Engineers Engineers modifications, bag of ..... ?

[trilathon]

I was rather hoping for genuine improvements , but all the initial modifications I've encountered so far are seemingly of the one step forward , two steps back variety

as a jack of all trades solo player, is there any point to the engineers, for someone not looking t create a highly skewed niche role ship ?

it appears like power play, just a lot of effort for tenuous and arbitrary benefit ?

or is there much more to it once one understands it and progresses ?

 

[Keelback]

It's a very nuanced system once you really start to dig into it, and it's very easy to make a ship that's simply overall "better" without any appreciable drawbacks (save, perhaps, less module integrity).

The initial intent in the design may have been to force compromises and choices onto players like you describe (where you could make your ship more maneuverable at the cost of less powerful weapons, perhaps), but in practice it's simply raised the power ceiling exponentially and stock ships are no longer viable.

 

[trilathon]

that's good to know, thanks

 

[fruitbat]

Until at least grade 3 most mods aren't anything to write home about. Power plants are the one exception, where its really easy to get a high secondary effect.

Grade 5 is where they really shine, the difference then is huge.

 

[Mikey2305]

The arms race only applies if you are into PVP. For us jack of all trades players we can just take it at our own pace. Many will disagree with me but ive found it interesting, absorbing and quite challenging gameplay. Ive thoroughly enjoyed it and am pretty pleased with my fleet now. You have to stick with it and get into its peculiar mindset to get the most of it. Then you will find that everything you are asked to do to unlock and level up is pretty straightforward...

 

[Agony_Aunt]

The best use i've found for rank 1 weapons is spamming the rolls until you get a secondary effect you like.

But i've used a few rank 1 mods here and there just to tweak performance.

And don't get too hung up on the negatives. Look at absoloute values, not relative. It might look big on the bars, but in reality it might not be so negative. Depends on the mod though. Some negatives are really nasty, like jitter.... advice, never add jitter to gimballs.... really doesn't work well.

 

[Mikey2305]

Yes some are pretty straightforward. I have been fascinated by upgrading my collector controllers, my prosspector controllers and my heat sink launcher. Easy peasy once i had got my 50 scan databanks thingies. Weight goes down, integrity goes down. My brain can deal with that. So now i have incredibly light mining gear. Strangely no opportunity for lightweight bins or mining lasers but perhaps later. So do i want lightweight mining gear. Probably not. Do i need lightweight mining gear. Probably not. But i have it and its mine.

Other stuff like what is the best type of power distributor is way beyond me. And the rest of the community judging by some of the responses in the forums. A masters degree in science even to understand how it works let alone what i need. But hey ho, my PD is upgraded to something or other level 5 and im happy with it...

 

[trilathon]

thanks ...some good suggestions above so I guess it's one to perservere with , although I've just used about 90 rolls and have just ended up accepting what looks like dubious or probably no discernible improvement overall....probably took 2 weeks to collect all those materials over 10,000 ly's, which is poor motivation and pretty dismal experience visiting the ubiquitous, homogeneous pinky orange planets...even a grey planet would be exciting

some spark needs adding to this game quickly...if only a little colour beyond lasers

 

[Deleted member 38366]

If one knows/learns how to "game the System", progress towards Grade 5 access for any Engineer is done fairly quickly.
Unlocking them can be a different story, however, and no matter how I put it... that always just felt like a limited Grind. Just gotta do it and bunny-hop through the mandatory grind gates. No way around them.

You get the Invitation and it basically states "You're welcome and invited to my place, looking forward to meet you. But I'll refuse to do anything for you beyond docking permission or refuel. Bring tons of goodies and I'll reconsider."
(go ahead and send such a type of "invitation" to your friends and see how many actually turn up )

Anyway, "gaming the System" after unlocking an Engineer (initial Grade 1 access) :
- gather alot of Grade 1 Elements (Iron, Nickel, Sulphur, Phosphorous, Carbon), those are easy to get on Planets / any dedicated Miner is likely also full of these already
- at Engineer, spam Grade 1 Upgrades until Grade 3 is unlocked
- gather Materials for 3x any Grade 3 Mod and 3x any Grade 4 Mod (Miners will likely look for any Mod that needs i.e. Osmium or Platinum, otherwise look for common stuff one can buy like CMM Composites etc., which aren't sold only in certain parts of space)
- spam 3x G3 and 3x G4 mods and voila, Grade 5 access is now unlocked for later use

(crafting 3x Engineer Mods of max. currently access Level completes that entire access Level; 3x G1 Mod at initial Access Level 1 = unlocking Grade 2 Access. 3x G2 Mod at initial Access Level 2 = unlocking Grade 3 Access...)

About 30-33% Grade 3 Access will also get you an Invite for the linked follow-up (Referral) Engineer if the basic requirements for the invite are met (those vary with every Engineer).

Essentially, this is by far the fastest method to gain and extend/progress access with Engineers.
As others already said, a few Upgrades carry rather extreme downgrades and can actually downgrade a Stock Weapon (pending future rebalancing as is planned soon(tm) ).
Most upgrades, however, are very distinct and extremely useful. Once the "bad apples" are sorted out and the "sweet Oranges" are identified (classics like i.e. a nice G5 FSD Range Boost)... go for it.

PS.
In order not to go insane finding out everything needed (as usual, in-game tools are extremely poor when it comes to providing any useful Information) :
http://inara.cz/galaxy-engineers

With all above in mind, working Engineers becomes much, much more intuitive, practical, plannable and more enjoyable.

 

[White Shark]

I've stopped aiming for grade 2 and higher mods. I just go for grade 1 now, and keep rolling to improve the stats each time until I've got what I like. The requirements for grade 1 are usually very simple and plentiful. Reduces the engineer headache a lot. Although I'll never be able to PvP which is sad, my ship have a bit more edge to it for PvE.

 

[Mikey2305]

@falconfly... excellent stuff, rep sir.

My system is to spam up to L3 with common materials ie iron, sulphur, phosphorous. Takes 9 rolls. Then look for something easy at L3/4 with mats i have lots of plus straightforward commodities ie CMM composites or magnetic emitter coils even if i dont want to keep what they offer. Then at L5 and the fun begins. Usually only takes a few minutes after the initial unlocking legwork has been done.

I have unlocked 12 now and have 9 at level 5 and entirely without tears and tantrums. Advice like this should be stickied and would help many who havent worked out the strategies needed and for whom engineers has become a frustrating and grindy process.

 

[RamirezKurita]

G1 mods are so easy to spam due to the materials and data for them being so very easy to obtain that they make for nice stop-gaps as you can just reroll them until you end up with something reasonable. With this in mind though, some G1 mods aren't really worth your time, such as the majority of the G1 weapon mods which usually have crippling drawbacks (lightweight and sturdy being notable exceptions, but they currently don't have any real advantages either), but for everything else a decent G1 mod with some nice secondaries beats even most G2 and some G3 mods. Pretty much the first thing I do when I get a new module is to run off to an engineer and roll 30 or so G1 mods for it and keep the best for each of them. A ship equipped with G1 mods isn't game changing, but it's a nice little performance boost using materials that otherwise would be wasting space in your pockets.

G2-3 mods are pretty much a waste I find, they aren't that much of an improvement over G1s unless they are the best you have access to, whether because of Palin being a crazy recluse or because no engineer offers G4-5 mods for the stuff you want. If you can't get higher stuff, gathering materials for a load of rerolls for a good G3 mod can work though, but it won't have the same wow-factor as high grade mods.

G4-5 are massive game changers; they make such a difference to the performance of things and it's not unusual to see things performing 50+% more effectively than before. G4 are pointless if G5 are available though, but not everything has G5 mods yet so some things benefit from G4 stuff.