Engineers "Cookie Cutter" setups for Engineering upgrades [Lets discuss]

[Red Fox Four]

It is inevitable, so I am just going to put it right out there.

At some point we are going to end up with different setups, or rather combinations of upgrades, which are going to be defined as "the best" whether we like it or not.

So why not launch the discussions right away?

I'm not heavily into the Engineers yet, but on Inara they have gathered a very handy and nice overview of the upgrades already (still work in progress though) ... http://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints

So I am browsing through the recipes and my first thought is "what kind of combined upgrades should I aim for?".

Immediately following my first thought is my second thought "what kind of upgrades should I absolutely stay away from?" .. in other words, which upgrades are totally not worth it.

Anyways, to have a more tangible (virtually anyhow) look at this I decided to use my Viper as a model.

My Viper Mk3 is always fitted with 2 x C1 Bursts and 2 x C2 Multicannons (fairly common setup).

What if...

I upgrade the Multicannons with Overcharged Weapon, which incurs a heavier drain on the power distributor capacitor. Then I upgrade the capacitor with Weapon Focused Power Distributor to mitigate the drain from the multicannons. Then I upgrade the drives with Clean Drive Tuning to improve maneuverability and reduce heat generation.

Anyways, you see where this is going. Install one upgrade, use another to mitigate the drawbacks, add another upgrade and so forth until you find some form of ideal setup, ergo, cookie cutter setup.

So how do we find the ideal setup. Well, thats where the second thought comes into play... what kind of upgrades should you stay away from? So with the multicannons as an example:

Multi-cannon Efficient Weapon
Multi-cannon High Capacity Magazine
Multi-cannon Light Weight Mount
Multi-cannon Overcharged Weapon
Multi-cannon Short Range Blaster
Multi-cannon Sturdy Mount

Is there really a question what to grab here?

Efficient weapon to reduce heat? Err, no.
High capacity magazine? Err, no.
Light Weight Mount? Lol?
Overcharged Weapon? Hell yeah!
Short Range Blaster? Err, no.
Sturdy Mount? Lol?

So we can pretty much rule out 4 of the 5 weapon upgrades. At least as far as I can see when it comes to min/maxing for cookie cutter setups.

Power Distributor though?

Power Distributor Charge Enhanced Power Distributor
Power Distributor Engine Focused Power Distributor
Power Distributor High Charge Capacity Power Distributor
Power Distributor Shielded Power Distributor
Power Distributor Systems Focused Power Distributor
Power Distributor Weapon Focused Power Distributor

Again, really obvious choice. You want guns that do more damage... they drain more capacitor charge so you want to counter that drain by boosting the weapons capacitor charge. Sure, there is a slight penalty to the systems and engines, but so what? If you add either of those your weapons capacitor is shafted even more.

We could keep going through the list of the Engineer upgrades like this and simply eliminate the "not so ideal" options and end up with the "go-to" options for upgrading our ships.

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Now I fully realize that there are people out there a lot more savvy than me when it comes to Engineers as well as determining the min/max options and finding those ideal cookie-cutter setups. Obviously there will be different "go-to" answers dependent on the role of your ship. An exploration based ship is not going to want the same upgrades as a combat ship. That goes without saying.

But I wanted to kick off a discussion about the upgrades themselves and which ones are the "go-to" ones for different roles, and equally important, which ones should we avoid at all cost.

Hopefully, together we can help eachother figure out how to ideally upgrade our ships.

 

[EValve]

My 2 cents;

The Charge Enhanced power Distributor is far superior to the Weapon focused power distributor.
The charge rates are superior.

I have my armed trading cutter set-up with 4 medium MC's Turrets, 2 large Burst Turrets and 1 huge Beam laser Gimballed.
I have yet to encounter anything posing a real threat.

FSD Range is a must,
2 point defense, 2 heat-sinks, 4 Shield Boosters. Heavy duty is a no-brainer until they change the resistance to affecting the whole ship rather than just the Booster.
Don't have the best power plant & thrusters yet but I'll probably go with Dirty Drives as power seems to be a non-issue.
Until I can fully A-grade it, I'm guessing I'd go for an armoured power-plant unless Power does become an issue in which case I'll simply overcharge it.
I'm probably looking at Reinforced Bi-weave shields.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

I don't know... maybe, the cookie cutter is quite dependant on personal taste. You like christmas tree-shapes, therefore your cookies are all little trees. I prefer those cute little stars!

To be a little bit more concrete: In respect to exactly the example you choose, my choice was different.
- Multi cannons: I went for 'short range', as the range of MC is larger than those of my lasers anyway and I tried to avoid the extra drain on the power distributor.
- Power distributor: I went for 'engine focus', as I was reasoning that focusing on maneuverability (more frequent boosts!) would help me more than more weapon power (and as I abstained from overcharged MCs, I wasn't "forced" to go for weapon focus).

I grant you, I am not a dedicated min-maxer and the ED meta migth be very well beyond my understanding. Maybe, it is easy to prove me wrong in my choice.
But I think, my reasoning is at least halveway sensible - as is yours!

Tree shapes and stars... if we have cookie-cutter engineers, they at least seem to provide a variety of forms to cater different tastes.

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@EValve:
Is FSD really a must? I think, this depends, too.
I oftentimes fly ships with power restrictions and disable the FSD while having weapons deployed. Faster boot-up might be quite handy here: Being able to flee faster when things went south might safe your life.
For explorers, traders or ships with extremely low jump range, the increased range is usefull, of course - but even then, it is more a case of quality-of-life improvement.

 

[Xanador]

Heavy duty is a no-brainer until they change the resistance to affecting the whole ship rather than just the Booster.

they affect at least the shields...or not?

 

[EValve]

@EValve:
Is FSD really a must? I think, this depends, too.
I oftentimes fly ships with power restrictions and disable the FSD while having weapons deployed. Faster boot-up might be quite handy here: Being able to flee faster when things went south might safe your life.
For explorers, traders or ships with extremely low jump range, the increased range is usefull, of course - but even then, it is more a case of quality-of-life improvement.

Valid concern! I have not yet experienced the Grade 8 A power plant ( sitting on a overcharged 7 A for the time being ) so I'm not sure if it will even be required to de-activate it at all with the excess power.

they affect at least the shields...or not?

Not sure at all, I may have mis-read it, but when I tried to apply full resistance augmented shielding boosters because I couldn't afford heavy duty's I really wasn't under the impression anything changed at the rate which my shields were torn down by a NPC Viper & Vulture.

 

[Red Fox Four]

My 2 cents;

The Charge Enhanced power Distributor is far superior to the Weapon focused power distributor.
The charge rates are superior.

It kills your capacity in exchange for charge rate.

Weapon Focus beefs up both capacity + recharge, thus allowing extended periods of fire before it is drained while also allowing faster recharge.

Higher amounts of capacity is crucial for weapons such as railguns, plasma accelerators etc as they require a certain amount of capacity before you can even fire them. Higher capacity means you can fire 2, maybe 3 shots before capacitor is empty. With a "nerfed" capacitor you may only be able to fire 1 shot and then have to wait for capacitor to charge up again.

Anyways, this is the point of this thread. Some upgrades will be an obvious no-go, and some will be weighed against eachother. Figuring out the pro's and con's of the latter is what will help us determine the ideal upgrades.

 

[Funny]

Vulture with charge enhanced capacitor - it'll handle everything. I could probably even fit some overcharged pulse lasers, or efficient burst lasers on there, or overcharged large multicannons. The possibilities are endless... Except beams. Stay away from those.

 

[Xanador]

Not sure at all, I may have mis-read it, but when I tried to apply full resistance augmented shielding boosters because I couldn't afford heavy duty's I really wasn't under the impression anything changed at the rate which my shields were torn down by a NPC Viper & Vulture.

Would be nice to know, because it really makes no sense otherwise (they got also decreased health as tradeoff). I have no access to higher than the class 1 upgrade, but stacking class 4 or 5s could work. The effect might not be so impressive regarding the sheer numbers, but if you add the value for the shield cell banks as well...

 

[EValve]

It kills your capacity in exchange for charge rate.

Weapon Focus beefs up both capacity + recharge, thus allowing extended periods of fire before it is drained while also allowing faster recharge.

Higher amounts of capacity is crucial for weapons such as railguns, plasma accelerators etc as they require a certain amount of capacity before you can even fire them. Higher capacity means you can fire 2, maybe 3 shots before capacitor is empty. With a "nerfed" capacitor you may only be able to fire 1 shot and then have to wait for capacitor to charge up again.

Anyways, this is the point of this thread. Some upgrades will be an obvious no-go, and some will be weighed against eachother. Figuring out the pro's and con's of the latter is what will help us determine the ideal upgrades.

Given my set-up, capacity really isn't of much use to me. I had beams prior to getting the large bursts, I noticed I could never fire my Huge unless I engaged and emptied my capacitor with it. Once the turrets started firing my WEP was constantly empty and the beams would interrupt more often than not.

Given the lower damage of turrets and great capacity drain I emphasize on continuity rather than burst damage.
This is obviously within the confinements of this topic being the Cutter.
A viper may or may not feel the opposite to be true.

As you mention; weapons such as railguns and plasma's may find advantage else-where, but I would call a man crazy for carrying such weapons on a cutter