How does one actually contribute to that? I plan to take a trip to Colonia soonish, I'd like to lend a hand.
In summary, engineer modules which haven't yet reached G5 with the local engineers (unproven, but it's likely that remote workshops and experimental effects do nothing)
The engineers gain experience every time a roll is made on a module - 1 XP for a G1 roll, up to 4 XP for a G4 roll. They need about 12000 XP to go from offering G3 blueprints to G4 blueprints on a particular module (each module is tracked separately, but all blueprints on the same module count together) ... and about 30000 more XP to go from G4 blueprints to G5. You can see progress in 5% increments (rounded down) in a local news article at each engineer base.
So if you just hang around here and engineer anything that's not already available at G5, you'll be helping by default. If you want to do more focused work on a particular module, grab a bunch of materials (the G1 raws, especially), a cheap module of the right type, and then sit at the engineer swapping low-grade blueprints over on it for as long as you can be bothered to.
Modules which aren't yet finished to G5:
Grade 3:
- Auto Field Maintenance Unit *
- Cargo Scanners
- Detailed Surface Scanner *
- ECMs
- Fuel Limpets
- Hatchbreaker Limpets
- Mines
- Torpedoes
Grade 4:
- Cannons
- Chaff
- Frag Cannons
- Missiles
- Plasma Accelerators
- Point Defense
- Power Plants
- Railguns
- Refineries *
- Sensors
* These modules only have one blueprint so are very painful to do bulk rolling on, as you need to go over to outfitting to strip the modification entirely to start over. Of course, if you actually want several engineered AFMUs, great! Fortunately they get a decent amount of general use anyway.
Well I thought you did, but had an odd experience. I bought a Python on arrival when last there, then encountered the no 5A FSD thing, so made do with a 5B (was fine for my purposes at the time, but frustratingly temporary as I don't engineer B rated modules). But then just as I was leaving Jaques Station had a 5A FSD for sale. I bought it, put it in the Python, then went to buy another for a Krait and they didn't have any. I checked back a while later and drew another blank. So I assumed that my 5A FSD was a glitch. Maybe that was introduction day and they were intermittent?
Most of the A-rated core modules are limited stock and only available from stations in Colonia system. So, some days are better than others. Stock seems to reset on Tuesdays for those stations, as far as I can tell.
On the Census site I track where can sell modules, as well as where currently does, and whether the stock is limited. e.g.
https://cdb.sotl.org.uk/outfitting/25/269 for 5A FSDs, or
https://cdb.sotl.org.uk/outfitting/25/265 for 5E (which have some "always available" stations). The only modules which are never available appear to the 7B, 7A, 8B and 8A sensors - not a great loss to most people, but definitely bring your own if you need them.
