Collecting Raw Materials has always felt like a drag, largely because it's so separated from all other content. You don't run into raw materials while doing other things, like Manufactured materials and combat; you need to go to specific locations to find them, and usually you do ONLY that for the next few hours, which ends up feeling really boring.
What if Odyssey missions were used to make this process more fun?
Example: An Odyssey Settlement offers a mission, asking the Player to deliver 2 tons of Basic Medicines to a sub-settlement 15km away, that is currently under attack by pirates. On the way to this settlement, the player will have chances to encounter crashed meteorites, which will contain raw materials. Then, once they get there and fight off the raid, the thankful residents will reveal they were attacked because they stumbled on the pirate's outpost, 20km away. They can't pay, but they're sure the pirates have bounties on their heads, and they'll mark the pirate base on your map. On the trip there, you again have chances to run into crashed meteorites or geological/biologicals that have raw materials.
This way, you can combine fun new mission types, PLUS raw materials along the way, PLUS you can clean out the pirate base for engineering stuff, giving legit ways to get odyssey engineering mats outside anarchy systems!
What if Odyssey missions were used to make this process more fun?
Example: An Odyssey Settlement offers a mission, asking the Player to deliver 2 tons of Basic Medicines to a sub-settlement 15km away, that is currently under attack by pirates. On the way to this settlement, the player will have chances to encounter crashed meteorites, which will contain raw materials. Then, once they get there and fight off the raid, the thankful residents will reveal they were attacked because they stumbled on the pirate's outpost, 20km away. They can't pay, but they're sure the pirates have bounties on their heads, and they'll mark the pirate base on your map. On the trip there, you again have chances to run into crashed meteorites or geological/biologicals that have raw materials.
This way, you can combine fun new mission types, PLUS raw materials along the way, PLUS you can clean out the pirate base for engineering stuff, giving legit ways to get odyssey engineering mats outside anarchy systems!