As a caveat, I'd like to say that I did this primarily for fun as I was feeling creative but chose to bring it here to see what people thought of the idea. An added bonus if it, at any point, gives Frontier inspiration for something. 
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A thread on the BETA forum questioned if we should throw out Engineer's. This got me thinking as to how I'd approach this, and came up with the following "alternative." Now in order to make this work, Engineer's as it stands would have to be scrapped; but I'll come back to that later. So, for the moment, let's say it has been.
Thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...n-forced-to-do-should-we-just-scrap-RNGineers
^( In hindsight, an interface similar to the outfitter may have been better than what I am demo'ing here, but I'm going with this anyway because I took the time to do it. )
Description
The Bolt-On feature works by "bolting on" physical changes to your ships systems. This functions both as an alternative for Engineers, as well as a handy lore-acceptable description to system modifications. Are Engineer's the only mechanics in the galaxy? I'm going with no.
Be it a weapon, your FSD, or your power plant, each module has it's own number of bolt-on slots with each slot serving a particular function or area of that module. Each bolt-on has a fixed positive and negative value assigned to it ( yay, no more RNG! ) however, each bolt-on affects other areas of the module; meaning you'd have to be careful and smart on what bolt-on's you apply if you don't want to overload or damage a module(s).
Going overboard on the modules, could result in a "cascading failure" rendering your ship completely inoperable. It would then be up to you to find out what's causing the issue, and change that bolt-on to something else.
Variants
Each Bolt-On item comes in variants up to Grade 5. You do not need to engineer them. However, you will need to raise you reputation with certain factions or Engineers to "unlock" them. They won't just give away their best product to anybody after all.
By unlock I am not talking about some imaginary wall that stops you from doing things, I'm referring to things like blueprints, or buying. You might still be able to buy higher grade bolts from black markets, but you won't have the experience to install them successfully ( see below ).
Ways to obtain bolts
To obtain Bolts, you will need to buy, steal, recover or construct (if you have the blueprint) them. Bolts and Bolt materials can be purchased from around colonised space, with rarer types only from specialised stations, or through mining (asteroids and planets). You can steal what you need through piracy, base invasions, salvage or you might get a bolt, bolt material(s) or a blueprint as a mission reward. Bolt blueprints teach you how to make that Bolt. Buying a Bolt and reverse engineering it might teach you how to make it, or might not and you end up with spare Bolt parts, or both, or neither ( you break it ).
Let's do a visual demonstration.
To begin with, you would select the "Bolt-On" option available either in the Outfitter at a station, or in a new section called the Engineering Bay which is part of your ship ( this area will have the Bolt-On feature, as well as the crafting and modifications section for crafting or modifying Bolts ).
Once there, you are greeted with the following screen:
Each module can be selected by moving your mouse-cursor over one of the marked points on the ship.^
An interactive contextually-relevant menu then appears if you select it:
Each of the slots surrounding the image of the module is an open Bolt-On slot.
In this particular case, as you can see, I have chosen a Pulse Laser for my demonstration.
Each area serves a different function, here we have:
Clip might adjust clip size, clip weight etc.
Coolant controls heat.
Muzzle determines length of shot etc.
Ammo Type let's you select different types of ammunition.*
Chamber controls your rate of fire.
* Ammo Type would let you equip things like corrosive ammunition. Each ammunition type would have different cost amounts. The rarer Ammo will cost a lot more to rearm than the common stuff.
Selecting a Bolt-On slot, will give you a list of Bolt-On's you can select from. This list is contextual, changing for each module.
Bolt-On's have a quantity value assigned to them. Meaning if you have 1, you can only slot 1.
Each Bolt-On is available in 5 grades. Each grade is more rare, more powerful and more expensive than the other; but, that doesn't mean a grade 5 is the best.
As visible here, you can select one of the listed Bolt-On's. A title and description tell you what it is; with visible positive and negative values.
Selecting a Bolt-On will display further information about it, such as where you can find them, their average sale price, and what impact it will have on the rest of the module. Your selection of "Heat Dissipation" for example, could have negative consequences on say, your rate of fire.
Selecting the Bolt-On will take up the Bolt-On slot.
And display it's positive and negative values.
Because of how bolting works, one could implement an experience system. The more bolt's you construct, or use the more experience you get. Increasing your experience in certain areas or with certain bolts could allow you to "unlock" higher grade bolts ( you could still use higher grade bolts even if you're not qualified, but you might not be as successful ).
Now, to Engineer's.
Engineer's at this point seem a little pointless, however, my thoughts around this are quite simple. They can directly modify any module they are qualified to engineer, a number of sliders allow you to modify various aspects of the module. However, moving one slider tick up, could lower the slider tick of another value.
Once you have made your selection, and provided the materials, the change is made directly to the module, the bolt-on's are not included; however, I would recommend de-bolting first, then modifying, then bolting on as modifying the module could have disastrous consequences ( such as the aforementioned cascading failure).
Er, yeah, that's all.
Thoughts?
=====
A thread on the BETA forum questioned if we should throw out Engineer's. This got me thinking as to how I'd approach this, and came up with the following "alternative." Now in order to make this work, Engineer's as it stands would have to be scrapped; but I'll come back to that later. So, for the moment, let's say it has been.
Thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...n-forced-to-do-should-we-just-scrap-RNGineers
^( In hindsight, an interface similar to the outfitter may have been better than what I am demo'ing here, but I'm going with this anyway because I took the time to do it.
)Description
The Bolt-On feature works by "bolting on" physical changes to your ships systems. This functions both as an alternative for Engineers, as well as a handy lore-acceptable description to system modifications. Are Engineer's the only mechanics in the galaxy? I'm going with no.
Be it a weapon, your FSD, or your power plant, each module has it's own number of bolt-on slots with each slot serving a particular function or area of that module. Each bolt-on has a fixed positive and negative value assigned to it ( yay, no more RNG! ) however, each bolt-on affects other areas of the module; meaning you'd have to be careful and smart on what bolt-on's you apply if you don't want to overload or damage a module(s).
Going overboard on the modules, could result in a "cascading failure" rendering your ship completely inoperable. It would then be up to you to find out what's causing the issue, and change that bolt-on to something else.
Variants
Each Bolt-On item comes in variants up to Grade 5. You do not need to engineer them. However, you will need to raise you reputation with certain factions or Engineers to "unlock" them. They won't just give away their best product to anybody after all.
By unlock I am not talking about some imaginary wall that stops you from doing things, I'm referring to things like blueprints, or buying. You might still be able to buy higher grade bolts from black markets, but you won't have the experience to install them successfully ( see below ).
Ways to obtain bolts
To obtain Bolts, you will need to buy, steal, recover or construct (if you have the blueprint) them. Bolts and Bolt materials can be purchased from around colonised space, with rarer types only from specialised stations, or through mining (asteroids and planets). You can steal what you need through piracy, base invasions, salvage or you might get a bolt, bolt material(s) or a blueprint as a mission reward. Bolt blueprints teach you how to make that Bolt. Buying a Bolt and reverse engineering it might teach you how to make it, or might not and you end up with spare Bolt parts, or both, or neither ( you break it ).
Let's do a visual demonstration.
To begin with, you would select the "Bolt-On" option available either in the Outfitter at a station, or in a new section called the Engineering Bay which is part of your ship ( this area will have the Bolt-On feature, as well as the crafting and modifications section for crafting or modifying Bolts ).
Once there, you are greeted with the following screen:
Each module can be selected by moving your mouse-cursor over one of the marked points on the ship.^
An interactive contextually-relevant menu then appears if you select it:
Each of the slots surrounding the image of the module is an open Bolt-On slot.
In this particular case, as you can see, I have chosen a Pulse Laser for my demonstration.
Each area serves a different function, here we have:
- Clip
- Coolant
- Muzzle
- Ammo Type
- Chamber
Clip might adjust clip size, clip weight etc.
Coolant controls heat.
Muzzle determines length of shot etc.
Ammo Type let's you select different types of ammunition.*
Chamber controls your rate of fire.
* Ammo Type would let you equip things like corrosive ammunition. Each ammunition type would have different cost amounts. The rarer Ammo will cost a lot more to rearm than the common stuff.
Selecting a Bolt-On slot, will give you a list of Bolt-On's you can select from. This list is contextual, changing for each module.
Bolt-On's have a quantity value assigned to them. Meaning if you have 1, you can only slot 1.
Each Bolt-On is available in 5 grades. Each grade is more rare, more powerful and more expensive than the other; but, that doesn't mean a grade 5 is the best.
Selecting a Bolt-On will display further information about it, such as where you can find them, their average sale price, and what impact it will have on the rest of the module. Your selection of "Heat Dissipation" for example, could have negative consequences on say, your rate of fire.
Selecting the Bolt-On will take up the Bolt-On slot.
And display it's positive and negative values.
Because of how bolting works, one could implement an experience system. The more bolt's you construct, or use the more experience you get. Increasing your experience in certain areas or with certain bolts could allow you to "unlock" higher grade bolts ( you could still use higher grade bolts even if you're not qualified, but you might not be as successful ).
Now, to Engineer's.
Engineer's at this point seem a little pointless, however, my thoughts around this are quite simple. They can directly modify any module they are qualified to engineer, a number of sliders allow you to modify various aspects of the module. However, moving one slider tick up, could lower the slider tick of another value.
Once you have made your selection, and provided the materials, the change is made directly to the module, the bolt-on's are not included; however, I would recommend de-bolting first, then modifying, then bolting on as modifying the module could have disastrous consequences ( such as the aforementioned cascading failure).
Er, yeah, that's all.
Thoughts?
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