Read in another thread some poor chap had 50 rolls trying to get a special ( 6% chance ) and failed ... Shouldn't engineers also come with a gamblers warning ? 
http://www.gambleaware.co.uk/
http://www.gambleaware.co.uk/
Irony on
Hey Frontier, where did you find these chaps that call themselves engineer?
o7
As I understand it, in beta, you were not guaranteed a better unit because of the variation, however I am sure in one of the news letters Braben stated that one of the things they were changing for release was that each upgrade would always be better.
I have not yet done a tier two upgrade in the released version to say one way or the other, but my assumption was that this has been fixed.
Here we go again !
i stopped there because out of yttrium and I figure 29% out of 35% max is good enough. Am afraid if I try level 4 again I will just get lower rolls so saving up for eventual level 5 attempt.
WOW we are sore on the forums today. I don't know if you can get a worse upgrade? I was under the impression that each step would always be better, but by how much would vary. If I am wrong then, I would agree with you on this point.
My point is not saying that it should be OK to get a downgrade.....but more to that fact of people moaning about the variation. I for one think it is a good idea as long as each step is an improvement, maybe it needs some refinement, but other than that it is fine.
Love the fact you assume my argument - I only mentioned the fact it was realistic to show that the slightly random effect was quite normal, I do appreciate this is a game, I suggest you should as well and get over the fact you need to find resources to craft with.