Can anyone explain how the whole Antediluvian Material Collection thing works?

[BlackDragon]

The game seems to do a REALLY poor job explaining this part of the DLC. I've got a bunch of researched designs giving access to awesome-looking Antediluvian Weapons, but no materials with which to make them, and I really just can't figure out how I'm supposed to GET those materials...

I've built a handful of those 'Ancient Tech' rooms in my bases, churned out enough Probes to cover every landmass on the planet, and found a bunch of Ancient Ruins... which then take BLOODY AGES to 'excavate'. Seriously, THREE DAYS is an ETERNITY with the pace this game runs on! It's also REALLY hard keeping track of which ruins you've started excavations on an which ones are done, since the game doesn't show it in your to-do list like with Pandoran nests, but whatever, I can just look through the entire planet every once in a while to check if there's anything I haven't deal with.

A few sites have finished excavating, FINALLY! I send teams there, fight some really tough fights (those eyebeams are DEADLY!), and win! Yay!

...now what? I control several resource-sites, but I STILL don't have any Antediluvian materials! Well, I tell a lie - I've got ONE Mutane Gas. ONE. And I don't seem to be accumulating it either. I need 50 to do anything with it. Various factions have chimed in with their intent to try and steal the sites from me, but haven't actually done anything about it. So... what now? What exactly am I supposed to DO in order to actually GET these fancy materials, and maybe start making some of those super-fancy ancient weapons?

[Crypto Gamer]

There are 7 resource sites in total and 3 processing sites,you need to control processing sites in order to process(use them) for "crafting".Processing sites do NOT need to be manned by aircraft.
Certain weapons need all 3 exotic materials so you need to control all 3 processing sites and have at least 1 MANNED(can be 1 man only) aircraft STAY at each resource type resource site.So at least 6 ancient ruins done out from the 10 possible.
You get 1 material/hour/completely built archaeology lab from each resource site.
Sometimes you also need to defend them for attacks you get 24 hours warning for that.
For 250 mat and 100 exotic resource you buy a cyclops guardian(instant) to help defend.From my exp attacks are kinda rare.

You also need to complete the research for that particular ancient weapon,for that you need to complete their 6 total special mission first.I recommend at least 4 arch labs before you begin probing and excavating for very cheap probes and excavation.

[BlackDragon]

You need to park planes - with people or, presumably, vehicles in them - PERMANENTLY there? Good grief! This is going to be some expensive mining-operations. So just to accumulate all three kinds, you need 3 spare aircrafts and someone to put in them. (Though honestly, that part is going to be the least of your expenses - I figure I'll just staff 'em all with spare vehicles and Mutog-beasts. Nothing ELSE to use all my Mutagen for...)

Is there any point in staffing an extraction-site if you don't have the processing-site yet? Like, does the material just accumulate, and then you need to find the processing-site in order to actually USE it? Either way, it seems like I've got a lot of excavating to do still...

Also: There seriously needs to be some better in-game tutorials and explanations about this stuff. It's pretty arcane, completely separate from everything else you do, and has basically no tutorializing as it is.

[Crypto Gamer]

Yes you still gather exotic stuff from manned resource sites and can still buy cyclops guardian for 100 exotic and 250 mat so you can collect a good amount,but you won't be able to craft ancient weapons without having the correct processing sites.

I recommend stealing a few aircrafts and staff them with 1 cheap rookie.I have not tried 1 vechile/muton only only,I don'tknow it that count as "manned".

The tutorial needs some SERIOUS expansion,however the official wiki is kinda good.

http://wiki.phoenixpoint.com/Legacy_of_the_Ancients

[Evil Nox]

I really wish they had gone a different route to the ancient stuff. I get the probes and having to clear the site but needing an aircraft and a body to harvest is nuts and needing the processing location is even more nuts. It should be behind the scenes stuff. You find it, clear it then start building resources is how it should be IMO.

[Mhblis]

Like much of this.game there was supposed to be more to the system. Also should have been integrated better.

But its tacked on so its very clearly DLC. The weapons are straight upgredes and best in slot.

At least if you get lucky with spawns you can actually unlock them really early in the piece.

Like I meam before tier 2 weapons become and option.

[ccwylde70]

Thank you so much for this thread .... I'm at the point of having fought through one of those probed sites, survived the eye beams, gotten threatened by New Jericho, and wondering wth was next .... this thread has helped a ton ....

I can understand the probes, and the initial clearing battle, too ... I agree that having to park a manned aircraft over the things is not clearly communicated, and also annoying and somewhat senseless to me ...

[Imarion]

Yep, as if we can get 3 spare crafts + 1 guy just for that ...
I think this parts needs rethinking ... Why not build a "factory", and if they so wish, reduce food income by 1 per site with factory, as if you get 1 man there.

[BlackDragon]

Eh, it's not QUITE as bad as all that. Any craft will do, so consider the Church of Anu's 'blimp' - it basically costs just a touch over 1000 materials, and a pittance of tech. You get 1000 materials for every Antediluvian Site you seize. Hence, if you put that towards a vehicle, the additional expenses are pretty minute. As for the 'guy', I can confirm that vehicles and Mutogs count too - so if you've got any spare vehicles you never use from 'vehicle recovery' missions, that's one site taken care of right there. Otherwise, just make a Mutog-beast - there's relatively few things to use the DNA resource for, so it only really 'costs' you the manufactory-hours.

Still a huge pain, but it's manageable once you know what you need to do. Another, cheaper option is to just have a single high-speed craft (Synedrion's, obviously) with a suitable passenger aboard, and then just cruising it between resource-sites depending on what materials you need at any given time. If you build a bunch of archaeology-buildings, you can accumulate a ton of materials really quickly, making the 'one for each' approach a bit overkill, if anything.

[Dorok]

I don't understand there are players to enjoy this crap and end with a game with 5 or 6 weapons, sigh. Everything is awful in this DLC, it's worrying for coming DLCs.

[Kurio]

Absolute garbage. Is it even worth getting these weapons? I wish I would of read this before posting my own thing. But yeah, lets make more grind!. Its just tedious as hell

[Dorok]

The problem with the weapons is they are totally OP without any exception and even remove any ammo management with infinite ammo. They only worth the curiosity, really use them is just breaking the game. That said they have nothing special, so the curiosity aspect is very minor, they are just OP version of some existing weapon:
- SR makes them all obsolette except eventually the Neural SR.
- Shotgun make them all obsolette.
- GL makes GL obsolete and breaks the ammo cost balance.
- The two melee make them all obsolete and one of them makes the other obsolete with the only tiny detail that it requires 2 hands.
- Crossbow makes them all obsolete.

Nonsense design.

[BlackDragon]

There's no SMG or Assault-Rifle though, which DOES somewhat limit your ability to outfit your whole squad with OP Antie-weapons....

[snuggleform]

It's not super clear to me the design is off, except in the case of the scyther which is pretty busted with a vengeance torso.

Yes, the weapons are generally stronger than what's available, but not by that much, and you have to go through quite some effort to get it, in fact one could argue that if you are able to go through that effort to begin with (clearing out the guardians from multiple sites and hold them for a while with extra aircraft) that you don't even really need the weapons to begin with. Sure, someone might find or have an easy way to cheese through guardians, and you might abuse stealing to get hold of aircraft, but those balance issues can be tweaked over time like anything else.

The weapons are hardly necessary to beat the game, so I could actually argue that you're just spending time working on weapons you don't even need, when you can already win the game comfortably with non-legacy weapons.

Don't forget also that there are no legacy weapons that really make sense for a turret dropping technician, and correct me if I'm wrong, the deceptor is actually the best rage burst weapon for damage assuming that armor has been stripped (I use deceptors in the final mission because I couldn't really find an ancient weapon to replace it with).

[Dorok]

Against no armor, Deceptor MG is weak compared to shotguns, perhaps you mean Iconoclast Shotgun.

Ancient Shotgun is 375 damages 15 piercing per bullet, potentially 15 Virus and 150 more damages with Death Mark
Iconoclast is 350 damages (potential of 10 Virus and 100 more damages)
Harrower is 280 damages, 8 global shredding (potential of 8 Virus, and 80 more damages)

There's no reason to use the Iconoclast, nor the Harrower but perhaps this last with Rage Burst to shred armor for the team or manage the lack of ability to aim a part with Rage Burst, but Rage Burst is a bad level 7 skill that should be replaced.

Ancien Melee weapons are ridiculous OP, Ancien Crossbow is widely better, Ancient GL is widely better with 3 times the shredding, higher damages and free ammo when GL ammo price is high.

This lets one case, The Harrower potentially better than Ancient Shotgun when used with a bad skill Rage Burst and very few use cases.

Firstly some players quoted that it's a part of design problems that it is intended to be achieved end game, it's a lot too late and tend to increase the grinding feeling. The second half of Midgame would be a better target and the target would be alternate weapons using ammo, not OP weapons with infinite ammo. The ammo price doesn't need to be special as for the Ancient weapons. But also the sites management and scanning need a second thought, currently, it's tedious.

[Tim_]

The nagativity of a few on this forum towards the Ancient legacy content is something I do not understand.

It is interesting and fun. The additional missions are interesting and are a good opportunity for more experience.

And the upgrades from the new materials are superb and well worth the time.

If you have not yet played these missions, DO NOT SIMPLY BELIEVE THE NAYSAYERS.

Try them out yourselves and form your own opinions.