No more needle crystals?

[CMDR Rusty Dog]

I was searching yesterday at Geographical sites on planets for stuff (particularly Ruthenium).
2 planets I went to had 2 geo-sites, vents and fumeroles.
I spend the best part of 2 hrs at least exploring these of course there was an over-abundance of Piceous Cobble. Occasional Crystalline Clusters and Fragments.
Not once, not even once, did I encounter Needle Crystals which dish out the Grade 4/5 Raw Mats.

Is this bugged or nerfed or just totally imbalanced?
It never used to be like this. You could always find the occasional needle crystal here and here. Not any more (at least from what I experienced). Both planets I went to had the highest % of Ruthenium according to Inara.
Used to be that geo-sites was a nicer and slightly quicker way to get what you wanted as opposed to rock-ratting with the SRV.
Not any more apparently.

Has anyone else experience this?

 

[Zalwig]

New meta is braintrees for raws.

https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/s/7syo9UBh3b

 

[Ruthless4645]

I was searching yesterday at Geographical sites on planets for stuff (particularly Ruthenium).
2 planets I went to had 2 geo-sites, vents and fumeroles.
I spend the best part of 2 hrs at least exploring these of course there was an over-abundance of Piceous Cobble. Occasional Crystalline Clusters and Fragments.
Not once, not even once, did I encounter Needle Crystals which dish out the Grade 4/5 Raw Mats.

Is this bugged or nerfed or just totally imbalanced?
It never used to be like this. You could always find the occasional needle crystal here and here. Not any more (at least from what I experienced). Both planets I went to had the highest % of Ruthenium according to Inara.
Used to be that geo-sites was a nicer and slightly quicker way to get what you wanted as opposed to rock-ratting with the SRV.
Not any more apparently.

Has anyone else experience this?

Ya I agree with Zalwig on this one Rusty, try the braintrees. If I remember correctly when I did the Raw run the Ruthenium it was located in the more rocky mountainous areas (don't quote me on that one it's been awhile), but it was still one of the harder Raws to collect though compared to the others.

 

[Tetra Trash]

Somewhere there's a post with some coordinates for the new needle crystal sites in the HIP 36601 system (and looks like there's a reddit post with bio sites there that may be easier to get to). They only grow in certain regions (like Sanguineous Rim) so depending on where you're looking they may not even grow there.

 

[Fixitman]

There are no G5 raw mats. With that out of the way:

Needle crystals have always been very rare for me as well. I've switched to farming brain trees and crystal shards from my ship with mines and limpets. It's much faster that way, but it's still challenging enough to be fun. Both are found a considerable distance from the bubble, so it's a good idea to bring enough mats for synthesizing limpest and ammo.

 

[CMDR Rusty Dog]

Aaah, I should have mentioned that the account I'm playing on (my 3rd account) is Horizons only.
HIP 36601/brain tree location is for Odyssey players right?

 

[Tetra Trash]

Aaah, I should have mentioned that the account I'm playing on (my 3rd account) is Horizons only.
HIP 36601/brain tree location is for Odyssey players right?

Nope, those are Horizons (those are the OG Horizons crystal shard sites, and brain trees were Horizons too) so you should be able to access and use them.

Edit: assuming you're playing Horizons Live and not legacy; if legacy the old geo site location s apply (I'm assuming you're in live but just in case...)

 

[Elpapo]

Horizons without Oddy, its bit diffrent, certainly legacy version it is.

Far as neddle crystals concerned, atleast in oddy live version, these seems can spawn over and over in same places, when it "resets", as I was able to find some nice valley on some planet, where I could drive about 1-2km and go back(usualy when found another needle cluster), and even without reloggin, just driving between each again and again, and those neddle crystals would re-appear each time on very same gas vent or fumeroles, and other things like cobble or fragments, would also had been found on same spots as before, despite being collected few mins ago.

It didnt take long to stock up with material I was lookin for at time... but it was done many months ago, certainly patch or two away. And I did done it only once (raw material gathering) since oddy. And next time I probly ever need restock my materials, gonna be 1 or 2 years later, because I not doing it often, like once about each 2 years is more than enough, before I am out of it by synthetis, or enginnering.

Its certainly diffrent, since legacy horizons, as at that older version planetery pois are not planet wide, but only found at specific coordinates, in form of POI, but if I am remember it right, it did also had similar "same placement" of things, but it did not reappear by just driving away, but rather doing reset of instance was required in order to respawn these.

HIP 36601/brain tree location is for Odyssey players right?

If listed, it should have brain trees regardless of version, only diffrent "distribution" of it depend if legacy or not. It will be either POI or found in highlighted areas while in FSS view mode.

 

[GJ51]

No Crystal Shards at HIP 36601

I have not been able to find Crystal Shards on HIP 36601 (any planet) since the last update. Just hours before the update I was collecting shards, easily found. Now no matter where I land there are no shard "trees". I jumped all the way out here to gather raw mats. Now I can't find anything...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Sighman]

Crystal Shards are bio signals, not Geo signals.

 

[GJ51]

I use the lat/lon to find the sites. Unfortunately, coming out of OC on target isn't easy, but you can get close.

Is there an easier way? I never get a signal from orbit that I can use for landing.

 

[Sighman]

I use the lat/lon to find the sites. Unfortunately, coming out of OC on target isn't easy, but you can get close.

Is there an easier way? I never get a signal from orbit that I can use for landing.

The teal areas on the filter show where the selected bio can be found (assuming you set the filter in the DSS screen?)

Just glide into the edge of a teal area, and fly in the direction it extends over. Stay below 200m, and keep your speed down (I often lower my gear)