Player Armor questions

[Kieve]

I've known for a while that alternate body-armor styles were available, but I'm not really clear on the specifics. Hopefully some folks here can fill me in?

-I've seen three styles listed on the Marketplace so far (Astral, Supernova, Orion). How / where were these obtained, and is it still possible to do so?
-How are they acquired / used in-game? Is it simply a matter of "owning" the item in your Steam Inventory, and being able to change appearance in the main menu (replaces "default armor" apperance), or does it unlock a separate style in the 3D printer (thus, being a whole other item set to manufacture).
-I know if you die, you lose your inventory. Does that include equipped armor (respawn in space undies), or do you keep whatever armor you've got on?

[Johnno]

Originally posted by Kieve:

-I've seen three styles listed on the Marketplace so far (Astral, Supernova, Orion). How / where were these obtained, and is it still possible to do so?

They're obtained from "Data Cartridge" which is popped into the decoder that's available at starter/main faction stations. Obtained as a random mission reward (isn't listed as a reward, it gets put in your vault and you get a mail about it).

Yes, still obtainable, and it's just the three sets you named. You're not guaranteed an armour piece from a cartridge, it's perhaps 20-25% chance, which one you get is random, you can have multiples of all since they're marketable on the Steam marketplace.

-How are they acquired / used in-game? Is it simply a matter of "owning" the item in your Steam Inventory, and being able to change appearance in the main menu (replaces "default armor" apperance), or does it unlock a separate style in the 3D printer (thus, being a whole other item set to manufacture).

Owning one in your Steam inventory unlocks it as a selection in the main menu. You have to keep the piece though, you can't "unlock" and then sell it, you have to still have it in your Steam inventory.

They're just cosmetic, so they go onto your regular armour pieces you've crafted in the 3D printer.

-I know if you die, you lose your inventory. Does that include equipped armor (respawn in space undies), or do you keep whatever armor you've got on?

Armour isn't removed when you die.

[Kieve]

Awesome Johnno, thank you clearing that up :)
Guess I've got a heck of a lot of mission farming to do...

[Johnno]

Oh also, there is an internal Steam inventory limitation to receiving armour pieces; one per hour.

That is, even if you grind up heaps of cartridges, after receiving an armour piece it takes an hour before you can receive another one.

[Kieve]

That is extremely useful to know. Appreciated!

[Johnno]

Originally posted by Kieve:

Guess I've got a heck of a lot of mission farming to do...

I'm not sure if they've changed the chances of receiving a data cartridges as a reward, used to be about 1 in 20 missions or so, meaning you'll roughly have to do about 80 to 100 missions per armour piece, there's 18 pieces and you can get duplicates. I spent the longest time collecting my sets.

So mathswise, let's say you rush through missions at 5 minutes each (likely bit longer), you're looking at 100 minutes per cartridge, 400 minutes per armour piece, 7200 minutes (120 hours) for a full set, if you get no duplicates (I got heaps).

Also the decoder ingame has a 1 hour cooldown, so even if you were to grind missions like mad and get heaps of cartridges, you'll still be slowed down by the decoder.

Taking the decoder into consideration, assuming you always have a cartridge at hand when it resets, let's say you can get onto your computer at one hour intervals for say 4 hours per day, it's going to take you nearly three weeks to get to 18 without duplicates, so I'd reckon likely 6 weeks or two months of doing cartridges once an hour for 4 hours a day straight.

Used to be easier to get your hands on cartridges too, could find them on random stations that spawned. Haven't seen them on stations since the tier system was introduced. Haven't found them on derelicts either.

I'd definitely suggest you sell off duplicates (or even ones you don't like the look of) on the marketplace and then just buy the ones you do want. Should be noted some seem harder to get than others, even though devs say the odds are the same for everything, you can check the marketplace and see that there's very few of some and heaps of others.

[Kieve]

As it happens I'm actually OK with the cooldowns, since I only have a few hours here and there per day to burn, but that is good info. I kinda figured it'd be a very time-consuming process, but I'd rather acquire them all myself. Duplicates I figure I can just trade to friends, if they like (and of course, sell additional extras).