Done with Odyssey. Engineering

[F4fred]

So finished the last few upgrades and now done with Odyssey engineering. If it had been less grindy I might have done more. Tried out different combos and bought some more skins from the store. As it is I can’t be bothered. Lack of ability to trade for all materials including data often leaves you searching for that elusive last thing to upgrade. I doubt I am not alone in this. I might do some for an alt, but it will be strictly buy and upgrade what I need for basic effectiveness and nothing more. To quote the mission givers in the stations “You’re missing out on a helluva opportunity here!“

 

[Old Duck]

Now that you've engineered everything, whatcha gonna do with it all?

 

[Northpin]

So finished the last few upgrades and now done with Odyssey engineering. If it had been less grindy I might have done more. Tried out different combos and bought some more skins from the store. As it is I can’t be bothered. Lack of ability to trade for all materials including data often leaves you searching for that elusive last thing to upgrade. I doubt I am not alone in this. I might do some for an alt, but it will be strictly buy and upgrade what I need for basic effectiveness and nothing more. To quote the mission givers in the stations “You’re missing out on a helluva opportunity here!“

Hmm... engineering is not a purpose in itself, it's a tool used to improve/optimize certain types of gameplay

Once you get your suits/weapons done for the purpose you set - it is to be expected to be "done" with engineering.
Of course until you want to engage in other sort of gameplay that will require different engineering

So, have you stopped playing?

 

[F4fred]

Hmm... engineering is not a purpose in itself, it's a tool used to improve/optimize certain types of gameplay

Once you get your suits/weapons done for the purpose you set - it is to be expected to be "done" with engineering.
Of course until you want to engage in other sort of gameplay that will require different engineering

So, have you stopped playing?

No still playing. Not sure I agree with your assessment of engineering. As there as so many potential combinations and effects you never know what might suit you better. But the urge to try is stifled if the grind is irksome. Even more so now you can’t relog to get MI’s anymore. I will give some examples. Someone posted on Reddit that they were having good results with thermal shock on lasers. Thought that would be worth trying having used mostly thermal vent lasers until now. Engineered some up and loving them. Would not have bothered had I not had the mats to hand. Not that I have ever found Horizons engineering much of a hassle. My bins are normally bulging just from collecting stuff during normal play. With Odyssey I saw a YouTube video, by D2EA about his Iron Man combat Artemis suit build. Interesting and would have liked to try it, but the thought of getting everything together for another suit upgrade put me off.

 

[F4fred]

Now that you've engineered everything, whatcha gonna do with it all?

Play the game, same as I did with Horizons, except I have never stopped engineering in Horizons. Always tinkering with some different idea. I still enjoy the Odyssey missions and CZ’s And the gear I have is fine for that, but who knows a different combo might suit me better. Or just having a Sunday best Maverick suit!

 

[Northpin]

No still playing. Not sure I agree with your assessment of engineering. As there as so many potential combinations and effects you never know what might suit you better. But the urge to try is stifled if the grind is irksome. Even more so now you can’t relog to get MI’s anymore. I will give some examples. Someone posted on Reddit that they were having good results with thermal shock on lasers. Thought that would be worth trying having used mostly thermal vent lasers until now. Engineered some up and loving them. Would not have bothered had I not had the mats to hand. Not that I have ever found Horizons engineering much of a hassle. My bins are normally bulging just from collecting stuff during normal play. With Odyssey I saw a YouTube video, by D2EA about his Iron Man combat Artemis suit build. Interesting and would have liked to try it, but the thought of getting everything together for another suit upgrade put me off.

Well, as long as you keep playing, you'd have materials for engineering.
Especially valid for Odyssey onfoot gameplay. Salvage missions (satellites especially) are a rich source of data, MI specifically, while Restore missions are a rich source of materials generally speaking.

On my Epic account (which is the one i tried most stuff, especially in terms of weapon mods) i have:

• 15 G5 weapons (13 fully modded, 1 with one mod, 1 empty) and 1 G4 weapon with one mod
• 4 G5 suits (2 fully modded, 1 with one mod, 1 empty) and 1 G4 suit with 2 mods

My other 2 accounts are not that far behind, but i've did way less experimentation.

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

my hoppers are full of mats,pick them as you go along,ive g5 everything,and still top up low hoppers, players complain mats are to get in base missions IE power regs and ion gas pop to my fc ,ive loads to sell,again ive hit g5 suits and weopons. this game isnt to hard , its play and plan or plan and play lol / my opinion.

 

[Staarlord]

So finished the last few upgrades and now done with Odyssey engineering. If it had been less grindy I might have done more. Tried out different combos and bought some more skins from the store. As it is I can’t be bothered. Lack of ability to trade for all materials including data often leaves you searching for that elusive last thing to upgrade. I doubt I am not alone in this. I might do some for an alt, but it will be strictly buy and upgrade what I need for basic effectiveness and nothing more. To quote the mission givers in the stations “You’re missing out on a helluva opportunity here!“

I’ve done builds where I complete “anti’d” the engineering system as well. It’s totally doable. Engines are perhaps the only hook. What I would do was mix hull modules with guardian hull modules for that extra bump in protection (similar to g1 hull module in terms of raw health, plus a slight bump in thermal resist), then I’d use a Guardian powerplant because it’s identical to a G4 overcharge but with slightly better heat efficiency and integrity. I’d also use Guardian power distributor because it’s similar to something like an g4 charge enhanced PD but with lower weapon capacity. Then just use plain biweave, with rails or PAs since their damage is pretty much static. A-rate everything else.

Engineering isn’t so bad anymore. It used to be I feel like, back in late 2015/ early 2016. Dav’s hope was pretty much the no brainer method back then because HGE signals has no rhyme or reason. It used to be you’d have to fly out like 10Kls to increase opportunities to find any, in high populated systems. Nowadays I can find just as often in low population systems lol. I do throwaway none-engineering builds for AX too. Mostly to test different ship configurations and they are highly doable. Again the only thing that sucks are unengineered engines. If yiu stick with it you’ll get to the point where you have so many modules that you simply just decide to use what you have. Just don’t sell them ever.

 

[O'Roarke]

I'm very curious!

What's the worst grindy thing you've done for Odyssey's gear engineering?
And could you give an example for "you can’t relog to get MI’s anymore"?

I'm someone who just takes missions from the board and steals everything from the target settlement with none being the wiser. Most of the time.

 

[oblivionmanman 2476]

exterminate missoin normaly give you some stuff i f you complete it.kill all targets in the area then loot all you can carry. np.

 

[F4fred]

I'm very curious!

What's the worst grindy thing you've done for Odyssey's gear engineering?
And could you give an example for "you can’t relog to get MI’s anymore"?

I'm someone who just takes missions from the board and steals everything from the target settlement with none being the wiser. Most of the time.

When I did the bulk of my engineering you could sit at a downed satellite and just relog to main menu to reset the data port. So over an hour or so you could get quite a few MI’s. Relogging now just makes it disappear. You can go to SC and fly back AFAIK, never tried it, but that takes time.
Odyssey engineering is grindier all round compared to Horizons. The inability to trade all the materials is a big factor. Particularly for data. For my final 3 upgrades I wanted 3 increased mag size which needed 30 Weapon Test Data. Had loads of other stuff, but couldn’t trade. I got 5 from a friend. The rest I got from the odd download and finding missions with them as rewards. Lots of waiting for mission board to update in the hope of finding a mission or two with them as rewards.
Yes I do the same the same. Power ups you get grade 3 access and an empty settlement. Like I am not going to steal everything! But you usually only get 1 or 2 useful data and often not the one you really want. Then of course there is the whole once done you can’t change it. So no swapping out faster handling for faster reload to see how you like it. No it is start a whole new weapon or suit! For Horizons I will often have 90% of the stuff I need and just engineer a couple of things for the build.
So for me it is about cost/benefit. Is the time invested in hunting down all the materials worth it for something that might just sit unused after the first few tries. For Horizons yes, for Odyssey no.

 

[ThinkingPortals]

When I did the bulk of my engineering you could sit at a downed satellite and just relog to main menu to reset the data port. So over an hour or so you could get quite a few MI’s. Relogging now just makes it disappear. You can go to SC and fly back AFAIK, never tried it, but that takes time.

Mission-related spawns can be relogged. It's not ideal, but it works. Settlement Defence Plans are the worst, since they only show up at downed skimmers, and it seems like salvage/recovery missions only generate wrecked Scarabs.
Odyssey engineering seems like Horizons engineering before they reworked it twice.

 

[metatheurgist]

tbh, like ship engineering it's not too hard to see the turkey modifications right off the mark. Don't really need to try them.

 

[Ryox]

Lack of ability to trade for all materials including data

I'm not sure what you meant, but you actually can trade any on-foot materials directly between other Cmdrs ('Assets', 'Goods' but also 'Data').

1) Simply drop them from your backpack to the ground:

Video Guide: On Foot Player-to-Player Material Trading.

I just posted a quick guide to on foot player-to-player material trading.

forums.frontier.co.uk

2) Or use your Fleet Carrier's bartender.

 

[Northpin]

I'm not sure what you meant, but you actually can trade any on-foot materials directly between other Cmdrs ('Assets', 'Goods' but also 'Data').

i would assume they meant bartender trading - like we do swap memory chips and optical lenses for weapon components and tungsten carbide

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Hmm... engineering is not a purpose in itself, it's a tool used to improve/optimize certain types of gameplay

I think therein lies the problem. I think the opposite is the case - I saw the engineering as a purpose in itself and a vehicle to motivate to keep visiting settlements. You can see it all the time on the forums: People see the suit and weapon engineering, and think: I need to get this done as fast as I can so I can start to play the game! And they grind their souls away, and when they are done, they realize... there is nothing at the other end. There is no higher purpose or next level or end boss that requires you to have the best suit or the best weapon - pretty much everything can be done with store bought gear. Also, there is no "best" anyway, this is highly subjective.

For me, the engineering was giving me a path to travel along. I looked at the available options, made a wishlist of what I would like to achieve, and then just played. While engineering my gear I did have a lot of fun doing settlement missions, partly because choosing different strategies to tackle different missions is fun, but also because I set myself realistic goals and saw constant progression. For instance, I started with a store bought G3 Maverick with backpack and damage, a G3 Intimidator with a scope, and an empty G3 Tormentor - yes, I was sort of lucky. I made a list what mods I would like on those items, and then prioritzed them. Get G4 on the suit, mag size on the shotgun, and stability on the pistol. And then I just played the game.

I saw item after item on my wishlist checked, and the necessary engineer unlocks were more or less a side product of my gameplay. Yes, I did cheese a few unlocks with my own bartender, but I pay alot of money to employ him, so he can do something for me once in a while. Each time I had the materials for something, I did a single upgrade or mod. And then proceeded to the next item. I just played the game, and I did one single 15 minute relog session to gain the necessary Manufacturing Instructions. Yes, I did relog. Sue me.

If you set out with a basic suit or weapon and think "I need G5 and all mods before I can play the game" you are bound to fail and be frustrated. There is nothing at the end of the G5 grind that cannot be done with store bought G3 gear. Grinding eats away your soul. Not saying I have the solution to engineering grind, but if you don't grind and do it my way, you have a lot of fun. I did. Engineering IS the game.

 

[Northpin]

There is no higher purpose or next level or end boss that requires you to have the best suit or the best weapon

There is.
Faster chaining Ground High CZ (for fun, for credits, for BGS)
Faster chaining massacre settlements (to hit enemy factions, also for BGS)

One needs well trimmed G5 equipment to increase efficiency.


However, most players get locked into a loop of grinding settlements for the sake of grinding settlements without really knowing why they do it, but doing it anyway because some YTuber influencer made a video about it.

Same things may happen grinding for a carrier and then not knowing what to do with it, then starting to complain about upkeep and tritium and jump timers and limited jump range and so on...

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

One needs well trimmed G5 equipment to increase efficiency.

Increasing efficiency is an out-of-game reason, and that is a self-imposed goal. I am old and slow and notoriously bad at all things shooter, and I could chain high CZs with G4 gear easily. Not with meta weapons (I believe that is dual L6 right now?), but with those plasma weapons with slow-as-f... moving projectiles.

I stand by it: Everything in-game is possible without G5 gear. The things you cited are outside restrictions imposed by yourself.

 

[Northpin]

Increasing efficiency is an out-of-game reason

BGS is an ingame reason
Chasing a Faction out of your system is an in game reason.

Everything in-game is possible without G5 gear

absolutely right, but...
...when you have to fill more buckets than your opponent...
...when you want to frag other players in a ground CZ...

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

BGS is an ingame reason
Chasing a Faction out of your system is an in game reason.



absolutely right, but...
...when you have to fill more buckets than your opponent...
...when you want to frag other players in a ground CZ...

You mean the BGS that was supposed to be... I don't know... in the background? The one that wasn't supposed to be played and players found a way to and did it anyway ? Maybe our definitions don't align here. I would call that out-of-game.