I never though I'd say this, but I'm starting to like Engineers

[Garbarrage]

I've spent hours scanning ships for Classified Scan Databanks at a convoy beacon. I spent a similar amount of time scanning wakes for another Engineer. I've killed countless transport ships for another. Had I simply played the game, without adjusting my playstyle at all, I would never have acquired the required items in the lifetime of the game.

So, I grind. And every time I finish a grind, I follow it with an extended break as I just can't deal with any more tedium.

There really is far too much grind around Engineers, and not nearly enough gameplay.

 

[Spacecat]

I like the concept of engineers.
I like what can be achieved in ship customization with engineers.
The mechanics of doing it annoy the hell out of me.

Since engineers dropped I've given up PvP altogether. I almost never play in open any more, when it used to be where I spent most of my game time whether I was looking for trouble or not. Engineers changed my game completely because aspects of the game that I enjoyed became less so. I still enjoy the game, but its a very different one for me than it was before the material grind and engineering casino came along.

The ranges need further adjustment, For one, there should be no overlap (I've gotten worse grade 5 rolls than grade 3). The range for each grade should be normalized so god rolls (and specials) only give a small advantage. That would bring back some balance to the game, but FD seems married to the broken state it's currently in.

 

[Crank Larson]

And it pushed me into areas of the game I'd never bothered with before. And I like a bit of randomness to things.

That's a good point. It's the only reason I spent a few evenings mining. I enjoyed it very much, especially one evening when I went to a pristine ring in an uninhabited system and spent a couple of hours mining painite. When I arrived at the ring, I went down to a section in the light. While I was mining, it suddenly went very dark (I couldn't see the asteroids at all - had to switch my external lights on). I looked towards the planet and it had moved to be blocking the sun. They were great views, and it was also quite fun getting out of the asteroid field (after doing a bit of night time mining, of course ).

 

[CMDR Cylixx]

Wow reading this thread is demoralizing.

The conversation here is drowned out by "RNG stops everyone having the same builds, everyone will just get a super-ship if they could choose". Immediately followed up by "No! God rolls+RNG must stay! I wokred hard for my supership!"

What is this community?

This has gone on for so long, all streamer's or content creator channels I have seen, either have videos describing how the RNGineers could be improved; or showing you how to minimize the grind. There is a thread every week from a new/long time player who has 'had enough'.

Open your eyes.

Someone please kill me now.

 

[Soliluna]

I don't like that the AI never seem to use the Engineers. :'(

 

[jasonbarron]

I don't like that the AI never seem to use the Engineers. :'(

Great point. The fact that at least high ranking NPC's don't use every engineering module & effect in the book is an almost criminal oversight.

 

[CMDR Cylixx]

Great point. The fact that at least high ranking NPC's don't use every engineering module & effect in the book is an almost criminal oversight.

We tried that already don't you remember?

 

[jasonbarron]

We tried that already don't you remember?

Sure, I remember. What's your point? That a bunch of people couldn't be hassled to put on shields or learn to fly their ships, so none of the rest of us can have nice things?

 

[CMDR Cylixx]

Sure, I remember. What's your point? That a bunch of people couldn't be hassled to put on shields or learn to fly their ships, so none of the rest of us can have nice things?

I was speaking of letting the BGS handle Engineer modifications and spawn the infamous Doom Leviathans that we had in the past.

It is my understanding that they were removed because of that reason.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Sure, I remember. What's your point? That a bunch of people couldn't be hassled to put on shields or learn to fly their ships, so none of the rest of us can have nice things?

If the only people that can play the game are the top 10% combat jocks, then there's a problem.

 

[UnhappyDev]

If the only people that can play the game are the top 10% combat jocks, then there's a problem.

Yes, but Frontiers response was to over nerf in order to keep the bottom 10% happy:

- NPC interdictions are now hilariously easy to avoid. By the time a pirate has decided he wants to shoot at you, you are already waking out
- Pirate wings in RES are never larger than 3, we used to get wings of 5 (or even 7?)
- And more stuff that made NPC interactions too easy.

Combat is still fun though.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Yes, but Frontiers response was to over nerf in order to keep the bottom 10% happy:

- NPC interdictions are now hilariously easy to avoid. By the time a pirate has decided he wants to shoot at you, you are already waking out
- Pirate wings in RES are never larger than 3, we used to get wings of 5 (or even 7?)
- And more stuff that made NPC interactions too easy.

Combat is still fun though.

Yeah, good point. Might be nice if the upper tier NPCs had a bit more of an edge to them (although I can still get my behind handed to me by a Competent Anacondas at this stage )

 

[UnhappyDev]

Yeah, good point. Might be nice if the upper tier NPCs had a bit more of an edge to them (although I can still get my behind handed to me by a Competent Anacondas at this stage )

I think that if they had fixed the insta-kill weapons of doom and limited the really powerful engineered NPC ships to anarchy/low sec systems, everything would have been fine.