Newcomer / Intro Engineering Questions

[hawknerd]

I have just completed the mammoth task of unlocking the 14 engineers that I think I will need for now. I have no plans to visit Colonia at the moment. I actually did 9 of them this week in a few days which has chuffed me to bits. So now I am doing a bit of housekeeping and checking my pinned blueprints and considering what materials I will need for the ship engineering I plan to do soon as well as considering the reputations of my engineers and whether to change any blueprints. Also just gaining experience and understanding the game better. I have loved doing this BTW!

My questions are:
1 If I have The Dweller at LvL4 can I remote engineer his power plant mod to G5 or will it only work up to G4?
2 Are beam lasers the best lasers to use? And what is better oversized or efficient?
3 If I have a pinned blueprint and want to increase my rep with an engineer from LvL4 to LvL5 how do I do this the easiest way without losing my blueprint?
4 Are shield boosters any good really? I have Didi at LvL1 and no blueprint at the moment?
5 Do you lose rep with an engineer for any reason? I have most of my engineers at LvL5 and want it to stay that way.

 

[hawknerd]

Also I have The Dweller at LvL4 but the blueprint frontscreen at remote workshop shows 5 "grades" (if thats what they are). If I select it then it shows that it will only let me engineer to G4 (which makes sense as Dweller is at LvL4). Why does it show a 5? What does it indicate?

 

[Simon Templar]

I have just completed the mammoth task of unlocking the 14 engineers that I think I will need for now. I have no plans to visit Colonia at the moment. I actually did 9 of them this week in a few days which has chuffed me to bits. So now I am doing a bit of housekeeping and checking my pinned blueprints and considering what materials I will need for the ship engineering I plan to do soon as well as considering the reputations of my engineers and whether to change any blueprints. Also just gaining experience and understanding the game better. I have loved doing this BTW!

My questions are:
1 If I have The Dweller at LvL4 can I remote engineer his power plant mod to G5 or will it only work up to G4?
2 Are beam lasers the best lasers to use? And what is better oversized or efficient?
3 If I have a pinned blueprint and want to increase my rep with an engineer from LvL4 to LvL5 how do I do this the easiest way without losing my blueprint?
4 Are shield boosters any good really? I have Didi at LvL1 and no blueprint at the moment?
5 Do you lose rep with an engineer for any reason? I have most of my engineers at LvL5 and want it to stay that way.

1 Up to G4 I believe but haven't actually tried that;
2 People will disagree on this one. Plus it depends on which ship you are flying. Personally I tend to favour the age-old mix of beams and multicannons (one for stripping shields the other for hull). Beams tend to be power hungry so sometimes have to overcharge my powerplant, plus they can run hot, so I tend to run efficient beams with the thermal vent mod;
3 You'd need to go back to the engineer's base and engineer something with them in person to increase your rep with them. But you keep your blueprint;
4 Look at the stats in outfitting. If you have sufficient utility slots (and particularly if you engineer the boosters) then they can make a decent, noticeable difference (although they do suck up quite a bit of power). But on a smaller or non-combat ship then they aren't going to save your bacon if you're up against a combat ship, particularly if it is an engineered one. I only use them on my combat ships (Corvette, FDL etc) and not bother with the small stuff. If I'm in a build that needs to run from someone, then a booster is only buying me seconds!;
5 No, I don't think so - I have all bar one at G5 and have never lost rep with any of them.


Hope that helps a bit - I really love engineering, too. It still requires thought and care, even when other bits of the game have gone a bit lightweight. Love it!!

o7

 

[Simon Templar]

Also I have The Dweller at LvL4 but the blueprint frontscreen at remote workshop shows 5 "grades" (if thats what they are). If I select it then it shows that it will only let me engineer to G4 (which makes sense as Dweller is at LvL4). Why does it show a 5? What does it indicate?

It shows where he can take you if you go back and bump up your rep with him to the final grade.

 

[hawknerd]

It shows where he can take you if you go back and bump up your rep with him to the final grade.

But if thats true why does my shield blueprint only show a 3? Because it was Martuuk! and he only does G3 Shields.

 

[Ashnak]

2) "best" is a matter of build and opinion. Pulses can have sone very interesting special effects (and deal the most damage per energy), bursts are somewherei n the middle. And as Simon said, beams are power hogs. My default mod is also efficient/thermal vent, although a long range/thermal vent has some charms, too.
4) For a combat build, they're pretty much mandatory - even if it's only to balance damage resistances.
5) none that I would be aware of.

 

[aRJay]

I have just completed the mammoth task of unlocking the 14 engineers that I think I will need for now. I have no plans to visit Colonia at the moment. I actually did 9 of them this week in a few days which has chuffed me to bits. So now I am doing a bit of housekeeping and checking my pinned blueprints and considering what materials I will need for the ship engineering I plan to do soon as well as considering the reputations of my engineers and whether to change any blueprints. Also just gaining experience and understanding the game better. I have loved doing this BTW!

My questions are:
1 If I have The Dweller at LvL4 can I remote engineer his power plant mod to G5 or will it only work up to G4?
2 Are beam lasers the best lasers to use? And what is better oversized or efficient?
3 If I have a pinned blueprint and want to increase my rep with an engineer from LvL4 to LvL5 how do I do this the easiest way without losing my blueprint?
4 Are shield boosters any good really? I have Didi at LvL1 and no blueprint at the moment?
5 Do you lose rep with an engineer for any reason? I have most of my engineers at LvL5 and want it to stay that way.

1. You can only remote engineer to the level of access you have with an engineer.
2. Yes/no/maybe/possibly it depends on the ship and the commander and their taste, oversized will do more damage per second efficient will fire for more seconds.
3. Visit the engineer do the usual things to increase reputation don’t click on the unpin blueprint button, check the blueprint is still pinned using the log off/on test before you leave.
4. They can be extremely good for combat even at level 1, the downside is they will increase the time shields take to charge.
5. No short of resetting your save or possibly taking up Morris dancing to punk rock you cannot lose engineering reputation.
6. (The Dweller question) Possibly that there are G5 blueprints available for that module.