Engineers Thermic Alloys - what's supposed to drop them?

[Ted Striker]

I spent quite a lot of time in a CZ in a war system (not civil war, war) and found exactly 2 thermic alloys. Both were dropped off Asp Explorers curiously. Largest ship I saw was a clipper (it's empire space) and they dropped fairly common materials, to a point I stopped picking them up entirely. For some reason the Asp Explorers dropped the rare stuff.

How are people finding like a dozen of these things at a time? What ships should be targeted? Or should I be in a civil war conflict zone instead of war?

 

[biohazard15]

Judging by your spawn, you most likely was in a low-intensity CZ. Thermic alloys tend to drop from large ships with high combat rank; head into high-intensity CZ to get a better spawn of these.

Also, I would advise to move into Fed space. For some reasons, Federal ***ships tend to drop very good mats, no matter where you killed them (they're the main source of precipitated alloys in HazRES, for example)

 

[Ted Striker]

Judging by your spawn, you most likely was in a low-intensity CZ. Thermic alloys tend to drop from large ships with high combat rank; head into high-intensity CZ to get a better spawn of these.

Also, I would advise to move into Fed space. For some reasons, Federal ***ships tend to drop very good mats, no matter where you killed them (they're the main source of precipitated alloys in HazRES, for example)

No they were high intensity, three of them I kept jumping between trying to get a better spawn but they were always the same.

I didn't know combat rank had something to do with it, I'll look out for that but I'm not having luck getting a CZ with better spawns. I'm wondering if it's because it's war not civil war.

I'm only in empire space because I'm grinding engineers. Not many systems in civil war or war around here though which sucks.

 

[biohazard15]

No they were high intensity, three of them I kept jumping between trying to get a better spawn but they were always the same.

I didn't know combat rank had something to do with it, I'll look out for that but I'm not having luck getting a CZ with better spawns. I'm wondering if it's because it's war not civil war.

I'm only in empire space because I'm grinding engineers. Not many systems in civil war or war around here though which sucks.

That's strange - RES and CZs are not dependant on player's combat rank. Generally, low int = small ships, lower rank, while high int = more big ships and higher rank.

Why do you need thermic alloys - G5 long-range?

 

[Ted Striker]

Yeah I was gonna experiment with g5 long range and some g4 rapid fire but forget it now. I don't know what's going on with these high int CZs.

My combat rank is only expert still (just about to next one) because I've been gone so long but I come upon master rank NPCs in those CZs once in a while. I suspect they are what dropped them.

I never paid attention to NPC combat rank, just their ship type.

 

[biohazard15]

You may also try missions. Mid-to-high ranked missions tend to give thermic alloys fairly often.