Newcomer / Intro Tracking Actual Achieved Modules Engineering Grade without going to Engineer

[Hot_Ice]

Hi,

The remote workshop page shows the rank that a captain has achieved with each engineer.
The blueprint that you have pinned shows the module grade of engineering for the exact blueprint that you have. i.e. Shield booster thermal shows how many grades and the % progress towards the next grade. And if it is not thermal then you cannot see progress - fine, I understand that.
The Shipyard and also the module information on the 4th screen shows for example 3 grades. But the problem is that this 3 grade only appears to show grade 3 even if you are only 10% into grade 3. So when I am trying to plan what materials I need to continue engineering or when I am equiping a ship I have no idea as to each modules actual progress. This is a pain on one ship but when you have multiple ships and are swapping modules between ships it is impossible to keep track as to which module has what progress, especially as there is no serial number etc for each module so that you could even make a manual offline record for each individual module. This is really really frustrating.

So please, is there a way to do this or is it a 'feature' as some other MMO's would call it.

Apologies if this is already somewhere else but I couldn't find it and I hope I have made this clear enough.

 

[Esteban]

Just to clarify: you're hoping to find something that will tell you how many "rolls" into a mod-grade you've reached? If, for example, I have reached the ability to do a grade-3 engineering mod on a component and performed a single "roll," then stopped (for whatever reason).

I don't know of an application that will do that. In addition, the number of rolls into a mod level (or grade) isn't very telling because you can often begin the next grade engineering mod after having done one or two rolls of the low-level mods if you have a decent access-level with the engineer (and certainly before doing the full complement of rolls in the mod-grade). Achieving access happens really quickly; I believe that I have attained the highest access-level with all of the engineers that I have interacted with by performing mods on just one ship module.

There is a 3rd-party program called EDEngineer that may help, although I believe that it is more intended to track materials that you have and help you determine what materials you will need but, (the disctinction being) doesn't explicitly track how far into a engineering mod grade-level you are.
The program is well-regarded as far as I know. One good thing about whether you should try it or not is that there's help for that too:
CMDR Exigeous has a YouTube video that shows-off the capabilities of EDEngineer, so you might take a look at that first to see if it has promise...

Hope that was a little bit helpful as a lead...
Good luck!

 

[Thwarptide]

Instead of driving yourself insane...... The absolute easiest way to engineer mods is to go to the engineer page on INARA

INARA

The community site for Elite: Dangerous, Starfield, Kingdom Come: Deliverance with the game databases, information, gaming news and other handy content...

inara.cz

Find the engineer you need. Then select the engineering you want done and the sub type. From there you'll see a complete list of all the materials you need. Write them all down. You'll need to do simple math now. You DO NOT HAVE TO COMPLETE EACH GRADE UNTIL YOU REACH GRD 5
You can also click on each material to find out more information about them such as what type (manufactured, industrial, raw). This is good know if you need to find a material trader for hard to find rare/very rare stuff. You will also see a tid bit of information how to find em. This part is incomplete most of the time. For example if you need imperial shielding you will have to look at signal sources in HGE (high grade signal sources) what they don't tell you (sometimes) is you need to look in Empire system in a boom economy state.

Now its time to do some math for materials.
Grade one: 1 material
2. 2 of each mat
Though not complete you can start doing the next level.
3. 3 of each mat
4. 4 of each mat
5. 7-9 of each mat (depending on the engineering 2B done) I always make sure I have 9 of these mats (you'll need to keep upgrading this level until complete.)
GATHER ALL THE REQUIRED MATERIALS BEFORE YOU ENGINEER. (before you go insane the way you are doing) This way you'll only have to visit the engineer a 2nd time at the most to level up all 5 grades in one visit.
For experimental effects you only need the listed numbers of those materials

NOTE: If you haven't learned about Dave's Hope settlement yet, it's practically a gold mine of materials. It's also a blast in an SRV. On the long enough time line you can fill up with many materials (which are also good for trading) send me a PM if you want haven't heard about Dav's Hope and I'll set you up with all you need to know

 

[Esteban]

Inara is amazing. I've also never been one to gather just enough materials to complete 1/25th of a complete mod (just an example). That's too much work for a game (all my opinion of course).

@Thwarptide's advice above is really useful. Here's another big one (imo): if you gather materials generously, you will be able to synthesize necessities on-the-go, on the spur of the moment! Whether you get into exploration, into combat, need a limpet in a pinch, etc., this can be mighty handy!

I don't know where you are, OP...
When I started this game, I took some time to visit all types of "sites" such as HGEs, DEs, EEs.* This was useful in at least a couple of ways: it helped me to become a better pilot (scooping, etc), it helped me to begin to understand who might show up at different places that we all drop based upon threat levels, and (obviously), it helped me gather materials that I barely even knew what I needed for at the time.
I had fun doing and learning; I think it was worthwhile.

All the advice in the world is wonderful. Just remember, regardless of what all of us offer, remember to have fun. Part of that is deciding how you would like to do things. Good luck!

* High Grade Emissions, Decoded Emissions, Encoded Emissions.

 

[Thwarptide]

you gather materials generously, you will be able to synthesize necessities on-the-go, on the spur of the moment! Whether you get into exploration, into combat, need a limpet in a pinch, etc., this can be mighty handy!

THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO SUCH THING AS "TOO MUCH" in the game. You'll go through mats faster than Pigs eat slop!
For this very reason, when many of my engineering mats run low, I'll do the 5 or so jumps to Dav's Hope and spend a few 4-5 loooooong days out there, (log on/log off) filling things back up. I also like the fact that you can scan the public data point and get plenty of encoded data too. When the grind starts getting the better of me I take a break in the srv, zip around, flip jump and play. Then back to work.
When I run low on rare hard to find raw materials, I go to a couple systems that has oodles of em, then do the 4 day grind filling those up
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...terials-bins-using-crystalline-shards.481235/

Just remember, regardless of what all of us offer, remember to have fun. Part of that is deciding how you would like to do things. Good luck!

Wiser words were never spoken (in the basement of the Galactic building and planning department on Raxxla 4)

 

[metatheurgist]

I believe there is actually a bar that shows your % progress through a blueprint when you look at it in remote workshop, but I am not in game so I can't check.

 

[Hot_Ice]

Hi, tx for all of the replies. I use EDEngineer - the developer is a saint. Not used INARA apart from finding nearest x etc.
Remote workshop shows progress but only for the exact blueprint that you have set so for Thermal Shield Booster with corresponding blueprint it shows progress for Thermal but not for Heavy Duty and I get that it takes different number of rolls per rank with engineer. Is a pain at grade 5 when it seems to vary so much.
I have been out frond farming for my lvl 5 raws. I have been to Cobra crash to get my lvl 5 data's. Having trouble with the manufactured so I am farming HAZ RES - carefully.
My main issue is that I have 10 shield boosters that I use between ships. I dont have so many of either so I need to swap around. The individual boosters have no serial number or identifiaction so if I have one booster at 10% and another at 80% I cannot see which is which. Why have them at different %? Well I am poor and I hold out for the next level upgrade option to skip the last 20% of the grade and go straight to next grade. But I may quite often not have materials to go the next grade straight so I end up with 3 x modules waiting for next level materials at 80% and 2 x modules at 20%. So if I want to upgrade a module I dont know which is which and it is a pain to try and budget or plan and when I set off to engineer for a non-blueprinted engineering module upgrade I have no idea which modules I have loaded on my ship and therefore no idea exactly how many materiels and of which rank I need at the engineers base. And without knowing how much % I have on a module I dont know if it is ready to skip the last 20% or if there is still some % to go. And many engineers bases don't have Outfitting so cannot summon all to engineers base. Or is there a serial number or some way of identifying each module so I could keep a paper record? Is this somehow managed on Inara that I am missing?
Does Dav's Hope give high level Manufactured and is it better than Haz Res?

Tx again

 

[Vetinari]

Oh individual modules in stock elsewhere, I see.

No, theres no way apart from selecting it in Outfitting and looking at Modifications, will only tell you what level youre on, not how complete or how close to next level or whatever. usually an Outfitting or Shipyard in system if not at the Engineers (? dont all Eng have outfitting? so can transfer there? Ships go to nearest shipyard if need modules stripping, theres at least one where nearest is next system or ground base iirc but most have in system close to the Eng..

 

[Thwarptide]

Actually there is a cheap way. Got to outfitting..... Scroll down on the left to see "stored modules". From there you can select individual mods and see what level they are.

 

[Thwarptide]

DAV'S HOPE GUIDE
Here's a list of the items you can get at Dav's Hope. (not including data you can get and need)
chemical distillery
chemical manipulators
chemical processors
compound shielding
conductive ceramics
conductive components
conductive polymers
configurable components
electrochemical arrays
flawed focus crystals
focus crystal
galvanising alloys
grid resistors
heat conduction wiring
heat dispertion plate
heat exchangers
heat vanes
high density composites
hybrid capacitors
mechanical components
mechanical equipment
mechanical scrap
phase alloys
polymer capacitors
refined focus crystal
salvaged alloys
shield emitters
shielding sensors
worn shield emitters
While you may or may not see the materials you are looking for in the list here, you will still want to go to Dav's Hope and spend a few long days there gathering materials. You will be needing most of these for future engineering projects. But you can also take these to a MATERIALS TRADER and trade them for materials that seem impossible to find elsewhere.

My advice is to go to Dav's Hope, spend a bunch of time there and grab as much as you can.

I hope you have the HORIZONS expansion pack so you can land on planets.
YOU WILL NEED A SHIP CAPABLE OF JUMPS AROUND 20+ LYs.
Dave's hope is around 250 lys from bubble.
Depending on your ship and jump range, it would be wise to install a fuel scoop.
You'll need an SRV (surface reconnaissance vehicle) hangar and srv scarab.

So what is Dav's Hope? In short, it's an abandoned mining settlement. There's a story behind why it was abandoned but it's boring.

DAV'S HOPE is an incredibly popular destination. It's also popular with players who like to cause grief, therefore
I suggest going to Dav's Hope in solo mode. Don't do this in open. Plenty of players like to swing by and cause grief.
But there are also a lot of NPC pirates in the system now. It's quite insane. You might get interdicted, But as long as you have nothing in the cargo hold your fine.

For now let's get you there.
1.Dav's Hope is located at Hyades Sector DR-V c2-23. Type than into the map exactly as shown. You'll need a ship capable of good jump range to make it a short journey. It's only 5 jumps for me.

2.Now once you get there you'll need to use the system map menu (on your left navigation panel and locate planet A5 .

While you're in the navigation panel, use the filters to select landable planets. Then select "POINTS OF INTEREST".

3. Now start to zip over to planet A5. As you get closer keeping checking the navigation panel... Eventually you will see Dav's hope . Select it and lock on. It's location on the planet is now you're primary target.

Now you can land anywhere near the site that your heart desires. I've placed a yellow arrow where I like to land.
4.Where to start? Well anywhere actually. There's no right or wrong place. But being efficient and organized helps things flow better. Everyone has their own order. I'll simply explain how I do it.

Well you'll notice the blue circle. That's a public data terminal. As you approach its it, it will activate and telescope up. The target is at the top, get out your data scanner, target it and scan. Hold the button and wait for the connection. Once that's done, wait a bit longer. In the upper right of the screen "in blue" you'll see a list of data you've gathered. On a long enough time line you will need plenty of them. There's no time like the present to start your collection.
Theres also some other data terminals around, but they're personal crew logs (story line) quite worthless and boring..
Now your ready to gather materials

Open your cargo scoop and get ready to grab stuff!
You'll see the RED LINE with some circles in it going around the sight. That's THE path you'll want to take. EACH CIRCLE REPRESENTS an individual item to grab. There are only ten different ones. Usually each one you grab ends up being three when you grab it.

That's it!
No wait! Not quite. I promised you a lot of items didn't I?

OK, once you've done a lap..... Take your srv back to the data terminal you started at.
NOW LOG OUT OF THE GAME. No need to close the game and reboot. Just log out. Then log back in.
This resets the site and you can start it over, grab more data and materials.
It's tedious but it's a lot faster than searching wrecks in signal sources for many of the most popular items.

Like I said before, I'll stay at Dav's for 3 days doing this.
You'll use these items a lot, so you'll want a lot, Especially when you use them at material traders.

ATTN CDMRS: I know this may not be detailed enough. It's basic instructions. Yes there's always stuff you can add to this. Let's try not to O'D the young Cmdr on information overload and fry his brain circuits.
Let's just get him to Dav's Hope and getting the swag. I may have omitted fine details, but he's smart enough to figure em out. If not he can ask.
If I've forgotten something critical by all means, post it. Otherwise don't offer discent or discussion on the topic, adding to information overload. 07

 

[Esteban]

Nice guide above. Whether lots of jumps or just a few, this is a worthwhile trip and will earn you some exploration credits too - that's always nice! Using my current multi-purpose ship (not a long-range jumper), from my current location it would take me 11 jumps. That wouldn't stop me from going!

 

[Thwarptide]

from my current location it would take me 11 jumps. That wouldn't stop me from going!

No, that's not a lot. Wouldn't stop me either.
When I first started playing it was around 45 jumps. That was enough to stop me.
Sometimes when I'm bored, I'll fly out to DH and zip around the landscape in the srv doing all I can to destroy the srv. Gravity level is perfect. It's fun!

 

[Esteban]

if I want to upgrade a module I dont know which is which

@Hot_Ice: what you are trying to do is entirely sensible! ...and is a royal pain to track as-is. Modules in storage are just pile of similar-looking modules. Going back to my 1st reply, I couldn't think of an application that would do this - until I discovered a combination of features by studying the method in @Thwarptide's post. Read on...

Got to outfitting..... Scroll down on the left to see "stored modules". From there you can select individual mods and see what level they are.

This does indeed report the grade-level of the mod (Gr 1 thru Gr 5). But you cannot distinguish how many rolls into the grade they are. I think that I may have discovered how to do this. I was looking at Inara (and in-game). You can see a "quality" number reported for the mods on your ship and the ones in storage. The mod-grade (or level) is there too, so this may be exactly what will be helpful.

As an example, I have a 3E hull reinforcement pkg in storage that has a grade-1 engineering mod. Looking in-game, in the outfitting / stored modules area, as suggested, shows me the grade and a bunch of blue (and red) numbers (on the right) that describe the results of the mod. (see picture)

Spoiler: Stored, modded HRP

All of those colored numbers describing the result of the mod are a direct consequence of the grade and the number of "rolls" into the grade, I believe.

Now, if you happen to make notes while "rolling" you might be able to divine how many rolls into the grade-1 mod I've applied. I know, that's awful! Fortunately that's not what I'm offering. @Thwarptide: If I'm missing some info that you offered, please point it out (but not before you read on). Remember, OP is not just trying to determine what grade has been achieved, but also progress into the grade.

Now, look at the same module in Inara...
If you click "My Fleet" you'll find "Stored Modules" in the left margin. Click that...
You'll see a list of your modules and some more info. The 3E HRP that I'm using for this example is at the bottom of this view:

Spoiler: Stored Modules

This shows, among other stuff, the mod and the grade. That's the start...

Now look at what happens if I hover my mouse pointer over the entry in the Modification column...

Spoiler: Eureka! (hopefully)

It shows me the "Quality" number that describes how far into the grade I have progressed. Here you can see that I've completed essentially all of the rolls in grade-1 (it's complete).

Going back to the stored modules in the game, you can then simply pick the one with the highest (or lowest) blue numbers (1st pic above) by comparing the modules you have and equip it to your ship for further modding.
@Thwarptide: This essentially means that your suggestion is fine. It's just hard to tell how far into a grade you are by those blasted blue numbers alone - especially if you're not close to 100% (or 0%, presumably).

@Hot_Ice: I hope this allows you to sort thru your modules and choose the correct one to mod or determine how many Mats any particular one will require to mod by some increment. Admittedly there's still the issue of knowing (guessing) how many more rolls get you from the quality number you see to 100%. I expect that could come from experience in performing mods. Those high-grade mods can take (I think) up to 9 rolls to complete, or as little as 6 (is it?), or 5 perhaps...
In any case, those rolls (6 & above) are often achieving small improvement towards the final numbers of the mod.

Cheers!

 

[Hot_Ice]

Ty all for the time you all spent preparing your replies...greatly appreviated and helped a lot. Now have a solution to my module picking problem and am now in Dav's Hope coming in for my first pit stop.

 

[Thwarptide]

Have fun, it's a great place. Let us know how it goes Cmdr 07

 

[Hot_Ice]

I found Dav's Hope surprisingly stimulating racing around the circuit trying to beat my time. Biggest pain was the trip back to station each time to trade up the materials. It would be fantastic to be able to synthesise the materials in ship just like you can synthesise ammo.

 

[Para Handy]

I found Dav's Hope surprisingly stimulating racing around the circuit trying to beat my time. Biggest pain was the trip back to station each time to trade up the materials. It would be fantastic to be able to synthesise the materials in ship just like you can synthesise ammo.

Trading up materials is quite soul-destroying as the exchange rates are pitiful. Trading-down G5 materials is much more satisfying - so I prefer to hunt high grade emission signal sources and trade down the core dynamics and the imp shielding. Of course using Dav's to populate the stuff that spawns there is also useful but I tend not to trade upwards any more.