No interest in planets = no hope for engineering?

[shambles1980]

really finding elite frustrating since returning a couple of weeks back. Had decided to do some engineering.
I spend a good 50% of my time only doing missions that give materials as a reward.
the 25% asteroid mining "just laser"
and probably 15% of my time trading, and 10% doing some form of combat..

I have no issues at all with this game play. its not terrible and is the sort of stuff i bought elite to do..

now i have ZERO interest in driving around planets. I dont even take delivery missions to planets if i can avoid them.
And so i end up in a situation where i have found almost no selenium at all doing this.
It is never offered as a mission reward. I assume it sometimes comes from asteroids as i have found some, but no where near the amount you would expect given the time spent mining.

I dont know if this is a deliberate attempt to push players away. or a naive attempt to introduce players to game-play mechanics that the devs want people to do..
if its the former Then i think its working. if its the latter, then that is going directly against the "play as you want to play" motto.

you can argue that this is technically a game play choice, but honestly a choice is not "do this particular thing to progress. or dont progress"

im quite happy to do all the things i already do "even though i have NEVER wanted to mine asteroids" I do not mind taking a hour or 2 out just to go mine some asteroids and listen to a podcast or 2.
But if i want to drive around i have a lot of sims that already do that, and for some reason they dont try to make me fly around to progress.

now im mostly doing pristine metallic rings, i guess its possible i should be doing rocky or icy and then id find more, But if i search for information on it, all i get are posts/vids demonstrating how to just land on planets and relog over and over and just avoiding any game play loop at all.
And honestly, if the best way to play the game is to avoid the game play... I think there is something seriously wrong some where.

like i said im perfectly happy to plod allong organically playing the game. doing trades, mining asteroids doing missions and helping out in combat zones.
But i do think the game has taken a turn for the worse when organic game play is the LAST thing any one recommends.

 

[varonica]

And so i end up in a situation where i have found almost no selenium at all doing this.

Material traders are a thing, plenty of them around, just trade the mats you don't need for engineering.

 

[shambles1980]

Material traders are a thing, plenty of them around, just trade the mats you don't need for engineering.

sorry my mistake..

the game play choice is:
Spend 2 weeks mining trade it for 2 selenium.
or
Go drive on a planet.

my bad

edit:

I mean i know im a bit late to the party here so most of the people who feel the same have already left, so i dont expect to see many replies that arent going to be.
"suck it up"
But given that most people Have already left.. Id kind of imagine perhaps "suck it up" is not the right attitude.

Any way just thought id point out what i think is an issue.

 

[varonica]

If you cross trade for the same level mat it only takes 6 of the other mat, don't just trade up and down the same mat path! I think you are being a bit hyperbolic there!

 

[shambles1980]

If you cross trade for the same level mat it only takes 6 of the other mat, don't just trade up and down the same mat path! I think you are being a bit hyperbolic there!

The problem with "cross trade" is yes i singled out selenium. but that does not mean that any of the other materials of the same level are more abundant in the same game play loop outlined...

You are basically saying..
Well go to a planet and mine Different high level materials... then you dont have to go to a planet to mine selenium.

The strange thing is though rare types of data i can get organically from missions.
I seem to get manufactured stuff pretty easy as well (i assume its from the combat zones and other forms of combat i do.), but i have seen them given out as mission rewards.
but materials really do seem to want to force you down to a planet...
I will openly admit Perhaps i just dont know of some in game mechanic, and some one will say
"missions in boom systems are more likely to give this material" (or some similar reply) like i said i dont even know if im mining the correct ring types.
BUT the truth is it seems no one actually knows. because every one just skips the game play and says, "go to this planet, mine like crazy, log out and back on"
And honestly that has to be seen as an issue.
if playing the game organically is so unrewarding that the only information about the process is "dont do any game play." something has to be wrong.

There isn't even "this is the fastest way, alternatively if you want to do it organically here is some information about that".

I dont want to go out and get all the materials i need for everything in 8 hours.
but when we are talking a good 50-60 (actually probably more than that but i hate to actually work it out) hours of organic game play and even with trading materials you are talking less than a dozen selenium. somethings not quite right.

 

[Dragsham]

Yup
Welcome to elites grind.
We used to have the crystal forest.
But it's gone now, and it never had selenium.
Only way to efficiently farm it Is on a hand picked planetary surface whizzing about in a buggy.
I filled 100 in about 3 hours.
There's lots of mats across the board that are hard to get.
I've 14 fully engineered ships which means I did alot of farming of mats. Its crap. But once done you have ships that can do what you intended them to do.
Get it done... we all had to. Those who didn't fly paper planes that my g5 short range rails would wipe the floor with.
It's worth it in the long run.

o7

 

[varonica]

The problem with "cross trade" is yes i singled out selenium. but that does not mean that any of the other materials of the same level are more abundant in the same game play loop outlined...

Material traders never used to exist, they put them in to help people like you who don't want to do the ground work. How easy do you want them to make it? Just asking out of curiosity!

 

[X80]

Is it really true that Crystalline Shards don't exist any more? They were an good shortcut to get all raw material fast, and those who didn't like grinding loved them. Just few months ago I visited them last time.

There is no need for engineering, especially if you don't do P2P combat. Everything else you can do without engineering. Just enjoy playing as you like, and you notice that all engineering materials you need come to you. You don't have to look for them.

 

[X80]

@Shambles: If you don't know what kind of asteroid rings to mine, this may help you.

 

[shambles1980]

Material traders never used to exist, they put them in to help people like you who don't want to do the ground work. How easy do you want them to make it? Just asking out of curiosity!

not sure where you see me saying need to be "easy" was saying it needs to be organic.
you may want to check a dictionary if you are confusing the two...

the issue with this list is it does not mention any raw materials..

@Shambles: If you don't know what kind of asteroid rings to mine, this may help you.

 

[varonica]

not sure where you see me saying need to be "easy" was saying it needs to be organic.
you may want to check a dictionary if you are confusing the two...

the issue with this list is it does not mention any raw materials..

I am asking you how you want it to work, you obviously want it easier than it is now, organic doesn't mean anything in the way you are using it, I don't think that word means what you think it means!

 

[CMDR Flavius Funk]

I do agree there should be a mission reward that is a top grade raw material to balance it out. Since I can easily fill two types of Manufactured materials running any type of flying mission. Exquisite Focus Crystals and Biotech conductors as rewards all day, so we can trade down in manufactured. Modified embedded firmware as a reward on the encoded side...so not forced to hit a planet for either of the first two. Why only for Raw?

Selenium should be a mission reward. Or another top grade raw. It's an easy quality of life fix that's long overdue.

Side note - LHS 417 (planet 9EA, geo sites 13 and 25) is a decent Selenium spot if you break down and hit a planet. It's in the bubble too.

 

[varonica]

I do agree there should be a mission reward that is a top grade raw material to balance it out. Since I can easily fill two types of Manufactured materials running any type of flying mission. Exquisite Focus Crystals and Biotech conductors as rewards all day, so we can trade down in manufactured. Modified embedded firmware as a reward on the encoded side...so not forced to hit a planet for either of the first two. Why only for Raw?

Selenium should be a mission reward. Or another top grade raw. It's an easy quality of life fix that's long overdue.

Side note - LHS 417 (planet 9EA, geo sites 13 and 25) is a decent Selenium spot if you break down and hit a planet. It's in the bubble too.

Funny how people expect us explorers to do missions to get manufactured and encoded, but balk at exploring planets to get raws, why can't I get manufactured and encoded exploring planets? I never do missions!

 

[CMDR Flavius Funk]

I got you!

Hyades Sector DR-V c2-23 -(A5) (Dav's Hope) Race around scooping Manufactured mats....then at the end of each lap scan the beacon for encoded luvins.
Follow this by a good old standard soft log main menu, then back in and repeat!

I'm just havin fun, I am sure you know of this place already'=)

 

[varonica]

I got you!

Hyades Sector DR-V c2-23 -(A5) (Dav's Hope) Race around scooping Manufactured mats....then at the end of each lap scan the beacon for encoded luvins.
Follow this by a good old standard soft log main menu, then back in and repeat!

I'm just havin fun, I am sure you know of this place already'=)

Ah the old relog at Dav's Hope, nice, only I am tens of thosands of ly from Dav's Hope and probably won't be anywhere near it for many months, why can't I have organic methods (whatever that means) of collecting manufactured and encoded out where I am instead of being forced to travel all the way to the bubble to get them?

 

[shambles1980]

Well i could go to a planet spend a few hours scooping up crap and then never need to do any more again..
"that would be easy"
but then wheres the incentive to keep progressing?

i know some here are confusing "easy" and "organic" game play, but landing on a planet and filling up on everything in a few hours and then trading for what you want is "EASY"

What i want to know is why there is no organic path. or if there is an organic path why is it so obscure that no one knows what it is?

seeing as some dont understand "organic" il have to explain it..

organic game play entails of you progressing at some reasonable rate by simply playing the game.
You do missions you get rewards.. these include the hard to get materials.
you do combat explode some pirates some ships had some of the hard to get materials and you can scoop them up.
You do mining, and you organically find some of the hard to get materials. lets say 1 selenium every 2 hours or something.
You do exploring, and when you hand in you get materials/data or so on..

That way no matter how you play you "organically" come across the materials needed..

OR we can go the "yeah i dont really care about playing the game and just want end goal now"
find a planet.
spend 3-4 hours doing the same thing and thats the end of that..

And if you think I want easy when you chose easy and think it was hard..
I think i see why we could never see eye to eye on this.

 

[varonica]

What i want to know is why there is no organic path. or if there is an organic path why is it so obscure that no one knows what it is?

Because what you are saying in meaningless, no-one actually knows what you mean by organic path, I don't even think you know. Describe an organic path to collecting raw mats!

 

[shambles1980]

google organic gameplay im tired of explaining to some one who wants to be deliberatley ignornat,

I already described it in the post you just quoted.

 

[varonica]

google organic gameplay im tired of explaining to some one who wants to be deliberatley ignornat,

I already described it in the post you just quoted.

organic game play entails of you progressing at some reasonable rate by simply playing the game.

That's exactly what happens though, it's already happens in game, but you don't want to to the part of the organic game play that entails collecting raw mats.

And if you think I want easy when you chose easy and think it was hard..

No, you are the one who seems to think it's hard landing on planets and collecting raw mats, it's not the gameplay you want therefore they must introduce easier gameplay for you to get the same stuff. When I say easier gameplay it's all relative. None of my ships has a single weapon, so your organic gameplay of doing combat and collecting manufactured mats is the same for me as you landing on planets and collecting raws, it's something I will never do. You seem to be implying that every single activity in game should give every single material as a reward, that's not organic gameplay, that's just easy gameplay.

Part of playing the game is landing on planets and collecting bio data, mining meteorites and harvesting mats from volcanic sites, this is the part of gameplay that provides raw mats.

organic game play entails of you progressing at some reasonable rate by simply playing the game.

If you say, "I am not doing the part of the game that entails landing on planets" you don't get to say, "therefore FDEV must provide me with a way to collect the same mats in the part of the game I am willing to play." That's where the easy part comes in, it's always easy when it's something you already do, but it's not easy once you get outside your comfort zone and actually have to play parts of the game you don't want to play.

You aren't asking for organic gameplay, you are confusing organic gameplay with "playing the bits you want to do and ignoring everything else." When driving around on the surface looking for bio I occasionally come across meteorites that I then opportunistically harvest to gather raw mats", there's your organic gameplay.

Sure because I don't do combat I miss out on gathering the mats that drop in abundance from that activity, but I don't then come on the forums and complain and demand there should be ways for me to get them out in the black, because that would be silly!

 

[shambles1980]

If you say, "I am not doing the part of the game that entails landing on planets" you don't get to say, "therefore FDEV must provide me with a way to collect the same mats in the part of the game I am willing to play." That's where the easy part comes in, it's always easy when it's something you already do, but it's not easy once you get outside your comfort zone and actually have to play parts of the game you don't want to play.

When they sold me a game saying
"play the way you want to play, we wont make 1 game play style more valid than any other"

then yes I actually can.

And you keep confusing "hard" with not wanting to Exploit a game mechanic to reach end goal faster.

you have no valid points and yet insist on posting.
Im not sure why you feel you need to defend this, you can just look at the player count and see something is not right, but if you want to just bury your head in the sand thats fine, but i do recommend you do so and just be happy with what you have, and refrain from posting as you just keep contradicting the whole ethos that the devs sold the game on.

I mean if your idea of a fun and engaging game is "exploit one game play aspect for a few hours till you fill your hold with the things you need and then never do it again."
and then tell others they are wrong for not wanting to do that,
It seems painfully obvious why so many people have left elite.

its actually pitiful that you wish to say i find something too hard and so it is my fault.
When the truth is Nothing could be easier than landing on a planet and spending a few hours farming all the stuff you need.

Its the weakest argument i have ever seen.
You have decided to fall back on the classic "elite is hard deal with it" argument, failing to realize that i want a method that is harder than just landing on planets and mining for a few hours. But also a valid method to progress.
its the most backwards argument i have ever seen.

I think a lot is actually explained just by looking at the age of the accounts of the posters here.
I mean i just guess you dont remember what the game was promised to be or something.