How to fix Engineers powercreep without upsetting those who grinded for it?
It's actually quite simple and I wonder why I haven't thought about it earlier (probably because I don't really care):
Just increase all ships base stats by something like 1.5 times. Make them faster, more maneuverable, let them jump further, make them harder, increase weapon damage etc. Tweak Engineers modifiers so that engineered ships perform the same like they do know.
Nobody can complain: Everyone gets better base ships, including NPCs and Engineered ships don't get something taken away from them, it just makes the gap smaller.
Thoughts?
PS
That's only relevant if you want to fix power creep. If you think everything is well that's fair too.
I would definitely be up for that.
I had a similar thought about increasing the downsides to modules so you couldnt have all G5 all the time, you would have to pick and choose one or two things on your ship to focus on, and not engineer anything else, or engineer everything as a G1-2, but not get the bigger bonuses. So you'd have to choose between specific and general bonuses.
This would be much harder to balance though as not all G5s are created equal, so I actually like your idea better. Makes sense with the game's lore too, once tech is acquired it inevitably works its way down to the purchasable mass market. So 'guardian' tech becomes normal, and the new 'guardian' engineering tweaks take it up to old modules G5 equivalent.
it would still need some tweaks I think, as shield strength even with everyone on a level (ish) field is insane, but that's only nerfing one thing at least, not everything!
The 1st two aren't arguments at all. The 3rd makes sense. If you do all that engineering it's because the advertised benefit is desirable to you. Everyone has the freedom (maybe not the time though) to do exactly as anyone else does where engineering is concerned. So nerfing the high end benefits just cheats the most dedicated of players out of their payoffs. I feel like you've added your own hyperbole to it to sensationalize the actual take. I doubt anyone said "I want to have a huge benefit over..." Instead I'd move more toward the middle and say "I want what I worked for, which is a power differential between me and low end ships of the same type"
If FDev doesn't want the "power creep" they shouldn't work so hard to institute it, but nothing makes me shelve a game faster than developers who move the goalposts time and again, and make all your in game efforts amount to nothing more than someone who did less than half of what you did. I can imagine some of the hard core traders feel this way about passenger missions, and explorers about sightseeing missions. Now if you take the Nth degree engineered ship owners and force them into a lower rated version of their ship, that's not going to solve the underlying issues.
Well, if ED is going to be pushed as an MMO, which many engineers grinders seem to be in favour of (certainly few single player RPers who dont grind engineers are in favour that I've seen), then those same grinders (PVE or PVP) should be prepared to have their 'hard earned' advantages wiped out every so often. See every MMO ever.
