Airship Guide

[Dycloide]

Hello,
Which builds have gaven you the best results in getting grade V materias ?
I'm using the quartet for my 4 airships from first post.
Prior to 3.2 i was getting a lot of tier III, sometimes tier IV.
Now on same areas i get sometimes tier III and a lot of cassia logs
Do we somehow have to use the new tier VII parts?

[Slateboard]

You have the one for the 4th airship unlocked most likely.

This appears to be the case. Thank you for clearing it up.

[Nyalia]

I keep getting this weird line in each voyage log, any idea what it means?

It just means you failed to get a second item from the sector.

[Astrelle_hyperion]

Was just commenting in our FC that we wish we could upgrade the mammet pilot to stop bringing back the stupid stuff

[Wizel]

Right now I am using Invincible Hull, Bronco Sail, Viltgance Forecastle and Odyssey Aftcastle on two of my ships, this gives 138 survey, 126 gathering, 54 speed, 84 range and 150 favor. So far the lvl four material findings have been pretty good from sectors 13 and 17. I also have a ship designed to go straight to sector 24 with a Bronco Hull, Odyssey Sail, Viltgance Forecastle and Invincible Aftcastle. This gives 150 survey, 68 gathering, 122 speed, 50 range and 154 favor. I can swap the Hull and Aftcastle to either Invincible and Bronco to increase certain stats if I want, so far this ship has always brought back a lvl 5 materia from sector 24 and is 1/3 on iron spoils, it can make the trip in around 29hr which is pretty good.

[AaronHughes]

So is it now confirmed favor is a better stat than retrieval? I see people getting the iron spoils with high favor and very low retrieval. Does this trend continue for materia, or do you need both high retrieval and favor to get big stacks of crafting materia like the previous patch?

[Nyalia]

So is it now confirmed favor is a better stat than retrieval?

See above - there's no proven (or even suggested) causation between high Favor and better drops. However, there may be some correlation there, because no stat affects the rarity, but higher Retrieval usually means lower Speed and lower Surveillance. Those two are the stats that actually matter. High Survey gives you a better chance to get two chances at an item per sector, and high Speed gives you more chances over time. So, a ship that has low Retrieval has higher of the stats that actually matter. Favor is not one of those. Retrieval doesn't matter because you only get 1 Spoil per hit (unless you get Optimal yield (which gives a chance at 2) and get lucky).

I wish people would stop saying that about Favor without any data to back it up =\ The only thing Favor affects, from my research, is exp gains.

[Alistaire]

Is that research pre 3.2? Because something has definitely changed. Easily past the point of calling it "a few bad luck trips". All my ships with the same setup pre-3.2 have been consistently bringing back substantially less stuff.

[Eldelphia]

I think our Mammet is blind. Our ships can't find the new sectors. I guess this is payback for going 1/1 on discovering Diadem...

[AaronHughes]

Thought I'd add another data point.