Does anyone actually enjoy engineering?

[Krash]

Do I enjoy it? Its something to do in this wonderful galaxy:
Monday / Mining - check
Tuesday / Engineer latest min/max meta - check
Wednesday / collect mats - check
Thursday / farm merits
Friday / open date (exploration with alt account?)
Saturday / PvP event
Sunday / Goid hunting

 

[mp4x]

No more or less than I enjoy having to complete any task in any game to achieve a particular upgrade, to whatever the equipment used in said game is. It's part of a bigger picture that I do, indeed, enjoy

 

[Captain Willard]

Love engineering my ships for each task.
I never follow the herd builds, they're mine, a big part of the game I enjoy. It's never been a grind.

 

[Han Zulu]

Engineering is more a part of a process than a goal in itself, and after you have engineers unlocked and most mats you need, it's cool that it's there. But it's not something I keep on doing. I get a ship. Tweak it with engineering till it's what I want, and then I play the game.

 

[Rafe Zetter]

Engineering is more a part of a process than a goal in itself, and after you have engineers unlocked and most mats you need, it's cool that it's there. But it's not something I keep on doing. I get a ship. Tweak it with engineering till it's what I want, and then I play the game.

An important viewpoint there - "once it's done, it's done" and I think part of the reason why the process itself was stretched out, because FDEv knew there WAS an endpoint people would reach and almost never go back. Yes I know it's shorter now but it's still pretty tedious.

With the last overhaul they did, I think it would have been better to have a more gradual process of engineering, that more closely parallelled the "casually picking up mats as you find them" approach that I think they basically thought all players would do.

People suggested many times a blueprint system either from scavenged ships or mission reward (possibly even faction specific) and all sorts of ways to elongate the process so it felt like a more organic process.

But they didn't listen, and having looked at engineers twice now OP - I doubt anything more will be done, not anytime "SOON (TM)" anyway, years most likely - sad to say you're stuck with this version, and despite what many people have said in another thread, regarding players who don't have Horizons (base game only) being forced to fight Horizons NPC's, - that "you don't NEED engineers to play the game" - clearly every reply here says the opposite.

 

[Iskariot]

Does anyone actually enjoy engineering? [uhh]

It is not perfect, but yeah I would not want to play the game without it.
I would like a few changes, but I'm not going into that here.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Yup!

 

[A D]

Engineering.. its ok now. I expect to do some work for the rewards.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

I actually do enjoy engineering including gathering materials, unlocking engineers, get rolls that are now better than the previous etc.
The only exception is the process of flying to each single engineer with a ship that can fit its module seize. Instead of just sgoring it in the cargo hold, no, you gotta buy a Cutter for the sole reason to jump around it so your T10 can be engineered as your jumpo conda hasn't got a C8 slot. And then you sell it because you use your connie for that purpose normally.

Engineering when it has been released was a pain but throughout the years it has been improved. Though we could use more balancing passes on blueprints and more variety on material gathering I am now enjoying it way more than before.
Finding HGEs is no longer RNG, high grade raw materials no longer spawn in metallic meteorites exclusively, G5 data can be easily aquired thanks to mission reward choices, etc.

I am one of the players that are having a full fleet of engineered ships and I am still planning to add more. Currently sitting at 13 fully G5 and A rated ships for PvP alone, I am having more G4 engineered ships for PvE, mining, exploration, etc.

It sounds you actually wanna play Elite but don't know how to do engineering properly. The process of inventing new loadouts is fun for me and getting there is actually too.
If you wish, I can offer you a personal tutorial for how to engineer a ship without getting insane because there are a hand full of rules that are nice to follow. For me it usually takes just a single day, maybe two to fully engineer a ship to G5 but I can very well imagine it can take months to engineer one not following these rules.
It would be too long to write them all down but one example of the rules I have in mind is "Never trade up". It's as true and useful as "Never fly without a rebuy."
So if you are interested send me a PM, if not, may you find enjoyment in other games and things

 

[Rudal]

In short - No.

I like exploring and don't like combat but to fully engineer my AspX I need a lot of stuff that I won't find while I'm out exploring.
We can't have another commander on our account that would share the resources so I can't do anything else while I'm 10000LY away from the bubble so the whole Engineer/engineering aspect of the game is a pointless grind for me.
I've done as much as I could with materials I had and didn't bother after that...

 

[aRJay]

I don't enjoy many aspects of the acquisition process, but I do enjoy actually engineering components the process is still a little random for me as someone who has worked in a precision engineering company but then again it is really tuning which is more subject to random factors.

But it is so much better than the casino we had before.

 

[Stealthie]

Let me start by saying I'm a huge Formula 1 fan.
I'm fine the idea of spending a heap of money to save 50g weight or spending weeks making some component which improves the aerodynamics slightly etc.
I love the relentless, obsessive, single-minded nature of the engineering in the sport.

I mention that because it reflects the same attitude I have toward engineering in ED.
If I've fitted, say, some C5 module in a C6 slot and then I realise I can fit a couple of C4 modules to do the same job, thus allowing me to fit a more optimised module in the C6 slot, I'm quite happy to re-engineer a heap of parts on my ship to achieve some advantage.
In fact, I'm currently in the middle of my third revision of the PDist's on a bunch of my ships.
I started off fitting the biggest A-rated PDist simply cos they were pretty cheap.
Then I realised I could save weight and gain jump-range by under-sizing them so I fitted a lower class PDist instead.
Now I've realised a bigger D-rated PDist is often lighter and provides more juice than a comparable A-rated one so I'm swapping them again.

Do I enjoy engineering?
No.
It sucks big fat donkey balls and the thought of it genuinely makes me nauseous.

That's why I spend days playing with Coriolis.io before I even buy a module.
If there was a way to interface Coriolis with the game so it automatically deducted mat's and applied mod's I'd never visit an engineer again.
I hate the entire process, even though I love the results.

 

[DeletedUser191218]

Serious question. I don't mean 'do you enjoy having an engineered ship' or 'do you enjoy trying out different engineering modifications', I mean do you actually enjoy the process, the things that you do to get to that engineered module?

Acquiring vast amounts of materials, trading them when (inevitably) you don't have the one you want, at a massive loss, getting a series of lousy rolls that eat all your mats before you complete the mod you're aiming for?

I read posters on here stating that they've engineered whole fleets of ships in next to no time. I believe them- why wouldn't they tell the truth?- but I'm not enjoying anything like the same rate of progress. I decided to fully engineer my mission runner, an 'A' rated Python, back in November. I'd been tinkering with it for a while, I had what I thought was a huge amount of materials stockpiled and I'd unlocked a few engineers. I gave up half way through December and, in spite of having a whole week off at the end of the month, I didn't even flash Elite up. I just couldn't face it any more.

For most of the last four years I've put in a couple of hours a night, two or three times a week. Not exactly a power player, but not 'casual' either. Now I'm watching ED videos instead of playing- what kind of saddo does that? It's over a fortnight since I last played and I don't have any particular urge to change that.

Each completed mod has been a revelation. The Python is transformed. I really can't express how much of a difference the engineering makes- it's vastly more than finally installing 'A' class modules when I started the game.

But that's just hacking me off. It's painfully obvious just how pants stock ships are compared to engineered ones. I've got a whole fleet of vanilla ships that are a real struggle to just survive in. I don't mind running away every now and then, but the AI is balanced against much tougher kit than I'm flying. I can see where the 'git gud' crowd are coming from- my partly engineered Python is just melting AI opponents! But I'm about as 'gud' as I'm going to 'git', my fleet needs a ton of work and yeGodsinHeaven I'm burned out just getting one of them up to scratch!

I'd love to try out some of the newer ships, but I know that stock, even 'A' rated, they'll be easy pickings for dumb as a brick AI with ridiculously strong weapons and shields. It's not about skill, or lack thereof, the game's set-up is suffering from power creep. I wouldn't object to that, if engineering to the new standard wasn't such a massive pain in the posterior for me.

Am I looking at this all wrong? Is engineering actually a fun activity that I'm just not 'getting'? [uhh]

Engineering has ruined the game. It's boring and basically now IS the game.

 

[Weps]

I couldn't be bothered to even finish unlocking everything. I don't even remember the progression at this point, buy being forced to work for a single specific faction out of... how many are there now, 100k factions? being forced to do the 5kly thing, being forced to do the irrational surface raids, all the other specific mat finding techniques... it all felt like a very specific and badly written "save the princess" story. Braben assured several times that something like this won't be in the game.

Then I discovered that there was no point in playing this game in multiplayer without being fully engineered. It's not impossible, just not fun.

As for the results (the starting mods which I managed to get to grade5), they kinda felt like cheating in the context of the game world. Great, now I can get places faster and shoot down NPCs faster. It's the same gameplay, just sped up. Kinda like playing a corridor shooter except you run faster and it takes one shot to kill the green blobs instead of two.

So in short, I never enjoyed engineering, I never enjoyed its results, and because of it, I kinda stopped enjoying Elite too.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

I like it. Just do it gradually.

Play the game and don't worry about grinding for mats, and you will wind up having more mats than you know what to do with.

Free your mind and your azz will follow, you know?

 

[Bigmaec]

Yes, I love engineering ships.

That's why I'm always just short of materials

I really like to specialize ships for certain tasks, and finding ways to optimize them to the maximum possible.
I guess I build a thousand configurations in Coriolis in the last year (wild guesstimate ).
The new engineering is a vast improvement over the RNG we had before, and I made my peace with the grade 1-5 grind
and take it as given. I was a big opponent of that in the last beta.

Overall I really like it. I have some gripes with it though.

1) Coriolis. What, you may say? Coriolis is great! Yes, but it's not ingame.
If oh if we could have a virtual reality environment like CQC where we could build ships, engineer them for no costs, and try them out.
Possibly against NPC, but I'd love that against CMDRs, too. Would be awesome. And the Codex could be used to store material lists for the builds you
want to build.
Ah, a man can dream...

2) Material traders. They are great. And a great failure.
If I would be an aspiring material Trader on my way to Material Trader Elite,
I would set up shop right next to Felicity Farseer. Seriously, the property may be expensive, and Felicity is annoying sometimes, but guess what,
ALL MY *CENSORED* CUSTOMERS WOULD COME RIGHT TO ME!
So why oh why are those traders anywhere but not next to an engineers base? How often have I built a build in Coriolis, went material gathering,
got everything I need, especially the G5 mats, went to Farseer and forgot the stupid Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories for Mass Manager?
Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!
In a world not totally insane I would click "material trader" at the engineer base and be done with it.
But no, The Loach made me value my efforts.
By jumping twice+ totally unnecessary. Grrrr [mad]

3) Legacy modules. They have to go for balance. Get rid of them*. Even if that means my legacy c5 prismatic for my Cutter is gone.

*With "gone" I mean force-convert them to the new system. G5 maxed if you insist.

Edit: oh, and I like materials gathering, because you need specialized ships for that. Ok, no, you don't *need* them, but it is nice to have. I have

 

[Factabulous]

Yes OP, and 97.2% of other commanders agree

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Yes, I love engineering ships.

That's why I'm always just short of materials

I really like to specialize ships for certain tasks, and finding ways to optimize them to the maximum possible.
I guess I build a thousand configurations in Coriolis in the last year (wild guesstimate ).
The new engineering is a vast improvement over the RNG we had before, and I made my peace with the grade 1-5 grind
and take it as given. I was a big opponent of that in the last beta.

Overall I really like it. I have some gripes with it though.

1) Coriolis. What, you may say? Coriolis is great! Yes, but it's not ingame.
If oh if we could have a virtual reality environment like CQC where we could build ships, engineer them for no costs, and try them out.
Possibly against NPC, but I'd love that against CMDRs, too. Would be awesome. And the Codex could be used to store material lists for the builds you
want to build.
Ah, a man can dream...

2) Material traders. They are great. And a great failure.
If I would be an aspiring material Trader on my way to Material Trader Elite,
I would set up shop right next to Felicity Farseer. Seriously, the property may be expensive, and Felicity is annoying sometimes, but guess what,
ALL MY *CENSORED* CUSTOMERS WOULD COME RIGHT TO ME!
So why oh why are those traders anywhere but not next to an engineers base? How often have I built a build in Coriolis, went material gathering,
got everything I need, especially the G5 mats, went to Farseer and forgot the stupid Eccentric Hyperspace Trajectories for Mass Manager?
Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!
In a world not totally insane I would click "material trader" at the engineer base and be done with it.
But no, The Loach made me value my efforts.
By jumping twice+ totally unnecessary. Grrrr [mad]

3) Legacy modules. They have to go for balance. Get rid of them. Even if that means my legacy c5 prismatic for my Cutter is gone.

Yeah.... yeah.

 

[Mav359]

Overall yes i do,

I'm at 4000+ G5 rolls, i own every ship at least once. I have 16 ships which are main go to ships, they are all fully G5'd using the new system having previously god rolled them all in the old. The remaining ships are stored as collectors items in a nearby system and have been at least G3'd core modules on the new system. Its time consuming but i actually went out and collected all the materials..... everything so that i'm now in the position that i have all the mats prior to a new ship coming out and just G5 it as soon as i buy then replace the mats. I also have a boat load of stored engineered modules along with two anacondas that are used purely for storage, all engineered weapons and utilities.

My two biggest bug bears were acquiring the High Grade USS prior to the Q4 update, the drop rate was too slow and that needed fixing, i haven't had the need to mat gather yet since the update so i'll reserve judgment on that. By far the worst element though and still is the traders..... the exchange rates are ridiculous @ 16 - 1 on G5 to G5...... needs changing

Overall though yes i'm a big fan, i'd like to see more blueprints for things like Fuel scoops and SRVs/Fighters etc but i will continue to engineer until there's nothing left to do

 

[Franc Kaos]

...
Oh, one last note - I'm a bit of a minimalist, so despite being rich, my fleet is very modest in size, therefore it's fairly rare I even visit an engineer these days. It's too bad we can't trade materials between players, because I've got mats to spare!

Not at all. Pointless grind wall that completely borked any semblance of balance this game had. Content for the sake of content, even if its repetitive, boring and needless...

I hate the engineering requirements. I want to test stuff out all the time and often do but just as often my hairbrained ideas don’t work as intended and it’s a lot of time wasted to test things out. I feel like FD punishes experimentation. At the very least we should be allowed to sell back engineered goods for their materials.

Hate, hate, hate it - with a passion, hate the fact you can only pin one recipe down per upgrade, that you can only work on one module at a time (since you can't carry spares and the engineer is unlikely to have different types for sale), that you can't just buy an upgraded module (even if it's less perfect than one you could roll for, that players can't just trade mats (I would actually buy mats off Chinese farmers and I think they're a cancer in the MMO world), that the hidden ingame mat traders are rip off merchants, that some mats are attainable only when the moon is high and the seven stars align in just-this-way and in that certain system that has certain conditions...

Absolutely hate it, even more than the Crime & Punishment update - where they forgot to update the crime part.

Course, there are places you can go to stock up on the rarer items, go spend a day at Davs hope, relogging for hours to pick up grade 5 mats, plus there's a couple of other places I've forgotten then swap those for ones you need, plus, what I did (because there's a stupid amount of materials to sort thru), was print off a list off all the materials I needed for each upgrade thru the five grades (font @ 10 point in two columns still filled an entire A4 page) so you know what to focus on.

Of course, a lot of the pain could be mitigated if the game had a decent Outfitting / Ship screen where you could move modules around owned ships with ease but that's also unlikely to happen.

Yes, I love engineering ships.
That's why I'm always just short of materials
I really like to specialize ships for certain tasks, and finding ways to optimize them to the maximum possible.
I guess I build a thousand configurations in Coriolis in the last year (wild guesstimate ).
The new engineering is a vast improvement over the RNG we had before, and I made my peace with the grade 1-5 grind
and take it as given. I was a big opponent of that in the last beta.
Overall I really like it. I have some gripes with it though.
1) Coriolis. What, you may say? Coriolis is great! Yes, but it's not ingame.
...
2) Material traders. They are great. And a great failure.
...
3) Legacy modules. They have to go for balance. Get rid of them. Even if that means my legacy c5 prismatic for my Cutter is gone.

NO! 90% of my upgraded ships are legacy modules, I would quit the game if that happened. Agree with the rest of your points tho'.
[redacted] engineers! they destroyed any skill required for combat, made hamster wheels feel more useful and made it needlessly over complicated (google what mats, where engineer, which requirements, where traders, which traders, how many thousand g3 mats for 1 g5 mat?), and don't change your mind after engineering g5 clean drive then descide you want a g5 dirty drive...

But yea, Davs Hope (plus the other sites), cuts down on the annoyance factor somewhat...