OBSERVATIONS
Interactions between player and enginneers feel stale beyond choosing the mod and the experimental effect.
First, choosing a level (1-5) of engineer doesnt feel like a choice. It does not feel like a balance of the positive and negative effects of the mod, rather a decision locked by cost/ressources. Factually, it means
that a CMDR wont stay at an intermediate level because that is what he wants but only because he doesnt have yet the ressources to get the next level.
ie "I'll just eventually get level 5 "
Second, choosing a rating (A-E) of module doesnt feel like a choice, rather also only a cost-locked decision. Factually, it means the sole reason a CMDR would get a B-rated module is because he cannot yet afford an A-rated one.
Apart from D-rated modules which are typically lighter, it is not encouraged to get any other rating than A.
ie "I'll get A for what I need and D for what I dont"
MY SUGGESTION
Currently engineers can mod a module of any rating with the same effects.
The primary effects of a engineer modification (positive and negative) could be inversly exponentially proportionnal to the rating of the module.
The effects of an engineer modification that are currently in the game would now only apply when modding an A-rated module. Then the effects of the same modification on a lower rated module would be greater.
Also the effects would scale up more for each level of engineer modification when applying it to a lower-rated module.
The values of the positive and negative effects would grow exponenitially the lower the rating of the module, ultimately allowing lower-rated module to rival performances of a higher-rated module with some downsides.
LORE
Assuming a company researches and developps a module to put it in the market where the CMDRs can purchase it. The first iteration of that module to come to the market is the E-rated one; it gets the job done but could be improved. Over time, as R&D progresses, the company releases better version of their product with a higher rating. However it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to better the performances of a module. As such the engineering potential of a lower-rated module is much higher than a higher-rated module. It is much easier and cheaper to better the performances of a E-rated module than it is of an A-rated module.
This is also the case for engineers. Since a lower-rated module is more basic and has more engineering potential, the engineers are capable to bring out more potential performance when modding the module.
Using a dumb real-life example to illustrate my point : From a performance standpoint, a junkyard engine has a lot more engineering potential than an engine form an F1 car, because F1 engineers already spent a lot of ressources and time tinkering with their engine to bring the most out of it. On the other hand, you can do relatively small work on the junkyard engine to vastly improve its performance, like installing a ty turbo on it. There are diminishing returns on the performance.
EXAMPLE
In the attached file is an example for the class 4 Frame Shift Drive with the Increased Range Modification. The effects of the change are evident in it.
EXPECTED IMPACTS ON GAMEPLAY
LIMITATIONS
The actual values of the positive and negative effects for each level will need precise balancing to ride the line between intended gameplay and exploit.
It would be maybe necessary to balance the cost of engineer modifications based on the rating of the module, to further encourage creative module and mod composition.
This change conflicts with experimental effects since they currently act as the extra-step in specialisation of a ship. It could be then interesting to focus experimental effects as a way to change how a module works instead of another number crunching upgrade.
Interactions between player and enginneers feel stale beyond choosing the mod and the experimental effect.
First, choosing a level (1-5) of engineer doesnt feel like a choice. It does not feel like a balance of the positive and negative effects of the mod, rather a decision locked by cost/ressources. Factually, it means
that a CMDR wont stay at an intermediate level because that is what he wants but only because he doesnt have yet the ressources to get the next level.
ie "I'll just eventually get level 5 "
Second, choosing a rating (A-E) of module doesnt feel like a choice, rather also only a cost-locked decision. Factually, it means the sole reason a CMDR would get a B-rated module is because he cannot yet afford an A-rated one.
Apart from D-rated modules which are typically lighter, it is not encouraged to get any other rating than A.
ie "I'll get A for what I need and D for what I dont"
MY SUGGESTION
Currently engineers can mod a module of any rating with the same effects.
The primary effects of a engineer modification (positive and negative) could be inversly exponentially proportionnal to the rating of the module.
The effects of an engineer modification that are currently in the game would now only apply when modding an A-rated module. Then the effects of the same modification on a lower rated module would be greater.
Also the effects would scale up more for each level of engineer modification when applying it to a lower-rated module.
The values of the positive and negative effects would grow exponenitially the lower the rating of the module, ultimately allowing lower-rated module to rival performances of a higher-rated module with some downsides.
LORE
Assuming a company researches and developps a module to put it in the market where the CMDRs can purchase it. The first iteration of that module to come to the market is the E-rated one; it gets the job done but could be improved. Over time, as R&D progresses, the company releases better version of their product with a higher rating. However it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to better the performances of a module. As such the engineering potential of a lower-rated module is much higher than a higher-rated module. It is much easier and cheaper to better the performances of a E-rated module than it is of an A-rated module.
This is also the case for engineers. Since a lower-rated module is more basic and has more engineering potential, the engineers are capable to bring out more potential performance when modding the module.
Using a dumb real-life example to illustrate my point : From a performance standpoint, a junkyard engine has a lot more engineering potential than an engine form an F1 car, because F1 engineers already spent a lot of ressources and time tinkering with their engine to bring the most out of it. On the other hand, you can do relatively small work on the junkyard engine to vastly improve its performance, like installing a ty turbo on it. There are diminishing returns on the performance.
EXAMPLE
In the attached file is an example for the class 4 Frame Shift Drive with the Increased Range Modification. The effects of the change are evident in it.
EXPECTED IMPACTS ON GAMEPLAY
- Granularity : Added granularity in the choice of a module rating. In some cases a player might choose a lower-rated module and mod it at the engineer to achieve similar performance at a lower cost.
- Planning : Added planning potential while building a ship. In short term, when in the station, the player considers the engineers mod potential while selecting a module rating and in long term, the player can have multiple steps in his ship builds that are viable, not just cost-limited steps towards his ideal ship build.
- Early engineers : Since it encourages modding lower-rated modules, player might now not wait until their ship is fully built before going to the engineers to fully mod it. This creates more interactions between players and the engineers, which leads to more interactions with the game world (ie travelling to the engineer and gathering ressources) and emergent gameplay (ie getting trashed by a pirate on the way there).
- Risk Management : The positive and negative effects of an engineer modification are higher the lower the module rating. Ultimately a lower-rated fully-modded module might have better positive performance than its higher-rated fully-modded counterpart. However this also comes with much higher negative effects. The player decides how much risk (downsides of the mod) he is ready to accept and deal with and how much reward (upsides of the mod) feels worth it. Modding an A-rated module could be considered a conservative approach, then modding B and C-rated modules should be a moderate risk, then modding D could be high risk an finally modding E-rated could be absurd risk, but huge reward (the YOLO approach)
- Strong ship specialisation : This change would allow a player to sacrifice some aspects of his ship to drastically boost others, which enables highly specialised ships which excel in a domain but for which player skill is thoroughly tested in order to counter its flaws.
- Player Expression : ie meme builds
LIMITATIONS
The actual values of the positive and negative effects for each level will need precise balancing to ride the line between intended gameplay and exploit.
It would be maybe necessary to balance the cost of engineer modifications based on the rating of the module, to further encourage creative module and mod composition.
This change conflicts with experimental effects since they currently act as the extra-step in specialisation of a ship. It could be then interesting to focus experimental effects as a way to change how a module works instead of another number crunching upgrade.
