Farming Materials and Diminishing Yields (?)

kirksplat

So, I've been sort of "exploring" the patrols and Cryptic episodes, trying to find a sweet spot for farming mats. Basically, I've been searching for a map that doesn't require combat and drops Z-Particles or Rubinium.

I discovered last night that the first map in "Everything Old Is New Again" contained two ground anomalies, one of which was a Z-Particle. It took about 20 seconds to find them and play the mini-game. I decided to farm this map by collecting the Z-Particle and other mat, exiting the mission, and reentering the mission over and over again. The drops were not always the same, but I did get a Z-Particle about 70% of the time until the 10th time.

Then, the drops got poorer and poorer and poorer, until the only anomalies that I could farm were Duranium and Trionium gas.

I have farmed the map so much that it seems impossible to get Tritanium or other greens.

Anyone else notice this diminishing yield for farming mats? Does anyone know if there is some kind of 24 hour reset, when the mission will begin dropping the good stuff again?

If not, then isn't this going to affect all of us? If it takes a year for a lvl 50 to craft multiple schools, then a player will get worse and worse mats, since there are only so many times we can play a limited amount of Cryptic episodes. I'll have to use new toons to funnel good mats through an account bank or something.

Sorry, if these are dumb questions.

mirrorchaos

its not surprising tbh because i knew this bottlenecking the grind would have drawbacks. i was actually thinking yesterday, "now where can i farm materials?" apart from the exchange which can get very expensive to someone like myself who barely has enough most of the time. i cant think on any place really besides estfs.

kirksplat

mirrorchaos wrote: »

i was actually thinking yesterday, "now where can i farm materials?"

It depends on the mats, really. The patrols are a very easy way to get the space commons and greens like hexafluorine gas. For example, go to the first map of the Malon patrol in Beta Ursae. Once you get the mats on the first map, exit and re-enter. It's easy to farm anything selling on the exchange for 5k a mat. Anything more valuable is a little unpredictable and elusive.

saekiith

You are not supposed to "farm" stuff...

You are supposed to buy the sweet Ressource packages for 1000 Zen per 4-Pack and hope that you actually get stuff that you need!

mirrorchaos

...and theres the down side :P.

should of tried harder to collect from before the upgrade, but it means little now. patrols only last so long before you dry em out even with multiple alts helping, eventually there will be nothing left and so short term gain without long term sustainability type of thing.

maybe x2 could expand on places to get materials a bit easier... maybe, maybe not? but apart of the crafting process in games i have played which is an honored method is finding resources from local things, such as mining rocks, something like a mining world with an atmosphere, a pickaxe, stay there as long as you want compete with a few other players for resources much like the old exploration sectors mining up light and heavy metals. deep space nebulae, rich in all sorts of gasses. and abandoned places where this stuff sprouts up out of no where, kinda creepy place with the odd enemy attempting to kill you by random. the more harder it is to get to your resources the higher your chances of finding more rare materials.

i mean its just thoughts and nothing to get excited about, but i sometimes wonder how wil crafting remain sustainable and affordable to the player base when all thats left is diminished replays of missions, deleting toons and creating toons to do patrols, estfs...