The Unofficial High Grade Emissions Hate Thread / Support Group

There is nothing wrong with HGE respawn. I think you guys are not visiting the right systems.

There are places where HGE USS are so common that it becomes a material orgy. You just can't stop checking around and find the next one. I picked 82 Proto Heat Radiators yesterday, and It was addictive and fun.

Now if you go to a system looking for HGEs, and no one pops up in, let's say, 5 USS, then that is not the place. Believe me, there are systems where 1 out of 4 are HGEs.

Besides the game uses to spawn them when it seems that you are doing something else, which you should.

Those grinding around are just blowing the game for themselves, that's not the way to play.

The thing is, in my experience the spawn rates in systems that meet the correct conditions aren’t consistent or reliable.

As I said above, a few days ago I was looking for Pharmaceutical Isolators so I needed an Outbreak system. The first system that I selected was a Fed system, so that was less than ideal, but the HGE spawn rate was exceptionally high (the population was around 4 billion). I was finding HGEs every 4 or 5 signal sources it seemed, but they all contained Core Dynamics Composites. I kept at it thinking that with the high spawn rate Pharmaceutical Isolators would turn up eventually… they didn’t.

After maybe an hour and a half I picked an Indi system in Outbreak, again with a population of around 4 billion. 40 minutes later I hadn’t seen a single HGE, so I logged off in irritation. When I logged in again at a later time, in the same system performing the same activity, I found 4 HGEs containing P.Is in the first 15 minutes (3 literally in a row).

It’s extremely irritating as a player to be subject to mechanisms that seem arbitrary, or at least deeply obscure, especially when they can equate to hours of our lives.
 
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It wouldn't be too much of a hardship for Frontier to add a buy function for Grade 5's but add a weekly sell limit, say 10 units of each per week.

This way more causal players can access engineering without encouraging more invovled players to simply buy their way through the game.
 
In my HGE hunting experience I've never seen systems where 1/4 USSs are HGEs.

Because I am so “successful” at it I don’t have a huge amount of experience with USS’s in that I get what I need very quickly.
For HGE’s go to a High Tech/large population/in Boom state and go to Deep Space.
1/4 HGE’s doesn’t sound unreasonable at all based on my experiences.
 
It's random, within system parameters I've had them come up first a few in a row or not at all. No point trying to quantify it.

Not sure about that.
You can't predict it but you can quantify it.

As I said, I use a simple system whereby I just "give up" (either by re-logging or going to a different system) if I don't find a HGE after 5 minutes.
Soon as I find one, scoop and then jump back into SC the countdown restarts.
That also has the side-effect of adding a bit of interest to the procedure, as well as ensuring I don't waste a heap of time achieving nothing.

Personally, I don't think re-logging achieves much.
If a system isn't spawning HGEs, re-logging doesn't seem to change that significantly.
Not sure how many variables the game uses to decide on a spawn-rate for HGEs but I'd assume that they'll be the same every time you re-log so you'll get a similar spawn-rate.

If I get to 5 minutes without finding a HGE I'll just look for another suitable system and go there instead.
That has the benefit of maintaining the "immersion" and also helps avoid monotony.

Also, while I'm at it...

I've seen people suggest that you should just throttle to zero in SC and wait for HGEs to come to you.
This is a bad idea.
USSs appear a set flight-time away from you.
If you're already at zero-throttle, they'll spawn a couple of hundred km from you, start to move past you and you can't slow down 'cos you're already stopped, thus requiring that you turn around to jump into them if you want to.
Far better to be moving at up to, say, ~50c so the USS will spawn further away and then you can slow down, scan it and jump into it before it passes you.
 
Not sure about that.
You can't predict it but you can quantify it.

As I said, I use a simple system whereby I just "give up" (either by re-logging or going to a different system) if I don't find a HGE after 5 minutes.
Soon as I find one, scoop and then jump back into SC the countdown restarts.
That also has the side-effect of adding a bit of interest to the procedure, as well as ensuring I don't waste a heap of time achieving nothing.

Personally, I don't think re-logging achieves much.
If a system isn't spawning HGEs, re-logging doesn't seem to change that significantly.
Not sure how many variables the game uses to decide on a spawn-rate for HGEs but I'd assume that they'll be the same every time you re-log so you'll get a similar spawn-rate.

If I get to 5 minutes without finding a HGE I'll just look for another suitable system and go there instead.
That has the benefit of maintaining the "immersion" and also helps avoid monotony.

Also, while I'm at it...

I've seen people suggest that you should just throttle to zero in SC and wait for HGEs to come to you.
This is a bad idea.
USSs appear a set flight-time away from you.
If you're already at zero-throttle, they'll spawn a couple of hundred km from you, start to move past you and you can't slow down 'cos you're already stopped, thus requiring that you turn around to jump into them if you want to.
Far better to be moving at up to, say, ~50c so the USS will spawn further away and then you can slow down, scan it and jump into it before it passes you.

Things like system state can be quantified, the USS spawns within the system parameters are random.

It's one of the reasons I drop into everything the RNG keeps being reset.
 
I had an incident last night involving HGE's that still has me slightly mystified.

In Yuggera for a mission, I'd made the 81,000 ls journey out to Yuggera C3 when suddenly the ONLY HGE signal source that I've ever seen in the system popped up. Change course to aim for it, and as I'm about to close in, BOOM! interdiction mini-game starts. And of course by the time I finish avoiding the interdiction, the signal source is nowhere to be seen. Flew around for another 15-20 minutes (I was also looking for a mission signal source that took that long to pop up), and of course no more High Grade Emissions to be found.

Such fun gameplay.
 
Because I am so “successful” at it I don’t have a huge amount of experience with USS’s in that I get what I need very quickly.
For HGE’s go to a High Tech/large population/in Boom state and go to Deep Space.
1/4 HGE’s doesn’t sound unreasonable at all based on my experiences.

Your instructions are exactly what I did yet HGEs were still hiding from me.
 
I had an incident last night involving HGE's that still has me slightly mystified.

In Yuggera for a mission, I'd made the 81,000 ls journey out to Yuggera C3 when suddenly the ONLY HGE signal source that I've ever seen in the system popped up. Change course to aim for it, and as I'm about to close in, BOOM! interdiction mini-game starts. And of course by the time I finish avoiding the interdiction, the signal source is nowhere to be seen. Flew around for another 15-20 minutes (I was also looking for a mission signal source that took that long to pop up), and of course no more High Grade Emissions to be found.

Such fun gameplay.

Submit kill the pirate scoop his mats, go back to looking. Fun.
 
Hi again,

While I can see that some of you are on the right track, I cannot share your frustration or irritation anyhow. I do not understand why you keep on searching for hours in systems where no HGE re-spawn can be observed. It is logical that you get frustrated.

Maybe I haven't explained myself to all of you. It is like when searching for, let's say, painite in a metallic ring. You may travel 100 ly for a pristine ring and mine it for hours without finding anything at all, are you going to stay searching at the same location? No surprise that can get you frustrated yeah. However you might find painite in your nearest ring and you didn't know because it is low reserves and you didn't try because of that.

And so, for HGEs it usually helps that the system has a high population, along with the right state, etc. However this is something that might be required but it doesn't suffice by itself.

I know what you talk about. For example, I've been searching Pharmaceutical Isolators in a 16 billion people system in outbreak state for quite a while and haven't found nothing at all. The system stats might accomplish the requirements, but that doesn't guarantee that the HGEs are going to spawn like crazy. Don't stay. Move elsewhere.

Similarly, to find 1 single HGE in a system doesn't tell us anything. It could be ages before another one appears.

I have found HGE rich systems with only 60 million people. And yes it was consistent, I went out to see if other systems where better and then I traveled back and the HGEs where still almost everywhere in that system. It is not a matter of re-login, re-starting or whatever. Just play the game. The game actually tells you if the system is HGE rich. There are great chances that a HGE appears right when you enter the system, or a few minutes after that. If they don't, don't stay, move elsewhere. If they appear, they might not be the kind you want, oh well, don't miss the chance. Pick as much as you can and trade them later on. But you'll notice you are in the right place when several HGE appear in a row. Then stay and look no further. That's the place. The game is trying to tell you so.

Of course the system might get exhausted eventually. After picking a lot of HGEs in the same system, the re-spawn diminishes, and the HGEs content itself does as well.
I think there are many calculus behind the curtains, and that makes it look like random, but it is not. Randomness is just a small percentage of what actually happens.

To find HGEs, travel from the main star to the furthest station in the system, in a straight line, and as fast as you can, and then point back to the main star again, eventually changing the target station. Yes the game likes to spawn USS when it seems you are doing something. So it will make you stop when you are traveling at 200c, in the worst possible moment. Or just pretend that you are going to land, and when you have the ship perfectly aligned and about to jump out, several USS will appear. A Degraded Emissions USS appear? No problem, approach it as if you were going to jump out, and in the very last moment, several other USS will spawn around, and if the system is 'HGE rich' the chances are great that some of those could be HGEs.

Once you locate a HGE, go straight for it, don't scan any other appearing USS. It is very likely that several will appear. It is the game trying to distract you from what you are doing, once again. I think is is better to leave them un-scanned, because if they happen to turn out as HGEs, you might be spending future chances.

Stigbob did a great job trying to help you, but in my opinion, the stats that he posted doesn't belong to a real HGE rich system but rather a regular one.

I do not spend that much time here at the forums as you do, I rather play the game. However I was trying to help as I see no reason for your frustration. You make the situation frustrating by trying and trying again erroneously at the wrong places. It is not the game, it is how you play it. I'm just trying to help. You may listen to what I say or you may keep on playing the way you do. I'm not bothering with evidences just because you don't trust my words, it is up to you to do so.

Hope that helps. Regards to all.
 
It's random, within system parameters I've had them come up first a few in a row or not at all. No point trying to quantify it.

It is indeed pseudo-random but because it's random doesn't mean we can't get information about it, for example, both Ruthenium and Iron spawn randomly yet we can easily observe that one is more rare than the other.
 
Your instructions are exactly what I did yet HGEs were still hiding from me.

Sorry to hear that. Perhaps there is also a RNG factor, other factors I am not aware of in play, or I’m just getting damn lucky.
Probably RNG as when they appear they do with a vengeance for me.

Your instructions are exactly what I did yet HGEs were still hiding from me.

Sorry to hear that. Perhaps there is also a RNG factor, other factors I am not aware of in play, or I’m just getting damn lucky.
Probably RNG as when they appear they do with a vengeance for me.
 
Uh.
Sorry guys, It seems you are stuck with your tune.

When you meet three HGEs in a strike and then have another three again you realize that this is not random at all. Oh well.
 
Hi again,

While I can see that some of you are on the right track, I cannot share your frustration or irritation anyhow. I do not understand why you keep on searching for hours in systems where no HGE re-spawn can be observed. It is logical that you get frustrated.

Maybe I haven't explained myself to all of you. It is like when searching for, let's say, painite in a metallic ring. You may travel 100 ly for a pristine ring and mine it for hours without finding anything at all, are you going to stay searching at the same location? No surprise that can get you frustrated yeah. However you might find painite in your nearest ring and you didn't know because it is low reserves and you didn't try because of that.

And so, for HGEs it usually helps that the system has a high population, along with the right state, etc. However this is something that might be required but it doesn't suffice by itself.

I know what you talk about. For example, I've been searching Pharmaceutical Isolators in a 16 billion people system in outbreak state for quite a while and haven't found nothing at all. The system stats might accomplish the requirements, but that doesn't guarantee that the HGEs are going to spawn like crazy. Don't stay. Move elsewhere.

Similarly, to find 1 single HGE in a system doesn't tell us anything. It could be ages before another one appears.

I have found HGE rich systems with only 60 million people. And yes it was consistent, I went out to see if other systems where better and then I traveled back and the HGEs where still almost everywhere in that system. It is not a matter of re-login, re-starting or whatever. Just play the game. The game actually tells you if the system is HGE rich. There are great chances that a HGE appears right when you enter the system, or a few minutes after that. If they don't, don't stay, move elsewhere. If they appear, they might not be the kind you want, oh well, don't miss the chance. Pick as much as you can and trade them later on. But you'll notice you are in the right place when several HGE appear in a row. Then stay and look no further. That's the place. The game is trying to tell you so.

Of course the system might get exhausted eventually. After picking a lot of HGEs in the same system, the re-spawn diminishes, and the HGEs content itself does as well.
I think there are many calculus behind the curtains, and that makes it look like random, but it is not. Randomness is just a small percentage of what actually happens.

To find HGEs, travel from the main star to the furthest station in the system, in a straight line, and as fast as you can, and then point back to the main star again, eventually changing the target station. Yes the game likes to spawn USS when it seems you are doing something. So it will make you stop when you are traveling at 200c, in the worst possible moment. Or just pretend that you are going to land, and when you have the ship perfectly aligned and about to jump out, several USS will appear. A Degraded Emissions USS appear? No problem, approach it as if you were going to jump out, and in the very last moment, several other USS will spawn around, and if the system is 'HGE rich' the chances are great that some of those could be HGEs.

Once you locate a HGE, go straight for it, don't scan any other appearing USS. It is very likely that several will appear. It is the game trying to distract you from what you are doing, once again. I think is is better to leave them un-scanned, because if they happen to turn out as HGEs, you might be spending future chances.

Stigbob did a great job trying to help you, but in my opinion, the stats that he posted doesn't belong to a real HGE rich system but rather a regular one.

I do not spend that much time here at the forums as you do, I rather play the game. However I was trying to help as I see no reason for your frustration. You make the situation frustrating by trying and trying again erroneously at the wrong places. It is not the game, it is how you play it. I'm just trying to help. You may listen to what I say or you may keep on playing the way you do. I'm not bothering with evidences just because you don't trust my words, it is up to you to do so.

Hope that helps. Regards to all.

Yes, but why should it be necessary to fly to another system when the one you're in meets all of the required conditions (apparently)... precisely what factors dictate whether a system will be HGE rich or not? It’s our inability to fully understand these underlying mechanisms that leads to player frustration.

I'm not having a dig at you personally (rather, it kind of illustrates my point), but are these 2 statements not somewhat contradictory?

Similarly, to find 1 single HGE in a system doesn't tell us anything. It could be ages before another one appears.

There are great chances that a HGE appears right when you enter the system, or a few minutes after that. If they don't, don't stay, move elsewhere.

We always need to waste a fair amount of time to determine whether or not a system is yielding what we want.

Incidentally, I don’t consider myself to be a novice at this stuff – I’ve fully engineered around 14 ships to G5 (twice in fact, under the old and new system). My point is that these gameplay mechanisms are arbitrary, dull and more than a little lazy, and this is coming from someone who really enjoys engineering in principle.
 
For 5 G5 mats you won't get a single unit of another G5 mat from those robbers called material traders. And wing assassination missions no longer give you G5 mats, only lower level garbage. For 5 G5 mats, sadly, you'll have to massacre 200ish (or 80 or 100, in short: too many) ships or deliiver 2000 tons of biowaste. Therefore, if you want to do it the way you suggested, for the 10 G5 rolls needed to fully G5 engineer a single module, you'll have to haul 24000 tons of crap or blow up 1200 ships (if you are lucky). USS hunting, no matter how mind bogglingly boring it is, still seems to be quicker than that.

I've been receiving Exquisite Focus Crystals, Medium Embedded Firmware, Biotech Conductors, other level 4 mats, as well as level 4 and 5 encoded data for outbreak and boom mission rewards. The missions seem like they're easy to come by. In an hour, I usually get about 5-10 missions with such rewards, and that's without bothering to check. If I take only those missions, I can get a lot more.
 
Uh.
Sorry guys, It seems you are stuck with your tune.

When you meet three HGEs in a strike and then have another three again you realize that this is not random at all. Oh well.

Ummm yes it is, it has parameters that influence their spawn rate but unless you have some unheard knowledge of the RNG they're are completely impossible to predict when and where will they appear.
 
Coming in to support:

If you are not aware, there is an Engineer section on the forum where people have posted useful techniques to reduce the pain and hate for mat grind. Check the stickied posts first.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/forumdisplay.php/180-Engineers

There is an old guide by Biohazard15 that got me started on efficient mat gathering. See page 4 for a reprint as it's no longer supported in the OP

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...Signal-Sources-(USS)-A-Complete-Guide/?page=4

Plenty of techniques, but no fool-proof method for the RNG.
 
Hi again,

While I can see that some of you are on the right track, I cannot share your frustration or irritation anyhow. I do not understand why you keep on searching for hours in systems where no HGE re-spawn can be observed. It is logical that you get frustrated.

Maybe I haven't explained myself to all of you. It is like when searching for, let's say, painite in a metallic ring. You may travel 100 ly for a pristine ring and mine it for hours without finding anything at all, are you going to stay searching at the same location? No surprise that can get you frustrated yeah. However you might find painite in your nearest ring and you didn't know because it is low reserves and you didn't try because of that.

And so, for HGEs it usually helps that the system has a high population, along with the right state, etc. However this is something that might be required but it doesn't suffice by itself.

I know what you talk about. For example, I've been searching Pharmaceutical Isolators in a 16 billion people system in outbreak state for quite a while and haven't found nothing at all. The system stats might accomplish the requirements, but that doesn't guarantee that the HGEs are going to spawn like crazy. Don't stay. Move elsewhere.

Similarly, to find 1 single HGE in a system doesn't tell us anything. It could be ages before another one appears.

I have found HGE rich systems with only 60 million people. And yes it was consistent, I went out to see if other systems where better and then I traveled back and the HGEs where still almost everywhere in that system. It is not a matter of re-login, re-starting or whatever. Just play the game. The game actually tells you if the system is HGE rich. There are great chances that a HGE appears right when you enter the system, or a few minutes after that. If they don't, don't stay, move elsewhere. If they appear, they might not be the kind you want, oh well, don't miss the chance. Pick as much as you can and trade them later on. But you'll notice you are in the right place when several HGE appear in a row. Then stay and look no further. That's the place. The game is trying to tell you so.

Of course the system might get exhausted eventually. After picking a lot of HGEs in the same system, the re-spawn diminishes, and the HGEs content itself does as well.
I think there are many calculus behind the curtains, and that makes it look like random, but it is not. Randomness is just a small percentage of what actually happens.

To find HGEs, travel from the main star to the furthest station in the system, in a straight line, and as fast as you can, and then point back to the main star again, eventually changing the target station. Yes the game likes to spawn USS when it seems you are doing something. So it will make you stop when you are traveling at 200c, in the worst possible moment. Or just pretend that you are going to land, and when you have the ship perfectly aligned and about to jump out, several USS will appear. A Degraded Emissions USS appear? No problem, approach it as if you were going to jump out, and in the very last moment, several other USS will spawn around, and if the system is 'HGE rich' the chances are great that some of those could be HGEs.

Once you locate a HGE, go straight for it, don't scan any other appearing USS. It is very likely that several will appear. It is the game trying to distract you from what you are doing, once again. I think is is better to leave them un-scanned, because if they happen to turn out as HGEs, you might be spending future chances.

Stigbob did a great job trying to help you, but in my opinion, the stats that he posted doesn't belong to a real HGE rich system but rather a regular one.

I do not spend that much time here at the forums as you do, I rather play the game. However I was trying to help as I see no reason for your frustration. You make the situation frustrating by trying and trying again erroneously at the wrong places. It is not the game, it is how you play it. I'm just trying to help. You may listen to what I say or you may keep on playing the way you do. I'm not bothering with evidences just because you don't trust my words, it is up to you to do so.

Hope that helps. Regards to all.

it's interesting that all the superstition you have put together here ends up describing exactly how a simple prng would behave.

it's funny that putting your imagination to good use so you enjoy an activity that might look senseless and boring to an outsider also describes pretty much 'having fun playing'.

cool story bro!
 
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