Doing less than 5 A to B runs is now "repetitive to the extreme"?
No. One single unlock isn't. I meant adding all the repetitive tasks up together as the whole process of unlocking. 3x individual rare runs is repetitive when some require 3-4 runs but that's just 3 tasks out of several way more repetitive tasks and...
50 markets is extremely repetitive, though. All on its own. I thought it was pretty obvious that's the main one I was talking about considering the topic of the quote, my correction and the similarities between the two tasks.
5 black markets, maybe 10 or 15 normal markets, 3 single rare runs (no more than 15 for any), maybe 80-100t mining (roughly an hour), 15t bromelite, 25t gold, 500ly distance traveled...
That's all going to take time, each roughly 30 minutes to an hour or so to fulfil, each still flavoured to the engineer but it significantly reduces the repetition of each task. I'll say it again and again, repeating any of these game play loops more than a couple times doesn't enhance the fun of it.
I'd much rather the tasks be more interesting anyway. Like how they changed the sensor fragments requirement from how it used to be (farming HGEs) to how it is now (visit the alien crash site). That went from a repetitive, dull task to a single, interesting, fun trip.
More of that and less arbitrary targets plucked out of thin air would be great but given they won't have time to design more interesting tasks I'd settle for less arbitrary repetition.
This is my opinion too. If you don't like a few flights from Lave to engineer (about 3 jumps each way), there's no way to enjoy any of the activities ED offers.
It'd be my opinion too if that's all engineers took to do....
But even in isolation, needing to do that run four times instead of once (which is required for one, without boom) doesn't make it better, more fun, more challenging or more interesting.
It's arbitrarily set. It adds little. It's actually an incredibly lazy target anyway, given I thought the game industry evolved from "kill 10 rats" quests years ago. It'd be fantastic if Elite could do the same. It's understandable that the mission board has to follow some template design like this but hand crafted missions for a full expansion of material?
Given FDev's obvious keen interest in delivering great stories and intricate plots, you'd think the engineers story and missions might have had more nuance than this.
The guardian tech broker system is way better, for starters. Still repetitive if you do more than one blueprint - it'd be better if each blueprint had its own location and task rather than share the same resource, which is a crime fdev commit way too often with their content, which results in grinding the same loops to get stuff - but still such a fun experience in isolation. I loved it. Way, way better than any single part of the engineers process.
So yeh, 3 runs of rares when one would have been adequate does feel grindy when you slot it into the entire process of unlocking engineers.