Engineering alternative

[Uthael]

The main issue in Engineering is its UI and our interaction with it. Check this related topic I made a while ago.

Some time later, CMDR Lord Baron Von Vaderham wrote his 2 cents on engineering. Quoting myself from there:

What engineering needs is more in-game info, more consistent rewards for the time invested and more human feeling. I'll elaborate.
More in-game info means the game should make all aspects of the Inara website obsolete. Inara should be in the game itself. With proper tutorials.
More consistent rewards means less RNG. Not necessarily less time spent. For example, make ship scans award fixed amount of specific data based on the ship's type so the player knows what to search for.
More human feeling means give the engineer NPC a model, animations and a workshop. Let us queue all the engineering we want from them and watch them work. Eventually, let us see them work on the module around the ship itself, in the hangar. Much better than clicking the same button 15 times and waiting for a circle to fill 5 times. ... Per module.

But the idea of doing it myself sounds even better. Different modules, different minigames. Some based on timing, some on memory, some on spatial awareness, etc. Infinite retries, but your score and invested materials affect the resulting engineering grade.
... Or just let the NPC handle it for a price.