SO TIRED of trying to find Pharmaceutical Isolators & Military SuperCaps

Not to mention most people here couldnt find their specialized mat trader next door without relying to a third party site or having already docked at each station around. But hey, blaze your own.
 
Just go to an imperial system and hunt HGE's - almost always Imperial Shielding. These are G5 (if I remember correctly). Sure - 6 to 1 - but still doesn't take long. I have a completely full hold of every manufactured material at its limit. And currently nothing to spend them on. Don't get agitated - get hunting. A wise man recently advised me as follows. "The solution to almost any life problem is to fall in love with the process, not to agonize over the end goal. If you focus on the gap between where you are and where you want to be, you'll be miserable."
 
It's doable, no question about that. It's just not fun, quite repetitive and very gamey/nonsensical in its implementation.
That could be the description for most activities after a day or 2 though. We're all kinda thinkin it..... I mean, kinda fun but kinda more tedious at the same time. He needs to ask himself how important they are for what he wants and then either buckle down and do it or get over it. We've all been there
 
Just go to an imperial system and hunt HGE's - almost always Imperial Shielding. These are G5 (if I remember correctly). Sure - 6 to 1 - but still doesn't take long. I have a completely full hold of every manufactured material at its limit. And currently nothing to spend them on. Don't get agitated - get hunting. A wise man recently advised me as follows. "The solution to almost any life problem is to fall in love with the process, not to agonize over the end goal. If you focus on the gap between where you are and where you want to be, you'll be miserable."
That is amazing advice!
 
It's doable, no question about that. It's just not fun, quite repetitive and very gamey/nonsensical in its implementation.
What's not fun, and what's repetitive/nonsensical?

Look... tonight, just before dinner, I went onto my usual hangout and grabbed six assassinations off the boards (no flipping/waiting for new baords). I came on after dinner and stuff around the house was done, and grabbed another three (again, no flipping/waiting, they were just on the board).

It took 30 minutes for me to flush them out, and grab two HGE's along the way and included:
  • One fight with a single corvette
  • One fight with a single FAS
  • One fight with a single Anaconda
  • One fight with two corvettes and a FAS
  • One fight with with three anacondas and a python (one of the anacondas was just a rando non-target along for the ride)

Those last two fights were really fun.

3 x Military Grade Alloys (salvage)
21 x Imperial Shielding (HGEs + Salvage)
3 x Pharma Isolators (Salvage)
10 x Biotech conductors (Mission Rewards)
5 x Exquisite Focus Crystals (Mission Rewards)

That's a total of 42 x G5 mats across five categories, just from 30 minutes of gameplay! And that's ignoring the =~ 80 G4 mats (each conda/corvette drops about 4-6 (x3) G4 mats) , which could've been another 10 G5s (within category) if I was desperate... but I really don't need to gather G4s.

Again, not putting up an argument for things like Military Supercaps... FD do need to revisit the distribution of some materials. But you can't say 42 x G5 materials in 30 minutes of gameplay is unreasonable. Granted, I've been doing this for a while so I'm pretty efficient at this, but even if that was blown out to an hour... G5 mats really aren't hard to come by.

EDIT: Oh, I got =~ 8m for my troubles, but if I wasn't pumping influence rewards instead of credits, it would've been more like 22m... I'm probably the only one who cares about that though since I didn't prostrate myself before the altar of the core mining grind.
 
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That could be the description for most activities after a day or 2 though. We're all kinda thinkin it..... I mean, kinda fun but kinda more tedious at the same time. He needs to ask himself how important they are for what he wants and then either buckle down and do it or get over it. We've all been there

Sure. Everything done to death, and it's also true once a thing is a bit new FDev incentivise it far after it's welcome. At this point I wonder if this rough design is kept intentionnaly, as a social dimension for their game. So there's a steady flow of cmdrs reaching for forums or reddit or Inara to talk about their common misery.
 
What's not fun, and what's repetitive/nonsensical?

Look... tonight, just before dinner, I went onto my usual hangout and grabbed six assassinations off the boards (no flipping/waiting for new baords). I came on after dinner and stuff around the house was done, and grabbed another three (again, no flipping/waiting, they were just on the board).

It took 30 minutes for me to flush them out, and grab two HGE's along the way and included:
  • One fight with a single corvette
  • One fight with a single FAS
  • One fight with a single Anaconda
  • One fight with two corvettes and a FAS
  • One fight with with three anacondas and a python (one of the anacondas was just a rando non-target along for the ride)

Those last two fights were really fun.

3 x Military Grade Alloys (salvage)
21 x Imperial Shielding (HGEs + Salvage)
3 x Pharma Isolators (Salvage)
10 x Biotech conductors (Mission Rewards)
5 x Exquisite Focus Crystals (Mission Rewards)

That's a total of 42 x G5 mats across five categories, just from 30 minutes of gameplay! And that's ignoring the =~ 80 G4 mats (each conda/corvette drops about 4-6 (x3) G4 mats) , which could've been another 10 G5s (within category) if I was desperate... but I really don't need to gather G4s.

Again, not putting up an argument for things like Military Supercaps... FD do need to revisit the distribution of some materials. But you can't say 42 x G5 materials in 30 minutes of gameplay is unreasonable. Granted, I've been doing this for a while so I'm pretty efficient at this, but even if that was blown out to an hour... G5 mats really aren't hard to come by

Fun is like taste and colour, no sense discussing that. Besides, you're beyond the realm of casual players, you're a frightening Elite guide generator.
 
Sure. Everything done to death, and it's also true once a thing is a bit new FDev incentivise it far after it's welcome. At this point I wonder if this rough design is kept intentionnaly, as a social dimension for their game. So there's a steady flow of cmdrs reaching for forums or reddit or Inara to talk about their common misery.
The forum here is one of my favorite things about elite. It makes me wonder why i havent sought out forums for other games i play, until i realize that gtao and rdro would most be teens and adults much more juvenile than myself (which tbh is saying ALOT) just throwing waaay more toxic wretch than is typically found in some of the threads here.
 
Everyone mentioned traders. The problem isn't that you can't get these from traders, it's the frankly ridiculous amount of lower level mats you need to trade up to get these G5 mats.
Go to Imperial system and look for HGE. Plenty of them. You'll have full bin of Imperial Shielding in no time. Then trade.

You guys would want to be able to engineer the hell out of your ships without any effort. What would be the point of having engineers then?
 
What factions are you allied with?

Missions offering Biotech Conductors aren't difficult to find, if you're allied with a faction. Robigo passenger sightseeing missions (to Sirius Atmospherics in Sothis) are a particularly good source, if you're allied with all 3 factions there.
 
You guys would want to be able to engineer the hell out of your ships without any effort. What would be the point of having engineers then?
Not me personally. I've barely engineered anything. I hate the grind. If I happen to build up the mats during gameplay, then I'll pop to an engineer, but I don't grind for them. I was just pointing out that materials traders are not the magic bullet they are quoted as being.
 
Also, if the OP was after Biotech Conductors and was gathering stuff from HGE's, why go for those two specific items? Why not something easier, like Imperial Shielding?

I tend to get most of my manufactured mats by trading mission-reward Biotech Conductors and Exquisite Focus Crystals for whatever I need, even at 6 to 1. However, if I need something from the Shields or Composites rows, it's worth a visit to Empire or Fed space to get those directly.
 
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