Engineers USS spawning frequency in February 2018...

n13L5

n13L5
When I was looking for info on how fast to fly, when hunting for USS, I found only older posts, like from 2016.

Several of these posts had advice to cut super cruise speed way back to the minimum possible (30km/s) and that after a few moments, a USS should spawn every 30 seconds.

I followed the advice - fly up at ~90 degrees from the ecliptic of the system and cut speed as soon as your location reads "Deep Space"
The further advised not to fly too far out into deep space, so slow speeds seemed to be the thing to do.


Well, I don't get USS spawn at that rate whether I'm going
30km/s,
1c/s
3c/s
30c/s or whatever speed.

Matter of fact, the USS spawn rate is so miserable as to prompt me to make this post...
I've generally found what I needed, even if I had to wait far longer than 30 sec for the next USS to show up, but now that I need Imperial Shielding from an Empire system at war (or some say Outbreak - I've tried both), I've had an absolutely dismal amount of USS spawns over many hours. And not a single one of them had High Grade Emissions.

Has USS spawn rate been nerfed?
What speed is best to find them faster? (It sure isn't what it was in 2016 - I can fly 5-10 minutes before getting another
Is it normal? Do Empire systems at War intentionally have an even worse USS spawn rate than other systems?

It is extremely tedious, staring into the black, hoping for a stupid orange circle to turn up! This is supposed to be "game-play"? It just puts me to sleep - after 15 minutes, I can barely keep my eyes open.

I've never been this bored and annoyed in Assassin's Creed, EVE, Freelancer, X3, SWTOR etc...
 

Straha Yeagar

S
n13L5 said:
When I was looking for info on how fast to fly, when hunting for USS, I found only older posts, like from 2016.

Several of these posts had advice to cut super cruise speed way back to the minimum possible (30km/s) and that after a few moments, a USS should spawn every 30 seconds.

I followed the advice - fly up at ~90 degrees from the ecliptic of the system and cut speed as soon as your location reads "Deep Space"
The further advised not to fly too far out into deep space, so slow speeds seemed to be the thing to do.


Well, I don't get USS spawn at that rate whether I'm going
30km/s,
1c/s
3c/s
30c/s or whatever speed.

Matter of fact, the USS spawn rate is so miserable as to prompt me to make this post...
I've generally found what I needed, even if I had to wait far longer than 30 sec for the next USS to show up, but now that I need Imperial Shielding from an Empire system at war (or some say Outbreak - I've tried both), I've had an absolutely dismal amount of USS spawns over many hours. And not a single one of them had High Grade Emissions.

Has USS spawn rate been nerfed?
What speed is best to find them faster? (It sure isn't what it was in 2016 - I can fly 5-10 minutes before getting another
Is it normal? Do Empire systems at War intentionally have an even worse USS spawn rate than other systems?

It is extremely tedious, staring into the black, hoping for a stupid orange circle to turn up! This is supposed to be "game-play"? It just puts me to sleep - after 15 minutes, I can barely keep my eyes open.

I've never been this bored and annoyed in Assassin's Creed, EVE, Freelancer, X3, SWTOR etc...
Click to expand...

I didn't try farming High Grade Emissions in Imperial space, but I hit a few Federation and Independent War, and Boom states, and got more grade 5 mats than I can shake a stick at. There were spurts where it was USS after USS, sometimes as many as three at a time, and there were some lulls where it was five minutes or more between them. I flew out to between 800 and 1000ls from the main star, and cruised around at about 1.5c. One trick I use to make sure I don't miss any signal sources is to set my nav panel filter to only show stars, and signal sources. I lock onto the star so my radar thingy has it bouncing between hollow and solid right on the ring, and then I just watch the nav panel for the uss to pop up. I steer to the uss using the dot in my radar.

I was able to get roughly 40 each of Core Dynamics composites, Proto Heat Radiators,Proto Light Alloys, Proto Radiolic Alloys, Military Grade Alloys, and Military Supercapacitors in about three hours. I plan on using those with the mat traders.
 

NecasekO

N
OP, what's the population size of the system?

While nothing is certain when looking for USS, it does seem that high population systems (several million at least) spawn more USS in general. For me flying at 2 - 3 c seemed to work well the last time I tried. Flying at minimum speed (30 km/s) seems to produce fewer USS, although they do spawn eventually.
 

Nero Tacitus

Nero Tacitus
Agree with OP, the USS system was/is a terrible idea and should never have been implemented, especially without rubber-banding.

I don't think the rates have been nerfed, but thanks to RNG being RNG, you definitely get droughts of USS. Far and away the most frustrating session I've ever had in ED was hunting Core Dyn Composites. I think I spent 2 hours and got maybe 6 before I gave up (Fed system, over a billion pop, deep space). 5 minute+ periods of no USS at all, when one would spawn, Encoded/Convoy/Weapons Fire, for a dozen plus USS in a row. Finally get a HGE, Prop Comps, because you can't search exclusively for CDC. Asinine.

Thank god for the Mat Trader in 3.0. While this will alleviate some of the grief, FDev need to add a rubber-banding mechanic to USS, if only in Deep Space, or use USS as an alternative to combat/missions. Destroying a FAS/FGS should have a high chance of CDC; Clipper/Courier, a high chance of Imp Shielding etc. Doing missions for Fed/Imp/Indi should allow, and weight, the rewards to offer G5 mats, if only after Friendly/Allied. Forcing players to stare into oblivion for hours on end isn't game design, it's sadism.

/rant.

OP. Wait for 3.0 (well, the 12 hours till it's out anyway), farm up other G5 mats, trade them for what you need. Far more effective than this nonsense.
 

sovapid

sovapid
n13L5 said:
but now that I need Imperial Shielding from an Empire system at war (or some say Outbreak - I've tried both), I've had an absolutely dismal amount of USS spawns over many hours. And not a single one of them had High Grade Emissions.
Click to expand...

If you are looking for Imperial Shielding you want an Empire system with a state of "None"

In Outbreak, the high grade could have either Imperial Shielding or Pharmaceutical Isolators.

In war, the high grade could have either Imperial Shielding or Military Supercapacitors or Military Grade Alloys (pretty sure on this one, but don't need the Military things that often)


As for High Grade spawn rates, they are terrible and the worst game mechanic of any game I've ever played.
 

andrak

andrak
20 minutes floating about 2000 ls away from the plane. Nothing. Great gameplay Fdev. Worst mechanic in the game.
 

jeanlun

J
The ships sensors does count too !! Best to hunt USS is a A grade with wide angle mod. (5A WA for my ASPX). Over a 5D lightweight it almost double spawn rates.
Prefer 1 star system, but what matter the most is pop value (the higher, the better).
 

racer1

racer1
This was in the patch notes for 3.0


  • Increased the spawn rate of High Grade Emissions USSs in shipping lanes and by planets

I certainly felt I was seeing more HGE than in 2.4, but still rare and RNG...
 

Dr Zarkov

Dr Zarkov
jeanlun said:
The ships sensors does count too !! Best to hunt USS is a A grade with wide angle mod. (5A WA for my ASPX). Over a 5D lightweight it almost double spawn rates.
Prefer 1 star system, but what matter the most is pop value (the higher, the better).
Click to expand...

It ain't so.

I had to test this, made one Wide Angle grade 5 and went to my usual spot for Imperial Shielding. In the same state as was this morning. And it was approx the same frequency.

If it were almost double spawn rates I would have noticed.
 
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