Research part scarcity / upgrade balancing

[Realityhack]

Finished the game and overall really enjoyed it.

One of my main complaints would have to be the lack of ways to get research parts and the general imbalance of upgrades.

By the end of the game I was absolutely swimming in cash but was still around 20+ research parts away from being able to upgrade everything. I have no idea where to get research parts. I'd done every side quest and the merchant seems to have stopped selling them. And I haven't gotten any from dredging. Did I miss something?

Also once you're about halfway through the rod/net upgrades there really isn't much of a reason to bother upgrading further since you can catch everything you need fairly easily at that point.

If there was a repeatable quest earlier on in the game that rewarded you with research parts, I think I probably would have been more inclined to finish all the upgrades.

[Dr. Wahwee]

I agree about the weird upgrade balancing. Also it feels like crab pots and nets are 100% more hassle than they are worth.

[My Cat Hates You]

It's faster to just start a new file and speedline research parts for the category achievement than it is to actually farm them, lol

[Realityhack]

Originally posted by Eeep!:

I agree about the weird upgrade balancing. Also it feels like crab pots and nets are 100% more hassle than they are worth.

For sure. Especially once you get Mouth of the Deep from the shrine it makes upgrading crab pots completely pointless.

[Realityhack]

Originally posted by My Cat Hates You:

It's faster to just start a new file and speedline research parts for the category achievement than it is to actually farm them, lol

Woof. Makes sense but I definitely won't be doing that lol

Is it even possible to completely upgrade everything in one playthrough? I don't even know where to farm them. Is it just RNG from any dredging spot?

[DarkCarnage]

Originally posted by Realityhack:

Originally posted by My Cat Hates You:

It's faster to just start a new file and speedline research parts for the category achievement than it is to actually farm them, lol

Woof. Makes sense but I definitely won't be doing that lol

Is it even possible to completely upgrade everything in one playthrough? I don't even know where to farm them. Is it just RNG from any dredging spot?

you can, sometimes the floating merchant at sell upgrade parts (seems to restock at midnight), you can also get them from salvage spots rarely.

i myself 5 upgrade parts away from completing all upgrades ^^

[Rithrin]

Originally posted by Realityhack:

Originally posted by My Cat Hates You:

It's faster to just start a new file and speedline research parts for the category achievement than it is to actually farm them, lol

Woof. Makes sense but I definitely won't be doing that lol

Is it even possible to completely upgrade everything in one playthrough? I don't even know where to farm them. Is it just RNG from any dredging spot?

The biggest trick for that around here is to simply dock with the traveling merchant, sleep, check the store, if there aren't any parts, just reload the save and check again. Repeat until you get a research part, save, repeat. Apparently people have gotten tons of parts this way.

If that feels too cheesy for you, you can just run a circuit around the islands hitting all the respawning dredge locations (I found metal scrap dredging to be most reliable for providing research) while checking with the merchant every day. I got the remaining 10 parts I needed or so doing this and enjoying the scenery.

[MikeC]

Money stopped mattering about the time I hit the Mangrove area but even grinding hard, I was around 7 research parts short.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Realityhack:

Originally posted by Eeep!:

I agree about the weird upgrade balancing. Also it feels like crab pots and nets are 100% more hassle than they are worth.

For sure. Especially once you get Mouth of the Deep from the shrine it makes upgrading crab pots completely pointless.

Uh, you only get one of that. You can run at least half a dozen more conventional crab pots easily, and also use what you referenced at the same time.

I mean, it's overkill, but if you just want to churn money it works.

[RCMidas]

And whilst it may be confirmation bias, being slightly mad seems to increase the chances of research parts spawning among dredge. I went several days without a single one whilst sane, and picked up two or three in rapid succession during some long night shifts with the panic building.

[Ruuubick]

Originally posted by Realityhack:

Finished the game and overall really enjoyed it.

One of my main complaints would have to be the lack of ways to get research parts and the general imbalance of upgrades.

By the end of the game I was absolutely swimming in cash but was still around 20+ research parts away from being able to upgrade everything.

Exact same issue here, finished the game after completing the vast majority of the quests, $3000 in the bank with hull 3 upgrade and quite a few researched upgrades, but I couldn't see myself spend another 10 hours just aimlessly boating around trying to find parts, or talking to merchants. Really wish research parts could be fished out or bought at shops more often, could have made the game more fun, although there really didn't feel like there was a need to upgrade my boat any further given what I had to do in the game.

[󠀡󠀡]

Yeah, the game is poorly balanced in this respect. I have almost $20,000 and still about 20 research points away from maxing everything out.

[Rolov]

hi,
unfortunately i have to disagree here, the balancing and the procurement of parts is completely satisfactory. the spawn points from the parts fill up again, visit more often. in my second game i was able to quickly upgrade the boat. greetz

[torts]

I finished the game with many research parts still needed, and only ever saw one from the traveling merchant. I was checking the sale tab where it appears almost every time I docked and never got another, if I had seen them more often it would've felt smoother. In the end to get the achievements I just did the save quit/reload trick and they actually appeared in her inventory. I had been checking the whole dang game so I don't know how that works.

At the same time I did get all the upgrades I actually wanted except for the big engine.

[D-Dog]

rest for 2 full days, the part will appear in the merchant's inventory. I did this 20 times in a row for the remaining parts I needed. Did it at the same merchant

edit* if it doesn't work, try saving and quitting and trying again. worked for me multiple times after it stopped appearing, whenever I left to catch more fish to earn more $

edit #2* this is very inconsistent, at one time after earning enough $, I had to rest 2 days, save and quit, rest 2 more, save and quit again, rest 1 more and it started back up again... hope this helps.

[flamedance58]

Steel Point at the Builder's House there's 2-3 places to dredge. Just clean them up and then Save and Quit and go back in. Those points will be back. Each have a chance at Research Parts so you rinse and repeat until you have enough.