Flying a kite here!
Engineers should either be on your ship, or when running a solo ship on the home station.
They are the engineers who fix your ship, tweak it, upgrade it, keep it running.
Engineers buy technical manuals to learn new skills
Engineers source materials from the engineering shops on stations for money
No more grinding engineering mats
As per tech manuals, the more manuals your engineer has in his possession, then he is more qualified to design and upgrade your ships
Just a thought
Engineers should either be on your ship, or when running a solo ship on the home station.
They are the engineers who fix your ship, tweak it, upgrade it, keep it running.
Engineers buy technical manuals to learn new skills
Engineers source materials from the engineering shops on stations for money
No more grinding engineering mats
As per tech manuals, the more manuals your engineer has in his possession, then he is more qualified to design and upgrade your ships
Just a thought