Which synthetic (Engineers) Materials are too hard to collect?

[drkaii]

FDev are interested in hearing feedback about which synthetic materials (i.e. anything the Engineers need) are considered too hard to get and not worth the grind. No promises about how they will use that information but I thought I'd be the one to ask the exploration community for their feedback.

Please try to keep it brief, to the point, and devoid of any inflammatory/ranting words

THE MODS ARE WATCHING, always [alien]

 

[Darth Krayt]

Chemical Manipulators for Level 5 FSD upgrades.

 

[Huros]

Specialised Legacy Firmware. Supposed to be common. Hahahahaha!

 

[gooddoc]

What puts me off doing any more Engineers stuff is that I won't do any upgrades that involve me collecting materials by 'pewpew' means or anything that will increase the threat of 'psycho NPC's'

I wouldn't say that finding stuff for FSD range lvl's 4 & 5 were a grind....I had 4 ships upgraded in two weeks!

 

[Allitnil]

Chemical manipulators, but only because the only efficient way to harvest them is to slaughter innocent T6/7/9s. There should be reasonable alternatives to obtaining mats so that (a) gameplay isn't forced down a single path and (b) RP doesn't need to be abandoned just to maintain some sort of parity with other CMDRs.

 

[Belthize]

The only one that has struck me as harder than it's worth (and I just bypassed the requirement by jumping to the next grade) are the Embedded Modified Firmware. Basically have to assault high sec ++ and +++ bases to get them.

 

[xdemetrios]

1) Anything that involves a wake scan, even in a place with a lot of traffic it's difficult to get specifically what you're looking for (no method since most high wakes aren't labeled with the type of ship, and the scan doesn't always give you a positive result)

2) Chemical manipulators and other "hauler" items because they require us to shoot and kill non-wanted haulage NPCs or make it extremely difficult because we have to find an anarchy system and kill those specific types of ships which aren't usually in abundance.

3) Polonium, Yttrium, Arsenic, Niobium, Cadmium, Vanadium

4) Exquisite Focus Crystals

5) Specialised Legacy Firmware

That's what I've found to be the most difficult to find from what I've done so far.

 

[Jackie Silver]

So far, anything that involves mining (I've barely mined in the whole time I've played; I'd cheerfully pay, oh, let's say ten times the market rates for some        else to mine me some Samarium or whatever nonsense happens to be needed), wake scans have been a pain (although following someone else's hunch I moved to scanning ships departing from a high tech station and picked up what I needed fairly rapidly) and I absolutely refuse to go and shoot Barnacles for Felicity, so I don't have access to her and presumably to any Engineers subsequent to her. Fair enough if that's how it was intended, but I suspect no thought was given to the knock on effects of the morality of blasting Barnacles when making it her prerequisite.

 

[goemon]

polonium, polonium and polonium.

pharmaceutical isolators, too - but that isn't very exploration connected.

ah, and not to forget, polonium.

 

[gooddoc]

Chemical manipulators, but only because the only efficient way to harvest them is to slaughter innocent T6/7/9s. There should be reasonable alternatives to obtaining mats so that (a) gameplay isn't forced down a single path and (b) RP doesn't need to be abandoned just to maintain some sort of parity with other CMDRs.

My point exactly.....I will not even consider upgrades if it means going down routes in the game that I don't want to go down.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

3) Polonium, Yttrium, Arsenic, Niobium, Cadmium, Vanadium

I am out on the Crab Nebula Expedition, and have been rock ratting in the systems with waypoints, spending an hour or more on most landable planets in those systems. The results of that are:

1) No Polonium or Yttrium AT ALL.
2) 2 or 3 planets with Arsenic, so I have collected perhaps half a dozen
3) Quite a lot with Cadmium and Niobium, so I must have picked up 10 - 15 of each
4) Oodles with Vanadium, so it is coming out of my ears, and I am considering throwing it away. However, since people think it is hard to find, I will probably hang on to what I have for now (I have 70 or so, 40-50 of which will have been picked up on this trip). But the time will come when I will have to seriously think about what I do throw away.

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What puts me off doing any more Engineers stuff is that I won't do any upgrades that involve me collecting materials by 'pewpew' means or anything that will increase the threat of 'psycho NPC's'

I wouldn't say that finding stuff for FSD range lvl's 4 & 5 were a grind....I had 4 ships upgraded in two weeks!

In general I would agree that it is not right to force a playstyle to get an ingredient. The only exceptions to that are where the material is needed for an upgrade that is specific to a playstyle. I would have no problem with an item that you can only get by pew pew if the use of that item only help pew pew. Forcing an explorer to pew pew to get a material to upgrade an exploration item (like jump range) would not be a good idea.

 

[warlock]

Pharmaceutical isolators.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

So far, anything that involves mining (I've barely mined in the whole time I've played; I'd cheerfully pay, oh, let's say ten times the market rates for some        else to mine me some Samarium or whatever nonsense happens to be needed), wake scans have been a pain (although following someone else's hunch I moved to scanning ships departing from a high tech station and picked up what I needed fairly rapidly) and I absolutely refuse to go and shoot Barnacles for Felicity, so I don't have access to her and presumably to any Engineers subsequent to her. Fair enough if that's how it was intended, but I suspect no thought was given to the knock on effects of the morality of blasting Barnacles when making it her prerequisite.

I bought the meta-alloys at Maia. Are there things you must shoot barnacles for? I, too, would not be happy with that. I try to play the game doing things as I would in real life, even if surrounded by players pew pewing for the lols.

 

[goemon]

In general I would agree that it is not right to force a playstyle to get an ingredient. The only exceptions to that are where the material is needed for an upgrade that is specific to a playstyle. I would have no problem with an item that you can only get by pew pew if the use of that item only help pew pew. Forcing an explorer to pew pew to get a material to upgrade an exploration item (like jump range) would not be a good idea.

you can get all materials via missions, for exampel chemical manipulators come "often" as a reward for fetch/delivery missions, with and without cargo. but i do see a problem, too - if "farming", e.g. a consitent way to get those is via 1 action only.

 

[Cdr Voorheez]

1) Anything that involves a wake scan, even in a place with a lot of traffic it's difficult to get specifically what you're looking for (no method since most high wakes aren't labeled with the type of ship, and the scan doesn't always give you a positive result)

2) Chemical manipulators and other "hauler" items because they require us to shoot and kill non-wanted haulage NPCs or make it extremely difficult because we have to find an anarchy system and kill those specific types of ships which aren't usually in abundance.

3) Polonium, Yttrium, Arsenic, Niobium, Cadmium, Vanadium

4) Exquisite Focus Crystals

5) Specialised Legacy Firmware

That's what I've found to be the most difficult to find from what I've done so far.

What he said

 

[Ian Doncaster]

2) Chemical manipulators and other "hauler" items because they require us to shoot and kill non-wanted haulage NPCs or make it extremely difficult because we have to find an anarchy system and kill those specific types of ships which aren't usually in abundance.

Require I think is a bit strong - you can also get them from missions, encoded signal sources, and for many of the more common "hauler" ones, ground wrecks. Some of them - though not manipulators - also drop from pirates flying "multi-role"-style ships. Wanted haulage targets are also potentially viable if you don't mind shooting NPC smugglers.

I don't have a problem with the decision being "morality or easy life" - see also slave trading being generally considerably more profitable than either legal cargo or other forms of contraband.

I wouldn't object to this sort of thing being more common as a mission reward, especially for high-level and/or allied missions, though - but on the other hand I managed to get a level 5 FSD upgrade without killing any traders.

 

[Mr_sukebe]

- Polonium. Spent 90 mins over the weekend on Wonneriti 2. Just none
- Spec Leg Firmware. Was given a couple on missions, but I've found none in USS
- Proto Radiolic Alloys. Never seen any

 

[Jaiotu]

I had a devil of a time locating Chemical Manipulators. I'm on a self-imposed 'pacifist mode' until I get to Elite in exploration so harvesting them from kills wasn't an option. After a week of steady gameplay I was only able to find one at USS sites.

The game should force you to murder innocents to use engineers but eventually that's what I had to do. I became an accessory to murder by entering into a RES with a friend. He did the killings and I harvested the debris.

While I don't think it should be easier to simply stumble upon them at a USS they should spawn a little more often so that I could have found at least two during a single day of steady play (about 5 hours).

 

[fieval]

Definitely Polonium, top of the list...it destroys the game experience when you run around for several hours and get nothing.
And also Chemical Manipulators are a pain for me too.

Apart from that I get a bit annoyed with the pathological desire of the NPC's to get my "Large Haul" consisting of 1 or 2 Micro Weave Cooling Hoses!

 

[Jaiotu]

Definitely Polonium, top of the list...it destroys the game experience when you run around for several hours and get nothing.
And also Chemical Manipulators are a pain for me too.

Apart from that I get a bit annoyed with the pathological desire of the NPC's to get my "Large Haul" consisting of 1 or 2 Micro Weave Cooling Hoses!

I visited 5 worlds where previous (Distant Worlds) prospectors had identified 'abundant' sources of Polonium. On the fifth world I *finally* found a single unit and, taking that as a good sign, drove for the next seven hours looking for a second unit to meet the requirement for a class 5 FSD upgrade.

I think, at least where it comes to the FSD upgrade, that Frontier forgot who the 'audience' is. Almost every explorer I know is salivating over that one specific upgrade and hoping to minimize time spent 'in the bubble' finding the required components.

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One possible suggestion to alleviate some of the 'grind':

When you 'pin' a blueprint this should also 'ping' your contacts and let them know what kind of items you are looking for so that there will be a better chance of getting those items offered as mission rewards for completing more difficult missions. Example:

"Hello again Commander! We've heard that you are trying to locate Chemical Manipulators. I think we can help each other to both get something we want ..."