The Grind

[Snikkii]

Is the game still as grindy as before, I couldn't even do engineering on how mind numbing it can be, billions of credit n still has to do the most boring stuff just to "level up" the ship. I have about 1400 hours n yet to do engineering, just wanna know if it has gotten easier or less tedious to farm for mats.

[JakXLT]

Hard to say without a frame of reference for when you left.

Materials will build up in the course of just playing the game if you bother to pick them up when you see them. Same with rank, rep, etc etc. Don't like the grind? Just take it in stride and quit rushing.

[cylonmaster]

The grind is real and the engineers are super greedy.

[Snikkii]

Originally posted by JakXLT:

Hard to say without a frame of reference for when you left.

Materials will build up in the course of just playing the game if you bother to pick them up when you see them. Same with rank, rep, etc etc. Don't like the grind? Just take it in stride and quit rushing.

Both my ranking w the feds n empire are all max, literally have both cutter n vette, but i haven't once dabble with engineering since how grindy it is, i was doing it by just "Farming" a spot over n over by relogging n what not but its very mind numbing, i was thinking of maxing out my all my engineering needs before going to the engineer themselves.

[QbeX]

I love 90% of this game but 10% of "gameplay"/grind mechanics is crushing my soul.
Not having Odyssey Data trader option and not being able to hand over competed missions in any other way than in person in exact point of taking them alone is such a disregard of players time that boggles my mind
Love the game, but grind puts me off every so often to shelve it for extended periods.

[Hootman]

You can't avoid the grind, so make it less of a grind by incorporating it into normal gameplay.
The game give you opportunities and many instances of normal play. Materials are dropped all over the place.
1. Carry collector limpets and controller whenever you can.
2. Make it a habit to stop at at least two of the many signal sources usually available in each system when you're passing through. Even better if you take the time to scan the nav beacon which identifies all the signal sources so you don't have to, and can then pick the best ones, especially the ones that give the top tier materials that you can then break down into lower tier materials.
3. Every now and again, take a massacre mission. Ignore the locations the mission tries to send you to, and just go to a resource extraction zone. Pirates usually begin attacking you non-stop, and you have the added benefit of the police being there to help. Have max collector limpets running at all times to scoop up all the materials from the destroyed pirates. This requires staying somewhat less mobile as you don't want to get too far from the limpets while they are collecting. Massacre missions are great, get the loot for the mission, and the added bonus of all the bounties along with all the materials. You can also "stack" these missions from different factions, so be sure and take as many as you can before you head out.

That's just a couple of examples of how to make it SEEM less grindy. Playing this way gives you a constant feed of materials, and before you know it you'll be heading to a material trader to trade up the materials to a higher grade as they fill up your inventory. Then, when you DO want to go engineer something, hopefully you won't have to intentionally grind so much.

Another good tip is to use the tool in Inara to create your "blueprints" for specific things you want to engineer. Inara keeps an inventory of your materials, and will tell you exactly how many of each specific material you are short, and exactly when you have enough to go to the engineer. No time wasted trying to figure it out or wasting a trip to the engineer only to find out you don't have enough.

Fly safe, CMDR!

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

The grind is in you, not in the game. If you focus on collecting mats for engineering to engineer everything at once, then you will be grinding. If you collect those mats on the way of playing the game and doing all kind of stuff, and then engineer this or that module when you have enough for it (the way it was intended to be collected and engineered), then you will not be grinding.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Hootman:

You can't avoid the grind, so make it less of a grind by incorporating it into normal gameplay.

Yes, you can - by not grinding for it. When you collect mats along the way of your normal gameplay, then you are not grinding.

[Hootman]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Hootman:

You can't avoid the grind, so make it less of a grind by incorporating it into normal gameplay.

Yes, you can - by not grinding for it. When you collect mats along the way of your normal gameplay, then you are not grinding.

From Wiki:
Grinding is a term used in video game culture, referring to the act of repeating an action or set of actions, including non-repetitive tasks to achieve a desired result at a level of certain difficulty, typically for an extended period of time, such as earning experience points, in-game loot and currency or to improve a character's stats.

Anything in any game that requires certain objectives/goals to "level up", is, by definition, "grinding". How you approach it can be changed, but it's grinding nonetheless.

[QbeX]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

The grind is in you, not in the game. If you focus on collecting mats for engineering to engineer everything at once, then you will be grinding. If you collect those mats on the way of playing the game and doing all kind of stuff, and then engineer this or that module when you have enough for it (the way it was intended to be collected and engineered), then you will not be grinding.

That is a load of nonsense, I've played 800h hours normally, doing what I liked - 90% ship missions 10% occasional Oddy missions, ignored Oddy engineering for the most part - during those 800h accumulated enough mats to fully engineer 6 ships, very happy with that, when I turned to Oddy engineering and checked my "normal gameplay" stock of Oddy mats - guess what, 0 o polls, 0 cat/ent media, 0 defence plans etc etc.
And no way to trade bunch of useless Oddy data I've gathered.
Now you telling me this is perfectly normal gameplay experience after 800h hours ?
We both have two different views what constitute "normal gameplay"

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Hootman:

Anything in any game that requires certain objectives/goals to "level up", is, by definition, "grinding". How you approach it can be changed, but it's grinding nonetheless.

Then there is no point in asking about it. Every single game has goals/objectives and leveling up. As a result, by that definition, every single game is nothing but grinding - doing those objectives and leveling up.

Yes, this game (and every other game out there) is as grindy as before. It is about reaching goals and leveling up.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by QbeX:

during those 800h accumulated enough mats to fully engineer 6 ships, very happy with that,

That's how I engineered all of my ships, too. No grinding, very happy with that.

when I turned to Oddy engineering and checked my "normal gameplay" stock of Oddy mats - guess what, 0 o polls, 0 cat/ent media, 0 defence plans etc etc.

And I still don't have those defense plans engineers unlocked, either. I have several of cat and defense polls media by now, but still not enough. Not a big deal. I bought many of weapons pre-engineered at stations at level-3. And upgraded them to level-4, level-5 with mats that I collect along power restoration or crash sites salvage missions. And what I didn't get yet - I do without it until I will get it. The game doesn't require me to have a night vision on my suit to keep progressing. No grinding.

[Planewalker]

Originally posted by Hootman:

Anything in any game that requires certain objectives/goals to "level up", is, by definition, "grinding". How you approach it can be changed, but it's grinding nonetheless.

Not a good semantic. Repetition is a word too.
By that definition all computer games are nothing but grind (you have to click a button/key) and thus the descriptor ends up a non sequitur.

[Sighman]

Defence plans are easy to get. Find a mission on the ship (not on-foot) mission board to 'liberate 2 liquor'. Land. If there's a crashed skimmer or two and an SRV, you'll almost certainly find SDPs.

Or you can just buy them. On my discord there's one Commander who farms SDPs during regular gameplay and sells them from his carrier. They last about 5 minutes after he lists them, and he's making a fortune.

[Tennozan]

Originally posted by Hootman:

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Yes, you can - by not grinding for it. When you collect mats along the way of your normal gameplay, then you are not grinding.

From Wiki:
Grinding is a term used in video game culture, referring to the act of repeating an action or set of actions, including non-repetitive tasks to achieve a desired result at a level of certain difficulty, typically for an extended period of time, such as earning experience points, in-game loot and currency or to improve a character's stats.

Anything in any game that requires certain objectives/goals to "level up", is, by definition, "grinding". How you approach it can be changed, but it's grinding nonetheless.

Now, if we could only have a guy with a coffee mug in hand, wearing suspenders and a tie, sitting in our co-pilot seat while we're mining, saying, "Sooooooooo, Commander, How's it going? Yeaaaaaaaah." "Listen, I'm gonna go ahead and ask you to move your ship over to the next system, and if you can go ahead and do that now, that'd be great."

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by cylonmaster:

The grind is real and the engineers are super greedy.

I just want to know how those who demand huge quantities of cigars and whiskey aren't dead yet!