Suggestion - A better way to collect engineering material

[CMDR JetVegas Showtime]

I’d like to propose an enhancement to the game, which I believe could improve engineering. One of the more frustrating areas to ED that I see is engineering in general. Finding materials is part of this experience I personally am not fond of because of how it is currently implemented.

As of this post, I need to either hunt down different stations to see if I can find a mission that provides my material or search outside of game for recommendations. Engineering materials shouldn’t be based around the missions And I definitely shouldn’t have to do a search outside of the game... So, let the missions be based around the needed materials.

The suggestion is this: Allow CMDRs to go to a station and from there, select the specific material they need. Then create a random mission around that selected material for the CMDR to complete. The higher grade material, the harder the mission. This would be a big improvement to the current system in place.

 

[Kissamies]

Yes, this could be a wider option for missions as well. With things like commodities and destinations. Like I'm going to fly to this station in this system, anyone hase any data or cargo to ship there? I'd love that for passenger missions especially.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

If mission rewards as they stand gave out more variety of materials that'd be a start (all I seem to see at grade 5 is biotech conductors and exquisite focus crystals, and mod embedded firmware; and no raws).

 

[Franc Kaos]

+1 for all the idea's, plus when in the SRV if the cargo hatch is open, just pick up what you drive over rather than having to target each element.

 

[Taifu]

So basically, make the galaxy revolve around the player, rather than the player be subject to the whims of the galaxy.

 

[CMDR D Noize]

And another request to make it easier to find something that is already incredibly easy find in game without the need for mission hunting or external sites...

Here’s a few tips:

Target and scan Ships and Data Points to get Encoded Materials.
You can hang either around outside or inside a station or outpost and scan every passing ship for a chance to get a random selection.

Destroy Ships to get Manufactured Materials.
You can also keep an eye out for Degraded Emission/High Grade Emission Signal Sources in Super Cruise for a chance to find a random selection.
Equip a Collector Limpet Module and a Cargo Rack to make this easier.

Get a Detailed Surface Scanner and an SRV buggy and scan & land on planets with Geological/Biological/Thargoid/Crystal sites and shoot the structures at those sites for Raw materials.
It’s a good idea to check out the planets information in the System Map before you land to check what materials will spawn there and how high the gravity is.

Mission rewards are not the primary source of Engineering Materials and those that offer them as rewards are already scaled with mission rank although the materials available are limited in range.

If you can’t find/don’t have the materials necessary for your needs check out Orbis/Coriolis stations to see if they have a Material Trader of the type you’re looking for in the Contacts tab and trade up or down accordingly, they are all over the bubble.

An afternoon spent doing any of the above will fill your Material bins with more than you need

 

[Kissamies]

Good advice, but I have something to add to this one:

Target and scan Ships and Data Points to get Encoded Materials.
You can hang either around outside or inside a station or outpost and scan every passing ship for a chance to get a random selection.

Get a Wake Scanner and scan their wakes too. Doing that often yields wake Encoded Mats. The best thing is if you manage to find a Famine system with Distribution Centres. They have constant traffic. Getting the surface scan kind of missions is also a fairly decent way to get some Encoded while doing something else. Not the best way, but if you don't want to feel like you are grinding something...

 

[CMDR D Noize]

Good advice, but I have something to add to this one:

Get a Wake Scanner and scan their wakes too. Doing that often yields wake Encoded Mats. The best thing is if you manage to find a Famine system with Distribution Centres. They have constant traffic. Getting the surface scan kind of missions is also a fairly decent way to get some Encoded while doing something else. Not the best way, but if you don't want to feel like you are grinding something...

You are indeed correct sir. I completely forgot about Wake Scanners because I rarely use them.

 

[CMDR TICH ANDERSON]

How about making mining a resource exstaction sight a way to get a good selection of raw mats for engineering?
The higher the risk the higher the reward.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Also remember that raws are picked up while laser mining, unlocking 2 of the engineers will provide a 'good supply' also.

An imaginative proposal put forward by the OP though, a little different to 'the usual'

Data can also be picked up from 'doing a loop' around many surface installations, using traders to get the mats required afterward. There was a litst of surface installations on the forum a couple of years ago that were all the same, do the first and a bunch of others can be SRV'd around in pretty short order. I made a .pdf file of around 30 if anyone fancies a change...
(I scanned a printout which is why it is a bit big for a .pdf!)

 

[Greasetrap42]

Here’s a few tips:

And some more for Raw Materials

For raw materials if you don't like driving the SRV:
1) Be selective, choose your planets. A gravity above 0.5 is much easier driving and the chunks fall quicker.
(skip the planets that require only two probes)
2) Be selective, choose your landing site. If the landing site looks awful, skip it. Not worth the effort. Try different location.
3) Don't bother trying to gather every single material at a site. Especially the ones located in tough spots. Its not worth the effort.
4) When you stumble across a planet with really great mats, stop what you are doing and get them! You might not need them today, but future self will be happy.

 

[Kissamies]

You are indeed correct sir. I completely forgot about Wake Scanners because I rarely use them.

Yeah, a proper mat collector build has an SRV, a Wake Scanner (D class will do) and Collector Limpets (I prefer B class for the range). There is plenty of overlap with a mission runner build, so you don't have to buld a ship specifically for one purpose.

 

[Trgt]

I find it funny that 2 out of the 2 raw mat. traders I visited had 0 phosphorus, a mat. that's suppose to be very common. Or so I'm told.

I hate this game. And yet...

 

[CMDR D Noize]

I find it funny that 2 out of the 2 raw mat. traders I visited had 0 phosphorus, a mat. that's suppose to be very common. Or so I'm told.

I hate this game. And yet...

That's not how material trading works...that's how much YOU have in stock.

You trade the materials you HAVE for the materials you NEED.

 

[Trgt]

So how am I suppose to know if they have it in stock if it doesn't show on the board? And the board I refer to is the port commodities(?) board, under the mat. trader banner.

 

[CMDR D Noize]

They don't have any stock for sale.
You trade the materials you have collected either up or down depending on what you have in the material bins on your ship and what you need for your blue prints.

Material Trader

The Material Trader is a contact found at certain stations that offers to exchange one Material for a different quantity of another Material. There are three types of Material Trader, each dealing exclusively in one type of Materials: Raw Materials, Manufactured Materials, or Encoded Materials...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

 

[CMDR D Noize]

Also "Engineering Materials" & "Commodities" are very different things

"Engineering Materials" are used for upgrading your ship after unlocking Engineer Blue Prints.

"Commodities" are used for making money.

If you're looking the "Material Trader" it'll be in the "Contacts" page at a station NOT the "Commodities Board"

 

[Greasetrap42]

I find it funny that 2 out of the 2 raw mat. traders I visited had 0 phosphorus, a mat. that's suppose to be very common. Or so I'm told.

I hate this game. And yet...

To clarify, material traders have an infinite supply of engineering materials that they will trade for whatever you have in your inventory. You select what material you want, then you select what materials you are willing to give the trader.

Engineering materials are completely different from commodities that are bought/sold on the commodities market.

 

[Trgt]

Yes I misspoke on which tab I found the mat. traders, but YOU know which I meant. At any rate I'm now finding out money won't get you everything in this game. But why the station shows me what inventory I have when I already know what I have is throwing me off. I thought I would see what the trader has and the price he wants.

 

[Greasetrap42]

But why the station shows me what inventory I have when I already know what I have is throwing me off. I thought I would see what the trader has and the price he wants.

To clarify, material traders have an infinite supply of engineering materials that they will trade for whatever you have in your inventory. You select what material you want, then you select what materials you are willing to give the trader.

Give it a try. It should be intuitively obvious when you start clicking on stuff.