Engineers I see 3 options... what do you prefer?

How should the engineers work in the future?

  • leave it as it is now... RNG ftw \o/

    Votes: 45 28.1%

  • all upgrades should have fixed values and effects

    Votes: 34 21.3%

  • let the player decide the outcome of an upgrade

    Votes: 81 50.6%
  • Total voters
    160

lemny

lemny
Because of the randomness of drops and mats and the amount of time you need to gather mats for multiple upgrades for multiple modules for multiple ships, i don't think there should be any RNG while creating the upgrades itself.

What do you think?
I know that's discussed 100 times, but i didn't found a poll over the three possible solutions.

1. As it is... all random stuff and you have to try 100 times to optimise the outcome
2. Fixed values for the upgrades
3. Sliders, so the Player can choose the strength of an effect at the cost of negative effects. (my preference)

My thoughts for option 3:

The class of the upgrade could set the range within the player can move the values and it could differ in the cost of negative effects.
There could also be a non linear dependency in the negative side effects. For example: the last % of jump range could cost more heat or boot time that the first %.
The new features of weapons or other stuff could come with a larger cost of selected negative side effects.
 
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Viking84

Viking84
As long as the RNG is removed I would be happy, but sliders to choose how to weigh the positive and negative aspects sounds like something that would add an interesting dimension to the gameplay :) There is enough RNG in the material drops/hunting process if you ask me. Which nobody ever does. ;)
 

lemny

lemny
I imagine it could be really cool to tune your modules while playing with sliders...
"Ah just 1 more % jumprange... uh... so hot, so hot... ok i can live with a bit more boot time so it can run a bit cooler... *tinker tinker*...

And with better standing with the engineers the options for the slides get more range and less negative effects.
The access to special effects could still be only open to higher standings.

How about giving the player a completely free interface to play with the values of positive and negative effects within ranges and these values decide which materials you need to make it real.
The better the upgrade in terms of positive and negative effects, the higher the amount and quality of mats should be.
And for special effects you need special rare mats or items.

The gameplay would look like... visit the engineer... tinker your wishes... the engineer says: "i could do that, but i need bla bla bla"... get the recipe downloaded to your ship and go hunting, gathering etc.
 
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EValve

E
It's grown on me.
Except the weapon mods but that's coming anyway.

What irks me more is the gathering of resources.

-No filter on the map to find Metal-Rich planets
-Ship Recall can make you drive over 1.25 km losing your Point of Interest from your sensors
-Surface meteorites are too rare
-Not enough info other than "sublimation 876k" which really is a laughable way of "narrowing down" the search field
-Meteorites on surfaces are too rare
-Trade missions alter their delivery location to a station without Large landing pad, wasting your time.
-Bonus timers are a little sketchy, sometimes they pop upon exiting SC at the station and immediately tell you you've missed out on it.
-Sometimes ships don't give any loot ( like in a USS ) -> Wasted my time fighting an anaconda for no particular reason...
And some more.

Basically just tiny little things that could flesh out the the Engineers.

For the rest I'm quite satisfied. Some bugs here & there, logging into my Scarab puts me down under the surface more often than not.

Storage is IIRC on their priority list and will be more than welcome.
Material storage is still a little low considering there's just so much variety!
This means you can't just hoard as you play along, you need to be selective and seek what you want.

What I'm quite satisfied with is that I have a reason to do everything now. I have a reason to mine, a reason to bounty-hunt, to explore, to go on surfaces, to go to a RES site, find Surface PoI's, attack bases.

The RNG isn't going anywhere. What could be constructive instead is addressing those tiny things to flesh it out and make it livable.
 

Chris M Fortune

C
Perhaps a method of RNG where you can reroll a few times for each "purchase" might be useful or if the player has a choice in it then they only can choose one factor, all others are skewed by that choice.

To clarify that second part, You have a choice of one primary slider and how you place that will determine the other variables. obviously the better your choice the worse the other variables would be.

Edit:

Personally I am fine with random but agree it could be improved
 
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Riverside

Riverside
I'd just like to be able to choose my modification & have the engineer quote me a cost. The concept of swings & roundabouts would still apply in a predictable manner.

With improved rep, maybe they could add secondary benefits (ie rep & cost based instead of RNG) but the basic cost and outcome should be known.
 

Nazgutek

N
I'd like to see a minor change, so that when upgrading the Engineer randomly picks the module and randomly picks the modification.

It'll add another two layers of game content to the already content-rich Engineers gameplay, which can't be bad at all, right?

For the hard of brain, I'm being unhelpfully sarcastic.
 

Eera

Eera
Or may be, keep RNG, but without loosing materials. RNG could be based on samples made by the engineering.
 

lemny

lemny
Eera said:
Or may be, keep RNG, but without loosing materials. RNG could be based on samples made by the engineering.
Click to expand...

i don't think that's a good idea, you only would ending up by clicking 100 times on the reroll button for the best possible outcome.
 

derjaster

D
I'd prefer a system that lets me determine one main value for an upgrade and the side effects are then generated accordingly. So i can create an fsd with the max possible range, but then i have to suffer the additional weight, boot up time, heat, power consupmtion etc. I want to be in charge of the outcome of the main effect I am grinding ressources for.
 

Eera

Eera
derjaster said:
I'd prefer a system that lets me determine one main value for an upgrade and the side effects are then generated accordingly. So i can create an fsd with the max possible range, but then i have to suffer the additional weight, boot up time, heat, power consupmtion etc. I want to be in charge of the outcome of the main effect I am grinding ressources for.
Click to expand...
that it !
 

Derath

D
I actually like the current system, I didn't think I would but as long as the worst values aren't so bad that something doesn't feel like an upgrade i've been pretty happy with my choices, I don't like the spinning roulette wheel for weapon mods I think that is spectacularly silly, as is the fact you can get a special mod for making your weapons integrity higher. I was pretty pumped when i got a shield booster passed its "limit" so to speak so i've got a tier 2 one nearly as good as a decent tier 3 one.

My only beef so far is the material list is too big and some are extremely awkward to get and from the rarity list it isn't even the rare ones.
 
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sndle9

S
Most definitely option 3 for me.
Not a fan of the totally random approach, especially if I get a bad run of luck with very rare materiel's.
I'd much prefer the old RPG character type sliders where you get 100 points, but its up to you if you want speed over integrity etc.
Added functions could be bonuses based on pushing specific aspects to the top.
E.g. Choose Max power, you get to choose between a thermal damage, or clip size bonus but something else will suffer.
This way we decide if we want a tank that can chip away at ships, or a glass cannon that is devastating, but can only take a couple of hits in return.
 

Robbeh

R
I'd much rather they implemented mechanics to make the whole process feel more like actual engineering than spinning the wheel of fortune.

Applying set attributes and effects (positive and negative) to the existing materials and generating the end result from the quantity/quality and type of input materials would be my preference, but even simple interactable sliders with a set material cost would be better than what we have currently.
 

frostypaw

frostypaw
I've voted RNG - but I lean towards the player influence too - I'd love to see how it works with the current RNG system PLUS the ability for the player to ask for one metric to be tweaked if the roll is 'poor'.

It wouldn't make the hugest difference but would give the feeling of having some control left after a poor roll, the tweak doesn't have to turn it into a great roll but if it's enough to make it feel OK then a lot of the 'oh god back to the grind to do that again' feeling would go and the redo feel more optional than forced.
 
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