been added to the list (M5M)
Oh and this is really brilliant. With all details you have provided it is the first time I'm not only adding this entry to the list, but also to my "master" mapping data spreadsheet. Thank you, commander Martox! +rep
Oh - RNG is RNG
And thank you for correcting! Entry has been removed from the "MEF canditates" list and transfered to "free-to-scan CDT" (as it was external reference and not entered there earlier). Human factor within all those lists is always present.Yep, may be the most important trick to know when scanning DAP's=)
In fact that was served at the very beginnig as one another 100% proof that settlement's architecture have nothing in common with procedural generation=)Also, I love how the buildings have seemingly well-placed ramps and platforms that you can climb/boost/launch off to get to other parts of the complex in the SRV.
Shades of Grand Theft Auto stunts indeed
I've found one more Industrial Layout settlement, +++, medium security, but this one didn't yeld any MEF (only unusual ecripted files). Don't know if it's just bad RNG or something wrong with the settlement itself. If you're interested I can post a screenshot with the details, but if you need a confirmed MEF this is not for you.
I'm interested in ALL settlements and ALL kind of data they drop. The fact that this particular settlement have not dropped MEF during your scan doesn't mean that it will not be dropped during the visit of some other commander (or you in two weeks) - so far this is completly RNG thing. Also I hope that one day same kind of info will be available on eddb.io, so all this lists will became obsolete.
So I'll be glad if you post this info in any form - screens or just text description. Another possible option - wait a bit and I'll post here the link to my new spreadsheet "helper" that can be used by volunteered commanders to collect statistic on data yeld from settlements. It's main part is already created - only instructions of how to use it remains to add.
Just as a reminder for all commanders: absence of positive result is also the result. Collecting all kind's of results is the only way to pass from theoretical assumptions to experimentally proved (or disapproved) theory.
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Thank you, I'll add them to the list, but can you precise those settlements layout types?
Thank you! ups.. Спасибо
You mean "MEF candidates" spreadsheet list?
Hmm, strange, but it is already marked as L3M in this list (i.e Scientific), so I see no issue here.
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Good, I have two submission for you then.
Industrial layout, 0.16g:
Scientific layout, 0.11g.
Great! Many thanks!
Have no enough points to rep you
I'll add this to the list(s) and the master copy of the mapping database. Also thinking to enter this data as the first examples for the brand new "data mining" spreadsheet that I'm creating now.
o7
This is absolute bull, I spent all day yesterday doing these - following these lists to make sure they're high security and ++ or +++ in size. I've done some today as well and still haven't seen a single one of these MEF's. I'm starting to get royally off with Engineers. Why is it that everything has to be RNG? There's so many materials and datas available that it doesn't matter whether they're common, uncommon, rare or very rare - they all end up being rare because the loot tables is just all over the place.
These MEF's however are the icing on the cake, I'm not even bothering anymore. Settlements take a lot more time and effort to complete than other tasks such as surface prospecting, wake scanning, scanning ships, killing ships or doing USS's. Yet, they seem to have the absolute worst drop rate out of all Engineer resources.
I've spent hours exploiting the mission board in hopes to get at least one from a mission - nope. Nothing. I've spent time grinding up rep with local factions at Ray Gateway in Diagundri since they provide a lot of planetary missions with a decent credit reward. Still nothing.
I understand the need for RNG to keep things interesting and add some variety, in fact I love it, in terms of the module upgrades. But the fact that almost every single resource used by Engineers has RNG all over them is ruining this update all together. No wonder it was so badly received, I can't even imagine how bad it was "back in the day".
When you spend all day doing these settlements, sometimes not getting a single reward for 6-8 of them in a row - you really lose motivation to continue.
Nothing has ever made me want to uninstall Elite as much as this Engineers grinding has. It's stupid, it's boring, it's poorly designed. It's absolutely and utterly awful.
I've completely given up with settlements as I deem this drop rate to be broken beyond belief; I'll give the mission board some more time but after that I'm 100% done with Engineers and won't be touching any of it with 10 foot pole.
These MEF's however are the icing on the cake, I'm not even bothering anymore. Settlements take a lot more time and effort to complete than other tasks such as surface prospecting, wake scanning, scanning ships, killing ships or doing USS's. Yet, they seem to have the absolute worst drop rate out of all Engineer resources.
I've spent hours exploiting the mission board in hopes to get at least one from a mission - nope. Nothing. I've spent time grinding up rep with local factions at Ray Gateway in Diagundri since they provide a lot of planetary missions with a decent credit reward. Still nothing.
I understand the need for RNG to keep things interesting and add some variety, in fact I love it, in terms of the module upgrades. But the fact that almost every single resource used by Engineers has RNG all over them is ruining this update all together. No wonder it was so badly received, I can't even imagine how bad it was "back in the day".
When you spend all day doing these settlements, sometimes not getting a single reward for 6-8 of them in a row - you really lose motivation to continue.
Nothing has ever made me want to uninstall Elite as much as this Engineers grinding has. It's stupid, it's boring, it's poorly designed. It's absolutely and utterly awful.
I've completely given up with settlements as I deem this drop rate to be broken beyond belief; I'll give the mission board some more time but after that I'm 100% done with Engineers and won't be touching any of it with 10 foot pole.
Sorry to hear about this, I perfectly understand you about RNG thing, but:
Why you are attacking "High Security" settlements, medium or large sizes? It's really time consuming, DAP's runs in free-to-scan settlements are much faster. Also, one can only "assume" that overall MEF yield can be better from high security than for medium security - but this was't proved anywhere for 2.1.05. Taking into account "fighting time" this is simply not an efficient approach.
Try medium security Large/Medium/Small sizes. Also settlement layout can have some - unknown - influence, commanders reporting that - for example - L2M (large exploration med.sec) is the best in large-class settlements.
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I read somewhere that they only dropped from high security settlements...?
Either way, I've done enough of these to last me a lifetime. It's a shame because I initially enjoyed doing these settlements, they're a fresh experience(and can be challenging if you aim to disable the entire settlement) - but not seeing these things drop at all has ruined any and all motivation I had.
Either way, I've done enough of these to last me a lifetime. It's a shame because I initially enjoyed doing these settlements, they're a fresh experience(and can be challenging if you aim to disable the entire settlement) - but not seeing these things drop at all has ruined any and all motivation I had.
There can be some "historical" issues that have mixed up the full picture.
1) Prior to 2.1.05 MEF (before FD tweaked the rules) was available only:
- in High AND Medium Security Large Size settlements
- in High Security Medium size settlements (with one "med.security" exception, layout that in fact has "large" size, but shown in-game as "++")
So, taking into account that the first goal was to get MEF without any fighting only limited number of layouts were of interest - L1M,L2M,L3M,M5H,M5M
The "need to fight through" kind of layouts has been also entered in my lists as kind of an alternative for those who want some fighting (and MEF drops were confirmed).
2) However, with 2.1.05 all the things changed - somewhere drastically. With all previous statistic data becoming obsolete.
Also new statistic data is a bit harder to collect (FD've reduced "variety"/number of "seed's" droped ~ 2 times, at the same time augmenting "quantity" each "seed" produced in your onboard datahold 3 times).
So far known:
MEF drops from any "medium security" bases - Large, Medium or even Small bases. Is there other factors that influence the probability - if any - is unknown. Layout type? Maybe.
Other lower grade "software" - like SLF - more probably will be dropped from Low security bases.
So far, I have't visited any kind of "high security" bases since the arrival of 2.1.05 (don't know if it was done by other commanders), so presence of LxH, MxH and SxH in the list are not even justified actually, only kind of inherited from previous version + logical assumption of the link between data micromaterial "grade"/rarity and "security level". Also, as it was already said above, taking down "high-sec bases" is time consuming, so with 2.1.05 - when the effective quantity of MEF free-to-scan layouts nearby tripled due to the discarding of the "size"-imposed limits - the "high-security" bases lost any remaining interest from the part of "data miners".
How many high-security bases you've checked? Different layouts or somewhere similar? As this "poor luck" for RNG - who knows? - may be explained by some other so far unknown factors.
So an update... I thought I'd post this before I punch a hole in my monitor.
I figured out why I haven't been getting anything, not even the common ones. Because my g data inventory is full, and of course Elite being Elite - it doesn't at all notify me that my inventory is full and that potential data I could have had has gone wasted.
Yes, you can argue that I should be paying attention to my inventory, but come on - this is an extreme oversight on Frontier's end.
Shame that all my motivation to continue is just about nil. I may try 2 or 3 more settlements just for the hell of it. But good lord do I feel like punching puppies and kittens at the moment...
I figured out why I haven't been getting anything, not even the common ones. Because my g data inventory is full, and of course Elite being Elite - it doesn't at all notify me that my inventory is full and that potential data I could have had has gone wasted.
Yes, you can argue that I should be paying attention to my inventory, but come on - this is an extreme oversight on Frontier's end.
Shame that all my motivation to continue is just about nil. I may try 2 or 3 more settlements just for the hell of it. But good lord do I feel like punching puppies and kittens at the moment...
"Oh no! Not again!" =)So an update... I thought I'd post this before I punch a hole in my monitor.
I figured out why I haven't been getting anything, not even the common ones. Because my g data inventory is full, and of course Elite being Elite - it doesn't at all notify me that my inventory is full and that potential data I could have had has gone wasted.
Yes, you can argue that I should be paying attention to my inventory, but come on - this is an extreme oversight on Frontier's end.
Shame that all my motivation to continue is just about nil. I may try 2 or 3 more settlements just for the hell of it. But good lord do I feel like punching puppies and kittens at the moment...
I haven't understand that you've got no data at all, otherwise I can only cite myself (post #214):
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If you are looking for MCF, then "low security" settlements are better candidates.