New to the game, need some help regarding the metal alloy!!!

FWT2000

F
Hello everyone,

I am new to the game and just began to learn how to do engineering. I chose Felicity as my first target bc I felt increased FSD range would come in handy in a lot of situation.
I was told that she would need a material called Metal Alloy to unlock all the improvement she can offer but the only place I found which provides this material is within a system named Maia.

I checked the distance and O!M!G! thats like 420ly from System Deciat.....currently I am flying a Python with FSD jump range only 12ly......and it took me like half an hour to get to Deciat in the first place, and I really dont feel like going back and forth between Deciat and Maia.

So I wonder if there are other alterative ways to get this material???

Thanks!
 

ElunGhel

E
sinisalo said:
Buy a DBX, install a 5A FSD and fly that instead.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's a great idea! Even though you'll have to spend the time and CR getting the DBX, it'll really speed up the time it takes for you to get between systems, and it's a really great ship for running errands. If you ever need to purchase anything or get materials from somewhere decently far away, the DBX is the way to go
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
FWT2000 said:
.....currently I am flying a Python with FSD jump range only 12ly......and it took me like half an hour to get to Deciat in the first place, ....
.......
Click to expand...

As @sinisalo (edit - and the ninja @ElunGhel ) says - have a more "jumpy" ship for those material gathering trips. DbX is a good choice (since you are in a Python already so have some credits spare) and it is well worth keeping in the long run too as you for sure don't want to drag a less jumpy craft out to get the Guardian stuff later (you will be glad of the FSD Boster alone) as well as trips to farm materials for engineering.

BTW - I pin the G3 Thruster dirty drive at Flic and have the G5 FSD Long Range pinned at Elvira.
 

ElunGhel

E
I'm not going to lie, I personally think the DBX is the best ship in the game for long range trips within the bubble. Even though I'm currently near Colonia with an Anaconda, whenever I'm in the bubble, I'll be flying nothing but the DBX to get around. While the Conda feels like you're on an epic journey across the stars, discovering the unknown, trips in the DBX around the bubble just feel like a trip to the store. It's great for getting around anywhere in local space, no matter what you're trying to get
 

ElunGhel

E
Then again, if you don't have the funds, maybe somebody could buy some and drop them off at Deciat. I'd do that for you, but unfortunately, I'm halfway across the galaxy right now, and it would probably be faster for you to just get it yourself in that case
 
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ElunGhel

E
Yep, do you have any friends in the game with a better jump range? It's definitely a cheaper option if you don't have the funds for a ship. But if you do have the funds, the DBX is totally worth it!
 

FWT2000

F
ElunGhel said:
Yep, do you have any friends in the game with a better jump range? It's definitely a cheaper option if you don't have the funds for a ship. But if you do have the funds, the DBX is totally worth it!
Click to expand...
Well....i intially started the game with couple of my friends, we all just wanted to try this space exploration game.....and then I am the only one left after two days lol, this game is not quite beginner friendly I think
 

FWT2000

F
Para Handy said:
As @sinisalo (edit - and the ninja @ElunGhel ) says - have a more "jumpy" ship for those material gathering trips. DbX is a good choice (since you are in a Python already so have some credits spare) and it is well worth keeping in the long run too as you for sure don't want to drag a less jumpy craft out to get the Guardian stuff later (you will be glad of the FSD Boster alone) as well as trips to farm materials for engineering.

BTW - I pin the G3 Thruster dirty drive at Flic and have the G5 FSD Long Range pinned at Elvira.
Click to expand...
Going to get a DBX now....just wonder how much the maximum FSD range would be without engineering
 

Esteban

E
I must say, even for a Python, that strikes me as a pretty short jump range. I've had my Python for along time but I can't remember starting out in it with just 12LY.
I remember doing the run for meta-alloys (in my Python). It wasn't bad at all.
 

Ed [FCOC]

Ed [FCOC]
FWT2000 said:
Well....i intially started the game with couple of my friends, we all just wanted to try this space exploration game.....and then I am the only one left after two days lol, this game is not quite beginner friendly I think
Click to expand...
Join a discord squad maybe, perhaps a large one like The Fatherhood or any listed on Inara and ask for assistance.
Open a discord account if you don’t have one and away you go.
discord.gg

Join the Fleet Carrier Owners Club Discord Server!

Check out the Fleet Carrier Owners Club community on Discord – hang out with 23947 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
discord.gg discord.gg
 

wAsh67

W
Esteban said:
I must say, even for a Python, that strikes me as a pretty short jump range. I've had my Python for along time but I can't remember starting out in it with just 12LY.
I remember doing the run for meta-alloys (in my Python). It wasn't bad at all.
Click to expand...

I did mine in a weakly armed Cobra 3, without a fuel scoop, flying through a region of brown dwarfs that seemed to stretch on for hundreds of light years, in economy jump mode which reduced jump range to about 5 light years, got hyperdicted by Thargoids which made me lose a whole jump worth of precious fuel, and finally made it to the Seven Sisters and a fuel shop by the skin of my teeth.
And it was awesome.
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
ElunGhel said:
I'm not going to lie, I personally think the DBX is the best ship in the game for long range trips within the bubble. Even though I'm currently near Colonia with an Anaconda, whenever I'm in the bubble, I'll be flying nothing but the DBX to get around. While the Conda feels like you're on an epic journey across the stars, discovering the unknown, trips in the DBX around the bubble just feel like a trip to the store. It's great for getting around anywhere in local space, no matter what you're trying to get
Click to expand...
I'd consider an imperial courier as my preferred taxi. Sure it takes a bit more jumps but with a good fuel scoop this thing fills the tank in seconds. Also with a bit of thruster engineering you can outrun most griefers and NPCs.
 

VR StarLightPL

VR StarLightPL
Esteban said:
I must say, even for a Python, that strikes me as a pretty short jump range. I've had my Python for along time but I can't remember starting out in it with just 12LY.
I remember doing the run for meta-alloys (in my Python). It wasn't bad at all.
Click to expand...
Python is a slug. Stock one has a max of 8.6Ly, and a 5A fsd which gives you 17Ly costs 5mil.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
coriolis.io coriolis.io
 

wAsh67

W
FWT2000 said:
So I wonder if there are other alterative ways to get this material???

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Here's an excerpt from my current Elite novel.

My search for barnacles yielded nothing initially, the mindless repetition testing the patience of a saint. Arrive at a system. Refuel from the star if possible. Honk using the discovery scanner and wait while the data was collected. Fly a short distance away from the star. Use the full spectrum system scanner to focus the ship’s sensor arrays onto each signal in the planetary bodies range in turn, one after the other, even in systems where there were sixty or more detected astronomical bodies. Check the top right corner of the screen for planetary features detected. Sigh. Jump to the next system. Yawn. Repeat ad nauseum. I even spent an evening at the Witch Head Science Centre asteroid base on HIP 23759 that was listed on one of Max’s databases, looking for clues on where I might be able to find a barnacle site, but not even a fifty-buck tip to the bartender yielded so much as a nod in the right direction. If Kyle had though Maia was the ass end of the galaxy then he’d clearly never been to the WHSC.

Then, after five days of working my way toward the centre of the nebula, the discovery scanner reported that it had detected multiple signals on A4, a high metal content planet that flashed up as Thargoid in origin. The system was Witch Head Sector LC-V C2-10. I headed to A4 at full speed and slowed to just above a supercruise halt in a high orbit around the small dwarf planet, firing off a pattern of three detailed surface scanner probes that settled into geosynchronous orbits around it, searching the surface for the signals that the discovery scanner had detected. Once the scan had completed and the data had been transmitted back to the DSS analysis screen, the probes automatically self-destructed, and I logged out of the DSS mode and back into the nav screen, scanned down the list of navigation contacts until I found one that said “Thargoid site” and selected it on the touch screen.

The HUD superimposed the target region on the surface of the planet as I approached, flying the Cobra down toward the surface, deploying the landing gear and banking around the barnacle site, one eye on the scenery and the other on the altimeter. After my failure in the Pleiades to find meta-alloys I now knew what to look for and unfortunately this looked just as desolate a site - one solitary barnacle surrounded by the remains of a multitude of spikes, every single one of them hacked open and barren like the aftermath of a boiled egg breakfast. I didn’t bother investigating further, instead I raised the landing gear and supercruised up the escape vector and back into orbit. I selected another possible Thargoid site from the eight such candidates that the DSS probes had highlighted and rolled the Cobra back over towards the new HUD vector.

Again I descended planetside, this time getting thrown out of orbital cruise early due to the angle of my descent being in excess of 45 degrees, and flew the Cobra down in a shallow powered dive toward the cratered, rock strewn surface with sixty five kilometres to go, shifting the power distributor pips to full engines and half shields and repeatedly tapping the boost button in my impatience to get there and get this sideshow over with. Running at half shields was a risk this close to the surface, but with gravity so low and no significant mountainous terrain between myself and the barnacle growth the risk was less a concern than my rapidly diminishing patience. I figured I’d be fine unless I had an epileptic fit and nose-dived into the dirt on afterburner.

After three minutes of this sub orbital flight I was banking around the barnacle growth with a smile broadening across my handsome visage. This time it looked like I might just have hit the jackpot. There were two large barnacles surrounded by dozens of small spikes and five large spikes, all of them radiating a pale green glow that had been absent at the previous locations that I had visited. And there were no tyre tracks. I had finally found a ripe barnacle site that had not been harvested. All that effort had not been in vain.

The landing gear deployed with a high-pitched whine and a dull thud as it locked into place and I descended lower, the terrain mapping feature of the scanner coming to life to display a silhouetted likeness of my ship with a red circle beneath it superimposed upon the terrain and a line connecting the two icons to indicate altitude. I headed away from the barnacles and flew slowly toward a nearby mountain with the barnacles held at my six o’clock position. Eventually I came across a patch of ground that didn’t seem to be covered in boulders or pockmarked with craters and slowed to a near crawl as I waited for the red circle to turn blue and highlight a suitable landing site. As soon as it did I cut forward speed altogether and allowed the micro gravity of 0.13g to draw me down, tapping the belly thrusters just before impact to help cushion the landing and save the skids from digging too deeply into the soft soil which might reduce the clearance between the SRV and the underbelly of the Cobra to the point where the Scarab might get stuck while heading out.

I suited up, made my way down to the SRV hangar and clambered aboard the folded-up Scarab. Once the power up self-tests, seal integrity and system checks had passed and the departure board was fully green I depressurised the hangar and the SRV dropped down onto the surface of the moon. As I had landed with the target site directly behind me I simply drove out from under the Cobra and motored straight toward the large barnacles, leaving a rooster tail of reddish brown dust in my wake.

The meta-alloys grew out of the large spikes like glowing melon shaped balloons, one per spike, way out of reach even if I stood on top of the Scarab. I’d need an axe on a ten-foot long pole to get anywhere near them. I wasn’t entirely sure an axe would even be able to sever something that is notionally a metal from the rock-like spike. I would probably end up simply blunting the axe against the stem. So instead I chose the tried and tested surface prospector’s method of extracting materials from inaccessible places and blasted them off the spike with the SRV’s turret mounted dual repeater plasma cannons.

As I understood it, the Thargoids themselves used some form of matter transference technology to ‘beam up’ the materials from the spikes, through the barnacles, to a ‘mining ship’ that hovered above the barnacle while a brilliant beam of luminous green light pulsed between them to convey the meta-alloys upwards. This fuelled another one of my theories behind the aggression the Thargoids were showing mankind – their mining methods preserved the mature barnacle spikes so in theory they could be harvested again and again while our more basic approach left them as shattered rotting ruins.

The meta-alloy split off from the spike in a shower of sparks and slowly floated in one piece down to the ground. Then to my alarm it began to roll downhill toward a thirty-foot-wide crevasse that I had surveyed while orbiting the plantation where it would end up lost forever if I couldn’t get to it in time. In a panic I released the handbrake and floored the throttle, spitting dust out of the tyre treads as the SRV fishtailed under the harsh acceleration before the treads bit and the Scarab literally bounded across the terrain. The cargo scoop lowered into position as I thundered through the plantation, swerving around the smaller spikes that seemed to crop up everywhere, uncannily getting in my way, the scoop scraping along the uneven ground with disconcerting grating, grinding noises, small stones and rocks sent flying with sharp bangs as I sped closer to the cliff edge, steering directly at the melon as it gathered momentum with the steepening of the slope.

There was a crunch as the SRV rolled over the meta-alloy and the “Cargo acquired” announcement was drowned out by a juddering, tearing noise as I stamped my foot down on the brakes, wrenching the steering wheel hard left and putting the Scarab into a sideways skid that ended with the right side wheels resting about a metre from the edge of the crevasse. When the dust that my headlong pursuit had kicked up eventually settled and my heart rate had returned to somewhere near normal I gingerly leaned over to the right to see how far down the crack in the moon’s surface went. I couldn’t see the bottom of it.

The next meta-alloy was harvested without quite so much drama as this time I had parked the SRV downhill from the giant spike, sniped the meta-alloy off with the cannons and allowed the glowing melon to roll toward the waiting cargo scoop. With the SRV’s cargo hold now filled with a pair of meta-alloys I returned to the Cobra to transfer it across to the ship’s cargo bay. Three trips and half an hour later I had completely exhausted this barnacle plantation’s supply of meta-alloys. Once I had finished I blasted the tops off a couple of the smaller spikes out of curiosity to be rewarded with what I took to be the waste products of the meta-alloy forming process – mostly small, virtually worthless nuggets of iron, nickel and other common metals that I collected anyway and stored in the material racks for future trading or synthesis into something useful.

I parked up the SRV in its hangar and checked the inventory screen to ensure the five meta-alloy melons were safely secured for the thousand light year journey back to Farseer Inc on Deciat. Hopefully that would satisfy Felicity’s demands for a while and get me started on the road to engineered upgrades. I wondered if she’d be happy with just three meta-alloys as that would leave me two to sell on the commodities market, which would hopefully net me at least a quarter of a million credits. Before locking in a course for home I surveyed the six remaining Thargoid sites with low, high speed passes at about a hundred metres altitude. Of the eight candidate sites registered by the DSS on this dwarf planet only two contained ripe barnacles and one of those I had just stripped bare. I bookmarked the planet in the nav computer and recorded the co-ordinates of the remaining ripe site on my datapad as that one looked like it might have at least four more large meta-alloy bearing spikes with not a single tyre track to be seen. Perhaps at some time in the future I’d need more of the stuff – I’m sure Farseer wasn’t the only person in the galaxy in need of them. Max had, I recalled, mentioned that the Alliance were doing their own research on meta-alloys when we had visited Farseer’s base. I considered uploading the co-ordinates onto the ADF database, but decided instead to keep the information to myself.
 

d8veh

d8veh
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